The National Business Plan competition!

Yesterday the National Business Plan Competition was held at the Holiday Inn in Managua. It was a long day for me as I had to wake up at 5:20am to be on the 6:20am bus to go to Managua. After the 2 hour ride, I had to take a 40 minute taxi ride to the hotel, where luckily they had free coffee. (I admit I have become slightly addicted since moving to a coffee growing region). The competition began with each group exhibiting their products at their tables, followed by the traditional 10 minute presentations where they discussed marketing strategies, costs, etc.

I must say I was very happy to not be a judge since the products were so diverse. One group made flour out of a fruit, another had a coffee flavored beverage, another roofing tiles. Others had hair gel, one had a car battery charger, even a belt that you could velcro different designs to when you wanted to change your look. But in the end, only three groups could win. Unfortunately, I only really remember the top two places. Second place was the flour made out of fruit that adds amazing nutritional value to breads, etc. and the first place was the coffee beverage, that tasted like a virgin white russian. It was delicious!

But the real adventure was the trip back when I bummed a ride from one of the groups heading back north towards Matagalpa. But was we approached, the driver informed us he wanted to take a different route and that he would be dropping me 10km from Matagalpa just as it was getting dark. And to top the whole adventure off, I had to pee like never before in my life! So at the fork in the road where he was going to drop me, there was a small store so the kids ran out with me and begged the owner to let me use their latrine. They were so great and so caring, who cares that I was embarrassed that they all knew I had to pee so badly. I was then able to hop on a bus that was heading towards Matagalpa and made it home safely. It was quite the day! Here are some pictures from the competition (sorry I don't have any from the travel adventure!)

The Second Place Team's table display!

The second place team's display again

Battery charger group. These kids were really smart!

The winning group!

Happy Thanksgiving! a little late...

Traditionally, Americans spend Thanksgiving eating Turkey and watching football. Thanksgiving as a Peace Corps vounteer can be a bit different. There are several options, you can stay at home and forget about it happening altogether, you can go have dinner with an employee of the US government that has been kind enough to extend an invite to share the holiday at their house, or you can go to an entrepreneurship conference and become reinspired all over again that there are business owners and students in Nicaragua who want to change their lives and those of their fellow countrymen for the better. Guess which one I was able to do?

That's right! I was able to attend the Red Emprende Congress in Managua, and it was two full days of lectures and break out sessions with young and old entrepreneurs. It was a great experience, and I will say that being around so many motivated people really helped me recharge my batteries, and gave me a new inspiration to keep working. It's easy to be discouraged sometimes, when things just don't seem to go as you have so carefully planned them. I also met some coffee farmers from a very small village in the Northern part of Nicaragua, and I am pretty sure it may have been their first time to Managua, let alone their first time to a shopping mall. That's right, we went to a shopping mall on Thanksgiving just to walk around and kill some time before our dinner was ready at the hotel. They stopped in front of the Rostipollo fast food restaurant where they stared at the rotisserie chicken for a good 5 minutes. They all wanted to know if they would be able to make that back in their community. It was a truly great experience, to see these men who were working so hard to make their community a better place, and experiencing so many new a different things. I was honored to have been there.

Last Friday I headed to Masatepe, my old training town to spend the weekend with Mama Cleo and her family there, along with fellow volunteers Yessica and Carlos. We had a great time, hanging out, playing a board game I had gotten from the entreprenuership conference. The game is to educate kids to learn to manage their money. It is like monopoly but instead of buying houses and hotels, you can buy chickens, pigs, cows, etc. It was so much fun that Ruth, my adopted 9-year old sister wanted to play everyday we were there, multiple times a day. Haha. Also while in Masatepe, we were able to catch up with one of our former youth group members, Kevin, who not only had participated in our youth group, but also signed up for the next youth group formed by the most recent group of PCVs. He was able to use his business knowledge and create a business making key chains and picture frames out of recycled materials. I was so proud to see him and see that he is doing so well.

Sunday I came back to Matagalpa, but in the most roundabout way possible. I took a bus to Masaya, then took an express mini-bus (aka a mini van) to Tipitapa (at one point this minivan had 25 people in it, I swear it's true) then saw all the buses going to Matagalpa were packed and were going to take 3 hours, so I took a bus back into Managua, hopped right on an express bus and was back in Matagalpa after only 6 hours of travelling. All of this could have been avoided of course, had I decided to get up at 4am to get to Masaya for the 6am bus to Matagalpa, but 4am just seemed so early. Granted after 6 hours of travel craziness, I should have gotten up earlier. Oh well we live and learn right?


Here are some pictures from the conference and the weekend in Masatepe!

One of our breakout sessions at the conference

Participating in the activity

Other participants working hard!

General Session

Food Security Fair that just happened to coincide with my time at the conference!

Closing Ceremony Dancer! So Nicaragua

Pizza Masatepe Style!

Meeting with a small business owner to discuss development strategies (look how profesional we all look haha)

Free ice cream from a new store in town! Oh and Kevin from our Youth Group!

Playing "Educaccion Financiera" (in English that's Financial Education)

Big money big money no wammies no wammies

The game ended with the student becoming the master, Kevin WON!

The board game

The traditional no-smile photo, I seem happy though!

Mama Cleo making Bunuelos (delicious bits of fried sticky sweet goodness!)

My First Official Visitor and 6 Months in Country

This past weekend I had a visit from a friend of mine from my MBA program. My friend Adam! He is currently travelling the world volunteering along the way after he quit his corporate job. He has a website where you can track his adventures www.happinessplunge.com

We were able to go hiking up to the Mirador (lookout) over Matagalpa, have coffee, eat at several different restaurants, and catch up on life since we haven't seen each other since IE in December of 2009. Here are some pictures from the weekend!

Me and Adam at my favorite coffee shop!

Sunset from the top of Mana de Cielo Hotel

Adam on the roof of his hotel with one of the many churches in the background.

Same view with me this time

 Last bit of the sunset!

Also, I celebrated my first 6 months of being in Nicaragua last week! I can't believe it has already been six months, and yet the first two weeks felt like 2 years. I am glad the time is going by quickly. But things are quickly slowing down for me as the school year is wrapping up. I will hopefully start work with an NGO that works with young women to form businesses over the "summer" break from school. Well that's it for me for the moment. Keep making good choices and know that I miss you all! Cheers!

Standfast for the Presidential Elections

It has been a bit longer in between posts than normal, but it's because we have been on standfast for the past two weeks, surrounding Nicaragua's Presidential elections. Standfast, for those of you not up with the PC lingo, is when all volunteers in the country are required to stay in the town or city where they live for the duration of the standfast period. That means if you live in Matagalpa, you stay in Matagalpa, or if you live in the campo, you stay in the campo. I am lucky enough to live in a city I love, so really my standfast was not a hardship at all.

So what do you do if you are stuck in the same city for 2 weeks, no chance to leave?

Well I went to the gym a lot, read 3 books, watched countless movies, chatted with my homestay mom, and baked up a storm. Here are some of the delicious dishes I made!

PIZZA!!! Homemade too!

Bread Pudding, can't tell you how big a hit that was!

My homestay niece WOWed by the Pizza (I taught her that!)

Spanish Tortilla!

Well be good and keep making good choices! I love and miss you all!