It figures step away from emails for 5 minutes to start editing some of yesterdays 500 + pictures and already 3 more have come in – it never ends ha ha. In addition to work I have been chatting my cousin in Texas and Jo in Toronto off and on all morning. Jo changed my direction from editing pictures to doing a post for her – taken me a few hours to get it in place but almost ready to post.

Jo and Heather from Direct Abundance are doing a Loonie  drive to help send Holy Cross kids to highschool. They will be out collecting at Yonge and Dundas Square on August 6th 7:00 – 10:00 pm  and 7th  3:00 – 6:00 pm if you live in the area and want to go join the fun – contact info is listed on their site.

I would like to ask all blog readers who would like to give back to Belize and the kids here to consider doing a simultaneous dollar drive that day [or night] and see how big our collective conscious can fill the bucket for this great cause. If you have kids get them involved [I am sure many of your kids know about Belize to some degree if not first hand]

These girls have already sponsored a child in 2009 and created a scholarship program. Their goal is to send two students this year – lets help them push past that and raise Loads Loonies for Learning  – give a few more deserving kids a chance. [$500US to send a grade 8 student to high school for the year]

If you are not up for organizing a dollar drive and still want to help you can easily do so on Direct Abundance paypal just look to the right hand side of the Global Buddies Program information. You can also join fundraising party  on the Loonie Drive facebook page.

Every dollar raised will go directly to supporting education for those who otherwise could not afford it. These kids are the Faces of the Future – lets make it bright.

While I am on the topic of Direct Abundance – here is a recent update from Heather Zwicker.

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are having a wonderful summer. Ours has been full of friendship and family times and wish the same for you.

It has been some time since our last contact but know that we continue to move forward in our hopes of helping the children and families in San Mateo.

I continue to move forward in hopes of developing the community of San Mateo into a cleaner and healthier place to live. I have recently been contacted by the Waste Water Garden Representative of Belize from the Plantary Coral Reef Foundation. He is interested in meeting in San Mateo and at Holy Cross to see how he can best support these places. I am excited about the knowledge and skills he brings with him. Lets hope the excitment and possibility of impovement continues.

We have been contacted by GoVolunteering. They want to work together with DirectAbundance in providing volunteers to help us move our projects forward. It is always exciting to join up with others who are interested in improving the lives of others in need through volunteering.

Pics below were taken while driving around town yesterday with Dick on the CG Esthetic mobile. Carole is getting ready to announce an upcoming special so stay tuned for details on that.

Deni Eiley update with pictures coming by the end of the week.

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One of the things I thought was really cool about Juan’s training is that you can opt for the food assessment and he will creating a special weekly menu specifically for your needs. Carole chose this option and in addition to her weekly food menu – Juan also went through a bunch of restaurant menu’s and customized them for her so that Carole could still eat out but will have the healthy options to choose from and be easily able to remember what they are. In doing this he  talks to the chefs and finds our how they prepare the food – just because she can eat conch fritters at one place does not mean she can have them everywhere. On certain weeks she is even ok to go for to Dandie’s and enjoy raspberry sorbet on a sugar cone – how cool is that.

Carole has been working out 4 times a week with Juan and doing his food plan for 2 months now and over the course of that time her body shape has changed a lot and she has been getting more compliments that ever. When Carole started her weight was  112 and that dropped to to 103.6. Her body fat was  22.7 %  and she is now at 10.4%. Since she has dropped enough in those 2 areas Juan has asked her what her new goals are and she said she wants 6 pack abs and to tighten and tone.

Carole says that as a result of sticking to her work out and food program she is feeling better than ever. She has noticed improvements to her neck and back and does not feel sore anymore when she is working a long day or doing a cart ride north on bumpy roads.

Juan said he definitely notices her increased strength – better cardio and said that it will not be long before she gets those lean tight results she is looking for.

If you are looking for someone to help you get good healthy results Juan is your man. You can contact him at Juan Alamilla 627-8496  or  jjalamilla[at]live[dot]com to set up a consultation.

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Yesterday I had the chance to catch up with the kids at Pedro’s Hotel – they were having a pool party and learning the fine art of pizza making from Walter. He took the kids in 3 groups and showed them all how to make pizza from scratch and helped each one make a personal size pizza.

Tammy will be taking reservations for next year’s camp at the end of camp. Over the next few months she will be asking if people can donate items for arts and crafts for next year. Paint supplies, paper, pencils, glitter and simple things. Any help is greatly appreciated – there is also a sponsorship program happening for those kids who cannot afford camp. Contact sanpedrosummercamp[at]yahoo.com

You can see some great camp pictures on  San Pedro Summer Camp facebook page.

Trivia at Roadkill Bar was tons of  fun  – the bonus round was all Simpson’s and we had one of our top scoring nights giving us a win. Robbie let me pick tonight charity so I chose Deni Eiley and $204 was raised for her.

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The good news does not stop there – I was chatting on the coconut phone with Heather from Direct Abundance yesterday and she said that a rep from waste water gardens who is connected with Planetary Coral Reef Foundation plans to to visit San Mateo and do an assessment – now that would be a great light at the end of the tunnel for an area that needs so much help to get set up with eco friendly plumbing.

This next piece is from an email I received this morning from someone who is working towards helping Holy Cross get a permanent space on Global Giving website.

Hello friends and family,

I am writing to you to ask you to support Holy Cross Anglican School (HCAS) in the Global Giving Green Open challenge. To give you a little background, HCAS is a school in San Mateo, Ambergis Caye, off the coast of Belize. In Belize, even public education is not free. HCAS, which is funded through donation, provides pre-kindergarten through eighth grade education to 500 students. These 500 kids are the most disadvantaged on the island and would not have the opportunity of education without HCAS. Not only do these kids receive schooling at HCAS, but they also receive two meals per day; sometimes the only food they eat.

HCAS was selected as one of 20 organizations to participate in the Global Giving Green Open challenge. San Mateo is currently powered by diesel generators, making it extremely difficult and costly to consistently operate the volunteer built dental clinic and computer lab. Through GlobalGiving.org, we have the opportunity to install a combination of wind generators and solar panels. This will provide reliable, effective energy and help bolster Holy Cross Anglican School. HCAS is the only school on the Island with a computer lab this robust and large and opens its doors to adult education programming to serve the greater community. Both the dental clinic and computer lab are huge resources to San Mateo.

Through the Green Open challenge, HCAS has a HUGE opportunity to become a PERMANENT link on the GlobalGiving.org website. All we need is 50 different donors and a total of $4,000 in donations. For only $10 dollars, you can provide enough electricity for one computer for one month. For $75, you can provide enough electricity to support the dental clinic for one month. We only have until July 30th to complete the challenge, so please act quickly if this is something you feel you can support.

HCAS is a school that I fully support and believe will impact and improve the lives of thousands of children and the greater economy of Belize. By providing renewable energy to HCAS, we can help sustain this incredible place. I sincerely thank you for your thoughts and any (tax-deductible) contributions you can make to HCAS.

Lauren

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Dengue can feel much like a very severe flu and it really varies by person. I remember when Maureen had hers she was totally knocked out by it for 2 weeks but when Eileen from DandE’s had it hers was not so bad and she was still mobile but put herself on house rest mode to shake it off.

Dengue Symptoms range from a mild  to high fever -  severe headaches  with pain behind the eyes – muscle and joint pain – rash.

Cost is $38  and no Dr appointment needed to get Dengue test Just show up at the medical lab between Belize Bank and Polo’s Golf Carts. Results back in 3 – 4 h. For the price of an evening out it is good piece of mind. Cheers Dianne

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Light rain happening right now and growing steadily harder – it suits my mood today quiet and happy to be at home.

May come back later if the mood strikes .

Ok this was exciting enough to come back for [did not really leave been on email detail all day] 2:00pm Captain Morgans interview with Ernie and Joey just aired on CBS One Caribbean Weather right before Oprah Winfrey.

More excitement… Belize Videos are starting to go up on One Caribbean Weather and I have seen segments for Captain Morgans Retreat and The Phoenix.

3:29 Derrick is on tv again yay. He is talking about his plans to go to Berklee and pursuing a career in music.
3:36 They are Showing Derricks Interview again how cool is that we still get to see him while he is away. Every time a new clip airs I call Paul and he comes out of his office to watch it with me.
4:02 pm interview with Joey Stevens and Elito Arceo on lobster fishing. Paul was excited when they went to a shot of Rob the cameraman lobster fishing – he was the one with camera in hand.

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Passing along this information email for Alberto at Tropic those who have interest in flights to Belmopan.

Tropic Air is pleased to inform all its customers about our twice daily flights to Belmopan City Starting November 1st 2010.

Thanks
Alberto Wade
Tropic Air San Pedro Station Manager

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Back to desk work this aft – my web guy [aka tacoboy]agreed that tacogirl Specials page could be better organized so you will notice a few small changes regarding specials page. We have grouped specials by categories [listed near the top of the page]. You can easily use tacogirl Specials to custom make your Belize vacation discount package and save  money before you arrive – just click on any category and go right to that section or scroll down the list at your leisure.  [please note a few businesses like Legends & Lola's are closed for the slow season I will update those soon].
Transportation | Accommodation | Activities | Food, Drink & Shopping | Off Island

San Pedro CPR Training- July 19, 2010 | Ambergris Daily

While tacoboy was working on that I was organizing my reg stock photo’s and picked a couple for today’s post.

3 water shots from 3 different places on Ambergris Caye

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Here is one of a few interesting exerts from the page that is hyper-linked above…. What does it all mean? Hamilton says what matters is to find your passion and look inward. “If you look outward,” he writes, “all you’ll see is what other people are doing. You’re not other people.” — Pete Thomas I totally agree with that – it seems like people can get way to caught up in other peoples doing and they really would be much better off if they just focused on their own doing.

It’s a talk radio day on my lap top – I have moved on to Coast to Coast and listening to Eric Brende talking about how he and his wife [then fiance] gave up everything to like in a totally non technological ‘minimite’ community.  He has a very interesting take on what life was like during his 18 month stay there to research and write a book. While Brende does not claim to be anti-technology – he does believe that if people were willing to scale back on Automobile – Television and Computer so many social and personal problems would be removed from our lives.

Art Bell who is totally into technology was fascinated listening to Eric and had a couple of interesting points in Brende’s favor….

• Technology can cause the days to blur together. Living a ‘minimite’ life like Eric did can result in a more balanced life.

• I doubt last thing you looked up on Goggle is what will flash before your eyes when the time comes.

Not that I plan on giving up technology anytime soon but it is a good reminder to get away from it more often.

Speaking of technology I have some big news for all you cellphone internet surfers…. I mentioned last week that I was in the works on something good for tacogirl [really it is tacoboy who was in the works on it after a good brainstorming session].  tacogirl.com went mobile today and is now a  smart phone friendly website. tacoboy tested it on his phone and it worked well. We both have lg neon GT365 and it shows all the text for us but only the front page picture and not the others in post. Can a few of you cell surfers check it out and leave comment on how it functions for you? Thanks in advance.

Next step is to work out if my phone is capable of allowing me to blog – or find someone who needs a product tester – after all we live in the perfect environment for that sun – sand – wind & water.

[ Attention - $500 usd reward for the return of the stolen items - Dell Latitude D530 laptop, a Nokia and a Blackberry phones if anyone comes in contact with someone trying to peddle any of these items please shout out.] – more details on Ambergris Daily.

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