Field trip

Last week the youth group took a field trip to El Velero, a Pacific Ocean beach. It was the first event of the year for the group, and a chance to get out of the barrio. We left the centro at 6am, in 2 buses. The mini bus I was riding in was in sad shape, so it took us 2 and a half hours of funny noises and backfiring to get there. After letting the kids release their pent up energy, Gustavo led a meditation activity, where the kids had to quiet their minds and not talk while visualizing an animal from the water, air or earth. We then split into groups based on the animal they chose and reflected on how these elements sustain and protect us. I led the earth group… Although some of the kids were throwing wet sand at each other, the rest had some good contributions to make about how the earth provides us shelter, food, animals to help us with our work, etc. We then read an anecdote about friendship, as the outing was celebrating Valentine’s day, also known here as the day of love and friendship. We ended with a group hug, which turned into a pig pile (see picture).

The other activity we did was a secret friend gift exchange. All the kids and the staff brought fruit of some kind. We all picked one half of a traditional Nicaraguan saying, and had to match up with the person who had the other half. I ended up getting a huge papaya that rotted in the sun (sad!).

After that, we ate and swam all day. I took a long walk on the beach and collected tamarind seeds with Fatima and Kenia, two of my students. We cracked some open and ate them… they’re very sour, and probably burned a hole in my stomach… Which reminds me that between swimming, sitting on the beach for an hour during the reflection and walking on the beach, I got a horrible sunburn on my back, which is still peeling after 10 days!

We left at around 5, sunburned, tired, covered in sand and salt. Besides the minibus breaking down on the way home, we made it fine, and I was off to the airport to pick up mom and dad!

Beach, San Juan del Sur

I've been hanging out with my parents this week, living the other side of Nicaragua... beach tourism! While it's been quite a shock to the system leaving behind the barrio for a luxurious resort in San Juan del Sur, I can't say I'm not enjoying it. We've been staying at this place called Pelican Eyes, up on a hill in the San Juan del Sur bay, with the most amazing view of the sunset. In the mornings, we've visited two different beaches, both completely isolated. Yesterday was Playa Remanso. We had to park and walk about a kilometer down a little dirt road to access the beach, and when we got there, we had our own private beach, white sand rippled with black, the tide almost completely out, baring volcanic rocks in the surf. We found a little shade by the stratified rock cliffs, and I set out to swim in the blue-green water. It was freezing but amazing. Dad and I took a walk around the cliff to the other side, where we could see the next beach over. The rocks were remnants of some ancient lavaflow, very flat, and there were little tidepools in the spots where the rocks had been eroded away, breeding algae and tadpoles. The beach we visited today was super windy, blowing sand in our faces and burning our legs. I jumped in the water twice, and the wind blew the spray from the waves back in my face. We walked again on the rocks, which were twisted and eroded away like a Salvador Dali painting, some like moon rocks. Dad and I found a cove that sheltered little sea urchin/anemones in the holes in the rocks. It smelled like salt and fish life. After swimming in the pool here that looks out over the bay, we walked into town for a fish dinner at sunset. I got to try the fish chowder that I've been hearing about for so long, while getting sand blown in my face from the strong winds on the beach. Tomorrow it's back to Managua, and I'll send some pictures along next week!

Brenda's Story

Another letter....

My name is Brenda Guevara. I live in Managua. I am Nicaraguan. I have two brothers and four sisters. I am the youngest, I am twenty two years old. My mother is a housewife. I go to english class in the afternoon and take care of my nieces in the morning. I like to watch television. I like to go out with my friends. I like to play volleyball. I also like to watch baseball. My favorite hobby is to listen to romantic music.

Brenda's Story

Another letter....

My name is Brenda Guevara. I live in Managua. I am Nicaraguan. I have two brothers and four sisters. I am the youngest, I am twenty two years old. My mother is a housewife. I go to english class in the afternoon and take care of my nieces in the morning. I like to watch television. I like to go out with my friends. I like to play volleyball. I also like to watch baseball. My favorite hobby is to listen to romantic music.

Pictures of the School

Gustavo just took some great pictures of the preschool kids! He also took some pictures of my class on Sunday. The other gringas are the 2 volunteers, Jessie and Kathleen (shout out to both of them!!)

The kids working in a circle are writing the letters about themselves to Ada's hebrew school class.

More letters

Class has been going really well!! The kids in my Sunday class got really excited about writing letters about themselves to kids in the United States, and were working really hard for the last half hour on their letters. I think they were also excited just to be able to formulate sentences, using the letter I gave them as a model. We've been singing lots of songs, including Is This Love by Bob Marley, Lady in Red, and Woman by John Lennon. There have been requests from the kids for Total Ecclipse of the Heart and more Beatles songs, so I'm sure we'll be singing more. The kids love music... They hear these songs all the time on the radio (particularly 80's love songs) and really want to know what the lyrics mean.

Here's another letter from one of my students:

My name is Erick David. I live in Managua, Nicaragua. I have five brothers and two nephews. I am nineteen years old. My mother is a housewife. My father is a supervisor. Now I am studying at high school in the morning. I am going to study English. I like to study English.

Also I study computers. I play drums. I like ot have friends.

My favorite sport is soccer and baseball too. I am a good player. I would like to compete with you someday. My favorite music is 80's music, reggae and ranchera.

Goodbye
Erick David

Letters

These letters are specifically to Ada’s 5th grade Hebrew school class, but if anyone else is a teacher, or knows adolescents who would be interested in a letter exchange, please use these! If your kids want to write back, the snail mail address here is:

Maddy Brigell
Centro de Salud Walter Ferretti
De la Duya Magica, 3 c. abajo, 10 c. al sur
Distrito V
Barrio Walter Ferretti
Managua, NICARAGUA

Letter 1

Hi. My name is Damaris Lopez. I live in Managua, Nicaragua. I am 20 years old. I have one brother. My mother works in the hospital. My father lives and works in the United States. I go to high school in the morning. I’m a senior. In the afternoon I study English. My favorite music is romantic. I like to play soccer.

Letter 2

My name is América Moraga. I live in Managua, Nicaragua. I have two brothers and one sister. I’m the oldest. I’m nineteen years old. My mother is a housewife. She can cook very well. My father lives in New York with my uncles, aunts and cousins since two years ago. I like to listen to music. My favorite music is alternative rock and I also like hip hop and other rhythms. I like to talk and play sports, dance and know other places.

I have a lot of friends. Everyone lives in different parts of the city. My best friend is Karla Nárvaez. She is from El Salvador, but now lives in a village named Chiquilistawa. Me nad her like to go to the moies and party with the other guys. We like to play basketball.

But I don’t study wih her because I finished high school and in March will start College or University. I wanna be a lawyer.

That’s all. I hope you like my story.

All the best,

América Moraga.

Kids everywhere!

The baking workshop started yesterday. Every afternoon, the whole centro is filled with the smell of sweets. Yesterday when I finished up English class, I smelled something sweet and citrusy, and identified it as pineapple. I asked Doña Thelma if they were making pineapple cake, but she told me they were making Hawaiian pizza… This morning I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they were selling individual pizza’s for 5 cordobas (about 30 cents) apiece, and that they’re going to be selling something different every morning. I think tomorrow they’re making croissants…

Yesterday was also the first day of school at the centro. For Itzia and Leddys, the girls in my house, it was their first day of pre-school. Ana helped them bathe, put on their white button down shirts tucked into pleated blue skirts, white knee socks and black Mary Janes. She slicked back their curls and sprayed them with Strawberry Shortcake perfume. They put on their backpacks (one blue and one pink with cartoon cats on them) and went off. I arrived later on. The teacher was leading all the preschoolers around the different parts of the centro… They were in 2 lines, one the boys, another the girls, each one had their hands on the shoulders of the kid in front of them. As I was sitting in the office planning my class, I could hear some of the kids crying. Apparently a pretty large percentage of the kids don’t make it through the first week because they can’t adapt to being away from their moms, so they have to wait for the following year to start school… It’s really funny to see the kids in the schoolyard, all under the age of 12, dressed up, hair slicked back, wearing perfume (the boys too!)… It’s like a fashion show for the parents to show off their kids in. Although when they get home, they immediately strip off the uniform, put on their playclothes and forget all about school.

Update-20 days of Daniel Ortega

(Old Cathedral of Managua, one of the few buildings left standing after the 1972 earthquake, and a storefront in Leon, where I went to visit a couple of weeks ago)

After completing his first 20 days in office, Daniel Ortega met with the vice president of the World Bank for Latin America and the Caribean and a representative from the World Bank's Central American office. It seemed to be a sign of his willingness to work with the World Bank in combatting poverty in country. However, with the World Bank's record of pressuring countries into privatizing public services like water and electricity and prioritizing fiscal measures that take money away from education and health, this could be a step in the wrong direction in eliminating hunger, public health crises and illiteracy. (just today the staff in the centro wrote a letter to their representative in the mayor's office about cleaning up the drainage ditch that separates Walter Ferretti from 18 de Mayo, the neighboring barrio, for the rampant health problems it causes from mosquitos and garbage) Apparently Daniel took a stand on this, saying that he was skeptical of how much the WB could help here, seeing as it's been involved in the Nicaragan economy for 16 years and it remains at "the bottom of the barrel (of the poorest countries in the hemisphere) next to Haiti." It seems that although Daniel acknowledges that he's going to need the support of US investors (who dominate the WB) to address the infrastructural problems in the country, he's not going to bow down to their every request. We'll have to see how successful he is in negotiating with them...

English class isn't just English class

I never thought that teaching an English class would involve me so deeply in some of the personal problems and home life of my students. Last week, on my way to the centro, one of my students was sitting outside of her house and she called me over. She told me that she couldn't keep coming to class and started to cry. Apparently her mom had beat her the night before for coming to class and not asking for permission. This girl is 14, is the oldest of her siblings and does all the house work- cleaning, cooking, ironing, washing, shining shoes, helping her siblings take baths, etc. She also goes to school in the mornings and has to do all her homework. Her mom beats her regularly and her dad used to beat her when he lived with them. Despite all this, she's a great student and eager to learn. I've been working with the youth educators to mediate the problem between her and her mom, at least so she can continue coming to class.

Yesterday, another student of mine (16 years old) came in looking down. She left partway through the class and her friend went out with her. After class I asked Gustavo if he knew what was going on. He told me that the girl's mother had decided to leave the house. She fought with the father to make him leave, but he refused. Apparently the last time there were major problems between her parents, she took a bunch of pills and had to be taken to the hospital. Her friend, another student in the class, has been very supportive of her during the past few days. There's also a meeting tonight of the youth that she should be coming to, and hopefully this can be a source of support for her too, and a distraction from what's going on at home.

English class isn't just English class

I never thought that teaching an English class would involve me so deeply in some of the personal problems and home life of my students. Last week, on my way to the centro, one of my students was sitting outside of her house and she called me over. She told me that she couldn't keep coming to class and started to cry. Apparently her mom had beat her the night before for coming to class and not asking for permission. This girl is 14, is the oldest of her siblings and does all the house work- cleaning, cooking, ironing, washing, shining shoes, helping her siblings take baths, etc. She also goes to school in the mornings and has to do all her homework. Her mom beats her regularly and her dad used to beat her when he lived with them. Despite all this, she's a great student and eager to learn. I've been working with the youth educators to mediate the problem between her and her mom, at least so she can continue coming to class.

Yesterday, another student of mine (16 years old) came in looking down. She left partway through the class and her friend went out with her. After class I asked Gustavo if he knew what was going on. He told me that the girl's mother had decided to leave the house. She fought with the father to make him leave, but he refused. Apparently the last time there were major problems between her parents, she took a bunch of pills and had to be taken to the hospital. Her friend, another student in the class, has been very supportive of her during the past few days. There's also a meeting tonight of the youth that she should be coming to, and hopefully this can be a source of support for her too, and a distraction from what's going on at home.