What it's like to work with the scholars in Nicaragua!

Hey everyone! It's Mekaila!

I am so excited to update all of you on the activities that have been going on since we have been here in Nicaragua. It is so exciting and very enjoyable to serve as an intern for VISEDAL! Not only is the staff incredible and the organization amazing but the scholars are such great kids and so much fun to be around and work with! A lot has happened in these past two weeks, so I am going to try to give a brief overview of what us interns have been up to!

Our work began on July 20th where we went to support three of our scholars who were being baptized! José, Miguel Ángel, and Joseling were baptized at a beach in Granada. It was so incredible to see them and how excited they were. They were also able to share why they were wanting to be baptized and they talked about being a new creature in God and how all the bad things in their life will be gone, because they will be cleansed by God. It was really special for them and I couldn't be happier for them! There was a huge celebration after with a piñata, plenty of soccer on the beach, catching little frogs, a great deal of food, etc.

José, Joseling, and Miguel Ángel after their baptism

We also have been able to celebrate a good amount of birthdays that were either missed while Brad was gone or that will be in the near future. It is so exciting to take these scholars out and treat them and celebrate with them. Let's see, so far we have celebrated the birthdays of Isaac, Josué, Sonia, Ninoska, Belén, Jostyn, and Génesis Valesca! It is truly special to be here with them for their birthdays but also giving each of them a spot light of attention on this one day is great. Whether it was to the movies, to lunch, or to the market to buy clothes, each scholar is celebrated!

We went to the movies to watch "How to Train Your Dragon 2" with Josué and Isaac. After the movie we got them both ice cream and told them happy birthday. They had such a fun time and loved the movie and of course they loved all the hot dogs, soda, popcorn, and ice-cream they got too!

Celebrating Josué and Issac's birthday at the movies

We took Sonia and Ninoska out to the market to allow them to go shopping for their birthday. They both had fun and were able to pick out a pair of pants and shirt that they really liked. They enjoyed showing Jessie and myself the non-touristy market for the first time as well as picking out clothes.

Sonia and Nino waiting with us for the bus to the market

We took Belén and Jostyn out to lunch at Tip Top, which is a chicken place, for lunch. They had fun spending time with us and Belén especially enjoyed teaching me some new phrases in spanish as well as laughing at how I pronounced some words. We were also able to bring them shopping where Belén got a pair of pants and Jostyn got a pair of shorts and a shirt.

Celebrating Belén and Jostyn's birthday at Tip Top

We took Génesis Valesca to get lunch at pizza hut in metrocentro. She was also able to get a dessert from pizza hut to celebrate her birthday. We then took her out to the market because she wanted to buy a very pretty dress. We were able to get her a pretty pink dress that will make her feel like a princess and that she will want to wear all of the time.

Génesis Valesca in her pretty pink princess dress she got for her birthday

VISEDAL not only works with the scholars but there is a lot of work that goes behind the scenes to operate a NGO. It was really neat for Jessie and I to experience the work of a NGO. These past two weeks VISEDAL has been doing a lot with being recognized by Nicaragua and providing the kids with a central place to come. We are so excited to have been given the approval by the Nicaraguan government and VISEDAL is now official in Nicaragua!

Jessie and Brad in front of the government building after being approved

We were also able to get an office space! We are renting a space in Managua where the kids can come to have their sessions with Rocío, their psychologist, learn english, work on homework for school, hangout, and work with Jessie and myself! It is really great to have an office space to work out of and we will have an open house party saturday with a piñata, games, and food! All of the scholars and their families were invited to celebrate this exciting step forward. A great deal of the work that we have been up to this week has been planning the schedule for Rocío, Jessie, and myself. We will be working Monday through Friday with the kids from 8am to 5pm. Rocío will have sessions with each kid once a week Monday through Thursday, and we will be having group sessions on Friday. Brad will take the older boys ages 12 and up, Jessie will have all of the younger kids, and I will have the older girls ages 12 and up. These sessions as well as the random times throughout the week will allow Jessie and myself to implement our intern projects with the kids. 

During a few days this week we had gone to the market with Rocío to pick up desks and chairs and other items needed to make the office an actual office and give the kids a place to work etc. Jessie and I also went to this bookstore where we were able to purchase items that we needed for our intern projects. These purchases have made us so much more excited to get all of this started. Later this week we went to the market with Joseling to purchase items for the open house party. We also went to each neighborhood to tell the families about the office and it was great to see the excitement on their faces about it all. We are so happy to provide our scholars with now a more constant line of support!

Saturday August 2nd was the big day! We had our open house party for Casa VISEDAL, which is the name we picked out with the kids. We were pleased to have nearly 50 people in attendance! It was our 31 scholars and their families! We had a lot of fun and it was exciting to see the scholars coming together.

Brad, Jessie, and myself pre-fiesta excitement selfie!

We had an array of events, pizza first, then decorating a mural with hand prints, then the piñatas, then giving the older girls their journals(this is a part of my intern project), and throughout the whole time Brad made the schedule with the kids of when they could meet with Rocío. We had ordered a lot of pizza, we also bought multiple poster boards to create a mural that said "Casa VISEDAL 2014" and had all of the kids' handprints on it, and lastly we had two piñatas, one for the boys and one for the girls. It was a lot of fun! The kids had a great time decorating the mural.

Some of the scholars decorating part of the mural

After the murals were finished, it was time for the main event! The piñatas! Here in Nicaragua a piñata is at almost every celebration. We were able to stuff them with plenty of candy and also a lot of 1 cordoba coins. The kids had such a great time with the piñatas. It was a pretty crazy event though! When the candy fell and especially the coins, they all jumped into a pile and were jumping on top of each other and the kids came out with cuts and scrapes from trying to get candy and coins. Even the parents went crazy jumping onto the pile and even pulling their kids out so they could get the candy and money. It was very funny and if you would like to see a video and even more pictures of this crazy but fun event check out VISEDAL's Facebook page; www.facebook.com/visedal and instagram; www.instagram.com/visesdal

The female piñata

It has been an amazing two weeks here so far working with the kids and families! A great deal of the events that happened in the past two weeks led up to opening up Casa VISEDAL on saturday and as well as keeping it open for the kids from now on. We are so excited to start our work hours on Monday! For myself, I will have two weeks working with the kids in Casa, for Jessie it will be three weeks, but for VISEDAL the work doesn't stop! It is so great to be a part of a new step like this for VISEDAL! Can't wait to get started and keep a look out at the end of this week for an update from Jessie about how our first week of work hours in Casa with the kids went!

Thanks for reading! Until next time!

Mekaila