March 10-11

Poet reading his poetry in English, then in Spanish.

"Lean on Me"

On March 10, 1990, Rafaela started the
school with only 7 students.
Today there are 372.

Relay races!!

Little friends waiting to go home.

Folkloric dance during the 20th year anniversary
celebration of La Nicaraguita.

Julio Cesar (yes, that is his name) having fun
on stage during the celebration.

The teachers and administration - good job!!

This is Jonathan Gilman, writing what has happened in the last 24 hours.

It has been quite eventful here. Yesterday, we celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the school, and everyone was quite cheerful despite the intense heat streaming down upon us. Half of our group helped set up chairs around the stage in the street for the performances, while the other half blew up balloons in preparation for the exciting day. The performances consisted of a street band, various dances from classes in La Nicaraguita school, and GS participated as well. Andrew Chavez and Caroline Gillis gave a brilliant speech, while Ryan Krocker presented a beautiful poem that he wrote in both English and Spanish. The last group from GS was a small musical ensemble with Nia Imani, Jonnathan Gonzalez, Emma James, Andrew Chavez, Caroline Gillis, and yours truly. When I got up on the stage, I definitely felt the nerves kick in since it looked as though 300 people were watching and waiting for our song, "Lean on Me," to begin. We ended up getting substantial applause, and it was really fun for our group.

Once the street performances were over, we went back to Rafaela´s house and the party still was not over. After a delicious meal of platanos and gallo pinto, we all received bowls of orange flavored ice cream with chocolate and I was so content and full, but then a cake was brought out as well, which said "20 Aniversario." I could not pass up such an extravagant cake, and it tasted so good!

Today, I woke up feeling ready to take on another day in Nicaragua. The heat is almost unbearable to me, but when I look at my class, it seems as though I am the only one who is sweating. I feel like everyone is really starting to get used to the days here, and for me, I really love my sixth grade class! As I walked in, hands were waving and faces were grinning ear to ear. Today was really fun, because all of the grades were taken onto the street and different grades competed against each other, running a short distance to chairs and popping balloons. My grade won most of the time, so a lot of them were jumping on me and hugging me with excitement. Then the George School group had to compete against the oldest group, my sixth grade group. It was a close one, but all of our group helped in securing a win (even though several people fell). Next we went back to class, and my class had Math and Social Studies. Can´t wait for another day, although I think we all hope that the weather will be a little cooler!