Happiness...
Originally uploaded by KathyAAdams~ Back in Nicaragua

My dog Nieve just arrived a few weeks ago with me. She is a BIG hit in town. She literally has stopped traffic more than once. She can make a macho men turn into softy. She makes most women shout in delight and exclaim, Que Liiiindo!. The best thing of all is she makes so many kids smile. She is known already around town on a first name basis. You can hear people saying, 'here comes Nieve' with glee and excitement as we walk down the street. .

In this photo, our program participant Alexander, who ADORES dogs, is soaking up Nieve's love.

As I mentioned in my last post, Ana_Lee_Smith is here in town. She just did a nice posting on Alexander. And we are featuring him this week on our website as well. www.EmpowermentInternational.org

La Espera ~ The Wait
Originally uploaded by ~ KathyAAdams ~ Nicaragua at last

Divinas o poplares was the question as 200 groups of mostly girls lined the town square of Leon, Nicaragua to get their shot at gaining a place in the national contest. While these princesses were truly divine, some of the children were sadly dressed as sensually as possible and were made up to look like miniature women. Off in the distance were a few very poor girls in their prettiest (yet obviously ragged and old) dresses with sad looks on their faces. I photographed one, hoping she may feel just as 'important' as the little girls who were in the contest. She did not smile for me though. The same song played for each group, relentlessly throughout the day long event it repeated itself, as each dance group gave it their best. Who were the finalists? I am not sure. I left before the song became 'old'.

From barrio to Museum
Originally uploaded by ~ KathyAAdams ~ Nicaragua at last

The second part of our our first day of class brought us to the museum at Iglesia San Francisco. Sadly enough, until today only one of the 14 students has entered this local and spectacular museum, while only 3 cordobas to enter (about US20 cents), this has not been in the reach of these children. This made for an extra special day. photography and a cultural experience! Empowerment International

Shooting Granada
Originally uploaded by ~ KathyAAdams ~ Nicaragua at last

Today was our first day of our photography class which we are holding during mid year school vacation. Not for the faint hearted, or kids that bore easily, our class is 5 days for 5 intense hours of learning each day. We have been blessed by guest teacher Myron from Colorado who has taught science and been photographing since he was 9 years old. We also had a lot of extra help. Tamara , a flickr friend, my current housemate, and volunteer extrordinaire was our translator, she volunteers for 2 other projects in Granada as well! We also had volunteers Patrick and Melissa (newbies at flickr who have been with us for 6 weeks now in Granada) helping along with 5 of our past students who acted as assistants to the new kids. I will do my very best during this intense and very exciting time to post progress and will be sharing with you all our Empowerment International flickr account soon which will house the bulk of the kids portfolios. Empowerment International

Just plain happy......
Originally uploaded by ~ KathyAAdams ~ Nicaragua at last

One of the benefits is getting to love such darlings as Esperanza. She is a girl I have known since she was a wee baby. Now she is in our program and in first grade. Esperanza means hope and this is the name of the barrio she lives in as well.I am sooooooooo happy to be here again, at last, and for the long haul! www.EmpowermentInternational.org
Photo by Alex!

Happy to be here, rain and all
Originally uploaded by ~ KathyAAdams ~ Nicaragua at last

I am not big on being in front of the camera....but here is a rare one I will post of me in the barrio waiting for the rain to pass (actually hoping it would pass as sometimes it floods instead!). These times give us even more moments to spend with families sharing their shelter from the rain. This is a photo of me taken by up and coming student Alexander whom you saw in an earlier photo. This day I give him a camera to play with as we were in the barrio. His esteem was sky high in that short hour. Empowerment International