Cultural center October highlights

A photo of students studying at the cultural center library, one of the few public libraries in Nicaragua I'm told. It has a great open wooden balcony where I like to sit sometimes. It's one of the only places you'll find stairs in Managua (besides shopping malls). Almost all homes are one-story because of possible earthquakes since Managua is on a fault line (and is due for one any time now!)

A visit to the women's quilting group. Can you find me in this photo?

I went along with the choir from the center to Jinotepe to take photos. This Catholic church was really beautiful with big high open ceilings. The choir and orchestra sounded amazing there.

A romping fun time with the kids from Dimitrov neighborhood at a non-violence workshop. Here they were doing a relay race carrying one another back and forth. I like the expression on the little girl's face.

I decided to photograph some of the music students and met this lovely young woman (forget her name now...) who told me that she was born and raised Mennonite here in Nicaragua! Who would have thought?

A little furry friend I discovered sitting by my bag one day.

While the kids were painting the mural in Dimitrov, Chanel 12 news drove by randomly to see what was going on and did some interviews and filming. It ended up getting about 8 minutes on the news that night and I appeared in the background for about 3 seconds with my whomping camera snooter.

A bit of background, Dimitrov is one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Managua where murder and crime rates are high. Two main gangs divided by family are in constant conflict there. Several Nicaraguan teachers from the cultural center go to Dimitrov weekly to teach painting, dance and theatre classes. The mural is part of a project in the painting class. The boy being interviewed, Jose, shared how the painting class helps him to forget about his problems. He now has many dreams for his future, including wanting to be a lawyer to work for children's rights, become a painting instructor, or a businessman to help Nicaragua become successful. I have tons of pics from the mural so stay tuned for a slide show!

A darling family photograph of Alan and Beth Klassen-Thrush and their darling son Simon. This was an update to their prayer card since their current one doesn't include Simon. They are MCCers who have been here in Nicaragua for over 3 years now and are really fun people (they are also Messiah grads-woot woot!)