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Thursday, March 28, 2002
Coming to America Nicaraguan visitors arrive for monthlong exchange SARAH JACKSON THE OLYMPIAN
OLYMPIA -- How do you welcome four first-time Olympia visitors from Nicaragua?
You show them the waterfront, take a tour of downtown -- including Batdorf and Bronson coffee roasters -- and orchestrate a sing-off at Clancy's Columbia Street Public House.
Then, the next day, you bring together hundreds of excited kids singing songs in Spanish.
This week the Thurston-Santo Tomas Sister County Association introduces Rosa Guerrero, 52, Modesto Narvaez, 38, Jairo Duarte, 27, and Yuri Lopez, 20, all active sister association members from Santo Tomas, Nicaragua.
They'll stay for a monthlong cultural exchange and will be the first delegation -- there have been only six others since 1988 -- to experience Procession of the Species and Arts Walk in April.
"All of these people are all of our friends," said Anna Shelton of Olympia, who visited Santo Tomas last summer. "Really, it's exciting to be able to return the hospitality and generosity and the love that we experienced there and show off our town in such an exciting time."
Opening ceremony
Wednesday students in Olympia welcomed the sister association's visitors at Lincoln Elementary, which already shares a longtime sister-school relationship with La Escuela Primario de Ruben Dario in Santo Tomas.
"I'm so content and happy to be here," Guerrero told an assembly of animated Lincoln students at the welcoming ceremony. "My grandkids," who visited Lincoln on a previous exchange, "send you lots of greetings."
Guerrero -- through a translator -- said Olympia's people have made her feel welcome already.
"It seems like they have a great love for us Nicaraguans," she said, "and we can see -- reflected in their faces -- the concern and the care that they have for us."
Teachers and kids offered gifts, played drums and wooden xylophones and sang Spanish songs about peace and liberty with versus such as "si se puede," translated as "yes we can."
Sen. Karen Fraser, D-Olympia, presented a welcome in Spanish and English and gave each of the visitors pens that Gov. Gary Locke used to sign laws passed in the last legislative session.
"It's a very beautiful city. The people are very friendly," Narvaez said through a translator after the Lincoln Elementary welcome, adding his sentiments about the Clancy's event. "We shared a really fun night last night with some of Olympia's young people."
Olympia's visiting "Tomasinos" also will take part in numerous public events, including a welcoming Friday, mural-making at the Procession of the Species Studio, an art exposition of Nicaraguan woodcarvings, a Nicaraguan meal-making workshop and community dinner as well as a farewell party at K Records.
Narvaez and Duarte both work as woodcarvers in Santo Tomas, a Nicaraguan city of 20,000 people in a dairy- and beef-producing region.
Guerrero and Lopez work with children and families providing free school lunches and other services.
Jean Eberhardt, a founding member of the association, said 17 people from the association will visit Santo Tomas this summer. Those visitors range in age from 9 to 72.
"Our relationship is built on these exchanges," Eberhardt said. "We learn from each other how we organize for the benefit of our community."
Sister relationship
Since 1988, the sister association has sent more than 50 South Sound residents to Santo Tomas, including five college student groups, two Group Health physicians' families, several community delegations and one Lincoln Elementary delegation.
Narvaez and Duarte, whose woodwork often is on sale at the Olympia Food Co-op in east Olympia, will spend time with professional Olympia woodcarvers and at Chief Leschi School near Tacoma, where they will help carve a totem pole with American Indian students.
Delegates also will visit Bread and Roses Community Kitchen in downtown Olympia as well as projects by GRuB, Garden-Raised Bounty, which helps teach gardening skills to low-income people.
Lopez also will spend time learning about youth health by observing education efforts of Planned Parenthood's Teen Council in Olympia.
All four visitors spent Wednesday, however, at Lincoln.
"Hello, kids from Lincoln," Lopez said through a translator to the student assembly. "I've worked a lot with kids and I look forward to spending time with you."
Sarah Jackson writes for The Olympian and can be reached at 360-704-6871 or sajackso@olympia.gannett.com.
South Sound residents can meet the four delegates from Santo Tomas, Nicaragua, at numerous public events in the coming month. Here's a timeline of the delegates' activities -- all open to the public.
- Friday: Welcoming at the old Madison School (Eighth Avenue and Central Street) in Olympia at the Procession of the Species Studios, 7-9 p.m.
- April 6: "Nicaraguan Art: Carving from Our Sister Community," an art exposition of woodcarvings from 2 to 6 p.m. at Midnight Sun in downtown Olympia.
- April 12: "Exploration of Nicaraguan Culture" with events from 3 to 7 p.m. at The Evergreen State College Longhouse. Nicaraguan meal-making workshop at 3 p.m. -- call Lindsay at 360-570-0704 to register. Space is limited. Community dinner, 6 p.m. Evening entertainment and presentations, 7 p.m.
- April 20: Unveiling of a mural at closing ceremonies of the Procession of Species.
- April 21: Farewell party, salsa dancing and fund-raiser at 7 p.m. at K Records, 508 Legion Way E., Olympia.
- April 24: Delegates depart from Sea-Tac International Airport.
- Information: Call Jean at 360-943-8642 to learn more about the upcoming events and the sister county-city association.
For more local news go to the South Sound Living section.
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