Copy of letter to Stuart Kaplan

Hi Stuart!

Thought I would bring you up to date on what's happening regarding Wizard in Ecuador. First of all, Wizard is alive and well in Salinas ,Ecuador!

I can't hardly believe it myself on how people love the game.Last year we taught 38 but many were just visitors and didn't return to Salinas this year. The 8 or so expats that live here did continue to meet every Monday night at homes to continue to play.

Last year we had rented a condo that we would have 8-12 in our home to play Wizard. We had table space to accommodate people playing the game. This year our rental didn't have any tables , only a long bar that had six stools. We can move the chairs around at the end to facilitate playing a 4 handed game of Wizard, Howard said he couldn't believe we  rented a place without tables to play Wizard! I said that it has everything else we need and we will play Wizard elsewhere!

When we arrived in Salinas  December 26,2019 ,we could not check into our condo until January 15, 2020. We stayed with friends until Jan 3 and then moved to a temporary place until we could check in.

While staying with our friends , Mike and Char Russell.,we started playing Wizard in their home. They live here part time and the other 6 months in Montgomery , Alabama.They had purchased 2 games to bring to Ecuador. We brought 3 games set up in bags with coins anticipating playing with a group as well as smaller groups of friends.

We played games every day and invited others in to learn to play. By the time we moved out,we had enough people that knew the game to come back and play with an organized game in their rec room.We had 16 the first get together. We were still teaching people to play.Then we moved to a room at a place called Camping Beach because it had air conditioning.It was a restaurant / hostel. We played there two Mondays with 12-16 playing.

Some didn't like that location so we moved to a restaurant called Sogales .There we were able to have lunch and play Wizard the rest of the afternoon with 12-16 in their clean air conditioned restaurant.

Then Carnival arrived and the celebration is huge in Salinas.The restaurant could not accommodate us during this busy time.So I organized a tournament in our condominium , the Alamar. They had never played games or cards of any kind in this room. They used it for association meetings and movies. I had to order chairs and tables to be brought in for our tournament.

After the first week, we had charged an entry fee of a dollar for anyone that wanted to compete. Howard and I won first and second each week and someone else would win third. I was embarrassed to take their money each week so I surprised everyone with using our  winnings from those games to put on the tournament.

We arranged for lunches  to be purchased and doughnuts for dessert! Fruit and candy were available.We charged a $3 entry fee with all of the money to be used as 6 cash prizes. 18 signed up to attend.

Mind you this is one of the busiest days of Carnival. Salinas is so busy that some gringos and expats leave town because the traffic and influx of visitors to the beach is crazy. The traffic is bumper to bumper on the Malecon which separates the Alamar from the beach. People buy bottles of spray foam to squirt each other as they walk down the Malecon. Water is thrown from backs of trucks to unsuspecting passer bys. A lot of residents ( especially gringos and expats) never leave their condo during this time because of the crowds and they don't want to be sprayed.Many move out of town to escape .

So the night before the tournament , we get a terrible rain. The streets are flooded that morning and the Malecon is even blocked off for a time.i am wondering how many will bail before the tournament because of this additional problem. But everyone finds a way to get here! Amazing!

I dedicated this tournament to memory of Olle ( Judy's husband)  who   passed away February 5. I put his famous sayings on the wall and spoke about how he had attended the Wizard tournament in Amsterdam. I talked about his love of Wizard which brought us all to be such good friends.It was my personal celebration of his life .

I told them how this would be an annual event as long as I was coming to Ecuador. I spoke of how you had said one day you might sponsor someone coming from Ecuador for the world championships.

A couple of permanent residents  , Sandy and Gary Cole, said they would like to have the next two Monday games at their condo on the beach.They are big game players and had purchased games shortly after learning it in January. Brenda  Hall Davidson had made a trip back to the states and ordered the games through Amazon to mule back here. I hope they will continue to play after we leave on March 15. Many have asked if they can have our games when we leave. I think we will give them to the Coles so they can accommodate a lot of people when they play in their condo.They accommodate 24 people for Mexican train now once a week. They only need three tables for that. We prefer the Wizard game at tables of four so they said they may purchase additional tables to accommodate Wizard play. They have sponsored Train for two years so I know they will probably be in for hosting Wizard for the long haul. They are great hosts and enjoy entertaining.

So now you know the whole story....I wanted to document how Wizard was started in Salinas because it is definitely a hot new game here,I will research the two big grocery chains here to see if they are willing to stock the game.There is a great demand now for the game. SuperMaxi and Hypermart carry everything so that is a good place to pick up a game. I will get their contact info for you if they are interested.

We live and breath Wizard here. There are two Facebook groups that carry news about the community and I have promoted the game every week while we are here. When we meet someone new they often say, " aren't you the one sponsoring the Wizard games?" I am also known as the Wizard queen because Howard and I win every week.And yes, I won the tournament. Howard was not feeling well and had an off day.

So what do you think about all this! Some story, right? Thank you for your interest and support!

We are so sorry to lose our good friend , Olle . You know what a fun loving ,positive person he was. But if it wasn't for Wizard, our paths may never have crossed. We thank you for promoting our favorite game.

I will stay in touch about who you can approach about marketing your game in this area. By the way, we have a few Ecuadorians joining us in playing the game.  Mostly it is expats and gringos.

Your Wizard maniacs,
Diana  and Howard Hohman