Wanderlust and Words

I have visited Kelowna , British Columbia on several occasions, but they were always very brief visits. I spent four days there this October and was pleasantly surprised to discover that there is more to Kelowna than simply a strip mall highway running through town. The IABC conference was held at Manteo Resort so we were right on the waterfront and walked back and forth to sessions along the dock. There was a very pleasant shopping area on Pandosy Street called the Mission District . I particularly enjoyed my breakfast at the Marmalade Cat Cafe. The Art of Yarn has a wide selection of wool, and there are several excellent restaurants. I had an excellent supper at Waterfront Wines . The wine menu is 10 times as long as the food menu, but both are excellent (they’re happy to provide a vegetarian meal even though none are listed on the menu). I also enjoyed an Indian dinner at Chutney’s. I went on a half-day winery tour with Distinctly Kelowna Tours (the two women owners are delightful

We bounce over the rutted road between fields of sugar cane. There is an opening in the fields, and rough huts appear by the road. Chris and Tina wave to the children who start running towards the school. It’s time for the weekly children’s art class in Zapote. By the time we arrive at the school, the whole community has come out to greet us. Over 80 children from 3 to 15 crowd into the single-classroom school eager to participate. Mothers with babies on their hips join the group, and the teenage boys, who are obviously way too cool to participate, watch from the open windows and door. Arte Acción has hired one of the local teenagers to help lead the art workshops, and he has elected to make papier mâché masks this week. We have one container of glue, three tubs for water, and I’m frantically tearing newspaper into strips with the help of some of the children. In Canada, this would be chaos. But not in Nicaragua. The children are so eager to participate, and the mothers are so gratef

Nicaragua is salt, sweat and ocean. It’s lush green fields, bananas, palms and active volcanoes. It’s butterflies and pelicans surfing the waves. It stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific with the largest land mass of any Central American country, and yet it is the least populated and one of the poorest. Bu ena(s) (Días) The travel guides say that Nicas are very friendly people, and that was certainly my experience. I was longing to improve my Spanish and I got lots of opportunities to practise. The waiters chatted when they weren’t busy, and the hotel staff told me about their families. Mey Ling was my Spanish instructor in Laguna de Apoyo. She is 23 years old and a firm believer in women’s rights. She believes that husbands and wives should share decision making about the number of children they will have based on available income. She refuses to accept the double standard whereby Nica men have affairs while Nica women are expected to stay home, dress modestly and accept their