March 12 - 14th

Oops, misspelled, but still a thoughtful birthday
cake for CHLOE!!

Que sorpresa!

Near Jinotega. The donkey is carrying coffee.

In the park in Jinotega.

The Cathedral in Jinotega.

The Chapel in San Rafeal, next to where we stayed.

La Chepita, our talented and generous meal-maker!

Typical street scene in San Rafael.

San Rafael.

Sunday morning, in the pool. More later....

Is that Superwoman?? No just Nia.

Braelyn and Sophie taking a break from the sun.

This is Carolyn writing Sunday evening after our weekend tour of Jinotega. The Internet is still down at Rafaela´s, so Cheri and I have come to the local cyber cafe to keep y'áll updated on our doings. Friday afternoon your generous children cheerfully translated letters from the U-NICA scholarship students to their sponsors in the USA (more from Cheri later on U-NICA and its mission). It´s a sign of how much their Spanish is improving that there were few questions from Cheri or me in the process! At La Nicaraguita, Emma, Andrew, Chloe, Braelyn, and Sophie worked with one of the primary teachers to make teaching aids for the classrooms--it´s strictly do-it-yourself here. The rest of the group participated in classes with the upper school students, and were particularly active in the English class. Following an encuentro with the 10th grade students (a welcome, snacks, and dancing) we went to Rafaela´s for supper and further celebration of Chloe´s 17th brithday, this time with a special cake.

Saturday morning we gathered at 6:30 a.m. for a breakfast of nacatamales and coffee, a Nicaraguan specialty. Then we boarded a tour bus, accompanied by Rafaela and 6 teachers and 2 students from the school for our outing to El Norte, into the mountains where we were promised there would be cooler air. It was a day rich in images: Managua is thick with traffic on market day, using every imaginable type of transportation. There are crowded pick-up trucks, overflowing busses with people riding on top, SUV's, hundreds of taxis, people walking, riding bicycles, a family of four is somehow on a motorscooter. There are horse-drawn carts, and people on horseback. There are men and boys pulling carts themselves. The busy city streets give way quickly to pastures and fields, and we are reminded that most of Nicaragua's population lives outside of Managua in rural areas, raising cattle, horses, goats, and pigs, and growing coffee, rice, and vegetables. Along the highway we pass haciendas and hovels, crowded bus stops, people carrying bundles of firewood on their backs and their heads (the cooking fuel for most in the countryside). We pass small settlements where people are gathered around the hand-operated water pump, filling up buckets they will carry home on their heads for cooking, drinking, and bathing. Along the roadside are cattle and horses staked for grazing during this dry season when forage is increasingly scarce. Everywhere people are walking along the highway, riding bikes, riding horses.

We begin climbing into the mountains, which are dry and significantly de-forested. The air cools and we gratefully leave the city´s pollution and noise behind us. Despite the dry season, there are several species of trees that are flowering---deep orange, brilliant yellow, soft lilac blossoms grace the hillsides. Puffy cumulus clouds begin to dot the blue sky. It took us 2 1/2 hours to make Jinotega, and we arrived with the Saturday market in full swing. I am particularly impressed by the man selling beautiful black saddles, and the tortillera, whose rhythmic ¨taca taca¨ as she paddles the tortillas between her hands punctuates the air. We make our way to the central plaza, where we tour the lovely gardens and enter the beautiful , well-maintained cathedral. It dates from the 1880´s, but is built on the site of the original church, constructed in 1805. At 1 p.m. we walk to a nearby restaurant for a leisurely lunch, followed by a stroll around the town. Then, back on the bus, we drive the 15 miles up a winding road to San Rafael del Norte. It is a charming small mountain village, graced by a lovely church on the plaza, where a combination wedding and quinceañera are underway, complete with procession through the streets. We settle into our overnight accommodations, a retreat center attached to a chapel honoring the priest who served the town for decades. He is revered as a saint for his many accomplishments, including bringing electricity, potable water, paved roads, achools, and community spirit to the town. Then we walk to the home of La Chepita, an 80+ year old woman renowned for her cooking, who had a catering business in her younger days. Her daughter is a colleague of Rafaela´s, and rafaela arranged for her to host us in her home for three meals during our stay. Your children quickly adopted her as their Nicaraguan grandmother after she graciously welcomed them into her home and fed them nearly to bursting with delicious food.

Tomorrow we´ll write more about the pool....!!