Hi, Westheights Community Church. This is Katlyn Simpson, granddaughter of Marg Simpson. 

The weather here is wonderful, it’s warm and sunny with a nice breeze, too bad you guys are back freezing in the snow!

The kids here are so happy and always smiling, and they don’t have much. We can’t help but love them!  The first day of the program we had just under 30 kids, the second day we had about 5 or 6 more kids join us. They love the games and crafts we have been doing, like musical chairs, passing the ball around, and pin the tail on the donkey. You could almost hear them back in Kitchener/ Waterloo screaming and laughing. They love to play with the soccer balls and skip with everyone. They also enjoy doing the crafts like colouring, painting, cutting and pasting and drawing.

Elsie is doing a great job translating for us, the language barrier makes it a little tougher to communicate with the kids but we find ways like hand gestures to communicate. The kids are picking up on some English words and we are picking up on some Spanish words making the communication easier and easier each day. Elsie never leaves us so we’re never stuck figuring out what the children are saying.

The hotel is very nice, it is very sanitary and much better than we expected. The meals are great, we have had chicken and rice, beef, French fries, and spaghetti. For breakfast we can choose from pancakes, eggs, omelets, fruit, cereal, and excellent strong hot coffee. The portions are always big so we are never left hungry.

We are blessed to have Melanie Wigg along with us, she was able to get a guitar here so she can play songs and sing for the kids which they love. The kids get right into the songs and sing along and follow the actions we have made for each of the songs.

The men are working hard with the construction. The second floor of the church is coming right along. They start at 8 in the morning and work all day until 5 almost everyday. They are working in the hot sun so they have to drink lots and pace themselves.

Everyone is staying well and healthy, we are thankful for that. God is definitely at work here.

We miss you and we miss home but we are blessed to be here.

Katlyn Simpson and Grandma