Insectos y murales

Anyone know what this insect is?  100 points to the first
person who can correctly identify it!
There are tons of insects in Nicaragua.  It's one of the main
things I will NOT miss when I get back to the U.S.

Today is my last full day of classes here in Nicaragua.  It is strange how quickly the time has flown.  Yet two weeks really isn't that much time.  I feel like I've learned a lot, seen a lot, experienced a lot.  And all experiences like this make us a better person, I think, if we let it.  Nicaragua wasn't even a bleep on my radar before, and now I feel comfortable here.  I have friends here and I've shared a small portion of their lives.  This is one of the only bad things about traveling in this way . . . when you share in the culture, is that you eventually leave.  But this is the life I've chosen.  Each time I leave a place, I leave behind a piece of me.  All I can hope is that that piece has made a difference for someone, or at the very least that it hasn't done any harm.
But enough of reflection.  I still have a full day in Nicaragua.

A wasp (we think) making a nest in our
doorway.  50 points to anyone who can
verify or disprove that this is a wasp.

Today, during class I listened to my first traditional Nicaraguan music.  It was interesting.  One song was about Esteli, another about Nicaragua, and a third about the revolution.  In return, I played some of the music that I have from different places in the world.  It was fun.
After lunch, I walked to the store to see if there was anything else I wanted to get.  They were closed, so I walked all the way over there for nothing.  It was rather disappointing.  Instead, I came back and relaxed a little before going to the school for our final excursion.
For this excursion, only two of us went.  I'm not sure what the others were doing or why they didn't want to go, but it was interesting.  We saw one of the first murals in Esteli.  It is a mural dedicated to the children who fought and died during the Revolution.  I guess they made homemade bombs and used them.  But they weren't any safer in their homes, so they figured they might as well help.
Children from every age died during the war, many pregnant women were killed.  Snipers shot at anyone that moved.  The plane that we saw earlier was part of that revolution, but flown by the government of the dictator, supported by the U.S.  But the U.S.'s support didn't have anything to do with the dictator or actually support of his government.  Instead, the U.S. supported him because the opposition was the communists.  During the Cold War, the U.S. always opposed anything and anyone related to communism.

Mural for the children whose lives were cut short in the
prime of their lives.

We saw several murals depicting the war, and people who gave their lives for the liberty of Nicaragua.  It was interesting.  I hadn't ever heard anything about Nicaragua before coming here.  It'll be interesting to see what the future holds for Nicaragua.  The professor that came with me was telling me that she thinks Nicaragua has lost two if not three generations because of the war.  But the women have always been the ones to keep working through everything.  The women I've met here are amazing.  They work hard both in and outside of the home, and have to put up with so much.  It makes me sad, but also makes me very glad that as a woman, I was born in the United States.  And hopefully it'll get better for them, and for all the other women in the world soon.

To be normal is not what is important.  What is important is to
accept our differences.

I assume these are leaf-cutter ants, 25 points to anyone who
can verify or disprove my theory.  It was amazing how
quickly they could go with these leaves!

Mural about the initial insurrection, everyone has different
weapons, some with homemade bombs.

You have to take your rights, you don't ask
for them.  You snatch, not beg.

The faces of those who died in the war, mixed together.