Mariposa Spanish School’s Weblog

The Reading Corner and the daycare in Santiago are going through a lot of changes at the moment. Last week, a team of workers including 3 local Nicaraguan guys, the daycare and Reading Corner workers, and a host of Mariposa volunteers, worked the whole week to give the building a new look! Venice and many of the local workers had been wanting to fix up the bulding for a while, and it all culminated this past week in this massive renovation project. 

They started off by cleaning everything, then set to work on the more difficult parts: re-plastered the walls, added locks to doors, repaired all windows and doors, and constructed a new window, so altogether, lots of changes! The workers worked from 7 am to 4 pm each day, with the daycare ladies 

cooking lunch for everyone who came to help. The ladies of the daycare as well as the Mariposa volunteers were not paid for any of their contributions and instead volunteered their time to help out the community.

A wall was placed in the middle of the building, so it is now divided in 2 seperate classrooms: one for the Reading Corner and one for the daycare. Before that, they shared the same classroom, which caused miscommunication between the teachers. This problem is solved now luckily! The Reading Corner is going to be open in the afternoons, and the school is going to be open only in the mornings.

Next week we are going to continue work on the renovation by painting murals. We found 2 guys that are going to paint beautiful murals on the walls, inside and outside. Janeth from the Reading Corner came up with the idea to do at least 1 mural with the kids. This will make it all the more personal and we are really excited about that! After that, we want to start with the interior to make sure the teachers and the classrooms have all the materials they need to function as a Reading Corner, and now as a pre-school.

The daycare has now turned into a pre-school. The 3 women that work here, Karin, Orla, and Dona Candida, went to the Ministry of Education and were told that the daycare is a pre-school from now on. The ladies are going to attend a course, sponsored by the ministry, that will teach them how to make lesson plans and coordinate the school for each week. This means a lot, because the Ministry of Education is willing to invest and do more for the children now that they’re are attending a pre-school! The school is going to open as a pre-school for 2, 3, and 4 year olds on February 13th. It will be open from 8 am to 12 pm each weekday.

This is the news so far about the Reading Corner and the daycare! Keep an eye on our blog and follow us in this project! 

Want to contribute and help this project by making a donation? Both projects need a few things to function even better: paint for the murals, a couch for the Reading Corner, books (Spanish and/or English) for both projects, bookshelves, pens, notebooks, materials for arts and crafts. For more info or for donations you can get in contact with Venice, one of the interns: veniceatmopawiro@live.nl

Thanks!

The holidays have come and gone here at the Mariposa, and we’ve had many fun activities during the season. There was a holiday lunch for the entire staff as well as all of the hotel guests on the 24 of December, which also happens to be Paulette’s birthday. Bergman and the rest of La Mariposa showed up at 5:30 am to watch Paulette be serenaded out of sleep by a Mariachi band – a Nicaraguan traditional birthday present. All of the teachers and hotel guests were waiting for the surprise to take place. Paulette and Guillermina were indeed very surprised, and it was a very cheerful (and early!) Christmas Eve morning.

Around noon, everyone met at the beautiful Bar Emma, where we had lunch and a Marimbo band to dance to. Gifts were exchanged between the staff, and Bergman played the MC. Paulette also pointed out and acknowledged every group of staff who helps make the Mariposa and all of its’ projects work. The hotel guests also got to see the staff outside of work and experience a little taste of the Nicaraguan holidays. Paulette was honored with presents and cake at the party, and everyone felt very appreciated and full of holiday spirit.

For the 25^th, Paulette took a group to Laguna de Apoyo to relax, swim, and enjoy the beautiful views. All in all, Christmas at the Mariposa was very tranquilo and full of good spirit. Several members of the Mariposa family really benefitted from the season of giving, and these were the 3 new turkeys that Paulette rescued from becoming a Christmas meal. They were found in the markets of Jinotepe and brought back to live out the rest of their days in safety and comfort.

For New Year’s, a group from the hotel went to Granada. They spent the day touring the beautiful city, taking a boat ride on Lake Nicaragua, and generally enjoying each other’s company with food and relaxation. Back in San Juan, it was a lively affair with constant fireworks and homemade munecos, or life sized dolls stuffed with explosives.

Starting off in January, the first order of business was to repay Bergman for his kindly gesture to Paulette. So, on his birthday on Jan. 2, members of the Mariposa gathered at Bergman’s house at 5:30 am to serenade him with the same Mariachi band. Later on at the Mariposa, Bergman was given cake and sung happy birthday by staff and students alike.

One of the biggest projects that we are just getting going here at the Mariposa is our organic box project. Paulette and Laura, one of the interns, are working very closely with a distributor in Managua to develop a market for selling and delivering organic vegetable boxes. The idea behind this project is to encourage local people in La Concha to grow their own organic vegetables and sell most of them to families in Managua. The remainder are for family consumption. With this program, these families can hopefully have a steady income that they can maintain over the years. Laura and many of our volunteers have been helping construct these huertos, or garden plots, so the families can begin growing these vegetables. The organic box is going to consist of seasonal vegetables that are native to Nicaragua and grown without pesticides or toxins.

Centro Infantil is also another project that Venice, one of the interns, works very closely with. La Mariposa sends volunteers to help out at a daycare in the neighboring Santiago community. Open from 8 to noon, families can send their younger children to be fed and looked after while they work or attend school. A project is underway that will allow us to clean, renovate, and paint thedaycare. The repainting will include  anew mural which will also involve the kids in designing and painting. This project is expected to go over the whole of January, and the daycare will be up and running again in February. A bright mural will be a great addition to the daycare!

Having rarely left the yellow Mariposa gates in the past 5 years (through choice I must point out in case anyone feels sorry for me!), I finally got to see some of northern Nicaragua with my UK friend Teresa. I combined the trip with work, visiting a number of small organic veggie plots to get inspiration and ideas for our finca. Plus spreading Mariposa leaflets everywhere we went to try and drum up a bit of custom to get us through our current quiet patch!

Started in Esteli with Jane, also from the UK, who has been running a hostel (Hostel Luna) and cafe for the last 6 years, good old chinwag with her as she faces many of the same issues as us. She also works as a non-profit and does a lot to support very poor rural families producing organic veggies, many of which she then buys for the cafe. Then off to Miraflor – a very beautiful nature reserve just outside Esteli. Families farm there to make a basic living but are not allowed to cut trees etc and are encouraged to find work in eco-tourist activities. The roads were super muddy, it is after all the green season – we in tourism are not supposed to say wet as it sounds too negative – so green it is! Actually, it was bloody wet but great fun hammering along in a 4 by 4. I had to visit one of the farms by horseback as it was impossible to get there any other way. The views are spectacular…..but don’t come out so well in photos in the green season!

The next day was a second nature reserve and more bumpy roads, Tisney, higher up so there are lots of pine and oak trees – well, they are called oak here but do not remotely resemble the oaks I recall in the Penines. The amazing farm we visited up there is pictured below – loads of lettuce, brocoli, beets, carrots etc etc and I learnt a new and complicated way to make compost which I am not sure I can remember. This particular community, La Gavancha, is big on goats cheese which is based on a Swiss variety and very yummy.

The views from la Gavancha would have been stunning – on a clear day (this was not it) you can see right over the Pacific plain to Leon, including the line of live volcanos which crosses Nicaragua roughly north to south. But even the little we could see was breathtaking…….

We also dropped by to say hi to Dave – a guy I first met in 1988, or thereabouts. He had the unenviable task of being the tour guide to a group of pretty ignorant Brits, including myself, who had come to gaze at the Revolution. Dave, by then, had been working here for 5 years with young soldiers (known as cachoros – which literally means puppies) disabled in the Contra war. He stayed on to build a wonderful little cafe and garden park next to a stream – pretty enough whilst we were there but devastating when it floods. I can’t remember if the bridge Dave built has been washed away two or three times in the last decade. Below, him and me catching up and below that a shot of his extraordinary cactus garden. Teresa and I both commented on how much tidier and more ordered it is than the Mariposa jungle!

A complete change of scene followed as we then went to Leon – distinctly on the hot and sticky side after the cool uplands. two of the Mariposa interns (Ruth and Venice) brought Guillermina to Leon so went out for a very upmarket vegetarian lunch which may have been one of the biggest meals I have eaten since I arrived in Nicaragua.

Teresa and I took in a museum – a curious and very moving exposition of ancient legends, such as the gigatona which is a giant female figure, supposed to represent womanly beauty as brought to Nicaragua by the Spanish ie tall, white, fair and in contrast to the short darker indigenous folk, from then on perceived as distinctly less attractive. A bit like how everyone thinks (blond) Barbie is where it’s at these days, I guess. Then there is the headless priest. This story refers to a Spanish priest who tried to stop the cruelest excesses which the conquistatoes perpetrated against the indigenous peoples. He was murdered by two conqistator brothers, who did not appreciate his efforts, through decapitation and is said to still haunt the ruins of Old Leon to one day get his vengence.  As an aside, it was odd reading this story in the museum at this time as just a month ago the catholic priest of La Concha was murdered. La Concha has, not surprisingly, become rather infamous on this account and I was asked for the inside story whereever we went as no-one believes the official version of robbery – the truth, in my view and that of many others, is likely to be much closer to the rumour that the murderer was actually raped by the priest as a boy. But back to the museum – its second aspect was some graphic mural drawings of imprisonment and toture during the Somoza regime. The building was then a prison where uncountable political prisoners died. Come to think of it, I can now see the link with the legends although walking around the museum at first it seemed like  a strange combination.

Last day of the trip – Guillermina having fun body surfing at the beach. Quite the trip of contrasts

La Mariposa has a Facebook Page! Click on the link below to see frequent updates and pictures about what is happening at La Mariposa!

And encourage your friends to Like our page .

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/La-Mariposa-Escuela-de-Espa%C3%B1ol/226752447353756

Check out Betsy’s Blog, a Mariposa volunteer working at the local health clinic! Click here to read about her experiences at La Mariposa!

Written by Alex, La Mariposa Intern

It has been quite some time since a general update about the status of our projects at La Mariposa.  We have been busy bees over the last few weeks, so here are some of the most notable updates!

The view from the land neighboring La Mariposa

Appeal letter goes out to buy land adjacent to La Mariposa!

First and foremost, our latest and greatest update is our appeal letter to purchase the land neighboring La Mariposa.  We are hoping to raise enough funds over the coming year to make this project a reality – purchasing the land would be a major achievement in conservation, since it remains the only piece of land on our ridge (other than ours) yet to be deforested.  Click on this link to see the appeal letter on our website.  If you are interested in donating towards this goal, please see the details in the letter and/or contact Paulette!

Cleaning & Repairing the Santiago Community Pila

Last year Pedro, a community organizer in the barrio of Santiago where we have several projects operating, petitioned La Mariposa to clean and repair a giant community “pila” or water tank.  Unfortunately, it was almost July and the heavy rains had already begun so we had to put off the project until the following year.  Well here we are in 2011 and are pleased to announce that the tank has been cleaned and repaired!

It was a long process but it was finally finished!   First off we tried to get our hands on a pump that had the capacity to pump the water out of the tank.  We figured we could purchase a pump for C 1500 (thanks to the group from Pacific Crest who donated towards this).  It turned out we had a pump available to use in La Mariposa instead, so excitedly we brought it over to Pedro who tried tirelessly to get the pump working.  Ultimately, the pump did not have the capacity to pump the water out and our consultations with the department of Carazo’s firefighters led to even higher costs!  In the end the water would have to be pumped out manually, yes that’s right buckets and lots of work! The Pacific Crest group should know that their donation did not go to waste; the money they gave went towards other costs of the project.  Take a look at the pictures below of all the hard work!

Pedro, a Santiago community organizer

Cleaning the mud out with buckets

Finally, once the tank had been emptied, the workers could start on the repairs.  Luckily, the actual cost turned out lower than our original estimate.  Until the water had been emptied there was no real way of knowing just how much work had to be done – so this was goods news!  In the end the total cost of the project, including labor (though several community volunteers did help out) and materials came to C 7700 or $345! Thanks also to Nancy who donated $150 towards the projects various costs! Now the tank will collect rainwater over the coming season that can then be used in the dry season for non-potable water uses (cleaning, watering plants namely).  The tank also houses fish that can be served up as a nutritional supplement to the community and the neighboring daycare center we support.

Water tank cleaned and repaired!

Community Gardens Moving Forward

Clare’s on-going community project has been moving forward over past weeks, with more beneficiaries beginning the process.  Now almost all 26 families have the espadillo to build their living fences, as well as seeds and access to organic compost.   The original group of families is already seeing the fruits, or more accurately veggies, of their labor!  We have now coordinated to start planting on a small plot adjacent to the daycare/after school reading program building in Santiago.  Pedro, the same community organizer who petitioned us for the cleaning of the water tank, is in charge of this garden plot.  The veggies produced will provide added nutrition to the meals given at the daycare project.

Goodbye Alison, but Hello More Sports!

At the end of April 2011, we said goodbye to one of interns, Alison, who went back to Canada after working at La Mariposa since December 2010.  Alison spearheaded several sports projects, which we are carrying on in her honor.   Her last achievement before leaving was coordinating an all-girls soccer tournament in the San Juan cancha (concrete basketball court used for playing soccer).  Six teams of girls ages 11-17 battled it out for the top prizes, donated by the Corradino family who visited La Mariposa.  The event was a huge success, and Alison’s last request before heading home was to see more sports projects continue on in her absence.  Since then we have coordinated with Marlin to organize two new leagues in our municipality.  One league is targeted towards boys ages 15-17 who are too old to play in the existing league and too young for the adult leagues.  The league is due to kick-off in the coming weeks, and hopefully we will also have coordinated an open league for girls in our municipality as well.

On May 26, La Mariposa hosted a morning-long tournament for the local San Juan primary school boys aged 9-11. This tournament would not have been possible without the help of one of our Spanish teachers, Kinema, who also along with Marlin understands the importance sports can play in the lives of children and youth.  The tournament consisted of 8 teams of 11 kids out on the field playing futbol campo or field soccer.  Thanks to so many generous guests that brought down donations, we were able to give every kid who participated a prize.  The top winners got soccer jerseys, hats, and knee guards, while the bottom teams did not go home empty handed – they got pencils and crayons.  We also gave every team’s Most Valuable Player (decided in a special team shoot out) a pair of soccer shoes.

Primary school boys out on the field!

With more donations of soccer equipment we can keep these tournaments going for different segments of our municipality – not just to play, but also for prizes! Also Marlin’s leagues are always in need of equipment, again for playing and for prizes.

The following are the most useful in terms of sports equipment at this time:

• Futbol sala size 4 balls (soccer played on concrete)
• Balls for field soccer
• Chin guards, knee guards – Sizes for ages 8-18
• Soccer jerseys, complete sets or individual, kids sizes S, M, L and adult sizes, XS, S, M
• Soccer shoes large kids sizes to adults

NOTE: Nicaraguans are generally smaller built than your average North American; keep this in mind when selecting gear, such as chin guards and jerseys.  For example, adult sizes L, XL for jerseys rarely fit anyone!!

Stay tuned in the coming days to see pictures of our new additions to La Mariposa…….

Written by Alex, La Mariposa Intern

Many thanks to all of you who fundraised and donated money to help improve the educational experience at Ruben Dario Primary School in our community of La Concepcion, Masaya, Nicaragua.  With the generous donation of   $2 500, La Mariposa was able to successfully complete the construction of a retention wall, place canals to prevent future erosion damage, purchase books and school supplies for the library, and ensure the continued employment of a teacher at the library in the afternoons.  See the pictures below of the erosion damage and the newly built retention wall – this project (including the canals) took over $1500 of the original donation, but it was definitely necessary!

Before: severe erosion hole

Before: severe erosion damage

After: retention wall built

Since the library opened last November many children from the school and other individuals from the wider community have enjoyed the resources of the library and the services of our teacher, Fernando.  Keeping the libraries in both Ruben Dario and Panama primary schools open during summer vacation time (Dec-mid Feb) proved to be great success! At solid group of students experiencing difficulties in school came to the Ruben Dario library to receive extra tutoring during these months, and in Panama kids from the community attended nearly every day to enjoy the library there.

The lending program at the Ruben Dario library has been one of the project’s greatest achievements, with over 30 people borrowing books.   We continue to push the program in order to reach more students and people in the community.   Very recently, the teacher we support at the after-school reading project in Santiago just by chance was placed by the Ministry of Education to act as a temporary director at Ruben Dario school.   This allows for better organization of the afternoon project since she will work with the teachers to create a schedule for the afternoon students.  Those students experiencing difficulties (grades 4-6) will be sent from the classroom to the library to work with Fernando, providing them with more individual attention.    In addition, a small group of children who attend the morning classes and a few secondary students from the community regularly come to the library in afternoons to make use of the books, educational games and school supplies.   This project is still new to the community, so we carry on working to improve its capacity and we hope that more people will come to benefit in the future!

Books purchased from Libros Para Ninos for the library

We continue to accept donations for all of our educational projects and other schools in the community.  Here is a reminder of materials we can always use:

• Books in Spanish – story books (sets are best, and also Latin America content is great), and educational books for children (animals, encyclopedias, atlases)
• School supplies – paper (white, lined, colored), notebooks, pencils, markers, pens, scissors, erasers, pencil sharpeners – everything!
• Crafts and educational toys – coloring books, paints, puzzles, flash cards, games (Spanish!)

We can also use cash donations to buy many of the materials listed above here in Nicaragua!  You can now donate money to our projects using PayPal via a good friend of ours Reverend Brian Peterson at Ascension Lutheran Church in Austin, Texas.  See our how you can help page for more information and the link to donate through PayPal or contact Paulette at paulette.goudge@googlemail.com.

One of the beneficiaries hauling espadillo to his home.

Anelkas completed plot! The first plot of the project!

Mario, Anelka and another beneficiary plotting out the fence

Written by Clare, Mariposa Intern.

I have learned that community development usually involves taking one step forward and two steps backwards. This has been the case buying the living fence. Let me say before I go on that without Ismael, this project would not be. Ismael is our go-to-guy for just about anything in the community. His connections have been invaluable to the creation of this project, and continue to be.

About a month or two ago when this project was but an idea, I had been going back and forth with Ramon and Franklin about where to find the espadillo and the measurements required. Unfortunately I was never able to see the finca suggested by Ramon, so I decided to look somewhere else.

So Paulette directed me to Ismael. He had been telling me for a few weeks about someone he knew in San Juan who sold espadillo. One thing to know about Ismael is that he is a busy man with many demands, so not for another two weeks were we able to go to the finca in mind.

Before going, Ismael had been in contact with some of the workers at the finca. Unfortunately, we were not given permission to cut the espadillo as the owner was out of the country. Ismael came up with the idea to get official permission from the town hall to cut the plant down. Franklin wrote us up an order and Ismael took it over. We discussed measurements and costs on end. Despite the order we issued, when we went over to see if they would cut it for us, they said that the finca’s owner needed to be there in order to make the cut. Back to square one. I felt discouraged and began to realize how difficult a task this might be, when Ismael bounced back and said something along the lines of, “Not to worry we will go somewhere else, I have a friend who has an espadillo finca in la Concha, and I will talk to him next week.”

So the following week Ismael once again, makes the exact same arrangements with his friend. This time it seemed for sure. The plan was to cut the espadillo on a Monday and Tuesday of the following week. We went on the Friday to double check that everything was set and of course, comes another bump in the road; the owner had already promised the espadillo to someone else! I came back to the Mariposa after a very long day at work, hoping that this would pan out. Paulette said I had the most disappointed look on my face. At this point, if it were not for Ismael, I might have given up the fight. I felt incredibly dependent on him and incredibly grateful at the same time.

Of course Ismael knew someone ELSE who had a finca, this time in Masatepe. At this point, Michael was set to come at the end of the week and I was getting anxious we would not have much ready for when he arrived. So off Ismael went to ensure the espadillo would be cut. Two days after Michael arrived we were off to pick up the fence and take it to Santiago. From then on, the whole day moved smoothly. The owners of the finca were incredibly generous, the workers worked quickly to load up all 3000 posts and Michael and I were given a tour of the finca to see the many fruit trees and coffee plants. The project was finally feeling like it was moving forward, and with perfect timing!

Last week we finished the fence on Anelka’s plot, the lady in the picture above. The first nine beneficiaries have decided to come together, with the efforts of Karin, the coordinator to help each other plant the fence. The plan is that each beneficiary will pay one person in the group 100 cordobas or roughly $5 as a motivator. Michael and I have noticed a few people that have demonstrated excellent leadership skills and great enthusiasm for the project. Michael and I were especially taken aback by Karin’s mother, Marta, who never hesitates to get her hands dirty or haul heavy buckets of water on her shoulders for hours on end in the hot sun.
I have learned so much in the last two weeks; how to create a trench, the processes of planting a shrub such as espadillo and the basics of organic composting, just to name a few. Ismael has hunted down someone in la Concepcion to build our compost boxes. At the end of this week Franklin will head to Santiago to train each family on the basics of composting, how to create a wormery, and on Friday the boxes will be delivered to each beneficiary.

La Mariposa can now accept donations for our projects through a Paypal account set up by a former guest, Reverend Brian Peterson at Ascension Lutheran Church in Austin, Texas.  The donations go via the Ascension Lutheran Church which then forwards the money in full over to La Mariposa.  Anyone with a Paypal account or major credit card can easily donate to help our projects, and US citizens are able to make tax-deductible donations.   For more information on how you can help La Mariposa visit our Projects pages on our website and contact Paulette at paulette.goudge@googlemail.com for any questions!

Written by, Alison, La Mariposa Intern

Thanks to La Mariposa guests’ generous donations, we were able to complete the fence surroundingthe field in San Juan. On Sunday March 6th, the fence was effective in intercepting countless swift shots from going into the road from the ten teams who showed up for our “lightning round” soccer tournament. Thanks to the help from two of La Mariposa’s Spanish teachers Kinema and Marlin, the soccer tournament had an amazing turn-out. Approximately 60 players ranging in age from 13 to 19 years old from the neigbourhood of San Pedro in San Juan participated in this day-long event. I was stunned by the talent and speed these kids brought to the game!  There were a few players in particular who amazed on-lookers, including one boy who was as quick as lightning, his two legs bending and gliding as if they were made of rubber. His play was super fast and accurate. Another boy was completely unfazed during one game when his trainer completely fell apart. He promptly called over to his friend to switch one of his trainers for his useless one. He played the rest of the game wearing two entirley different shoes. By the end of the blistering hot day, the last teams standing were tired and sweaty, but happy to take home their prizes. All in all the day was a complete success, and it was great to see kids playing in a tournament who normally would not have had such an opportunity.
 
We are continuing our work in the surrounding community by hosting more soccer tournaments (to include girls and youth in marginalized communities), and helping to create more leagues and build soccer fields. Therefore, if anyone has any used youth size indoor soccer shoes, futsol soccer balls (size 4), jerseys, goalie equipment, etc… please bring it down with you.  Furthermore, we are looking to expand into basketball and volleyball leagues, so type of equipment could be highly valuable to us in the future. All donations (monetary or otherwise) are greatly appreciated!