Report from Nicaragua – by Rich Stewart
Brief report from your team in Nicaragua: We have visited several of RCVE projects, including the English Language School, the Preschool, The Computer School, The Community Bldg construction site, the micro-credit participants and we attended the meeting of the Granada Rotary Club.
Students from the language school and the computer school have been scheduled time with us one-on-one here in Casa Crozier. We sit with them for an hour or so, forcing them to converse with us in English, helping them find a word or expression that they don’t know. There are several levels of competency and we have to tailor our interaction to their individual levels of fluency. With a few of them, it’s like pulling teeth to get them to talk; with others we have to cut them off.
We have met the young man who was accidentally shot and we donated some money to make his treatment and physical therapy possible. He is making progress.
In the community of Pantanal, most of us went to the Community Council meeting and participated in some decision making and walked to where women have borrowed $25 or $50 and from that small infusion they have multiplied it into clothing making, tamale making and candy making enterprises. People with little hope of improving their situations, now have the wherewithal to earn some income and improve their lot. The money they borrowed has all been repaid with 5% interest and the funds are available now for the next budding entrepreneurs to step forward. They are excited about the opportunity and the changes that this small donation from us has made in their lives.
The children at the preschool presented a program to us, singing songs, reciting poems. We gave them a two-table top gift of education materials – crayons, pens, paper, puzzles, books, educational games, etc. They were thrilled.
We have visited other potential opportunities for us to share our good fortune with these people who have so much less than we can imagine without actually walking the streets of their community. It is a moving and thrilling experience to come down here and experience an international project ourselves. In between the work we’ve been doing, we’ve done some sightseeing and some shopping and we’ve had some good meals in some fine restaurants.
