[Vision2020] And yet another letter that has come from Dave Barber

[Louise Barber]

Letter 11.5
Dear All, 
            Today has been busy -- in my class we´ve been going through
Frost´s STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING, which they have translated
into Spanish.  But it´s in the area of English sounds and practice speaking
where I can help them.  What an ESL amateur I am!
            Earlier Mario and I went to my 6th school:  Instituto Martin
Koenning (not sure of the spelling).  The school gets its German name from
having been supported some years ago by an organization, or maybe city, in
Germany. In fact, the principal before the present one was German.
            It´s another out-of-the-way school that you get to by either of
two highways in between which is the school.  A couple of miles of dirt
roads, again no buses here, just bikes and feet.  The school has 690
students all told.
            They also have good solid wooden chairs with desk tops.  And
Irlanda, the principal, and Elvis (a fairly common name here), the English
teacher, say that the students´ parents take care of the chairs, accounting
for their good condition.  Overall the school looks better maintained than
most -- a little more loving care going into it, perhaps.
            They don´t get help from Germany any more, only a little from
Plan Internacional which helps in small ways like buying mochilas
[backpacks], not just for this school but generally.  (One of the political
parties here is pushing a program to buy SHOES for the poorest rural
students, but so far the program hasn´t been approved.)
            I got some clear specifics regarding needs.  The bathrooms are
in bad shape; there is an old aula [classroom] that needs fixing.  This
school is the only one I´ve seen with a BEISBOL [baseball] field, and the
school team won the VEC baseball championship last year.  They would love
help in sports, balls and uniforms.  Elvis introduced me so a couple of boys
who wanted that help, and of course all I could say was that the various
schools have various needs and I am trying to find out what those are.
            Elvis asked me if MSCA is a foundation, and I said no, just a
local organization trying to help a sister city.  These folks must have an
inflated idea of the resources available.  No surprise.  The secondary
students were quite shy except for one class, but the primary students more
outgoing or brave.  Perhaps the key was when a student asked me about what
snow is like, and I realized that in my mochila I am carrying my Moscow
photos, which include a lot of snow.  So I showed them some, and that broke
the ice very nicely.  I was asked the normal range of questions, including
one about whether flying is scary, and another about whether I go to church.
            But the highlight of my day, I say shamelessly, was in a
secondary class when one boy pointed to a girl indicating she had a
question.  The girl hid her head under her cuaderno [notebook], so I tapped
her on the shoulder, for prodding, which didn´t help, so the boy proceeded
to claim (in English) that she had said 'Beautiful eyes, he has.'  Giggles
all around.  What could I say, but 'Y usted tambien' [And you also], which
was true.
            Nicaragua is SUCH a friendly place!
            Dave

 


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