Bienvenidos to my Blog!

Hello Family, Friends, and Curious Readers,

Thanks for stopping in to see what I am up to. This is my first blog, and I hope not to bore you too much with the details of my life. But rather hope to offer you some insights into development work, the highs, the lows, and well the boring.

But before I move away for 27 months, let me give you a little information about myself before I lose a steady internet connection.

So after graduating from Boston College in 2005, I decided I wanted to learn Spanish and "save the world" so I moved to Cusco, Peru. I began by volunteering for The Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco by researching and writing a small business plan for the organization. I continued to work with the organization until February of 2008, when I returned to the US to prepare for my move to Madrid, Spain for 15 months to study an International MBA at IE Business School. And now, after a year of searching for the perfect development job, and taking odd jobs in the meantime, I have joined the Peace Corps and am volunteering again. So wish me luck, and PLEASE someone stop me from volunteering again!

Friday, August 3, 2012

Small Business Advising

So contrary to what my blog may have led you to believe, I am not only a high school Entrepreneurship teacher, but I also work with small businesses in Matagalpa to improve their operations, expand product offerings, and most recently I am working with a cafe on a market study so we can design an advertisement campaign. Laura and I spent last week designing the study, and I was able to take it to my class today and have my students and fellow teachers fill it out. (We are currently studying Market Study in our class so I hope it is interesting for the students to see a local business applying the technique in their own community.) After, I will take the flyers we design back to the school offering an incentive to the students to come visit the cafe.

Also, I was shocked to see in my class in San Ramon this morning, that some groups had figured out what were the next steps in analyzing their market study and had already done the math and graphs that we were going to work on today! I was super impressed with their initiative! Also, in this school as well as the rest, I am starting to move away from teaching with the hopes that the teachers will be 100% self-sustainable when I leave! It's not going to be easy, but will be very rewarding for all of us if we can achieve it!

So here are some pictures from today's class and Laura working at La Taza Llena (means "the full cup" in Spanish).

Students explaining their work to my counterpart teacher.

Going over Market Study results with a group

A group of two working hard!

My counterpart working with students

Laura mixing up a giant batch of home-made fruit punch. Ingredients are as follows. 1 whole watermelon, 1 whole pineapple, 1 papaya, purified water, and a little bit of sugar.

The cafe without its tables (they are all being used for an event that is taking place upstairs!)

Sembrando Esperanza meaning "Planting Hope" it's the name of the organization that the cafe Taza Llena is part of...

A picture of the space they rent! If you are ever in San Ramon, come visit!

Overall, I really enjoy working with small business owners. It's fun because their businesses are a reality and efforts are used to help them grow. Next Small Business update will be on El Mexicano... a Mexican Restaurant in Matagalpa! Make good choices haha.

More Semester Vacation Adventures...

The last free Friday I had before the school year got back in swing, I decided to hike the highest mountain outside the city of Matagalpa with a fellow teacher friend, Bismark. We have worked together on a few workshops and it was nice to get to spend some time with a fellow teacher outside of the classroom. And funny enough, we were able to leave from one of Matagalpa's central parks and be up on top of the mountain in only and hour and ten minutes!!! Here are some pictures from that fun day!

Walking up to the reserve...

The Trailhead

A beautiful flower/plant that I thought someone had spray painted haha, until my friend told me, no that's just the plant.

Green Coffee on the plant

A cool looking plant

The river along the path

Waterfall, nuff said...

Just look at that grin!

A view of Matagalpa from the Mirador

I love my city and my job...


From the very top of the mountain...

From the VERY top of the mountain

Our Escort and Park Ranger on top of the rock on top of the mountain... I was terrified he would fall.

A Waterfall from a distance


My friend and fellow teacher Bismark

A crab... in the middle of the forest... Nicaragua never ceases to amaze me!
Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Keep making good choices and get out and hike some place near you... it's amazing what you can find just an hours walk from the center of town!