Two Days of "Firsts"

Saturday and Sunday were two days of "firsts" for our workers.  It was important to me that we treated them to some things that they had never done and would likely never get an opportunity to do in the future.  So here is a "pic heavy report" of the last couple days.


We started off Saturday morning at the golf course outside the city.  We had the driving range booked but when they got there, the driving range was busy so we treated the ladies and those with us to tea/coffee while we waited for the ball collector to do "his work".  Yup...no tractor...just one lone young man with five buckets to fill.  Soon (wink) he was ready and we got started with a little pep talk and lesson from me.

They did not do too bad for their first time.  I told them I was so impressed with their progress that I was going to trust their abilities by laying my life down.  As you can tell (by the grip on the club) I did not stay down too long.  lol

After this we were supposed to have dinner in a local village but got a call in the morning saying that they had had a death in the village during the night.  It was very sad news.  We had to then make some other plans.  So we just tweaked our schedule a bit.  We stopped for a lunch with the girls at Dayspring and continued onto "Hot Daddys".  That is the name of the place where the Hot Springs are.

This also was a first for our agents.  The whole town is heated by the hot springs.  It was a beautiful setting but our ladies could not wait to head south out of the mountains a bit to our next stop on a day of "firsts".

So...we drove for about 15 minutes and stopped at a trout farm right along the same river that you see in the pic above.  They divert water and have 4-5 ponds with ice cold water and lots of trout.

We told them that we were having a fishing tournament.  They were all allowed to catch one.  The biggest three would get prizes.  They were all pretty cool and very serious until the first fish hit the bait.  Oh my goodness....the screaming started and it did not stop until 21 trout had been caught.  Lets just say a good time was had by all. lol. I was so busy taking fish off and putting bait on that I didn't take any pictures. lol.
After fishing we headed to Hawaii.  That's right.

This was a really trendy hotspot to have a great dinner after a long day. 
Sunday we got up and headed to the city for ice skating.  We show up at the place....no ice! Okay, now what do we do?  We have three 15 passenger vans loaded with kids and people that are expecting a skating party.  You can only imagine the prospect of skating on ice for the first time.  So a conversation took place and someone said they knew of another place.  We found out where it was and low and behold it was an Olympic sized surface and the skating party took place.

The pic above is the guy giving us our last minute instructions and skating lesson.  I was standing there and thinking, "dude, just let us on the ice."  He seemed important so we were all polite.  Rumours were circulating that he was once a semi pro hockey player that played for the Issykul Ice Yaks. :)  He soon let us on and away we went.  The older folks stayed hugging the edge.

But the children from the orphanage...no matter...first time or not...they went for it.  lol

It is hard for each of you to imagine the impact that a couple days like this has on the lives of our workers...the orphans...and me.  Let's just say when I could finally fall asleep it was with a smile on my face and thoughts of the trip next year.