Visits from St. Joseph Academy in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

This past month, we've had the pleasure of hosting three delegations from St. Joseph's Academy, a Catholic girl's school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  The school is affiliated with the Sisters of Saint Joseph, of which Sister Dianne Fanguy (who has accompanied us in Ciudad Sandino for over 16 years) is a member.  Sister Dianne is currently part of the national team of Cantera, and was guide for the delegations during their time here in Nicaragua.

Two of the groups from St. Joseph's focused on learning about the reality and history of Nicaragua, witnessing community-led efforts in Ciudad Sandino and other territories of Cantera, and having interchanges with members of the Youth Movement to learn from one another.  The girls used the opportunity to reflect on their lives in the U.S. and changes they can make to live more sustainably in the U.S. and work for a more peaceful and just world.

One of the groups was from the Technology Department, and brought donations of laptops, cameras, and technical equipment for use in training youth for their personal growth in new skills (and skills that can help them to find jobs in the future, or have greater access to educational tools), and for use in the Communication's Team's projects of community organizing and education.  The girls, several of whom are technical experts in computers, taught youth how to dismantle, fix, and reassemble laptops, helped research useful tools for this blog and social networking, among other things.  The youth were very excited to learn new skills, and look forward to learning more in the future!

We are very grateful for all of the groups' friendship, willingness to learn from our reality and share their hopes and dreams with us, and for their solidarity.  As several of the Youth Movement expressed, even though you are all far away, you are in our hearts and welcomed back any time!