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Firstly this month, apologies that there are no photos. Yahoo photo mail has closed, and though I am normally surrounded by volunteers with lots of hi tech knowledge – this is the weekend so this month, sorry, it’s all in writing.

We will catch up on some photos next month, one of which will be Cesar in his new wheelchair which was built specially for him by the Children’s Wellness Foundation. Another would be of Maria Jose, a 12 year old girl in La Prusia who also suffers from Cerebral Palsy. Thanks to the efforts of our health volunteers she is now attending a special school in Granada. Victoria Metzger who has been volunteering with us until the middle of this month sent through $50 to pay for ortheopedic shoes to help her walking, and Mark Turner has donated $250 to have a three wheeled bicycle made that her mother will be able to ride with her. (Sometimes her mother has to carry her on her back from the highway where the school bus brings her to their house about 15 minutes walk away.) Thanks to Christy’s friendships with the mothers in La Prusia we were able to find out about a little boy only 4 months old, Christofer Urtecho who was born with a ‘club’ foot. He now has ortheopedic booties and early correction will mean a cure for this child so he will grow up walking normally.

We will have lots of pictures too from International Children’s Day which was celebrated in all the schools during the first week in June. The children all had a wonderful day with games, prizes, sports, dancing displays by the teachers and volunteers, and lots of good food to eat.

The end of school term saw lots of changeover of volunteers this month, lots of farewell parties, and a few tears as we said goodbye to Alan Cowburn, Charlie Rann, Liz Gage, Mali Kedward, Rena Papatheofilou, Vitoria Metzger, Sam Duncan, Francis Peterson, Emma Close, Rachel Evans, Colin Williamson, Mike Sims, Peter Marsh, Rebekah Ramsay, Nick Atherton, Johanna Holman, Jennie O’Grady, Amanda Brown and Juiane and Karsten Kruetziger, and Mario Calderon. Some like Colin, Liz and Johanna had been here for six months, some like Mario who had to leave early only a few weeks, but all played an important role in helping the children and communities that we work with.

New volunteers this month include two who have returned, Jiri Kaiser from Holland as well as Lauren Kjos from U.S.A., others are Bev Chan, Mary Pearce, Katie Randall, Sean McCarthy, Denny Pham, Carla Sanderson, Leslie Jamieson, Susan Shuller and Darrell Bushnell all from the U.S.A. (though Darrell lives locally), Jessie Grene from Ireland, Rosa Bransky, Alex Wipf, Becky Harrison and Cathy Mitchell from the U.K., Andrea Sousa from Portugal, Huikwan Tam and Hanna Koppenaal from Holland, Gonzalo Garcia from Spain and Esmeralda Contrera from Nicaragua.

Monique’s husband Hans brought more school supplies when he arrived to visit, Carla brought a big bag of clothing and toys with here, and Susan also arrived laden with things for the children and the community. Lauren brought $150 from one of her professors Dr. Claire Drummond. Alan gave us $200 from Peter and Margaret Cowburn, and $100 from Sue and Nara Pandey. Lizzie’s mother Rosemary Dipple sent through $300 for the dentists program, and the friends and family of Peter Marsh sent 110 pounds sterling. Rosa’s friend Tom Latter sent us $300. Colin’s parents Claire and Chris Williamson gave $200 to be used for preschool resources.

Former volunteers have been thinking of us too, which is wonderful to know that their interest in a Esperanza Granada continues – Romeo Kienzler who sent $25 and Mairin Hennessy who sent $250 were both here in the days when our founder Bill was still alive. We have his picture on the wall, and those of us who knew him still miss him. Things were never quiet when Bill was around.

A future volunteer Lauren Robson sent through $180 she had collected from family and friends. We also received another bag of beads for the women’s cooperative from Collette Nolan and a paypal donation of $50 from Joe Hurd.

An interesting visit this past week from a group of teachers from Georgia in the U.S.A. who had come to Granada as part of a journey designed to give them some experience of Latin American culture to enable them to better empathize with the growing numbers of Latin American students in their area. They had an interesting morning at an internet café with some of our high school students followed by lunch with them, and then Bev took them on a tour of La Prusia which they found quite moving. Paula Mellom and Brian Padilla were the organizers of this trip, and we hope to see more of their groups in the future. They also brought us some teaching materials, books etc.

Two important dates to keep in mind for July – firstly if you are in Nicaragua, on the 28th July keep the evening free for “The First Annual Jimmy Threefingers Wanted Dead or Alive Ride” – this will be a big event featuring Harley Davidson motor cycles leading a parade through the town and ending up at the club “Extasy” for a fun filled night. All the profits from this event will go to La Esperanza Granada. Another date to book – this time for a night in, if you are in the U.S.A. – when the Samantha Brown Passport to Granada program will be shown on the Travel Channel for the first time on 18th July. We haven’t seen the previews yet, though a lot of filming was done with our volunteers and in the school at La Prusia.

The painting on the community center, both inside and out is finished now – with extras this month Chris and Mick lending a hand, along with Becky who took up where Sam, Charlie and Nick left off. Next painting will be of the new classrooms at La Epifania, Mark has donated $350 to pay for the paint.

La Epifania is the school where we are currently hold a two week intensive learning camp (the last week of school and the week of term break) designed to try and bring some of the children who are behind in first and second grade up to the level of their peers and to help stimulate their interest in learning. Seventeen volunteers are taking part in this, and there are 24 children. More about this next month when it is completed.

So we have come to the end of the first term for this year – hardly seems possible (we have only two terms here). This year in ran a week later than previous years so that the children would still be in school for ‘Dia de Maestros’ or Teachers Day – pictures of those celebrations will hopefully be in next month’s photo link too.

Till then,
Regards, Pauline.