In November we were approached by a (foreign) friend who has contacts with Ark communities in France. He asked if we were interested in having a letter exchange with participants of a workshop of one of the Ark communities in Paris. Of course we would! And thus we got in touch with Julie, who leads the workshop there, and the workshop’s participants.
Julie’s idea was to send real ‘snail mail’ letters to each other. But as international mail traffic to and from Nicaragua is hampered by a limited number of flights due to the corona virus and controls on landing rights enforced by the Nicaragua Government, we opted for an exchange by email instead.
The Paris workshop has been in operation much longer than ours and produces very professional items in our eyes. But that is not what matters. It is all about an exchange of what life is about: the weather (cold, heat); restrictions imposed by the corona virus (none in Nicaragua, plenty in Paris); about Christmas customs and everyday life. The letters are largely filled with photos because our participants respond better to pictures than they do to words. We do include short messages and a greeting. And we write it in English to avoid the language problems posed by Spanish and French. Here is the link to the last letter we received: Brief aan Nicaragua maart
Not all of our participants realize what ‘correspondence’ is, but they like the pictures and enjoy the exchange in their own way. Other participants are pleased to know that they have friends in other parts of the world. We hope it will be a long-term contact!
Photo: Suzy Hazelwood from Pexels
