Gerardo Hernandez, one of the art teachers here at CCBN, stepped in to give a mural tour to a visiting delegation. Groups of high-school and university students often come for a tour of the Center’s murals, which are famous for their beauty and stories they tell. Generally, a selected group of Scholarship students from the Center is available at 5pm before Sunday Mass to give tours to any visitors.

~Andrea

Who is in us here on earth,

Holy is your name

in the hungry

who share their bread and their song.

Your kingdom come,

which is a generous land

that flows with milk and honey.

Let us do your will,

standing up when all are sitting down,

and raising our voice when all are silent.

You are giving us our daily bread

in the song of the bird and the miracle of the corn.

Forgive us

for keeping silent in the face of injustice,

and for burying our dreams

for not sharing bread and wine,

love and land

among us, now.

Don’t let us fall into the temptation

of shutting the door through fear;

or resigning ourselves to hunger and injustice;

of taking up the same arms as the enemy.

But deliver us from evil.

Give us the perseverance and the solidarity

to look for love,

even if the path has not yet been trodden,

even if we fall;

so we shall have known your Kingdom

which is being built for ever and ever.

~ Anonymous. Found in a prayer-resource binder in our volunteer house here in Managua. If you know who is the author, please let us know! 

The bell tower of Iglesia La Merced, Granada, Nicaragua.

~ Andrea

A house here in Batahola Norte (not the typical house). This looks more like what is found in rural parts, but for people who a building with whatever they’ve got, this might be the outcome. Simple houses like this are common in poor barrios here in Managua and elsewhere in Nicaragua, but most houses in Batahola Norte are identical–built by the Sandinistas during the1980s.

~Andrea

~Andrea

The old national cathedral:

(Regards to Wikipedia):

“The Old St James Cathedral was designed and shipped from Belgium in 1920 by Belgian architect residing in Managua Pablo Dambach who got the inspiration from St Sulspice in Paris.^[30] Santiago became the first cathedral in the Western Hemisphere to be built entirely of concrete on a metal frame. Santiago survived the 1931 earthquake, but was extremely damaged during the 1972 Earthquake, which led to the construction of the new Cathedral of the Conception to the southeast. Fortunately, in recent years, the restoration of the old cathedral of Santiago has appeared to be possible and is currently awaiting renovation.”

We are still waiting for that renovation. It looks like it has started, but they still won’t let you enter it. A new cathedral has been built in a different location, and is completely different in design as well… 

~Andrea

~Andrea

One recent sunday there was an ecumenical gathering of ex-pats, on a farm just outside of Managua. It is a project run by an organization called Kairos, who are in the first stages of creating a farm-school project, along with their existing ministries.

Members of rural communities come to learn new farming skills and earn a salary for a number of weeks or months while on the Kairos farm. As a group of foreigners with much love for Nicaragua (and some with more than 20 years living here), we gathered in solidarity to show our support for this project.

~Andrea

~Andrea