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”Break the Bias” is the theme of this day for 2022. The day reminds me of my first trip to Villa El Carmen in 2007, when Mario Mendoza took me to attend a meeting in town celebrating International Women’s Day.
It was an enthusiastic meeting, but Mario and I were the only men there. This photo emphasizes the multi-generational nature of the event.
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Our $50 grants help financially stressed parents pay for school clothes and supplies for their elementary-school children. This year we are aiding four schools in this way; we grant $400 for eight families in each school. These photos and descriptions come from the principal of Escuela Omar Torrijos, sent 2/21/22. |
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 Luisa Alejandra Munguia Chinchilla. Tiene 7 años. Su papá es obrero. Su mamá se dedica a vender pescados que compra en el mar de Masachapa cuando su padre está desempleado.
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 Carlos Adrián Pérez. Cursa tercer grado de primaria. Su mamá es madre soltera, pero él vive con sus abuelitos. Su abuelito de quien depende es pensionado por discapacidad en una pierna.
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 Niña Alexa Yunieth Gutiérrez Fonseca, tiene 9 años, es de 4to grado. Su Familia consta de dos hermanos, la madre trabaja esporádicamente en labores de doméstica , el papá de Alexa es obrero.
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 Angel David Gutiérrez tiene 9 años de edad, su mamá es madre soltera y sufre de lupus.
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 Ericka García Pérez
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Our newest scholarship students, Nohemy Duarte Vallejos and Ericka García López are beginning their university careers now. A central feature of this scholarship is communication between these students and interested members of MSCA. We haven’t yet figured out how to invite you into a dialogue, but the students have been in touch with me and briefly with Aviana Cox, our newest board member.
Most universities in Nicaragua begin in March, but Ericka began her studies in January. She studies music at Universidad Politécnica, and on Saturdays, she has English classes at Academica Europea, both in Managua. She changes teachers each month: of the first, she says, “my teacher is French and does not speak Spanish, she only speaks to me in English and I understand her quite a bit.”
Of the second teacher, “Right now my teacher is Nicaraguan, she speaks English very well, she is professional, she only speaks English to us, every Saturday they give me two verbs along with a new vocabulary, they give me the verbs in their different tenses: simple future, simple past and present progressive. the whole class is practical and at home, I do the "Workbook" with the exercises of each verb.”
She sent photos of her workbook giving different ways to use the verb “call,” with advice not to use “to” – don’t “call to” someone (as opposed to “llamar a alguien”); and use the objective pronoun; e. g., don’t say “I called she.”
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Geilin Castro’s latest report, for February, consists mainly of two 3-minute videos; it’s a brief online book, using a program called Book Creator, about two classes, in sustainable development and new pedagogical theories. She includes a chart on different kinds of intelligence, but mainly this report is contained in the two videos.
At present thirty of you have agreed to receive Geilin’s reports (no commitment to respond or even read/listen); if any others want to receive them, please let me know at david.barber70@gmail.com. Some of her comments relate directly to the “Break the Bias” theme of International Women’s Day. Geilin is a good example of how Nicaraguans can pursue their personal and career goals in the midst of the social, political, and economic disaster that Nicaragua currently suffers through. |
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Each issue beginning here will feature one or more of our friends from Villa El Carmen who can show or teach us something about Nicaragua.
One of our third-year university students in Dayana Gallegos Aburto, who majors in geology. Dayana is quite capable in English, and she described in English her past school year:
“Well, last year was very good and exciting at the same time, i did very awesome things at classes, we went in many places learning about our career, just incredible how much we can learn practicing and studying a lot. Also we share time with friends, learnt a lot all of us share knowledge and experience and helped us as a team it's just great! So last year was extremely exciting and difficult we had a lot of work at university, teachers were too much rude, some of them were patient and help us make the classes better, and just they want to us become better professionals as a person i can say 2021 let me a lot of emotions and i enjoyed many of them” |
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 This is the Masaya Volcano, in the area between Granada and Managua the capital city. Dayana took this photo, which shows her notebook as she peers down into the volcano. This is the rare volcano where the visitor or tourist can walk right up to the crater hole and look in. At times it is possible to see glowing lava inside.
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I asked Dayana to describe the geology of Nicaragua for us, and she gave me a summary which is too detailed and technical to put here. But I learned a new word when she mentioned “the depression or Graben of Nicaragua.” Turns out a graben is an area that, as the surface expands, has sunk because of fault lines on two parallel sides, so it is surrounded by higher areas (called horsts, if you’re interested). Death Valley is a graben, as is Lake Tahoe, and most of the American West is a network of grabens and horsts. In Nicaragua the Managua Graben extends south from the city of Managua to the Masaya Volcano; geologists think the volcano may have caused the depression. Something like that. |
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Officers of Moscow Sister City Association: Dave Barber, president; newsletter editor
Debbie McLaughlin, vice-president
Jim Reece, treasurer
Elisabeth Berlinger, board member
Aviana Cox, board member
Lubia Cajas Cano, board member
Linda Christenson, board member
Aengus Kennedy, board member
Cindy Magnuson, board member
Susie Wiese, board member
Contact: Dave Barber
dbarber@uidaho.edu (or david.barber70@gmail.com)
208-301-3342
MSCA Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 8367
Moscow, ID 83843
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