2016 (Aug-Oct) 2nd Mission Trip (3 of 7) – Ortho, OANSA, Construct & Knitting

20 August, Saturday – (continued) After our Hearts & Hands crew, as well as Lily Silverthorn, headed to Ica to catch a bus to Lima, I stayed behind for a few things that needed getting done. Primarily, I had a date in Ica with the Orthodontist that is volunteering his time to do dental and ortho work on two of our village girls here.

Three days ago, in the middle of the Hearts & Hands busy week of teaching crocheting and knitting, Dr Carrasco came by to meet two of our village girls. This started after our last trip (Feb/Mar) of this year, and my own getting orthodontics in my 60s, I am more tuned into the need and how I wish I would have gotten them at the right age. Let me start from our last trip to tell you how this came to be.

We are very involved with Kellys family, with her three brothers coming to the mission now for many years, and our current discussions with her mother on what to do about the interior of their house.

Kelly is a beautiful eighteen year old girl that has volunteered with OANSA here at the mission, and that helps her mother doing street sweeping for the government. She always covers her mouth, so this made me conscious of HER being conscious of her own smile.

So we started talking to the Missionary family who lives here, the Sanchez’s, who attend El Shaddai regularly as to what could be done. I also had many discussions with my own Orthodonics Dentist, Dr Melanie Parker, in USA but this is not something that one can fly down and do, it takes a few years of scheduled visits to the Orthodontics office.

We were surprised to hear that there was an Orthodontics dentist that attended El Shaddai (possibly the same dentist that helped do exams during our opening ceremony in 2013) and one who said he would do it but under two conditions:

We pay for or bring the supplies needed, i.e. cover his ‘out of pocket expense’ (which apparently meant x-rays and mouth molds as well)
He be allowed to do two children, not just one!

So the Sanchez’s (our resident missionaries) nominated Luciana as the 2nd patient, and sent me pictures of the two girls and their mouths to share with my own Orthodonics to make a ‘supply request’. Dr Parker of San Diego, who has supported the mission for a few years and has a donor brick on the wall down here, said “no issue”, she would do it. She asked for more information about the local Orthodontics professional that would be doing the work and we were able to provide it.

On this trip we brought down the supplies that Dr Parker provided and already gave them to Dr Carrosa when we met with him last week. So here we go, back to present time.

We were originally scheduled for 9am in Ica and that got pushed back to 11am and Lily said she would inform the girls. Lily then left for Lima with our Hearts and Hands ladies to get them on their way home and left this in my hands to figure out. So, as it is pushing 10am and no one is at the mission except me I am assuming that Lily got the word out to the girls and I must go find them so off I went. I found them both waiting at Kelly’s, and brought them back to the Mission as a better place to catch a collectivo. While binding the time, Luciana again showed me that she was immune to my tickles (although others her age aren’t so I haven’t lost hope). She then directed me to tickle Kelly and we both looked at each other and then looked at Luciana funny!! I explained the difference in broken spanish between a nina (child) and “la mujer” (woman) in the cab-ride to Ica … something deep and meaningful like “Nina, si; mujer, No” or the equivilent! But with Kellys nod, we got that across to her! Which she immediately changed the subject to what we are going to get for lunch while in Ica, i.e. what am I buying them! This nina is always hungry!! I think we settled on Pizza after discussion all the possibilities of Pollo (chicken), hamburguesa, Chifa (Chinese), and pizza .. I couldn’t get them off of it even though that was my least favorite.

Finally got to Ica, caught a local cab for four soles (overpriced, but didn’t want to dicker) to take us to the address for the X-ray where the doctor was to meet us. I am glad that they allowed me to charge the x-ray/photos on to my credit card, as I always like to preserve our cash. We knew the cost was going to be 160 soles each, less than $50, so we got under way. Dr Carrasco met us there and we waited as the X-rays and mouth photos progressed.

The girls got their molds made and both were laughing and pulling puddy out of their mouths as they came out. We were done, and the next step was to get them back next Monday at 4pm, I assume for the cavity work which needs to be done before any braces are attached. All in all we are into this for about 560 soles (plus transport costs and I still need to feed them! so if we can get these two girls a headstart in life with a great smile, I only wish I would have had at my age .. And I am sure my dad would have done it for the equivelent of 560 soles (about $170 or $85 per girl!!). What a bargain.

We walked to the mall, to get the meal I promised them. On the way, Luciana spotted a Pokeman!! Wonder if that was one that escaped the Pokeman Now game? Anyway, when we got to the mall we went to the meal court and there they found their pizza hut! Great .. not my favorite food, especially in Peru, but that’s what they want. Thank goodness they had a lasagne dish I ordered for myself. While were waiting I beat Luciana at air-hockey 20 to 0 (I need to learn to loose next time!! Maybe I was paying her back for no longer being ticklish!). Food was OK (lasagne was like out of the frozen food section and microwaved) and the company was great. We then headed back to the collectivo stop with a 2.5 soles mini-taxi ride, and got the same collectivo driver we came down with …

By the time we got back to the Mission, the OANSA team was already setting up, even though Victor was not there yet. I had communicated to him earlier the announcement that was posted across the street after the government workeres finally replaced the broken baskets and backboards on the basketball courtyard. Didn’t know if it conflicted with today’s OANSA (apparently not) but was excited that we now have hoops. This was something I was thinking of fixing for the kids at Mission expense and now don’t have to!! We just need to bring a few basketballs down with us next trip!!!

But OANSA folks were on site setting up when we got back. They were making all the decorations, more than usual, for a traditiional ‘un-birthday’ party. Kids love parties and cakes and we don’t all have birthdays at the right time so let’s have an un-birthday party.Why not?

The children did many singing, and exercise programs and focused on celebration rather than study and breaking into the traditional separate group with later worship.After some initial singing and early worship, much fun was had with not just one clown but a second one as well.

Nothing like getting a big group with the promise of a party, a couple of clown shows with tricks and some cake to eat as well.At the end of the party, we just decided to leave up all the streamers and balloons for church service the next day. Why not? We will have another un-birthday celebration for Jesus!!

21 August, Sunday – True to my word, I did NOT go to church in Ica the next morning as I was with many sniffles and sneezing in the morning and just wanted to rest more. Lily did arrive around noon as well, so my bachelor period was over. We had a light day at the Mission, and prepared for church in the evening.

As Victor and I concured yesterday, let’s just leave the decorations up for the church service and they will come down sometime during the week. Made for a colorful worship service. I ran the computer for Victor this time, Lily served as greater, we had Juvili (graduate from OANSA) and her mother do the sweeping and chair setup. Victor called Lily and said he was delayed so we put the music on ahead of time.

Good service, blessed evening for the Lord. Message, delivered by Victor, was on Temptation, focusing on Hebrews and 1 Corinthians. If Jesus, who was highly temped, can be sin free, so can we.

22 August, Monday – Monday’s are usually a slow day down here as it is the ‘day off’ at the mission, but not for us. We’ve got Ortho visit in town with the two girls, construction start at Luciana’s house putting in a bathroom and a meeting for the kickoff of Hearts & Hands Peru!! Lily also needs to take a drive to town to get supplies for the construction project.

Lily had an evening meeting with those interested in Hearts & Hands ministry, and to lead it in the village area. (I just getting a bit confused by the time stamps on my photos showing this meeting in the morning, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it).

My part, since Lily needed to be back for (a later?) H&H kickoff meeting was to do the repeat drive to town for Orthodontics with Luciana & Kelly. This was supposed to be their cavity work. However, after spending 7.5 soles to get the three of us in town, the dentist never showed. We waited 45 minutes and I called Lily assuming that I am a week early or something, miscommunication, so I head home.

With the delay, the girls work me over for some ice cream so I’m out 15 soles in collectivo AND 10 soles in ice cream! All of $7 or so dollars!!Anyway, these two ladies are humorous even though we have a language difficulty, I enjoy being with them like two additional grand daughters. Turns out that I was where I was supposed to be and on time, but the Orthodontist had an emergency with his mother. Phew, thought I messed up again with translation. Anyway, mystery solved, taking them back Tuesday or Wednesday, this time I will let Lily do the honors and see if she gets hounded for a meal or ice cream .. .I think I am the sucker, since I love to eat myself!

One of the primary reasons that I took the two girls into town was that Lily was getting construction materials with Abel, our contractor, to build the bathroom/kitchen at Luciana’s house. This is a project that we started last trip but only acccomplished getting a sewer hookup installed (which was a needed first step).

This time we are actually going to build them an indoor bathroom and put real walls around their kitchen. For those that don’t know this story, here is a video that details what we started and hopefully on this trip will finalize. Thank those that have given for this specific project, we are still in the red a bit but that’s OK, this is simply needed to be done. We do have Marie coming up with the labor cost, as she got a loan from the bank to do so. We are a bit concerned as to the debt she has signed up for and the exhorbanent interest that banks charge for personal loans, but it is good that she is sharing in the cost.

we met to discuss with her the finances and plans, as she has decided for cost reasons to design for a ‘future’ 2nd bedroom upstairs, with only the kitchen and bathroom being built now. The two room house that they live in is a living room and bedroom. The photo on the right with the concrete is the living room, and I will include the bedroom as well. In discussing with Jose the ‘sleeping arrangements’, looking at the bunk bed, it was an interesting discourse.

Apparently they have a 16 year old cousin who lives with them who gets the top bunk. Jose sleeps with his mother in the bottom bunk which is a double. When I asked where Luciana slept he pointed to the bedding at the end of the bed, meaning that she sleeps at their feet, all three on the same mattress. I relayed this info to Lily so not sure if we want to dely in building the needed 2nd bedroom but we’ll see.

23 August, Tuesday – New day, and initial meeting with Abel on the contractor job. Also, we had a few guests today that Lily took out to visit some neighboring farmland we are deciding what to do with.

Come later, and Abel calls saying that he needs access to materials stored inside Luciana’s house and can’t get in. He needs to form the columns today and needs the wire. We go to the local school and get Luciana excused for a short time to go open her house to get the needed materials Took a few more progress photos. Photo on left of backside of house shows current toilet and bathing facilities, nothing more than a hose and a hole in the ground. This will be gone when we are done.

Today, they should have to columns raised and tomorrow start pouring the footers and hopefully columns as well. Bricking should follow. Lily’s trying to reach the Orthodontists to change the Kelly/Luciana visit from today to tomorrow due to the first adult knitting session at 4pm today. Success .. he’s fine with the change. So bring on the Mujer’s knitting circle.

Need to explore economics with Jo Ann, after discussing with Lily. Providing free yarn for new trainees makes sense but as they keep their goods that they knit, they need to at a point start paying for the yarn they use.The hearts & hands group here at the mission should not be looked at as a ‘source’ for free yarn, after you start producing and using or selling the goods you produce. But even after buying your yarn, either from the H&H supply, or bringing your own, the fellowship, training, supplies, knowledgable company, should be the attraction that binds. Anyway, need to work though this model with Jo Ann Hill a bit, at what point do you cut off the free yarn to the trainees? Good question.

But we had a great first session today, and will hopefully have an even larger one on Thursday. The above many questions will need to be worked out but as of this time, we have a lot of interest, and a good group of leaders and plenty of material. It is duely noted though that the yarn does seem to go fast once these knitters start a knitting. Student headcount: 17!

We have two days a week also planned for the youth (as the sign on the door says) but we will start that next week, Monday. Could be challenging but most enjoyable. Not sure how many ‘teachers’ we have lined up for the youth sessions, other than Mariiana and one other youth leader. We will see next week. Really curious as to the showing that we will have for the youth.

End of the day we had a meeting with Nancy who had a printer for us. Nancy and Augusto used to run youth program at the mission before we went to OANSA a few years ago and they have been struggling since, both financially and maritally. She asked if her daughter Shely, who we have become quite close with over the years, could stay with us for a few days as she has been rather depressed due to the separation of her parents. We welcomed the opportunity. She showed up last night and good to be able to offer a home away from home for a few nights.

24 August, Wednesday – Went over to Luciana to check on construction progress. Looks like the footers are poured and the column and base rebar is in place. Today, they do the framing for pouring the concrete bases and columns, hopefully tomorrow they do the brick work. Friday, perhaps the ceiling. At this rate, the contractor said they may be done by Saturday (somewhere in there is putting all the electrical and plumbing connections in. Good progress.

Caught a photo of dear Sheyli Cavaro, who stayed with us last night and we have the honor of hosting her for one more night.Sheyli made our big meal today, and it was great. Her mom stopped by one more time with some missing components to the printer that we were buying off of her. We all had some fellowship before Nancy (her mom) left again.

Afternoon came and some kids showed up to play games and I couldn’t turm them away since we didn’t have any knitting going on till tomorrow, so why not. Lily left for Ica with Kelly & Luciana’s dental appointment, and assumed that Sheyli and I would be doing siestas .. I dallied in the office downstairs, and responded to the doorbell where Mariana did her best sales pitch to come into the mission with 7-8 other ninas to play games.

I was pretty impressed when two girls responsed positively to my ask if they wanted to play chess. Then I saw that they had no idea where the men went and how the moves went but were having fun jumping around on the board! After a few hours and the crowd dwindled down to about 5 or so, Sheyli came down to see what was going on. She then challenged me to a game of chess. I bought two tournament boards and brought them down this trip for the kids, but must admit that it’s been a long time since I have played. I impressed myself when I got Sheyli in checkmate!! She gave me a much tougher time in our second game when I reduced her side to a lonely king over a long bloody period of battle! Anyway, fun game. Now, if I can recruit Sheyli or someone to teach those two girls and others, we might have some chessmasters come out of the mission.

Lily came home after dark with Kelly and Luciana, and the girls have one more return ‘cavity correction’ visit for Friday to do. We got Sheyli to watch the current batch of kids which had changed from all girls to three boys by now, and Lily and I took Luciana home. We wanted to check out the construction progress.

So good to see the bathroom takiing shape. This ‘indoor facility’ was the major driving force for this construction, since little Jose was molested in his outdoor made bathing facility. Also having a secured kitchen, where all of Maria’s items won’t be stolen as they have in the past. Only regrets is that since we are $1000 short on the current project, we can’t do the 2nd bedroom upstairs which is also needed, with four of them sleeping in one room at present. The ceilling though of the new kitchen / bath will support a 2nd floor in the future where the existing ceiling on the original 2 rooms would not. Hopefully this can be resolved in the near future.

25 August, Thursday – New day. light morning, late breakfast. Couple errands, went after Lily left to check on construction status .. caught her and Sheyli on the way back and gave them the keys to the mission, but continued to grap a few progress photos. One wall almost done, all walls should be up by end of day I would hope.

Heading back and the cows and goats came.Guess blocking the road with your construction sand and gravel might be ok temporarily for traffic but the cows and goats don’t mind walking through and over it!!The goats are more indignant and give you a few verbal complaints for blocking the road .. life in the farmland.

Pia came by and did some knitting modeling. Her mom will be here later today to run things with the ladies second knitting and crochet meeting thiis week. Looking for great results. 17 at first meeting, lets see what this one brings.As the ladies started to show up for Hearts & Hands Peru, many of them brought little ones who gathered out front where we had a few kids on a computer. I got a few of them interested in chess, and found it especially entertaining to watch what they would do with a chess set without any instruction.I slowly started to train them, not seeming to be able to get Mariana (currently engaged on the laptop) to do it who at least speaks fluent spanish. So, away I went entertaining and teaching these little ninas a game that they had no idea what the purpose and goal was. After Mariana’s ‘time limit’ came up on the laptop, she got engaged as well with chess but apparently she needed a little instruction as well. I see a future of chess champions here, somewhere, just give me a few years!

Working our way through the arrival and setup for our 2nd day this week for knitting and crocheting at the mission, and the group is larger than the first one. We had a great gathering today and the headcount was 22, versus 17 two days ago. I think this is catching on!!

Of the 22 people present, there were 4 leaders/trainers. Many people are looking for that ‘next color’ or ‘skeen’ (spelling?) of yard as well, so we need to keep ‘feeding the habit’ a bit, as we lead them forward.

I can see the group easily growing to 30+ at the current rate. We shall see what next week brings. We wound down after 630 or so and gradually let everyone go. Later Luciana & Jose came over for a homework project of her’s to use the internet for (researching mosquitos?). While Sheyli has a new hobby of crocheting she picked up at today’s training .. after which she said ‘so easy’ (which is a common response after learning a sequence of stitches and gets them wanting to learn still more.

However, it also can get you into stitching in errors that you have to go back and correct. Here Lily (not a regular stitcher at all) is helping Sheyli correct an error. Hmmm … we might have another teacher recruit … Lily?

One last visitor for the evening stopped by to get a replacement set of readiing glasses (a supply that we maintain that was donated from a supplier to the charity). After trying out a few pair, she finds ones that work and that’s another night at the mission … good night.

26 August, Friday – Another morning … got caught up on the blog a bit. Also worked through the calendar for next month with Lily. The Sanchezs will return on September 15th and we will be in Lima that week doing some chores up there. Perhaps we can give them a place to crash in Miraflores for at least one night, as they currently plan to fly in same day as catching a bus to the mission. We have a lot of chores to do up in Miraflores, hope to get a few brick templates to acknowledge donations, meet with a photographer, re-install a lock, have a meeting with a solar energy provider that might interest El Shaddai as well, and a few more items.

Anyway, light day today. Will check on construction progress at Maria’s house, Lily will take Luciana and Kelly back to town later today for their final dental work before they start to get orthodonics. May need to make a construction material run today as well. Progress is good on Maria’s house. We are still short about $1000 for what we have committed. Maria is paying labor and we are paying material, Maria is short on her side so we will cover to complete the immediate work and hope to be made whole sometime. This does give them the indoor kitchen and bathroom they so desperately need, and a foundation for a future 2nd bedroom that they will also need. Please keep this family in your prayers since Maria has committed herself with a bank loan of $2000 (needed 1000 more) to pay the labor. All of our donations collected from kind supporters here have paid for all of the materials.

We tried to do our scheduled dental appointment with the young ladies, this time both Lily and I going with them. However, it turned out to be a 90 minute lobby wait for nothing … Will be so glad when these cavity visits are done and the ladies are simply waiting for their monthly Orthodonics ‘tightening’ appointments. Dentist means well but has been going through a bit with his aging mother and his regular clientel. Can’t be fussy when it’s charity work!

So, off to the collectivo but first to the market near by for a few needed items that one can’t buy in the village where we live.When we got back to the mission, we took our two ladies down the street for a promised ‘hamburgeusa’ which on the way we found some great tamales being cooked. They were to be ready by 10pm if I can remember to come back! 27 August, Saturday – Another day and still fighting a cough. Sounds like it’s going around, as I am discovering I am not alone. Not sure what we did in the area of work or chores, but do remember checking on the job site and seeing that the ‘trees’ were started to be put in place for placing the ceiling block. Any actual block is not yet placed as that will be probably Monday.

OANSA had a 4pm meeting at the mission and the showing suffered a little (about 22-24 kids) since we were competing with Catechism training going on which we are planning to adjust for but haven’t yet. Victor informed me earlier, or asked me, if I could do the sermon tomorrow. He asked last night but I committed this morning. Later on at OANSA we discovered that he won’t be here at all tomorrow since there is some major Evangelism training going on at El Shaddai which he needs to attend. So, as of this setting, Lily and I are the service tomorrow. No Problem, go with the flow.

28 August, Sunday – Was still pretty tied up with a cough this morning, so Lily went to Ica alone and made excuses for me at El Shaddai. I wouldn’t have been very nice to enjoy church services next too with my ‘hacking’. Seems to be going around down here, being that it’s still winter although moving into Spring they say soon ..I could use the extra time to prep for tonight’s service at Mission church as well, in that I only committed to doing it yesterday and although have something underway, need more time to prepare.

With Lily doing translation, we needed someone else on the Computer for slides and music and we had Luciana get some training by Victor yesterday at OANSA. She came through for us. Although our attendance group was small, for Lily and I doingn this alone, it was a first. We did the whole service in an hour, and a few comments on that later .. we must have left something out?

29 August, Monday – Spent some time doing some projects, building a shelf primarily. Had Jen, Luis, Carlos and Favian come by for some tablet games and a few chores to earn internet privileges. Tried them doing some windows … need to get some windex to do that right, but they did go through the motions. When it came time to boot them out, We seemed obsessed with removing the last of Saturday’s balloons and we dressed little Favian in them. Always a home for left over balloons in this village .. in this case, maybe even as something to wear?

What is supposed to be the ‘down day’ for the Mission, to relax before starting a new week, I do think we might have messed up that schedule with putting it as a day for Niños for knitting. We might have to change that.

Anyway, other than that, this should be a light day. However, different than the Mission schedule, we have the construction going on at Maria/Luciana/Joses house. Lily went with Abel, our contractor, to get 190 block, much rebar, and 30 bags of cement (with plumbing and electrical tubing as well) so they can finish the job. I was still trying to nurse my cold a bit while she did this, and thinking this was an off day (forgetting what the sign said) I heard Lily say that the ladies for knitting would be coming by. So I assumed a meeting of leadership .. no problem. Taking a nap till then.

Well at 4pm sharp, the door was banging and mucho ninos were there waiting for knitting time. Marianna was the leader and said in my broken understanding that she had this down, and didn’t need any adulto’s. She also wanted to do it upstairs .. so, being the good servant and buying what most kids tell me especially when not in my language, we did it. She had Arturo for male help who we designated as a youth leader before as well. Also, Luciana and Rosicella jumped in and helped. They had this handled. I gave them the bag of looms and they went to town. I spent time getting yarn for those that didn’t have any. In short order, they had about 12 to 15 kids knitting away with no adult supervision.

Then the adults showed up. Oh oh, I’m in trouble … So, first we move them downstairs, then we tell them not at all till Wednesday. Anyway, long story short, lots of miscommunication between Lily and I, and the knitting leaders and the youth knitting leadership for what it is. Anyway, when Lily got back, she came in with a dozen kids who wanted to knit and we resumed with them downstairs. Anyway, much to discuss to make sure this doesn’t happen in the future.

We did have 15 active youth knitters today and that was a great thing. We do need better communication, we need to take Lily and I out of the formula. Having the kids show up at 4pm prompt and having no other leadership but the Gringo Tio William, well that was a mistake!! Anyway, we have this learning behind us and all turned out well. Trouble spots found and resolved for the next Nino Knit session, which will be Wednesday.

30 August, Tuesday – Another new day. Late morning or noonish, didn’t take long for the youth to come knocking to ‘play’ at the mission. This time we had some chores we were working on so we thought we would see how motivated they were to ‘play’ after first putting in a little ‘trabajo’ (work).

Lily had a laborer working out front at the neighboring vacant lot, making it a bit less risky for childen who like to climb, and also taking down an ugly column that the demolition work left behind.While that was going on, Lily was playing with some pavers we were moving from the back of the property to see if it would make for a good ‘ramp’ so to speak, replacing some dirt that was always getting kicked around at the entrance. We have a slight drop of from the road to our carport driveway and these pavers were a welcome addition.

to work, first Jen, older cousin to Luis, Carlos and Favian. Then as the others started to show up, one by one, we recruited them to the task as well. Any oppportunity to get an hour playing silly games on the tablets or computer, they will do a lot for. Even missing brother Carlos showed up for some of this deal. Fabian got the best deal though with game time, a hot shower with hermana Lily’s assist AND a new pair of shoes that light up when you walk.

A little later, after we hustled out the young men, the women started to show up for crocheting time. Not sure if I am reading the log right but I cound 14 check marks for that day, which was day 8 counting the 5 days with our San Diego team.

Lots of projects are coming to fruition, more are getting started, the books are being read and checked out, a lot of learning and showing off of each others work, motivating the next person to try something new. Jo Ann Hill and her great team from San Diego have apparentlly started something that may just continue to mushroom from here.

While the ladies are inside working away, some youth come by to enjoy the games at the mission. Gaining more and more interest in Chess, which is a good thing.

Might be able to break out the tournament play clock soon. What’s amazing is that these sessions, now two a week for the adults and two a week for the youth would go on forever if you let them. This particular day they went on for 3 hours until a deadline was enforced … Oh well, if this gets them to church on Sunday, that will be the real test. We will turn all this over to Julio and Yareni to manage when they return. We may have to make some adjustments already on the Monday schedule for nino’s, since that is usually the mission day off.

31 August, Wednesday – Went and paid a visit to Maria’s construction site. Ceiling has been poured, the support posts are erected throughout the interior of the new construction. In a week, these posts can come out and the electrical and plumbing will be completed, so that the floor can then be poured. Windows and doors will be ordered as well.

It may not look like much but it will contain the first indoor plumbing for this family, first indoor bathroom, a secured kitchen, a place to take a shower or use the ‘facilities’ without being molested, to have a kitchen without getting your utensils and pots and pans stolen. An indoor kitcnen and bathroom, after all, are what really makes a building into a home. This has been a long planned project for this family and we hope to have it completed early September.

At the end of the day, the youth came back for their knitting session. There were 17 of them which seems to be a consistent number now for that group. We are most proud that there are good number of boys as well as the girls. Hopefully we can maintain these numbers.