More on El Melonar and our meeting with Mario...

We just finished meeting with the principal at Cristóbal Colón, the little school out at El Melonar.  Mario came over this morning so we could discuss the coming school year and so we could share with him that we would be helping the children with their school supplies, and hopefully, their uniforms. 
What an exciting and eye-opening meeting that was!  
When Mario came in to the house, he was very discouraged.  He had received word from the Minister of Education that a pre-enrollment report indicated that there were less students enrolled in the primary grades.  Mario was told that the government would then pay for only one elementary teacher since the class size was going to be less than the required 32 students for a second teacher for multi-grade classes.  They only had 28 students pre-enrolled for 1st through 6th grades.  The director explained to Mario that meant two things for this next school year...either he or Bianca (the teacher who taught 1st-3rd grades last year) would have to go and whoever the remaining teacher would be, would have to teach all 6 grades by themselves!   
Mario was devastated!  The director explained that the district would like to keep him there because of his experience and move Bianca to another area since she only has a few years experience.  But that they hadn't yet made up their minds who would be moved. 
I need to clarify something here...this report did not include the 9 children who are hoping to go to kinder...which is a pre-school/kindergarten class that is typical in the government schools and that Cristóbal Colón was hoping to add this year.  Kinder has three levels - level 1 is for 3 year olds, level 2 is for 4 year olds and level 3 is for 5 year olds.  They have not had one in the past because of a lack of a teacher for such a small group.  This year, there are enough kinder students that the district is looking at adding a teacher.  But, that teacher would be for that class only and that class cannot be combined with the lower primary grade classes.
So, as it stands now, there will be only one teacher for the 28 students in 1st through 6th grade and a new teacher (Bianca doesn't have kinder experience) for the 9 students in the kinder class.  
We discussed at length some of the ramifications to this decision...two of those being the impossibility to teach all the students in the primary grades at an optimum level and that this kind of assignment will a take a toll on the health/stamina of that teacher...not to mention their voice and their nerves!
I decided to go for a more personal question and I asked Mario what the government paid their teachers.  He told me that 3000 cordobas per month (currently about $125) is the standard wage for a rural elementary teacher.  He said because of his experience, he also receives a bonus.  The bonus is based on each consecutive year that a teacher has taught in a government school and it consists of an additional 20 cord per month (that equates to 84 cents a month more than the base pay)...that's some incentive plan, huh?  So sad to see this!  Teachers are definitely under-appreciated and under-paid here!
Although El Melonar is logistically considered a part of the Somoto school district, according to Mario, the community is treated differently.  Because it is a poorer community, the children are often looked down upon.  Many drop out of school because they don't see how their circumstances can ever change with an education...there aren't too many success stories in their small community and so the benefits of a good education is simply a pipe dream to a lot of those families.  
Another example of non-spoken discrimination is that the small school doesn't receive many of the benefits and amenities that some of the other public schools receive.  When I asked him why, he explained that it is because it's such a small community...and their school has so few students...more of an  "escuelita".  There are only about 75 families and about 50 homes...many share their homes with extended family members.  He shrugged his shoulders as he explained that there aren't enough students to warrant more attention.  Broke my heart...every child matters!   
In the course of our conversation, Mario mentioned in passing that there are a handful of children who don't attend school.  When we asked about them and why they didn't attend, he said it was because their families cannot afford even the most basic of supplies...notebooks and pencils.  We asked him if the children were guaranteed to have school supplies, did he think they would come...he said he could talk to the families to encourage them to send the children and he thought that they could be persuaded to let them come if they knew that they would have school supplies like the other children.  Shame and embarrassment are certainly detrimental to a child's education...
We also asked Mario if those children came, would that boost the numbers up to where Ministry of Education would allow the school to two teachers again.  Within a split second, his eyes lit up and said he was going to call the director right then and ask.  Well, the director's phone went right to voice mail but we saw a definite change in Mario's countenance.  He was starting to put the pieces together...that if we could supply the necessary items for these other children in addition to the current students, then their attendance would bring them up to the minimum requirement of students in order to justify two teachers...and maybe Bianca could stay after all!  
It was so wonderful to see hope in Mario's eyes.  He's so committed to helping these children in his community.  He said that his dream when he was much younger was to be a pilot but he said God had different plans for him.  Now, he says his dream is to help these children realize that they could someday be a pilot.  He said several times that he wants them to believe that nothing is impossible for them.  I love that about Mario!  His enthusiasm is contagious!  
We let Mario know that we would definitely be helping the students at El Melonar and to plan on us being there on the first day of school (which has now been changed to February 11th) with a backpack for each child, filled with all their school supplies!  He was so excited!  
Through Mario, we saw some doors open up for us in not only being able to help meet some real needs with these children but even more so, an opportunity to meet some spiritual needs.  We were talking about helping the children with some English classes and maybe a craft class once a week.    Mario eagerly agreed and then told us that he would like it if we could also teach the children Bible stories!  You could have knocked us over with a feather!  The Lord opened the door for us and Mario has shoved us through it!  I love it!  
We are really looking forward to see how God is going to work in this.  We expect there to be some resistance along the way but I know that after this morning's meeting, that we are even more confident that this is definitely the place that God has called us to minister.  We are so excited for the future here!
If you would like to help support this project (or our ministry), you can do that by sending donations to the ministry address listed on our contact information or through our church...First Baptist Church, 602 West Street, Cassville, MO 65625.
We would love to have any of you come visit us here...individually or with a team.  I'm pretty sure that you would fall as much in love with the Nicaraguan people as we have!