English class

Meredith, Kellan, Adam and Yacarely with some of our English class. Ileana, in orange and in front, owns a cafetín, or bar and restaurant in town and was motivated to learn English because there have been times when Geneseo students have come in and she couldn't communicate. Manuel, in the back on the right in the orange shirt, is a teenager who rides a bike taxi for work during the week, so he goes to school on Saturday. He hopes to go to America to work. Moses is a musician who wows the class with his versions of songs, Trinidad is a lawyer and engineer. Other students are hair stylists, construction workers, directors of nonprofit organizations that work with cattle, agriculture, nutrition and other improvements and veterinarians.

Breaking news!

Kellan, Yacarely and Irene had a meeting with El Sauce's tourism commission today. I was there when they walked out, elated. The Millennium Challenge Corporation surprised them with an announcement — the corporation is going to pay to send 20 people from El Sauce to a community that has a successful tourism program so they can learn the ins and outs of what to do.
Kellan, Yacarely, Irene, four reps from the mayor's office and 13 people from the Ocotal community will go to San Ramon for 2 days. The corporation will pay for everything.
"It's a surprise. I didn't expect it," said Kellan, adding that he was happy, smiling and giggling when they announced the news. "It's going to give them even more motivation. We've known that people believed in the program, but this is the first time we've really been giving anything."
Until now, Geneseo and the farmers have been doing all initiatives with no investments.
When we tell Mauricio tomorrow he will be very happy. That's him in the photo and we are all going up there to witness the tour ourselves. Mauricio says it was his dream to bring tourism to Ocotal. He donated part of his farm so the community can build a rustic handicraft, coffee and tourist center and cabins. This is when he arrived at the cooperative meeting.