Day 25

This is it. It's time to pack and go home. First of all I'd like to thank those who have taken some time to read my musings. I've enjoyed writing this blog and hopefully you have got something out of it. I've had a wonderful time and I am very grateful for the opportunity I've had to come here and have so many great experiences. This will by my last entry in Nicaragua. I feel I have so much to say because I've learned so much but I don't know where to start. It is so ironic that you just can't get ahead. I find that whenever I try to give service I always get more in return that I ever give. Perhaps that is why I like doing it?

Believe me I feel like we have done some good and accomplished some things that really will help some people here, but chances are they will all have forgotten about me in a year or two. I will always remember the month I spend in Chinandega though. I feel I have learned a lot about business and consulting, I've been able to practice and use my Spanish skills that were way too rusty, I was able get to know another culture and their food. I was able to indulge in my favorite fruit in the world that I can't get in the states. Here it is call mamon, in Puerto Rico it is called canepa. Either way it was a treat for me. It was great for me to attend church here and see the faith of the saints. It still kind of blows my mind that there can be two cars in a church parking lot and a full chapel at 9:00 AM while back home we can't make it there on time in our luxury automobiles. It made me want to try harder and to be more faithful. I was offered a great internship with Symantec while here by interviewing on Skype. I realized that life goes on without turning on a cell phone for three weeks. I laughed until I cried once (hasn't happened in years), and I made a great friend. I'll be getting on a plane tomorrow with a new perspective on life and more motivation to be a better person and serve my fellow man more.

There is one last thing I want to say. I realized this when I first got here and whether I wrote about it or not I want to talk about it again here. I learned something about happiness. As we walked and drove around I kept seeing little children that were happy. The smiles on their faces couldn't lie. These smiles told the story that they are content and happy with what they have. I'm struggling to describe but it was something you could see in their faces. Some of these children lived in decent homes and others lived in one room homes with dirt floors. It didn't really matter though. And what this taught me is that happiness is not based on material things. Granted it is important to have our basic needs met, but aside from that there is another source of happiness that isn't in material goods. My thoughts are that much of the unhappiness we find in our society is a learned behavior. We have chosen to be unhappy because we dont have this car or we don't live in that house. There is more to life than that.

Day 24

We spent a lot of time in the car today. We left a little before 8 AM and got back just after 8 PM. It was fun to see some different parts of the country, but we did spend a lot of time driving around. Our first stop was to eat Quesillos. These things are not good. It is essentially a couple tortillas with chopped onions with some sort of cream on top. Of course they ordered me the extra large plate at 9 in the morning when I wasn't even remotely hungry. The people here love them and as far as I'm concerned they can keep them. After choking down half a plate we went to the top of this volcano in a national park here. I didn't know this before, but Nicaragua is an active volcanic region. I guess they erupt every once in a while but they are usually smoking as you can see in the pictures. It was really cool to see it so close up.

After that we went to Masaya which is a little bit touristy. The thing I hate about tourist areas is you are a target for every man, woman, or child peddling something. If that isn't annoying enough, while we were eating lunch in a restaurant at least five different peddlers came up to our table trying to sell us there junk. I can't believe the restaurant owners would even allow it. I didn't like that aspect of things but I'm done complaining. We saw this old volcano crater lake afterwards and then made our way back home. All in all it was a really fun day. We saw a lot of cool places and had a lot of laughs along the way. One more day to go...

Day 23

Busy and good day. I'll hit the highlights. We stopped by Marlon's little DVD business and he is doing well. He used to sell around 25 DVD/CD's a day. He is between 30 and 50 now and he hit a new record of 73 last week! Pretty cool. We have also helped him create a little label he can put on his DVD's to help establish his brand. He is now the only DVD store in Chinandega (and there are probably 20) that has its own label and brand on the merchandise they sell.

Lunch was kind of exciting because I ordered cow tongue. Definitely hard to think about what it actually is, but it still tastes good. I figured I'm not going to have much of a chance to eat it again so what the heck. I really did like it.

This afternoon we helped a guy named Chamorro build his own little website/blog. He has a couple of different businesses and he does a good job. He wants to develop an conveyor belt type business that could not only make him a lot of money, but could also employ over 20 people. One thing he said he wanted help with when we met with him was a website. Neither of us really knew how to do that but after a couple days we realized we've learned how to blog and there is no reason he couldn't have his own blog for his business. We got that set up for him and taught him how to continue to work on and develop it.

After that there was a younger gentleman that wanted some help with some marketing materials. He is an electrician by trade and seems to do pretty OK but he wanted some help making some business cards. The first thing we had to do was come up with a business name. After that it wasn't all that tough but thank goodness for Microsoft Word templates. He seemed really happy about his new business name and business cards.

Day 22

Today we went through all the businesses we've met with and wrote up individual reports for all of them. It was quite a bit of work, but it will be a nice record of what we have done and how we feel they can improve. We've only got a couple days left so we are hoping to meet with with most of these people one last time and get them set on the right course. This afternoon we actually met with a couple of ladies we worked with before and they were very appreciative of our suggestions. It is too bad we won't necessarily be here long enough to see how things turn out. I'm surprised at how willing people are to listen to us and try what we suggest. They really are hungry to succeed. It is just a very different business/economic culture.

We went to some guy's house today to research a couple business ideas for people in the future. One of them is to sell Popsicles and ice cream. This place is essentially a junk yard. He buys broken down appliances and such, fixes them, and sells them. We were looking into some of the freezers he has there for the ice cream business. It was nuts though. There is literally junk all over the place. There is no organization of anything and this is where the guy lives with his family. He isn't part of Cause for Hope so we weren't there to help him, but if he simply cleaned things up, organized his merchandise in categories and separated the stuff he was working on, he'd probably sell a lot more. They haven't quite figured out the concept of presenation yet.

We were supposed to present a class tonight about record keeping and some of the "best practices" that we have found here but only one guy showed up and he was an hour late. I guess it wasn't a high priority even though we had about 10 verbal commitments. All you can do is try.

Day 21

For the first time since I've been here I just kind of wanted to be home today. Not that I haven't enjoyed it, but I miss home. But that made me realize I don't really have a home so I got over it. This picture is of Jose Maravilla and his family. They have invited us over to their home for dinner a couple of times which has been fun. I asked him point blank tonight if he thinks we've had a positive impact while we've been here. I asked him to tell me his honest opinion and not to sugar coat it. He said that he really thinks we have been of service and we've helped a lot of people. He told us that both Jose Luis (cell phones) and Axel (oil & lubricants) are doing better because of our suggestions and are excited to keep going with the things we are teaching. He and his wife have decided to run their store themselves to see if they can stop the bleeding and he said that it was because of our help. I know there are others that have also benefitted so I feel good about the fact we seem to be making a difference. We do have one really big challenge that is still staring us in the face...Record Keeping.

We spent most of the morning brainstorming and talking about ideas how we can help the people here start keeping records of of their business dealings. It is a recurring weakness almost everyone has. They know how much their products cost, they know when they make a sale and how much they make, but they have no idea if the business is profitable at the end of the month. What happens is that they make a sale so they have money in their pocket and they need to buy food. So the money goes to food. It is all just mixed up together and aside from a record of sales, there is no such thing as real accounting. I was thinking that this really could be the competitive advantage that really could elevate these businesses above all the other ones just down the street. The people work hard, they have good ideas, but they have no idea what is happening with their numbers. This is the problem we have to solve. We came up with a plan where included with their loan payment is a monthly review of the records they have kept. Everyone comes into the office to pay their loan so I suggested that part of that process would be a review of what is going on in their business. These numbers could be entered in the computer and see what their gains and losses are. Maravilla agreed. The real chore is making it simple enough for the people to do it. I honestly think that if we can make this work, it will really be able to change the entire Cause for Hope program for the better. Game on!
Aside from the regular work we are doing, I have one remaining goal in this final week: eat iguana. Maybe I will be able to catch this one.

Day 20

Frankly there wasn't a whole lot that would be interesting or new to say that happened today so I'll keep this short. We went to church, talked to a few people afterward, went to a meeting that we really didn't need to go to tonight that was way longer than it needed to be, and here we are. I'm still enjoying this experience very much and I'm thankful I've been healthy the whole time. We are going to have a busy week to get everything done that we want to so things should be fun.

Day 19

Campuzano was where we went today. We have been hearing about this natural spring that has super clear waters that are just gorgeous. I guess I had something a little different in my head going into this experience, but I wasn't all that impressed. It wasn't bad, just not the Garden of Eden like I was expecting. It is a natural spring and someone has essentially poured concrete to create three pond-like swimming pools. The water was clear, but there was still some debris and leaves floating on top. There were also a bunch of little fish swimming in there. These fish were not shy. As a matter of fact, if you stood still, they would come up and nibble on you. It didn't hurt but it kind of felt odd. Maravilla was telling us that apparently that is how they do pedicures in Japan. They just stick your feet in a pool of fish and let them knaw the dead skin off. According to him it is the best way to go. I got curious so I had to consult the Web. YouTube confirms that this nonsense is true! (I've added a link in the Relevant Links section). Being a proponent of pedicures I refuse to mock what I don't understand. Who would have thought I would be learning about advance Japanese pedicure techniques in the middle of Nicaragua? I digress. This swimming experience wasn't all that transcendental for me. Besides the fish, there were a lot of semi-jagged rocks on the pool floors, and no chlorine. Paul and I weren't too sure about how great of an idea it was to share a swimming pool with hundreds of people swimming in their clothes. We've both been healthy the whole time and we consider this our final test. So far so good.

Day 18

We had a productive day today. We visited with Jose Luis again today. He is the guy with a used cell phone repair and sales shop. It was nice to see that he had put into practice a couple of our suggestions. He had cleaned up his store so it looked more professional, rearranged his display case so it was more presentable, and he has put into practice an inventory control system. I have a good feeling about him and his business. I think he will do well. We are going to meet with him one last time to help him create a little system to create a mini income statement he can review each month to see how he is progressing.

We had a fantastic lunch at some restaurant on the outskirts of the city. They had this big parrot in a cage and they let us put it on our arms. It would do a little dance that was kind of fun. The picture here is of Jose Maravilla. He is the man in charge of the Chinandega office. He is a good man. Before he took charge the Cause for Hope office here, he ran a very successful auto lubricant and accessory shop. His wife didn't want to sell it and so they have kept it open and hired a couple of kids to help her keep it open. Unfortunatly it has been steadily going down hill. I think they had a good idea it was loosing money but they really didn't know how much. Paul and I spent a couple hours with her this afternoon and we were able to figure out how much were really losing. The losses are significant enough that it really doesn't make sense to keep it open and try to turn things around. It wasn't any fun to be the bearers of bad news, but our purpose here is to help people improve their incomes. If a business is costing someone a lot of money, we can essentially help them improve their income if we show them why it is a bad idea to keep going down that path. They didn't seem thrilled with the news as one can imagine, but they were also grateful that we could help them see the picture how it really is.

Day 17

We spent a lot of today brainstorming and coming up with ideas of how we can help the individual businesses we are working with. There are at least two or three things that everyone could improve on, the trick is going to be convincing them to do it. Actually, I don't think convincing will be that hard, they will probably agree, the question is if they will do it. I really hope they will do some of the things we suggest. We have actually seen several people take our suggestions and put them into play. What I really hope is that they work and they actually make more money by doing them. It would be really fun to come back in a year or two and see what has happened. I think the heat got to me a bit today because I'm really tired. That being said I'm going to go to bed.

Day 16

Today was a good day. We caught up on some paperwork and had a conference call with a couple of the Cause for Hope leaders this morning. Then we went to a neighboring city called Leon. It is about 30 kilometers away. The reason we went there was because Maria Jose asked me to give a sales training meeting to some of her sales people. Maria Jose is in charge of VisionSpring here in Nicaragua. VisionSpring sells affordable glasses to people. Apparently sales have been way low in Leon so we went there to give them a motivational speech. I'll admit I was a bit nervous. I really didn't know how it would turn out given the fact I had do it in Spanish and I really didn't have access to a lot of my motivational/sales improvement books and materials. Fortunately I think it turned out pretty well. It may not have been the stuff dreams are made of, but I think it actually helped everyone there gain a new perspective on something and I'm really hoping it helps them produce more. We wandered around Leon a bit afterward. It is a lot bigger city than Chinandega and definitely has more to offer by way of shopping or food choices, but I'm still glad I'm stationed where I am. It was definitely fun to see a different area despite the fact we had to take a jam packed van to get there. I guess it is all part of the adventure.

Day 15

We met with a guy named Hugo today and his trade is motorcycle repair. This is actually the house that sits right across the street from him. It is a pretty poor area and it is hard to believe that someone has actually built their house from scraps. Hugo's nickname is Macgyver because he is known for his ability to repair anything. Without a doubt he knows his trade but he doesn't know business. He was one of the individuals the BYU group helped. They painted the front of his house and helped him with some business cards and stickers he can put on the bikes he fixes in order to start building a brand. He has started construction on a shop adjoined to the side of his house but it isn't done yet so he keeps a lot of his tools, parts, and even bikes inside his house at night. He doesn't keep any records of sales or profits whatsoever. One thing that would definitely help him is if he could sell add-ons like oil or some basic accessories. A lot of time people have to go to other shops to get the parts they need because he doesn't have them and they don't come back. He still needs a lot more help, but I think we are making progess.

Aside from that, we visited with three other businesses today which is the most we have ever done in one day. It was a hot and long day. Luckily "La Fritanga Margarita" delivered again with some really good beef for dinner. I'm actually really upset that new my favorite restaurant in the world is located in Chinandega Nicaragua. The other businesses we visited were a refrigerator repair shop, a used clothes business, and a make-up/perfume type business. All these people are having some success. The fridge shop has been around for a long time and is an established business. Some tweaking could make it very successful we think. The other two little businesses are just getting started and actually came about from small loans from Cause for Hope. These ladies are making money and paying back their loans, they are keeping records and are investing in their businesses. They are just getting going but they are on the right track. I think they will be successful long term if they stay on the same trajectory.

Apparently some of the people in charge of Cause for Hope have got word about our networking list idea and it sounds like it is something they are going to implement in all the different offices. We've also been asked to try and come up with ideas for what is being called "business in a box." The idea here is to come up with ideas for small business that can be easily duplicated in multple cities without much training. Kind of a hard assignment, especailly because we learn in business school that an integral part of a successful business is that it is hard to duplicate. We think there may be an opportunity to formalize something similar to what the lady is doing with the make-up/perfume sales. We have a conference call via Skype to discuss this in the morning so I'll throw in a little cliff hanger here and say there will be more to follow about this little subplot later...

Day 14

Today we got stood up for the first time. I mean this has seemed a lot like a mission, but now that people are blowing us off and missing appointments it really feels like we back in the "field." The highlight of the day had to be the dinner we had with President Maravilla and his family. Not only is he the local person in charge of the Chinandega Cause for Hope office, but is the stake president here. They will be dividing the stake in about a month so he is coming to the end of his tenure as stake president. He invited Paul and I over to his house for dinner and was kind enough to tell us his story from meeting the missionaries to baptism, to becoming branch president, district president, and then stake president. He is a good man and they have accomplished some amazing things here. He told us that when he was first investigating the church he really enjoyed reading the Book of Mormon. He'd stay up until one in the morning smoking and reading the Book of Mormon. Every night it was the book and his cigarettes. The missionaires soon taught him about the Word of Wisdom and he never smoked again.

This picture is of me and Jose Luis. He has a little cell phone accessory and repair store. He's a really good guy and I think he will do well. He has moved his store into a building where there will soon be an Internet cafe. This should increase his traffic and we're helping with some of the marketing materials and branding he will need to attract clients. We also followed up with a couple of the people we have been working with, Axel and Erick. They seem to be making some progress and that it good but nothing real concrete to show for it yet. Each time we visit them there seems to be something new that we learn about how they are operating these little businesses. From what I know about consulting, a great majority of the work is research. Some times feel like we are making more progress than others, but I am thoroughly enjoying this experience. I have been healthy the whole time (knock on wood) and I feel like we've made some great friendships. We are actively working with 6 different businesses and we are going to meet two more individuals tomorrow.

Day 13

I didn't take any pictures today but I really felt I needed to include one. Let's be honest, the content isn't all that great so this blog needs some visual aids. This is a picture I took on our bus ride to Chinandega. I stuck one arm out of the bus and took the picture while we were driving. First take and I must say that I impressed myself. There are a couple of volcanoes near here and as you can see at least one of them has smoke coming out of it. I don't know if they erupt occasionally or what, but it is kind of cool to see a volcano smoking.

We totally got lost on our way to church this morning. Not really our fault because the person who gave us directions gave us really bad directions. We asked around and found it without too much trouble though. We ended up doing quite a bit of walking but the heat index was only 107 so it wasn't to bad. I gave my tie to a kid who is waiting for his mission call to come and that was kind of fun. Other than that we relaxed this afternoon and went to a ward council meeting this evening. Normally I would have wanted nothing to do with it, but we actually weren't all that opposed to it because it gave us something to do. I really do admire the faith of these people. They work hard and truly believe in the gospel. They are so friendly and willing to let you into their lives. We have a lot to learn from their ability to fellowship.

Day 12

I hope no one takes any offense to this, but tonight I ate the best piece of chicken I've had in a really long time. It was fantastic! There is a little restaurant a couple blocks away from where we are staying and I think we've already eaten there 5 times. It is called Fritanga Margarita. I've always ordered the beef at night because it is pretty good and a little cheaper than the chicken, but after tonight I know why it is a bit more. It was a huge chicken breast cooked over the grill shown here. Interestingly enough, they just put the grill out on the street every night and that is where they cook. The chicken was cooked perfectly and had a mild but really good flavor. We had that will gallo pinto (rice and beans) and a grape soda. What more could you ask for?

There aren't many entertainment options here in Chinandega so we wandered around to get to know the area better on our day off. Part of our assignment is to come up with a "business in a box" idea. Essentially a small business that would be easily replicated in other places and would be profitable. I racked my brain all day and haven't really come up with much yet. Hopefully the inspiration will come. One of the reasons we wanted to wander around was to see if we could find anything that might work. If something businesswise works, there are a lot of other people doing it too, there is a lot of replication and a lack of creativity. While we were walking around I bought a bag of freshly cut mangoes for a quarter. These things are phenomenal as well. It was a pretty crowded marketplace and there are quite a few beggars there. "Los cheles" (gringos) are definitely a target so everyone that stuck out their hand asking for money got a mango wedge. I hope they actually ate and enjoyed them because they were good.

We were going to go check out some ruins of one of the first European settlements in Nicaragua but it started raining pretty hard so we couldn't go. It was probably for the best because tonight when we asked around, the people said they weren't all that great. This picture is supposed to show how hard it was raining, but I don't think it does.

Day 11

It's basically impossible to overcome the missionary-like temptation to check out the old catholic churches in Latin America. This one shown here was built in a pueblo just outside of Chinandega called El Viejo. It really was a beautiful church and it has been there a couple hundred years. It was impressive especially when contrasted to the homes and living circumstances a lot of the people have here. Many of the streets in this area aren't even paved. It was good things we went to a church because Rowley has been trying to figure out all the bad words here in Nicaragua. I'm just trying to be a "great samaritan" by helping these people improve their lives and offering them hope of something more, and Paul is trying to learn how to swear.

We had a little meeting tonight with some of the stake leadership and a couple of the bishops. Paul and I presented the idea that there ought to be some sort of network here between the members. In a few short days we've discovered different services the members' businesses offer and the other members have no idea about it. We felt like these people are all trying to get ahead independent of each other. Anyway, as of this Sunday there will be a formal LDS business network in Chinandega. Every ward is going to pass around a list where everyone with a business can write down what they do. We are going to collate and type up this list and then create a catagorical stake networking list that will be distributed to all the members. It'll take some work, but we think it could have a pretty significant impact.

Day 10

Its a good thing I spent a year in advertising because the poster you see to the side here would have turned out a lot worse if I hadn't. Actually, I can't take all the credit but I think it turned out really well. It is a sign we helped work on for the VisionSpring project. VisionSpring is actually a pretty cool idea where they have been able to get simple prescription glass manufactured at a very low cost. VisionSpring trains people in lots of underdeveloped areas how to administer simple vision tests and then sell glasses at a low cost. It helps people see better, and it gives others a job. Maria Jose to the left of the sign is the person in charge of this region. She manages about 15 "vision consultants" here in Chinandega and some of the surrounding areas. They are going to use these signs to help promote sales.

We also went back to visit with Axel (not Rose, but for all I know the Guns 'n Roses signer could be floating around down here in some Nicaraguan bar, I'll keep my eyes open...). Axel is the guy I talked about yesterday. We took the list of his inventory we created and married that up with his sales records for the month of April this year. We calculated that he made 478 Cordobas last month which is equal to about $24. Not much to live on. We discovered in our analysis that his tire business, which he thinks is the most profitable, is actually running in the red. He makes 2 trips a month to Managua to buy these tires and the trips alone cost him about 900 Cordoba. He only made about 1200 Cordoba profit from his tire sales in April. Not hard to see that 1800 is more than 1200. He's got a lot of money tied up in tire inventory that isn't selling either. The ironic thing is that we also found out that batteries are a different large dollar item that are also high margin items. He doesn't have any money currently to buy any though. Ding Ding Ding, if we were to scrap the tire business and start the battery business he could realisticly improve his income by 4 to 5 times! Without changing anything else, we could get him over 2000 Cordobas a month. Hopefully our ideas prove worthwhile and implementable. Not sure if implementable is a word or not, but I make up a new Spanish word every 15 minutes or so, so why not in English too.

Day 9

If I were president of Nicaragua, I would implement an address system. It would be pretty simple, every street would have a name and every house would have a number. That's it. One of our biggest challenges is knowing where people are and finding them. Hopefully we'll figure it out in the next couple days.

I think we are getting to the point where we beginning to understand how things work down here and some of the challenges we are up against. As we were told, for the most part we are working with businesses that are pretty basic. They have a product or service and they try to sell it. There isn't a whole lot of record keeping or complex business practices. That is to be expected. We are seeing ways to make things better such as keeping records of inventory, tracking what items sell, at least thinking about fixed costs, etc. There are many ways to make things better, but they start getting a little more complicated than some of these people may be willing to do long term, especially by hand. It is interesting to me to think how much we rely on computers, especially in the business world I come from. They are an integral part, and when people can't afford them or know how to use them it can be very limiting.

We talked with a guy today who sells used tires, car oil, and lubricants. He knows how much his inventory costs and what he sells things for and what his competition charges, but the only records he keeps is of how many bottles of oil he sells. Not necessarily which ones and the margins. There is a lot of room to keep better track of his inventory, but I have to ask myself if I would really want to write everything down by hand and then not have a good way to review it or make calculations. Probably not and that is why I really do love EXCEL. The key is going to be helping these people make some of these principles habits.

Tonight we decided we needed pizza for dinner so we went to "Pizza Hot." I think it is pretty clever play on words.

Day 8

It isn't every day that you can purchase the DVD of a newly released movie (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) for 75 cents, but you can in Chinandega Nicaragua! One of the businesses that we are working with and we are going to be helping while we are here sells pirated DVD's. Apparently it isn't a big deal here and the copyright laws aren't necessarily applicable. To my right here is a picture of the office for Cause for Hope here in Chanadega and where we are living for the next few weeks. To my side is Jose Maravilla. He is the man in charge of the office here and also the stake president. He is a really cool guy and a great person to have as our point of contact.

We are getting to know the city and we also worked with Erick today. Erick is the guy my group was working with the last few days. The next steps with him are to get him to start keeping some records of what he is doing. He has a list of former customers but that is about it. He really doesn't have any that would serve as a ledger for his costs, prices, or really anything. These records could be very helpful and we're hoping that he'll turst us and start doing it.

Tonight Paul and I went to a typical Nicaraguan restaurant with Jose and a couple other locals here. It was a fun little dinner. I had beef with rice and beans, fried plantain chips and a little avocado for dessert. I didn't order cow tongue but I did try it and it was actually pretty good, the hardest thing to deal with is know what it is when you are putting it in your mouth. They tell me that liver and chicken stomachs are next on the eating agenda. I can't wait...

Day 7

Normally today would have been a really frustrating day for me. Not much happened, but since my life has felt so hectic and so busy for quite some time, I wasn’t bothered with a little down time. The whole group left this morning at about 7:30 am. Our local contact here, Jose Maravilla, said he would come and get us at about noon to go and get some lunch and help us get settled in the Center for Hope office where we are staying in Chinandega. It was nice to get ready and pack while taking it easy for our noon departure. Unfortunately, 12 became 2 and 2 became 4. They finally came and got us at around 4:30. I was able to catch up on a couple things I was supposed to have done for this trip before we left so no worries. We got to the office and are now moved into the room where we’ll be living for the next three weeks. Not that I’m complaining, but it is a bit of a step down from Los Volcanes Hotel. We are staying in a 15’ x 18’ foot room. Two single beds, one mattress each (no box springs), a sheet with a thread count of about 17, and an adjoining bathroom. We also have a little refrigerator, TV with DVD player, and Air Conditioning (gracias al Señor). The bathroom doesn’t lock on the inside but it does on the outside. The reason being there is a small window in the bathroom that someone could possibly enter and thus get into the bedroom. No worries, I think our belongings are pretty secure. The bathroom itself isn’t dirty, but there isn’t a mirror so shaving may be a little interesting. There isn’t any hot water and I like hot showers, but I’m sure I’ll survive.

Tomorrow we are going to meet with Jose and put together a plan of attack. I am looking forward to getting out and beating the streets.

Day 6

Meeting Day. I think I was in meetings all day. Church for 3 hours, English Sunday school after, some sort of missionary meeting in the afternoon, and group debriefing meeting to wrap it up. Honestly I think we were in 7 to 8 hours of meetings today. At least 3 of those hours were really good. A couple of things I saw a church that I don't normally see. At least 50 different members of the ward we attended came up to us and shook our hand before church, there was a grand total of 3 cars in the parking lot and at least 150 people in sacrament meeting, a little girl relieved herself (just #1) outside the church on the sidewalk, and a lady was full on breast feeding in the middle of Sunday School without a blanket. Probably just different for me.

A couple of the soccer girls bore their testimonies in sacrament meeting today and it was really touching to see them get emotional and really share their feelings about the gospel and their experiences here. The picture to the right is of the BYU athletes and the missionaries from Chinandega. Tomorrow morning the whole group heads back to the states and Paul and I will be on our own. We'll be able to get after it and hopefully get some more work done. Being with the group has been a lot of fun, but it hasn't been the most effective time. I really think they have all really enjoyed the experience.

Day 5

This is the whole group that we have been here with. They are all leaving on Monday morning and Paul and I will stay. Three more weeks, may the adventure continue!

I’m clearly losing my mind. I wish I could say it is the heat, but I think I’m trying so hard to understand what people are saying to me I don’t have much brainpower left to keep track of things. We ran all over the city this morning putting the finishing touches on our project. We had to get Erick some paint for the sign we bought for him, and we also needed to print out the pages for his little marketing catalog we are making for him. We had to go to several different places to get what we needed. We did get the stuff and it looked really good. He was very excited about both and I really think the things we have done will help him grow his business. To the right here is a picture of his brother and the sign we bought the materials for so they could build it and use it to advertise what they do (not quite finished yet, but our fingers are crossed. Anyway, we got back to the hotel and we had to make our presentation. We made a short power point presentation and a little report. I didn’t have much to do with those parts because I had done so much of the talking and translating. We did our presentation and the leaders said they were very impressed with what we were able to accomplish. They probably said that to everyone, but hey, I’ll take it. As soon as we were done I came back to my room and realized I didn’t have my backpack. Of course my passport is in my backpack and we had been all over the city. I was a bit concerned. After about 15 minutes of searching I found it in a different hotel room where we were working early. Sigh of relief.

Essentially the project with the BYU athletes was over at about noon. We had lunch and then the athletes put on a clinic for some of the locals at one of the stake centers. There were probably about 150 Nicaraguans there and they really seemed to enjoy it. It was kind of fun. After that someone suggested we go to the beach and so there we went. The beach wasn’t exactly the stuff dreams were made of, but it was still OK. I can only imagine the water we were swimming in isn’t the cleanest, but it was still the ocean. We did a little body surfing. Afterwards it was back to the hotel for some dinner and relaxation. I’m really tired. I think it is a combination of the heat and all the Spanish. I think I’m doing as well as can be expected with the Spanish but I really feel like I have to concentrate to understand. I’ll be fine.

Tonight they announced the winner of the competition and it wasn’t our team. There were 5 groups who worked with businesses. I think we did a good job nonetheless. I’m still really enjoying this experience and I feel like I’m in a totally different world. It absolutely fascinates me to observe everything that is going on and what it all means. There is definitely an existing economy here, but it is so much simpler than the what we know in the states. As I said, it really intrigues me.

Day 4

Today was a crazy day. We went all over Chinandega. Our group came up with a couple plans to help Erick. Erick is the individual who has a welding business that we’ve been assigned to help. We felt like he needed something to show his potential customers about what he can do. Our group loaded up in a couple small taxis and went all over the city to take pictures of the work he has done. We put together a nice little booklet of about 15 pages with nice color photos that he’ll be able to show potential customers. Hopefully it will have a positive effect. We also purchased some raw materials so that he could put together some card/pen holders (pictured here) that he welds. The idea is to provide him with an inventory of finished goods he can sell and then used the proceeds to by more raw materials to make more products. Right now he has to get people to give him a down payment before he makes anything because he doesn’t have any capital. I hope this will get him going in the right direction.

The majority of the day was doing this. Our leader Dan Gifford asked a few of us to go out and do some priesthood visits tonight. It was like we were in another world entirely. One of the families we visited lived in a 1 room house that had 1 light and a dirt floor. They had some plywood to create the effect of rooms. It was truly amazing to see. Most of the roads in the city are paved, but when we get out into some of the areas outside the city the streets aren’t paved. The really interesting thing is that the children are happy. The young kids have smiles on their faces and seem genuinely happy despite their lack of material goods. I think that says a lot. I believe it really demonstrates the fact that most of us have chosen a conditional happiness. We will be happy when we have this, when that happens, or if I get that job. Happiness isn’t really conditional on these things, we just think it is. There is a great lesson to be learned from these children. Its late and I’m tired, more tomorrow.

Day 3

Today we arrived in Chinandega. It was about a 3 hour bus ride from Managua so that took up most of the morning. I was a little worried about motion sickness so I took a Dramamine pill and it worked. Didn't get motion sickness and it made me drowsy. Anyway, the bus we rode in is the same bus the members here use to make an 18 hour trip the the Guatemalan temple. Pretty impressive. On the trip we also saw a smoking volcano. They must be live, but I don't think there is much of a real threat of them erupting on any large scale. That would be exiting though (don't worry mom, nothing will happen.

We hit the streets today in our small groups. Each group was assigned an individual with an existing business to try and help. Eddy was the individual our team was working with. The people in charge kind of rolled their eyes and said we had a difficult task ahead of us. He is a nice kid who is a return missionary. He has some welding skills he uses to do some welding and repair work. The reason it is challenging is that he is a "jack of all trades and master of none" I'm not exactly sure how to translate that into Spanish, but it would help if I did. We are going to spend the day tomorrow helping him put together some marketing materials that he can show prospective clients. He will actually go door to door telling people what he does when he doesn't have work to do.

The most challenging part of the day for me was the Spanish. I'm 11 years removed from this type of Spanish speaking and I'm feeling a bit rusty. It is coming back and the practice is great. I really could use a refresher course on not only ball bearings (Heidi will get this) and business words in Spanish. I'll be fine. The Internet only works in the hallway of the motel we are staying at and since it is open air and 85 degrees with a fair amount of humidity I'm going to head inside to some air conditioning, bad TV, and hopefully a good nights rest.

Day 2

I'm really excited about this project/experience tonight. We had a great wrap up meeting tonight where I really feel like I am starting grasp the vision of what Cause for Hope is trying to do.

We spend the morning as a group going over Marketing 101 principles and some of the simple problems the businesses we'll be helping are facing. After lunch we got in some large vans with our teams and went out to see the situations. This is my team. Left to right is me, Karen, Hallie, Kristi, and Charles. This girls are on the soccer team and Charles plays on the basketball team. I don't know them very well yet, but they all seem really enthused to be here and to help out.

We visited about 5 different people/families in the Managua area to see what they were doing and how Cause for Hope has helped them get going in their business ventures. The first lady we visited sells vegetables out of her front room. She received a loan $100 to start her business 2 months ago. She sells about 15 different types of vegetables to the people in her vicinity after traveling to the market every day.

The next individuals we visited were a couple of older ladies that sold "refrescos" (fruit juice drinks) and "platanos"(plantains). They had separate business and were sweet old ladies but lived and operated out of very poor circumstances. The woman who sold "platanos" sold 3 for 10 Cordobas (the local currency where 20 Cordobas = $1). Cause for Hope also helped them obtain a couple of resources to get going. They seem to be surviving on faith.

Then we met a nice couple, (Oscar y Flor) that operates a little ceramics business. They have molds they use to form the little trinkets I've come to learn many in Latin Americans love to furnish their homes with. Oscar was the dad's name and he did some oil paintings on the side that also helps supplement their income.

Pablo was our last stop and he is a real success story. He has a little business where he makes banana chips. He would cut them up, fry them, put them in bags, and go out and sell them on the street. With some help he has been able to set up a little shop where he has some of his family actually make the chips and bag them. He has about 10 guys that are out selling the chips on the street now. He's not exactly raking in the dough but he has made a lot of progress. Apparently he was inactive before he recieved some help, but now has a strong testimony, attends church, doesn't sell on Sunday, and pays his tithing. The amazing thing is we literally had to walk through a canal that was filled with trash. It wasn't too far removed from something we would call a dump.

We ended the tour of Managua with a quick visit to the Cause for Hope office there. They have a nice operation and 3 young men who had all received their mission calls traveled 2 hours on a bus to share their testimonies of the gospel with us. They had all received help from Cause for Hope that enabled them to serve. Two of them were the only members in their families. All three bore powerful testimonies of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I was really with their faith and willingness to do whatever they could to serve a mission. Hopefully they will be successful both during their missions and after.

As I mentioned initially, in our meeting tonight I really caught the vision of what they are doing here and it is really amazing. I'm thrilled that I have a chance to help. They have 10 offices in Central America and they let us know that they will be opening 5 more in Peru in the near future. This really could become a very powerful organization for good.

Arrival in Managua

Safe arrival in Managua Nicaragua. Today wasn't a bad travel day. Three hour flight to Houston, 40 minute layover, then boarded the plane only to find out the pilot is stuck in traffic somewhere but we were only delayed about an hour, another three hour flight, and we arrived in Managua, Nicaragua safe and sound. The flight actually went by pretty fast for me because I picked up a copy of "Angels & Demons" to prep for the movie. I read quite a bit and am a little worried I'm going to sacrifice an hour of sleep or two tonight to keep going. I've missed reading for pleasure.

Paul and I are actually accompanied by about 30 BYU student athletes and a couple of their coaches. They are going to be working on a couple projects with us for about a week. We'll find out more tomorrow but we are to act as team leads because we speak Spanish (at least we claimed to on our applications). They brought a film crew with them to tape what goes on so hopefully it will become a documentary that will show up at the Sundance Film Festival next year.

I am both happy and excited to be here, and I'm anxious to find out what we'll be doing the next couple of days. The only real concern I have at this point in time is whether or not the delicious chocolate covered Oreos my sweet girlfriend sent with me will melt before I get to eat them all.

Day 1

Today will be the beginning of quite an adventure. I got up early to say goodbye to my parents and now I'm clearly just trying to avoid packing. I have about 3 hours to get ready so I should be fine. The purpose of this blog is chronicle my trip to Nicaragua for what is called a social venture internship. The premise of the internship is to help the people in Chinadega, Nicaragua create and develop simple business ventures that will not only allow these individuals to improve their standard of living, but to also have a positive impact on the overall economy of the country. It is a tall order, but something I'm definitely looking forward to.

My traveling companion is Paul Rowley. He is also a first year MBA student at BYU and we will be working together on this trip. He is a great guy and I think we are going to have a lot of fun together. We joke around that we are essentially the same person. We share the same name, both graduated from Murray High School, are from Murray, Utah, have the exact same phone, take the same classes, and he is married to a Canadian (I'm dating one).

The organization that is coordinating our efforts is called Cause for Hope. They have had a lot of success helping people throughout Central America. More about this organization and the area we'll be will going can be found on these links.

http://www.causeforhope.org
http://www.causeforhope.org/chinandega.htm