2, 4, 6, 8... who do we appreciate!?

I can't imagine my childhood without organized sports.  The highlights of my weekends seemed to be running around with my friends and what the parents would bring for a post-game snack.  MPI provides the opportunity for girls in our community to be a part of a soccer team which meets every Friday for three hours of soccer practice, and 15-20 girls regularly join us each week.  Play may be interrupted by squeals of laughter as one of the girls nearly misses a soccer ball to the head, or choruses of "¿estás bien?" when a player trips and falls, or an eruption of smiles and cheer as a goal is scored.

This past Friday, we gathered the girls for a Premio Pool Party at the Manna house to show our appreciation for their constant enthusiasm and to reward their efforts with the team.  Premios (prize in Spanish) were distributed to the girls based on last year's attendance and included a selection of tennis shoes and athletic apparel.  Two of the girls had perfect attendance and were additionally rewarded with soccer balls!

Tatiana slides into the water!

uno...dos...tres...salta! (jump!)

Megan and Norma Alta sizing up their games.

Back in Managua

Happy belated new year blog-readers and welcome back to our blog here in Nicaragua! After a three week visit back home to the States, the program directors are back in Managua and ready to start full swing.  Joining the team this year are four new program directors, Joanna Lang, Amanda Pirilli, Matt Creeden, and Megan Fuson.  All are adjusting well and ready to get their hands and feet dirty in their new Nicaraguan community.

In this first week back, we have had the pleasure of hosting a group from Worcester State University, who make an annual trip to Nicaragua this time of year.  Led by Jackie Brennen, a professor at the university, the team consists of five occupational therapy students who spent the week volunteering at a school about ten minutes down the road called Tesoros de Dios. Tesoros de Dios works with children that are either mentally or physically disabled, and so the team travelled back and forth everyday to assist  them with a variety of activities and exercises, such as identifying colors and words, stretching and practicing physical movement, and much more.  They were not only a pleasure to host and get to know, but the work they were doing was an immense blessing on many children’s lives.  Steph and Katie also spent the week there, trading off days to help translate for the volunteers and doctors.  

Next week all of the regular Manna programs will be up and running again, and so needless to say everyone’s schedules will once again be full. Thanks again for checking in with us, and stay tuned for our post next week!

Tesoros de Dios School

Program director Katie working with one of the children.

Jackie, the leader of the Worcester team.

Program director Steph helping out with one of the exercises.

Stephanie looking for Waldo with one of the kids..

The whole group at Tesoros de Dios.  From left: Sarah, Dave, Jackie, Kristen, Sarah. Front: Steph & Caroline

The Christmas Play

As many of you already heard from manna mail, we put on a

Christmas play just before the end our first work term. The Hummingbird Kids Foundation awarded our site with a grant to help fund the Creative Arts program and really helped make the performance possible. The play consisted of a traditional nativity story and some songs. The PD's also put on a little skit that we all acted out in Spanish,

which was just as much fun as it was funny.

One of my favourite parts of working on the play was that every single one of the Program Directors were involved in this project. A lot of the work that we do on programs is normally in small groups of 2 or 3 PD's, so to be able to work on something all-together was really cool!

Here are some pictures from the night.

The costumes all ready for the kids.

Norman (a member of Nicayda, a NGO that we work with) helping teach the children a new christmas song.

As with all kiddies, group photos can be tough.

Out of 4 or 5 of them

this one by far is the best.

Even Santa came to the play!

Me and the boys.

One of our little Kings, Walter.

Trent handing out some snacks.

Sisters, Sara & Emily.

The cast getting some well deserved treats.

Fabricio and Norman from Nicayuda.

Santa's clothes aren't exactly practical in Nica.

Will was pretty happy to get the jacket off.

MUCHAS GRACIAS

HUMMINGBIRD

KIDS FOUNDATION

We couldn't have done it without your help!

Team Nica Makes a Christmas Card

take 1: getting organized

take 2: trying to get the doggies in the photo... bad idea

take 3: almost... but, if you look closely Zac's eyes are closed

take 4: perfecto!

Happy Holidays from

MPI Nica

NICA ES BONITA

Nicaragua is known as 'the land of lakes and volcanos.'

It's obvious when looking out at the landscapes that decorate our lives and explorations, just how stunning this country really is.

the view of Lake Nicaragua from Catarina

the Colonial town of Granada

a view from a walk just 10 minutes from the Manna House

a steaming volcano in Leon

5 volcanos in a row

the sweeping country side in Masaya

POOL FIESTAS AT THE MANNA HOUSE

NICA STYLE

As many of you know at MPI Nica we have a pool in our backyard.

We have a lot of pool parties as rewards for the community members in our programs. For many of them this is their only chance to learn/practice swimming. Right now is getting to be the end of our first term and it's party season! Here are some photos from Steph's Children's English Class (we split up the boys from the girls in hopes for a little less chaos during the fiesta... it sorta worked).

WOMEN'S FITNESS

Bi-weekly the women of Cedro Galan meet and have an hour long fitness class.

The women come to class in the same clothes that they wear during the day: knee-length skirts, jeans, and sandals (which they often slip off for class, participating barefoot) and they never complain. Before they knew that we had a set of free-weights they suggested we fill old plastic water bottles with rocks for weights. Their enthusiasm and willingness to learn how to exercise continues to inspire me to plan new work-outs and different fun ways to get in shape. We do a mix of cardio, yoga/stretching, and muscle work in class. I remember the first class when I tried to get the ladies to do some sit-ups, and it just wasn't going to happen. But, recently we've started doing up to 50 sit-ups in one class! They may not be the most co-ordinated group of gals, but I've seen them improve drastically in the past 4 months.

Back home I played with my university's Women's Ultimate Frisbee team named the UVixens (the short form of my university's name is UVic). Last week they sent over a box of donations (shoes, sports bras, shorts, t-shirts) for the women that participate in the class and we gave them out as Premios last Wednesday.

A Premio is a reward/prize that we give out to people that participate in our programs regularly. A Premio will often be a thing that a person needs for the program but can't normally afford on their own. For example, shorts or running shoes for fitness class. It was so great to be able to reward the ladies for all of their hard work with some much needed exercise apparel!

¡MUCHAS GRACIAS UVIXENS!