This week I started giving art classes to a small group of kids in a friend’s house. I originally wanted to have 2 girls and 2 boys, but unfortunately the mothers of the little girls’ wouldn´t let them leave the house. Boys here really have a lot more freedom, girls are taught at a very young age that their role in the world is really cooking, cleaning, and making and taking care of babies. I´ll have to swing by the houses today and talk with the mothers again. The class though, went well. The boys were pretty punctual even! We learned color theory, and practiced mixing colors and making color wheels.










last week my counterparts and I celebrated the Febuary birthdays (Meaning Mine! and one of our work friends Juanita) I like food. I like sharing food, so heres a photo of the food we ate.Beef, rice, plantains, and a small tomatoe salad.

Sometimes it’s just really hard to decide what to write about. Sometimes I´ll have an idea, and by the time I make it to the library to type it out, it’s gone. Other times I´ll have a whole blog posted, and it won´t feel right, just doesn’t click, so it doesn’t get posted. I guess that’s the nature of blogging.

I recently had some friends and family send down some art supplies. Today I’m going to binding some small sketch pads for a group of about 6 children, and then tomorrow, all going well, I´ll be starting art classes! I´m hoping to start with color theory, then moving onto shades and tones, then next shapes and forms, etc. Each kid will get their own book, and little paint set (which will be returned to me after each class to the guys don´t destroy them) but over all I want this to be a space for creativity, self identity. Here these aren´t really focused on. The kids copy and paste in the schools and don’t have access to the resources for artistic creativity. We´ll see how this goes!

Anyone have any good lesson plan ideas?

Hazel

For the first day of school, the kids had an acto which is where they put on a couple cultural numbers. Here are two of the first graders performing, they were adorable. I think the little guy on the right is in the running for the cutest kid in the world. He´s the grandson of a friend of mine (all my Nicaraguan friends are atleast 30).

Doing the right thing.

This morning I went to my health center, and was talking with one of the nurses when we heard this grunting-huffing sound. She gave me an inquisitive look, and I said, oh it must be one of the dogs outside (of which there are a plethora of and they´re always making strange noises of sorts fighting over food etc.) We heard it a couple other times soon thereafter and I again blew it off. I looked out the window and saw nothing. She decides to go and investigate and come to find out it was a man laying outside our window convulsing. As the nurse later told me, ¨that thump was a human body hitting the ground¨(which I didn’t hear) I felt horrible. This was something serious and I had dismissed it partly from lack of experience (It was and odd sound) partly lack of interest, and partially lack of curiosity. Now I would label myself as an interested, curious, and to a lesser extent experienced person, yet I passed on a very legitimate opportunity to do the right thing. How often do we miss opportunities like that, without even knowing? This isn´t an isolated experience either, I vaguely remember similar things, passing up on helping someone (It’s not my problem) when a small action like handing the lady vomiting on the bus a plastic bag rather than changing seats, would take little time and thought on my part, but would make a huge difference in the other persons day.

When the man was carried into the center, I went back to the nurse and told her how terrible I felt, and she just smiled and gave me a hug.

The other night I went to visit with me neighbors. I love going and sitting with them out front of their house, just talking. I asked them about some local beliefs and I thought I’d share.

So This is very much like our ground hogs day. They say that the first 6 days of the year will paint the 6 months of winter. So for example if the first day is cloudy, then we´ll have a good may with lots of rain, but if the second day is sunny then June will be dry, so and so forth. It was surprisingly like our ground hogs day. It’s interesting how cultures have developed similar traditions such as these in order to help the locals determine when to plant and perhaps to give people some hope for the upcoming growing season.

Also they told me how every November a huge flock of birds passes over head, usually to high for the naked eye to see. My neighbor told me, ¨And the beautiful thing about this is that they fly in a circle over head, ¨ pointing to the sky making a circular motion with her finger, ¨ is stay there and wait until all the other groups have arrived, and then they continue on their journey.

Saturday a friend of mine´s son celebrated his 11 birthday so my self and the other Peacecorps volunteer in my site went over to celebrate. We ended up jump roping, playing limbo, and magical chairs in the house. It was a blast. Initially I was worried that it was going to be boring, but my site mate was brilliant in that when he came to Nicaragua he brought with him jump ropes, singles and for double dutch. its really great with all the kids! I would never have thought to bring something like that. I have a kite, but there are too many powerlines for it to be a safe activity.





this picture is myself, the birthday boy, his mother and a family friend.



Me in a skirt! unheard of!