The Community Center is finished. Nathan ended up being sort for the construction of the walls so the Assist Jiquilillo Fund donated $500 to complete the construction of this wonderful facility!
Currently the Center is being used for Rancho Esperanza’s Kids Club project. This is the after-school program where the kids in the community can come and just be kids. It is such a nice change to see some of the kids in the village who normally work all day long get the occasional break and well just be a real child. All week BINGO has been the most popular game. I’ve got a small white board set up and I’m using this game as an amazing learning tool. I’m working on letters and numbers with all of them. It’s hard but Nathan has two volunteers who have been staying at Rancho Esperanza who have been wonderfully helpful with this aspect. They sit with the kids and keep them focused on the letters in BINGO and then the numbers. It’s been only one week of BINGO and all the kids now know these four small letters and can shout out Spanish Words with which start with each letter. They also have been able to recognize the majority of the numbers which range from 1 to 75. Supper exciting, since most of the kids even those who are 14 are still in 1st grade and before the game didn’t know their numbers nor letters very well. Another favorite activity is drawing and coloring which the children are enjoying in the above photo. Don't worry we are in the process of making tables for the community center too!
Another activity we are currently using the Community Center for is movie nights. Every other Sunday I help Rancho Esperanza put on a movie for the kids. Last May, with personal funds I purchased a projector and made a screen for this sol purpose! We are working on the Harry Potter series right now and the kids and adults as well love it! Movies start at 4 and go either till they end or until the power goes out, which has been happening a lot and is really putting a damper to this project. Rancho Esperanza will hold movie nights twice a month and offer them free to the community!
As for future plans of the community center the first projects the Assist Jiquilillo Fund and Rancho Esperanza will begin is empowering women here in the community. We will be offering Sewing classes to start. Currently, we are looking for a teacher and may have potentially found a woman who is certified. She is the neighbor of our friend Boris who lives in El Viejo, a city about an hour outside of Jiquilillo. We just need to do an interview verify her credentials and then purchase the machines. If everything works out right (which it very rarely does here in Nicaragua) we will have this project up and running by the end of May!!! Classes will have a very small fee associated with them which will be used to purchase the necessary material and thread. The Assist Jiquilillo Fund has been planning on assisting with this project and will be able to donate $500 for the purchase of several machines including both electric and petal sewing machines (for when there is no power)! This still leaves $500 more to be used for future classes which Rancho Esperanza and the Assist Jiquilillo Fund will be spearheading.
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