A quick update on our work with Piñatas Alegría:
Last weekend and this week, Shaun and I have been tweaking our system created to divide piñata profits into 3 categories: money to be reinvested for materials, small payments to repay the loan, and money for salaries. We’re calling it out “jar system”, as the idea it that the ganancias from each piñata can be split up among 3 jars—simplicity and sustainability is the goal. We’ve worked out a couple of charts and have begun to implement this system with the piñatas we’ve already sold. So far so good!
On Thursday we talked to the women about the importance of keeping the money from profits within the business. Shaun used an analogy of a bicycle—The wheels are like capital, and the bicycle can only move forward if the wheels are circulating (loan money à materials à products à profits à materials à products… etc.). Although the wheels are continually moving, they must stay firmly on the bicycle. Otherwise, the bicycle, the business, can go nowhere. We have more charlas planned for next week, including basic accounting and marketing.
Another aspect we’ve been working on lately is that of the loan. We created several scenarios with varying loan amounts and payment periods. Although we can see advantages and disadvantages to each, I think we’ve tentatively decided to make one loan of 1,000 córdoba to be paid back in small weekly amounts over 1 year. Shaun, Carrie, and I feel that this approach will give the women plenty of capital, opportunity to expand (which they’ve already showed an interest in doing), and a long enough time period to keep payments low and salaries high enough to reflect the amount of time and effort these three women are sacrificing for the business. I was originally envisioning payment periods of 1-4 months, but I like this better. This new approach really emphasizes the long-term goals of the business, and I’m becoming increasingly excited as I picture the success of Piñatas Alegría one or two years down the road. What an incredible blessing to be a part of this!
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On Tuesday I got a call from a friend from high school, a German foreign exchange student who I knew briefly when he studied in America for a year. Ben has been travelling around Central America for several weeks and somehow found out that I was living in Nica. With no plan or cell phone, he showed up on Calle Real Xalteva (one street north of mine) at around 10:00 in the morning. I showed him around town, drinking frescos and browsing the artisans’ wares at the Parque Central, walking down to the lake via Calle Calzada, and buying mamones in the marketplace. In the afternoon he went to work with me and Piñatas Alegría in Valle de Granada.
Ben and I (photo taken by some of the kids):
A couple more photos from Ben’s camera:
After work we decided that it would be a shame if Ben came to Granada and didn’t get to experience the Laguna de Apoyo, the crater-lagoon just outside of Granada that I visited a couple weeks ago. So we called up Melissa and quickly packed our bags, not knowing if we’d make it back that night or the next morning. We started walking towards the busier streets, alternating scanning for buses and sticking out our thumbs. We just barely caught a bus to Masaya as it sped around the corner and asked the driver to let us know when to hop out for the laguna. As always, there are no bus stops. The driver let us off on the side of the highway near a smaller road that led down into the valley where the laguna is located. From there we started walking downhill and eventually caught a taxi to take us the rest of the way.
Like last time I went to the Laguna de Apoyo, Melissa, Ben, and I were the only people down there. After diving in and swimming out to a small wooden dock, we decided to grab a couple of kayaks and venture out into the calm water. Having left Granada after work around 3:00 pm, it was already beginning to get dark. The sky was also filled with heavy, ominous clouds. Tucked away in a pocket of lush green hills, this lagoon has never known a speedboat or motorboat or jet ski. Scanning the enveloping greenery, we could easily count the number of sparse lights we saw in the hills that completely encircled us. There weren’t even radio towers atop those hills. It was such a beautiful feeling. We paddled out from the shore and I lay back in my kayak and closed my eyes for a few minutes, feeling a slight sprinkling of chilly rain. When I opened my eyes again, the view was completely different than from when I closed them, and yet still the same—dark green, steep, forested hillsides and still water undisturbed in every direction around me, except for Melissa and Ben on their kayaks some distance away. At first I couldn’t help regretting that I didn’t bring my camera, but then I realized what a silly thought that was. It’s not like a picture could really capture it anyway.
The rain really started coming down and the sky had gone completely black when we decided to head in. In the darkness overlooking the laguna, we snuggled into hammocks and rocking chairs on the back porch and chatted with managers of the hut, several Nicaraguans who lived there and ran the place. Not a bad job, right? They were actually looking to hire another member of their staff… I seriously considered it.
After hanging out a while they called us a taxi and we made the winding, uphill trip back to the highway. There we parted ways; Melissa and I caught a bus back to Granada without waiting too long in the rain, and Ben headed off to find a ride in the opposite direction to continue his travels in Masaya.
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Although Nicaraguans are bigger baseball fans than soccer fans (surprising, I know), they still love the Copa Mundial, the World Cup! The past two mornings I’ve woken up to watch the 5:20 am futbol games with a couple friends, which has actually been a lot of fun (though I can’t promise I didn’t doze off a bit at halftime). Although I genuinely enjoy the lack of modernized commercial centers and services here, I have certainly missed the convenience of a Starbucks or even a drive-through McDonald’s coffee these past few mornings. : )
Anyway, I leave this afternoon for a few days to Ometepe, an island in Lago Cicibola (Lake Nicaragua) made up of two volcanoes—Maderas and Concepción. We plan on hiking Volcán Maderas, supposedly an 8-10 hour hike, and then resting on the island’s beaches and exploring its small towns.
Of course, I’ll let yall know how everything goes!
LOVE TO ALL,
sarah
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge… Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world”
- Psalm 19:1-4
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