Dia 25

My last post from Nicaragua! Our flight leaves tomorrow at noon, I'm excited to see my family but I'm going to miss Nicaragua. It has been a great experience; I knew it would be but I don't think I expected to learn so much. Analyzing these small businesses has given me a chance to apply so much of what we have learned in school this past year. I also learned what real poverty is. I will never forget praying with a sweet, old, member of the church who prayed for something to eat the next day. It has also struck me how happy these people are, I guess I'm thinking specifically about the members of the church. They have so much faith, which was frustrating at times when they clearly thought that God would help their business regardless of their mismanagement. I've made some great friends here, Pte. Maravilla and his family, Maria Jose, Paul W, and many others. Finally, Cause for Hope is doing a great job and is changing lives by breaking the generational cycle of poverty for thousands of families. Self-reliance is a great thing. In the U.S. we really need to take advantage of the educational and other opportunities that we have.

Anyway, just a few of my thoughts as I close this up. Thank you Cheryl for letting me make this trip and for taking care of our boys, I love you. Will, Tanner, and Nathan daddy is coming home. Later.

Dia 24

Free Day. We left at 8:00 am this morning with Jose and Janet Maravilla and Maria Jose and went to Masaya, El Mirador, and to an active volcano. We were able to drive right up to the crater of the volcano and look down inside. There is no visible lava, but there was a lot of smoke which is very sulfuric and was too strong to breath after a while. It was actually really cool to look down into an active volcano. After that we visited a place called El Mirador, a small town that overlooks the crater of another volcano. This volcano however isn't active and the crater is full of water. It was a nice few, beyond the crater you could see another large lake. We did some shopping at a tourist market in Masaya. I was able to find a few things for Cheryl and the boys, although I get tired really fast of having everybody approach me trying to get me to buy whatever thing they have.

It was a really fun day, just a lot of driving. All of the places we visited are a few hours from Chinandega so we had a long drive each way, but I appreciate Jose being willing to take us around. Oh, on the side of the highway there are guys who sell living Iguanas to take home and cook. We pulled over and didn't buy one, but the gentleman did let Paul W. and I take a picture holding the Iguanas.

Dia 23

A busy day. We visited Chamorro, Marlon, Hugo, and more. First we visited Chamorro and Marlon (dvds). Marlon has started to place his small logo on each disc that he sells, it looks really good, we think it is really going to help business. (Here is an example, and yes we will be watching the new Star Trek tonight)


We visited Hugo (Magiver) to check out his new business sign. This afternoon we had two appointments here in the office. The first appoint was with Chamorro; in our first visit he told us he needed a website in order to compete in a new area of business he was pursuing, bidding on large engineering projects. These companies ask him for a website but he just isn't big enough yet. So Paul W. and I aren't skilled in creating websites, but we do know how to create a blog so we suggested a blog as a good, free company website. Chamorro didn't know what a blog was but he came over to the office today and we educated him. We created a google account, started the blog, and taught him how to add posts, information, photos, etc. Check it out: http://tallereschamorro.blogspot.com/. Chamorro was really pumped, he is going to add a new post for each job or project his company has done so clients can see their work. We are hopeful this will really help his business to move forward.

After that we had an appointment with Pedro Mayorga. He is an electrician and has his own business. We hadn't met with him before, but he wanted help coming up with a company name, logo, and business card. So that is what we did and I think we did a pretty good job. He seemed to really like what we came up with. We also created a gmail account for him because he has never had email.

Dia 22

I thought I'd get a foto of the supermarket where we buy our milk, water, and cornflakes. We spent most of today reviewing the companies that we have visited so that we can do any follow up visits that are still needed and to finish up our written reports. We also went to Chichigalpa with Maravilla and visited Brenda, sells used clothing, and Walleska, sells makeup, etc. We shared a suggestions with each of them for improving their businesses. We have been telling everybody for the last week or so that we would be holding a training class tonight on keeping financial records and marketing techniques but only one person showed up. We knew that would most likely be the case so we weren't too concerned about it. Hugo, repairs motorcycles, was the only one that came and he was right on Nicaraguan time, 30 minutes late.

This has been a great experience here in Nicaragua for a lot of reasons. One is that Paul W. and I both feel we have gained some good experience in analyzing a business and coming up with simple solutions to improve it. Although the experience has been on a simple level with small businesses, I think that the principles can be applied at any level and will be valuable. Pte. Maravilla even thought that we did such a great job designing the VisionSpring banners and Axel's business sign that he had us help design the sign that is being used to announce stake conference next month when two general authorities come to divide the stake here in Chinandega. The signs were just printed today and will be placed in all the chapels, but also in some public places such as the supermarkets. (Hyrum and Imara Maravilla)

Dia 21

I'm sorry but I think I'm loosing the motivation to update this blog everyday, and whatever quality it may have had is rapidly diminishing. I will however try my best. This is the Maravilla Family. Jose has been the Stake President for 10 years, they have three kids, the oldest is on a mission. They have taken good care of us including feeding us at their house and taking us on excursions on the weekend. Good people.

We had a long discussion this morning with Maravilla about the fact that almost all of the small business owners we have met with do not keep accounting records of any kind. They don't have a good handle on their costs or know what their true profits are because they don't keep good records. This is something that CFH has apparently struggled with and is something that is really keeping people from significantly improving their businesses, incomes, and savings. What we have been brainstorming are really simple approaches to recording inventory, income, costs, etc. We need to come up with something that would be easy for people to use, but also provide the important information that they need regarding their business. We think that if we can come up with something useful that it could really make a difference in increasing people's self reliance.


We also went to Chichigalpa to a field where two zones of missionaries were playing baseball, soccer, etc. The mission president for Nicaragua was also their playing with them, and I didn't even realize who he was when we first started talking. I told him I was surprised because I never saw my mission president without a white shirt and tie on. We ate dinner tonight at Pte. Maravilla's house with his family and the zone leaders, Sis. Maravilla makes some good grub. Here she is frying some cheese, good stuff!

Dia 20

I think this will be my shortest post, for those of you who may still be following this blog. Of course today is Sunday, we went to church at the 10:00 a.m. ward here in the Chinandega chapel. This evening we went to another stake training meeting same as last week. The people here are really friendly people and treat us very well when we go to church, I think that just about everybody shakes your hand.

We were planning out our week today and I can't believe that we only have one week left. Time has gone by fast as I'm sure this week will also because we have a lot we want to get done.

Oh, and I'm a little sunburned from our outing yesterday, and I think that is just about all the excitement anyone can handle from one blog post. Good night.

Dia 19

This morning we went with the Maravilla family and Maria Jose to Campusano. It is this natural fresh water place where people go swimming. We had a good time and I got sunburned which was bound to happen sooner or later. I did wonder about the sanitary nature of the place because people swim in their with their clothes on and who knows what else. Also, it was full of small fish that would bite at or eat your feet. So I guess I got a peticure at the same time I was swimming. In the picture I'm the light-skinned individual, just in case.

Other than that we have done some work today. We prepare reports on each of the businesses that we are working with and we had a few that we needed to work on. We only have one more week, we will be flying home next Saturday. This last week should go by pretty fast as we have a lot we would like to try and get done.

Dia 18

The days seem to go by faster the longer we are here and the more work we get done. Today we went back to visit with checho, he repairs and sells cell phones. His son had done what we had asked in regards to tracking inventory and coming up with costs and earnings. They used their loan to buy a computer so they will actually be able to track their accounting information with the computer. They are now going to go back a few months and put all of their sales and expenses in the computer, then we will go back next week and find out if the business is making a profit or not.

We went to lunch today with Pte. Maravilla, his wife, Maria Jose, her boyfriend, and Marlon. I can't remember the name of the place, but it was some good food. This place also had a parrot that would dance if you sang for him.

After lunch we sat down with Janet Maravilla to discuss their lubricants and auto parts business. The Maravillas have had this business for about 15 years and it became quite profitable before Pte. started working full-time for CFH. Now their sales are way down and they knew the business was loosing money, but they weren't sure how much. We talked with Sis. Maravilla, set up a simple income statement in excel, and crunched some numbers. They are loosing money and she asked what they need to do. Of course the simple answer is lower your expenses and increase your earnings. Unfortunately, the only cost that isn't fixed (water, power, loan, etc.), that they have some control over, is the salary of their three employees and associated costs. We recommended that they let go most if not all of their employees and that Janet spend her time at the business. We showed them how to use the spreadsheet to find their break even point so they can manipulate the numbers and figure out what is reasonably possible as far as cutting costs and increasing sales. There is of course more to the story, but hopefully we gave them some tools that can help.

Dia 17

What happened today? I've been pretty tired, I can't seem to remember much of it. We wrote up most of the businesses that we have visited this week. Oh, Paul W. got an internship offer from Symantec, so congratulations to him. He had his second interview with them today on Skype and they made him an offer at the end of the interview. So I guess that is the big news of the day. I just hope he is still motivated to work now that he has his big offer. We did a little shopping at the grocery store, ate a couple of meals (wow, I'm sorry today was really lame. Not that my other posts have been that much better.) Maybe this will liven up the post. Here is a picture of a kid, his bike, and his ...machete?

We are still working on this networking list that we would like to have completed before we leave. We feel like it is a contribution we could make with the potential to have a significant impact. Luckily our office manager is the stake president and he has put all of his bishops in charge of getting us a list from each of their wards by the end of the day Sunday. Also, we have an excel file of everyone that has received loans from CFH here in Chinandega, about 80, so we can start by including those businesses. We will be making one list for the entire stake and are thinking of grouping the list by business type. For example, if I need a haircut I look for that section on the list which includes everyone in the stake that cuts hair, it will list their ward/address so I can just chose the one closest to me. How does that sound? The list will include name, description of business, ward, phone#. If anyone has suggestions for improving it let me know so I can take credit for your idea. :)

Check out the picture of this bridge. That first house is the Magiver business that we visited the other day and this is the bridge into his neighborhood. That bridge is just wide enough for your car and the ravine is actually quite deep. I actually have a story about something I saw on that bridge, but any animal/horse lovers wouldn't really like it so I'll just leave it off this blog.

Dia 16

The air conditioner in our room was fixed today which we are really excited about. Our room is already much cooler! Have I mentioned the little lizards that you see on the walls here in peoples houses, including here in the CFH office? They are great because they stay out of the way and they must eat all the bugs because you don't really see any.

Anyway, today we went to Leon, a college town about 45 minutes away. We went to the CFH office in Leon to give some training to the VisionSpring sales reps there in Leon. Paul W. did the training since his background is in sales, and I just tried to ask a couple questions. We went with Maria Jose, she's in charge of Vision Spring for all of Nicaragua. After the training we walked around Leon. It really is a very different city, it has a few universities including the second oldest in all of Central America. It definetly was a nicer, cleaner town and more tourist like because there are so many people there from different parts of central america, etc. We visited a very cool Catholic church which even contained the tomb of Ruben Dario, a famous latin poet and author who I studied in my Spanish degree at BYU.

Let me just describe the bus rides to Leon. First of all it isn't really a bus its more of a large van into which they shove as many people as they can. It's really hot, as always, and of course the van doesn't have any air conditioning so you hope to be lucky enough to sit next to an open window. The only nice thing about it is that it only costs $1 each way. On the trip there the guy next to me fell asleep on my arm, he was too short for his head to lean on my shoulder, I would jerk him awake and a few minutes later he would fall back asleep. On the return trip it got dark and I sat in the very back next to a young couple that was making out for most of the time. And now I find out that they want us to do some work in Massaya which is three hours away! I'm not sure I will be able to do that.

After we got back we went to RostiPollo, maybe the nicest restaurant in Chinandega; the food was good but I don't think it was really any better than the cheap local places that we have been frequenting. So now I'm back in my home, tired and sweaty, goodnite.

Dia 15

We visited four more businesses today, one here in Chinandega and the other three in Chichigalpa, a small town not to far away. The first was the small business of Hugo 'Magiver.' Magiver repairs motos, including mechanical and electrical systems, painting, etc. He is known as Magiver, same as the old tv show, because people say he can fix anything. He has the skills and is very good at what he does, but he doesn't keep accounting records which is where I think we can help him the most.

The second business was Lino Frio. Lino repairs refrigerators, air conditioners, and all types of electrical appliances. Like Magiver, Lino is very skilled and has been working in this profession for more than 30 years but he lacks some business training. He doesn't keep accounting records and doesn't do much marketing. Surprisingly, his prices are high which we were happy to see because almost everyone here thinks that they have to compete on price and offer the lowest. Lino recognizes that he is very good at what he does, that people are paying for quality, and so he charges more. He actually has a great business going he just needs to manage it better in order to really increase his earnings.

Unlike the first two business, the last two are very new. The first is a woman who sells used clothes out of her house. She received a loan from CFH a few months ago and used that money to make her initial investment in inventory. Sales have gone very well and she sells everything that she purchases. Currently she is using all of her profits to reinvest in the business so that she can grow and pay off her loan as quickly as possible which we think is great. Apparently she keeps accounting records of her sales, costs, etc. although we weren't able to see them today.

The last business we visited was another woman who sells makeup, women's sandals, perfume, etc. out of her house. She also received a loan from CFH in order to make her initial investment. She was able to make a good profit on her first batch of products and was planning on reinvesting the money when she and her husband had some unexpected medical expenses. As of right now she doesn't have the money to reinvest in more product although she is still paying off her loan using her husbands income and once it's paid off she hopes to get another loan to continue with the business.

The challenge now will be to see what ideas, if any, we can come up with in order to help these people increase their earnings and savings. We are planning a training for next Tuesday where we will attempt to teach people how to keep some basic accounting records so that they can better understand their costs and how much they are really making, if anything.

Dia 14

We made a return visit to Axel this morning, he sells tires and lubricants. What we've done is analyzed his sales and income. We put all of the April sales and costs into an excel spreadsheet and discovered that he was losing money on tires due to his variable costs of acquiring the tires. To acquire tires he has to travel to Managua, the capital city, which he does twice a month. This costs him C$1800 per month while his net income in April was only C$450. What we showed him is that by simply making one trip instead of two, his income would have increased by another C$900! There were a few other areas where we made suggestions for increased earnings, but by simply making one less trip, which he can do because he has plenty of inventory, he can increase his earnings by more than 50% which is the goal. Also, Axel is also having a sign made that he can put out front of his business. So today he wanted us to design the layout of the sign which we did; and I must say it will be quite nice. Paul W.'s background is in sales so he has some good ideas regarding marketing, etc.
Here we are eating dinner with the stake presidency of Chinandega, puros Lamanitas!: Axel (counselor), Pte. Maravilla, secretary, Paul W., Jose Luis (counselor), and me.

It was super hot again today! What happens is it will rain a little each day and because it rains just a little that moisture stays in the air making it even more humid and hot. We came back to the office at 3:00 and my shirt was soaking wet.

We went to a farewell party at the church tonight for a young woman who is leaving for her mission on Wednesday. There was the cutest little girl who must have been 12-18 months old, but really tiny. She eventually came and sat on my lap and played with my wedding ring throughout the meeting. Her family seems to be very poor, and this little girl was dirty and didn't have very nice clothes (her saddles were too small and her toes stuck out the front), but she was the happiest, cutest little thing I've seen.

Hello to Sarah and Andrew also. Thanks for the note, I hope all is going well.

Dia 13 - Happy Mother's Day

I think I've mentioned Marlon Lara, who sells dvds and cds, in this blog. Check out his nice new sign! Happy Mother's Day to my wife and mom! I talked to both of them today also. I also talked to my brother David who was asking me about what I'm doing here and what Cause for Hope does. I shared with David a story which I thought I would share here about self-reliance and how it differs from humanitarian aid or handouts. This story is from a great talk given by Marion G. Romney which appeared in the Ensign in Nov 1982, titled The Celestial Nature of Self-reliance.

It reads, "In our friendly neighbor city of St. Augustine great flocks of sea gulls are starving amid plenty. Fishing is still good, but the gulls don't know how to fish. For generations they have depended on the shrimp fleet to toss them scraps from the nets. Now the fleet has moved....The shrimpers had created a Welfare State for the...sea gulls. The big birds never bothered to learn how to fish for themselves and they never taught their children to fish. Instead they led their little ones to the shrimp nets. Now the sea gulls, the fine free birds that almost symbolize liberty itself, are starving to death because they gave in to the 'something for nothing' lure! They sacrificed their independence for a handout...Let's not be gullible gulls. We...must preserve our talents of self-sufficiency, our genius for creating things for ourselves, our sense of thrift and our true love of independence." ("Fable of the Gullible Gull," Reader's Digest, Oct. 1950, p. 32)

Side note, not to make this a political blog, but that sounds a little different than the plans of our current national govenment.

Also, we went to church today at the Acome Ward, which is about the extent of my adventures for the day.

Dia 12

It rained off and on all afternoon which has been great because it has been the coolest weather we've experienced. However, we did discover a leak in the roof in Maravilla's office which nobody knew about because this is their first rainy season in the new office. This is a picture of the new Cause for Hope office Paul W. and I call home, it's next to a panaderia and in the middle of Chinandega.

There really isn't anything to exciting to report about today. We didn't do any work since it is Saturday, we just walked around town, it was really hot until it started raining around 3:00 pm. We walked through the central market which is a pretty crazy place, I'll have to get a picture of it. Everyone asks us for money and it seems like everyone stares at us, I guess because we are white Americans, or cheles as everyone calls us.

We ate dinner tonight at Fritanga Margarita, its a little restaurant that Pte. Maravilla introduced us to our first day in the office. It is really good, cheap, they give you a lot of food, and we haven't gotten sick there yet, so we keep going back. They cook the meet on a grill out front on the sidewalk. The chicken is very good. A full meal, chicken or meat, gallo pinto, tortilla, and a soda only costs about C$70-80 or $4 or less. I talked to Cheryl and the boys again today which was great. I love hearing that they are safe and doing well. Also, my cousin Chelsea went through the temple for her first time today and it sounds like a great time was had by all, sorry I could be there Chels.

Dia 11

Paul W. and I had another good idea today, we are fountains of great ideas that just pour from us freely. We've been surprised that there isn't more networking here between members of the church. We were working with Axel's business which needs a new sign made and suggested that Erick's business make the metal sign. Axel didn't even know that Erick was in that line of work. Our idea is to pass around lists in every ward and have each family write down their business or work along with other information which we can then combine into a master list. This list could be sorted by category or type of work and be posted in each chapel. That way if someone needs a haircut for example, rather than just go to some random business they could check the list and give their business to a member of the church. Or if CFH has the budget we could create a copy of this list for everyone to take home with some addition information about the importance of networking and supporting our fellow Latter-Day Saints. There was a meeting here tonight at the CFH office with various bishops and other leaders from the stake. We shared our idea and they all seemed to really like it especially Pte. Maravilla who wants us to make it happen before we leave. Any ideas about how to improve this?

We also started working with another business today, Jose Luis has a small shop which repairs and sells new and used cell phones. We don't really have any ideas yet for how to help him, but it looks like he has a location that is going to be great. He is inside another business which is yet to open but it will be a cyber cafe with air conditioning. It should be a great location once this cyber cafe opens for business. His son went to college to get the training in how to work with electronics and cell phones and he is the one who does the repairs, etc.

Also, don't believe anything Paul W. says about me on his blog.

Dia 10

Just another day of trying to relearn Spanish and to apply business principles in a much different economy and way of life. Maria Jose is in charge a VisionSpring in Nicaragua, which sells glasses and provides income to the women who sell them. It is a business-in-a-box concept which seems to be working. We are helping Maria Jose with the business, and we helped her design this banner to be used when they go to markets, etc. Well, Paul W. really was the brains behind the layout and look of the banner. We visited Axel again today in order to go over his sales and expenses for the month of April.

We came back to the office and plugged the numbers into a spreadsheet and found that Axel barely makes a profit at all after paying all of his monthly expenses. We have some ideas for him. We think he needs to stop selling tires as his costs in April in obtaining them were greater than his tire sales. We think we found an easy way for him to increase his income x5.


Another visit we made today was to Bishop Chamorro who is 28 years old and served a mission in Honduras. He is also married and has one child. He also graduated recently from the University with a Mechanical Engineering degree. His business makes items using two different lathes that he has, they also make large metal doors. These are high priced products so we are dealing with a lot more money. He has a number of employees and makes trips to El Salvador every two months to buy materials. We're not sure yet how we can help him although he wants to look into getting a web site for his business as well as some help with Marketing as he really does not do any.

The food here is good, gallo pinto is tasty as are the breads. There is a Panaderia next door to the office and I want to try everything they offer before we leave. We ate dinner at the same restaurant up the street that we have been to a few times, you get quite a bit of good food and it only costs about $3.50.

Dia 9

It rained a little today. It was actually the least hot I've been since we got here; there was a nice breeze. We visited with Axel, a member, who is actually in the stake presidency. He runs a small business out of his home, he sells llantas y lubricantes (tires and lubricants such as oil, grease, etc.). We need to go back and work with his some more. He keeps daily records of his sales and does mark his expenses, but he does not keep monthly or weekly records. So we need to review his books and find out what kind of profit he's making each month after paying his fixed costs because it appears that he doesn't even know.

We also had some more ideas today regarding Marlon's pirated DVD business and that of Eric. We're thinking that Marlon should put a small sticker with his logo on each disc that he sells. That should build his brand through recognition as it would be in all of his customer's homes. With Axel, he said that 60% of his lubricants business is for motos and not cars, yet he doesn't sell tires for motos even though most of his profits comes from the sale of tires. So were just trying to come up with ideas, if anyone has any favor de share. Thanks. We are also working with Maria Jose who is in charge of Vision Spring here. She needs some help with animating her vendors; Paul W. shared a great idea in regards to changing the model of the incentive program that is used.

We ate at Pizza Hot today, not to be confused with Pizza Hut. It was actually quite good, a family size pizza was about $10. That's not much better than the states, but it was the nicest restaurant I've seen yet. Also, we watched X-Men Origins last night but it was missing some of the special effects, still a pretty good movie.

Dia 8

So its really hot here but I think I've mentioned that a few times. I had lengua de vaca (cow's tongue) at lunch, it actually wasn't bad but I just can't get past the idea of tasting something that can taste me. So I tried it but I don't think that I will have it again. I made the mistake of telling Pte. Maravilla, the Stake President and Manager of the Cause for Hope office, that I wanted to trying every typical dish of Nicaragua. That means we get to eat chicken stomach, iguana (aparently very good), liver, some animals blood, and some other delicious sounding plates. Jokingly, Maravilla said the problem with the states is that we throw away half the cow.

We bought X-Men Origins: Wolverine for $.50 from the business of a member that we are working with; we also bought all three Mummy movies, 5 Will Smith movies, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and a ps2 game and it all cost about $3.50. It's been a great little business for this member, Marlon, he also has a wife and 9 month old baby. Before he was selling 20-30 movies a day and then one of the teams last week from our competition came and helped him and the last few days he is selling 50 per day. His sales have doubled and all they did was put green ribbons on his kiosk and bought green shirts for him and his wife to wear, just something to stand out and so that people can identify him easier. Something that simple and his sales have doubled! He already keeps pretty good records, but we are going to see if we can help him take more information from those records. The most important thing for him is knowing which films and music discs are selling and which ones are not.

We also visited Eric who ownes a shop where he repairs cocinas and makes other metal or iron products such as gates, doors, and other things. He doesn't keep much in terms of records so that is what we are going to help him with; recording his expenses, revenues, etc.

It was pretty hot in our room last night even though we have a small air conditioner in the window so we went and bought a fan to try and help the situation. Also, we don't have hot water in the sink or shower, but I guess its still better than what most people have here so I'm definetly not complaining. A cold shower actually feels really good after sweating all day and night. Props to Liz for reading my blog and to the all of you, sorry I'm not very good at this, ideas would be great.

Dia 7

For the first time since I've been here I had a lazy day, which was a nice break. The group left this morning at 8:00 am leaving Paul W. and me alone at the hotel. Pte. Maravilla said he would come pick us up at noon to take us to the office, but wasn't able to make it. Finally at 4:00 pm Marlon was able to come and pick us up. So we hung out at the hotel, ate lunch there, etc. The office, it seems, is located in the the heart of Chinandega and is quite large with a number of rooms and two open courtyards in the middle; it's quite nice and has air conditioning, I'll have to take some fotos that I can post. I think that during the day there will be a lot of people coming and going here as there are various offices as well as classes and different things that go on during the day. We have a member lady who will be coming tomorrow to wash our clothes which is great. (above is a picture of the winners of the competition, Jimmer, Bishop Salazar, Esperanza Salazar, Me, Dana, Kassidy, Rachel, Oscar)

Oscar took us to the nearby supermercado so we could buy some things for breakfast. I'm surprised at the cost of things here, I thought it would be cheap. While some food items are cheaper some cost a lot more. For example, a large box of cereal cost $7! I know that most people here can't afford that so I wonder who buys it. So we got some milk in a bag, cereal, coke, and some bbq chips. We have a little fridge here at the office as well as cable TV in our room and a dvd player so we should be able to keep ourselves entertained at night.

Pte. Maravilla mentioned that we will probably start teaching the workshops next week so this week we can just start visiting business and get to work. We are also supposed to be looking for business-in-a-box opportunities.

I think my Spanish is improving everyday even though it still needs a lot of work. I spoke to my family on Skype tonight on the webcam, it was great to see them. Also a shout out to D Scott for reading my blog and to the rest of you that are my true friends.

Paz fuera.

Dia 6

Its Sunday and we went to church today. Each team went to the ward in which their assigned business or family was located. Our team had a chance to see the Salazar family, Luiz and Esperanza, and give them the $200 prize money. We met with them in the Bishops office after sacrament meeting, Luis is the bishop. we explained to them that it had been a competition, that there was a prize for the winner, and that they had won. They really seemed blown away when we handed them two $100 bills! Church was great. These girls from the soccer team really are great young women, they remind me a lot of my sister Liz who is the same age. Sacrament meeting started and we sang with out a piano because no one in the ward knew how to play. Kassidy and Dana offer to play so we let the bishop know and they played for the closing hymn. Also, Dana bore her testimony and I translated for her and Rachel also bore her testimony in Relief Society. I also bore my testimony after translating for Dana. The members were all very friendly.

Later we went to another meeting with those who will soon be going on missions and with returned missionaries. A lot of testimonies were shared. Then tonight we had another meeting to wrap up the trip for everyone that is going home tomorrow. It has been great getting to know everyone here. I didn't know what to expect before coming down. When I heard of the plans for the trip and that I would have to be a team leader in a competition I wondered if these student athletes would get involved or if they would be difficult to work with. My fears were in vain because these are wonderful people that have done a great job and I've loved getting to know them, I hope they don't view me as some old guy.

Anyway, now the work begins as everyone leaves in the morning and Paul W. and I get busy. Stay tuned.

Dia 5

Today we had to be prepared to give our final presentations. It went well. We tried to find a book case again this morning but we couldn’t find one. We presented at 11:00, Kassidy and Jimmer prepared the power point and did a great job. Also, they announced the winners tonight and we won! The prize is $200 for our business, so tomorrow we get to give the money to the family at church. They don’t even know anything about it so it should be quite a surprise.

The student athletes held their sports clinics at the new stake center today. The stake president asked me to translate for him to almost 200 people that showed up to meet the athletes and play with them. I had to help Coach Rose quite a bit with translation as he tried to direct the drills and different things. It was a lot of fun. We also played a game; Jimmer, Charles, myself, Dan G, and others were on the same team against a team of Nicaraguans. They brought a bunch of basketballs and soccer balls to give away and I think everyone had a great time.

After that we went to the playa (beach). I was in my basketball clothes but I took of my shirt and went swimming because I’ve been so hot ever since I got here and the water looked way too good. So while I was swimming I was actually stung by a jelly fish. It must have been a small one, I didn’t really get a look at it, but all of the sudden I felt stinging on my left bicep and then it started to swell up. I was a little worried at first that I would have a bad reaction, but I seem to be doing fine.And did I mention that our team won the competition. Campeones!

Dia 4

I wasn’t able to blog yesterday because we were preparing our final presentation and report so I’m trying to remember what happened over two days. Basically the whole day was dedicated to working on our team assignments with our businesses. We first went back to the house of Luis and Esperanza Salazar. We brought the film crew so that they could film Esperanza teaching the students. It was her day off and we had asked Esperanza if she could get a few kids to come over for the filming. She had 12 students there with three parents. We were able to film our team working with the students and myself and Oscar also interviewed a few of the parents on camera. We asked these parents why the bring their children to the school and what benefits they have seen. They were some great testimonials that we were able to get on camera. After that we went to purchase some supplies for her school as well as a new larger bookshelf to help with her collection of books. May 1 is a holiday here in Nicaragua so a lot of the stores were closed or closed early. We were not able to find a bookshelf; we also talked to a local carpenter about making one but he could give us an estimate nor could he start for 15 days. We were able to go to a bookstore and buy some supplies that Esperanza had said she needed including books, crayons, and dry erase markers. I won’t go into too much detail about the business because it is all in our report and power point presentation but I think it all went very well.

Yesterday evening Jimmer and I went with Oscar to do some home teaching visits. We made two visits and then went to a group family home evening which was going on. Both our visits went really well. The first was a less active family. Oscar asked Jimmer and I to both bear our testimonies and I translated for Jimmer. The wife was also sick and Oscar asked if she would like a priesthood blessing. Then he asked if I would perform the blessing! It went well and was a good experience. The second visit was to a woman who six months ago lived in a plastic house, 4 sticks with garbage bag plastic wrapped around and over the top. Cause For Hope (CFH) built her a new house in December but she is still very poor. She can’t read and has never read the Book of Mormon for herself but she bore her testimony of it and the church. We again bore our testimonies and I translated for Jimmer. Before we left she said a prayer in which she thanked the Lord for all her blessings and asked that just as we from CFH had helped her that God also help us. Then she prayed that tomorrow she would have food to eat! This hit Jimmer and I hard as we hadn’t had dinner yet and we had been talking about how hungry we were. That is something I will never have to pray for and it was humbling to hear it.

It was a great day.

Dia 3

Today we woke up early, again, had a quick breakfast and got on a bus headed for Chinandega. The main group split with our group going to Chinandega and the other will stay at the same hotel and work in Masaya. The bus ride was at least two hours and was pretty uneventful except for one experience. We stopped on the side of the highway to take pictures of an active volcano, there was a group of men nearby on the side of the highway. I don’t know exactly what happened but as we were getting back on the bus the men started yelling and I saw them run up to the edge of the road and fire a rifle at some people further down the highway. I don’t know exactly what happened because I was already in the bus and I couldn’t hear them yelling but it gave everyone a pretty good scare. Also on the trip we saw a lot of poverty, I’ve never seen such skinny cows and horses! They also drive pretty crazy. The road is filled with bicycles, small motorcycles, and guys that peddle people around in a type of man-powered carriage.



Once we had checked into our new hotel, Hotel Los Volcanes, we made our first visit to an orphanage, Hogar San Juan. What a great experience! They are all girls that range in ages from 4 to 14 more or less. Of course none of the girls have parents or anything in this life, but it seemed like a great place and the girls were so friendly and well behaved. They were so excited to see all of the women soccer players from BYU. I think each from our group had one girl on each arm taking them around and showing them their rooms, etc. The girls also sang a song for us when we arrived which I got on video. The soccer team and the Rose family had brought some things for the girls including new Nike shoes and BYU soccer balls, the girls were so excited. It was a great experience to meet these wonderful children.

Next we went to the CFH office in Chinandega which is where Paul W. and I will be staying after the group leaves. From there we received our assignments and left to visit the businesses we will be working with. Our family is a husband and wife. Luis is the bishop in his ward and doesn’t have steady work. His wife, Esperanza, is a school teacher in a public primary school. Their business is that Esperanza teaches children in her home after school that need extra help or who’s parents want them to learn more. Esperanza is an amazing woman, she feels that teaching is her eternal calling and making money really isn’t her primary motivation. In fact, up until about four months ago she was doing work similar to this with adults, for free. The received a loan from CFH in order to buy some whiteboards, small desks and chairs, and other supplies so she could begin teaching in her house. She charges 100 cordoba per student per month ($5). We have the next day and a half to come up with ideas to help her business and prepare a report and present to our whole group. We have some good ideas and it should go well. I have also taken some photos of Esperanza and her class, the children are so cute.

So it was a great day. The new hotel is also very nice and we have had good meals. We ran into another set of missionaries today, we also met a companionship yesterday. It is soo hot, I think I sweat all day long. Maybe I’ll lose some weight. I’m also tired, good night.

(my internet connection is pretty slow here and I'm having a hard time uploading photos asi que I might have to wait a few days and see if I can't get a better connection)

Dia 2

Today started with a buffet breakfast here at the Hotel Las Mercedes followed by meetings all the way till lunch. We had a short devotional given by Coach Rose and then business training from the various leaders of Cause for Hope: Dan Gibbons, Dean Curtis, and others. We had a buffet lunch at the hotel and then the exciting part of the day began. We split into three groups, loaded into vans and went into the city. My team and Paul W's team went together along with Jordan, the camera guy. We visited 5 families/businesses. The first was a woman who received a $100 loan and training from CFH and sells 10-15 different fruits and vegetables. She takes the bus to the market everyday and purchases her products to sell them out of her house. Her sale are about 3 for 10 cordobas.(20 cordobas = 1 dollar) This is a picture of her house, she has her goods set up just inside the front door. The gentleman to my left is William, he works for CFH in their Managua office.
Next, we visited two businesses that were next to each other. One was a woman who sells juice drinks from her house. She also received a loan from CFH in order to repair a refrigirator she had in which to keep the drinks. She sells the drinks in small plastic bags to go or in a cup which the customer can't keep. She still needs to repair her blender so that she can blend the fruit used to make her drinks. Sales price is about 5 cordoba. She bore her testimony of the gospel and gave thanks for all her blessings, especially for CFH. The other business was a woman next door, also a member of the church, who sells bananas. It is a difficult season for her because it is not banana season so they are harder to come by, but she purchases 100 bananas twice a week and sells them within two days of purchase.

Oscar and Flor were the next family we visited. They are both artists that make paintings as well as clay figures. They seem to have a very successful business which they have been operating for a number of years. Their products have a high profit margin and are quite nice, Oscar has a real talent for painting.

The last family we visited was that of Pablo. Pablo and his family definetly lived in the most humble circumstances that we saw today. You can see from the pictures the path we had to take to get to their 'house.' Pablo and his family peal and fry bananas and then sell them in small bags and dried banana chips. He has 10 salesmen and has identified his costs and profit margin as well as how many bags he can get from one banana, etc. He had a strong testimony. He said he keeps the sabbath day holy and pays his tithing. He gave thanks for CFH, which gave him a loan in order to buy his burner, a roof, and walls for his 'kitchen' where he makes his product.

All of the families that we met today were members of the church who had strong testimonies and gave thanks for all of their blessings. They all lead better lives and are more self suficient thanks to CFH. Also, Paul W and I got to translate for our group at each of these visits, it was great.

Finally, we went to the Managua office of CFH. There we met three young men who have all received their mission calls and are prearing to leave in the next couple of weeks. These young men live in a small village two hours away, but they made the trip because they wanted to meet all of us and thank CFH. Two are going to Chile and one has been called to Argentina. Two of them are the only members of their families and are receiving no support regarding their missions. Thanks to CFH they have received the help they needed in order to serve missions. I had the opportunity to translate for each of them as they bore their testimonies to the group. You could certainly feel the spirt and strength of their testimonies. CFH had some gifts for them before they left on their missions including new glasses, suitcases, white shirts, and ties. It was a great experience.

We finished the day back at the hotel with dinner and then more meetings. Dinner was really good again. Rice, fish, and different pastas, and flan. All very good. It was great to get out today and see what conditions are like and also meet such wonderful, humble people. They have so little yet they are still very happy. They have beautiful little children some of whom you will see in the pictures which I have attached to this post as a photo album.

On the right is a slide show which should update everyday with new photos. It has photos of all of today's visits. If you click on the photo it should link you to a larger slide show of the photos.

Dia 1

Today I left for Nicaragua! I'll be in Nicaragua for the next few weeks working with an organization, Cause for Hope, which works in Central America to provide business and technical training, micro credit loans, and other resources to members of the church and others who are looking to break the cycle of poverty and improve their standard of living. This is a social venture internship sponsered by BYU and the Center for Economic Self Reliance. I will be spending my time with Paul W., another 1st year MBA student from BYU and we will be working out of the office in Chinandega. I'm sure we will have a lot of fun together. Check out Paul W's blog, it will probably be much better than mine since I have never done this before.



For the first week that we are here we will be participating in an event that has been planned for a number of BYU student athletes from the men's basketball team, men's and women's soccer teams, and the women's vollyball team. We traveled with all of them today and will be providing translation as well as leading teams in a business plan type of competition that all of the athletes will be participating in. A couple of camera crews have also made the journey in order to document everything that the group does this first week.



We are spending tonight and tomorrow in Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua, and then we will head out to Chinandega for the remainder of our time here. I haven't seen much since we arrived so late, but it is hot! 85 degrees when we landed here at 9:30 pm and very humid.