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LEXINGTON-WASPAM SISTER CITY COMMITTEE
P.Q. Box 283, Lexington, MA 02173 USA
November 13, 1995
Dear Friends:
We are writing to tell you about the activities of the Lexington-Waspam Sister
City Committee during the past year and about our plans for continuing these projects
in the coming year.
As we mentioned in our last letter to you, the Lexington-Waspam Sister City
Committee undertook to pay the salary of an elementary school teacher, Ms.Lucrecia
Pedro Patron, in the Sumu town of Awastingni, in the municipality of Waspam. She had
been working as a volunteer prior to 1994, where her qualities as a teacher were
observed and appreciated by committee member Ken Hale during a visit to Awastingni
in 1993. The community of Awastingni was eager for her to receive a salary and to be
advanced to the status of professional teacher This will require additional training, and
the committee has agreed to fund Lucretia s participation in professionalization
courses set up by the Ministry of Education (MED) during the annual break in the
school year, the cost being primarily that of room and board in Puerto Cabezas.
Lucrecia has now been through two Ministry of Education courses (January 1994,
1995), and she is concluding her second year as a teacher with the salary provided by
the Lexington-Waspam Sister City Committee. During 1994 she received the standard
salary for a beginning teacher in Nicaragua—to wit$975.00—augmented by another
$325.00 to be used for supplies and travel expenses. We were advised to pay the same
salary for 1995, rather than increase it. It was pointed out that a raise for Lucrecia would
be unfair in relation to the salary of her fellow teachers which, given the rate of
exchange, remain low despite any increase they may receive from the government. By
contrast with 1994, she received support from the MED for her food during the
between-semesters professionalization course. Leaving us responsible only for her
room, some$100.00.
In January of 1995,. Ken Hale was in the RAAN doing research on the Twahka
dialect of Sumu, at which time he paid a visit to Awastingni, on Sunday,January 22,
with a group consisting of a number of Sumu education people, Melba McClean, our
principal CIDCA contact in relation to Snmu affairs and dahghter of Pastor McClean of
Awastingni, Mario lUzn_ the PERI coordinator for CIDCA as well ac l.iirreria taking a
day off from her ME!) professionalization course
After arriving in Awastingni, Ken met with members of the community in order
to discuss matters.The people were disappointed that we couldn't accede to their 1994
request that we support a second teacher and contribute to the support of Awastingni
students getting their secondary education in Port. Ken told them that a second teacher
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would be too much but that he would see if we could come up with some support, at
least, for the secondary students. He asked them if they could do someting creative in
that vein with, say, $400 per year. They discussed this for a long time, and finally one of
the mothers came up with a wonderful plan,enthousiastically approved of by everyone,
apparently The idea was this—for$400 you can rent a house in Port.They would use
the money to rent a house for the Awastingni secondary students, and adult community
members would take turns living in the house and taking rare of it and the students.
At that point Ken could only leave$200 for this project, promising to send
another$200 after he got home. In addition, Melba McClean suggested that part of the
expenses of the Awastingni adult care-taker could be obtained by using the monthly $25
over-payment originally intended for supplies. Everyone agreed that this was the best
use of that extra fund, since it was not always properly used during 1994, they said.
We have heard from our contacts at CIDCA that our teacher is doing well and
that the house project began as soon as it was dear that they would have enough money
for the year. Ken will be returning to the RAAN in January and we plan to send enough
money to fund our teacher for another year and to fund the house project (including
rental and oversight by an Awastingni adult). The total needed for this is $1,700.00.
Although the amount involved here is not great,it are not insignificant, and it must be
obtained if the project is to continue. It is possible as well that Lucrecia's salary will
increase this year, assuming that that of her colleagues increases as it should, and we
cannot be sure that Lucrecia's expenses in connection with her professionalization will
be as low as they were in 1995. In addition, expenses surrounding the house are not
known with absolute certainty, and it is very possible that we will need more than we
now envisage for that project. We hope, therefore, that you will be able to help us again
with a donation.
For whatever you can give, we thank you again according to the Sumu custom
employed by Pastor Netario McClean of Awastingni when we concluded our
discussions of the arrangement regarding T.nrreria'c calarcr
regarding �
Tingki arungka kaldnin ki tingki, tingki, tingki, tingki
That is to say. "One must give thanks four times: thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks."
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