CAMARILLO : Woman, 69, Teaches Sewing in Nicaragua

Ruth Smith, 69, retired as a schoolteacher several years ago, but she is still teaching.

Last month, the Camarillo woman traveled to a coffee-growing cooperative in Nicaragua to instruct 24 women in basic sewing. She and another woman arranged the project through the Nicaraguan agricultural union.

In return, Smith says, she got an opportunity to practice Spanish, and a chance to help. “It was a highlight in my life,” she said.

Smith worked in local schools for 34 years as a reading specialist and as a sewing teacher for adults. “All the women I taught how to sew and all the children I taught how to read were important to me, but this touched my heart more than anything,” she said.

The co-op is located in La Reina, 100 miles north of the capital city of Managua, in a mountainous area where toucans and parrots fly wild and Sandinista guerrillas hid during the country’s revolution.

Smith taught sewing for eight hours each weekday. Evenings, she prepared simple patterns, sewed samples and organized boxes of notions donated by Unitarian churches in Ventura and Orange counties. The Americans took four donated sewing machines and bolts of fabric. On Saturdays, she taught 20 girls to crochet and embroider.

“We set it up and got them started. Now it’s each one teach one, like they did in their literacy campaign,” she said. “If I was busy and couldn’t get to someone who needed help, they quickly stepped in and helped each other.”

By the time she left, each Nicaraguan woman had completed an apron, one or two large carrying bags, a slip and a child’s outfit, and was working on a skirt and blouse for herself, Smith said.