From Charu

March 19

Today was our first morning in San Juan Del Sur and our first time meeting the local entrepreneurs we have been selected to work with. The morning started out with a fabulous breakfast that consisted of fresh fruits, chocolate chip and banana pancakes the size of a dinner plate, cinnamon rolls made from scratch by the group I am helping and eggs made to order. I have learned that here in Nicaragua breakfast is a hearty meal and I absolutely love it! Soon after breakfast I had the opportunity to meet Mirna and Ruth, two sisters who custom cater meals for events at hotels, operate a snack food truck, make jewelry and bags, and specialize in pastries and sweet breads. These were the entrepreneurs that I was going to work with. Initially, I was surprised and confused when I heard about all that they did because in the U.S. we usually see entrepreneurs pick a particular industry/field and invest all their time and resources in that one direction. However, I soon realized that the margins that the local entrepreneurs made was not much and to survive they needed to be versatile. My group and I worked with Mirna and Ruth to create some marketing materials such as flyers and business cards and although it seemed so simple and easy to us, to the entrepreneurs it was a big deal. They did not have easy access to computers or the internet and had limited education or training in marketing or technology. Something that I have available to me at my fingertips is something that they go without in their lives on a regular basis. After a productive morning we dispersed for a relaxing afternoon of rest in anticipation of a fun fiesta that was planned for the evening. The evening was amazing! One of the other entrepreneurs, Bruno owns a catering service and organized a lovely dinner for us students, the coordinators and all the local entrepreneurs and their families. The dinner consisted of authentic Nica food, fun conversation with the local entrepreneurs, mouth-watering pies made by Yessenia another one of the entrepreneurs and folk dancing. It was an experience I will never forget! Can’t wait to see what is in store for tomorrow.