Granada

Our group is reunited again! Our leader was able to get her daughter the visa she needed, and they joined us here in Granada yesterday afternoon. Yesterday we participated in a service project with La Esperanza (which means "Hope"), a nonprofit organization. In the morning, we tutored middle and high school students and taught them how to use the internet. After the tutoring session we took them out for pizza--Hawaiian pizzaseems to be the most popular choice among teenagers around here!

After lunch, we went outside of the city of Granada to visit a school La Esperanza works with, pictured below.

The students were breaking for lunch, and a group of parents were gathering for a juntas, or what we would call a PTO meeting. This little boy was eating gallo pinto, or beans and rice. They call it gallo pinto because the dish is the color of a "painted rooster."

We met a first year teacher who earned his degree in Managua. He rides his bicycle from Granada to teach the combination fifth and sixth grade class each day.

We walked about 3 miles back from the school into Granada. Along the way we saw the homes of the children who attend the school. The children loved to have their photographs taken! Below is a picture of a typical Nicaraguan home. Aboput 90% of the people of Nicaragua live in homes just like this one.

These boys were playing a pick-up game of futbol as the sun was setting.

Today we visited the market in Masaya. We practiced our bargaining skills! Tonight we will be working with La Esperanza again. The organization has been helping a group of young men to develop job skills, and the young men are planning to open a restaurant in Granada soon. Tonight they will be practicing their cooking skills for our group. Yum!