Year and 1/2 in Country!

Hey friends and neighbors!

This weekend I was hanging out in Masaya and Managua with my Nicaraguan friend Jadder and my PCV friend Julian.  I got to see where Julian lives and then we went for an all-you-can-eat brunch at the Holiday Inn (I won it in a raffle, otherwise it would have been nearly 10% of my monthly salary).  DELICIOUS!  Omelet, bacon, sausages, chicken, granola fruit = heaven.  After gorging ourselves, we swam and watched American football.  What a life, huh?

Yesterday I administered a test at my rural school.  Back in the beginning of the school year in February, I had the foresight to make the students take a pre-test to gauge their existing knowledge of entrepreneurship.  Yesterday’s exam was the exact same as the one I used in February so I can also measure their progress.


And the results show…not much.  Honestly overall I didn’t see improvement between the pre and post tests.  There are numerous excuses for this: bad counterpart, poor class attendance etc. but it’s still pretty disheartening.  Most of the questions were not difficult (“What is a business plan?”) and all were multiple choice or true and false.  Also I did this at my rural school where there is the lowest emphasis placed on education so it’s safe to assume that the rest of my students would test better.  There were a couple A’s so hats off to them!

Later this week there will be posts about business consulting, thanksgiving plans and carnival!  Unrelated I’m participating in No-Shave-November more out of sheer laziness than advocacy.  Since mustaches are inexplicably still considered “professional” here in Nicaragua, I say why not go for it?