Baseball in the papers

Baseball is a big deal in Nicaragua. It's bigger than soccer, and about on par with boxing, in terms of national popularity. Every day the front page of the newspapers' B section is covered with something baseball-related. As a baseball fan, I'm usually quite pleased to keep up with the baseball scores from the US. But I've had to adjust my expectations of what gets covered. When Vicente Padilla, a Nicaraguan pitcher, was picked up by the Dodgers last month, I thought, "Oh, great! I'll be able to read more about LA's team in the papers now!" But I was wrong. Individuals - Nicaraguans playing in the big leagues - always take precedent over teams, unless it's the Yankees or the Red Sox. Take yesterday's paper, for instance (photo above). Half the page is taken up with an article about how Vicente Padilla is fitting in on the Dodger's club, but it mentions nothing about whether they won or lost (they won...I had to look it up later online). The right column is about Everth Cabrera, an infielder for the Padres, who are at the bottom of the NL West...note the length of story about him. In the bottom right corner are three paragraphs about the rest of North American baseball that's interesting for most fans here, namely, the Yankees and the Red Sox. In spite of all the current government's anti-imperialist and anti-yankee rhetoric, the ball club from New York has a large fan base, as do the Red Sox. No matter what else happens in baseball, I'll always get to read something about these two teams.

El Niño in our garden

When Simon was born on Feb. 3, we happened to have a bunch of new papaya shoots popping up in our garden. It was a good time to experiment with papayas, as they need a relatively hot and dry climate for maximum growth. February is smack in the middle of the dry season, so we thought the little plants would get off to a good start. We were doubtful about ever getting a harvest, however. Papayas are apparently quite finicky with water - too much and they'll die. Since we normally get lots of rain between May and October, we thought it unlikely that our plants would survive.

Our one surviving papaya plant is actually doing quite well, in large part thanks to El Niño. No, it's not thanks to Simon, but rather the weather pattern. 2009 is another El Niño year, where warmer ocean currents in the Pacific cause changes in rainfall patterns. I (Alan) remember the El Niño year 1997-1998, when Los Angeles got an inordinate amount of rain. For Nicaragua in 2009, El Niño means the opposite: hotter, drier weather, and significantly less rain.

This is good for our papaya plant - it's shot up to about 7 feet tall (above) and is already showing some tiny papayas (below). But in general it's bad for Nicaragua's agriculture sector. Lots of small farmers are preparing for drought and wondering if the corn and bean harvests will provide enough for their families.

Church News

Two weeks ago our Brethren in Christ congregation here in Managua welcomed 12 new people into church membership. We celebrated their commitment to the local church community with a special worship service that included communion. Several of the new members were baptized the week before in Lake Nicaragua. Unfortunately, we were unable to attend due to scheduling conflicts. Check out our blog post from last August, however, for a view of what a baptism is like.

In other news, Alan has preached twice in the last month, and Beth is set for preaching next Thursday, Sept. 24. We are glad to be more involved in the life our congregation.

New MCC team members

The last month has been a blur of activity for our MCC Nicaragua team. In July we welcomed Vanessa, a Goshen College senior doing a practicum with the MCC Peace & Justice commission. A few weeks later, we welcomed 1 YAMEN and 3 new SALT workers for 11 months of service. Melissa, Amanda, and Diana are working in and around Managua; Abby is working in the countryside of Matagalpa, helping out the Forry family on their MCC project - check it out...they're doing really cool work. They've all adapted very quickly to Nicaragua and are doing a great job. Here are a few pictures: the first is from our visit to Abby's host family outside of Matagalpa (Colleen and Amanda enjoy a soup lunch). The others are from our visit to Diana's host family on the southwest side of Managua.

Institute for Gender Studies

The university where Alan works is home to the Institute for Gender Studies. The Institute was founded 5 years ago to promote gender studies and gender issues in Nicaraguan higher education. The first five years have witnessed the development and implementation of a sexual harrassement policy at the university, something rather uncommon for Nicaraguan institutions. The institute also promotes a healthy view of masculinity and femininity among students, staff, faculty, and administration.

Two weeks ago the Institute celebrated its fifth anniversary with a special celebration that included a student drama and a brief concert by a group from the national choir. Dr. Jerjes Ruiz, Alan's boss and director of the Institute for Humanistic Development gave the meditation. Here are some photos from the event.

Circus

Last weekend we took Simon to the circus! Actually, mommy and daddy were probably more excited than Simon, but we all had a good time in the end. Here are a few photos from our time.

You had to see it...

The other day I was running an errand here in Managua and saw something that was almost too hard to believe. I saw a guy riding a motorcycle and also wearing a helmet. That in itself is rare. But then I noticed the guy take off his helmet as he drove. With his helmet occupying his left hand, he reached with his right hand into his pocket, pulled out a cell phone, and answered it. Now both his hands were full, leaving no hands to hold the handle-bar. He even went over a speed-bump like this! He wrapped up his phone call, put his cell back in his pocket, put his helmet back on, and continued on his way as if nothing had happened. Amazing.