explanation of last posting

I have received a few comments about the photo that apparently showed up on my blog.  I was working with another volunteer on trying to figure out how to post photos on my blog and I guess we succeeded.  I´ll try to learn how to do it with captions but for now, that is the couple, Alfonso and Concepcion ( she was born on Dec. 7 which is the day the celebrate Purisima, which I have learned is the day the Virgin Mary was supposedly conceived, and any female who is born on that date has the name ¨conception¨ in her name too.  This is a photo I took of the back of their home, which is really very beautiful.  I´ll try to post more of their home. They do have chickens and ducks as does almost everyone who has any space at all.   They used to have pigs ( I think you can see the remains of the old pigpen) but not any more.  They are in their 70s and have cut back on some of their enterprises.  She was a nurse ( partera) which means midwife for 30 plus years and he worked in many jobs which included being a porter at one of the big hotels in Managua prior to the terremoto ( earthquake) in 1972.  They had 9 children who were all at home in Guisquiliapa ( about an hour from Managua) when the earthquake hit on Dec. 23 or 24 and both parents were in Managua working at the time.  Somehow they made it home in what I am sure was a very chaotic situation and their little town did not suffer any damage.

  They also lived in that same little town during the late 70s when the Sandinistas were fighting to overthrow the dictatorship of Somoza.  They told me that they saw planes flyng over their home at such a low  altitude that they were able to see the faces of the pilots, on bombing runs of Jinotepe,  the town next to theirs.

The people down here in Nicaragua have lived thru a  lot.  One of the reasons for the low number of older folks, ( folks over 50) is that many many thousands of young people were killed during the Sandinista war against Somoza and then another whole bunch were killed during the war when the Contras ( and I think we all know who they were) were trying to overthrow the Nicaraguan Sandinistas.   Sooo much war down here.

And, to make things even more interesting, the name Sandinista comes from an old timer, Sandino, who in the late 1880s, I believe, led a small army of Nicaraguans to run the US Marines out of occupying Nicaragua, even back then.  It goes way way back. 

Enough of my rendition of the history of Nicaragua...of course there is a lot more but thats all I can put together right now.

Happy new year to you all.....if you pray, pray for peace....if you work,.work for peace....of course you can do both !!!

Love, Pat