La Plaza Central

Due to some rather inclement weather, El Centro’s office will be closed today.  We will open again on Monday bright and early at 9:00 a.m.  Thank you for your understanding.

That was fast.  It was an insane number of Barbie dolls, I mean gifts, but staff and volunteers worked all day for two days and we’re done.  Thank you to all who came and helped wrap.  And thanks to those who were signed up to come tomorrow, but it looks like we are all done wrapping.  If anyone is available next Monday, we could still use some help setting up and running the Christmas party.  It will start around 3:00 p.m. and we hope we’re done by 8:00.

We have a few photos up now.  More tomorrow.

The 700 gifts are here.  Wrapping paper, bows, tape and scissors are flying.  Not so much the scissors.  The meteorólogos (weatherpersons) are predicting a wicked ice storm for Thursday night/Friday morning, so if you signed up to wrap presents or would still like to, we may wrap into this evening and all day and evening tomorrow just in case we can’t open all day on Friday.  Feel free to call the office, 474.3950, or check back with the blog as I’ll post an update as soon as possible.

White Christmas!

You may have noticed that news is rolling in a little slower these days.  That’s because as we come upon the end of the year, El Centro is winding down many of it’s educational programs and going into a two-week hibernation.

The basic computer skills class taught by volunteer Chris Carter here in the computer lab at the Malone Center ended last Thursday with a graduation ceremony and celebration.  I forgot my camera, so no photos, but rest assured the women were proud of their accomplishment.  I want to thank Chris for offering to teach the class this fall.  The success was all his.

Our general health and diabetes education classes at a Hispanic church in town ended last Tuesday with free medical checkups for all participants and a celebration catered by Pepe’s Veggie-Mex Bistro.  Pepe was kind enough to provide the food for almost all of our sessions, and we want to thank him again for all of his help.  Pepe’s Bistro is located in Lincoln’s historic Havelock district and offers a wide array of Mexican food using fair trade, organic and local ingredients whenever possible.

And finally, the computer/literacy skills classes offered to parents of Latino families at Everett Elementary will finish tomorrow with the last class and a celebration complete with pizza and pop.  The computer classes have been taught by Brent Meier of La Plaza fame and volunteer Jessi Reiss.  Brent and I would like to give her a big thank you, as well.  Without volunteers we wouldn’t be able to do what we do.

I would also like to thank Sarah Brey, Daniela Bautista, Jamie Rubio, Paola Plata, Jamie Wilkinson, and Jonathan Pinzón for all of their help with the above projects.  Their help was greatly appreciated y les deseamos suerte en todo lo que hagan.

Alright, I apologize for getting too obscure.  The reference was from Pinwheel, Nickelodeon’s early counterpart to Sesame Street.  Bill Cosby had little segment called Picture Pages in which he drew stuff and got out of mazes with his pen named Mortimer.  I’ll try to be more “mainstream” next time.

Watch an episode here.

The Journal Star today has a little article (articlecito?) about the Mexican folklore dance group, Sangre Azteca.  They danced at our Festival, and there are some photos of them in our photo gallery.  And they’re great.

Yeah, that’s all I got.

On a side note, one week and counting until the Christmas party.  We just got word that presents for Toys for Tots must be picked up by tomorrow at noon, so we can start wrapping a day early if anyone is interested.  And who isn’t interested?

I just read this article:  J-Star on immigration along with its deadening comments and see no movement or solution in the immigration mire. I only have this to say:

Let us broadly examine what is occurring: People from other countries are coming here. Our government requires that every person be documented. A lot of these people aren’t. A lot of non-immigrant people want them to leave. Question: are these immigrants colonizing the U.S., seizing land, pillaging native structures and laying waste to the founded community? No. Another question: Given that pillage and seizure are what the forefathers of America did one and two and four hundred years ago – only to come up with a slogan about tired, wretched people -  should we examine more closely our immigrant situation rather than conclude deportation is the immediate and only answer? Yes.

Please, if you find separatism and banishment worthy ideals, re-examine yourself and your community and realize how compassion and education are as much benefits as they are costs. Sure this is a floaty, expensive dream. I was taught wealth doesn’t always mean one’s pocketbook. Get it?

I link to this article in Time magazine today for three reasons. One, it involves Nicaragua. B, it mentions Kiva.org which is one of my favorite organizations. And three, as any of my Peace Corps brethren will tell you, pastries in Central America are a tricky game of roulette. So many times did we step into a panadería looking for a dessert to satisfy the post-beans and rice sweet tooth, but rarely if ever did we select the slices of cake or cupcakes. That was because cake there is nothing like cake here. Here there is flour, there they have some grainy corn powder-like substance or Maseca, neither of which ever seemed to taste very good in cake. I’m sure that better ingredients are cost prohibitive for most places, but that doesn’t change the fact that when in doubt in Central America you should probably opt for donuts and bananas, and wash it all down with a fresco from a bag. Unless, I guess, you’re at the Little Mango Bakery in Managua.

As mentioned by Nick, we have a few spots on Lincoln’s community radio station announcing two of our outreach programs.  You can hear them below:

Victims of Domestic Abuse Program

Lincoln Police Department

And for good measure:

http://kzum.org/