Yeilin Maria

Yeilin Maria loves to study. Her favorite subject is math. At school, she is planting neem, eucalyptus, and fruit trees with her classmates in ecology class. After school, she helps her mother by taking care of her brother and sister. She also grinds the corn for tortillas and cooks the rice for dinner. 

Yeilin's father uses oxen to plow their garden where they grow sorghum, corn, yucca, watermelon, and sometimes sesame. Her father's most important gardening tool is a machete, and he also has a shovel and a hoe. In their yard they have several trees, including jocote (when ripe, a yellow fruit that is eaten like an apple), lemon, cashew, tamarind, and plantain.

Like most Nicaraguans, Yeilin's family eats rice and beans at every meal. Their diet also includes fruit, vegetables, cheese, meat, and chicken. On Sundays, they have nacatamales, a typical Nicaraguan dish, which is a ground corn tamale cooked with rice, potatoes, pork or chicken, tomatoes, onion, pepper, and arnotto (a natural red coloring agent). 

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