The yoga mural is underway!

After much planning and talk about it, we finally started the mural at La Biblioteca de los 3 Ernestos today. The wall in the small room adjacent to the library of donated books has been primed for days and the kids have been itching to begin.

I’ve been teaching them yoga + art classes twice a week since I arrived in Salinas through Gabriela and James’ grassroots community foundation, Fundacion Aprender. Aprender was the initiative they started when they moved to Salinas and noticed the lack of educational and recreational opportunities for the kids. Las Salinas is a tiny, remote village about a two hour rickety bus ride away to the nearest relative metropolis of Rivas (where it is possible to find an ATM or a pharmacy). Chickens, roosters, turkeys and pigs walk the dusty, dirt roads and most of the families are poor. Education is a nice-to-have and only if families can afford to buy the uniforms school kids are required to wear here in Nicaragua.

So Aprender got on that, offering family outreach, counseling and support to increase school registration and attendance. They helped get the kids uniforms. Then they built Salinas’ first library full of books and magazines in Spanish and English. It’s become a place where the kids can go to get help with their homework, use one of the five donated computers, or take really interesting classes - like mine! (Or Natalie’s - who teaches hula hooping to the older kids on Tuesday afternoons.)

It amazes me every day that I am here what Gabriela and James have done and continue to do, between building their permaculture farm and running Aprender. Thanks to a new grant they just received, Salinas will soon have a sports field. Thanks to a group of surfers passing through who wanted to help with money for supplies, the library will soon have a latrine. But - with the exception of the two full-time librarians Aprender can afford - Gabriela and James handle most of the fundraising, outreach and logistical coordination of all the projects themselves. Being around them is an inspiration, not to mention amazing lesson in getting shit done.

And so soon, too, the yoga mural will be done. The kids spent today rendering their yoga poses of choice on the white wall in pencil then painting them in with bright tempura colors. The poses line up pretty nicely on a windy road that leads from La Bibioteca all the way to Salinas’ hot springs, just like it does in real life. Some of the poses are levitating among the clouds and the butterflies, some are miniscule and some towering. After all my preparation and planning the mural nothing like what I'd imagined. It's beautiful.

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You can click here to see pictures of the kids and our yoga mural in progress!

To learn more about Aprender or find out what you can do to help please visit the site - or just let me know :)