St. Elmo United Methodist Church member Chuck Cardwell is on a mission to help students in Calishaute, Nicaragua, stock their school shelves with books.
“We found out the country of Spain is willing to build the Calishaute School a library,” said Cardwell, a Brainerd resident and lab tech at Burner Systems. “The students just need books and computers. The books we took on the last mission trip were the only books the school had.”
Spanish-speaking interpreter Regina Ragon, of St. Elmo UMC, is taking a team to Nicaragua in July to deliver more books and Cardwell said he hopes to get many more materials donated before that trip.
Calishaute, Nicaraguan students are receiving assistance from St. Elmo UMC.“We accept books, CDs, DVDs and other multimedia to trade in at McKay’s for Spanish-speaking books,” said Cardwell.
Since St. Elmo UMC burned down in August 2009, church members began meeting at Lookout Mountain UMC, which has a box for book donations for Nicaraguan missions.
“The community we work with in Nicaragua has 200 families,” said Cardwell, who plans to travel to Nicaragua for his third time in February 2011. “In Nicaragua, if students don’t have a backpack and uniform then they can’t go to school.”
Cardwell said the mission team of St. Elmo UMC annually gives out 200 bags with flip-flops, shampoo, conditioner, soap, a book bag and hand-held game inside for the people of Calishaute. On his next mission trip in February, Cardwell said he plans to tell the team to pack their supplies in book bags, so that each mission member can travel with two suitcases full of books for the students.
“The Calishaute School in Nicaragua is made up of two big, long bays, or rooms,” said Cardwell, adding students in pre-kindergarten through seventh grade attend the school. “Students don’t want candy in Nicaragua. They ask for pencils.”
Cardwell said students sat on the ground to eat lunch, so his team brought back plastic tables and chairs for the students.
“Leaving the school last time, we asked them what they needed,” said Cardwell. “They requested cups and pitchers to pass around at lunchtime because they were sharing cups.”
Cardwell said Nicaraguans drive a cattle pulled wagon to fill up 50 gallon drums of water. As the Nicaraguans travel back with the water, they stop to give water to their neighbors along the way. Nicaraguans grow sugar cane, mangos and pineapple.
“The people of Nicaragua are so much more community focused than we are,” said Cardwell. “It is more of a survival thing. They stick together and help each other out. Now I constantly think instead of buying something for myself, I can buy something to help the people of Nicaragua instead.”