Sheila Briones Blandon

Her full name is Sheila Danessa Briones Blandon. Like everyone else in Nicaragua, she takes her first last name, Briones, from her father, and her second last name, Blandon, from her mother. She was born in Jinotega (pronounced hee-no-tay-ga) in northern Nicaragua, which has a population of 300,000.

When Nicaragua was at war, small units of 25 to 30 men and women were established for fighting purposes all around Jinotega. After the war most of these people married, built homes, and began to raise families. These units have become communities where the government has set up health clinics, schools, and farming cooperatives. Farmers who are members of a cooperative share their costs and profits.

Sheila lives in the Suni Community. Her father is the treasurer of his cooperative and he uses a computer to maintain the cooperative’s financial records. He is also a farmer who raises onions, tomatoes, and beans. The children help him with planting, watering, fumigating, harvesting, and drying the onions. Sheila's mother is an elementary school teacher in a neighboring community. Sheila has two brothers and one sister, and all of them, including Sheila, are in primary school.

Sheila and her family live in a three-room adobe brick house. There is one bedroom where everyone sleeps, a living room, and a kitchen with a wood-fired stove for cooking. The kitchen has a dirt floor but the other rooms have linoleum floors. Sheila helps with sweeping, making the beds, washing dishes, and some basic cooking. She likes to make fruit drinks by blending fresh fruit with water and sugar. At night she makes tibio, which is powdered milk and sugar in hot water. All of the children help their father pack their school lunches in the morning.

Sheila is in the first grade and attends school daily from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. A typical school day for Sheila includes reading and writing (copying sentences), mathematics (addition, subtraction, and multiplication), taking tests, and receiving stars on her forehead for good behavior. The Suni school is built from red bricks and has a tin roof. Imagine how loud it is when it rains! All schools in Nicaragua share this style because they were built by the national government through the Social Investment Fund for Education.

After school, Sheila does her homework and plays with the other children. Her favorite game is "La Chapa," which is very similar to "tag." In this game, the kids have to squat down in order not to be "tagged." Some days Sheila and her brothers and sister go to their grandmother’s house to watch cartoons on television.

Sheila likes school very much and is an excellent student. When she grows up, she wants to be a nun because she likes a family friend who is one.

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