Last night, there was an art exposition at FUNARTE which displayed children´s artwork from various workshops, themes and communities in and around Esteli. We spent all day getting it ready - people were literally painting walls until 3:00pm (the exposition started at 4:00pm). The themes of the paintings included self-esteem, legends of Nicaragua, gender equality, values and self-image. One of my house mates, Jon, accompanied me and he really enjoyed it as well. It was really neat to see the children´s artwork displayed and appreciated by the visitors. Visitors included mothers and fathers of the children, the children themselves, and important people like officials, police and I think someone equivalent to the mayor of the city. Not sure, but it was a big deal nonetheless. I have some photos, not of last night (those are on my camera) but of other work FUNARTE has done.

I also learned some more about FUNARTE last night, from a Powerpoint Presentation being given. I want to get a copy of it to upload so that you can also learn more about it. What I learned was that FUNARTE does all its workshops in the various communities for free and supplies all the materials necessary. The themes that it aims to address in its teachings are childrens rights, peace, respect, and solidarity among other things. It also tries to teach creative and artistic exploration of the self and of life, and provide an innovative means of education.

Beneficiaries of the program in the last 20 years include:

- 8,500 pre-school and primary school boys and girls
- 15,000 boys, girls, and adolescents of different neighbourhoods in Esteli
- 100 adolescents and youth in the Esteli jail
- 200 boys, girls and adolescents with various disabilities (from Los Pipitos)
- 2,000 mothers and fathers
- 20 community leaders







Hope you enjoy the pictures and learning a bit more about my placement.

I would like, as a side note, to say sorry for all the spelling mistakes I´ve been making throughout my blog. In my defense, the keys stick and its a Spanish formatted keyboard. But I will try to be better from now on. OH. And my mistake. Radio Shack is spelt normally; it actually does have a ´C´. I was just delirious when I looked at the sign.

Something exciting. Last night, I got to ride on the back of a motor bike!! It was so much fun. One of our friends down here in Nica has a motor bike and he took me around for like a 10 min. drive. I was so tense at first and holding on for dear life but once he showed me where to put my feet (they were just dangling until half way through the drive) and told me to relax and put my hands on my lap, it was less scary and more fun. Vroom vroom! Next, he´s going to teach me how to drive it...hehehe.

That´s all for now. It was an educational blog. With a small twist on the end.
Peace.