The December 9th trip to Casa Vida Nueva para Niños (the orphanage) was unfortunately canceled this year due to concerns regarding border crossing times and the unrest at many AZ borders. So, we came up with a “Plan B.” We invited each person who had signed up for the trip to come to a local zoom meeting room by 1:00 pm to view a zoom meeting set up by Elias, Director of the Home and witness the children opening their Christmas gifts. The computer zoom connection was streamed to a large screen TV. Everyone had good seats. Snacks and drinks were provided. After the children opened their gifts, each child walked up to the zoom camera at the orphanage and in very clear English thanked all of us for their gifts. This was the first year we were thanked out loud in English. We felt the new ESL (English as a Second Language) program had been well attended. The zoom connection lasted about 60 minutes. After signing off, we showed videos of last year’s children’s performances during the 2022 Christmas visit. Here are photos of the group watching the zoom meeting, and the children opening their personalized Christmas cards and gifts. Plus, a video of the children opening their gifts.
