Our first newsletter of this year was mailed and emailed in the last two weeks…take the few minutes to read it. We’re starting our 20th year in Nicaragua!
Another is our speaking tours and our first goal in education for 2014 is to broaden our speaking tours.*
Sarah is working to leave Monday on her spring speaking tour and she is running around trying to get everything done (contact her if want to invite her to speak NC-Maine). What goes into getting ready for a speaking tour?• Pulling out a map and our data base and charting where to go and who is where
• Writing and emailing all those contacts to see what can be lined up and then constant follow up
• Looking for cheap airfares
• Making sure the van in the States is running**
• Creating, printing, and folding all the brochures to take with the speaker and to be used here
• Ordering crafts from the artisans, following up over and over again, picking the crafts up, packing the crafts and sending them back with willing volunteers
• Creating a power point presentation
• All the while doing the daily jobs and wrapping up things so that the person leaving doesn’t leave those of us behind in the lurch.
They say it takes a village to raise a child…well it takes a community, volunteers, and folks willing to host in “foreign lands” to do a speaking tour. *In April Becca and Paul are going back to Ireland and also going to Germany to visit family and talk about our work. Sarah will be going again in September to a new area. Pat and Kathy will go in November. So we are in the process of broadening the speaking tours.
**It also takes vehicles. We need a new used van. Ours is aging and breaks down on the tour leaving Sarah or Pat and Kathy stranded. Another of our goals in education is getting two vehicles to use on these speaking tours: one on the east coast and one on the west coast.
-Kathleen
