The End of Local Fairs

The sound of my alarm Monday morning meant only one thing: time to wake up and hit the ground running. And until now, my feet haven’t stopped moving, bringing me to the farthest corners of my municipality and back, by bike, bus, motorcycle, and friendly nature of those who pick me up trying to hitch.

The bad news is that the rest, the break, is only temporary. The big push, the granddaddy of all fairs is still to be had. Tomorrow, Villa el Carmen will be proud to present its Third Annual Feria de Emprendedurismo, and although all the teams now are qualified, there is still some scrambling to be done, due to a last minute change.

The good news is that after a two week period all 7 of the schools I work in have had their local fairs, some for the first time. Not all group presented top notch work, and there were some notable disappointments. Disappointments that made me question was I really wanted here in this community. But those disappointments tend to be forgotten when seeing the relative success on a grand scale: over 45 student groups handing in business plans and presenting a years worth of work, schools finishing its first full year teaching the emprendedurismo program, and the kind words said by teachers, principles, and students about what the class meant to them. More on that after my last competition in a few days.

Last year, wanting to make an early impression on my new community, I took the planning process by the reigns, but this year I took a different approach to planning the competitions, by acting as a facilitator more than decision maker. After all sustainability is the name of the game, and as I recently found out, I will be the last business volunteer in the community. So I used this year as a test run for how the teachers may perform and act at next year’s competition, sans Sam. Once all together, I just asked the questions that needed to be asked, and let them (my counterparts) discuss and decide. It let to some awkward, long pauses in debate, but by the end of the hour it was all planned out, without a single decision made by myself, at individual school level, and at the municipal level. I’ve been running around in large part to help prepare the students for the fair and revise their plans, attend competitions, and relay messages. Oh yeah, and to help change the date of the competition two days before it was suppose to happen. Long story short, we changed the date due to scheduling conflict. Almost, immediately after we made the change, we found out the event in conflict was suspended to a later date. As a result, we lost a sponsor, two judges, and a workshop for the winning teams on how to make a PowerPoint presentation (for the regional competition). The event in conflict was the national science fair, and national Ministry of Education couldn’t get their shit together, or in more eloquent terms, failed to prepare adequately. So their incompetence side railed my competition. But so is life. Hopefully these extra days will help the students to prepare and better their projects, right? We’ll see tomorrow! Pictures to come, as well as a recap of my last round of planning competitions.    

Local Busniess competitions

So a picture often tells a thousand words, or so the saying goes. So instead of talking about the first four of 7 competitions to come, I'm going to instead share the photos of all the groups up to now. After the competitions, I'll be sure to share about the experience the 2nd time around, but for now, I just don't have enough time to sit down and write. Enjoy!

The Teams from La Ceiba

A small rural shool, with one klass of 30 students

 

The Institute In Santa Rita

A small semi rural shook, with one class of 24 students

Monte Fresko

A small rural school with one section of13 students

 villa el Carmen Public School

                                My largest and most urban school, with three classes of 25 students

More to come next week!

What the Rainy Season Means to Me

So while back at home, the weather is getting brisker, and the leaves are changing color, down here its just starting to rain harder. The month of October brings the heaviest rains of the year, and it’s a almost a guarantee that it will rain for at least a few hours each day. It could be sunny and beautiful out in the morning, and in the afternoon it’s torrentially down pouring. Or vice versa. Well yesterday, that deception beautiful day got the best of me. I went to lass, without even thinking about bringing a rain jacket or umbrella, and it wasn’t until the last 5 minutes of class when the skies started to darken. Hoping for the best, I started my hour long walk back to my house, hoping that the storm would wait for me, or pass me by to the north. Well, I realized about 5 minutes into my walk that I wasn’t going to make it home dry. I could literally see the rain fail sprinting towards my direction, and with little to no cover around, all I could do was brace myself. Within minutes, I was soaked to the bone, my only option just to keep walking. At that point I was so wet, it didn’t make a difference.

Naturally, the only thing I could think about was the rain; in that state its hard to think of anything else. The question that kept popping into my head was, “What does the rainy season mean to me? How am I affected by it?” When it rains everyday, it’s more a matter of preparing yourself for the inevitable.

Quick side note: There are no weather forecasts down here, at least officially. The news stations actually film a computer screen to give its audience a weather forecast. That technology, or at least the money to fund it, hasn’t seemed to make it down here yet. Therefore, you decide what the weather will be like later in the day by looking at the sky to the east. Through the majority of the year, if it’s cloudy, it’s probably going to rain, and if its clear skies, you’re in for a hot day. But around this time of year, no matter how the skies look to the east…it’s gonna rain.

So back to the question, “what does the rainy season mean to me?” First and most directly, it means I can expect more days like yesterday, where I get soaked through. Rain jacket and waterproof boots or not, you’re bound to get wet if you’re standing exposed for more than a few minutes. I thought my tattoo was in a pretty concealed spot, but who knew that kaki is practically see through when wet? I’m not even safe in my house as I recently found out. There are plenty of holes in the roof and cracks in the wall that allow rain to enter. It’s sort of like walking through a maze in my house when it really is raining hard, to stay on dry ground. Apparently, there were a lot more wholes than I realized when I “repaired and patched” up my roof.

Second, and more significantly, the heavy rains of October mean that it is competition season here in La Villa and the culmination of a years work in the Nica school system. The school year here goes from February to the end of November, but for all intensive purposes, my work in the schools ends at the end of October, for glaring flaws in the educational system here, as well as the effects of municipal elections in the beginning of November. If the elections are as fraudulent as they were 5 years ago, I can expect extended school cancellations. So for that reason, we do are best to get the municipal and regional competitions done before that. To make that happen, a lot goes into planning and organizing, and as I’ve found out this year, I not only enjoy planning big events like this, but I’ve found I’m pretty good at it to (to toot my own horn). But this time around I took a different takt. The name of the game after all down here is sustainability, so if I’m running and organizing everything, what will happen next year, when I’m not around. So about two weeks ago, myself and my 7 counterparts sat down in the same room to plan the competition down to the T. I would pose a question or problem, sit back, and just watch my profes discuss and debate. Really interesting to observe, and after an hour, we walked out of the classroom with every detail agreed upon. That isn’t to say that I’m not busy. There is still tons of work to do around here, and I’ve been scrambling around non-stop these past few weeks preparing students for their presentations, editing business plans, and helping to plan/attending the local business competitions in each institute. So although it’s a lot of work and traveling, I wouldn’t have it any other way. The next post, more likely than not will be photos of the local competitions that are in the upcoming week!