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!)
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| The Second Place Team's table display! |
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| The second place team's display again |
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| Battery charger group. These kids were really smart! |
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| The winning group! |
Love all the great pictures. Sounds like there were some really creative students with amazing products.
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