Monday

Ecuador the Anticipation

This post is short but it is full of excitement!!!!  I drove Jay to the airport this morning.  He is going ahead to Quito and we are to meet him there on March 5th.  I am so excited to go to a country that I have never experienced before.  I have been learning spanish and cannot wait to see the mountains of the Andes, the rainforest of Puyo and the beaches of Playas.   Also, sharing this with Zoe and Owen is such a gift.

Thanks to all, who have made donations to our Books for the Children of Ecuador, fundraiser.  So far we have raised $480.   Sharing our wealth with these children of Ecuador will be a simple joy.  Thanks to all who have donated and for those who still wish to give, there is still time :) You can email me at: anniebdr@gmail.com

Loads of love your way.  Annie and the gang.

Pics from last year's Thailand trip...




Tuesday

Back on the old dirt road…


 Greetings family, friends and fellow travellers.  Team Jbong, Annie Bananie, Zoe (12), Owen(9) and now Tyler (17) are out on tour again giving it our best shot to make the world a better place.

 In 2013, our travels found us jetting setting across 12 time zones, to Thailand.  It was Zoe and Owen’s very first experience, on a plane and in Asia.  The experience was rich and brought us together as a family. 
One of our best memories of this adventure was collecting donations from our Canadian friends, which went towards purchasing school supplies for Burmese refugee children. With the generous donations of $1200 we bought soccer nets, school supplies, school uniforms and shoes.   The giving and receiving of these gifts was an experience of pure joy.  Zoe was amazed at how the children seemed so happy even though they had so little.  It was magical.


"Ecuadorian children"

This year our wings take us to Ecuador and as an offering of gratitude for all that we have, we want to help Ecuadorian children.  Ecuador is a third world country and in great need.  Our travels will bring us to Quitto, Banos, Puyo and Playas. Playas is on the southern coast and where our Canadian friends live.  They have helped us identify a need for children’s books in their community.  This year, our goal for giving back is to raise funds and purchase books and hand deliver them to these children, as well as whatever other needs the kids identify ( like the soccer nets last year)
We invite you to donate and come along for the journey.  We will keep our blog updated with our adventures and the unfolding of our Canadian spirit and generosity.
 Your donations are most welcome and can be given to Jay or myself before March 1rst as we are leaving on march 5th, woohoo! Otherwise just send us an email and we can front you the cash.
We are hoping for donations of around $20, and hope to raise a bit over $1,000. We will do so e cool stuff with the money.

We look forward to sharing our adventure with you!
To have a look at this short video we created for Festival Promotions who sponsored us last year, have a look here…


So it's off to a corner of the world that we know nothing about and check out a new culture.  Everyone we have met from Equador has been friendly.  We know there's the beginning of the Amazon, lots of jungle, piraƱa fishing, indigenous people, the Galapagos, a few beaches...
We are the scouts.  Check out Annie's blog at www.anniebananie.ca and come with us. 
We will make another video to show what we did with everyone's hard earned cash.

With loads of love,

J, A, Z, & O