We received many in-kind donations this year! Totaling around $2,500 Country Day School, Educarte School, and La Paz School families all joined together to make it happen. With the exception of food, nothing comes easy here in Guanacaste. Meaning, everyone who donated new clothing, household supplies, and/or toys, had to make AT LEAST the 1 hr. drive to Santa Cruz or Liberia, if not all the way to San Jose ( a 4 hour drive minimum.) The effort was well worth it. What we collected was truly amazing and took days to sort!
Donated Items:
- Toys new and gently used
- Clothing, clothing, clothing!
- Food
- Sheets
- Dishes
- Pots/Pans
- Diapers
- Pillows
- Shoes
- Hygiene Kits
- Tupperware and Tubs (especially useful here for food storage, laundry tubs, make shift closets, etc.)
- Makeup/lotions/jewelry
For those of you who donated via pay pal, America First, or check by mail, your contributions equaled around $3,500. That money was to be spent to provide food, household supplies, clothing, and toys. In Guancaste, $3,500 has the value of about $1,000 U.S. Target dollars, so Tom and I headed to San Jose to get the most bang for our buck on the money we had already collected. We left at 6am, arrived in San Jose at 10:30 am, shopped until 9pm (with the exception of 3 much needed food breaks), returned home, and finally climbed into bed at 2am. We were slowed down on the way back because our little KIA was so weighted down by goods, we kept bottoming out! I think we need to take it in to get a few things tightened up underneath now, lol. It's hard to believe, but 7 of our actual shopping hours were spent at two stores; Pequeno Mundo (an 'all a dollar' but better, is the best way to describe it), and Price Mart (code for COSCO BABY!) We kept getting 'crazy gringo' looks, because our carts were so loaded up. At Pequeno Mundo I had 5 full carts, literally brimming with toys, clothes, and household items. I'm pretty sure some people were thinking, "there is another Gringo, overdoing it at Christmas." Heheheh. It took us 45minutes just to check out there. We gave the cashier and the bagger a candy bar, they needed a 'Snickers Moment' after that fiasco! Here is an abbreviated shopping list...you'll get the point:
Price Mart
Food Packs:
- Massive bags of rice
- beans
- cooking oil
- sugar
- corn flour
- tortillas
- pasta
- pasta sauce
- canned tuna
- canned vegetables
- consume (chicken broth cubes)
- soup mixes
- dried milk
- dish soap
- sponges
- mayonnaise (quite a treat)
- Salsa Lizano (a local staple sauce)
- Juice packets
- A variety of snacks and candy for handing out to children on Christmas Eve
Hygiene Kits:
- Toilet Paper
- Tooth Brushes
- Tooth Paste
- Body Soap
- Towels
Pequeno Mundo
Household Supplies
- Garden Hose
- Gas stove
- Plates
- Cups
- Cutlery
- Pitchers
- Tubs
Clothing:
- clothes
- clothes
- clothes
- hair accessories
- socks
Toys:
- water guns
- dolls
- dinosaurs
- power rangers
- bouncy balls
- pencil bags
- puzzles
- fairy wings
- musical instruments
- baby squeaky stuff
- cars, trucks, diggers, oh my!
- stickers
- glow-in-the dark stick on wall stuff
- Little Dr. kits
- Plastic Animals
- and so much more!
Before I entered the stores, and throughout my shopping experience, I had a little prayer in my heart. I prayed that Heavenly Father would give me a little nudge here and there, and I tried to open my heart to His promptings. I knew that only He knew what was truly needed, and I believe He cares. At the same time, when you are shopping for a hundred kids, it's hard to get too picky. I grabbed the stuff I felt good about, even it it wasn't on my 'list' and left everything else behind, and tried to have faith that it would all come together as it was meant to. With the clothing especially, I had children in mind, but knew going into it I couldn't possibly have all the genders and sizes right. Not to mention I figured I would find a few more families in need along the way. After Tom and I had finished paying at Pequeno Mundo, Tom and I walked out to the car. I knew right away I had to go back inside. I had $150 left, and I felt like I needed to spend it on clothing, so I did. I went back and grabbed almost exactly $150 in clothing, paid, threw it into our car, and we were off. Phase 1 of the shopping complete (without a camera sadly!) Following the San Jose shopping trip, there was still a Liberia trip and two Santa Cruz runs. In Liberia we went to Mundo Magico, a smaller version of Pequeno Mundo, and Econo Mart. The trip was mostly for clothing. My friend Sarah, played a big part in the project, and saw it through to the end, despite the fact that she underwent a c-section only 2 weeks ago. She had her 2 week old baby with her on our shopping trip, as well as her 6 and my almost 6 year old daughter. They were all troopers!
Mundo Magico in Liberia - I tried to capture the madness, but I don't think I was successful. It was such a crazy store!
It should be called Mundo 'Madness', but we got a lot for a little, so it was worth it.
Brooklyn helped me sort through the clothing. The baskets in the background represent about 2/3rds of a food packet.
I had stuff squeezed throughout my house as it added up prior to the delivery days!!!
The toys being sorted for ages...
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