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The Friends Photo Project … new photos!

Monday, February 20th, 2012

The Friends Photo Project gallery … El Sauce teens document their own lives using donated cameras.
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The Friends Project English class in Las Minitas, Nicaragua

Monday, February 20th, 2012

The Friends Project is proud to sponsor an English class in Las Minitas, the mountain community in which we work with the pine-needle basket and eco-tourism cooperatives. This is also where the new elementary school is. In fact, the classes are held there.

Residents had been asking for an opportunity to learn English, to advance their skills to obtain jobs, general interest and to better communicate with tourists. We are supporting a three-month beginner class, with Manuel Munguia, center front, teaching.

Manuel received a scholarship to attend college in 2011, and is a great English teacher. In 2009, he was a beginner himself and has skyrocketed.

He walks up the three hours every Sunday for an afternoon class, stays overnight with a family so he can teach a second class Monday morning, before walking back down to El Sauce.

great job everyone!

The school is open!

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

It’s open! On Saturday the community celebrated the new school, giving thanks to everyone who worked hand in hand. Today I was fortunate enough to attend the first day of classes in the new school. Enjoy…

School opens Feb. 11!

Monday, February 6th, 2012

I will be in El Sauce Feb. 11 for the official opening of the Las Minitas school, joined by volunteers, dignitaries and other community leaders for the celebration.
Can’t wait!

Friends Project funds English classes in Las Minitas

Friday, January 13th, 2012

English class launched

The Friends Project has launched a three-month English class in Las Minitas, the mountain community in El Sauce, Nicaragua, where we helped raise money for and will open a school Feb. 10.

Members of the eco-tourism cooperative and teens had been seeking such an opportunity for several months. I always choose projects to invest in that are initiated or identified as important by the community and this is worthwhile.

Members of the eco-tourism and basket-making cooperatives as well as younger children and teens attend, paying a small fee per month that signifies their personal investment in the project. English will help eco-tourism host families and guides communicate better with tourists, and help all cooperative members grow their businesses with English-speaking customers. Speaking English also greatly improves students’ marketability for jobs after graduation, especially in areas where few speak English.

Our own Manuel (to the right, in red with glasses) is the teacher! Friends Project secondary school scholarship recipients Alonso and Sergio are also enrolled.

Manuel was one of our first Friends Project grant recipients, in 2009. We provided him about $250 to purchase a used bike taxi, so he could take home more than 50 cents per day after he paid to rent one. He could rent it out or use it, and therefore work less time so he could attend school.

We also bought him glasses. Two and a half years later, at 20, Manuel has graduated from secondary school, crammed about four years of math tutoring into a few months, worked like crazy and was accepted into college… The Friends Project provides a scholarship of $360 for his studies.

He is also the most accelerated student in the El Sauce English classes, and has been teaching English for several months.

Congratulations to Manuel and for all of our supporters.

This is just one of many projects we have been able to accomplish with a small amount of money — English class will cost $210 for 3 months.

It’s a testament to collaboration and proof we choose meaningful projects that has longlasting and a lot of impact … Using our funds wisely!

Best party ever!

Monday, January 2nd, 2012
It may not look like it, but this was one of the best parties I’ve been to in ages. Gustavo’s daughter is celebrating her graduation in elementary school. Gustavo’s the community leader in Las Minitas and responsible for lobbying for the full-time teacher there
First ever.
We had the ceremony in the old “school” – the last thing ever held there, as its knocked down and replaced with a brick schoo…l we all helped them create…. everyone was at the party. We were welcomed in as them, not as bystanders. with little, they created so much, mostly by hand. After a while, they hoisted the table here on their heads and walked it outside so it was an empty room and we all danced …. I hardly sat down.
In between “cumbia” rounds, I gazed up into the night sky, with no lights anywhere, watched Orion, and relished the amazing moments and connections life gives us when we are willing to put ourselves out there and look.

My host family

Thursday, December 29th, 2011

The best part of Ocotal is being able to live with a family and experience traditional Nicaraguan life on a subsistence/coffee farm, where life has not changed much in 80 or so years. When you want meat, you go catch a chicken. They grow most of what they eat, and grow, dry, roast, grind and make their own coffee. Living off the land is literal here.
Every night, we sat around their table and played a game or talked by light of my head lamp.

A long walk

Monday, December 26th, 2011

I’m standing on the Mirador (lookout) in Las Minitas, on top of the mountain.

Down there, where I’m pointing, is the school in El Jicote that the kids in Las Minitas had to walk to every day — at least an hour each way — to attend elementary school. Their parents lobbied the Nicaraguan government for four years to obtain a permanent teacher.

For a year, they studied with the teacher under a tree at a neighbor’s porch, until the residents built a makeshift shelter for a school with salvaged wood.

There will be a big celebration Feb. 10 or 11 to open the first school ever in Las Minitas!

The new school is funded!

Monday, December 26th, 2011

Still amazed that we were able to raise $11,000 to help the community of Las Minitas build a new, sturdy and permanent brick school.

One room, brick, with a latrine and enough left over to put in a teacher’s desk, locks and a latrine!

It has been a true community effort – here and in Latin America.

Pablito

Saturday, December 10th, 2011

Three years ago, Emiliano helped me plant a coffee sapling on his small farm up in Ocotal, on the mountain in El Sauce, Nicaragua.

When I first met Emiliano by chance in the street this visit, he asked if I remember him, and my tree, Pablito.

He’s a teenager now by coffee tree standards. I’ll visit next week.