Ovide Bastien

Don Paco Ovide Bastien

This book paints a portrait of one of my greatest Nicaraguan friends, Francisco Escalante Mondragón, commonly known as Don Paco. A portrait whose brush strokes originate from the parts of his life that I have had the privilege to discover since I first met him in December 2000. It also relates some of the unforgettable experiences I have shared with him. Experiences lived when organizing the home-stays and development projects of the Dawson College North South Studies profile in Cinco Pinos from 2000 to 2010. And experiences lived when, following my retirement from Dawson in 2011, I continued finding donors to fund small development projects in the region of Cinco Pinos and working with him in managing these on a volunteer basis and in close collaboration with North South Studies: internet centre to serve schools and a community, artesian wells equipped with a solar powered pump to provide water to dozens of families, etc. Following the Nicaraguan revolution, which overthrew the Somoza dictatorship in July 1979, Don Paco played a key role in his region. He was given the responsibility of coordinating the National Literacy Crusade in the municipality of Cinco Pinos, which took place from March 23 to August 23, 1980. After the literacy crusade he headed the post-literacy effort in his region, namely as director of the Adult Education Program in all of the municipalities north of Chinandega. The aim of this program was to completely wipe out illiteracy in these municipalities and assure that the newly alphabetized would go on with their education by completing their grade school. Both of these responsibilities Don Paco assumed with competency, love and passion. And both were crowned with an amazing success. When Cinco Pinos declared itself free of illiteracy in 1987, it was the very first municipality in the mountainous regions of Nicaragua to do so. And Don Paco was granted a national award for this remarkable achievement. Don Paco also played a key role in coordinating the North South Studies homestays and development projects in the region of Cinco Pinos from 2000 until 2019. A task that reminded him very much of the work he had carried out during the 1980 literacy crusade. And one that he carried out with the exact same competency, love, and passion he had shown during the literacy crusade. Countless North South Studies students experienced life altering experiences thanks to the excellent work of Don Paco in organizing homestays and development projects. Rapidly bonding with their host families, the students would refer to them as 'my father', 'my mother', 'my brother', and 'my sister'. Just as the literacy brigadistas had done in the 1980 National Literacy Crusade. And countless Nicaraguan families saw their lives considerably improved thanks to the North South Studies projects managed by Don Paco. Improved in terms of education - the high school scholarships - and also in terms of basic infrastructure - internet centres, water grids, roads, etc.