Casa Materna

Wednesday afternoon we visited Casa Materna a home near hospital for women near their delivery date. We did interviews, filed and polished fingernails, and took photos of the women and printed each one out for them to keep. We also gave each of the 27 women a bundle wrapped in a baby blanket of new born and mother's necessities: baby cap, clothes, a bib, 6 cloth diapers, diaper pins, laundry soap, a comb and hair tie, and sanitary napkins. We also held a raffle in which every woman got a prize: either a mosquito net, hair clip& hair brush, head band& hair brush, bucket and baby powder, an umbrella, or a package of disposable diapers.

Dominga Munoz Ruiz 44 yrs. old born in Nueva Guinea lives in Cukra River 12th baby. Her child she is to have now is a boy but has no name. Asked us to help her find a name. Very thankful for us coming and be at this home, thanks God and is satisfied with what she has right now. She told Alex and Paula that God is going to help us more than we can imagine.

Jessica Medrano Aguirrie 17 yrs. old. Baby girl her second already has another daughter who is 3 yrs. old. Born in Managua lives in Tortuquero. Lives by herself with her 3 yr. old daughter. Was 14 when first got pregnant. In the future she wants to work to help herself. If she had time she would go back to school.

Hilma Sanchez Gomez with her baby boy 5 days old, no name she is 26 yrs. old. Lives now in Pueblo Nuevo. This is her 6th child. Her first one is 13 yrs. old she also has a 9 yr. old, a 7yr.old, a 5 yr. old, and a 2 yr. old. Man that she is with drinks alot and hits her. Her dad left her mom when she was 7 and since then she has taken care of herself.

　
Sebastiana Gomez lives in Canyon Negro. She is having a boy and going to call him Ernesto Viscente. She is 33 yrs. old. She has one son that is 11, and three daughters, 10, 5 and 2. When her man found out she was pregnant again he left. She works in the fields planting fruits. Two of her daughters go to school.

 George printing photos

 Alex interviewing and translating. Paula typing the interview.

 Raffle

 The women with their bundles and our group,

Molly filing nails.

 Wendy and Molly applying nail polish.

A Video of Pastor Ed (our host)

A Video from a Group Visiting Bluefields in 2009

Computer Lab

George (our computer expert) has been working on the computer lab at the Verbo School. Two previous groups (both from Canada) worked on the computer lab, and we've been in contact with them though a Wiki page.

Below is his latest post on that site:

Information update for Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church group to accomplish during visit in June 2011

Information that I have gathered and am not sure if it is correct (could you let me know please):

Early on, I thought there might be issues with the electricity in the school. This is incorrect and the wiring is fine (thou they do have blackouts in the area)
The school has a projector that can be hooked up to a laptop
Network equipment is in the cabinet behind the main office

Things we need to do: (What is the best order?)
(1) Get data off hard drive that Kevin removed from computer (I doubt I will be able to do this, but will try. If we are unable to extract data we will bring hard drive back to extract data)

This is no longer an issue. The computer has crashed, but Jhonny Mendoza (The computer lab teacher) said that there was no data on the computer that needed to be gotten off the harddrive.

(2) Get the network working in ????????????????? location

Jhonny Mendoza and I put in a wire between the admin office and computer lab. We were both able to connect to the internet.

(3) Set up cloning of office computers

external hard drives (usb connections) were attached to two computers and software installed to back up hard data


Things we can bring:

speakers for computer (We brought two. One is with Pastor Ed and one is with Jhonny for computer lab.)
RJ45 connectors (We brought 100 and they are stored in admin office)
spare routers/AP (We brought 2 and they are stored in admin office)
external hard drives (We brought 2 and they are being used - see above)
cloning software (We brought and left with Jhonny Mendoza)
White board (not sure how to get this on plane) (Unable to bring with us)
USB power backup (Not needed)
Do we need tools (We brought a computer kit and left with Jhonny Mendoza)

The Playground

One of the projects we are working on while we are in Nicaragua is a playground (here's the website we got our initial blue prints from); we're putting in a "lava pit" with at least 4 "mushrooms" (as Molly calls them), leading to a triple balance beam of different heights, we'll also have 3 high bars of different heights and 3 see-saws.  The playground is going behind the Sunday School at Verbo Church (which is also where the feeding program).

I had thought that the project would take all week, but we have a few locals helping us (one of whom is a carpenter) and we might even finish the project today!  If so, we'll have an opportunity to do some more service in other areas.

The youth with Humberto making a game plan

Sawing our 5"x5"s

A local father and son helping us dig

Planning out the balance beams

More balance beam work

Sunday, June 12

 Verbo Church liturgical dancers

 Kay bringing SPC blessing to Verbo Church

Song leaders



After Church fellowship

Youth Fellowship that evening

Pictures from Saturday Tour

Baby Omar, 4 weeks old, with his mother who was breaking rock for gravel

On top of hand dug quarry

Pator Ed with family shucking oysters.



Surf and Turf

(oyster shucking in canal, tortillas at the market, fresh beef on the street)