Greetings from CASA XALTEVA

I would like to let you all know that the school season is starting on February 3rd, 2009. Thank you for your kind donations, they are greatly needed this year for 2 big reasons.

1) The situation in EL PANTANAL is worse this year. The cost of plastic has split in half (50% reduction.) Since the major source of income for the people of El PANTANAL has been recycling, it has left many without jobs & even worse off economically. This information comes from the local paper.
My friend Andres´s stepfather has changed his career this year and is now selling instant coffee and white bread to people in Granada. He makes about 50 cordobas per day and has to feed a family of 8 people. (50 cordobas is about 2.50 american dollars.)I should also mention that it takes him about 8 hours of work to make this money.

2)The cost of everything has gone up in Nicaragua. For instance rice has gone up from last year: 9 cordobas for one pound and now it has gone up to (at the minimum) 13 cordobas for one pound. This sounds minimal to us, but to the Nicaraguan people, this is a huge increase. All of their staple foods: rice, beans, plantain, sugar, & oil, have gone up dramatically.
If a family in El Pantanal has a hard time buying it´s family food, then you can imagine the burden of buying their children school supplies.
Today in the paper LA PRENSA had an article called, IR A LA ESCUELA ES MAS CARO (going to school is more expensive.) For example: for 12 notebooks it can cost between 140 and 240 cordobas (ball park between 6 and 13 dollars.)This cost can be devasting for many children, who will end up without any writing materials. That is where we come in! Our main goal is to take the financial burden off the parents by supplying all 500 children in Jose De La Cruz Mena in El Pantanal with school supplies.

Education should be a right all over the world (and not a privelege), we hope to make that easier for this one community suffering greatly.

So thank you and thank you some more!


Kathryn.

The kids will be smiling!

Tommorrow, I will be flying all night long to get to Granada, Nicaragua. I will be back to my second home on Monday December 29th, 2008 around 10am. I hope to be greeted by some warm & loving faces.

I am also excited because my friend Andres will be getting married to his long time love, and I will be there at his side to see him give his nuptials in the church. He set the date of his wedding to the 29th of December, so I could be there. I will also be celebrating my 8 year old sister Judene's birthday with a pinata bday party jam packed with candy galore.

I have about 3500.00 now for this project, and I am thrilled by this. I will be working hard to make sure that all the kids in El Pantanal get a nice package of school supplies. With the extra money, I will create other projects. Please keep track of my project on this website.

Happy New Year to all!

Special thanks to Haven White, Brenda Knoop, a very kind anonymous donar, the Axemans, Kate McNamara, The Hadfields, The Jennings ladies, & everyone else that have donated recently. Your kindness is overwhelming.

PS the picture is one of my favorite pictures that I took while I was in Nicaragua last year. This little fella was hanging out in the school yard, and he couldn't have been more than 3. Adorable.

1600+

We are lucky to say that many of 'you' generous people have donated again to this great cause. We have about 1600 dollars to work with now, and I am hoping that a few more angels will give the gift of education this year. Remember, I am in town for 3 more weeks so please contact me, if you would like to help as well!:)

Just a recap: I need to supply 500 children of El Pantanal, Nicaragua with school supplies & with any other money, we will create new small projects (perhaps healthy food deliveries?) If you read about Nicaragua, you will find out that malnutrion is a huge problem. Here is an article about Nicaragua on the Canadian RED CROSS website about Nicaragua. http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=567&tid=040

Check it out! There is a job that was posted on the RED CROSS website for a project manager on one of their projects (In Managua, Nicaragua), and I just sat here and realized that it would be my dream job. Too bad, Im not qualified. But who knows, maybe someday? This dream has definetely exceeded all my expectations.

For now, this little project which seriously gives me extreme pleasure, is enough for this girl. It is really worth it when you see them smile.

Special thanks to David Pelland for his kind contribution, both this year & and the year before. It is nice to know that many people care about a country like Nicaragua, that really doesn't get much media attention.

Kathryn

1000 and counting...

So it's been a little while since I have been back in old Canada land and I have managed to raise a few dollars to buy my kids in the school "Jose de La Cruz Mena" school supplies this coming year. A few of my Canadian friends joined me last Sunday for a small breakfast to raise money for my kids. We made about 125.00. The turn out wasn't fabulous but those of my friends who I can always count on, showed up with bells on! Thank you for caring. It turns out I can make a pretty mean breakfast.

The school year in Nicaragua commences at the beginning of February so I am hoping to have atleast 2500 dollars to make our dream a reality. So far we have about 1000 and I will continue to politely ask people if they would enjoy helping my cause! I always have to remind everyone that each of your hard earned dollars goes straight to the kids, we don't take a cent. I would like to be able to supply about 500 children with adequate school supplies which will take the economic burden off their parents. The sad truth is that most of these kids would go to school without anything at all. I want to to remind people that Nicaragua is considered to be the second poorest country to Haiti in the Americas. If you would like to read more about the situation in Nicaragua check out: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/country_profiles/1225218.stm?lid=nicaragua&lpos=day_txt_poorest-country

The picture I posted is one of my favorite kids in Nicaragua named Oscar. He has been apart of the program at the spanish school I attended "Casa Xalteva" for about 3 years now. Juan Carlos whom I share this project with, met him a few years back when he was looking for water to drink. Juan Carlos invited him to join the program at Casa Xalteva where he could receive free schooling, meals, and a warm place to put his head at night. Oscar comes from a loving home that just simply could not afford to take care of his important needs. Casa Xalteva really inspired me to help other kids in other communities such as El Pantanal, where the situation is even more dire. If you are interested in studying spanish abroad, I highly reccommend Casa Xalteva. They not only provide great instruction & great laughs, but also some of your money goes towards helping street boys. For more information check out their website at: http://www.casaxalteva.com/

I love Oscar even though he tries to convince me on a regular basis that I am a dirty gringa (that doesn't bathe.) We have a good laugh together.

Christmas is coming up and I hope that people think about how overboard we can all get with the consumerism. We have everything we need in our society...ipods, iphones, wees..etc. It's actually pretty sick. I hope you think about doing something a little bit more meaningful whether it is donating to a local charity or helping my kids in Nicaragua. As Gandhi put it..."Be the Change you Wish to See in the World." It's just that easy.

I am very inspired by other people who are helping out in other ways. My good and long term friend Tara fell in love with the community of Gulu in Uganda, Africa. She is now involved with her own project situated out of Montreal raising funds to provide basic health care to children. For information regarding this project please email me at: puedenreir@gmail.com.

I would also like to thank family friends who have kindly donated money to my cause. Thank you to Michelle Pelland & Jim + Linda Millala for your kind contributions.

Muchas Gracias.

Garage Sale in Victoria BC

Garage Sale
Saturday September 6th 9am-5pm
for address details please email me at: puedenreir@gmail.com

To fundraise for our project “Si Quieres, Pueden Reir” (If you want, they can laugh!) This is a project that raises money to buy children school supplies in a very poor area of Nicaragua (outside the beautiful colonial city Granada.)

Come by to:
1) find some interesting items for you or your house
2) Make a donation (5.00 will buy one child school supplies)
3) Have a free silk road tea

We raised enough money last year to supply all 500 kids in this school “Jose De La Cruz Mena” . We also made improvements to this school and built toilets for another school that had one broken toilet for 1100 children.

Happy Birthday Emily!:)

This is a speacial blog entry to wish Emily Crandall of Seattle, Washington a very happy birthday. I met Emily in Granada, Nicaragua and we were placed in the same spanish class for one week. That was by far one of the best weeks of spanish class, as we learned a lot but also spent quite a bit of time teaching our teacher slang and dirty words in english:) In that time, she learned about our project "Si Quieres, Pueden Reir". Emily and her husband Drew came out with Andres and I on one of our first ventures to El Pantanal and the school "Jose de la Cruz Mena". Drew and Emily also spared some precious travel money (as they still had 5 months more to travel around South America) to buy us some notebooks and supplies for the kids. Thus Emily truly witnessed the birth of our project and Im happy to say that she will also allow it to grow further. Emily's sister in law Jen Bowerman of San franciso wrote me to let me know how Emily had talked about our project in Nicaragua and that she wanted to donate money in Emily's name for her birthday. We graciously accept 100.00 American dollars in Emily Crandall's name to continue our project in El Pantanal, Nicaragua. I will be heading back to Granada, Nicaragua in early January just in time for the beginning of the school year and this money will be used to buy our 500 students their packages of school supplies. I want to thank Jen Bowerman and her husband for their kindness and as well as to Emily & her husband Drew for everything as well.:)

My friend Juan Carlos (who I stayed with & who works with me on the project) pointed out Emily's dimples when she smiled. Juan Carlos loves dimples because his 8 year old daughter Judene has an incredible pair. When Juan Carlos saw Emily for the first time in Casa Xalteva as she waited for our spanish class to start, he asked her in spanish "what class are those dimples going to". Of course we didn't understand what he meant at the time but he explained (as he always does...)

Happy Birthday Emily. I hope you are smiling today. Ojala que estes sonriendo.:) Make sure to come to Victoria sometime to visit.

Toilets are done... now we need some cash!

Just writing a quick update to say that we have finished those ever famous toilets for the kids about 2 weeks ago. I am going to post some pictures of them when I can, as I am not in Nicaragua anymore... and I am relying on my friends in Granada to send me those. However, rest assured that the kids now have 6 flush toilets (for 1100 students) rather than 1 for 1100!!!! We feel good about it. And we hope you do too.

Now we are trying to raise some funds so that we can give our kids at Jose De La Cruz Mena a second round of school supplies. These kids will each receive a package of 6 notebooks, 2 pens, 1 pencil, an eraser, and a pencil sharpener. It costs about 5.00 to supply one child. Each child will get a package (no matter if the child is less poor than another) we feel that this part of Granada (El Pantanal) is generally economically struggling and do not pick and choose. Therefore, rest assured that these happy smiling faces will all be getting the same package.

If you can in anyway help with our project please email me.
puedenreir@gmail.com