Adios.

I had worked up the appropriate good-byes and well wishes in spanish but when it came down to "adios" just seemed to fit. Here just a few more shots of the Nicaragua I saw. I fly out in the morning and I don't know that I'll ever make it back. Well, Adios muchachos.

Maybe My Greatest Contribution

I've been thinking for 28 days of new technology, new business ideas, programs, etc., that could help out here. Well the hard thinking has come to fruition on day 29...Brownies. I spent a couple hours with a baker here in the ward. She bakes sweet and savory bread stuff and sells them around town. And success! We baked brownies from scratch (the box mix stuff is actually way better). They like them and if she does a little tweeking with the recipe to get it right with the local ingredients I think she could add a little something special to her products. She copied the recipe and asked for a few more goodies. I gave here some other simple yet winner recipes: Crepes, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and (a little more difficult but worth it) pie crust.

Briquettes

I remembered another technology for developing countries (those countries that still cook by setting a pot on three rocks over a fire) that has seen success around the world. It is using trash and biomass to make briquettes for cooking. The short of the simple technique is soak everything, blend it up real good, and then slop it into a cylinder to compress all the water out. Let it dry then use it for fire wood. The idea is that it still burns hot enough to cook and is much cheaper and requires less time gathering wood or even cutting down living vegetation. We've been working with a lady that cooks tortillas and wood is a big expense. I got some briquettes made and they burn but I haven't been able to spend enough time with them to know if they burn hot enough to cook the tortillas. If you've had any experience with this let me know.

Earning My Beans

We finally earned our beans today! We sucked water out of a 20' hole in the ground. After seeing and smelling the water we probably should have left it in the ground. But we were representing all gringos (foreigners) so we couldn't go out like that. Its been fun a fun project for the last month and we have definitely had our ups and downs but in the end we managed to piece together enough odds and ends from nearby warehouses to get the well constructed. Now we just finish up the sales packet show someone how to build it and voila a new technology and business!

Opening Day!!!

Who's the smoothie king now? We are officially up and running. We did our best to keep it simple, cheap, and cool. If you speak spanish you can appreciate the next part. The name of the business is Batidos Salvajes. Our 3 drinks: Negrita Rica, Lava de Chocolate, and El Pobre Chele (the locals love the names, they stop and laugh everytime). They love chocolate around here and we thought we'd throw in a little peanut butter for something exotic. We felt pretty strong about appearances and impressions and of course taste, so we trained our cooks and gave them recipes and we laid out a logo and sign and everything else you see in the pics. It looks like it works. While we were there today to check the place out and two taxi drivers stopped to read the sign and ended up buying (it could also be the whitie or "chele" effect). They sold 30 the first day, which brings in $7.50 profit for them, about a lower middle class wage. It doesn't sound like a lot but I'm ecstatic it wasn't a complete failure. Its all marketing from here on out--and we've got some great ideas for that. Post comments if you have some good additions to the business!

The Mouth of Hell

We made a site seeing trip to our local volcano just about 15 minutes away. It is still active, thus all the smoke. You'll notice the cross mounted at the top of the hill. The history behind goes back to the 1500's when Christians first came down here. Some preacher said this volcano was the mouth of hell and so he put up a cross, I guess to ward off evil.