the decorated church
dancing
the finished cakes!!
all the quincianerasSunday, December 14, 2008
icing the cakes
beginning the icing on the manufactured 15.
Now you can't even tell the 5 is made up of random chunks of cake!
The finished 1.
The finished 5. 
Round cakes in various stages of icing.
baking cakes
ingredients... lots of them!
Mixing the cake in the big mixer.
Baking the cakes.
Un-burning the cakes.
The long cakes that would eventually form the number 15.quincianeras, dia de visita, "summer" vacation, purisimas, gradiation...
If you couldn't guess from the subject, it's been busy here since school got out! Monday, Nov 24 we celebrated the quincianera (15th birthday) of all the kids who turned 15 in 2008. It's a much bigger deal for the girls, but they celebrate with the boys too. So I helped make the cakes, and we sure made a LOT of cakes. I think we made 16 or so round cakes and then a few loooong pan cakes that we then cut to make a "15". We baked all Sunday afternoon from about 3 until 8 at night. And then all Monday morning we iced cakes. I'm not so good at icing. I can get it on the cake, but it doesn't look so pretty. So the others made it pretty. :-)
The actual celebration started in the late afternoon with a mass, and then afterwards there was a big dinner and celebration. It was a really nice day and the kids all really enjoyed it I think.
The next week was the first week of vacation, but we didn't really have a whole lot planned. A lot of us used that week to write reports. And then Thursday was Thanksgiving, which we cooked with Shirley in the monastery. It was a really nice meal, and then my family called later and I got to talk to lots of people, so that was nice.
The Sunday after Thanksgiving was the last dia de visita of 2008 (the day the kids' family members come visit. So we all went to San Jorge. And what do you know, it picked THAT day to be rainy all day. Even though the rainy season is officially over, and it hadn't rained for a week or two... So that was annoying 'cause everyone was kinda wet and muddy. But things went pretty well and I didn't see too many sad kids, so that was good.
The next week we started vacation activities. I'm working in the library, so that's pretty fun. Except that when the kids get there, there are like 15 kids yelling "Elizabeth!! Get me a book! I want a book!! Not that book, another book!!" But mostly it's ok. And when there are kids that are actually interested in finding a good book to read, then that's fun to help them.
In the afternoons we were busy with purisimas. They actually started the Friday after Thankgiving, but since I had descanso I didn't go until later. It took me a while to figure out what we were celebrating, but finally I figured out it was the conception of Mary, not Mary's conception of Jesus. At first I thought maybe it was the conception of Jesus, but nope. I guess Dec 8 is the actual day, but in Nicaragua they celebrate for 9 days before. I'm not sure why, but they do! The celebrations involve making an alter to put Mary on, and shooting very loud firecrakers, and singing (out of tune, 'cause everyone here sings out of tune), and there were some prayers, but usually the kids were making too much noise and I couldn't hear that part. And then afterwards whoever is hosting hands out food to everyone, which is really the only thing most of the kids seem to care about.
So Saturday the 6th it was the volunteers' turn to host. Since NPH is trying to save money, we made cookies 'cause cookie ingredients aren't too expensive. So Saturday morning Lola and I made 700 cookies, and put them in bags. It was pretty crazy, but the kids liked it, so that was good. Then Sunday was the "griteria" which meant that three different places made alters and the kids just went and yelled (gritar) and sang and then got food. And then since Monday was the actual day of the Immaculate Conception, they had a bigger (and more serious) celebration and prayed the rosary (I think). So the whole purisimas thing was interesting to see, because there's certainly nothing like it in the States.
On Wednesday of this past week (the 10th), the volunteers hosted a gathering for the tios. So I made cookies again (but not so many!) and they tios all came over in the evening and we had a nice time. We'd done it a few times before, so we wanted to do it one more time before the end of the year.
Thursday we went out to eat in Moyogalpa for Kiki's birthday, so that was fun. And then I'm going to make her a cake for Monday at the volunteer dinner.
Friday started my descanso, but I couldn't go anywhere because yesterday was promociones (graduation). They make a big deal about graduation from primary school (6th grade) because so many Nicaraguans don't finish secondary school. Even among the kids at NPH, there are a lot who probably won't, because amoung the graduates (of 6th grade) the ages ranged from 12 to 18 year old. So some of the older ones will probably go to a technical school rather than to high school. So yesterday afternoon we had a mass and a ceremony in the church, and then a nice dinner afterwards.
The rest of this descanso I'm just going to relax, 'cause there has been so much going on!! If all the activities and events weren't enough, NPH is also dealing with two separate "crises". First, this thing with the government (that I've written about before) is still being a problem. In every official meeting with the government, they say that NPH is fine, and we can keep working. But then they randomly send list of 20 kids that we have to send home. NPH is already one of only 4 centers that has been allowed to remail open. I think the government kinda wants the remaining centers to be more "transitional" centers where kids just come for a few weeks until something else can be worked out. But that's not really at all what NPH as an organization is about. So the directors are talking to the governement and NPH international is sending letters, so we'll see what happens. And if that wasn't enough, NPH international is also REALLY short on money, because the economic problems int he world are really affecting their donations. Budgets have been reduced by 30%, so pretty much anything that's nice essential is getting cut. They're really trying to have enough money to feed and clothe and house and care for the kids. So if you're looking for a place to donate for Christmas, you could consider NPH (www.nph.org). Because of both these reasons, none of the kids are going to move to the new property in Jinotepe. It would cost more money to maintain another house and then we'd ahve to deal with different government offices. So everyone is staying here.
Oh! And the NPH Nicaragua soccer teams did really well in a tournament between all the NPH homes. The girls won and the boys came in second. So that was exciting!
The actual celebration started in the late afternoon with a mass, and then afterwards there was a big dinner and celebration. It was a really nice day and the kids all really enjoyed it I think.
The next week was the first week of vacation, but we didn't really have a whole lot planned. A lot of us used that week to write reports. And then Thursday was Thanksgiving, which we cooked with Shirley in the monastery. It was a really nice meal, and then my family called later and I got to talk to lots of people, so that was nice.
The Sunday after Thanksgiving was the last dia de visita of 2008 (the day the kids' family members come visit. So we all went to San Jorge. And what do you know, it picked THAT day to be rainy all day. Even though the rainy season is officially over, and it hadn't rained for a week or two... So that was annoying 'cause everyone was kinda wet and muddy. But things went pretty well and I didn't see too many sad kids, so that was good.
The next week we started vacation activities. I'm working in the library, so that's pretty fun. Except that when the kids get there, there are like 15 kids yelling "Elizabeth!! Get me a book! I want a book!! Not that book, another book!!" But mostly it's ok. And when there are kids that are actually interested in finding a good book to read, then that's fun to help them.
In the afternoons we were busy with purisimas. They actually started the Friday after Thankgiving, but since I had descanso I didn't go until later. It took me a while to figure out what we were celebrating, but finally I figured out it was the conception of Mary, not Mary's conception of Jesus. At first I thought maybe it was the conception of Jesus, but nope. I guess Dec 8 is the actual day, but in Nicaragua they celebrate for 9 days before. I'm not sure why, but they do! The celebrations involve making an alter to put Mary on, and shooting very loud firecrakers, and singing (out of tune, 'cause everyone here sings out of tune), and there were some prayers, but usually the kids were making too much noise and I couldn't hear that part. And then afterwards whoever is hosting hands out food to everyone, which is really the only thing most of the kids seem to care about.
So Saturday the 6th it was the volunteers' turn to host. Since NPH is trying to save money, we made cookies 'cause cookie ingredients aren't too expensive. So Saturday morning Lola and I made 700 cookies, and put them in bags. It was pretty crazy, but the kids liked it, so that was good. Then Sunday was the "griteria" which meant that three different places made alters and the kids just went and yelled (gritar) and sang and then got food. And then since Monday was the actual day of the Immaculate Conception, they had a bigger (and more serious) celebration and prayed the rosary (I think). So the whole purisimas thing was interesting to see, because there's certainly nothing like it in the States.
On Wednesday of this past week (the 10th), the volunteers hosted a gathering for the tios. So I made cookies again (but not so many!) and they tios all came over in the evening and we had a nice time. We'd done it a few times before, so we wanted to do it one more time before the end of the year.
Thursday we went out to eat in Moyogalpa for Kiki's birthday, so that was fun. And then I'm going to make her a cake for Monday at the volunteer dinner.
Friday started my descanso, but I couldn't go anywhere because yesterday was promociones (graduation). They make a big deal about graduation from primary school (6th grade) because so many Nicaraguans don't finish secondary school. Even among the kids at NPH, there are a lot who probably won't, because amoung the graduates (of 6th grade) the ages ranged from 12 to 18 year old. So some of the older ones will probably go to a technical school rather than to high school. So yesterday afternoon we had a mass and a ceremony in the church, and then a nice dinner afterwards.
The rest of this descanso I'm just going to relax, 'cause there has been so much going on!! If all the activities and events weren't enough, NPH is also dealing with two separate "crises". First, this thing with the government (that I've written about before) is still being a problem. In every official meeting with the government, they say that NPH is fine, and we can keep working. But then they randomly send list of 20 kids that we have to send home. NPH is already one of only 4 centers that has been allowed to remail open. I think the government kinda wants the remaining centers to be more "transitional" centers where kids just come for a few weeks until something else can be worked out. But that's not really at all what NPH as an organization is about. So the directors are talking to the governement and NPH international is sending letters, so we'll see what happens. And if that wasn't enough, NPH international is also REALLY short on money, because the economic problems int he world are really affecting their donations. Budgets have been reduced by 30%, so pretty much anything that's nice essential is getting cut. They're really trying to have enough money to feed and clothe and house and care for the kids. So if you're looking for a place to donate for Christmas, you could consider NPH (www.nph.org). Because of both these reasons, none of the kids are going to move to the new property in Jinotepe. It would cost more money to maintain another house and then we'd ahve to deal with different government offices. So everyone is staying here.
Oh! And the NPH Nicaragua soccer teams did really well in a tournament between all the NPH homes. The girls won and the boys came in second. So that was exciting!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)