Nelida Lopez is the secretary/receptionist for Project MAESTRA. She started working with us last September when we lost our social worker. She is Delia’s sister and the third member of the family of four. “Neli” is very different from her older sister with light brown hair and a very petite body. Neli also was told by her father that she needed to drop out of school after the 9th grade; however, at that time he traveled to Argentina to work. Neli then moved to Luque to live with her aunt and, instead of working as her father intended her to do, she attended school. After one year her father found out. But instead of being angry he saw that she really wanted to attain this goal and allowed her to move back home and finish school locally. After high school Neli moved to Asuncion to find work, but here is where her life took a turn totally different from her older sister. Neli is a natural athlete who enjoys playing all kinds of sports.

In Asuncion she played on a local women’s soccer team and they won the local league championship. Officials from a local sports club took notice of her lightning speed and asked her if she would like to run track for them. She agreed to give it a try. For her first race they put her in the 800 meters event and she came in second. This apparently was impressive enough that her coaches gave her some light weight track shoes to replace her own tennis shoes. The next race she won. The club traveled to meets in Argentina and she continued to win. She won not only the 800, but also the 400, 200, and 100 meter races. She won trophies for best all-around athlete at two of the meets she went to. She set new Paraguay records for the 100 and 200 meter dashes. When the season ended she was named best female athlete of the year for Paraguay. However, when she went home to rest for three weeks at the end of the season, people complained that she did not deserve the award because she had not been training and competing for years and years like many of the other participants. As a result when she returned from her home she learned that the trophy had been taken away from her. She left with tears of disappointment. However, a coach from a different team spoke out on her behalf and, even though he was not able to re-instate her award, he was able to convince her to continue to compete under his tutelage.

Last August she represented Paraguay in the South American games in Sao Paulo and came in fourth. After this she walked away, saying she was tired and needed to start working to pursue a career. This is when she started with MAESTRA. The track officials continued to contact her and ask her to come back. Last month she finally agreed to return to competition when they met her demands for a monthly stipend and also a 100 percent college scholarship as soon as she proves that she can win again. She is going to the track every morning at 6:00 AM to train and get back into shape under the tutelage of her previous coach with plans to return to competition in May. She continues to work for MAESTRA in the afternoons.

In October I announced to the MAESTRA team that Marianne and I would be going back to the states for a month in December. We talked about how they would be able to continue to do the clinics in my absence since I drive my minivan to all of the sites. Neli decided she wanted to do the driving. She studied the book and got her license. She found a friend who let her practice driving. Every Sunday afternoon when the streets are not crowded with traffic we went for a drive. At first she was terrible, almost hitting a parked car. But she learned rapidly, and by the time I left she was able to drive to all of the clinic sites.

Prepared by:               Office of Resource Development
Global Ministries
P.O. Box 1986
Indianapolis, IN  46206
Tel:  (317) 713-2555
Fax:  (317) 635-4323
Email: 

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