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This is an update for Sheep Not Goats, our 501(c) (3) charitable organization, with a brief mention of Sheep Dreamzzz Baby Blankets, one of its charitable projects.
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The primary purpose of this communication is to inform you about the opportunity to send a very poor boy or girl to a wonderful 5-day camp here, something that many of you know about and have supported in the past, as we have sponsored many children in prior years.
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Swamp Camp
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I (Steve) am in Nicaragua, and this trip one of our board members (Kevin Frantz) is here with me. He and his wife Kelly believe in the Swamp Camp initiative which has held healthy, fun, and spiritually minded kids camps all over the world, training locals to continue putting them off year after year.
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The director of Camp Swamp for Nicaragua, Rolando Obando, just returned from putting on a camp in Paraguay, and his next gig begins near Managua in 10 days.
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Most kids in Nicaragua don't get to have fun like this, least of all in a healthy, supervised environment where there's lots of learning about life decisions and encouragement to allow God to direct one's steps and relationships.
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Currently no kids are coming from Malpaisillo, the small, very poor town where Sheep Not Goats works. That is, apart from those connected to us by mothers or fathers who work on our farm or knit Sheep Dreamzzz blankets.
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But there are 10-20 more here who would benefit greatly from this experience. The cost per camper is $80. Since we think everyone (or a parent) needs to sacrifice a little, we are looking for $70 per camper. They will have to find the other $10.
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So give $70 (or $72.11 since credit card processing subtracts 3%) and you will send a kid to camp. If we receive extra it will either go toward helping them with transportation by bus to and from the camp site between here and Managua or it will be saved for next year.
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All donations received on our donation page before this Friday, January 20 will be treated as gifts to send kids from Malpaisillo to the Nicaragua Swamp Camp. We even added a $72.11 option for this! give now
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What Else?
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We're down here reviewing the egg production since we got hens in June. They are currently laying (and we are selling) about 150 eggs per day.
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Our goal this week is to gather and process all the data needed to decide what further investments to make so this can be an independent operation owned and run by the guys who are currently working it.
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Sheep Dreamzzz
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The knitters arrive for work at 8AM tomorrow, so in order to be ready I'll finish (tonight) the inventory of all the yarn and decide what everyone will make this week (priority items I will bring back with me).
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There are already 110 new blankets ready for travel, and many of them are in new colors from our very best yarns. I'll put some or all of these on the sheepdreamzzz.org site this week using preliminary photos that will be replaced once I'm back in Saint Augustine.
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Wrap Up
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Still with us? OK, here we go.
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Some remember the request for funds to build Alejandra, one of our workers and a widow, a small house to replace the current shack she's in (with no electricity or water). We're heading out in a few minutes to visit the property and talk to the woman who owns it, the goal being to find a way for Alejandra to own the postage stamp of land she'll be on so no one can kick her off of it, as happened to her before (when her husband died).
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Our guava is still growing well. I'm going to León this week with Miguel to get more guava plants plus limón (lime) and calala (passion fruit) to fill in some gaps.
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Daisy and Duke, our super-sweet Rottweiler guard dogs, are doing great.
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I'm here until Saturday. Picking up (I hope) a yarn shipment in Managua on Tuesday. Brought a new rat trap from Home Depot and nailed one last night in the tool shed. Hey, that's exciting to us!
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