2nd Annual Familia Padre Fabretto Competicion 2008

A whole bunch of pictures from the 2nd Annual Fabretto Competition!

I stole these from the Somoto Oratorio camera yesterday.

Our MCs, Sonia and Fatima who work with me in the Somoto Office

Me giving a short blurb (unprepared...ugh) about Empresa Creativa (Creative Business)

Our cultural act from Quebrada Honda...it's like a requirement for any Nica event...I'm not really a fan because it's the same every time and it's basically stolen from Mexico (copy cats!)

Octopuses made out of a glass bottle and yarn, cards made with recycled paper and a custom stamp: Cusmapa Oratorio

Norlan and Brenda from Somoto, showing off their cross stitched burlap bags.

2nd place team who made organic fertilizer using special worms and cow poop.

Same dudes

The logo for their company: Defenders of the Environment

From the left, Peter (executive of Fabretto), Jessica (Somoto PCV Health), husband Matt (Somoto PCV Health), and Domingo (works with a rural community project in collaboration with Fabretto)...a big thank you to them for judging!

Lions made of yarn, from Quebrada Honda

While the competition was going on, the kitchen ladies and some helpers got the refrigerio ready. We had Arroz a la Valencia (Rice with Veggies and meat), some white bread and a Nica-type fresco (aka juice with a TON of sugar)

A sign showing off the Somoto groups working on their projects.

Byron our Fabretto garden coordinator checks in with the kids. The Fabretto garden had a display out.

Other teachers walked around helping out the groups as the day went on. Carmen, in the pink on the right gave the Cusmapa teams a pep talk.

Necklaces made of string and craved wood from Cusmapa.

The Somoto group made bread baskets out of coke bottles, wire and sewed the other parts.

Same group made a clothes hamper with larger coke bottles and wire. They need to work on the color though...

Fabretto garden teachers and the veggie stand! Radishes, eggplant, celery, grapefruits were some of the things they brought.

Cusmapa groups show off more bags and bracelets.

Roomie Lauren from Cusmapa chats with the Cus-Nor coffee group, 3rd place.

4th place Cusmapa team who made bread with the funky manjar, aka jelly stuff.

The kids were set up under 5 different tents that were donated for the day.

The decorations, as you can see in the background were from the plants in the yard and some Fabretto employees stayed at work late to make the strands and cut outs.

More bracelets...I hate seeing bracelets but at least they had something.

Knitted yarn bags, Lauren taught them how to knit and they took that skill and created their own business. She always drew the logo on their shirts! How cute are they!

Cajetas, which are sweet carmel-like candies made from milk and sugar

Cell phone holders with sayings sewed on them, Quebrada Honda.

The Winners!

Satin pillows wrapped all pretty from Quebrada Honda

Picture frames and baskets made of foam and plastic

Bamboo houses and lions made of yarn next to them, from Quebrada Honda

My boss Georgia with her newly purchased cojine (pillow), she was a little iffy about the colors the kids chose!

The judges mark their points for the 26 teams participating...poor guys!

Cusmapa girls explain how they created their hair ties.

Matt and Jess give out awards to winning teams, next to them in Doña Chena the Directora of the Somoto Oratorio

The kids get refrigerio, or lunch...finally around 1pm!

Time for sports in the afternoon!

Spectators fill up the Oratorio

Coach Anival helps out the girls teams.

Everyone who played soccer got a gold, silver, or bronze medal. Somoto boys won and the Cusmapa girls won.

The Somoto girls got bronze, but they were happy. Pictured here in the middle is one of my counterparts, Maria Jose.

New Pictures! Finally!

Just some pictures from the competition (more to come promise), the Somoto Oratorio, and one more of the house.

The team that baked bread stuffed with a sweet sauce called "manjar", which is not the same as Argentine manjar, it looks like purple goop and tastes like melted marshmellows.

3rd place team that will continue to Regional, Cus-Nor who made their own organic coffee! This team is from Cusmapa.

Your tax dollars at work! USAID gave Fabretto funding this past year, not sure how much, but I can assure you they are working harder than other federal tax dollars!

In front of the Somoto Oratorio, the kid on the left is named Juan Josue and he's not one of my students but I love him to death.

The living room, with my entire wardrobe drying on the clothes lines. Jan, notice the hankies, I use them all the time!

Chipotle comes to Somoto! And the kitchen tour...

Well maybe not the restaurant, but Mike and I brought Chipotle to Somoto...let alone Nicaragua! This is just one example of the fine cuisine that the Fabretto volunteers and I always seem to create. It was such a success that Mike and I have eaten Chipotle burritos for dinner twice and once for lunch...we can't help it, we miss really good Mexican food. Below the Chipotle pictures are shots of the kitchen at the Somoto Fabretto House.

Chef Mike prepares the Carnitas

Carnitas...well almost...didn't have enough time to slow cook it, but it was damn good protein in my tummy!

My Chipotle Burrito before the big roll-up!

Oh Chipotle goodness how I miss thee...

Mike shows the world how to eat a Chipotle burrito!

Our spices that help us turn bland Nica food into something amazing! Thank you again to Mom & Dad and Rosine for supplying with much needed spices!

Our sink...almost dishes-free! The silver pot usually holds extra water for washing dishes if the water goes out and we also use it for pastas.

The kitchen, complete with mini-toaster oven and fridge.

The kitchen stove top which sits on a table, hooked up to a tank of gas. Notice the bucket to the left, that's our clay pot water filter, we're not sure if it filters out lead yet...but at least it gets the bacteria and amoebas out!

A success!

No pictures again for this post, because I didn't have a chance to download the pictures from other peoples' cameras and my camera hasn't arrived yet. Mike (my roommate in Somoto) had his flight canceled so he will be coming to Somoto today or tomorrow.

The competition turned out to be a success, even if it was a very very long day for all of us! I want to post pictures so I can show everyone the kids' products and the great big smiles on all of their faces. We had 26 groups compete and we set them up under tents in a "fair" style in the sense that everyone could walk around to each group's table display. Our judges were Matt & Jessica, my fellow PCVs in Somoto (they are Health volunteers), Peter the Director of Operations for Fabretto in Managua, and Domingo a Nica who is a Coordinator for the SAT program (that is a whole other post to describe what SAT is, and it's not that test we take to enter college). They started at 10:30am going around to each of the tables to hear the presentation of each group, and to get a better understanding of their business plan. It took 2 hours 15 minutes to make the full circle and the kids were baking in the Somoto sun. At the time I was timing the presentations to make sure they didn't exceed 5 minutes long and I was there for support as the kids spoke to the judges. Having a fair made it much easier than having each group go up and present in front of a microphone! Next year I want the judges to be able to sit down and look at the business plans before the presentations that way they can prepare specific questions for the groups that will probably be the most competitive. The groups that are going on to the regional event are the following 3:

-Friends of the Environment: They create household items like candle holders, clothes hampers and bread baskets from plastic bottles (Somoto Oratorio)
-Defenders of the Environment: Organic fertilizer made by special worms (Somoto Oratorio)
-Cus-Nor: Organic coffee which the kids harvested, roasted, and ground (Cusmapa Oratorio)

These 3 groups I can work with pretty solidly and they all have a good chance of moving on to the national competition. The Palacaguina volunteer just recently quit last week, so I shall be helping her groups prepare for the Regional as well. Palacaguina is about a 40 min. bus ride away and the kids there also have alot of potential with their products.

After the Empresa Creativa competition we had a couple of mini-competitions to add to the "day of happiness" as my counterpart Sabrina called it. At first I thought this idea was kinda B.S. in the sense that she was trying to shove in more activities for no real reason at all, but for the reason that it would "make the kids happy". I prefer to keep things simple, but whatever, the kids got to watch their classmates recite poetry, put together wooden puzzles, and compete against each other in a couple of soccer games. Callie brought the Cusmapa band and they jammed some tunes as well.

We ended around 4:30pm and then the rest of the Fabretto staff, mostly from Somoto, wanted to have a dance party. I stayed for a bit, but I really wanted to get home and relax. Lauren and I ended up going out for (overpriced) pizza and beer, but it was a good celebratory meal. Nothing like pizza and beer to please a hungry soul.

A montón (very large) Thank You to Jan for sending me stickers and a postcard from Iceland and to Mom and Dad who sent me another package!

Now the rest of this week will be devoted to organizing the Regional Competition with Nikki (PCV Ocotal) and Matt (PCV Jalapa) and preparing my teams and the Palacaguina teams.

Oh yeah, did I mention how the rainy season has come? It has been pouring at least 4-9 hours each day and sometimes you can't even hear yourself thinking because the rain beats down so hard on the tin roof! Last night the power went out again and the water hasn't been on for the last 18 hours...so the kitchen has a stack of dishes that stink because I can't wash them. Course, Lindsay (PCV Cinco Pinos, aka the Boondocks of Chinandega) gets her water shut off 12 hours a day and her power turned off from 6pm to 5am! I guess it's just annoying when there is no schedule to follow for the power/water turn offs. I can handle no water at times or no electricity, but we never know when that will happen! A pain in the arse is tis!

Let me explain my living situation at the moment because I think it's sort of complicated still. In Somoto I live in the Fabretto Volunteer house with Mike (from Nashville, TN) who will tentatively finish his teaching English courses in November, he doesn't know if he will continue his employment with Fabretto yet so I'm not sure how much longer he'll be here. Also in the Somoto house on the week days is Don Freddy, the Education Coordinator in the Somoto Oratorio. He's about 40ish and his family is in Managua so he's not here on the weekends usually. Fabretto employees and other people come in and out of the house, so every week there are different visitors which makes it fun. In Cusmapa there is Lauren (from Albuquerque, NM) who teaches Critical Thinking and will be here for 1.5 more years, Callie (Missoula, Montana) teaches Music and Critical Thinking and will finish up around April I believe. Then there's the Español...Pedro Pablo (from Spain) who is trying to help Fabretto establish an evaluation program for the students aka sometimes Fabretto doesn't have an actual job for him (poor guy!). The latter list of people are my sanity in Nicaragua and definitely my very good friends here. I am very lucky to have a great support network here and they always seem to bring different viewpoints about life in Nicaragua and help me understand the Nica culture as well. Thank you to all of them for being my family in Nicaragua!

Changing subjects again I found another website, and Greg Schwartz helped me try it out so I know it works, for sending text messages to my phone.

http://www.ideasclaro.com.ni/sms/sms_form.php

So here's how you fill it out.
1) In Destino you put my phone number 8371113
2) In Origen you put your name
3) Codigo you enter the red numbers/letters below it
4) Mensaje you can enter up to 120 characters in the message
5) Click Enivar to send the message to my phone and a little window should pop up that says "Mensaje enviado" or something like that

If you are ever on the internet and bored, try to send me a text message! Aunt Anne, were those instructions clear enough? Haha, just kidding! Hopefully pictures will be up soon! Sorry! And I will get the pictures from the beach as well!