Here's a thank you letter written by my English class to Ada's Sunday School class for raising $500... And some picture of her class selling their jewelry...

Hi! How are you? We were happy to learn that your class raised such a large amount of money for this noble cause. We want to congratulate you for 3 reasons. The first reason is because you worked together as a team demonstrating that if we all contribute something we can reach our goals. The second reason is that you set an example for other youth to follow. The third reason is because through your work you are bringing opportunities to youth with few resources to be able to better themselves. This is very important and will change the lives of these youth. If they take advantage of the opportunity that you open up for them, they will be able to contribute to constructing a more just society.
The English class in Barrio Walter Ferretti feels happy that we have friends to look up to that show their solidarity with others without asking for anything in return.

Thank you and hope that we hear from you soon!

Your friends in Barrio Walter Ferretti, Nicaragua

Impromptu Clothing Store

Yesterday we had a great English class at the centro. All this week we learned vocabulary for clothing and numbers greater than twenty. They learned how to say How much does this cost? and That's expensive or That's cheap. Yesterday everyone brought in some clothes from home and we set them up all over the classroom, mostly hanging off of desks. Each person had their market stall and had the chance to be both a customer and a saleswoman/man. Damaris was the saleswoman from hell.... her jewelry cost a lot of money, but she refused to accept credit cards or let anyone try anything on. She also wouldn't reduce the price of anything. She and Erick got into a fight (in english!!) when he accused her of trying to pass off plastic earrings as gold. Sylvillita and Xochilt both really enjoyed asking to try on everything and put together different outfits. (very unfortunately the batteries of my camera weren't charged so I couldn't take any pictures!). Silvillita was wearing my hat and Damaris' sunglasses, and Xochilt was wearing my long denim skirt with a sequined tank top. I think the phrase of the day was, "I'll take it."

The really exciting part about the class was that it was really the first time that the students have improvised conversations in English. And even one of my students who has a really hard time remembering things day to day learned some of the clothing vocab.

News

I started a new job working at Puntos de Encuentro last week, teaching English to their staff in the mornings from 7:30AM-9AM. My students are amazing… They are all very accomplished and talented and are working really hard to further the women’s movement in Nicaragua. I’m really excited about getting to know them and learning more about their work. I still don’t know exactly all of what they do, but you all should check out their website (www.puntos.org.ni), which I heard is very extensive (sadly, I haven’t done this yet…). I suppose it’s in Spanish though. The one thing I know they’ve done is put on a novela type show for teenagers to talk about issues like power, civic participation, violence, sexuality, etc. One of my students, Ikscra, is an actress for the program. Her character is named Martha, and is a divorced woman with HIV. There’s like 80 episodes, and they’re still making more. I have yet to watch it, but apparently you can download them on the website as well.

The other really amazing piece of news I got today is that my friend Ada, who is teaching the Sunday school class in Oak Park temple that has been doing the letter exchange with my students, raised $500 for a scholarship fund for kids in the barrio who can’t afford their monthly school fees!!!!!! Shout out to Ada and her 5th graders for doing such an amazing job! I’ll post some pictures of them selling the jewelry they made when I get them.

The other piece of news I have is that I'm moving! I found a great living situation with 2 Italian NGO workers. They live in a huge house in Colonia Centroamerica, which is the neighborhood I've been wanting to move to. There's tons of other youth living there, and it's a bit safer than where I am now. It will definitely be a change to live with other foreigners, but I'm looking forward to it!

When I grow up, I want to have a mango tree in my backyard

Pictures... Me Rhea and Karina in Masaya

Me and my friend Eduardo at his nephew's baptism.

A few little things...

The other day, I saw The Love Machine bus on the main street in the Fuente again.

Having a mango tree in your backyard during mango season is a heavenly experience. They fall on the roof, and since it's metal, you think that someone's trying to break into your house. They roll onto the ground, and get a little bruised, but they're perfectly yellow, ripe and sweet, ready to eat. Or make mango juice from (way better than the thick Jumex stuff they sell in the Mexican grocery store...)

I went swimming at the airforce pool on Sunday. First sight of the pool... as we were walking down the highway to the entrance, I saw a guy changing out of his bathing suit behind a camoflage painted helicopter. Although out of sight of the pool dwellers, he wasn't out of our sight. The pool was CROWDED! The whole shallow end was packed, people's heads like ants. A DJ played bachata, salsa and palo de mayo music. Boys and kids dove into the deep end over the heads of people clutching the sides of the pool. Trying to swim laps in the deep end was like trying to maneuver through rush hour traffic in Managua. People diving on top of you or coming up out of the water under you, a kid with a kickboard running into me, people swimming frantically without looking up to see where they're going on a diagonal... A group of youth were making towers in the water,3 levels, that came crashing down when the skinny 10 year old made it to the top... I'm definitely going back next weekend!

Rainy season

Picture of Erick and Ludis, two of my students.

The heat in Managua is oppressive. Walking up the hill next to the centro past the garbage-sewage ditch at noon to go home for lunch, I feel like the sun is burning the hairs off of my head and melting me from the inside out. My legs inside my jeans are bathed in sweat within seconds of leaving the air conditioned office. This week, the heat broke. I woke up on Tuesday to a cloudy and threatening sky. Instead of the sun beginning to bake the earth at 8am, there was a cool breeze. Later on, the cool breeze disintegrated into a swampy humid heat like Florida summers. I had class at 2pm, probably the hottest time of day, and all of my students were sweating and lethargic. Since we were learning about animals, I decided to start a game of duck duck goose outside on the patio. As we sat down in a circle, a few drops of rain began to fall. We played a number of rounds of the game, and the clouds broke, letting out a sweet deluge. My students ran for cover in the classroom (but played enough duck duck goose to never forget how to say duck or goose!!). A group of kids played soccer on the concrete playground in the rain, as it continued for at least an hour. Although it felt great getting wet, it resulted only in thickening the air even further, so I felt like I was breathing pure water. Welcome Nicaraguan winter!

Stuck in the rainforest

So it turns out that transportation is really light on the Thursday and Friday of the Semana Santa, so Rhea and I have been a bit stranded in La Fortuna. Really there could be worse places to be stuck. Today we made a delicious rum drink with fresh pineapple and some pasta and walked to a local swimming hole-water fall that's by the side of the road. There were a ton of locals there, since everyone's off of work and bored. We climbed down a muddy path completely protected high overhead by a green canopy. If you climb up the side of the muddy bank there's a tarzan rope hanging from a branch over the pool, and people swinging into the churning water. After watching a few people go, Rhea climbed up the ravine, got a quick lesson, and jumped in. I wanted to do it, but was scared, but she convinced me to climb up the ravine and take a shot. It looked even higher from this perspective and I was really nervous, but some of the other guys standing around were encouraging, so I just hung onto the rope and plunged in. I honestly don't remember the fall, just being in the water and gasping for air when I emerged. I was shaking when I got out, but decided when I calmed down that I had to do it again.

Update from Costa Rica

Hi all! Just wanted to let everyone know that about 11 hours after leaving Managua, Rhea and I made it safely to Tilarán Costa Rica last night. This morning we took a beautiful bus ride from Tilarán to La Fortuna around Lake Arenal. The bus went through lush green rainforest and cloudforest, brightly colored flower gardens, rolling hills, and German chalet looking hotel-resorts. The cloud cover over the lake allowed stray rays of sun through to illuminate isolated circles of the water, like an early morning smile. I was only semi-concious the whole way, which made the landscape even more dreamlike.

Today we're going on a night hike around Volcano Arenál and a dip in the nearby thermal hotsprings. I'll send some pictures along when I can!