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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 30, 1983)
Portland Observer, November 30, 1963 Page 5 Oregon eacher joins Nicairaguan education drive by Millie Thayer I Ed note: Millie Theyer teechea Spanish at Grant High School In Portland. She recently returned from a month in Nica ragua.) SAN MAH TINO. N IC A RA CU A —(a fictitious name, used to protect the safety o f the article‘s subjects/— It’s a long way from this muddy vil lage in the mountains of Nicaragua to the cozy Southeast Portland bun galow where Sheryl lived until four years ago. Now her day begins at 5:30 when she is awakened by roos ters and light coming through the large cracks between planks in the storeroom where she sleeps. Break fast is coffee and corn cereal made over a kerosene stove. A cistern out side provides water for washing up. Sheryl's present job bears only slight resemblance to her former po sition in Canby High School’s Title I reading and math program teach ing teenagers with learning prob lems. Now she works with semi-lit erate peasants in Nicaragua's Adult Education program. By 7:30 on a typical day, Sheryl's Nicaraguan co-workers have tumbled into the office and the air is full of jokes tossed back and forth. She keeps up with the rest, frequent ly sending them into fits of laughter with her straight-faced humor. They are mostly young people in their early twenties, playful and spirited, but with a deep seriousness. Their ‘office’ is actually a brick and wood shack with a tin roof, four rooms, a dirt floor and no win dows. Some rough wooden tables serve as desks and a few ancient typewriters lie scattered about. A handmade poster declares: "Every man upon coming to the earth has a right to be educated and afterward to contribute to the education of others.” A pistol sits on a table for ready use, a reminder of the recent attacks by counterrevolutionaries on villages in the area. Why did Sheryl give up her com fortable existence to plunge into such an unfamiliar, difficult and dangerous situation? Frustration and a desire to feel that her efforts made a difference were at the root of her move. Back in Portland, Sheryl had worked with educational misfits in a series of programs which never seemed able to meet their needs. She became concerned with the larger social problems—dead-end jobs, fragmented communities—which she saw as the source of her stu dents’ difficulties. Impatient with inadequate efforts to confront these problems, she sought a society where she could make a contribu tion to bettering people’s lives in a concrete way. In Nicaragua, she felt that the social and economic changes being made and the new government’s commitment to edu cation would make this possible. Sheryl came to Nicaragua in Au gust of 1979, six weeks after the overthrow of Anastasio Somoza, the U.S.-backed former dictator. On a recent trip I visited her village in the coffee-growing region. Sheryl has a wry sense o f humor, an infectious chuckle and a tenden cy to mutter thoughts aloud. Being in the spotlight horrifies her, and it was only with great difficulty and large quantities of imported choco late that 1 convinced her to give me an interview. Over her ironing one day she de scribed the mood in Nicaragua after Somoza's defeat. “ You crossed the border and there was this incredible air of eu phoria. It was like a fiesta all over the country.” In the first seven months, she tra velled, picked coffee, gave classes to the children of workers on an ha cienda and taught women in a poor barrio to read and write. In March of 1980 she joined the Literacy Cru sade. a nationwide campaign aimed at eradicating the 50 percent illiter acy rate. “ When people are illiterate, they feel powerless. The Sandinistas are trying to build a society based on mass participation, s o ...th e y have to overcome this sense of impotence. Teaching people to read was a way to reach out to everyone in the country and make a real im pact on their lives.” Sheryl became a supervisor of the high school-aged teachers who had volunteered to work in the cam paign. "I had twenty young ‘brigadistas’ under my control at one point ....* * Sheryl paused and smiled ruefully. "N o, I won’t say that. They had me A Nicaraguan peasant child waits outside while her father attends an adult education class. (Photo: Millie Thayer) surrounding rural areas. This is where I found her. It's pouring rain as we set o ff on foot to visit classes and consult with the peasant coordinators in Sheryl's zone. A landscape of gentle green mountains blurs and the dirt turns to mud beneath our feet. Lack of ve hicles makes walking a necessity. Luckily we are soon picked up by a truck heading north carrying sacks of grain and several other people carrying a woman and baby. At a junction we hop off and start walking again. Our path winds through haciendas; shiny-leaved coffee plants stretch off on cither side under tall trees. Once we have totlam ber off the road to let a herd o f cattle pass; later two men on horseback ride by looking for them. We first stop amongst the white wooden shacks o f state hacienda workers where the coordinator is having some problems getting his class organized. Sheryl says the problems in her zone range from poor attendance because of long working hours to "so and so says Yet, they succeeded. Sheryl his wife can't come to class because proudly showed ine the banner her the coordinator is flirting with her.” region was awarded: “ Territory Sheryl often must go house to house Victorious Over Illiteracy." Nation talking with students to find out ally the campaign raised the percent why they are not attending. In this age of the population able to read case the problem is more simple—a and write from 50 percent to 87 per shortage of materials—and easily cent in only five months. Peasants solved. developed a new ability to under All these interactions begin with stand and affect their social envir an exchange of greetings and some onment. City kids learned about the conversation about the coordina lives of most of their country’s peo tor’s family, what's new in the com ple. What they saw deepened their munity and the latest rumors of con commitment to making changes in tra activity. It's considered rude to Nicaragua that helped everyone. get right to the point. I marvel at "It was an extraordinary event. how comfortable Sheryl seems. In Being part of a literacy crusade has Portland she never much enjoyed all the wonder of a mass movement, social situations. Here she relates all the excitement of a war, but none easily with people, remembers all of of the blood, none of the sadness. I their many family members, their feel very lucky to have been part ot ailments and accomplishments. it.” (Sheryl has written a book The problem settled, it’s time to about her experiences during this move on so that I can see one of the time, A n d Also Teach Them to classes. Someone has warned us not Read, which is being published by to continue farther into Sheryl’s Lawrence Hill.) zone because it is getting late. There After the crusade, the brigadistas have been contra attacks recently went back home to high school. But and the area is patrolled by local mi basic literacy was seen by the San- litias at night. Unidentified travelers dinisla government as only a first run a risk of being mistaken for the step. The problem became how to enemy and fired upon. We decide to continue the process of adult educa turn back and visit a class being tion and where to find the teachers. taught in another zone. The solution: those who knew a lit Rickety steps lead up to the door tle would teach those who knew less. of a one-room schoolhouse on stilts. When the brigadistas left they se Inside, the light is dim. coming only lected their most advanced student from a few window openings. At the or a person in the community with far end of the room are five or six interest and education to become rows of wooden benches, each with the new teacher. These ’coordin a shelf on the back for the row be ators,’ as they were called, would hind to write on. take on the classes of adults and At the blackboard stands a young help them progress through the dif man of perhaps eighteen with long ferent levels of primary education. ish hair, a cap, jeans, and a purple Meanwhile the teachers would con T-shirt. He has eleven students— tinue to receive training eight adults, three children—sitting After a year's stint teaching En with books open in front of them. glish in a high school, Sheryl once They have come to class after a long again began her work with adults in day at work and are still in their the summer of 1982. She became an muddy work boots and stained Adult Education technician in a vil clothes. The students glance timidly lage, helping to supervise and assist at us as we sit in back The teacher the work of the coordinators in the under their control.” Her official title, "Technical Ad- vidor,” implied observing classes, giving advice and running work shops. But, in her words, she be came "everything from mama to nurse to teacher to disciplinarian.” Problems? Materials didn’t ar rive; there weren't enough brigadis tas; they would get sick or want to go home; many o f the campesino students lived in remote areas inac cessible during the rainy season. Worst of all, there were deaths in some regions as counterrevolution aries—"contras"—singled out liter acy teachers as targets. “Teaching people to read makes a real impact on their lives. " has them read syllables from the blackboard, helps them individually as they practice writing and gives a dictation on the national literacy crusade. These work-worn men hunched over desks made for children, their earnest faces as they clutch pencils and struggle to write, their young teacher's gentle efforts to help them: the scene has me close to tears. Here, in this remote corner of Nicaragua, I begin to see some of the reasons why this revolution is so important to its people, why so many have been willing to give their lives for the opportunities it has opened. Afterwards. Sheryl's coworker evaluates the class with the coordin ator, encouraging and suggesting improvements: "Your dictation was good, but try to start some discus sion among the students about the photographs in each lesson. Get them talking about their exper iences. Reading and writing need to be tied to real life, not just come out of books.” Ordinarily, Sheryl’s trips into her zone last two or three days with up to six hours o f walking each day. The teachers willingly offer her food and lodging in return for her atten tion and support. But today we re trace our steps to the village so that I can catch a truck back to the city. On the way home, Sheryl talks about the coordinators with whom she works. Each receives about seven dollars a month. They are es sentially volunteers who do their regular work in the fields, then lead evening classes and attend work shops on weekends. " Il’s a work of great love done by people who are in the true sense of the word revolutionaries, who want a better life for themselves and their children, who want to help their neighbors. They are people who love to study and will share the little they’ve somehow managed to learn with someone else." For this dedication the coordina tors of popular education have be come targets of counterrevolution aries, many of them ex-National Guardsmen who cross into Nicargua from Honduras and Costa Rica. At last count 44 adult education teach ers had been assassinated by the contras. Over fifty have been kid napped and forced to help carry supplies. Others die because, as community leaders, they are also the first to join local militia units. Recently, while Sheryl was at tending a village celebration of the anniversary of the literacy cam paign, a truck drove up with a coffin in the back. Everyone crowd ed around as villagers unloaded it onto the ground. When opened, the coffin revealed the body of Don Ro sario, a peasant teacher who died fighting a band of contras. He had enlisted in the militia only a few weeks before. I asked Sheryl why teachers are singled out for attack. "The big landowners who back the contras are use to running the show. But education increases peo ple's ability to be critical and gives them confidence to stand up for themselves. The work the teachers do builds support for the revolu tion. All this obviously threatens the upper classes." Many of Sheryl’s colleagues carry arms for self-defense as they walk through their rural zones. Sheryl doesn't, but she knows the danger and has faced the fact that she could be killed for her commitment. Looking back on her life in Port land, what differences does Sheryl see? "In Canby, the kids I worked with didn't care about school. And why should they? For them, with or without a high school diploma, life looked pretty bleak—crummy jobs or going into the army. They saw no hope for themselves or for the fu ture. "Now I work with people who have this incredible desire to learn, who are teaching and trying to ad vance themselves. Adult education in Nicaragua is taught by and for people who have hope for the first time." Sheryl plans to stay in Nicaragua, much as she misses good friends and chocolate. What keeps her working under difficult conditions besides the motivation of her student-teach ers? "In (he Slates the feeling you gel is that you're a useless lump on soci ety and you're lucky if you're allowed to do a job so that you can take home a paycheck. "I think the most important thing that people have in Nicaragua that people don't have in the United States is a sense that your work is good and important, that are good and important. People can see that they’re hepling to create a new and better society. And that’s what keeps me here. For that, I could sur vive for a long time on beans and rice." Poatcript: Attacks by the U.S.-supplied and trained contras have intensified in recent weeks. Following is an ex cerpt from a letter Sheryl wrote to a friend, describing an attack on the town of Pantasma on (Xtober 18th. " , . And now we get the news of 32 massacred in Pantasma, a town just across a few dozen mountains. (Later reports said 47 were killed.| They burned everything in it, T., and the education office with people in it, the cooperative. I am seeing the faces of these dead people now and trying to get news of a beautiful Gautemalan exile who works with adult education there. The names haven’t come out yet. Now the lights arc off in town again five nights in six and no gas for the lan terns. Bought up the last six cardies yesterday. And we do have a full moon. I am shaken a bit by these things, T., and so I pick up this let ter again at I p m in the bright sun. Yes. they died, all of them, and 300 contras burned the town. It makes it hard to sit and do what we are sup posed to do. . and the dead we spent the last workshop playing around together beautiful black eyes and the rest who I know from the same but can’t remember as clearly. . . Things arc about to gel real ugly here. T. The (and here I have no word bad enough) who run the country you live in I think have decided to send everything to stomp this little anthill and who knows what they'll do when they can’t."
