Delivering Supplies to the San Blas Islands, Panama

Hi Everyone!  It has been some time since we have had internet.  Shelley and I are in the San Blas Islands in the south east end of Panama.

In late October Shelley and I had to rush home to be with her mom.  Sadly, on October 31st her mom died after a valiant 10 year battle with cancer.

While we were home we met with some of our support people in Canada and it was decided that we are now too far away for school supplies to be sent economically to us. So, although we will continue to collect supplies in Canada, most of those gifts will be used to fulfill our commitment to children at home who are in need.

This means that Shelley and I would appreciate your continued support by sending cash donations to:

Right to Write Ministry
c/o Ms. Glenda Rose
100 Barnet Cr.
Fergus, Ontario N1M 3E5
Canada

Or you can just use the "donate" button on the top right corner of this blog page.

Shelley and I will be using the money to purchase school supplies in bulk in major cities along our way. Our first purchase will be in the spring in Panama City as we prepare to visit the French Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific.

In the mean time, before we returned to Panama we packed 3 huge suitcases full of supplies from Canada for us to use here in the San Blas Islands.

This is an indigenous area of Panama where many of the people still live in traditional ways.  there are not many "towns or villages"  here but there are many many children.  The schools they do have are mostly huge with 800 - 1000 children drawn from a vast area.

This is too much for us to handle, so we have elected to help individual families as we encounter people along our way.  Daily, men and women come by our boat with everything from veggies to beautiful hand made molas for us to buy.

We have been finding out about their families and sending pencil cases and paper home to them.  Not very efficient, but a sure way to get the school supplies to individual children.

If you remember last year we distributed many supplies to many children in Los Fincas in Cozumel, Mexico.  This year, while we are not there ourselves, have been blessed with a few generous people who will give some stuff away again this year as Santa visits again...

We will publish a new blog as we connect with more children in this beautiful part of the world...