October 10th 2014 my site of Esquipulas held their first local Emprendedurismo competition. This is what I have been working towards since February 2014. Each group formed a business of 5-7 students. Their goal was to think of something creative or a product or service that does not exist in their community or Nicaragua. I had 14 teams competing this day. Nine were from my local high school and five were from my two rural sites. I was suprised to see some good products. I did not think my students had it in them. One group made some fantastic chocolates and sold them in bundles. They went to our department capital of Matagalpa to learn the process of chocolate making and came back and made their own recipe. I am a chocolate lover myself so I immediately fell in love with their product. Another group had made their own tomatoe sauce, baby cereal, a hair product made from coconut oil, kids toys made from wood, medicinal products for cough and allergies, and the infamous coffee. Each team had 7 minutes to present while the judges listened and fired back with questions at the end of each presentation. We had four judges and each gave points based on a scale and their reaction to the teams presentations. After much debate, the first winning team from Esquipulas was the team who made their own coffee. Although a native product and a common one the judges had given the most points to this team. To be honest and fair and free of drama "El Gustazo" won their opportunity to go to the Regional Competition in Jinotega Jinotega.
Scrambling to complete a power point presentation, practice their public speaking skills, and collect money for their trip to Jinotega would be a task in itself. I had never seen them work so hard and prepare themselves like they did over a two week period than the whole year combined. Impressive. My students are actually doing something. A few days before the competition we ran into financial problems and were afraid we would be unable to attend. I told the principal that I was not going to allow this. "They must go!" They wrote letters for the Mayor and two business owners. We were turned down by each of them. Luckily I later found out that the principal had loaned them the money necessary for our bus trip. Wednesday morning the 22nd of October rolls around and I am out of bed by 430am. I am out of the house and waiting by 530am. According to Nica Standard Time, one must be patient and wait 30 min to an hour later than the time agreed on. We agreed to leave by 530am. We left at approximately 630am. Starting at 9am I feared we would arrive late, but why worry if you follow Nica Standard Time?
We stopped three times along the way because one of my students decided to throw up. I am not sure if it was nerves or something they ate. Anyways, we did make it on time. The competition was set for 9am which means......yep, a 10:20am start time. I saw some fairly creative products. The judges this time around really look for creativity, a good business plan, and confidence in your presentation and prouduct. I rooted for my team regardless of their product. They deserved it. It ended with a certificate of participation, but hey at least I got some free coffee out of it! I am lying, I bought some coffee from them to boos their confidence.
I am a big supporter of local small business so I bought some home made peanut butter too lol ! It even came with a little minature plastic spoon to scoop out the peanut butter!
Overall, I think it was quite an experience, not only for me, but for my kiddos. As long as they had fun, I am glad they had the opportunity to step outside of their community and do something different for a change. Also, I hope they learned something!
One more competition left...the National Competition in Managua November 21 2014.
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