During the visit, the house mom and I talked about their on-going needs (clothes for the boys, personal products and kitchen supplies, specifically, pots and pans.) I told the team leaders about the needs and we had a short brainstorming session. They decided it would make the most sense to give us money to buy the personal products and kitchen supplies here in El Salvador. By the time they got back to the hotel on Friday evening, they had collected $200. As far as the clothing, they will collect it and send it down in July when their high school students come down for a week.
So, today, Guillermo and I took the $200 and went shopping. We wanted to get the most possible with our money so we went to several shops in downtown Apopa. Since Guillermo lives in Apopa he knows all of the good places and isn't afraid to ask for discounts.
At the first stop we found the large stock pots, frying pans and other kitchen items. After our discount the total was $102.88.
Second stop we bargained our way to two dozen Speed Stick deodorants, a dozen bars of soap, a dozen boxes of Colgate toothpaste, six extra large bottles of shampoo and a dozen toothbrushes, which totaled $98.65 The grand total was $1.53 over our budget, but we had it covered. (By the way, I now understand why most of the Salvadorans think PriceSmart, our Costco, is expensive!)
We have a college team coming on Saturday, and we will be going to the orphanage on Monday. They don't know that we're bringing these things, so I'm excited to see the smiles on their faces when we unload!
If you are interested in helping these kids, we'd love to hear from you at parrisinelsalvador@gmail.com.
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