Invent Yourself

Back in 4^th grade, we had a group project to invent something. It could have been anything-no need for it to be realistic. My group and I designed a sneaker that could do anything and everything- you could travel to far away places in seconds, it could make you hot chocolate etc… It was a fantastic idea. Not realistic at all, but fantastic. (And come on, honestly, who would want to drink hot chocolate that came from a show you’d been wearing all day?) Here, the Peace Corps small business sector has an annual entrepreneurial competition in the high schools. Each Small Business volunteer runs a local competition. The winner of this is sent to a departmental competition. The winner of this is sent onto the National Competition, which is held in Managua. It’s a pretty cool event. All of the students who are a part of this business class have learned how to come up with an original product, make the product, write a business plan, present it and sell it. Broken up into groups, this is what they must do for the competition. Today I was a judge for the event in Corinto. We had the task of judging painted and decorated tortillas (being sold as a tourist product); a new local healthier bird food; a chocolate dish made of cocoa, dulce de leche, dried fruits and peanuts (absolutely delicious!); a calendar/agenda with pictures of Nicaragua and Corinto; and a jewelry business (very creative with their ribbon bracelets). I was honestly very impressed with all of the groups- it was obvious that they all worked extremely hard to organize their presentations, actually make and sell their product and write a detailed business plan. At the end of the month, the department wide competition will be held in Chinandega. I’ll be very excited to see how the rest of Chin did and to see if a representative from Corinto can continue on to Managua!