Former boxing champ arrested in Nicaragua
Former world boxing champion Ricardo Mayorga was arrested Friday on suspicion of rape, but released several hours later.

Mayorga was freed after his lawyer charged that the arrest warrant used to detain the boxer had expired.

But the arrest left the boxer uncertain about the status of his Oct. 2 middleweight bout in New York against Felix Trinidad.

Mayorga was arrested at Managua's international airport after a complaint was filed Wednesday by a 20-year-old woman who said the boxer had invited her to a hotel, beat her and sexually abused her, police spokesman Marlon Montano said.

Speaking earlier to The Associated Press at a police station where he had been taken, Mayorga said he was innocent.

"I had a normal relationship with her and the hotel employees are witnesses that she was happy when she left the hotel," said Mayorga.

The bout was to be first fight after a two-year retirement for Trinidad, a 31-year-old former welterweight, junior middleweight and middleweight champion.
 

More Americans Retire to Central America
Central America may still conjure up images of right-wing dictators and left-wing insurgents.

But now, places such as Nicaragua and Honduras are beckoning some Americans seeking retirement destinations.

Cheap living, affordable waterfront housing and pleasant weather are drawing many who wouldn't be able to live in similar luxury in the United States.

NPR's Kathleen Schalch reports on "expat" retirees in Nicaragua, the second-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Kathleen Schalch is a reporter on NPR's - an internationally acclaimed producer and distributor of noncommercial news-  national desk. Her coverage can be heard on NPR's award-winning newsmagazines Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition.

Schalch's reportage generally focuses on economic issues, especially debates over trade, international investment, and institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

>> Click for Kathleen's report

Nicaragua Opens Two Geothermal Fields
The Nicaraguan government said Friday it is seeking bids for development of two geothermal fields that it believes can produce as much as 450 megawatts of energy.

The Nicaraguan Institute of Energy said the tender period would open on Sept. 16. It covers the Managua-Chiltepe area, 10 kilometers (six miles) west of the capital, and the Hoyo-Monte Galan area, 50 kilometers (30 miles) further west.

Institute engineer Ariel Zuniga said the fields "are considered to the most promising for energy production."

Zuniga said companies from Italy, Japan, Mexico and El Salvador have expressed interest.

Nicaragua currently produces about 40 megawatts from a geothermal plant at the Momotombo Volcano, 30 kilometers (18 miles) west of the capital.

Successful development of geothermal would be a rare benefit of volcanic activity for Nicaragua. The country lost out to Panama as a site for an inter-oceanic canal a century ago in part because of developer fear of Nicaragua's volcanoes.

Teachers go to school in Nicaragua
By Paige Lauren Deiner, Coast Press Reporter

A dusty, potholed road led two Cape Henlopen School District teachers out of Managua to Naragote, where they met the two Nicaraguan students they had sponsored for years and prepared to share the tricks of the trade with teachers in a small, private mission school.

Neither Kim Shiels nor Terry Bolick expected to have the opportunity to meet their "children" in person when they became involved in a mission to help a school in the 38,000-person-town of Nagarote, Nicaragua.

But inspired by the opportunity to help those people, many of whom live in tin boxes with dirt floors, the Shiels and Bolick decided to book a flight to Nicaragua and spend two weeks volunteering there this summer.

Pastor Luis Almandoz, a former area hairdresser who said a life-changing experience caused him to join the ministry and eventually build a school Nagarote, sought help from teachers such as Shiels and Bolick about 10 years ago. He needed their expertise to strengthen his school.As sponsors, Shiels, an English as a Second Language teacher, and Terry Bolick, who was a fifth grade teacher and will teach ESL classes this year, sent money allowing their "children" to go to Almandoz's school, La Roca (The Rock). Their money gave the students two hot meals a day, books and uniforms.

At a picnic in Leweson a recent Saturday, the two teachers smiled and laughed as they spoke about their recent visit to Central America. Bolick talked about how her "child" wrapped her arms around her the first day Bolick arrived in Nagarote and didn't let go for the entire two weeks.

Bolick said she didn't know what to expect when she arrived there, but what she saw surprised her. There were no books to teach with, the chalkboards were pitted, the pencils knobby, and the chalk was little more than dust. The school was on par with other schools in the area.

"I can't imagine trying to teach a child to read without a book to teach them," Bolick said.

Having heard Almandoz speak of the needs of the school and its students, the two teachers decided that instead of packing their suitcases full of clothes and tourist gear, they would fill them with school supplies. Bolick said forgoing the extra clothes and toiletries was well worth it. When Shiels and she presented the teachers, many of whom were not that much older than the students, with the supplies, "the teachers hugged the books."

When the teachers realized the books weren't on loan, but theirs to keep, they cried.

After that, Shiels and Bolick said a bond between the teachers developed. The two Cape teachers held inservices for the Nicaraguan teachers after the students' school day ended. School there runs from 7 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.to allow students to help their families farm and earn money working at odd jobs.

In Nicaragua, where the average worker makes less than a $1,000 a year and more than 50 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, many children, some as young as 5, quit school to work to provide food for the family. Also many families can not afford to purchase the required school uniforms and books so children can attend school.

To lessen the financial burden of sending children to school, Almandoz provides his students a free education, uniforms, books and two hot meals a day. Sponsorships help offset costs.

Shiels, who has made multiple trips to Nagarote, said when she first went there most of the teachers only had a high school education. This summer though most of the teachers in the school have some college education because of changes in education laws and funding. The Nicaraguan government also gave the school books.

Bolick and Shiels said the schools and individual classrooms in the district have held fund-raisers for "La Roca."

Shiels said fund raising for the school has heightened Cape children's awareness of the world, increased self-esteem and given children the opportunity to help another child who is less fortunate.

Donations from the community here have made it possible for Almandoz to build a school, equipped with white boards, books, papers, pens and more qualified teachers, on his property. Currently 120 children attend the school.

Hair-dresser turned pastor

Almandoz attended the same picnic as Bolick and Shiels recently. Perched on the arm of a couch, next to his young Nicaraguan wife and daughter, he chatted with a group of volunteers who had recently returned from Nagarote. He sported a rather loud flowered shirt that didn't exactly scream pastor.

The shirt spoke more about Almandoz's past than his current life. He speaks about a "crazy life" full of drugs and partying, slowly, but without shame. The words roll off his tongue with a hint of a Cuban accent, another indication of the twists and turns in the man's life.

Almandoz 15 years ago would have never dreamt of running a mission in Nicaragua or any project related to spreading the word of God. But now his dream is to start 41 mission schools in Nicaragua, in the towns where children can't afford to go to school.

Almandoz said it took him a long time to listen to people's advice. But eventually the perpetual high turned into a deep depression. And on a Friday night, Almandoz said he kneeled in his bathroom and prepared to commit suicide. Then he had a lifechanging experience that led him to study theology and start ministering to Hispanic and poor people in Texas.

He said he was praying one day around 4 a.m. when "God spoke to me and said I want you to go to Nicaragua."

A few months later, after selling his business, his car and most of his belongings Almandoz, two suitcases in hand, flew into Nicaragua's capitol city, Managua. He bought a finca (farm) on the outskirts of Nagarote. There he built a house and began ministering to the children by playing Christian music, teaching English and playing baseball.

He eventually built a 1,000-person church, filled his fields with exportable crops like papayas and mangos to generate money and built his school, which serves children in pre-school through sixth grades.

Treating body and mind

In addition to seeking help from area educators through Midway Assembly of God 10 years ago, Almandoz also sought medical expertise.

Dr. David Birch, a family physician in Lewes answered the call. He and his wife, a nurse, had been on other missions before in other countries. They decided to go to Nagarote in February 1997 and have been every year since. This year they traveled with a 26-person team of doctors, dentists and volunteers to take medicine and tools to set up a clinic within the church.

Last year the team took almost $50,000 in medical supplies to Almandoz's community.

But bringing supplies into Nicaragua isn't always easy. Birch said the second year they went, all of their supplies were confiscated by customs and it took a day and a lot of bribing to get them out.

Shiels and Bolick didn't encounter such mishaps on their trip. As they settled into their Cape classrooms this week, both women said they want to return to Nicaragua next year.

"It's a life-changing experience," Bolick said.