Sunday 27 July 2014

Editor's Choice: Blog Feature of the Week

Each week our Editor scours the web for blogs and articles that we find have potential to help our readers thinking about life here along this country's stunning coast.  If you have such a blog, or an article you'd like to submit, please send it along to us at coastal.newsletter.team@gmail.com   

Sorry, we will not be using Facebook posts, as we understand and respect that many of our readers will choose not to use that particular site.

Hope you enjoy!
Your Coastal Newsletter Team


 AUGUST 10TH, 2014

This week, our feature comes from our own Coastal Newsletter:

Salinas Christmas Project

For the past two years the Ladies Coffee/Cocktail Klatch has helped sponsor a children's group at Christmas time including the orphange in Olon and Buena Fuente, a school in a very poor district on the Santa Elena peninsula. Papa Noel puts in an appearance and hands out gifts. The looks on the faces of the children are priceless and the tears in the eyes of people who attend tell of the joy of giving. Expats and Ecuadorians alike have very generously donated their time, presents, money, food and gift wrapping expertise each year. 

We are continuing the tradition this year with a public grade school located in a very poor section of the Muey neighborhood here in Salinas. The name of the school is Oasis Tamayense. The school has 289 students and 9 teachers. The ages of the children are from 3 to 12. In Ecuador, these are grades 1 through 7. They have to teach the students in two shifts because there are not enough classrooms.

A small group of ladies went to meet the children at their school last Thursday. They were all very polite, excited and proud to have the extranjeras visit. Petra Blair snapped the attached pictures while we were there.

This is the largest group of children we have sponsored to date. It is three times the number we supported last year. However, when the question of whether we could pull this off was presented to the Ladies group it was met with a resounding “YES”.

Keep an eye out for our upcoming fund raising events and donation jars placed in strategic business locations. We will need the support of the entire community to help bring a Feliz Navidad to these very precious children.



Copy and paste the following URL into your browser to see Petra's photo of the school visit.
file:///Users/juliefreeman/Downloads/2014ChristmasSchool-2.htm 
























AUGUST 3RD, 2014

Final thoughts on the rental home construction (source blog 'retiring in Ecuador')

 After nearly 7 months of construction and disruptions what are my final thoughts? Would I do it again? What would I change? So many questions could circle around in one's head. Basically when it comes to building a home in Ecuador, one word stands out in my mind. That word is 'patience!'

In Ecuador, if you plan on retiring in Ecuador while building a home or even just a vacation property, you need to understand that things are not always going to be quick, on budget or on time. It is one of those cultural things you simply can not push to harshly to change. If the "whip" is too long then you simply will have your workers protesting in disgust and not show up for work! So it is a fine dance of patience and gentle nudging on your part. Often a cash bonus works well if you want the project to be accelerated more quickly. However, if you decide to use this tactic you better be extra vigilant on inspecting the work quality.

So with that said, would I do it again?    Read the rest of the article by clicking here!

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