Today was my first day of work at FUNARTE. I worked in the morning in the studio with children from Los Pipitos, a sister organization that does work with children who hav disabilities. I wasn´t quite sure what to do so I helped where I could and then sort of stood around/watched the kids painting. There was a theme for the day but I forget what it was, unfortunately. After the kids left, we talked about the positives and negatives of the morning. In total, there were 6 people working - Jafar, Manuel, Tania, Siobhan, myself and another guy and and girl. My very inital impression was that I didn´t like it there. I think it was more brought on though by feelings of being unwanted. It seemed like we weren´t wanted or needed there. While Jafar and Tania were nice to us, the unnamed guy didn´t once talk to me or smile. It looked like we were bothering him by being there. Manuel was nice and was talking to us about home and what we were doing for the summer. There is another woman who we´re going to be working with, Katy, who also seems perturbed that she has to work with us. Maybe she just takes some time to get to know but it doesn´t help the uneasiness and sense of not belonging on your first day of work.

After Los Pipitos, we had ¨lunch¨ from 11am to about 11:30am - we really just sat around and waited for the afternoon activities. It turns out, BTW, that I do work Tuesday afternoons. This is the part where I start to like FUNARTE. We went to a small little community about 30 min. outside of Esteli, at the top of the hills surrounding the city, called La Montanita. In total, there was Siobhan, myself, RAFA(who is really nice and friendly towards us) Carlos, Tania and one other girl. La Montanita is a very poor community with a school, very small community centre (where the art work takes place with FUNARTE) and a small hospital and police station. Rafa said that most of the kids who came today live about an hours walk from the community centre. He also said that there is a lot of domestic violence in the community; something to do with the fathers. The kids of course pick it up from home and so it continues to get passed down. As I was being told this, tears came to my eyes; to be honest, I don´t really know why. It´s not like I wasn´t expecting this type of work. But it saddens me to thing of the number of injustices and inequalities that have collected in this one little community. The children, the girls especially, were so shy and barely talked when asked about their drawings. Before the pastel work began, the group was divided into girls and boys and the theme was ¨Contra la violencia¨ - an appropriate theme, obviously. Even then, the children barely responded to questions or prompts. But their artwork but fantastic. It was so colorful, the varying pastel colors so vibrant against balck paper, and the drawings contained flowers and trees, animals and people, all looking happy. They captured the theme I felt and each picture just radiated their innocence and youth - the simultaneously simplicity and toughness of their lives. That´s when I changed my mind about FUNARTE because this is the type of work I came here to do. This once a week trip to a community, to teach children about important social issues. I left looking forward to tomorrow.

In other news, I think I´m starting to feel better after a week and half or more of feeling nauseaous and sick all the time. It would come in waves, but I never felt 100% right. Fingers crossed. I think its probably just my body adjusting to the food and water...I hope its nothing more serious. I don´t think it is...but still. Fingers crossed.

I´m in my fourth week now which is pretty good. The end seems not as far - not that I want the end because I hate it here, I just miss home and friends and family. Thinking I might try to visit Leon this weekend with Siobhan and a girl I met from Virginia, named Krista. She found a neat 2 day volcano tour where you camp up in the volcanos and can swim in lava warmed pools or something. Waiting for more info. but it sounds really neat and would only cost like $40.00.

That´s all for now, but of course I´ll keep you updated. You´re my fan base, my support group!

Hasta luego!
:)