Month of May

We missed adding anything to the blog in May, so here's a photo summary.

1. Miriam keeps growing and giving us all dozens of extra smiles each day. 

2. Rebekah and a group from the MCC team travelled to visit partner Acción Médica Cristiana in their work with peacebuilding in schools, wells and sanitation, and an HIV support group.

3. Construction is well underway for the bridge overpass (Managua's 4th) which means our school commute (when we're not carpooling) includes a bumpy windy detour.

4. While creeping northward during morning traffic along Carretera Sur, a bus failed to stop completely and rear-ended us.  Everyone's fine and it obviously could have been much worse.  That same day the clutch went out on the truck for Steve, driving up in Jinotega. They also were able to safely get the truck to a mechanic and carry out their farmer visits as planned.

5. From the car accident on Carretera Sur in Managua (some run around to get a police accident report to turn into the insurance company), we continued on to to an MCC partner gathering that Julie organized on the theme of Child Protection.  So glad this could go on as planned as well.

6. Mother's Day.  At NCA, it is celebrated together with Father's day on May 30, which I understand is Nicaragua's Mother's Day based on Somoza's mother-in-law's birthday.

7. This last week included a visit with with partner organization Asociación Cristiana de Jóvenes and Steve in Matagalpa and Boaco to learn about their work adapting principles of conservation agriculture. One of these farmers says he harvested 3 times as much with his conservation ag plot last year, compared to his conventional plot, but they are working at finding ways of prioritizing aspects of the work or increasing efficiencies for scale and profitability. Rains are off to a great start this year and we hope this continues.