Father’s Day

Father’s Day is celebrated on June 22 here in Nicaragua. Here is a picture from Zach’s school, the children performed some special songs and dances for all the fathers. The words in the background say, Dad, you are a champion.







A picture from our church, we had a special service for the dads, complete with special food and decorations.














Here, from Left to Right are Karen, Ruth(Roberto’s daughter) and Jacqueline who are planning out the next activity.

Here is a picture of all the dads in our church. From left to right is Julio, Roberto, Joel (Roberto’s son-in-law) and Steve. Notice how few men there are in the church.

The small-business fair

Some pictures of the fair in San Ramon, held on the main street. San Ramon is the main town we pass through on our way to the country, and is located about 15 minutes east of Matagalpa. Many NGO's and cooperatives were there, educating and hawking their wares.









Here is a picture of “our’ ladies, trying to sell their jewelry, baskets, jellies and wine.














Here is a picture of Alex (red shirt), the son of one of the farmers we work with (man on right with guitar). He has an amazing voice, and has won a national award for his singing.








Nathaniel enjoyed walking around the fair. Here, he and his Nicaraguan 'grandpa', Roberto enjoy a few moments together.
















A picture of a sign outside an eatery that we frequent on our trips back from the country. Comedor is the Spanish term for an eatery.

Artesanian

Here the women are making jellies, jams, wines, jewelry and wicker baskets for the small-business fair that was held the 6^th of June. The jams were made from tomatoes, pineapple and papaya and were delicious!










Here is a photo of Colleen working on a cross-stitch project, as some of the women look on. Colleen will soon start classes on cross-stitch, with the hopes that the women will learn to make pillows and other things to sell.











A picture of flor de Jamaica (Hibiscus flower) with water, boiling down.












A picture of Doña Julia making wicker baskets. They are made from a type of cane. Steve helped to make strips from the cane, and here she is weaving them to make baskets. She learned this from her grandmother and mother, and is teaching the younger girls. She related that her husband left her a few years ago for another woman, but said he was very abusive, and is better off now that he is gone. This is the story of many women here.

Our New House

Here are a few photos of our house. The first is what you see when you first enter our home. Our house is like most Nicaraguan homes, long and skinny. Here is the boys’ room. We don’t have a lot of mosquitoes, but enough to warrant the mosquito nets. We don’t want any more repeat dengue fever episodes J Here is a picture of our kitchen, which is like most other kitchens here, except we actually have a few cabinets. Our little stove is off to the left. Our refrigerator is in the dining room, we couldn’t fit it through the doorway to the kitchen. and here is our “backyard”.

Schooltime

The boys have fun with their crayons, here they are coloring the local paper.

Steve walks Zach out the front door and across the street to his school bus. Since we moved farther away from the school, Zach now enjoys a ride on the bus with his friends. This is the view from our front door.

CHIGÜINES

Here are some of the children in the town of Bramadero, with Sarah, in the town where she and her husband, Seth, live (another MCC couple). They don’t have any children of their own, but they do have 20 “adopted” chigüines (Nicaraguan Spanish for kids). Every night Seth and Sarah play games, feed them supper and generally play parent. And just think, there are thousands more chavalos like them here. The amazing part is that the kids never complain.

BOYS

The boys are standing in front of an ad for PEPSI, of which there are thousands here in Nicaragua. They seem to like their ads, Giant-sized. Entire stores are covered with ads for PEPSI, COKE, CORN, and so forth. At least you don’t need glasses to read the fine print!