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?

Coffee Consulting

In my site there is a large coffee cooperative.  They grow the coffee in the hills north of where I live and then dry, toast and grind it down the road from my house.  To understand what we’ll be working on, you’re going to need some background on Nicaragua culture.

This is a harsh and huge generalization but Nicas are bad at saving money.  Now I know it’s not their fault; it’s hard to bank money when you’re only making $6 a day.  In addition, not having a physical bank within 30 minutes by vehicle certainly doesn’t encourage the habit.  That being said, it’s also not impossible to save money; there’s a lot of frivolous discretionary spending.  Anyway, I’m getting off track.  Typical behavior indicates that people in my town do NOT buy in bulk.  Again, understandable if you don’t have a refrigerator or just plain don’t have the money.  Example: I need envelopes to mail letters home so I bought a box.  After a couple days the humidity and temperature sealed all the envelopes rendering them completely useless.  Now I purchase envelopes one at a time.  That’s how it works here with everything (except of course our yummy rice and beans).

To tie everything together, that’s how people also purchase coffee.  Nicaraguans never buy coffee in the pound bags like we do.  They buy it in tiny 2oz servings.  Therefore, the coffee coop wants to sell its lower grade coffee in the same single serving size.  The issue is that they cannot match the price of the competitors: $0.15.  They’d like to know if people would be willing to purchase a higher quality in the same size for $0.21.  To find out, we are going to do a market study to find out preference, price sensitivity and brand loyalty.  Next meeting is the 16^th!

Elections Here and There

Nothing exciting to report about the local mayoral election in my town.  There was an impromptu parade and fireworks so I’m assuming the incumbent Sandinista won.  I did submit my absentee ballot for the US election though!  It was easy, maybe too easy…  They emailed me a PDF ballot and I filled it out, scanned it and emailed it back.  I have no fun plans to watch election results since I’m still not permitted to leave my site.  Crossing my fingers that my neighbors let me use their internet!

Tomorrow will be a busy day!  I’m meeting with the head of the coffee cooperative to discuss marketing tactics.  Then I’m going to try to co-plan with 2 of my professors and teach a class (topic TBD).  And finally I’m meeting with the women’s group to see how their strategic plan is going.  At our last meeting she showed me her work on the vision, mission and objectives of the organization, very impressed!  I’ll write another post if anything eventful happens.  Otherwise, this weekend I’m going to visit a friend’s site in Masaya and then eat brunch and watch the NFL in Managua!

(Un)eventful weekend

Last night was the culto.  While I didn’t directly participate, I was still able to observe.  Now as someone who has grown up in Jesustown in the shadow of the Billy Graham Center, I thought I’ve experienced all that the protestant religion has to offer.  But in fear of playing the role of the Pharisees on Pentecost, this event was a little…eccentric.  For several hours people were walking around chanting, spreading holy water and speaking in tongues (in addition to the usual singing and praying).   To each their own?

Today officially begins “Standfast Part II” (a cool way the Feds say “Stay Put”).  Tomorrow are mayoral elections across the country.  While we aren’t anticipating violent protests, I’m stuck in my little city of 5000 people with no bank or supermarket for the next 5 days.  To make this even more enjoyable, the Nicaraguan government has forbid the sale of alcohol today and tomorrow.  What a bunch of wet blankets, huh?  I’ll let you know if anything exciting happens!

Regional Comp, check!

Tuesday was Madriz’s (where I live) and Nueva Segovia’s (the “state” north of me) regional competitions.  There was 10 teams from 6 different cities and the business plans were mostly foods: yogurt, avocado popsicle etc.  Unfortunately, none of my 4 teams qualified for the national competition.  They were pretty bummed about it but, like a true Cubs fan, there’s always next year!  Except they will be flying solo because I’ll be back in the US of A!  The national competition is the day before thanksgiving.  I’m excited to see who wins!

Today is some sort of religious holiday.  I’ve been invited to participate in the culto (literally: “cult”).  That is what we call the evangelicals aka anyone who isn’t Catholic.  Anywho, they are having a worship service on my patio from 7pm until 1am…  This will be interesting.

Unrelated, now that I have more time on my hands I can put more effort into my cooking!  Last night I made teriyaki noodles with soy meat and veggies and this morning I ate scrambled eggs with Bombay potatoes!  (Thanks mom)