Carita Feliz, Sex Ed, Bicycle Rights, y Cafe del Tiempo

Carita Feliz is a school that goes from primer to 8th grade on the weekdays, and on the weekends, they offer practical knowledge and skills classes for older adolescents and young adults. The classroom is like an old school house in the way that everyone is together.  They have separated teachers for different grades and subjects, but everyone is in the same place pretty much.    A lot of people in one place, trying to learn different things.  Needless to say, the teachers are really good at what they do.  Here is an article on Peder Kolind, the guy who started it all.  It's in Spanish, but try and translate it!  It is very inspiring!

Sex Ed... Yesterday, I bounced around classes and age groups, and one of the classes was very interesting. I was with a group of 9 year olds, when I entered into something completely foreign to me. They were given a Sex Ed presentation.  This wasn't anywhere close to the vagueness of a US lesson.  This presentation was straightforward, honest, and not sugar-coated.  Latin America has more problems with STIs and pregnancy within a much younger population than in the US.  This discussion was great, because it opens up discussion at an age where pregnancy and STIs are more common than you would think.  These pages from Advocates for Youth  has some good facts (*a wee bit outdated). Same with this WHO factsheet  that compares all countries (*also a bit outdated).  I am starting to see potential for some good research here :)

mi bicicleta

Bicycle Rights? Nope. I rode by bike all morning and rode it to Carita Feliz.  I ended up in a class on Turismo with other young adults who want to learn skills to work in food and bev and tourism.  It was more a Spanish comprehension class for me.  Anyway, there are no rules for cyclists or for drivers when it comes to watching out for bicyclists.  No one pays attention to stop signs, uses blinkers, looks to see if anyone is coming. So you keep your eyes open and head up and hope for the best while on a bike.  Despite the craziness, drivers here are pretty good at last minute reactions and horns. No close calls yet :)

Free time... I explored Granada for the rest of the day. I bought a chip for my phone, ate another great Dona-prepared lunch, and went back out to get lost. 

Main Square 

I was walking down to the lake and it started raining hard.  I'll have to try that again when it's drier or bring a raincoat. Granada is pretty safe town.  Super chill.  You can always find someone taking a nap or relaxing on a bench.  No rush here. If anyone bothers you, just give the Nica Finger, which is a wave of your index like saying no no no. What is interesting is that I keep seeing Americans, Canadians, and Europeans.  No one will really make eye contact with each other, because most of the people who travel to rustic countries like Nicaragua are trying to get away from their world.  I found some really cool places to eat that will be visited tomorrow.  I had coffee at a really neat place in the center of town called Fitzcarraldo.  They serve coffee that is in the Specialty Coffee Association of America.  

 Then I came back and hung out with my house family.  Dona Espinoza had her son and his family over.  Their youngest son, who is 9, speaks near fluent English. Very impressive. Now I am resting, and I will spend my evening learning some medical Spanish so I am not a total dumbass on Monday.

Lastly, here's the bird

I can't spell his name... but it starts with an S... I call him Shh