Blogs from Masaya, Capital Region, Nicaragua, Central America Caribbean - page 4

Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua is one of the most georgeous volcanoes in the world. Masaya is located in Volcano National Park near Granada. It is easily accesible by car or by walking trails. Although Masaya remains technically active, presently Masaya emits a steady cloud of steam and gaseous fumes for which you need to wear protective gas masks. You are able to walk right up to the crater's edge. When Masaya's fumes are blown to the other side of the crater you can see the parrots that live in the crater's rim as they fly about inside the fumeous gases. At night you can look directly down into the crater's belly and observe the rich red lava far below. A nearby trail allows you to easily visit the ancient lava tube that runs below Masaya and ... read more

Well we have had our ups and downs with Fito, the 18 year old who lives at the project. I mentioned a while back that I thought I had taken him over the edge with my tutoring. He was doing so well with the regular home work I was giving him. I figured if he wasn´t up for doing the homework, he just wouldn´t do it. That´s how I would imagine the kids in the states would react. Well he did it, and it was burning him out. For about 4 days he was really struggling with going back to the dump. He was also going to Masaya to buy glue, and apparently using it at the project.. I´ve been told he sold his new shoes I bought him to buy his glue. I know he ... read more

One of my "jobs" at Chacocente is to tutor "Fito" (short for Gabriel) in 3rd grade Spanish, Mathematics, Social Sciences, and Science. Fito is 18. I don´t know anything about his parents as he stays in a house with another young adult on the project. Cherito is thinking of bringing in a few other young adult men in, if they can promise to go to school and help with the development of the project. Fito and I eager went at it Mon, Tues, Wed and Thurs. We worked him understanding the various digits in 4-digit numbers (like 6,476) and being able to say them out loud. We worked on spelling words and reading 3rd grade stories. He was doing most of the homework I was giving him to practice what we worked on for our 2 ... read more

On Monday Gabriel and I picked up the remaining 2 children needing shoes and 6 youth-young adults jumped into the back of the truck, and away we went back to Pay Less shoes in Masaya. The actual choosing and buying of the shoes was easier than before since most of the kids could pick them out themselves. We just had to give them some guidelines on cost! What was more difficult was deciding where to draw the line. Now all the children have shoes for school. They all wore them with their uniforms last Monday on their first day back to school after their summer vacation. By now they are pretty dirty, but in good shape. A few of the kids make a point to tell me that they clean them every night. This is the ... read more

Today is our last full day of the group trip--tommorrow folks leave for the airport, etc, and summer and i are heading to Esteli. I bribed Aaron with taxi fare to take back my suitcase, which contains mostly rum and coffee. Pray for its safe (and unbroken) return! Unfortunately, i have caught a touch of travel sick, and haven{t felt well the past 2 days. Everytime I eat its no good, so wish me fast recovery before tommorrow! Today we are had a meeting/presentation from a speaker about the free trade agreements. It was a really lively discussion and I asked some good questions. He had very constructive things to say about fair trade, and provided a really thorough view of how the power structures are affecting Nicaragua and other countries, particularly in terms of trade ... read more