Stop me before I volunteer again!: November 2013

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!

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Tech Exchange with Sarah R.

In October, I went to the community of Wale in Jinotega (about 4.5 hours on several buses from Matagalpa) and helped a fellow volunteer, Sarah who is an agriculture volunteer, with a small workshop for some women in her community that are the proud owners of some improved ovens. They are called improved ovens because they are built especially to use less wood to heat them, and have chimneas as to not cause health problems in the user's lungs.

We talked about and practiced how to calculate costs of recipes to help the ladies decide what recipes they could sell in their community at a profit. We watched a video about savings and investing those savings in their business. And of course we ate corn bread and cookies that Sarah had baked in her oven the day before. What a different life she has from mine, but since we both extended for a third year, it appears we are both very happy in each. Here are some picts from that adventure!!!!

Sarah and I waiting out the rain on the porch of one of her neighbors

Typical housing of the area

A man walking home from work, looks like he was applying a pesticide to his crops

Imagine that out your back door, kinda looks like Virgina no?

A pig taking a nap

Self pic!

Thats what I imagine what it looks like after a night of heavy coca-cola drinking

Watching the savings video

Sarah talking about a factibility study

What was left of the corn bread... but not for long

We had attendees of all ages!

It's Competition Season Again!!!

Just like at the end of every Nicaraguan school year, Peace Corps sponsors a series of competitions at the local, municipal, regional, and national levels to determine the top three business ideas created by high school seniors around the country. Last year, we took it a step further and added a new component to the national competition - the national congress (two days full of workshops so the students could be more motivated to convert their academic exercise into a reality). This year we have joined forced with Red Emprende (a network of entrepreneurial organizations) to create the most ambitious congress yet, with approximately 300 participants from around the country. It has been a long year, and lots of work leading up to this ( I think I wrote about 4 grant applications to raise all the funds, not to mention a fundraising activity we coordinated for Red Emprende known as our Fundraising Gala) but it is finally almost here. I'll post pictures from the national event after next week, but for now, here are some pictures from the local and regional competitions.

A local competition at one of the high schools...