The last Friday of every month is teacher training and planning day in Nicaragua. The acronym is TEPCE. I forget what it stands for. Monday was my departmental Competition. Wednesday was Matagalpa’s, and Thursday was Estelí’s and Madriz’s. On Thursday, I was in Estelí helping out my friend Matt, and Thomas was in Madriz. So on Friday, the three of us decided to ditch TEPCE (typically an exercise in institutional incompetence anyway) and head into the countryside in search of Don Alberto and his renowned sculpture garden outside of Estelí.
The Three Musketeers (very much in the Slaughterhouse Five sense)
I woke up feeling a little unwell. I went to the bathroom and shortly afterwards burped. The burp had a slight taste of whole wheat bread dough. For me, that’s a huge warning sign. Whole wheat dough burps only means one thing here: bacterial infections. I took an antibiotic to quell the storm churning in my intestinal tract, and headed for the bus station. Other than water, I dared not eat a breakfast.
As we set out on a bus into the countryside my body started rebelling. It was saying, “Please, no hiking, no treks through the countryside today. We need AC, a bed, and a bathroom.” Maybe I should have stayed behind. But I really wanted to see the sculpture garden (it was my idea to go in the first place), and there was no turning back at this point.
The bus ride was short. Maybe 40 minutes. We arrived at a small dirt road that Matt knew as the turnoff towards the direction we were headed, got off the bus, and started walking. We really didn’t know where we were headed. All the directions we had been given were very vague. But we had an idea of what we were looking for and where it was located.
We probably walked for two hours down the dirt road, up and down some big hills, before we found the farm. There was a sign. It didn’t say “Sculpture Garden” or anything like that, but one of the people that we questioned as we walked down the dirt road told us that the place had a “weird name.”
I have no idea what, if anything, Jalacate means
So we walked one kilometer down the hill and sure enough we encountered Don Alberto and his sculpture garden. Don Alberto is a chain-smoking 76 year old (his birthday just passed, in fact) and has been sculpting the rocks around his family’s farm for nearly 40 years (he told us 38 years, if I remember). He is simply a farmer who had an artistic vision from a young age. Over the last ten years he has been having more and more visitors, and he shows all of them around, free of charge. He says that he doesn’t mind walking up and down the hills with everyone – it is good for his health. Throughout our visit he interpreted his art work, recited poetry to us, and told us about all of the nationalities that have visited his sculpture garden (he thought that we were Spanish, which is a very very nice thing for a Nicaraguan to say to a Peace Corps Volunteer).
He boasted that his house is the largest in Nicaragua
This represents to Twin Towers
The most surreal aspect of this sculpture garden is that at first glance you may think that it’s a long last pre-Colombian ceremonial site. But then you start to notice etchings that look like helicopters and the Twin Towers. Don Alberto has many inspirations for his art. He was explaining everything from Nicaraguan history, indigenous inspirations, religious pieces, current events, other countries, and wildlife. I also got the feeling that he loves his gardens and farm even more than the artwork, but I was mesmerized by all the carvings and have no knack for plant-life and forestry photography, so I have no pictures to offer of the surrounding nature other than some sweeping vistas.
The most spectacular part of the sculpture garden is the wraparound cliff and lookout at the top of the property, which has been completely carved. The view was spectacular and the setting utterly unique.
The sculpture garden reminded me of William Rickett’s Sanctuary in Australia, another uniquely local and wooded sculpture garden.
After our visit we hiked the kilometer up from the farm and started walking again. We wanted to not only make it back to Estelí, but also to hit up the Estanzuela waterfall on our way back to the city and catch the 3:10 bus to León. We were already a bit behind schedule, and we only had our feet to rely on. There would be no buses. Only the possibility of a pickup truck to hitch a ride with.
As we started walking, the sun strong and our water bottles now nearly empty, I began to feel sicker. My diarrhea stomach hurt and there was nothing I could do about it. I was slipping every few steps as we went up and down loose gravelly roads. About an hour down the road I started Billy Pilgriming and telling Matt and Thomas to leave me behind, I’d catch up. At some roadside community we did pass a small convenience store where we restocked on cold water.
It was probably two hours of walking to make it to the Estanzuela trail head. Matt and Thomas went down to the cooling waters. I stayed at the top and curled up into the fetal position in the park guard’s hammock. I don’t know how long they were down there (my phone was off to save battery), but it was very rejuvenating. Unfortunately Matt and Thomas did come back from the waterfall and we had to start the march again. Throughout our entire TEPCE not a single pickup truck passed us going in the direction that we were headed.
We finally reached the main road and the city at 3:14 PM – just in time to see the León bus go careening by. I was in bad shape, Thomas was sunburned, and Matt was sore and dehydrated. We would have to take two non-express buses to reach León, and then Matt and Thomas would have to take a third bus up to Chinandega to get to a gathering they were trying to make. Matt decided to just stay at home in Estelí. Only Thomas stuck it out. And that long trip was rough on me. I felt fevery and toxic on the buses, and we nearly missed the last bus in San Isidro, which would have left us stranded in an unfamiliar town that has no Volunteers in it. Plus, the long bus down to León decided to play an awful telenovela on full volume about Mexican drug lords. I found the story dramatically atrocious, and socially-culturally even worse. It plays on every poor race and gender stereotype in the Western Hemisphere. Truly, I detest soap operas and I can’t understand why people, especially Latinos who are often so aware of stereotypes and oppression, are drawn to them.
In León Thomas did catch the last mini-van to Chinandega. It must have left at 8:45. That was the latest I had ever been in the Terminal by hours. But Thomas was happy to make the party in Chinandega, and I was thrilled to be home. Other than two bites of Thomas’ tortilla and a bite of an orange at the finca I had not eaten anything all day, but I took a chilly shower and, sparing you the details of the rest of my time in the bathroom, climbed right into bed when I got home. I was so tired I fell asleep with the door open to my bedroom. Matt and Thomas were real troopers. There were some rough times in our trek today, and they waited them out as I was doubled over in pain in the shade.
I feel much better today. I just ate my first meal since Thursday dinner and it seems to be sheltering in place. There were some really rough few hours in there, but I am glad that I got to visit Don Alberto’s sculpture garden and farm. Plus, purely coincidentally, yesterday my friend Catherine posted on my Facebook a memory about our trip to William Rickett’s Sanctuary in Australia.
As you can tell from this post, it is not easy to get to Finca El Jalacate. My recommendation is to take the 6:30 AM bus from Estelí to Tisey-La Tejera. It leaves from the hospital in Estelí. They can drop you off right at the entrance to the farm. There is also a departure in the early afternoon at 1:30. The first return bus passes El Jalacate at around 9:30 AM. If that doesn’t give you enough time to visit the farm, then you will just have to walk back the 13+ km to Estelí.
There are also buses to San Nicholas from COTRAN Sur in Estelí. We took the 7 AM. Ask to be let off at La Garnacha. This is the other end of the Estelí-Tisey-La Tejera bus. You could try to string these buses together, but I don’t know much about the San Nicholas schedule and if it takes the same return route as outbound route. For the Tisey bus, the attendant’s phone number is 5851-3794, and the driver’s number is 5777-3848. You can call either number for specifics on routes and departure times.
It may be easiest to visit El Jalacate by pairing it with a stay at Eco-Posada Tisey or the La Garnacha Agro-Tourism initiative. The aforementioned buses can easily get you there. The farm is much shorter walks from these locations, and your can enjoy the offerings of Tisey and La Garnacha, the waterfall (from Tisey), and easily catch a bus a day or two later at your leisure.
As a thank you, please bring Don Alberto a pack of cigarettes or a small bottle of rum.
This is Part 2 of a three part diary style blog post on Entrepreneurship Competition Season. Part 3 will be posted after the National Entrepreneurship Competition on November 18. Click here for Part 1.
I thought that after the Municipal Competition I would be liberated. I thought that I would have less on my plate and feel a bit less stressed. I was wrong. There is still a lot of running around to be down for the still unconfirmed Departmental Competition. I took a three day weekend, coming back from Boaco on Monday. I really could have used Monday to work and gotten things rolling this week, but the four days that remain will just have to do.
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
6:50 AM alarm
First, while at the UCC for another meeting with students, I dropped off a letter asking to use one of their air conditioned auditoriums for the Departmental Competition. Then, I visited INO, the milk with carao high school. I oriented them on the Department Competition and what they needed to do in the two weeks to succeed. I would repeating this very conversation with my other two teams competing in the Department Competition, but it had to be done at each of the three schools.
Later in the day I confirmed by phone that Mina el Limón would not be participating due to the violent protests. There has not been school in two weeks and counting. And I made contact with an administrator in La Paz Centro who is going to plan their local competition (although time is running out).
Wednesday, October 14
The morning brought great news. My largest donor from last year is once again contributing $150, which puts me at my budgeted goal. I won’t need to seek any additional funding for this years’ events. I also continued making my rounds to schools and meeting with teachers and teams. It rained for seven hours this afternoon and evening, and I got 100% drenched to the bone swimming home from school with my bike this afternoon. I couldn’t even get dinner because I had nothing in the house, my usually food lady didn’t come around, and the road to La Colonia was a rushing river. Looks like I will have to open up my emergency granola bar rations.
Thursday, October 15
A running theme has been not having an approved date for the Departmental Competition. My counterpart and I have proposed October 26, but the Superintendant decided to send it in to Managua for approval (political centralization is a bit paralyzing here), and that was three months ago. My counterpart keeps saying that he is working on it, but we still don’t have an approved date. I sense that I may not be the only Volunteer with this problem, because my boss sent all Volunteers a copy of the signed letter between the Minister of Education and the Peace Corps authorizing the Entrepreneurship events. I had a copy printed out and dropped it off at the Ministry of Education this morning…
Another meeting with another team. This team didn’t even know that they were going to the Departmental Competition because they thought that only first place advances. This team is the furthest behind in terms of preparation, and they have the least experienced teacher, but I will do what I can to help them get prepared. They are the most impressive group, in terms of cohesion, motivation, and intelligence, in my opinion. Plus, considering that they started the year with a brand new teacher, a lot has already been accomplished at their school.
… And by this afternoon there was an e-mail waiting for me saying that the date for the competition, October 26, had been approved. I will head over to the Ministry of Education tomorrow to make final plans with my counterpart.
Friday, October 16
So it turns out the good news is that the date of the event is approved, but the bad news is that the Superintendent, my counterpart, and one of his colleagues got called into Managua for a meeting the morning of the 26th. There goes my guest of honor, master of ceremonies, and one of my four judges, not to mention the truck that was going to bring the sound system to the event.
So basically our planning meeting turned into me having to figure out everything with one week to go.
Monday, October 19 – 7 Days Until the Departmental Competition
This morning was the Municipal Competition in nearby Telica. My site-mate Robert works with the teachers in Telica, and he asked me to be a judge. I was happy to oblige. It started over an hour late, but it was a nice event with three different schools attending, and a lot of positive signs coming from the respective teachers. The winning team was a musical band (interesting, since they offer a service rather than a product), and second place was a vase made out of egg shells. They can out really nicely I thought.
I also really liked a traditional candy made out of goat milk, cashews, and beans (yes, beans). Unfortunately, it came out a bit mushy and not very well packaged or marketed, so they did not win. But there is certainly the potential for that type of product to be very sucessful. It exploits locally available products, processes them, and appeals to Nicaraguan culture by being a traditional candy.
Goat milk, beans, and cashew candy anyone?
In the afternoon, back in León, I headed over to the UCC (they had already approved my request to use their auditorium, which is a huge relief) to work on a session I was going to give along with my counterpart at the UCC at the National Entrepreneurship Congress. We planned our talk, and we decided to include a case study based on the fishing cooperative at Poneloya. The session is on business administration, both in practice and as a career path in university.
The milk with carao team also came by to work with the UCC. The UCC is helping them with marketing and packaging, and they had a productive session on improving their corporate image.
Tuesday – 6 Days Until the Departmental Competition
I spent the morning yet again visiting two of the teams. First milk with carao, and then the manuelita flour mix. Usually I see the manuelita kids last class before they go home in the evening, but this morning they were a bunch of combative little chavalos who didn’t want to willfully take my suggestions and advice. I think that my counterpart and I got through to them though.
Wednesday – 5 Days To Go
A positive aspect of this week has been the work that the three teams are putting in to improve themselves for the next competition, plus that the business university is helping them as much as possible. This morning I was with the carao milk group at the university, where the university professors are helping them with label design. I think the group has an awesome label (of course, I did make a few suggestions) that illicits strong emotions by combining Nicaragua’s proud indigenous roots with the natural ingredients in their products.
This is the final label design. Not exactly what I had in mind, but certainly an improvement on what they had before.
I spent the rest of the day running around firming up details for Monday and meeting with one of the other groups. I also had a long sojourn at noontime to have a goodbye lunch soup with Jen, since she is closing her service on Monday and flying home on Tuesday. She is my longest lasting site-mate; the last remaining member of my Lions’ Pride. I am going to miss her. Luckily, there are great things on the horizon with Robert and Hailee (my newer site-mates).
Tomorrow is the last free day I have before the competition. I’ve got a page-long to-do list, but I think I can get it all done and feel good heading into the weekend and the event on Monday.
Thursday – 4 Days Left
Today was the first day in my Peace Corps service that I left my house and got on my bike in the morning and I did not return home until the evening. With that being said, the day was a success. Everything is set for Monday except for one detail, which I hope to square away tomorrow. My teams are as prepared as they will be, my counterparts know their roles, the refreshments and snacks are paid for, we got a sound system and an MC, and all of my judges are confirmed. It was a long day, but I am happy. Even La Paz Centro pulled through and had their Municipal Competition. They will be sending two teams, each from a different school, on Monday morning.
At one point this afternoon I was at the UCC and ran into two of the kids from Milk with Carao. They were working on their business plan and asked me to sit down with them so they could ask me some questions. I had a little bumper time, so I did sit down with them. They had come right from school and had not eaten lunch. They were hungry, and they had no money. I bought them each a sandwich, which they thoroughly appreciated. Most students would rather go home and get lunch than stick around after school to keep working on a project. And these students are poor. There is not enough money in the family to be buying lunches outside of the home. I really admire how hard this team is working and I was happy to buy them the sandwiches today.
Truly, these last two weeks have been much easier than the run-up to the Municipal Competition. It was a lot of work and I put miles on my bicycle, but since I was working with a smaller group of students of teachers I found myself a lot less frustrated with my teams. I’m actually proud of them, and I think we definitely have a chance on Monday. Milk with Carao and the flour mix especially. El Sauce is always strong, so they will be the strongest competition, but it would be awesome if one of my teams advances to the National Competition this year.
Friday – T minus Three
The only item of note is that I successfully procured a projector. We are now 100% set for the competition.
Sunday – T minus One
I got a text from the administrator in La Paz Centro. She said that only one team was going to come because the other team could not send their business plan. I texted back that the other team could still come as long as they brought their plan the morning of the competition.
Competition Monday
4:45 AM – Alarm
5:25 – Walk over to Dulce’s house and meet Robert and Conrad to slather Nica chicken salad on 240 slices of bread (for a total of 120 sandwiches).
Last year I tried to get the snack for the competition donated, but failed, so unofficial host mom Dulce helped me make chicken salad sandwiches for everyone (she has a very simple recipe). We did the same thing this year. Despite the utter disgust I have for the sludge-like substance (it is pureed chicken with onions, peppers, celery, and lots and lots and lots and LOTS of mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard), I don’t regret the decision either year. It is easy to make and Dulce helps and makes it easy to transport. She has helped me with all aspects of the competition two years in a row now and I am extremely grateful to her.
I was actually at the UCC, location of the competition, before 7:00. And there I wanted for two hours as all of the teams and parts (sound system, projector, etc.) assembled. I told everyone we started at eight so that we would start by nine. And that’s what we did. We started at 9:00, even though two teams were still missing (they wound up being an hour and 20 minutes late in the end). During the two hours I collected all of the PowerPoints and business plans, briefed my judging panel, and worked a little bit with my three student groups.
At one point a girl passed me her thumb drive to let me copy to my computer her PowerPoint. My computer said the drive had a virus.
Eric: Your thumb drive has a virus.
Girl: I know.
Eric: Then why the hell would you give it to me to put in my computer!?
Luckily I have an anti-virus that caught the virus and protected my computer.
All in all, the event went very well. The judges (who by coincidence were all women) were very rough. Maybe even too rough. But they were fair, and treated all the teams the same. 10 teams came in all. El Jicaral pulled out last minute because their teacher has been ill. La Paz Centro sent two teams, but from the same school. One of the two winners from their Municipal Competition could not get its act together for the event today. Ironically, the substitute team had a business plan, but no PowerPoint presentation. It’s a shame, but I could not have done more in regard to either of those two municipalities, in my opinion.
So how did my teams do?
The toasted corn drink got skewered for the name of their business – “Flavor.” I told them a million times not to use an English name. So it goes.
The crepe mix and milk with carao both had good presentations. I thought that the crepe mix’s presentation was particularly strong. However, they both had some weak points during the questions and answers. Plus, one of the judges particularly disliked the smell and flavor of the carao milk. Come to think of it now, they probably should have mixed in some cacao to stabilize the flavor and smell. So it goes.
In the end the crepe mix got second place, carao won “Most Innovative,” and the drink mix did not place. No dice. Only first place advances to the National Competition. El Sauce won first place with their diabetic cookie made out of moringa (miracle plant that is all the rage in Nicaragua). The cookie tasted like crap, but they had a good business plan, presentation, and understanding of their finances and market. I was disappointed, especially for my teams who worked so hard and got so close to first place. On the bright side though, carao and crepe mix both got prize money. They can use it for whatever they’d like. The winning team needs to use their money to travel to Managua for the National Competition.
There is little left to do now for the competitions. I need to make the rounds with my teams next week (this week I have some other stuff going on, including the Estelí Departmental Competition on Thursday). I also need to drop off thank you notes with my donors. And lastly, I need to work with my Counterpart for our presentation at the National Entrepreneurship Congress the day before the National Competition in November.
For much of my service I’ve been involved in an effort by the Peace Corps to bring same-sex couples to serve in Nicaragua. Since the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act this became a legal possibility, and Nicaragua was selected as a potential host country.
That effort has turned into a lot of different activities, one of which is STAR: Sexuality Training, Awareness, and Response. It is a Volunteer group that coordinates a number of activities and efforts. Most notably we’ve done Safe Zone training for the Peace Corps staff, but I have recently become the leader of the STAR effort to get Peace Corps Volunteers to work as much as possible in the Nicaraguan LGBTQ community.
Homosexuality and transsexualism are not illegal in Nicaragua. Same-sex marriage is not legal, but the government line is support for LGBTQ rights. And I have been pleasantly surprised by some of the openness and tolerance that I have seen. But the fact of the matter is, just like in most countries of the world, LGBTQ people face discrimination and are economically disadvantaged. They are also exposed to HIV and other health risks, and they sometimes have marginal health care access. In a few words, they are an excellent group for Peace Corps Volunteers to work with! I certainly see the chance to make a positive difference in relatively short amount of times that we are in our communities.
In the past I offered the Mejora tu Vida! sessions with a local LGBTQ NGO, but to double down, on Tuesday my site-mate and I offered a Safe Zone training at one of the schools I work at. And it went very well.
We opened the session without introducing the theme. We simply talked about teaching and education, what the goals of teachers and education are, and what obstacles there are. Then we introduced the LGBTQ theme and effectively demonstrated how a lack of tolerance in the school or in the community could be a roadblock to learning. The teachers were hooked!
We used the “genderbread person” to teach the differences between sex, gender, orientation, and expression. Afterwards, we did a terms matching activity, talked about being an ally, active listening, and practiced case studies of situations that could arise in the school. At the end it seemed that all of the teachers were committed to making their school a safe zone, and even wanted to replicate the activity with the students. Hailee and I couldn’t have been happier.
My teaching counterpart with the principal
Case studies
Terms matching activity
In the future Hailee and I may offer this training at other institutions around the city. In addition, I am going to compile all of the materials and post them online so that other Volunteers can replicate it in their sites. That is ultimately my goal.
One of my best friends in Nicaragua is Ruben. He is a fellow Volunteer, and lives in the town of Achuapa. It is in the northern reaches of the Department of León. He closes his service on October 27, and I am going to miss him. When he asked around to see who would help him paint a last minute mural at one of his schools, I wholeheartedly volunteered.
Eric and Ruben
On Friday Ruben was in León with some of his counterparts and a pickup truck, so I got a ride with them back to Achuapa. For the last hour and a half of the trip it was already dark out. The road was narrow and wooded. There was lightning off the distance, but we couldn’t hear the thunder. It reminded me of driving around Pennsylvania in the summer on the evenings of my days off from working at camp. Catherine and Curcio should have been in the back seat, and I should I have been pestering them about not making it so obvious they were sipping on blueberry vodka.
The mural painting went very well. The mural was of the solar system. When I saw Ruben’s design did not have Pluto I told him I would not help unless he returned Pluto (Plutón in Spanish) to its proper place among the pantheon of planets. Ruben relented.
Wait, Mars is supposed to be red?
Right?
Painting took all day, and we did not finish. But it was shaping up really nicely. I like to call the mural Ruben’s separation anxiety mural. It’s a little crazy to take on a project like this late in service. But he pulled it off and it looks great. Here are a few pictures of the process:
Most of the year Achuapa is a town to be visited by someone who wants to “get off the beaten track,” but still wants electricity and a town accessible by regular bus service and paved roads. Surrounding Achuapa there is great hiking, as well as the possibility for agro-tourism. There is some interesting agribusiness taking place in Achuapa, including coffee, hibiscus wine, and sesame products, like oil and tahini. I’ve even heard that they are trying to produce wine grapes in the area.
How to Get There:
León to Achuapa (3.5 hours):
6:15 AM
7:15 AM
8:15 AM
12:00 PM (not on Sundays)
7:00 PM
3:30 PM
Achuapa to León:
4:00 AM (not on Sundays)
5:00 AM
8:15 AM
12:00 PM
1:00 PM
2:45 PM
All buses to and from Achuapa pass through El Sauce, which offers its own host of rural tourism options, and probably more lodging options as well.
Achuapa to Estelí (2 hours to Cotran Sur bus terminal):
I know a lot of people that love traveling and want to visit as many countries in the world as possible. They have a list and they are checking it off. And I will admit that I do find the idea very alluring. However, being in Nicaragua among a community of people who love to travel and seek cultural experiences, I’ve learned that there will always be more to see in any one place – any one city, any one state, any one country, or any one continent. Seeing “as many” as possible is a fool’s fulfillment. I’d rather experience ‘as much’ as possible, no matter where it is. Most backpackers traveling through Nicaragua dutifully follow the Lonely Planet gospel, some meandering from Mexico all the way down to Patagonia. They see León, Granada, and maybe Ometepe and San Juan del Sur. Very few make it farther afield, such as to the North of Nicaragua, or the Caribbean Coast. Before coming to Nicaragua I had never in my life heard of Matagalpa, Estelí, El Castillo, or Ometepe Island, among a multitude of other wonderful places I have visited and experienced. I only ever heard of León and Granada from reading a book about Nicaragua after being invited to serve in Nicaragua.
And now there is more and more I want to see and do here in Nicaragua. This past weekend I got the opportunity to see one new department, one which of course I had never ever heard of in the United States (and mind you, I am good, dare I say great, at geography), Boaco.
The city of Boaco is known as The City of Two Stories. It used to be two different cities – one at the top of a hill and one at the bottom. Over time they grew together, and now it is one hilly and pretty city. The climate is very agreeable, especially for a Leones like myself, and around every corner Boaco offer an excellent view, whether it be of the surrounding mountains or the other “story” of the city.
Other than hiking around in the surrounding towns, there is not really that much to do in Boaco. The Volunteers in the Department call it the least touristy department of the whole country. But they seem to love their department all the same and find pleasure in the surrounding natural beauty.
After a night in Boaco I went to the Boacan town of San José de los Remates, where fellow Blue Hen Volunteer Tom Ford has lived and volunteered for two years now. Tom and I even had a class together back in Delaware, and I had been wanting to visit him in his site before he left Nicaragua.
Fear the Bird!
San José de los Remates is a neat little clean and orderly town in the mountains of Boaco. I really liked it. On Monday we took a hike to their waterfall, which can be seen up in the mountains from town. One thing I loved about San José were the stories Tom told me about how the town has solved its own problems (he rents a room from the mayor, so I’m sure he has heard a lot from her). The drinking water comes from the waterfall, and many years ago people were dying, and the water was suspected. It turns out that the pipes had asbestos. So they changed the pipes, and the town restored its faith and pride in the municipal water source.
This is the only street sign I have ever seen in Nicaragua
Years later, the water again became polluted, this time by cow effluence. So the town bought out the ranchers, converted the land into an organic coffee farm, and installed hiking trails. And as a result the townspeople still enjoy clean water as well as additional employment and income and the potential for tourism. Unfortunately, San José has to contend with a problem all across the coffee producing regions of Nicaragua – children abandon school before the school year ends and sometimes don’t return until March to join their parents picking coffee.
Drought!
Coffee beans
Municipal hiking trail
Tom also has a “son.” Obviously the five year old, Jacinto, is not Tom’s, but he just wanders over to Tom’s house and hangs out for hours, it seems. The precocious little kid is a neighbor and has taken a liking for Tom. He just wanders into Tom’s house, makes nonsensical conversation like a drunk man on the street, and generally makes a mess of Tom’s house. I loved it! Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of the little rascal, but who knows, maybe one day he will be the President of Nicaragua or something else famous. I also wonder that when I meet funny little kids.
In Boaco we stayed at Hotel Sobalvarro (Facebook link), which is right on the central park on the “top floor.” It is well located, cheap, clean, and comfortable enough. It is more of a hostel, despite the “hotel” name. I don’t believe they have a website but you can call them at 2542-2515.
Buses from Managua to Boaco leave from Mercado Mayoreo every half-hour. However, only every other is an expresso. The ruteados will make more frequent stops and take longer (2 hours + if I recall). There are also minivans that make the trip direct, but their timing is very inconsistent. I recommend only taking one if it is there at Mayoreo filling up. Otherwise take a bus. Be advised to only take Boaco buses. Boaco is off of the main highway, so Juigalpa, El Rama, Nueva Guinea, and San Carlos buses will not pass by Boaco directly.
From Boaco there are busses to nearby towns, such as Santa Lucia, and settlements further afield, such as Río Blanco.
And as for San José:
I do not know of any places to stay in San José de los Remates. I would recommend the town for anyone interested in light hiking and coffee tourism. You would have to do a little Google research, get a contact phone number, and make some forward arrangements, which is really a shame because for such a small town, San José de los Remates is very accessible:
Managua (Mayoreo) to San José
6:00 AM
12:30 PM (not on Sundays)
San José to Managua
5:30 AM (not of Sundays)
1:40 PM
San José to Teustepe (which is on the main highway, so you can get a ride to Managua, Boaco, or further afield)
6:30 AM
7:15 AM
9:00 AM
3:00 PM
Teustepe to San José
7:45 AM
11:00 AM
1:00 PM
2:15 PM
5:30 PM (5:00 PM on Sundays)
Boaco to San José
12:10 PM (2.5 hours, leaves from the market, not the terminal)
1:00 PM (leaves from the terminal, but it is a longer alternative route through the mountains)
San José to Boaco
6:30 AM (leaves from the market, not the terminal)
7:00 AM (longer alternative route from the bus terminal)
San José to Esquipulas, Matagalpa
6:40 AM
12:15 PM
Esquipulas to San José
8:30 AM
2:15 PM
As always, try to confirm schedules ahead of time, because they are always subject to change.
With the exception of some presentations made at one of my schools a few weeks ago, today was the first day of High School Entrepreneurship Competition Season, 2015. This week the students at my largest high school will be presenting in class so that their teacher and I can select which teams compete at the school-wide competition.
I want to blog about these competitions and share my thoughts, but posting regular updates would just be inundating. I also thought that I could have one post that I keep updating, but that sort of defeats the purpose of having a blog, which is a website which has neat and clearly defined continuous updates. Instead, what I am going to do is write this one blog post continuously, like a diary, but not post it until the end of competition season.
UPDATE, October 9: In an effort to keep the length of this article short and the suspense strong, I am going to break it up into three articles. One on the lead-up to the Municipal Competition in León, one on the lead-up to the Departmental Competition, and one that closes things out with the National Competition.
…so read ahead for continuous updates on the competitions as well as musings on tourism, effective communication, Stark Trek, and more.
September 29, 2015
My alarm was set for 7:45 today so that I could get to school around 8:45. I heard a text come in sometime before 7:45, but I ignored it and kept sleeping. At 7:45 when I got out of bed I read it:
“Eric at 7:45 Section D is going to present. Are you going to come?”
No, I am not going to come! Just two nights prior I had told him that I was willing to help out all week with whatever he needed, he just needed to let me know ahead of time. 35 minutes of prior notice does not constitute ahead of time.
I responded that I could not make it at that time since I had just woken up, and I got myself ready, ate breakfast, and headed down to the school at around 8:45, just as I had planned on when I set my alarm the night before. At around 8:30 my counterpart texted me again, saying it was no problem that I wasn’t going to make 7:45 – the kids had not prepared anything anyway. Color me shocked!
When I got to school I found my counterpart and we sat down to talk. The next class wasn’t until 10:15, so we had time. Literally none of the student groups had brought anything to present. Very disappointing. He told them that they had to present and that we would do it during recess (8:30 to 8:45, plentyatime) the next day.
While we were sitting around and planning a student that I did not recognize walked over and handed in his business plan. I was pleased that finally a student had handed in a final draft of their business plan. I had been banging my head against chalkboards for months trying to get the students to work on their business plans. We started going through it, and I realized that although he had put in effort to complete all of the sections of the plan, he truly had no understanding of the concepts and everything was incorrect or way way way off base. His teacher and I began working with him to correct it, but his teacher was answering some phone calls and having a rather heated argument with a math teacher in a Bob Marley shirt, so I was left to help him.
I truly had no desire to re-teach to this kid a year’s worth of material, so after a few minutes I excused myself to go visit some Peace Corps Trainees working with English teachers at the other end of the school and left the kid with his teacher. When I got back about 10 minutes later the kid was gone. I commented to my counterpart that the plan was terrible. My counterpart (I avoid using names because these posts do go on Facebook and I am friends with counterparts and many other Nicaraguans, some of whom speak English) then proceeded to explain to me why I did not recognize this kid.
A few weeks ago the teachers had to hand in grades for the third quarter. This students had literally not come to school since April, so my counterpart sent in no grade for him. Sounds reasonable, right? Wrong! Grades here are a sensitive subject. Basically, teachers can’t fail anyone and are pressured to give all students ludicrously good grades to make the school look good. I usually am willing to show a lot of cultural deference when evaluating aspects of the education system, but the evaluation system here is not something I can not turn a blind eye too. It is done poorly, could be improved, and is nearly worthless as is.
Anyway, the Assistant Principal and my counterpart have butted heads in the past because my counterpart has tried to fail students (the horror!), so this time my teacher got called right in to the Principal’s Office to explain himself. And he explained very clearly that he thought the kid had dropped out. Of course he had put no grade. After that the kid’s father got involved, so he is going to continue in school and graduate (and he is now attending). I told my counterpart that I really was not willing/able to put in the effort to reteach everything to to this kid, who was working alone without a group. My counterpart said it didn’t matter; this student was going to participate and pass anyway because the Assistant Principal wants the kid to graduate. This led to an all time favorite quote of mine:
“Eric, here, if you dress up a pig in a cap and gown, even the pig will graduate!”
It is sad but true. No one fails. Everyone graduates. Even kids who do not come to class for a single day in months. And it really dis-animates the teachers. I see them as zombies in straight jackets. They really can’t do anything, can’t discipline, and are not allowed any initiative. They are now just trying to get through every day without getting fired so they can get their paycheck and one day hopefully make it to retirement without going crazy.
Sniveling and Unpleasant
So anyway, the bell rings, we forget about the kid who with the nonsensical business plan, and we go to Section A to see their presentations. Section A is one of my least favorite of the five in that school. And they were on their best worst behavior this morning. Since there were going to be presentation I asked some of the kids in the front row to move back. Two girls who have always been unpleasant and sniveling sneered at me and told me that they didn’t want to. I simply grabbed one of the girl’s desks and yanked it back. I made my point.
The first group to present has one of my favorite students: Kenon. Kenon is from Pear Lagoon, a small town on the Caribbean Coast. It is very different, and very far from León. His mother sent him to school in León to learn Spanish. He lives with his sister, who is a dentistry student at the university. His family in Pearl Lagoon works with the Volunteers out there, and Kenon introduced himself to me, first thing on the first day of school.
Kenon, second from the right
Kenon’s group prototype presentation a few months ago disappointed. It was pretty much a frappucino. I recommended that instead of selling the drink they should sell a drink mix. And they actually took my advice and changed their product into a frapuccino drink mix! Usually students here do the opposite of what I recommend. They avoid my recommendations like a mosquito carrying malaria. But nope, this group actually did it. Unfortunately they did not have a sample of the finished product, just the powder, and their presentation as well as their packaging needs a lot of work, but it was my first bit of good news since 7:45 AM, so I was happy!
Group two included our friends Sniveling and Unpleasant. Their group had a Hawaiian Pineapple Marmalade. You see, it turns out there are actually different varieties of pineapple. Here, Hawaiian, or “golden” pineapple is known as the sweetest. Anyway, it tasted good but was a bit fibrous (they insisted that’s how it was supposed to be because it is a marmalade, not a jelly). And that was pretty much the only redeeming quality of their product and presentation. I don’t see a future for this group in the competitions.
Third up was “Avocream.” This groups is comprised of the school’s most pretentious students. The core is a groups of kids that speak English well because they attend Embassy sponsored English school a few times a week (not gonna hate on them for that). They are joined by the insolent daughter of the school secretary. The teachers let her get away with anything she wants because they don’t want to get in trouble with the Principal’s Office. I also think her choice of lipstick is terrible.
Anyway, I have been telling them not to use English in the name of their product all year, but they, like clockwork, did not take my advice. And the product is blah. It is a face/anti-stretch marks cream made out of avocados. It looks like guacamole, complete with the weird brown discolorations that guacamole gets when it sits for a day. Very appetizing, I know. Wouldn’t you love to slather that on your face and torso? The group had a menial understanding of their business basics (finances, market, etc.), but they did better than the Pineapple Marmalade group.
With both the Pineapple Marmalade and Avocream I found myself arguing with the groups as to whether their products are natural or not. Both seemed to think so. The Pineapple Marmalade has the pinkish color because they add an extremely popular sickeningly sweet pink food dye called frambuesa which is surely devoid of anything remotely natural. Avocream has a Vaseline base. They argued with me though, saying that the other products on the market are all chemicals. We settled on their product being less unnatural than the competition.
Last up was the Zipper Bag. I love the idea, but not the group (a running theme, I know). These girls presented the product earlier on in the school year, and then did not produce a single piece of written work all year long. Every time we spoke to them it was excuse after excuse after lame excuse. I was legitimately surprised that they even had something to present today, although just like every group except the frapuccino powder, they had no written business plan (which is a requirement to participate in the Municipal Competition, which is scheduled for October 9).
It is difficult to explain the idea of the bag, other than to say that it is one bag made out of a really long zipper. I did take a video of the bag though:
This group too had an extremely poor presentation, which does not surprise me in the least because they have not really put in any effort all year long. However, I like their product just enough to intentionally send them to a competition so that they are embarrassed in front of the judges by their lack of preparedness.
By the end of the Section A massacre of September 29, 2015, their teacher and I had decided to postpone the school-wide competition until the beginning of next week so that the groups have more time to prepare. We can’t push it back any further though because the Municipal Competition is next Friday and they need to have chosen two teams to compete, complete with business plan, product, and PowerPoint presentation. I’m been swearing to all of my teachers for weeks that no group without a written business plan can participate in the Municipal Competition. As things are shaping up right now, if they call my bluff I am going to actually have to cancel the competition.
Tomorrow my counterpart has planned for all of the four other sections to present from 8:30 until 11:45. I don’t know how we are going to fit in four sections, but he seems to think it is possible. Section E was going to present today, but of course, the group that has promised me their business plan ‘tomorrow’ every day since June, is going to bring it in tomorrow. Forgive me if I’m skeptical. Anyway, we’ll see what tomorrow brings. Maybe I won’t be feeling as sardonic.
September 30, 2015:
7:30 AM – Alarm
7:35 AM – Text from Counterpart (same guy as yesterday):
“Eric don’t come the Seniors are all going to an activity at The UCC. We will do the presentations tomorrow.”
If yesterday we hadn’t postponed the school-wide competition I would be freaking out, but there is nothing I can do, and as long as they all actually present tomorrow, they will be fine. It just leaves one less day for the best teams to prepare. I think that today is a debate at The UCC. But only two or four students are participating from this particular school. All the rest are just observing. They would probably be better off just staying in school and sending a small group of supporters with the participants. Plus the school should tell the teachers ahead of time when there are these sorts of activities.
10:30 AM – I get a text from a different Counterpart who had scheduled his school-wide competition for tomorrow and I had gone through the trouble of getting my friend to help judge. He has a “problem” and needs to postpone until Monday. There is a slight chance this may conflict with another school’s competition, but I don’t mention that.
1:30 PM – I head up to one of my other schools to speak with the students. Their teacher has been having health problems and is out for a few days this week. I wanted to give them some guidance since the competition is next week. Of course, none of the groups had a business plan! They all want to know which groups are the best and will compete at the municipal level, but I repeated that I was not able to make a choice without seeing the business plans.
2:30 – I headed to yet another of my schools for their school-wide competition. I was the only judge, and I am fairly impressed with the work that the students have done. All of the groups handed in business plans, and many had PowerPoints as well. Here’s the rundown of the products presented:
Coffee made from toasted soy beans
Cupcakes
Liquid hand soap
Flour to make crepes, pancakes, and manuelitas
Face cleanser
“Natural” insecticide
Pink sauce
Anemia and kidney health supplement
This is my strongest school with a very dedicated teacher. It is a large class (they push 60), but relatively well behaved, and she has them motivated. The pros outweighed the cons. The cupcakes tasted good, but that was there only strength. The hand soap also had a very poor business plan. The other products and plans were all very strong and competitive. It took me an hour of reading over the plans and my notes from the presentations to make my final decision of the two best teams who will advance to the Municipal Competition on Friday, October 9.
The teams still had their weaknesses. I had the familiar “less un-natural does not make it 100% natural” argument, and the teams lacked an understanding of market. In this context, market is the potential clients: the sector of the general population that may be inclined to buy the product, or to whom the business will direct the product. The kids are inclined to sell to everyone in the world, which is very frustrating and not the recipe for a winning team or product. I had spent a lot of time with this class in particular going over market, so it was disappointing to see that they still didn’t understand that basic concept.
In the end, the ready-mix flour and the pink sauce advanced. I really liked the soy coffee, but the flour was a bit more prepared and got the second slot. The flour group worked very hard to improve their product, and they even have a cool process through which they dehydrate eggs and incorporate them as a powder in their product. The pink sauce I find putrid (mayonnaise is one of the holy trinity of my most hated foods), but everyone else loves it, and they are a very motivated group with a good written business plan.
On my way home it was getting dark and there were storm clouds forming in the sky. And it reminded me of this time of year last year in León. It was the first time I’ve felt reminiscent since arriving here last May. I’ve seen events more than once, but those feeling were simply comparative, comparing one year with the other. This was a profound feeling of likeness, and reminded me of high school in New York, and the seasonal feelings throughout the year – sitting on the steps in the front of the high school in the fall as it is getting colder, late nights on the debate bus, ski practice, and antics around town in the spring. For the first time, León felt like home.
When I got to my house at 6:00 I had another text from the Counterpart who had moved his competition early that day from Thursday to Monday. He wanted to make it Tuesday now. This was likely to conflict with another one of my school’s competitions, and I was simply not willing to get in the middle and try to find an agreeable date and time for both schools, so I insisted that he call the other teacher and work it out. Otherwise it would have been a nightmare for me mediating between the two of them and playing endless telephone tag. Plus, this way I am not the bad guy when they realize their own planning follies and have to make some sacrifices or hard decisions.
October 1, 2015
The first day of October in León is a day of rejoice, at least for the Volunteers among us. September is filled with national and religious holidays. The 14th and 15th are independence day celebrations, the 24th is the day of the patron saint of León (The Virgin of Mercy, as distinct from all of the other incarnations of Mary, I suppose), and Tuesday and Wednesday were San Gerónimo celebrations. Independence Day celebrations are a huge nuisance while working in the schools, because classes are continuously interrupted for weeks ahead of time for marching band practice and other activities. The 24th is another lost school day, and the San Gerónimo celebrations are unfortunately known for stabbings and excessive alcohol consumption. To top it all off, every day of the month the churches set off loud firecrackers between 4:00 AM and 5:00 AM.
So my alarm went off at 7:15 today as planned, and no unexpected texts came in throwing a wrench in the day’s plans. I thought that just maybe we had turned a new leaf and things would go better as we cruised towards the competitions.
I was mistaken.
I secretly love editing business plans and uncovering all of their errors
I got to school at 8:30 as scheduled for the presentations of the day. We had to get through four sections of students, so I didn’t want to waste any time. Unfortunately, the Principal had called a teacher meeting that started at 8:30. It went until 9:45. There was nothing that my Counterpart or I could do. He sat there and listened/zoned out, and I edited some business plans that he had received that morning. Unfortunately, these sorts of meetings and lost class time are all too common here. It just goes to show that “class” and “learning” are just political theater, the screen on which the party projects its vote-winning strategies. Education is not an end, it is a means.
All week long my Counterpart has been frantically trying to motivate the kids through threats and motivational speeches. So when we finally left the teacher meeting some of the kids swarmed us. Every group that had something to present, or just had a questions, wanted our attention ya! I got really frustrated because their teacher is the kind of guy who would give everyone the attention that they want. One group that has been making lame excuses literally all year (the zipper bag) about why they haven’t done any work shoved an extremely poorly done business plan in front of him, and he was trying to walk and read and correct it all at the same time. He was slowly walking despite the hour of class that we had just lost, plus bumping into people and things along the way. I had to take the plan away from him, tell the group to do it properly like they know they are supposed to, and come back another time (believe me, it is not lost on me why the kids in this particular school hate me. I don’t care one bit. I’m almost like the Hulk. The more you don’t like me the more fun it gets for me!).
Through all the chaos two groups managed to present. Poor and poorer. One group, who have not done anything all year (at one point one of the group members literally told me that he wasn’t going to do anything) had melty ice cream. They knew absolutely nothing about the business though. It was as if they thought this was a cooking class (which they still would have failed). The other group had won the science fair with their caramelized fruit, and they were using it for their business as well, which is fine. To me, the pineapple that they presented just tastes like the pineapple from pineapple upside down cake, but I didn’t judge their category in the science fair (I judged the industry category if I remember correctly), so I can’t say why they won. If the groups use their science fair project they still need to adapt it into a business. This group, not the least to my surprise, did none of that. They just tried to present their science fair presentation again. When I asked about their finances, marketing, and market study that had absolutely no answers for me. It reminded me of my Counterpart’s quote from yesterday,
“Eric, here, if you dress up a pig in a cap and gown, even the pig will graduate!”
There were other groups in other sections with products, but there was no time to hear their presentations. I am literally out of time. I don’t have more time to dedicate the circus that that school has become. My counterpart just wants to cancel the school-wide competition and send his two favorite groups to the Municipal Competition, but I’m trying to advise him to keep letting groups present so that they all get a fair chance. As things stand now, if he calls off the rest of the presentations, there will be a few (semi-)motivated groups that won’t get a chance. We’ll see what he decides to do, but just like last night with the rescheduling of the school competitions, I had to extricate myself. In the end, this is their competition, not mine, and they need to take responsibility and make decisions.
This week I decided that next year (I will only be in Nicaragua for half of the school year) I am not going to attend classes at that school. I will co-plan with the teacher and go to classes if he asks me to and has a specific role for me, but I do not want to be a “teacher” in that school.
Since the competition that was supposed to be this afternoon was postponed until next week (I still have not heard back on the final date and time yet), there are no more competitions or presentation today. Tomorrow I am not in the schools, so I will be taking a break from competition season until Monday. Good riddance.
Later that afternoon…
I went to another one of my schools for their regular class period. This group is extremely far behind, simply because since July there have been tons of cancellations. There was nothing that the teacher or I could really do about it. The teacher, who works at two different schools on weekdays and another school on Saturdays (read: overworked), has also not done a great job planning classes ahead of time lately, although that is partially my fault because we intend to co-plan together. Nevertheless, they are far far behind, and the kids have fallen to the wayside and lost any motivation that they once had. We’re two months away from graduation after all, don’t forget.
The kids were supposed to hand in their final market studies, but none of the groups were ready. Plus, the teacher did not have a class planned (even though we had talked about it earlier in the week). The entire episode capped off the week and exemplified a lot of what frustrates me about working in Nicaragua. I have learned that when you expect something, be it something from an adult or homework from a student, you need to give crystal-clear-100%-no-doubt-not-a-cloud-in-the-sky-repeated-three-million-times directions. In an intellectual culture with less critical thinking and problem solving, this is imperative, or nothing gets done.
However, there are always unforeseen obstacles. And when the students hit these obstacles they shut down, completely and totally. Then a week or two passes, you ask for their work, and all they can produce is a lame excuse. “Fernanda couldn’t meet.” “We lost our book.” “I was sick.” “I didn’t understand.” But what frustrates me the most is that no matter how many times I give them my contact information and tell them that I am here and willing to help – indeed I came from the United States with that very goal – they never contact me ahead of time to resolve their issues. Nor do they contact their teachers for that matter. So weeks and weeks go by with no progress.
And this is not just endemic to the students. Adults exhibit the same tendencies, in my observations. I have offered multiple times to help plan classes, judge competitions, and revise business plans with my teacher training teachers. Some of them have even told me that they are going to call me. Not a single one has ever called me asking for assistance. In the United States we communicate via text, phone calls, e-mails, and face-to-face. Plus there is Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, to name a few other media. But here, some people still don’t even have cell phones. People who have e-mail rarely check it. Communication is sometimes only effective when done face-to-face, which is very burdensome.
Part of the problem is how the national telecommunication networks are set up. There is Claro and Movistar. That’s it – two companies. And very few people have plans. They just buy minutes. Plus, calling from one network to the other is super expensive, so people avoid it. Some people even have two phones – one for each network. That is hugely inefficient. Furthermore, if you don’t have a plan your phone number is not guaranteed. So if your phone is lost or stolen or a litany of other things happen to you, you need to buy a new SIM card and just like that overnight you have a new phone number and nobody who had your old number is aware that it has changed. All of these institutional barriers really make communication difficult in Nicaragua, and I think it is a major developmental issue.
That was a large tangent, but I think it goes to show how deeply frustrating this entire competition season is becoming. These students still don’t have market studies or business plans, and the competition is next week.
There is one bright light of success this week: my teachers worked out the Monday/Tuesday competition conflict. República de Cuba High School will be holding their competition on Monday, and John F. Kennedy High School on Tuesday. Yes, those are really the names of the high schools. If only the real Kennedy and Cuba could have resolved their differences this easily 50+ years ago.
Saturday, October 3
I caught wind tonight that another Volunteer from my group quit the Peace Corps. He lived in another town in my department, La Paz Centro. Apparently he felt unproductive and just wanted to go home. Out of the original 17, we are now down to 10. Plus, I have no idea what sort of groundwork has already been laid for his town’s local competitions, so now I have to add to my to-do list figuring out what is going on in his town. My goal still remains for the winners from his town to participate in the departmental competition later in October.
October 5
This afternoon was the República de Cuba school-wide competition. My friend Megan came as a guest judge. I hope that she liked the experience. She judged alongside the Principal and another teacher from the school.
The wonton group and the corn drink mix group stood out, and the judges selected them to advance. I like the girls in the carrot milk bar (it’s a popular type of candy here). They have worked hard despite having pregnancies in the group. But they had some shortcomings today that we just couldn’t overlook. I do think that it was an overall positive experience for them though. These carrot milk bars (they are naturally bright orange, which is cool) have always been a crowd favorite so they sold a lot of their product today and they earned money. I always tell my teachers that sales and profits are an essential part of this course because it reinforces the lesson that entrepreneurship can be used to make a living.
The other two groups were sub-par, especially the chicken chalupas. They had been underwhelming since the prototype presentations earlier in the year when I described their product as soggy nachos. This time around they were not soggy, but the product is just a food. They have no packaging or sales plan. I really discourage this type of product, and the three judges completely agreed with my assessment.
After Cuba I headed up to La Villa (a nearby neighborhood) to check up on my class in another school. As I feared, STILL NO BUSINESS PLANS! I have no time left to work with those students. The teacher is not capable of evaluating and correcting the business plans on his own, we haven’t even selected the winning teams yet (although it is pretty clear in my mind, but we are trying to wait to see the plans first), and the winning teams still need to make a PowerPoint for Friday! If I had hair I would have pulled it out. Instead their teacher asked me to come in tomorrow morning for an hour, which I think I can just pull. It will be free time in the school’s computer lab (all new and air conditioned) and I will be there to help any groups working on their plans.
It’s a real shame how poorly things have gone at that particular school because at least three groups had viable ideas:
Nice smelling perfume that was cheap to produce
Coffee yogurt
Diabetic yogurt
The coffee yogurt group worked hard to improve their product and I was very happy to see that what started as a soupy beverage turned into a great yogurt product. This group highly benefited from the individual consultations that the university students gave to each of my classes. The perfume is made by a group of some of the most pleasant and intelligent students that I have in all of León. But after their initial presentation I didn’t see much improvement in their product, despite me trying to advise them on how they could overcome some of its weaknesses. Just today the leader of the group told me that they didn’t think they would present, but I told her that whatever they had would be fine if they could just complete there GD business plan.
It just seems that over time all of the groups have lost interest and motivation. I’ve realized that one of the drawbacks of a large site is the lack of attention I can dedicate to individual groups and students. This class requires lots of revision. A teacher needs to sit down with his or her students and help them think through their options. I just don’t have the time for that in my schedule though. Plus, the kids all live spread out and getting them together outside of class time is tricky. Last year I had a few “office hours” and I was lucky if one group came at all, even though the teacher was highly encouraging certain groups to go. And there’s no lunch breaks, free periods, or study halls built into students’ schedules. Except for a 15 minute recess all they see are back-to-back classes.
I would love more time to sit down with groups and talk to them about the concepts we are learning and how it affects their small businesses. I’m a bit of a romantic and I imagine myself getting the chance to do this with my groups, but it almost never pans out. Plus, feedback from teachers to students is poor. Teacher teaches. Student learns. Student hands in work. Teacher assigns grade. That’s the sequence of things here, and it leaves no space for reflection or improvement. I think in smaller sites Volunteers get a chance to engage with their students more. I envy that aspect of their service.
October 6
With just days to go before the competition things remain bleak in León. In the morning I was with a few groups in their school computer lab, finally seeing some business plans from them. They have an uphill battle for Friday, but at least they have some semblance of motivation and are working on it now. Plus their teacher is healthier and seems happy. The new computer lab is also very nice and a great resource for the school. I hope they take advantage of it and learn how to incorporate it into their teaching and curriculum. Many teachers have a now that there is technology I can finally be a good teacher mentality. It couldn’t be farther from the truth.
In the afternoon was the school competition at John F. Kennedy. But my counterpart in the morning filled me in on some gossip about my counterpart at JFK. About two months he was stabbed late at night. Luckily, he was fine, has recovered and is back at school. I consider him a great teacher. It turns out that he has gone public and claimed that one of our students is the perpetrator! Even worse, that student is already in jail, being implicated in the murder of a university student that travels down from Jinotega. Nevertheless, the student’s father claims that my counterpart was inviting his son out to drink, out that they were out together the night of the attack. From the sound of things, I think my Counterpart has acknowledged that he was out with the student. This is grounds for him to be fired, which I truly hope does not happen.
So with that bleak backdrop I headed over with my site-mate Robert for the school-wide competition:
Coconut scented candles
Potato wedges covered in mayonnaise
Mixed fruit marmalade
Seasoned and cooked chopped-meat fish
Natural breadcrumbs made out of plantains
Enriched toasted corn drink mix
Machine to cut Styrofoam
Hibiscus jelly
The fried potato wedges were so disgusting they could have been in a modern art museum. The group was comprised of two kids that hadn’t done any work all year. Throughout their whole presentation all I could do was stare at the mayonnaise, drizzled on top of the potatoes. The gelatinous sludge was just suspended there. It looked as if it had always been there and will always be there, come hell or high water.
The other products were far superior. The coconut candles were the standout first place group. The candles looked excellent, smelled excellent, and were packaged elegantly. All of the other products were strong, but the fish product stood out, despite its obvious flaw of durability. I also love the Styrofoam cutting machine, but they had some business plan and packaging shortcomings that we couldn’t overlook.
We evaluate groups over six categories:
Innovation/creativity
Oral and visual presentation
Marketing
Market study
Finances
Written business plan
Often times a team seems very strong, with a cool product or a strong presentation, but if they reveal a shallow understanding of the important and underlying business concepts, they will not advance. Some of these groups did not even have a written business plan, which is pretty much an automatic disqualifier. But given what my counterpart in this school went through this year, I am proud of what was accomplished. He is a motivated man and a good teacher. For those reasons I would see it as a tragic shame to lose him.
After JFK I headed back over to Cuba for a final consultation with the winning groups over there. The toasted-corn beverage group continued to impress me with a strong work ethic and very astute team members but the Torritos wontons were in disarray. They said the work was too much for them and they didn’t have the money to make more product in time for the competition (since they ate all of the product from earlier in the week without selling it). They were going through the motions of writing the business plan on the computer, but I could see that none of them were taking initiative at all. Their teacher was fighting with them, playing the game at their immature level, to try to get them to participate, but I saw the writing clear above his head on the wall. If this team went to the Municipal Competition on Friday they would embarrass themselves, or they may just be no-shows. I had a quick meeting with the Principal and the teacher, and we decided to dump Torritos and just bring one team from Cuba. It was dissapointing, but we have to keep in mind that this teacher has never taught the class before and due to many cancellations was far behind in the curriculum. He had already achieved a lot with one motivated team.
And on top of all of these professional problems, my local friend’s brother died over the weekend, which has me upset (you may remember him as one of my friends the dancers). His brother, who was around 30, fell ill at the beginning of this year when my cousin died. I spent a lot of time with my friend when that happened because we were both going through difficult times. He didn’t go into details on his brother’s condition, other than that it was a very serious liver ailment, but I had a feeling that he was staring down the barrel of his brother dying. And it came to pass over the weekend. My friend is devastated, and he did absolutely everything he could to try to save his brother. This must be must worse for him than how I felt back in February, and there is nothing that I can do to help him other than offer him my condolences and continue being a good friend.
October 7
This morning was the Municipal Competition of Mateare, a town on the highway between León and Managua. Dave (a man who is impressively in the Peace Corps for the second time) is from my group and the Business Volunteer in Mateare. He invited me to be a judge. And most unfortunately, he wasn’t able to make it to the competition, because he flew out to the US for a medical procedure yesterday. We expect him back though.
I got to the school in Mateare at five of eight, which was start time. We must have started at nine or 9:30 though. The competition went well though. There were only six teams and a very engaged teacher. It was excellently planned and executed, right down to lunch for the judges after the competition. I don’t even have folders or pens for my judges this year!
Here’s the rundown of the teams:
Marango supplement
Eco-broom
Eco-shoes holder
Yogurt with Splenda and fruit
Painting service
Natural soap made of honey and oats
Marango got first place and will advance to the Regional Competition. Marango is a tree that is purportedly super-nutritional. The girls did the usual song and dance about how it can cure everything, and they marketed it as a cure, not a supplement. That was my biggest complaint. They are not doctors. But they had a strong overall business, so they advanced.
The soap was not natural and the shoe holder was not eco-friendly (although when I asked the group about it they couldn’t decide if eco meant economical or eco-friendly). I really liked the product though. The diabetic yogurt was pineapple flavored, which is fine. But their label had strawberries on it and in the market study their clients indicated a preference for strawberries. That was enough of a nail in the coffin for the other judges and me. The eco-broom and the painting service were the runts of the group. Not great products and the groups were not well prepared at all.
I really enjoyed the Mateare Competition and I am glad that Dave entrusted his baby with me. I hope that the marango girls do well at the Regional Competition and I see them in Managua in November.
Grand cock fighting tournament in honor of the Virgin Mary!
I took the opportunity of being in Mateare to visit one of the business owners from the Business Incubator back in June. Don Marco makes hammocks. But he is also a member of a fishing cooperative that wants to expand into tourism. And I think the cooperative has an attractive offer. Mateare itself is nothing to rave over, but it is on on Lake Managua and close to the natural attractions of the lake, including Apoyeque volcanic crater and Momotombito. Since they already have boats they want to start offering boat tours to Momotombito and smaller islands.
Hammock contraptions
From experience I’ve found that it is extremely difficult for a tour operator to just set up shop and begin attracting tourists, especially if the operator is not established in León. So Dave and I came up with a plan to help this cooperative. Dave would help them get their ship in order and make an attractive offer to tour operators, and I would talk to the tour operators in León that I know to see if they are interested in working with the cooperative and offering a Momotombito tour. Currently, there are no tours to Momotombito.
Things have been going slowly, but yesterday we had a break through. The Director of Quetzaltrekkers, a non-profit tour operator in León joined me in the afternoon for a meeting with Don Marco and the cooperative. We had a productive meeting, and we decided that in the first week of November the cooperative will offer a pilot tour for tour directors and members of the news media. Hopefully the trip will be great and the tour operators I know in León will then offer trips to Momotombito and partner with the cooperative for the boat ride and local guides.
The view of Momotombo and Momotombito from the Mateare lake front. Momma and baby.
Throughout the day I was constantly on the phone and texting, working on planning my local competition as well as figuring out the La Paz Centro situation. My phone was dead by the time got on the bus back towards León. And on the bus an old feeling crept over me: I felt like I needed a personal assistant and a clone to coordinate everything and get everything done. That’s not how someone should feel in the Peace Corps. I work with counterparts and clients. I am most effective when I am directly working with people. Event planning, details, and logistics are not going to leave this country better off when I leave. I think that is one of the my main complaints about the whole idea and manifestation of the entrepreneurship competitions. I’m sure that by this end of this blog post I will write more about my overall feelings of this project. But for now, I am just going through the motions to get through the season.
October 8
Last night I was up pretty late (for the Peace Corps – I’m not comparing to EY) editing business plans that a few groups had sent me. Two were really poor. I was very upset. I don’t understand why these Seniors think that they can shirk on a final project. They were littered with spelling errors, poor grammar, non-formal speech, capitalization errors, and a general lack of effort, presentation, and polish. It was very frustrating to edit them, but I did promise any group that e-mailed me by last night would get edits back from me by today.
“Eric, here, if you dress up a pig in a cap and gown, even the pig will graduate!”
Another group was a lot more impressive. Over the past few weeks they have really emerged as the best from their school and seem extremely motivated. I’m eager to see what they can do tomorrow at the Municipal Competition. They have one of the toasted corm drink mixed enriched with healthy grains, and they package it pretty well. The leader of the group is very intelligent and has grasped concepts incredibly swiftly.
This morning I had two main tasks: dropping off some documents at the Ministry of Education for the competition tomorrow, and fundraising. One of the many frustrations this year is that fundraising is not going as well and as of this morning I have collected nothing. Not a single centavo (not including my Kickstarter – the extra funds from that I will put towards the competition).
I woke up to a gift in my inbox – the local business university, who were big donors last years, are donating again this year! Apparently they were supposed to have contacted me earlier but no one had. This takes a lot of pressure off of me, and allowed me to make some important phone calls this morning instead of walking around to local businesses and asking them to donate again (I have dropped off letters at all the businesses that donated last year and asked them to contact me, but not a single one has called or e-mailed).
The phone calls did not go as well. I still do not have much information on the La Paz Centro competition, and I can’t get in touch with the teacher from Mina el Limón, which is a remote community in the department of León that participated in the competition last year. My most astute of readers may recall that La Mina had some violent protests earlier this year. Well they are roiling yet again, for about a week now. This time the American mining company fired three members of the miners’ union, sparking the protests. Unfortunately, a police officer was killed in the violence a few days ago. I can’t get in touch with the teacher (I will keep trying) and I doubt that her school will participate this year.
In the afternoon I made my final rounds to two different schools, working with the teachers and students to prepare them for tomorrow. Five schools will be participating, and all are prepared to vastly different degrees. My predictions (get to your bookies quick folks) are for a strong showing from Salomón de la Selva. Of the 11 teams I expect tomorrow, three will advance to the Departmental Competition. Salomón could nab two of those spots. Nipping at their heels will be John F. Kennedy and Instituto Nacional del Occidente. Their respective teachers always make strong last minute pushes. And unfortunately, my expectations are low for República de Cuba and Clarisa Cárdenas López. We’ll see how things turn out though. My expectations are so low and beaten down right now, I don’t wonder how under-prepared some of the groups will be. That’s a given. Some groups won’t have a business plan, their product, or a PowerPoint. What I wonder is what excuses they will have. “Cristian’s thumb drive got a virus?”“Katy was supposed to bring the product but she went to sign up for university instead.” “Woops, sorry, we e-mailed you the wrong version of our business plan.” Stay tuned to find out tomorrow.
I’ve been on a bit of a Star Trek kick lately. I’ve watched a few Next Generation and Deep Space 9 episodes mostly, but I’ve settled on the Original Series. To be honest, Star Trek is not that great. The acting and stories both leave me wanting more, and in the later series the techno-babble is nonsensical. But the Original Series offers a lot and is fascinating to watch. It trail-blazed a genre, established the importance of moral dilemma and modern parallels even while exploring the extremities of the universe, and is fascinating to watch as an examination of gender roles. Time to watch some Kirk and Spock action before I conk out before the big day tomorrow.
October 9 – The Day of the Municipal Competition
As I left my house this morning I had that feeling of ‘I am definitely forgetting something.’ Turned out it was my computer, which we needed to project the PowerPoint presentations. Luckily the school that we host the competition at is only five to ten minutes from my house on bike, so I quickly biked back home to scoop up my computer. I arrived to set everything up sweaty as high noon. Nothing new there.
Before I launch into my complaints and problems, let me just say that the event went well. Quite well actually. Everyone participated and I was largely impressed with the quality of the presentations and products. More so than I expected to be.
My complaints and problems:
Everyone arrived late
One group arrived over an hour late which forced us to rearrange some things on the program
My counterpart at the Ministry of Education did not come
The microphone’s had no batteries
The electric went out (briefly, luckily)
No one got beverages or snacks for the judges (I shelled out in the end and will reimburse myself from donations)
The auditorium was hot but the fans were too loud without the microphone so we had to turn the fans off
In addition to Torritos, two other schools only brought one team
That, ladies and gentlemen, is when something goes well down here! As for the students, there was an upset:
First Place: Manuelitas flour, Salomón de la Selva
Second Place: Carao Milk, Instituto Nacional del Occidente
Third Place: Toasted corn drink mix, República de Cuba
First
Second
Third
Carao Milk surged ahead and Cuba was the dark horse, taking third, leaving JFK in the dust. Cuba’s feat is even more impressive when you take into account that it is small three person team, and one of the members has a nine-month old! This is probably the first time in years that JFK did not qualify for the Departmental Competition. I will have to deal with the aftermath of that next week. I won’t go into all of the teams, since I’ve written about pretty much all of them before. I was very disappointed with my largest school though; the one in which I had so many problems last week and most of the students did not get the opportunity to present and show their best work. In the end the teacher only brought one team. It seems unfair to all of his other students, and a waste considering that it is the largest school in León and one of the largest schools in the country and he could have brought another team.
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So that’s a wrap. Looking ahead to next week, I need to keep my three teams that advanced on the path to success at the next level, and I need to keep planning the next event. I still don’t even have an approved date for the competition, which I certainly need in order to confirm an event location and my judges.
All of my teaching counterparts with me. I may cherish this photo for a long time.
I was going to keep this post going all the way until the end of the National Competition, but that seems like it will be too long and cumbersome. I will post a follow-up on the 26th after the Departmental Competition, and a final Competition Season 2015 update on November 18th after the National Competition.
Over the weekend I went back to El Tránsito for another training session with the ladies of ETCA. They haven’t got the pizza restaurant up and running yet, but they do seem to be making some headway with sales, mostly over the internet or with “for a cause” businesses in the United States. I’m not that upset about the pizza. Actually I’m not upset at all. It is low season right now for tourism, so they wouldn’t be selling much pizza anyway.
The theme was a familiar one: Costs & Prices. To make things simple and easy, the thinking is that they are only going to offer personal size pies. I wanted the ladies to start to get a feeling for the investment they need to make to offer a quality pie, and what they should charge as a result. So I brought along my handmade erasable unit cost poster, and we went through a number of examples, letting the ladies get a handle for calculating unit cost.
No business client of mine is going to get away with not being able to calculate unit costs
During the session the ETCA administrator said, “Oo, this is going to help me with accounting!” That, my friends, is the sweet sound of success in my book. Step one is getting them to agree with me that something is important. Step two is implementation.
I also took the opportunity of being in El Tránsito to stay the night and soak in the local vibes. ETCA has some very nicely equipped bedrooms (AirBnB anyone?), and they graciously put me in one. And boy, let me tell you, come sundown, that place is dead! After the charla I ran down to the beach for a quick swim. Afterwards, I read. That was it. That was all that there was to do. And it was wonderful.
I found myself reading Jaguar Smile, by Salmon Rushdie. It is a small non-fiction book on Nicaragua in the late 80’s. It was Rushdie’s first non-fiction book, in fact. The premise is basically that there had been an assertion in the United States that there was a silent majority in Nicaragua opposing the revolution and the direction that the Sandinistas were taking the country. Rushdie ostensibly went looking for that silent majority.
My first immersion into Nicaragua was Blood of Brothers by Stephen Kinzer. It took an anti-Reagan but also an anti-Sandinista stance. And Kinzer’s opinions have certainly colored my own opinions. It was wonderful to read another person’s opinion, one which opposed, and even at one point directly attacked, Kinzer’s.
The next morning I had another quick meeting with Eli, the ETCA administrator. The ladies were having a little trouble with multiplying all of the quantities of ingredients in the pizza recipe, so we made an easy to use poster where they could choose how many personal pies they want to make and how much of each ingredient they need to include. After that meeting it was time for me to take off, headed back to León.
A few simple scenes from the visit:
This was the first time I went to El Tránsito on public transportation. On my other two visits I went in someone else’s private vehicle. And on this trip I learned about one of the true hardships of life in Tránsito. El Tránsito is off of “Carretera Vieja,” the old highway from Managua to León. The government recently repaved the road and it is excellent. However, Tránsito is 14 km from the highway, down a dirt road to the ocean. Three buses a day leave Tránsito in the morning and head to Managua. And they come back in the afternoon. Any other time of day, those last 14 dirt km completely strand you. Your only hope is to hitch a ride.
The view when you finally make it into town
I was lucky and got a ride quickly on my way into Tránsito. But on the trip out I waited in the sun more than an hour before someone came by and gave me a lift up to the highway. There is one woman in ETCA who is currently undergoing chemotherapy. I can’t imagine how hard it is for her to have to get to Managua multiple times a week for such a debilitating procedure.
And the new website, where you can place orders (not for pizza!)
By the way, does anyone know how to make a Facebook Page “badge” for a Page that they do not own? I wanted to put badges up in lieu of these hyperlinks, but after doing some research I could not figure out how.
But let’s face it, if you’re headed to El Tránsito you are going there to surf.
Where to Stay:
One possibility is right at ETCA. The rooms are basic, but very clean and comfortable. All information and contact information is on their website.
El Tránsito also has a number of surf lodges. I have never stayed at them so I can’t vouch for quality, but I’m sure there are TripAdvisor and other credible reviews:
If you are traveling with a surf board you may want to take public transportation. I assume that a taxi driver from the airport will take you for $40 – $80, but those last 14 km can be pretty rough, so if you want private transportation I would suggest booking it ahead of time. One taxi driver who will make the trip is Oswaldo: +505 8454-2715.
There are three public buses a day going out, and three coming in. The ride is about an hour and a half. They leave early morning and return early to mid afternoon. They leave from Mercado Oriental in Managua and then pass by Mercado Israel to pick up more passengers. Wait at the main bus exit at Israel. The bus will pass there.
El Tránsito to Managua
5:00 AM
5:45 AM
6:45 AM
Sundays: 6:00 AM only
Managua to El Tránsito (passing Israel)
12:00 PM
1:00 PM
3:00 PM
Sundays: 12:30 PM only
If you are coming from León or the Managua bus times are inconvenient, there is a “Carretera Vieja” bus every hour from León to Mercado Israel in Managua, and likewise from Israel to La Terminal in León. León to Tránsito only takes an hour now that the highway has been resurfaced; however, that still puts you 14 km away from your final destination.
Finca means farm in Spanish. Generally, it refers to a general purpose farm that cultivates a few different crops. Many Nicaraguan families own small fincas of just a few acres. Some Volunteers even live with families on their fincas. And the thought of a finca conjures up for me thoughts of richness, fulfillment, idyllic pastorialism, and good times spent with Nicaraguan friends and family. Unfortunately, living in the center of a city with a family from the heart of the city, I’ve never had that finca Peace Corps experience. Volunteers in smaller communities are gifted mangoes and other fruits when they are in season and their meals are stuffed with produce fresh from the nearby fincas. Not me though. All we’ve got is a sour orange tree in our courtyard, and my family shops at Wal-Mart.
This is not to say I’ve never spent time outside of the city. The moment I fell in love with Agua Fria, the volcano-side community in Telica (which by the way is erupting again!), was after a hike down to their hot springs, on the way back up the mountain they gifted me a backpack full of mini-bananas (one of my favorite tropical fruits), despite them being very impoverished people. I had to give half of the bananas away and I was still eating them two at a time for a whole week.
My host sister also lives on a finca with her family in Estelí and there is an open invitation for me to visit, and I’ve also been invited to a women I know’s father’s finca up in the north of Chinandega. I’m reluctant though because it is a multi-day Catholica pilgramage of sorts, which could turn into the ultimate Nica-napping. Just recently I was also at Finca Esperanza Verde, an agro-tourism initiative of sorts. I think I have just become extremely interested in agricultural while in Nicaragua, so the idea of finca truly captivates me.
When I was in training I spent tons of time with Jessica’s host family. They were wonderful, which I why when I went back last month I stayed with them. Spending time with them, I could tell that Eveling’s mother was a big part of her life, but I actually never met her or Eveling’s step-father. I met their children, his parents, and basically everyone else in the family and town other than them. They lived nearby on a working finca. Jessica and Ryan had visited, but I had not. It actually became a running joke that they didn’t exist. Once they bought a birthday cake for their granddaughter and I was sure that I would see them at the party. They did not attend.
On this last trip to San Juan I finally met them. Eveling and the family have been going through some hard times so her mother has been around more to help out. Her mother and step-father are wonderful people, and I even got to finally visit their finca, which was really cool! It had been raining a lot and the finca was foggy and muddy and everything I wanted it to be!
Mariano among the granadilla vines
I didn’t get a lot of pictures but they grow a large variety of fruits and vegetables. There are six varieties of bananas and plantains alone, plus citrus, jocotes (not my favorite), coffee, and granadilla (Nicaraguans only use it to make fruit drinks), to name a few of their crops. They also have some pigs and even some small tilapia pools.
The national bird of Nicaragua is the beautiful, but notoriously skittish, guardabarranco. Many Volunteers say they have never even seen them, but they abound in León so I see them all the time. However, I’ve never gotten a picture of one close-up. Among the granadilla vines Mariano and I did see a guardabaranco, but I could only get a picture of its tail (which is itself the most distinctive aspect of a guardabaranco).
Some Volunteers even get tattoos of guardabarrancos on their bodies. I’m always daring them to get a full torso guardabarranco, with the tail extending down across all of the ribs, but no one has taken me up on the offer yet. If anyone does though I will be sure to get a picture. It will be sure to be a beautiful work of body art.
Until the next finca!
Want to visit San Juan de Oriente for yourself? It is super easy and doable in a day trip from Managua, Masaya, or Granada (or even stop off on your way from Ometepe to Granada). It is a small town, but it is right on the Pan-American Highway and on Empalme Catarina (a roundabout connecting two arms of the highway).
All Managua to Nandaime, Managua to Rivas, Managua to Peñas Blancas, Niquinohomo to Granada, and Masaya to Diriomo buses will stop right at the entrance to San Juan de Oriente. From Managua, buses leave from Mercado Huembes on a regular basis all day and will run between C$ 20 and C$35 if I remember correctly. In addition, Masaya to Jinotepe runs every forty minutes and will drop off at the Empalme, an easy one kilometer walk from the main entrance to San Juan. Various other microbuses (Masatepe, primarily) running from Huembes will drop off at the empalme. If you are on any busses heading to Rivas or Peñas Blancas make sure you explicitly tell the bus attendant that you are going to San Juan de Oriente, not San Juan del Sur.
Special tip: If you can catch the 11:30 AM from Peñas Blancas, it not only stops at Huembes, but then also drops off passengers at La UCA and Mercado Israel for the same price. This can be convenient for anyone trying to get to León or Chinandega. It passes San Juan sometime after 1:00 PM, if I recall.
Today was one of the bi-weekly tertulias held in the León Central Plaza (everyone here calls it the central park, but it resembles nothing of a park and resembles everything of a plaza, so I suppose it could be translated either way). Every other week the city shuts the main streets on the plaza and sets up tents for locals to sell their products. It is free to sign up – you just have to bring your own table.
I’ve been emphasizing the importance of the students actually selling their products with my teacher training group, so I spoke with City Hall and reserved us some tents for today. Three teams showed up, and everything really went great. The three groups had:
Cebollita (chopped onions in vinegar with chile, used as a condiment)
Coconut candy
Iron-rich toasted corn drink mix
The cebollita is not the most creative idea out there, but they did an excellent job with their packaging and design. The drink mix I think is a pretty innovative product, and well received by the public, but they could work on their packaging design a little bit. The coconut candy was lacking in both departments, but their teacher is brand new and really loves teaching the class and seems to have her kids well motivated, so I consider it a great success.
For one of the teams sales started slow, but by noon they had sold out of their product. In fact, all three of the groups sold out and have cold hard profits in their pockets now. It was also a great opportunity for me to speak with the students and their teachers, in an informal setting, about finances, profits, and return on investment (the coconut candy group in particular had a very small profit margin, so we talked about how they could improve that). And truly, the real heroes of the day are the three teachers who dedicated part of their Saturday to their students.
I did rent tables and chairs for the event. For now I paid for it myself, but once my Kickstarter campaign closes I will reimburse myself with that money. I’ve raised more than my goal, so I am going to use the extra money for activities like the tertulia with my students. So thank you to my supporters.
Remember Matagalpa, the magical land of fertile fields and friendly people nestled up in the cool highlands of Nicaragua, teeming with Volunteers and just waiting to be explored? I went back last weekend for my third visit, this time to a small village called Yúcul. My friend Joe, and Environment Volunteer, lives there, and he has always promoted the natural beauty that his site offers.
I’m likin’ the lichen, Joe
In the native language Yúcul means, “Bustling Metropolis.” The village occupies two whole sides of one dirt road on the side of a mountain, and boasts an impressive 800 people. There is, usually, water and electricity.
A green passion fruit growing on a vine
On Friday Joe took me to a pine tree reserve overlooking his town. Believe it or not there are pine trees in the higher elevations of Nicaragua, and it was great to get to hike under them. The smell was also great. I haven’t smelled pine in a long time and it was a very nice memory. They also grow passion fruit, which is one of my favorite smelling fruits. As you can expect from just about any and all hikes in Nicaragua, the views from the pine tree reserve were excellent (and slightly breathtaking because I was getting over a small cold and its accompanying asthma).
Based on my ‘bustling metropolis’ sarcasm, you can probably tell that Yúcul is a far cry from a well furbished city like León. I really admire the Volunteers who live in such austere conditions. Joe’s host family went to bed at around 8:30 PM, and Joe lit a candle for me so I could keep writing in my diary; otherwise the light from his room would have kept the family awake. There are no bathrooms in the house. They use a latrine in the backyard. Another PC visitor blogged about the latrine, calling it the “Worst Bathroom in Nicaragua.” To be honest, I’ve seen worse, although I didn’t have to do #2, so I really did not get the full experience.
On Saturday our friends Jen and Anna joined us and we hiked uphill from his town to Finca Esperanza Verde, location of the Best Bathroom in Nicaragua. FEV is a working organic coffee farm and eco-lodge. The views are wonderful, the whole farm is beautifully landscaped, and it is a wonderful place to visit. Day guests get unlimited coffee and bananas. On the hike back down we also saw a wondrously gnarly caterpillar.
And as for the FEV bathroom? I was a little underwhelmed. It was clean and functional, which is always appreciated. However, the sink faucet was very left hand discriminatory, which I didn’t realize until I had already soaped up my hands, so I had to perform some arm contortioning to turn on the water. 7.5/10 for the bathroom.
After FEV we headed for a night in Matagalpa. On Sunday I was in no rush to get back to León, so Anna and I tried to find some cultural things to do around the city, but we were a bit disappointed. There is the Carlos Fonseca House, notorious for always being closed, but other than that there is not much to do in the city other than eat. Matagalpa is a very outdoorsy city it seems (we were hiked out).
In an effort to make my blog a bit more utilitarian for tourists visiting Nicaragua, I am going to start including logistical information on getting to sites around Nicaragua.
Getting to Yúcul from Matagalpa is fairly easy, because it is not far at all from the city. From Coltran Norte bus station (also known as Guanuca) take any bus heading towards Matiguás via San Ramón (could be the 10:00 AM to La Mula, the 11:00 AM to Santiago, or the 11:45 AM to Cerro Colorado, and more continuing on into the afternoon, such as to El Jobo or La Patriota). Tell the Cobrador (person who asks you for money) to advise you when you are at Yúcul. The ride costs C$25.
If you want more information on getting to Matagalpa, Contact Me. The best information for Finca Esperanza Verde is available directly on their website.
