A clearinghouse for all things BOSIA

Published 8:00 pm Saturday, July 23, 2005

Ometepe’s Dorita Gutierrez manages the Altagracia office.

ISLA DE OMETEPE, NICARAGUA – For over six years, Dorita Gutierrez’s beaming smile and wide welcoming eyes have formed the face of the Bainbridge-Ometepe Sister Islands Association on the island of Ometepe.

From the organization’s small office in the town of Altagracia, Gutierrez has been the point woman for all of the organization’s many projects.

She helps communities draft proposals and checks on them to make sure they’re being followed through.

“It is normal that when I talk about the sister island projects I get very emotional,” she said. “Bainbridge has done so much for our community. But because (Ometepe) is always involved, it has given (the community) pride in the projects as well.”

A graduate of the National Autonomous University of Managua, Gutierrez returned to Ometepe to teach high school English for 10 years. During that time she was flown to Bainbridge Island for a BOSIA teacher exchange program.

“The trip was a unique opportunity that showed me many things are possible,” she said. “Being near clouds in an airplane and being able to touch snow is something, in my circle of friends, that we thought we’d never experience. When you see these things in magazines and TV, you don’t know how beautiful they really are.”

Her connections with BOSIA led to her current office manager position and two more trips to Bainbridge Island.

Gutierrez works with scholarship coordinator Maria Estela Alvarez and a volunteer sent from Bainbridge each year.

Current volunteer Kari Lagerloef, a 2000 Bainbridge High School graduate, has already served half her term assisting Gutierrez in the office.

“We spend a lot of time doing many things,” Gutierrez said. “We talk with people about how we can help them with projects in their community, we visit libraries, we have meetings with the mayors of Altagracia and Moyogalpa and we check on projects. We go to the schools a lot, which is a very good way to introduce the organization to the community.”

When asked which BOSIA project has made her most proud, Gutierrez shifts the answer to praise the people of a small mountain community of 40 families she rarely gets to work with.

“They need so much but ask us for so little,” she said. “When they needed a classroom, they carried the cement bags on their backs. And then they brought back the remaining money.”

Other communities are regulars at the BOSIA office. While sympathizing with the genuine needs of many island villages, Gutierrez must be even-handed and consistent.

“After a project, the communities may say, ‘Hey, come back,’” she said. “But sometimes we can’t. We have to try to revolve around the island.”

Gutierrez typically asks communities to submit written proposals for projects and a detailed budget.

“They also need to demonstrate how the community will participate in the implementation and maintenance of the project, which is a big part of all our projects,” she said.

Gutierrez and Lagerloef then make recommendations on the steady flow of requests they receive. A projects committee made up of BOSIA members on Bainbridge Island gives the final thumbs up or thumbs down.

Gutierrez helps administer the approved projects through frequent site visits and meetings with the communities involved.

“There are some organizations that just give money to communities and they tell the communities what to do with the money,” she said. “We don’t do that. We are a part of these communities and we have built trust. We ask them what they want and we work with them in friendship.”