What's going on at Dulce Refugio
I know that many people have passed through this orphanage and left their mark at Dulce Refugio. I want to keep all of you informed about what is going on with the kids and the construction process. Please remember to keep us in your thoughts and prayers; I hope you continue to help us out here at Casa Hogar Dulce Refugio. Gracias amigos!
I hope everybody had a Happy Thanksgiving. This November was a great month. I was blessed with a quick trip home to the USA to spend time with my family and was also able to get a lot of side projects done down here in Mexico.
I was able to go home for a week this month and celebrate Thanksgiving with my family. My brother and sister and their families all came to San Diego and it was great to see everybody. I got to hang out with my nephews and hold Ryder, the newest addition to the Seski family.
Before I left, I was able to get a lot of projects done around the orphanage:
I got half of one of the bathroom walls finished.
I built divisions in our rabbit cage. We think a few of our rabbits are pregnant and will be having babies soon. Yay! We will need to separate them with their newborns. (Thanks to my helper Christian for helping me paint.)
Also our white/gray rabbit is very aggressive with the other bunnies. We named her "Enojona" (angry woman) and have to keep her apart from the rest...solitary confinement for her!
I put up a chain link fence around a small section of the play area for our new garden. We planted over 10 types of fruits and vegetables. Some of them have already started sprouting. We will be using these in the kitchen and it will help cut down on grocery costs.
We also dug out a big section of dirt in front of our hydroponics system and planted a lot of alfalfa. Rabbits love alfalfa and it reproduces quickly so this will take care of most of their food needs.
We also planted more stuff in the hydroponics system. The lettuce is growing nicely and we have some other vegetables (cilantro, cabbage and spinach) starting to sprout.
We got a pig! After cleaning out our bodegas last month I was able to sell some of the stuff that we no longer use. I made a business deal for $1000 pesos (about $60 US) and a pig...I'm such a business man! Haha. Unfortunately we can't keep her at our orphanage because we are located inside of the city limits so we took her to another orphanage where they are going to take care of her until we are ready to eat lots of bacon!
We welcomed Mari Sol to the Casa Hogar. She is a sweet girl and we all know her already because she is the younger sister of one of our ex-staff.
We said goodbye to 2 of our staff members. Juan and Alejandra aka "Wera" (White girl). Juan decided to move out after many years at Dulce Refugio (he was here as a little boy when I first arrived in 2007) and live with his brothers. And "Wera" moved across the city so now she won't be able to commute here. Both stop by to visit occasionally and we are always happy to see them.
(Please keep us in your prayers because we are currently understaffed and losing 2 great helpers was a difficult transition for us. But we have complete faith that God will continue to provide for all of our needs.)
And we also said goodbye to Javier. Javier was popular and a strong worker. He is a good kid who just tends to make some bad decisions and doesn't always want to listen to authority. Due to many incidents we had to part ways. We wish him the best and hope he goes down the right path.
(Also please keep our kids in your prayers. We have had some problems recently with the behavior of a few and we hope that they will decide to make better choices.)
We celebrated Angeles' Birthday. She turned 17 on November 6. I took her and a few other girls out for a nice dinner. Angeles is a very sweet girl and she always calls me her "papá" (dad). I was happy to celebrate with her and have enjoyed seeing her grow up.
Currently Angeles is not at the Casa Hogar because she is doing a government program for a month. I was sad she had to leave but hope she will be back with us again very soon.
