PLATTSBURGH — A public school sprang up in North Country Mission of Hope's backyard in Nicaragua a few years ago — in a derelict strip motel.
When the Plattsburgh-based humanitarian group kicks off its 44th effort in Nicaragua this week, volunteers will work to make the place safer and more functional for the 900 or so students crammed in the structure.
"It's in very bad shape," said Mission of Hope Leadership Team Vice President Bill Murray, who visited the place during a mini-mission in January. "No lighting, no locks on the doors, the ceiling is asbestos."
He said classrooms each hold about 50 students, with at most 20 desks for them — old wooden school desks, many of them broken.
"We're going to start on two classrooms," he said, "and if there's time, a third."
The volunteers, most from the North Country, will rewire the rooms, install locks, paint the walls.
"Maybe buy tables and chairs," Murray said.
'DIRE STRAITS'
Almost across the street is Niño Jesus de Praga School, a Catholic facility that by contrast is neat, clean and functional. Mission of Hope has dedicated itself to that school for more than a decade. And, in fact, many of the students there are sponsored through Mission of Hope by people in the North Country and elsewhere.
It is said that public schools benefit from government support, said Mission Executive Director Sister Debbie Blow.
That means they must sport the flag's colors of blue and white, Murray said, but government status doesn't appear to have much more meaning than that for the Chiquilistagua school. Free milk might be provided for the students once a month, Blow said.
And occasionally, Murray added, the teachers are paid.
"They really are in dire straits," he said of the school.
　&subhead;Positive progress
On this trip, mission members will see some positive progress in the battle against the deepest poverty.
A Mission of Hope donor just bought a horse and cart for use at the farm owned by Parjito Azul Disability Center. In January, Murray said, the garden that exists to both feed residents and raise some money for them was picture-perfect — tidy green rows of corn, cabbage, potatoes, all well-weeded.
Boys who live at the center were busy harvesting coffee beans and other crops.
The improvements had been helped along by a Dorothea Haus Ross grant won by Mission of Hope that paid for farm supplies and a water tank.
"We're teaching them drip irrigation," Murray said.
The grant, totaling about $14,000, also paid for a part-time doctor and a second physical therapist for the center itself.
But volunteers new and veteran alike will also have to process some shocking experiences.
Mission of Hope will, for the first time, assist a desperately poor hospital near the Honduras border.
There, Blow said, two women often are forced to share the same bed to give birth.
They'd seen that at a women's and children's hospital in Managua years ago that Mission of Hope had adopted, Leadership Team member Bonnie Black reminded Blow.
They thought about that for a moment, how as the mission expands its influence, the horrible conditions they see tend to repeat themselves.
"Sometimes you forget," Blow said quietly.
　&subhead;Advance team on ground
As of Saturday, the mission's Advance Team was already on the ground in Nicaragua; in Plattsburgh, volunteers were gathering at Seton Catholic Central School to weigh-in their luggage.
More than half of this trip's participants are newcomers to Mission of Hope, said Black in an earlier interview. "Far more than usual."
With resources provided by supporters from the North Country and beyond, they will build home shelters, paint classrooms, deliver food to remote areas, help in orphanages …"We're ready to move," Blow said.
Email Suzanne Moore at: Smoore@pressrepublican.com
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