We're back in California and are organizing a benefit dinner and concert on January 1st at 6pm in the Social Hall at the United Methodist Church in Mill Valley (next to Mill Valley Middle School), 410 Sycamore Ave.  Although we are applying for grants, the program is running very low on funds (we estimate there is only enough right now for the next few months), and this fundraiser is a way to help Podcasts for Peace financially and for us to share with you what we have done!  The event features:

 - Authentic Nicaraguan cuisine prepared by a Nicaraguan chef

- Folk-rock/Americana music by Lockwood Barr: https://www.facebook.com/musicbylockwood

- A multi-media presentation by James and Mika about Podcasts for Peace, including video projects created by the youth participants

***Suggested donation***
$20 - $200 
or equivalent in donations of the following: 
shoes, warm-weather clothing, digital cameras/laptops (used or even broken is fine)

Please RSVP HERE or by e-mailing PodcastsForPeace@gmail.com
Hope to see you there!

Happy Holidays,
Mika and James

We’ve finished up the first round of Digital Arts classes by completing a community activism video project with the older group on the neighborhood’s limited water service, and short, personal Digital Reflections with the younger groups.  It certainly wasn’t all easy, especially since the majority of the youth started with very minimal computer skills if any and come from a public school system that emphasizes memorization, not reflection or invention.  There were moments when the kids told us they couldn’t do it, and not all finished in our tight time-frame.  But for those who did and realized that they created something they thought they couldn’t do, the challenges made the achievement even more special for the participants.  We’re really proud of their work, and judging by their post-project reflections, they are too!  Their comments also demonstrate that we’re meeting our objectives of youth empowerment and technical skill-building. José, 15, reflected on the video he produced with his classmates addressing Managua’s water provider, ENACAL: “I’m proud of the ENACAL project because I learned how to edit a video, which I never thought I would do, much less about an important neighborhood issue.”  Jefry, 9, wrote of his Digital Reflection: “I’m proud of editing the photos and sounds on the computer and because I finished even though I missed two classes,” and Grethel, 11, said “I learned to reflect [about a personal story] and to edit on the computer and I liked it a lot.” You can see the ENACAL project and several of the Digital Reflections on the Podcasts section of the website. By the way, we are still looking for people who understand Spanish and can help us add English subtitles.

Highlights from this month include a visit to a local radio station called La Primerísima, a day of painting with SIT study abroad students from the US and their Academic Directors, Aynn and Guillermo, a new English language teacher, Douglass Sánchez, and a whole day devoted to producing jewelry from recycled materials which Mika and James will be selling in the US when they return next week. The ten Podcasts for Peace participants who visited the radio station got a glimpse into possible future careers as announcers or sound technicians and were even interviewed live on the air about the video projects they had produced in Podcasts.

Right now we’re gearing up for a final celebration with the participants and their families before flying back to the US on December 9th. When we return to Alemania Democrática in January, we’ll start up the second round of classes with new and old participants, including a small group for advanced students. Mayquelin Pérez, a member of the Community Support Team, will be living in the Podcasts for Peace house while we are away, and in when we return we will begin training two new Program Coordinators and Digital Arts Instructors.

Thank you for all your support and for keeping up with us through the blog! And again, if you understand Spanish and know how to add subtitles to short video projects (or know someone who does), please send us an e-mail at PodcastsForPeace@gmail.com.

Abrazos,

James and Mika

Thank you for your enthusiastic response to our book drive! My father, Bob Reynolds, visited us for a week earlier this month and brought with him a suitcase full of your contributions. We have been introducing the books little by little to keep them in good condition, as there are now 40+ youth who come to read, draw, and write, and it can be difficult to make sure the books are treated with care. If you bought books through our online wishlist, please send us an e-mail so we can thank you and put your name on our list of supporters!

During his time here, Bob worked with us to plan and deliver classes, refine project ideas, improve organization methods, and generally reflect on the program from a fresh perspective, not to mention the hundreds of photos he took of the Podcasts for Peace house, participants, and neighborhood (see the GALLERY page). He gave hands-on photography and videography workshops to build skills that the younger participants practiced in their Fotocuentos, orPhoto Stories (see the PODCASTS page to watch them, Spanish only), and the older group used in their ongoing Mensaje a Enacal, or Message to Enacal. This latter video project was developed in response to the participants’ frustration with having running water only during the night, and is directed at Managua’s water provider, Enacal, to highlight the concerns and desires of the youth and local residents they interviewed about the issue.

On the PARTICIPANTS page, you can now listen to many of their personal introductions; the younger participants recorded a typical sound from their neighborhood and described how it related to them, and the older participants discussed how they wanted to make change in their neighborhood and recorded appropriate sounds to match their narrations. Both groups mixed the sounds into their narrations using the program Audacity.

We need help translating these introductions and other Podcasts and then applying subtitles to the video projects. If you would like to help out, please send us an e-mail at PodcastsForPeace@gmail.com.

Speaking of help, we held a meeting with the parents of the Radio and Digital Arts participants to give the community a better idea of the sort of work the youth do in Podcasts for Peace and how it will benefit them, as well as to solicit support. Since that meeting, parents have contributed to the program by supervising the Homework and Reading hours, buying food and supplies at the market, and juicing fruit for the frescos we serve before each class. We held a similar meeting with the parents of the children who attend the Homework and Reading hour, and now have a parent who comes every night to supervise and facilitate activities for the younger group while Mika and I work with the older youth.

Local volunteers—mostly friends of Yamileth—continue to contribute to Podcasts for Peace. Elvin Murillo repainted the logo, this time in color and with crisper lettering, and Juan Carlos Rojas paved the space around it to prevent mud from splattering the wall when it rains. Madeline Mendoza joined Zamir Rivera to team-teach the English classes. Juinmar Hernandez, Elvin Murillo, and Lester Rodriguez paved a section of the main activity space, the entryway, and the whole side room, allowing us to separate young children from adolescents during the Homework and Reading Hours. Juinmar also installed three additional fluorescent lamps in the two main rooms, a much needed improvement to the two main activity spaces.

Our next goals with the Radio and Digital Arts classes are to start digital storytelling projects with the younger group and to finish the Message to Enacal project with the older group. We would also love to have someone help us with the translation and subtitling of the participants’ work, so please send us an e-mail if you are interested!

Saludos,

James and Mika

“Now?” the kids ask, more than two hours before homework and reading hour.  “How many more minutes?”  We were told Nicaragua didn't have a culture of reading, but after just a few weeks with access to books, some had read almost all the picture books.  Even children who don't yet know how to read (or tell time!) come to listen to stories read by one of us or by an older peer, make up their own stories, or practice writing numbers or drawing shapes. (Visit our wish list here to give them more books to read! Used copies are just as good as new ones!)

In this post, we'll try to give a brief overview of the progress since the last blog.  In the future, we'll try to write updates more frequently in order to give you more details and shorter posts.

Here is a rough sketch of the progress we've made: we finished the most basic and essential security and electrical improvements, celebrated the inauguration of the program, began a homework and reading hour five days a week, started two (now three) Radio and Digital Arts classes with youth ages 9 to17, hosted two all-day workshops—one on youth rights and another on recycled material artisanship—presented Podcasts for Peace to several US and Canadian youth delegations, held two fundraising raffles, and took the participants on three field trips (one to a local library/museum, one to a youth-focused library, and another to a recycled material artisanship fair).  Local artists painted the lovely logo that appears on the Podcasts for Peace facade, designed by Rosalie Z Fanshel. 

The weekly movie screenings continue to be a hit.  Jamileth Chavarria, who worked at a feminist radio station, gave two workshops on gender roles and left us with a wealth of resources for making radio programs, and Guissel, one of Yamileth's daughters, has started hip hop dance classes three times a week.  Last week, a local university student named Zamir started English classes that will take place three days a week, and Luis Carlo began teaching the Radio and Digital Arts students basic computer skills, which will allow them to edit their projects themselves in the future.

At the all-day recycled material artisanship workshop last Sunday, about 50 people, mainly youth, learned how to make wallets out of milk and juice cartons, purses and coin bags out of soda can openers, and earrings out of potato chip bags and soda bottles, thanks to the expert instruction of several members of Cooperative El Parche Giftshop in Granada.  To make the workshop possible, members of the Podcasts for Peace Community Support Team (Equipo de Apoyo) spent hours in the market (Mercado Oriental) under torential rain buying more than 250 pounds of food, chairs, and other su pplies for the workshop and the program in general.  Mayquelin went to meet the instructors, Yamileth rented more chairs and tables, we set up the space, and in Adelina's house next door, a group worked for several hours to prepare the lunch for the attendees.

This is only one example of how vital the community Support Team is.  Every Sunday afternoon we meet to discuss the successes, challenges, and to plan upcoming events.  Members of the Team supervise during reading and homework hour, accompany us during field trips, and help us resolve conflicts among the participants.

But it hasn't all been easy. The challenge Podcasts for Peace currently faces is that despite the tremendous efforts from the Support Team, there is still not enough community support to make the project sustainable. James and I currently serve as the program coordinators, media class instructors, supervisors, tutors, and librarians for homework and reading hour, program treasurers, grant writers, and housekeepers, and are also in charge of publicity and outreach efforts. This means late nights, a stressful workload, and the frustrating deferral of many important tasks (such as publishing student work and keeping the website up to date for our supporters and collaborators) in favor of more urgent tasks (lesson planning, catching students up on classes they miss, and preparation for weekend workshops). Expanded community involvement—especially from the parents of participants—is currently the most critical objective for Podcasts for Peace, but it is also one of the most challenging, as community and Support Team members have full-time jobs and other responsibilities that prevent them from volunteering as much as they would like.  To address these issues, we are going to hold a meeting tomorrow for parents and adults in the community to explain what the program is about and to ask for more support.  We will also continue to take time for critical reflection and strategic planning with the Community Support Team.

Another goal, which you can help us with, is to get some more books for the kids. Please take a look at the Podcasts for Peace wish list here (remember, used copies are fine).

Thank you for keeping up with our work here in Nicaragua!

Abrazos,

James and Mika


P.S.  Check out our updated gallery and participants pages!

It's been more than two weeks since we arrived. So far, we've opened a local bank account for the program, held the first meetting with the youth, their mothers, and other community members, held community film screenings with over 20 kids from the neighborhood, and signed a one-year lease for the building Podcasts for Peace will occupy, which is three houses away from Yamileth's house in Alemania Democrática. Yamileth and her neighbors, Britania and David, worked hours to find the building. Thanks to their efforts, we now have an affordable and comfortably sized space to live and work, located in a very friendly neighborhood.

However, the house needs quite a bit of repair, so most of our time so far has been spent searching for supplies in a huge open market, el mercado Oriental, and then using them to replace the electrical system, secure the property, and make other repairs. Jorge, who lives right next door to the Podcasts for Peace house and is currently unemployed, has been volunteering nearly every day to install lights and outlets and put bars over the windows and doors. Two youth from Timal, a camp near another dump for people displaced by floods in Managua, are participants in the program and will be staying in the back room since their home is four hours away by bus. They've been helping get the house set up as well.

At the first community meeting, we met with the youth who will be participating in the program along with many of their mothers, and were able to get their input about what they hoped the program would be. Many expressed interest in learning English, so we will be collaborating with local students who are learning English and volunteers from the US (hint hint!) to provide classes, which will begin after the Youth Media Program is up and running.

Other exciting news: Podcasts for Peace has formed a commission of local residents and community leaders who will meet weekly with us to assign responsibilities and evaluate the program. They also think of creative fundraising ideas and buy and prepare snacks for the participants. At the meeting this week, we chose a time for the weekly community film screening and assigned someone to watch the toddlers every week, made reminder signs for the house, and prepared for the arrival of the youth from Timal.

Even without paying for labor, we've had a lot of unforseen expenses due to the repairs we need to make to the house before the program begins. There is also a lot we would like to do or buy when we have the funds. For example, we hope to put cement (instead of dirt) in the patio, porch area, and back room, buy a blender and rice cooker, and paint the house. Please consider donating!

The program has a lot of support here: Yamileth has donated or loaned lots of supplies and is looking for local grants, Jorge and the commission are volunteering their time, and every day it seems like someone stops by to offer to help in whatever way they can. It's feeling more and more like a community driven project.

Until next time,



Mika and James

PS. Photos to come soon!

And so much to do! We have been on the phone to Nicaragua to figure out which house we will rent, how we will choose someone to guard the house at night, and other necessary logistics.  So far, we've bought used digital recorders and cameras, begun planning for lessons and workshops, and made this website.  We will spend this next month writing detailed lesson plans, buying equipment, and fundraising!  We are still about $10,000 short of where we would like to be in order to fund the program for the first year.  Here are a few examples of our expenses:

• Internet and website for one year:                    $456
• Electricity and water for one year:                     $480
• Healthy snacks for youth during workshops:       $1,080
• Overnight weekend field trips to radio stations:   $1,796 

We're also hoping to get donations of equipment and materials.  See our Support page for items you might have that we need!  

Thanks!

Mika