We had lots of donations this month, former volunteers, David Bristol sent 250 Euros, Miriam Lammemeit sent 30 Euros, Elise Sainte Rose sent $30, Jesus Valdivieso Lopez sent $100 and Juliette Hoad $50.  Volunteers Lauren Dayton gave $40 and Hayoung Kim gave $41.  MJ Reale, whose family came down classroom painting before sent $200, John Russo sent $50, long term supporter Edward Wall sent $500, Geofrey Newton sent $15.  The Downey Family Foundation in Connecticut have given us $3000.  And the pub quiz at O’Shea’s raised $112.  Daniel Morales brought school materials and Ellen Miller who visited brought games, skipping ropes etc.  We also had a visit from Boris Korablev who brought 50 great pencil cases filled with goodies and notes in Spanish written by the students in his class.

Volunteers right now are : Jesus Villalobo, Lucas Salzwedel,  Anna Kurth,  Svenja Luschen, Sarah Miller, Yola von Rohden, Emelina Biscevic,  Alejandro Landero,  Jette Rossler, Paula  Dietenberger, Juliane Behnke, Come Grevy,  Alize Coulais, Juliette Callebaut,  Ana Serrana, Emilie Crouzet, Julia Bach, Daniel Morales, Noah Mabry,  Adrian Blattner, Thamer Aldubai khi, Hayoun Kim, Mary Pearce, Nigel Smith and Bobby Lee.

November, 2012

The school year in Nicaragua is almost at an end, though not without a few hiccups.  First we were told that the last day of classes would be on the 23rd November.  At the start of that week we found that classes would continue until 7th December, though in fact most schools are having classes for only one or two hours per day.

High school sponsorship information will be ready soon.  We are looking forward to getting the report cards of grade six children so we can find out which students will be able to attend high school next year.

Only one of our university students was set to graduate this year, Belkis Trejos, sadly she dropped out of both university and the ayudante program in September, with only a few months to go.  For anyone who may be interested in providing a university scholarship there are quite a number of very promising students completing high school this year who would love the opportunity to continue their studies.

Former volunteer Katrina Fralick sent through $430 with donations she raised and matched for her birthday, and we received $200 from the Women’s Philanthropic Investment Group in Seattle thanks to another former volunteer Jen Lyons putting us forward.  Recent visitor Michelle Gates is holding a fundraising too: http://www.gofundme.com/fundinglaesperanza

Our current volunteers are Jakob Kohler, Drew Breswick, Ginger Lawrence, Mary Pearce, Sarah Miller, Anna Kurth, Svenja Luschen, Louise Henningson, Greg McDowell, Yola Rhoden, Emelina Biscivec, Alejandro Landero, Come Grevy, Alize Coulais, Jette Rossler, Paula Deitenberger, Lucas Salzwedel, Juliane Behnke, Lauren Dayton, Juliette Callebaut, Sandra Sagassar, Shirley Choicer, and Ruth Mendez.

The volunteers have been extra busy this month taking children on excursions, you can find links to the photos and videos on our Facebook page which Donald has been keeping updated.

Lots of building and school maintenance happening right now with three World Challenge groups visiting from Australia, and two more on their way – the schools are Camberwell High, Balwyn High, and Brentwood Secondary College, with another Camberwell team and Williamstown high on their way.  A full run down of what these groups have achieved in the next newsletter.

Former volunteer David Montoya Romero – after a few weeks working with us with the children – decided to do his own project helping renovate a school north of Granada. Escuela Lolita de Soriano now has fresh paint, repaired walls and a new latrine block – funded by David’s hitchiking friends, and the helping hands and hard work of lots of our volunteers the project was completed.

October, 2012

Thanks once again to the wonderful village of Adstock for their continued support of La Esperanza Granada.  This beautiful, historic village, some 50 miles north of London, has done so much to help us help the young students here.  An Adstock resident, Roger Simmons, passed through Granada more than six years ago – the plight of the children entered his heart, and has stayed with him since.  Every year Roger has collected funds for La Esperanza Granada.

I have visited Adstock, green, peaceful, well ordered, hard to picture any possible link between there and the barrios here, but the link is there, a strong link, of good will.

In this years collection Furzedown School contributed $220, the residents of William Hill Drive $191, The Cockpit Crew $319, and residents of the Village of Adstock $3851.

We have had some problems with local bureaucracy in the past weeks.  Here is a link to a short article – it tells a truly heartwarming story.   http://www.nicaraguadispatch.com/news/2012/10/learning-the-letter-of-the-law-in-nicaragua/5772

Lots of volunteers working in the schools now, so many great helpers from all over.  Current volunteers are Jakob Kohler, Drew Breswick, Saskia Schindler, Anna Kurth, Svenja Luschen, Sarah Miller, Jannick Gluck, Asa Soderqvist, Dominic Crossley, Chiara Pedrazzi, Louise Henningsson, Maciej Andrejczuk, Melodie Garcia-Morales, Greg McDowell, Richard Lalor, Uve Grone, Karolina Koziara, Honza Skovanek, Yola von Rohden, Emelina Biscevic, Come Grevy, Alize Coulais, Alejandro Landero, Jette Rossler, Paula Dietenberger, Malte Joergensen, Mikkel Jensen, Lucas Salzwedel, Mary Pearce and Ginger Lawrence.

Tamara, Daan, Esther and Kevin, four young trainee teachers doing an internship with us through On Stage, have just completed their time with us and were a great help with our English teams.  Along with Sarah and Drew, both here for a long term stay, as well as those who were here for just a few weeks our English teams are accepting the challenge of making learning fun for the children, and it is a joy to see it pay off.  We had a Skype link with Burlington Central High in Canada, and grade five girls from San Ignacio made us proud with their responses in English.

We received another major donation this month from Clare Restrepo and family, who sent $3000 to build a new family house in San Ignacio.  Building will start next week so photos of that next month.  Other donations this month were from Juliette Hoad who sent $50, and the O’Shea’s pub quiz $81.  Barb Christie visited from Canada which was great.  Barb had the chance to meet with her high school student, and brought with her 6 watches to give as prizes at the end of the year, plus a cash donation of $107.  Volunteers Heidi, Louise, Jette and Paula all brought school supplies, toys and puzzles.  Another big parcel of school supplies came in the mail from former volunteer Inaki Arriero and friends.

Lots of photos this month, including some lovely pictures of the cultural event at Pablo Antonio Cuadra for Dia de los Raices which was celebrated on the 8^th.   Here is the link:  https://picasaweb.google.com/laesperanzagranada/October201202

On a personal note, apologies for being late this month – delay due to dengue!

September, 2012

September is the month of the Patria here in Nicaragua, sometimes called Flag Day or Independence day, 14^th and 15^th are a big celebration with great pride in being Puro Pinolero.    The schools all joined in parades, the early grades at their school, and for some of the higher grades here in Granada center.

Another celebration we held this month was a carnival day at La Inmaculada in La Prusia, the first school that La Esperanza Granada work with.  This special day was in memory of Charlie from Florida, one of the original founding group.  Charlie sadly passed away this month.  The children had a wonderful day, almost as good as the carnival days at the school years ago when Charlie would cook a mountain of chicken for all the community.

Some major work at Pablo Antonio Cuadra this month, we installed electricity in one of the six classroom blocks, and put lights and fans in each classroom.  Now the walls have been repaired, the classrooms are freshly painted, and it looks like a new school.  We also put a storage cupboard in the kindergarten classroom at Escudo so the teachers can protect their precious supplies.

We were sorry to say goodbye to Lynda Smith, who returned to the UK after a full year of volunteering at Nueva Esperanza school.  Lynda made a lot of progress with some of the children there.  She had great ideas and made lots of teaching materials, games for the children etc.  Her students will miss her.

And we welcomed back Ginger, for her sixth 3 month stint of working with us.  Ginger is teaching English to our university students and our ayudantes.  Other volunteers here at present are: Mary Pearce, Jakob Kohler, Drew Breswick, Saskia Schindler, Anna Kurth, Svenja Luschen, Sarah Miller, Tamara van Delft, Kevin de Rooij, Esther van der Zalm, Daan Dangerman, Karen Lomer, Jannick Gluck, Asa Soderqvist, Lena Volmer, Heidi Albert-Hofmann, Anke Russychaert, Kayla Wilson and Harry Thompson.

October should be an exciting month, we are going to kick off two new programs.  Amigos without Borders, is to link classes here with classes in other countries.  The aim is to have a cultural interchange and broaden the perspective both of students here and overseas.  Donald will be making video clips of the various schools and their classes, ready to share with their new Amigos.  So now is the time for any former volunteers and friends are teachers to link up your students with ours.  Simply send an email and say you want to participate in the Amigos without Borders program.  Manny Acosta visited last week and exchanged letters etc. from his wife Wilma’s third grade students at Triangle Elementary in Florida with third grade here at Nueva Esperanza which was great.  (he also brought a lot of school supplies to share with them)

The second is a program we have hoped to do for a long time, to work with young mothers who have young children.  More than 30% of the children here are born to mothers under 18.  In some of the poorest barrios such as San Ignacio there are many young women, still of school age who have children of their own.  We want to invite them to attend group sessions where they will learn initially how to teach their young children simple things such as count to ten, color, play with educational toys etc.  When the young women gain confidence through pride in their children, we will start to introduce workshops on such things as hygiene, nutrition, etc. then move on to simple sewing, handicrafts, and other basics.  Our aim is to lift these young women out of their plight of no future, and give them hope.  We hope some may return to school, that others may start to earn a living, and that it will lead to their children getting a better education and not becoming parents while they are still children themselves.

The program will begin in a spare classroom of the high school, and then we will start to work towards building a communal area to be used for this and other things.  Karin van Eijk and Tom Daniels sent through $765 that they had raised which will go towards this, and we had a wonderful donation from The Friends of La Esperanza Granada in Northern Ireland, of $1000, so we have a really good start.  Margaret and Geraldine held car boot sales to send us these funds, along with Desi they are great supporters of ours.

Marie Garrity from Australia sent us $1000 this month too.  Marie has visited Granada several times in the past years, and is dedicated to helping people here.  Former volunteer from Australia Marianne Edmonds sent a big box of beads etc. too, these will help us when it comes time to start handicrafts with the young mothers group.

We received a big box of clothing and school supplies from Nadja Buhl in Germany, Jannick brought lots of things with him for the schools, and Ginger brought medical supplies.

Hope you will enjoy the photos this month:  https://picasaweb.google.com/laesperanzagranada/Sept2012

And this short video clip of Nueva Esperanza:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKVbNaglTPQ&feature=em-share_video_user

August, 2012:

Our main focus is education, that comes first.  For many years now we have also tried to help with children’s health, particularly dental health.

More than nine years ago our founder Bill Harper took a team from Dentists sin Fronteras up to the school at La Prusia.  Following this we brought children in to town when the group was here.  About six years ago we were fortunate to meet Bill Wayman.  Part of the Cristo Sano group, and Keeping Dentistry Alive, Bill and his wife Linda visit regularly and their group has opened two dental clinics in Granada.  For the past six years we have been taking children to the dentist, 20 – 24 each week for treatment at their clinics.  We only have to pay for the transport and the materials used, (in some cases we don’t even pay this).

Even with all this help though it is hardly making a dent in the amount of dental care needed.  When we talk about the beautiful smiles of the children here, we are talking about the joy and warmth in their smiles, not about the teeth on show.

Now, in conjunction with Bill Wayman and his crew, we have started a new program of giving a twice weekly fluoride rinse.  There are currently 300 children in San Ignacio involved.  We are going to seek the permission of the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Health, hoping to expand this program to other schools and areas.  If we get the go ahead we will include tooth brushing lessons, and workshops on the importance of dental care.    We are really excited about this and consider it a big step forward.

The dental team examined each child’s teeth, and will be doing a comparison report in one year.  They also brought with them bags of schools supplies, shoes, t-shirts and other useful things.

Some visitors this month were Michelle Gates and family, who also brought lots of school supplies.   And two very welcome visitors from an educational project in Spain, Grupo 2013.  Grupo 2013 is paying through La Esperanza Granada for the university fees of 9 students, an enormous help for these young local people.  Alejandro and Elena spent several days with us, visited the schools where we work, and took all the university students and our ayudantes out for dinner.

Mark returned from the States, bringing us a new printer, plus lots of t-shirts and uniforms from The Florida Guys.

Had a short, but very effective visit from Northwestern University,  graduate class of Kellogg School of Management.  They came and worked hard for an afternoon at Nueva Esperanza building a retaining wall to stop the yard erosion, and repairing the steel mesh fence.  And shared refreshments at afternoon recess with the whole school.  Job well done.

Current volunteers are Lynda Smith, Mary Pearce, Jakob Kohler, Saskia Schindler, Drew Breswick, Pau Illa Soler, Andy Hidalgo, Anna Kurth, Svenja Shuller, Sarah Miller, Emmanuel Montiel, Eladio Obero Diez, Daan Dangerman, Kevin de Rooij, Tamara van Delft and Esther van de Zalm, not many in numbers but great in efforts.

And I should mention some wonderful donations, former volunteer  David Bristol sent €150,  Anne Mieke Penkhert sent €50, Kirsten Wehde sent €50 Tania Ehrle sent €120 all with Miriam Lammenett, Jen Quick sent $100 as a birthday gift for her daughter Rebecca,  former volunteer Anna Bodt sent $250 to help her school Escudo (which was used to buy a supplies cupboard),  we received $50 from the pub quiz at O’Sheas Irish Bar,  and $19 from sales at the Granada Finca Market towards clocks for the classroom walls.

And thanks to Donald, there is a wide range of photos in our album for August:  https://picasaweb.google.com/laesperanzagranada/August2012

July, 2012

Our world here at La Esperanza Granada revolves around the schools, so it is a big point in July when we complete the first semester of the Nicaraguan school year, and start with the second.

The schools had a week’s break, and we took that opportunity to give children at Pablo Antonio Cuadra a chance to have a weeks extra tuition in reading.  We chose to hold this with grades three and four, almost 100 children attended each day.  Donald and our ayudantes planned a full agenda for the young students, and we feel the made some great progress.

Amped for Education completed work on the road in San Ignacio (with the support of their family and friends this group contributed $3500 for all the materials for their labors) and two fortunate families had a new house built, as part of the school attendance program.  Amped for Education built a house for Erika Molina’s family and the Brosnoff Family visiting from New York built a house for the family of Nataly Hernandez.  You will see some wonderful pictures of them in the photo link, un unbelievable boost to these families, to go from walls made of black plastic and pieces of scrap to what can be considered a real house.  (though small and somewhat primitive by first world expectations).

Amped for Education brought lots of school supplies with them when they visited.  Another educational support group Amigos4Learning also visited and gave us notebooks, pencils etc..  Shairn Villa send down some games with Alicia, Miriam Lammemiet left lots of art materials, Elena Kaya brought tooth brushes and tooth paste, the Brosnoff family donated two inflatable beds, and Rosalind Parducci donated the bicycle she bought while she was here.  Former Volunteer Leslie Hunter-Duvar has been collecting through the last school year in Canada and sent through $2200, Ontario Teachers’ Federation $680.00, Ryerson Heights and Walter Gretzky School Staffs: $920.00, and Cathy Cooper retirement fund (in lieu of gifts and party): $600.00.

Another former volunteer, Todd Studer, when sending payment for the student he sponsors sent extra – in total he sent $3000, so generous.  We had some pay pal donations too, with $25 from Mary Coiner for school supplies, and $100 from Michael Langr.

Karen van Eijk and Tom Daniels did their Kennedymars walk in the Netherlands, sadly if was very bad weather, and they didn’t quite complete the course, but raised a tremendous amount to help here, just over 500 euros.  Imagine they had very sore, wet feet at the end.

Volunteer numbers are still down (hint to anyone wanting to come back, now is the time), we have 24 at present: Mary Pearce, Julien Dao, Joshua Lunn, Wualter Monge, Pablo Titos Sanchez-Cantalejo, Emen Arfa, Pierre-Antoine Filippe Santelli, Grazi Ozcoidi Marturet, Itxaso Legarrea, Franziska Gunther, Pablo Alzela, Sara Bani, Christine Herzog, Ivan Ferrucci, Jakob Kohler, Drew Breswick, Saskia Schindler, Pau Illa Soler, Carla Grandos, Saskia Aandewiel, Vicente Ceamanos, Fernando de la Puente, Andy Hidalgo, and Alicia Villa.

Included in the photos for July are some from our High School excursion – the students from Nueva Esperanza Secundaria went to Rivas to visit the Museo de Antropologia for the day, and lots more:  https://picasaweb.google.com/laesperanzagranada/July12

June, 2012

Wonderful start to the month with Children’s Day celebrations. We made sure that every child had a special day. The program ran for four days with different schools each day.  About 2000 children, imagine how many smiles and laughs that totaled!  Such fun to generate happiness.

It’s not all games though, our volunteers from overseas, and our local volunteers, the team of ‘ayudantes’ really do dedicate themselves to helping the children grasp the basic skills they need.  And our English teachers need to be especially creative.  All of them work hard to teach, and also to make school an enjoyable experience.  The schools here have so little.

The teachers had some special recognition this month with Nicaraguan teachers day being celebrated on 29^th.  28^th was a school party day, and 29^th the teachers had the day off, schools were closed.

Amped for Education are back on the job again.  Jeff Pluta, Amped’s main man, was the instigator for the high school in San Ignacio.  It was his group’s idea to build a high school, and originally we were just lending a hand.  Thanks to the many helping hands we had we sort of took over the project to a degree, but Amped were one of the major financial contributors.  They are just as dedicated to its success as we are, they sponsor a number of students and continue to help finance the ongoing program.

Currently Jeff is here with a student group from Smith Academy, Massachustes, US. Laying stone causeways in the road in front of the school.  Many of the people in San Ignacio have no water in their houses, they collect their water in buckets from the standpipes in the road.  This leads to big patches of mud where the taps are, then trucks churn up the mud, and during the rainy season the road becomes impassable.  Amped has fully funded the project, and as I’m writing this the students are up there digging the road and hauling 100 lb stone slabs to try and fix the problem.

We received donations in the office of school supplies and other goods from…..   Matthew Smith visited and brought full bags with him (check his website  http://purposetravel.wordpress.com/, Linda, a regular visitor brought in some goodies,  Rebecca Quick and Errol came to see us in preparation to start a link with the school where Rebecca teaches.  We also had a pay pal donation of $15 from Quinn Olson as a birthday present for her brother Ryan, and another of $150 from Shairn Villa as a graduation present for Alicia Villa who is coming to volunteer with us soon.  The quiz at O’Shea’s Irish Bar raised $100, and through ICAS we received donations from Deborah Keefe of $200, plus from former volunteers Ginger Lawrence, $60, and Robert Burns, $300.  These funds will all be put to good use.

Nice to see our volunteer numbers on the rise again after the quiet month of May.  Volunteers here at present are Mary Pearce, Lynda Smith, Irmgard Schnall, Charlotte Pennicaud, Sandra Spijkman, Jeanine Langkamp, Charlotte Penicaud, Michael Schulmeyer, Stella Werner, Miriam Lammenett, Julien Dao, Will Crumpacker, and Lisa and Jill Antrobus, Karrissa Manchester, Katie Ackland, Rosalind Parducci, Cindy Sanchez, Julia Szabo, Kelley Blakeslee, Joshua Lunn, Melanie Yres, Elise Sainte-Rose, Sean McKillop, Marc Prat Marti, Sonia Cruz Duocastella,  and Wualter Monge.

Don’t forget to ‘like’ us on Facebook, and please add our page to yours so you can receive the latest photos and videos, and help spread the word.

May, 2012

The story is all in pictures this month, so many good pictures of so many good things happening.  The family of Ricardo Martinez Badilla has a new house, thanks to Bill and Linda Wayman and their daughter Holly.  The new classrooms at Pablo Antonio Cuadra are full of students, thanks to Builders Beyond Borders.  We have a new look to our office building, thanks to all our ayudantes.  Plus there are pictures of Mother’s Day celebrations in the schools, clothing sales in the schools, and plenty of volunteer photos.

Steve Lewine, Chairman, along with Rhonda Baker, Kathy Jamison and Amy Schroeder-Riggio of Builders Beyond Borders visited to attend the inaugurations of the classrooms built by their groups at Nueva Esperanza High School, and at Pablo Antonio Cuadra.  This group consisting of high school students from Connecticut, U.S.A. brought an enormous contribution to Nicaragua’s development.  In addition to their classroom building projects with us, they built a foot bridge, built a community kindergarten, and built housing for the poor in other parts of Nicaragua this year. 

More news about the Kennedymars walk taking place in the Netherlands in June.  This started 50 years ago when the then U.S. President J. F. Kennedy wanted to raise the national level of fitness and said that each civil servant should be able to walk 50 miles in 20 hours.  The village of Someren took this on as a challenge and have been doing the walk each year since.  They have listed La Esperanza Granada on their website as a beneficiary too – here is the link: http://tinyurl.com/esperanzamars

Volunteer here at present are Lynda Smith, Mary Pearce, Irmgard Schnall, Barbara Krainer, Alejandro Real Peguero, Sandra Spijkman, Jeanine Langkamp, Katrina Fralick, Asa Borgas, Lisandro Nanzer, Charlotte Penicaud, Karlijn Nijboer, Ellen Pylad, Manne Tornberg, Alice Cascioli, Michael Schulmeyer, Stella Werner, Miriam Lammenett, Julien Dao, Will Crumpacker, and Lisa and Jill Antrobus.

And here is a sneak preview of International Children’s day we will be celebrating in the schools next week – volunteers and ayudantes practicing for the Snow White play: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1pLs5fTWpk&feature=em-share_video_user

April, 2012

Another dream come to fruition as our high school students at Nueva Esperanza had their first computer classes.  So many people contributed to making this possible, but the driving force behind it all has been volunteer Ryan Olson.   Ryan did the computer purchasing, configured them all, designed the furniture, trained the teacher and shared his passion for computers with all.

Our last Builders Beyond Borders group (at this time!), the C4 group came down from U.S.A. and completed the two extra classrooms they have built at Pablo Antionio Cuadra.  These extra classrooms mean that high school students now will be able to complete five years of high school without having to find another school after their third year.  This is a fantastic achievement by the B3 group.

Once again a big thank you to George Berenschott who opened his  beautiful colonial home for these young students from Connecticut to stay while they labored at the school each day.  A wonderful contribution from George.

Natalia Jones made a great video of one of the English classes – check this link: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=119075354893281  – look at them sing!

The weather is really hot here now, we had a big rainstorm a couple of weeks ago, but the rainy season hasn’t really started yet.  Everyone is feeling the heat with daily temps of 35 celsius.

A request for help from our U.S. treasurer Rachel: Calling all U.S. Volunteers!!!   Rachel Sklar, our U.S. based treasurer and non profit liaison, is looking for someone to join her team.   She needs a combination of moral support, technical support, and help with things like generating thank you notes, staying in touch with donors and developing a more strategic accounting system.  If you are looking for a way to stay involved and have experience with any of these tasks (particularly in the area of accounting or non-profit law/tax consulting), please contact Rachel directly at rachel@viaparenting.com.

Lots of donated goods brought into the office, Susan Sanchez and Harry Laski brought lots of games, C4 group from Builders Beyond Borders who filled our office tables with lots of school supplies, Betsy and Mark Lennon brought games, Carmen Chapell Elkin’s parents brought books and things from Spain, and Marcia Bernbaum brought in a highchair, stroller and lots of baby needs which we will use for an attendance raffle on Mother’s day.

It’s a time of some hard goodbye’s at the moment, with quite a few long term volunteers who have left or are leaving soon.  Jenny Opitz, Maren Mylneck, Juliana Damm, Michael Sugue all of whom have been here from Germany for six months or more,  then next week we have to say goodbye to Tona Roig (here since December) Vanessa Colada, Christine Coakleyand David Drezner (here since January).  Always sad to see people like these leave.

Other volunteers here at present are Lynda Smith, Mary Pearce, Linda Heatherly, Irmgard Schnall, Carmen Chapell Elkin, Oliver Quix, Nuria Terrones y Hernandez, Svenja Fillet, Barbara Krainer, Julia Laski, Madeline Laski, Alejandro Real Peguero,  Isabel Navarro Blakemore, Ingrid Pichel, Scott Brenneman, Sandra Spijkman, Jeanine Langkamp, Jack Langree, Aaron Brink, Katrina Fralick, Natalia Jones and Asa Borgas.

March, 2012

So much achieved this March.  Equipo Cambio from Builders Beyond Borders completed two classrooms and a large technical classroom to be used for training in electrical work, at the new San Ignacio high school.  We spent an exciting week with these high school students from Connecticut, U.S.A.  It has a tremendous impact on the high school students here that others high school students are helping build their school, and for the young people visiting the week here would have made a lasting impression.  Their hard work here was the finale of a whole year of work and fundraising that they all did in order to come here and build, and they could justly feel proud of their efforts.

Georgetown University came down for their third year running and laid big paving stones in the road to the high school in a part that becomes impassable during the rains.  And carpentry students from La Chantier in Montreal, Canada repaired over 160 desks for the primary schools.  The children from Jose de la Cruz Mena put on an impromptu thank you presentation that was so touching, there were few dry eyes.  All the guys put their sunglasses on.

Of course all our longer term volunteers were hard at work throughout the month.  Watch for our blog in the coming weeks as it features some interviews with our volunteers talking about their lives in Granada, what they do, why they came etc.

Volunteers here at present are Maren Mlynek, Juliana Damm, Lynda Smith, Michael Sugue, David Drezner, Colleen Kelly, Vanessa Gancedo, Tona Roig Saumell, Maria Garcia Robles, Christine Coakley, Irmgard Schnall, Oliver Quix, Nuria Terrones y Hernandez, Svenja Fillet, Barbara Krainer, Julia Laski, MadelineLaski, Fernando Quentrequeo, Alejandro Real Peguero, Isabel Blakemore, Ingrid Pichel, Scott Brenneman, Sandra Spijkman, Jeanine Langkamp, Mary Pearce, Jack Langree, Aaron Brink, Katrina Fralick and Natalia Jones.

Some wonderful news this month is that Project Pulsera have chosen to collaborate with La Esperanza Granada with Nueva Esperanza Secundaria, helping us fund the technical classes.  They have made an initial donation of $5000 to be used to fund teachers and/or teaching materials.  There is a great fund raising opportunity too for people at colleges and high schools in the U.S. where they can raise funds for La Esperanza Granada as well as supporting the artisans here in Nicaragua working through Project Pulsera.  This is an exciting new concept for us – their web site is: http://www.pulseraproject.org/

Terry Leary from Hotel San Francisco found another great way to help that applies to people living in Nicaragua – currently Claro are offering a free netbook computer to anyone taking a new internet contract.  So if your contract has run out, you can cancel it and take a new one – and like Terry did, donate the netbook computer for us to use in the schools.

Jostien from Norway brought us a used netbook computer too, plus many other material donations brought to the office this month.  Builders Beyond Borders brought bags of things to help in the schools, as well as volunteers Irmard, Svenja, Ryan, Hayley and Andy, the Carpentry Group, Thomas Bullock, and Arzn Serbes.   Through former volunteer Royce Chang’s efforts we received six One World soccer balls, these are unique in that they are supposed to last forever.  People can buy on and another will be donated to where you chose, here is a link: http://www.oneworldfutbol.com/index.cfm?method=pages.showPage&pageID=c6cc458f-2264-112b-b1fe-62d793d2a054

Pablo Fernandez brought us a donation of $350, Colin Sims gave us $20, Mary Coiner Collier sent $25 and the pub quiz at O’Sheas raised $153.  And we received a second donation from the Gloucester Presbyterian Women’s morning coffee group, in Australia who sent through $200 which will be used to purchase desks for Jose de La Cruz Mena.  Despite all the desks we were able to repair for various schools there are still some children sitting two to a desk (this means sharing the chair too).   Karin van Eijk sent through $95, her and Tom are constantly working at supporting  La Esperanza Granada – currently they are practicing to go on an 80 km walk in The Netherlands and will ask people to sponsor them, it is called the “Kennedymars” and will be held in early July.

Our volunteer Ryan Olson put in a great effort and has now completely rebuilt our website using WordPress which will allow us to edit more easily.  So much happens that it is hard to keep the whole site up to date.  Colleen Kelly who is doing an internship with us is currently revising the pages for us to edit on line.   Colleen, here for an internship in Communications and Promotion has been doing some great work too, including a new brochure we have available.  We will have a link to it on the website soon, but in the meantime if anyone would like to print some, just send us an email and we will send you a .pdf copy.

The Nicaragua Dispatch has published another article by our ‘resident journalist’ Lynda Smith:

http://www.nicaraguadispatch.com/community-news/u-s-volunteers-help-local-high-school-go-online/3102

And finally we had another home improvement happen this month – thanks to a donation from Joan and Graeme Mount who contributed $1300 to make a family’s dream come true.  Their son Franklin won the raffle with all the children who had perfect attendance getting a ticket.  It is a great incentive to send children to school every day, even though they live in an area where school attendance is not taken very seriously by many.

February, 2012

True joy this month, on Monday 27th we held the inauguration of the new high school in San Ignacio – Secundaria Nueva Esperanza.  The ceremony was so moving, 130 people attended including all of our volunteers and the first year high school students.  The dancing displays were wonderful, the speeches short and pertinent.  One of the mothers from the community, simply dressed said a few words, her eyes brimming with tears, a young boy attending the school spoke on behalf of the students, donors Karin van Eijk and Tom Daniels, Jeff Pluta from Amped for Education, along with other local dignitaries spoke too.  The ceremony was also dedicated to Westfield State University and Builders Beyond Borders who have contributed so much.   It was a very special day.

January  31, 2012

Westfield State University visited for their second time this January, and it was a great success. Their students had raised over $7000 which they used to build a computer classroom for the new high school in San Igancio. 26 students from the university along with their three leaders, Kathi, Kelli and Theresa arrived on 3rd, they were hard working and lots of fun. Their visit culminated on the 17th with a big party at the primary school complete with music, dance competitions, games, and delicious food. Fatima and the other ladies who help in our houses started cooking at 3.30 in the morning to prepare chicken and vegetables and rice for more than 250 people. Imagine doing all that over an open fire! Westfield students carried down for us 15 of the computers for the new highschool – we just have 15 to find a carrier for. They also brought down lots of donations of school materials. We look forward to an ongoing partnership with Westfield, it was a great visit.

Amped for Education sent through $1500 towards putting electricity in the high school too. Plus we have been busy in the last week or two preparing for Builders Beyond Borders visit in February when they will construct two regular classrooms and a technical classroom.

With all this focus on the high school we haven’t lost sight of the young children though. Summer school is still running, the volunteers and our ayudantes have been doing a terrific job, with 114 children attending each day.

Donations this month included friends of Iren Nauta who raised $130, Lane Haywood sent $100, Mary Coiner sent $25, Nigel Smith’s family sthrough Klikex Trading $50 and from Reginald Smith $60, Nancy Maher sent $150, Ginger Lawrence sent $125 and Global Village Project sent $680, and Mark Turner sent $500. We also received $3600 from Grupo 2013 in Spain to cover university costs of $400 per year for 9 students.

Four new ayudantes have joined us, with university scholarships – Maria Angeles and Scarleth sponsored by Lowell Smith, Jaqueline sponsored by Desi Mcaul, and Mario sponsored by Nick Lewis. And a wonderful end for one of our ayudantes Donald Alonzo – Donald is now officially our Volunteer Coordinator, bringing our employee total to two. The experience and dedication of these two young local people, both Donald and Karen is invaluable to the future of La Esperanza Granada, and it is a pleasure to work with them.

Lots of wonderful visiting volunteers here too – currently Anna Fink, Katrin Hiss, Maren Mlynek, Juliana Damm, Lynda Smith, Sonja Eltrich, Michael Sugue, Jenny Opitz, Elodie Moutengou, Tamara Kazakova, Dimitry Cheshev, David Drezner, Diana Diez Rogdriguez, Jana Moyano Lozano, Kas Eccles, Colleen Kelly, Michael Geissler, Magdalena Zettl, Mike Burusco Unciti, Vanessa Gancedo, Christine Coakley, Nabila Amarsy, Hanna Hodel, Johanna Nilsson, Annika Gustafsson, Nigel Smith, Peter Kitchen, Maria Garcia Robles, Montserrat (Tona) Roig, Mary Pearce, Saskia Belcher, and David Waldl.

A bit of a get together with some former volunteers too, shared memories and drinks with Christy Meyer, Nigel Pedlingham and Doug and Barb Christie – they were all here some years ago and it was great to catch up.

Good to see Bill and Linda Wayman back in town too with their mission group from New Orleans. They provide the dental clinics that we take our schoolchildren to – through their generosity we are able to take the primary school children to the dentist (about 24 children a week) and pay only for their transport and materials used. Bill also brought down a $300 donation from his local Kiwanis Club which will cover quite a number of dental visits.

Four ladies on an Iguana Tour, Diana Gibbon, Aline Frey, Marilyn Ryan and Virginia Eggleston brought large bags of children games and toys, and rolls of stickers to help in the schools. Dave and Rachael came in with sporting equipment, Kas brought a big bag of toothbrushes and pencils, Christy brought craft supplies and stickers, Helen Roys sent pencils and colors, Vanessa Gancedo brought books and plasticine, Janny brought pencils and sharpeners so lots of things to work with in the schools. Just great how many people want to help.

Lastly here is the photo link for January (sorry not many this month as we had some camera problems):
https://picasaweb.google.com/laesperanzagranada/Jan12pics

December 31, 2012

I’m sure that people everywhere had a busy month in December, and here at La Esperanza Granada we were no exception – most of it is in the pictures – some of the highlights were the graduation ceremonies at the beginning of the month.

We had 13 sponsored students who graduated from Colegio Diocesano after completing five years of high school.  What a wonderful event that was to see these young people who had reached that goal.  Sounds so ordinary in our worlds, but when you consider that less than 10% of Nicaraguan students make it that far, you can have some idea of what it means for them.  Also 10 students graduated high school at La Epifania with their proud families watching on.

Primary school graduations were big events too, and it is wonderful to see that the numbers are steadily rising of children who are staying all the way through to complete grade six.

We have scholarships for three of the high school students to attend university and receive a stipend to work alongside our volunteers, and we have sponsorships for 37 students to attend high school which is great.  Six of the high school sponsorships will be hosted by Amped for Education, who have collaborated in the building of the new high school in San Ignacio.  Jeff and Sara visited this week and met with their students.

The final part of our year long project ‘medio ambiente’, which was funded by The Body Shop Foundation was an award for the cleanest school yard, won by Jose de la Cruz Mena, and all the children who took part in the program received a special certificate.  The school was awarded a special plaque for the honor.

Children attending summer school had a big day on 23^rd, the volunteers had organized a special day,  with games, piñatas etc. and a wonderful lunch for 114 children was cooked by Fatima and Chilo.  Volunteers here   Anna Fink, Katrin Hiss, Maren Mlynek, Jalle Damm, Lynda Smith, Sonja Eltrich, Alba Luis Ramon, Michael Sugue, Jenny Opitz, Elodie Moutengou, Tamara Kazakova, Dimitry Cheshev, Ineke Indorf, Frank Krueger, Cesar Callebaut, Iren Nauta, Mary Pearce, Miranda Maher, Montserrat Roig, Maria Garcia Robles, Diana Diaz and Nigel Smith.

Nigel from Australia biked some 7000 kilometers before arriving here, and while here is going to help with install solar lights made with coke bottles in the San Igancio community and teach others how to do it.  He has sent a request to his friends to help with some of the costs and we received donations from Callum Smith and Kim Goodwin – you can check his website www.browsinaboutonabike.com

Another volunteer Lynda Smith from the UK wrote some great articles which are on our website under press releases www.la-esperanza-granada.org

And another very good read is Lauren Slater’s blog, many former vols will identify with her write up about working here: http://lovepeacegratitude.tumblr.com/LEG

A must see this month is a fantastic You Tube video made by Sandra Sikman featuring lots of of our volunteers:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avxcARIR0Cc  and a Spanish version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xyOdYo0I0o

And to help us promote La Esperanza Granada locally Rae Ann Hickling, Frank Krueger and Emily Tapia all colaborated to produce a really good flier which we have printed and will distribute around the town.

Nice to see former vol Nigel Pedlingham back for a visit, Vishal Haynes has been in town too.

Lots of donations came in this month, Mark brought down mice and netbook batteries, and a new laser printer for us, Anette Plassen brought toothbrushes and toys, Amped for education brought calculators, pens, colored pencils and backpacks, Thom Bullock brought balls, and the Smithson family brought a big suitcase of toys, crayons colors, paints, and notebooks.  The Smithson’s with their daughters Stefanie and Britney spent a day in San Ignacio and contributed $300 to help the family Cano make some improvements to their house.

We had financial donations too from family and friends of Lauren Slater $521, the Turner/Reale family $200, Hotel San Francisco $40, Thom Bullock $100, Kelly Lake $500, Dara Stillman $50, Mary Coiner $100, Friends of La Esperanza in Northern Ireland, Margaret and Geraldine, sent $1000 that they had raised holding car boot sales, volunteer house El Martirio raised $21 selling Christmas cookies, Rae Ann, Lee and Pauline $30 in the Finca Mercado, O’Shea’s Bar $50 from the pub quiz, Denton and Terry Sparks sent through $760 so we reached our goal of 30 computers for the high school,  plus James and Lorianne Cochran sent a check for $1000.  To be part of an organization that attracts this kind of support is simply wonderful, and I am often humbled by how many people contribute, including all the volunteers who give so much of themselves.

A little sad news is that Jim Buckley our handyman is ‘hanging up his hat’ – Jim’s eyesight is failing, and he feels he can’t keep up with all the repairs on the volunteer houses.  As a parting gesture Jim has purchased and donated 16 bicycles for volunteers to use – and these are being rented for 20 cordobas (90 cents) a week by two of our ayudantes who are maintaining the bikes.  So we have Nigel as a stand in for now, but if there is anyone keen to take on the handyman role, just let us know.

Now for the last link of this very long newsletter, our December photos:

https://picasaweb.google.com/laesperanzagranada/December11pics

November 30, 2011

The 2011 school year is all but finished.  Schools are still officially open just for preparing report cards etc. but after today there will be no more classes.  Not quite the same for students here, very few look forward to vacation time.  It either means a time to work, or a time with nothing at all to do other than carry water for washing, look after young siblings, sweep the yard etc.

For the children in San Ignacio it will be different, they will have summer school starting next week.  There will be math, reading, writing, computers, art and craft plus sports and games.  Should be lots of fun for volunteers and children.  We will also be offering some classes to the students who will attend the new high school we are building in San Ignacio – working mainly with computers we will help them lift their level in both math and reading, as well as some extra English classes.

We are so proud of Karen O’Campo.  Our young administrator.  Karen has gone all the way through University sponsored our generous donors, and volunteered in our ayudante program, until earlier this year when we employed her. She has now received her University Graduation Certificate and is officially a Licenciada – a long hard road for a girl from a poor barrio, but she made it.  An inspiration for our nine ayudantes with sponsors continuing in the program next year, with a possible three more to be sponsored new university students.

So much excitement in the past weeks with the school excursions.  500 grade three and four children went to the zoo as part of their year long  environmental protection program, funded by The Body Shop.  The gave the children the opportunity to learn about native animals and their habitats, as well as the thrills of lions, tigers and other exotic animals from around the world.

As part of our ongoing school excursion program all the grade two children we work with went on a trip to a lakeside park, and grade six children visited one of Nicaragua’s many beauty spots, Las Isletas in Lake Nicaragua.

Some volunteer celebrations with non Nicaraguan holidays in November – starting with Halloween, and towards the end of the month Thanksgiving when 28 volunteers of 10 different nationalities cooked and ate together and shared their gratitude all the blessings we have.

Volunteers at the end of November are Heath Gabrysh, Anna Fink, Katrin Hiss, Bev Forsythe, Ana Serrana, Conor McMullen, Viktor Nesheim, Anette Plassen, Maren Mlynek, Jalle Damm, Lynda Smith, Sonja Eltrich, Alba Luis Ramon, Michael Sugue, Jenny Opitz, Sandra Sikman, Elodie Moutengou, Leo Revillot,

Amelie Suermann, Lauren Slater, Tamara Kazakova, Dimitry Cheshev, Carmen Munoz, Ineke Indorf, Emily Tapia, Frank Krueger, Cesar Callebaut, Andres Lindstrom, Iren Nauta, Ginger Lawrence and Mary Pearce.

Things donated in the office this month include a lap top computer from Steve O’Connor, crayons, story books from Carmen Munoz, and whiteboard markers from Pluma.  And we received financial donations too – more money for high school computers from Jeanine Rickson, $200, Angie Brekke, $200, Laura Miller, $50, Trisha McGovern, $50, Shawna Peters, $50, Chris Roe, $50 and Courtney Allen $65.   How wonderful that all these people are willing to support the children here.  As well we received $50 from former volunteer Sara Regan, $94 from O’Sheas pub quiz, and $41 from selling home made lime marmalade and chicken liver pate – thanks to efforts of Rae Ann and Lee Hickling.

Also in the news two new babies born to former volunteers, welcome to the world and congratulations to the proud parents, of Ivor born to Julia Steward David and Amine, and to Luca born to Paula and Gonzalo Garcia Broto.

Our photo link for November: https://picasaweb.google.com/laesperanzagranada/Nov11photos

October 31, 2011

Lots happening here in October.  Thankfully Granada has been spared the flooding that has occurred in many parts of the country, though there has been a lot of rain and several school days were cancelled.

A couple more families in San Ignacio have been spared the problems of a wet muddy house due to two home renovations that took place this month.  One raffle was won by a grade three girl, and her house received a new roof, walls etc. thanks to Rick Weismiller and Kathryn Sachs.  Rick and Kathryn were here for a short holiday from the U.S. before moving to Australia, and wanted to do something useful.  You will see some great pictures in the link.  The second house, of the Mesa family was done by the local builders and the family, and paid for by Mark Turner our director.  Melvin, from grade 5, who won the raffle is 15 and has recently returned to school, he works several miles away on a coffee plantation each morning and still managed have a perfect attendance record at school, so good.

A change from the news last month – Builders Beyond Borders will be constructing two extra classrooms at Pablo Antonio Cuadra instead of Jose de la Cruz Mena.  This is a new school for us, but badly in need of help.  The Ministry of Education advised that they wouldn’t be able to put extra teachers at Jose de la Cruz Mena, but took us to visit Pablo Antonio a large school (680 students) in Pancasan a very poor barrio on the northern side of Granada.  This school currently has 12 classrooms, used morning and afternoon for pre-school, primary school and high school – at this time though the high school students have to find somewhere else to go if they wish to continue after third year as all the classrooms are full.  Now with the help of BBB and our collaboration these students will have the opportunity to complete high school without having to try and find a place to accept them at a school in town.

Wonderful news from Ryan in his update on the high school computers: We now have 23 paid for – aiming for 30.  We sent the funds to Ryan for 15, then he has added to this seven more, including one from himself, $260 from his parents, and through his friend Jay, Paul Douglas $190, Patrick Francis $190, Bill Schlueter $15, Jordana Green $65, Larae Rogers $65, Nancy Gustafson $25, and through his company Outside Sales Technology $225.  Each computer is costing about $200 to include the extras and transport, then Ryan is installing all the programs and setting them up to network and protected for school use.  So now we are only seven short of Ryan’s target of 30 lap top computers for the new high school.

In other donations this month Sophia Pfeifer, former volunteer in Germany held a fiesta and raised 200 Euro, plus O’Sheas Irish Bar contributed $100 this month from the weekly pub quiz.  Checks were received from Ginger Lawrence, $25, Jeff and Shea Brasier $300 and Ron and Mina White, $100.  Anette Plassen brought games and colored pencils and crayons with her, plus Amber Dawson came in with school supplies.  Former vol Ginger Lawrence is back working with us again and brought lots of children’s clothing for the sales, and another former vol Kat Coiner-Collier brought in two bags of school supplies today as she passed through on a flying visit.

A student group from Leapnow College were here for nearly two weeks this month, as part of their semester of study in Latin America.  A great bunch of young people, they worked first in Nueva Esperanza, and the following week at La Epifania.  They did lots of painting at both schools, plus spent time helping older students the first week, and kindergarten the second.  They finished up the trip taking 37 preescolar children on an excursion to a play park at the lake, plus special treats of pizza and ice cream.  The group made a big financial contribution too of $880.

More volunteers here now so heaps of help for the children – at present working with us are Nicola Quan-Leach, Heath Gabrysh, Anna Fink, Katrin Hiss, Bev Forsythe, Luisa Sulimma, Theresa Tripler, Ana Serrana, Conor McMullen, Viktor Nesheim, Anette Plassen, Mark Milan, Maren Mlynek, Jalle Damm, Lynda Smith, Sonja Eltrich, Teresa Martin Herrador, Alba Luis Ramon, Michael Sugue, Jenny Opitz, Sandra Sikman (returned), Elodie Moutengou, Sara Griell, Maria Miralles Alfonso, Berta Rodriguez, Eleonore Revillot, Amelie Suermann, Ignacio Arriero Garcia, Lauren Slater, Justin Leonard, Ginger Lawrence and Mary Pearce.

We raised 3200 cordobas in the clothing sales to help the schools with their graduations – you will see photos in the link below and many other pictures, have an abundance this month:  https://picasaweb.google.com/laesperanzagranada/October2011photos