Mmmmm….good

Nothing like chocolate to make one smile. Here Nathaniel shows off his love of chocolate and how he “helps” by licking off the mixers. One can’t be too helpful with baking!

Going Bananas

Want a banana or two? On one of his trips out to the country, Steve stopped at a little store and bought a head of bananas. We counted about 7 dozen on the head. Cost? $1.25. We made choco-bananas and banana muffins galore!

Indigenous bags, wallets, etc.

We visited 2 womens co-ops about an hour south of here and were able to talk with the women and see how they make their wares. They use looms and treadle sewing machines.

A lot of time and work goes into the making of these items. The purses and other things were absolutely beautiful. See above.

One co-op, called El Chile, organized without any outside help. Interest and desire is absolutely key to any project here. Many projects have failed miserably due to lack of interest.

The woman to the right is using a

simple loom, using only rope and smooth sticks.

Non-Violence Posters

Here are 2 non-violence posters in a school out in the country. The poster on the left is from MCC, and reads “A Small Step Towards Peace: Let the Christians of the world agree not to kill each other”. The poster on the right is from an organization called Participation of Women in Democracy and Government, located here in Matagalpa and reads “No More Violence towards us”. We have heard that just in the last several years there is more media attention and groups coming forward to work on eliminating domestic violence, but there is a long way to go. Pray that we could have wisdom in how to handle this cultural issue.