The Saturday class at the new computer school in Las Conchitas. The school is sponsored by Bedford Presbyterian Church in Bedford, New York. During the week, the students and teachers from the school in Las Conchitas take classes. On the weekends and in the evenings, adult classes have begun.

In Bonnie's spare time, she hangs out with the boys from the Los Quinchos Project, Casa Lago, Granada. Los Quinchos works with street kids, and is a phenomenal program run by Zelinda Roccia from Italy. Bonnie is the madrina (godmother) of the Casa Lago soccer team. The uniforms, shoes, socks, shinguards, balls, pumps...everything...were donated by a soccer association in New York, through the work of Chris Burpee and his mom, Linda. By the way, this team is undefeated, 5 for 5.

Martin & Bonnie showing off the trophy!

For more information on the program, go to www.losquinchos.org.

Deportivo Bonnie

This is yet another team that I am the "madrina" of. This one is local.

The Artesans Market here in Masaya attracts a lot of kids. Well...everywhere you go in Nicaragua there are a lot of kids. Anyway, the kids here work as "guias" (guides) for tourists who come to the Market. The market management tries to organize them - even bought them all "offical guide" shirts one time. A bunch of the older boys have a soccer team.

This year, with the help of Bob Weatherly from Gulf Breeze, Florida, I was able to get them uniforms. I went to one of their games tonight and took a few photos. They named their team "Deportivo Bonnie" unbeknownst to me. (sorry Bob).


Today I finally made it to Yahoska, the Quinchos home for girls. I had met many of the girls during the soccer games (they had a team too) but I had never taken the time to drive to San Marcos and visit their place. Wow. It is a wonderful and happy and positive place - and when I got back to my house I cried like a baby. I'm not sure why. The little ones there just broke my heart. The ones who were there today are the ones who have no place to go for Christmas. About 10 out of 30 were there. At the Lake House, it's 20 out of 30 of the boys, so I guess the girls have a few more aunts and grammas out there somewhere. I feel so torn about coming to the states for Christmas.

Milagros Guadalupe, from Yahoska,
the Quinchos home for girls.

Jessica from Yahoska tries her hand at photography, while Bridges rep David Sandino hams it up with a group of the Yahoska girls...and Jessica's [visiting] little brother.


Eddy Eduardo Jalina, who spends all his time with kids who like to play baseball.

Kids from the Las Conchitas school singing the Nicaraguan national anthem.