Launch of our youth project

Laura is talking to our neighbor who is keen on organising a jewelery party for her well-heeled friends in support of the project to raise funds for the education of the youths.

Some of the professionals who came for the presentation by the youths. Next to Aili is my friend Luis, a business consultant with one of the biggest consulting firms in Peru and who has worked for several years in Mexico and the United States. Next to Luis is Karen, a marketing manager with a multinational company in Peru, and who has been very committed in working with us to fulfill the same vision. Next to Karen is Manuel, a consultant who has just returned from his work in Korea. On the other side of the chairs are some of our other friends, including a journalist, an accountant and a businessman. Delia and Oscar are standing behind. As you can see from the picture, Oscar is almost like one of us now, and he looks more like one of the hosts than one of the guests!

Some of the cars today. There was no more parking space left in front of our house! A good problem indeed!

These are the 5 members of our youth committee who are spearheading the project: (from left to right: Johnnie, Carolina, Sonia, Laura, and Wilmer - some people have commented that Wilmer looks a little like me).

Some of our youths who came today. We are thinking of getting the girl on the far right, Kiara, to be a model for some of the jeweleries that the youths would be selling to raise funds for their education.

Today, we launched our youth project where the youths would be selling products to raise funds for their education. Several professionals turned up as well, including almost all the professionals who turned up for our last talk on Chinese culture, as well as Oscar, Karen and Luis, whom we had dinner with last Monday. The 5 youths from our youth committee did an excellent job in presenting the project, and responding to the questions of the professionals. One of our friends commented that he was pleasantly surprised by the level of professionalism that these youths were able to demonstrate despite their relatively young age. All the professionals were also very keen to share some tips with the youths, and to contribute their contacts for direct sales or indirect publicity by the youths. In fact, including Karen, Oscar and Luis, altogether 8 professionals have pledged their support for this project, and plan to meet up regularly, perhaps once a fortnight, to chat regarding the progress of this project. Our youths will be preparing a weekly progress report that will be presented at these meetings. The first meet-up will be next Friday, and to kick things off on a high, they have all requested for me to cook a Chinese dish for everyone to savour! So next Friday, I will be preparing one of my signature dish, the Szechuan chicken wings, together with the help of Oscar and our 2 guys from the youth committee. Guys in charge of food? Well, times have changed - modern guys are now the masters of the kitchen.

I think we are finally having some breakthroughs in our drive to connect to more young professionals. In fact, I will be having lunch with a lawyer in his late thirties next week, and he too has expressed interest in helping us with our personal matters as well as our projects. It's interesting how people recognize my penchant for food almost immediately. This lawyer was asking me if I liked seafood, but without waiting for my reply, said: "I am sure you like seafood." Haha...... a belly speaks a thousand words!