NEWS photo Terry Peters

DR. SHEILA Thompson says she gained a lot of insight into the political
situtation in Nicaragua after working there recently on a coffee-bean
farm. The retired North Vancouver educator is fund-raising for a school
for the children on the farm. -

TEACHERS RAISES FUNDS FOR SCHOOL

North Van senior turns
icaraguan coffee picker

SHE SPENT two weeks picking coffee on a mountain grade
fit for goats, but Dr. Sheila Thompson wasn’t complaining.

The 68-year-old, North Van-
couver resident was in Nicaragua
to help the people of a small
village, and to get a first-hand view
of the political situation in Central
America.

“It was a unique experience,”
Thompson said. ‘‘We lived side-
by-side with families from
Nicaragua, worked six days a week
and really got to know how these
people live.’’

The ‘‘we’’ were two other Ca-
nadians and 33 United States citi-
zens on an Elders and Youth
brigade, organized out of New
York.

Thompson had applied to the
U.S. organization to travel to
Nicaragua on a work brigade. She
paid her own airfare and $300 for
bed and board.

She explained cotton and coffee
pickers are needed in Nicaragua
because most of the native men are
fighting against the Contras.

“They used to get migrant

NEWS photo Stuart Davis

LIONS GATE Hospital in North Vancouver has reason to celebrate...the new endoscopy suite opened last
Friday. Cutting the ribbon to open the suite are (1. to r.) LGH president John Borthwick, endoscopy suite
director John Zohreb and endoscopy suite head nurse Linnie Storey. The suite will be used to facilitate the

detection and treatmeat of gastro intestinal and respiratory problems.

By KIM PEMBERTO

workers from Honduras and El
Salvador, but that border is the
war area now,”’ said Thompson.

As a coffee-picker, the retired
educator worked from 6 a.m. to 4
p.m. every day except Sunday, and
succeeded in picking 720 pounds of
coffee beans in those two weeks.
Thompson was paid for her efforts
by the state-operated farm, but
like others on the work brigade she
donated her earnings to the
children’s day care centre at the
farm.

Since returning home Jan. 31,
Thompson is still working to help
the village’s 100 children by fund-
raising to help build a two-room
school on the farm.

Her goal is to raise $5,000.
Thompson has already received
$1,500 in donations from members
of her Unitarian church group and

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others she has spoken with about
the project.

“This school will teach people to
be independent...to stand on their
own,”’ she said.

“I’m interested in education,
and it just seemed incredible to me
that the country’s national goal is
to raise people’s educational! stan-
dards to the grade four level.’’

Thompson said her visit to Cen-
tral America has served to
strengthen her own position on the
region's politics,

“My position fundamentally is
the one that Canada takes — that
the people of Central America be
able to work out their own destiny.
These people know what they
want, and if they are left alone
they would be able to do it,’’ she
said.

Thompson said anyone interest-
ed in her fund-raising campaign
can contact her at 988-2716.

The address. for information on
work brigades is: Brigadista Ex-
change, 239 Centre Street, New
York, 10013.

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