Café

So I promised I would give an update on what I've been working on and since I'll be done this week, I figure it's about time.

Coffee.  I drink it twice a day and for the past couple of months, I've researched it all day.  So here are some fun facts about coffee that you probably didn't know...

1) Coffee actually looks like a cherry; it's not brown.  You may know this already, but it surprised me.

*Photo courtesy of Google images

2) The coffee bean is actually white.  There a series of steps to remove the coffee bean from teh cherry and you're left with a rather slippery little white coffee bean.  It's only after it's toasted that it become the brown coffee as we know it.

*Photo courtesy of Google images

3)  Productivity of a coffee tree (yes, they grow on trees, but think tall bush or google image it for yourself) depends on both the use of inputs such as fertilizer, pesticides, etc AND the age of the tree.

4) Pruning every 6 years or so helps rejuvenate the coffee tree.  Then after 3 times of this, you've got no option but to renovation, aka cut down all the trees and replant.  But be prepared, you'll have to wait 3 years before you get any production from those new trees.

5) There are two main types of coffee trees: arabica and robusta.  In Central America, they grow arabica, which generally translates into your specialty/gourmet coffee.  Good stuff.

6) Arabica coffee only grows above 800ms above the sea, with the flavorful specialty coffee growing above 1,000ms.  This is great news for yours truly, because in visiting the coffee farms, I get to leave the heat behind and head into some cool, beautiful, tropical, humid coffee plantations.

Coffee country in the North of Nicaragua (Matagalpa, Jinotega, Esteli)

7) If you visit a coffee plantation, you may meet a guy who works for a coffee company.  He may hit on you and tell you that you won't end up going back to the States because you're going to fall in love.  (Note: I may not have booked my flight to come back yet, BUT I have not fallen in love and don't think I'm about to in the next week.  Turns out, he's not psychic).

So why exactly do I know all of this about coffee?  Well, there are currently two very talented coffee experts at TechnoServe Nicaragua that are wrapping up a project and looking for the next.  Enter Julie.  As my boss said "learn everything they know and put it into a presentation" so that we can sell the next project and keep TNS' awesome work in coffee going.  Seems an easy task since my main contact, Edgar, is one of the nicest Nica's I've met so far.  But consider the fact that he's been working in coffee for over 10 years.  Let's just say there are a lot more than 7 facts I could share with you by now ;).

It's an awesome "project" to be working on because I'm helping TNS Nicaragua position themselves well not only for selling additional coffee projects from private donors, but also giving them strategic insight into the coffee sector to use in bidding for upcoming USAID and World Bank proposals. 

And it's going to turn into an issue.  Edgar estimates that over half of the small producers are in need of plantation renovation, meaning that their trees are more than 20 years old and have very very low productivity.  Yet these producers don't have access to credit for a wide variety of reasons: already in debt, messed up land titles due to Sandinistas redistributing land back during the revolution, bad credit history, no bookkeeping or production history, etc.  But the Nicaraguan coffee industry is 95% small producers, which accounts for 57% of area.  Current production levels can't be sustained with productivity continuing to decline with aging trees.  Action needs to be taken, yet Nicaragua is one of the only countries in Central America whose government doesn't offer a national program for plantation renovation.

With world production stagnating due to increasing costs in large producer countries like Brazil and Colombia, world demand for arabica coffee growing and prices therefore increasing, now is the time to help these small producers.  By increasing production, improving the quality of production and connecting them to international buyers, we could potentially pull nearly 30,000 poor producers out of poverty.  Not to mention, sustaining the nearly 300,000 rural workers employed in the coffee industry and potentially creating more jobs through improved productivity.

It's going to be a very motivational & informational presentation.  Maybe I should record a motivational speech as well? haha.  Can't help being passionate about what I love.

beach days

I've now spent the past two weekends at the beach, both times getting sunburnt (sorry mom).  Thankfully, only one side of me got burnt each weekend, so I'm now fairly evenly crispy, still white with blotches of red turning tan.  HOT.

First weekend our friend Maji invited us to her family's beach house.  Talk about getting spoiled.  Eight friends, sun, waves and Catchphrase.  Couldn't have asked for a better day.

Maji's family beach house



Ad for sunglasses, featuring Eliza, myself and Neil



The girls: Eliza, Margaret, Kristen, me, Maji and Emily

The following weekend, I headed with Joe, Andrea and her sister Whitney to Gigante beach for another day in the sun. Unfortunately it was a little too much sun, because despite lathering on sunscreen and only staying out a couple hours, the back of my legs are now red and incredibly sensitive.  In fact, I spent most of the next day putting on lotion and holding still.  Even broke down and turned on the air conditioning for a bit.

Didn't actually take pictures at Gigante that day, but here are a couple photos from Joe's previous trip.

It's my last week in Nicaragua and I can't believe 6 months is nearly up!  I hate to leave, but at the same time, it's time to get back to reality.  And give my poor burnt skin a rest.  One more trip planned for this coming weekend before heading back to Dallas: Ometepe here I come!

Canyon de Somoto

Wow, I'm realizing I did quite a lot in February.  Sorry to dump all these posts on you all in one night, but gotta catch up before I travel this weekend again!

So Joe, who works at the US Embassy, and Claudia, who work(ed) at ProCredit and I all went on a trip in order to complete Claudia's bucket list before she headed back to Germany.  We headed up north to Esteli Saturday afternoon to explore the city, stayed one night and then woke up early to meet our tour guide.  Then the real fun began.

Canyon de Somoto is absolutely beautiful and any adventurers dream.  We did a 6 hour hike through the canyon, swimming in parts where the canyon dropped off too steeply to climb.  Unfortunately it was overcast and the water was NOT warm.  I'm naturally cold (I wear a northface in the office with the airconditioning), so I was freezing 99% of the time.  To keep from complaining to my wonderful companions, I decided to annoy them with country songs instead.  Joe is a big fan of country and given that my family loves country music and I have a magical talent of remembering lyrics, I decided to sing us through the cold.  Free entertainment for my friends and our two guides, who thought I was crazy.

Can't say I regret any minute of the trip though.  Cliff jumping (though I opted out, haha), beautiful views, caves, waterfalls and good exercise.  O, and some great pics, thanks to Joe's camera and our guides' photography skills.

Canyon de Somoto!

Resting on a rock and enjoying an extra lollipop I found in Joe's car.

Boat ride at the end of the trip, which means no swimming in cold water!  Thank you Mr. Boat-Rower.

Volcan Masaya & Mirador de Catarina

To continue catching you up on February travels:

Gabriel has English class on Saturdays but afterwards we went on an excursion to see Volcan Masaya and the Mirador de Catarina.Masaya Volcano is active and though you can park your car right by the crater, you are required to park in reverse, to facilitate a quick getaway.  Once the volcano had a minor eruption and a huge rock landed on someone's car, completely smashing it.

Crater Santiago of Volcan Masaya

Crater San Pedro (?)

The volcano actually has a couple craters that have formed over the years to release the pressure.  You can smell the sulfur as you walk around the top; it's actually pretty hard to breathe.

At the top of the volcano above the crater is a large cross constructed by the Spaniards, who though the volcano was the mouth of the devil (boca de diablo).

Gabriel photographing me while I photograph him :)

After visiting the volcano, we headed to Mirador de Catarina, a lookout over Laguna de Apoyo.  Across the laguna, you can see the colonial city of Granada, next to Lake Nicaragua (or Lake Cocibola).  It's an absolutely beautiful view and a rather peaceful spot, as long as the mariachis keep their distance.

Mirador de Catarina: view of Laguna de Apoyo & Granada

Can you believe all this is only 30 minutes from Managua?  California may boast that you can go from ocean to snow in 3 hours, but you gotta admit Nicaragua is awesome.  Beach, volcano, laguna, little island... all within 1.5 hours of my casita!

Canopy tour

So I've done a horrible job at keeping you all up to date on my travels.  But here's one with some pictures I thought you'd enjoy.

The annual regional TechnoServe meeting for Latin America was held in Granada, Nicaragua this year, just 30 minutes outside of Managua.  And while I didn't attend, I did get to meet a good number of some very senior members of TechnoServe, including the regional director (a former Bainie like me), the Development Division team, another TNS advisor whose unpublished book I'm currently reading (how cool!) and the former Nicaragua country director named Julie- which is why everyone in the office knows how to pronounce my name.

Susan Bornstein, the Senior Director of Program Development who is basically known as the TNS rainmaker with a million contacts at USAID and other large NGOs, stuck around for the weekend after the conference.  My colleague Gabriel took her around a bit on Saturday and I tagged along, keen to get to know this TNS icon and see more of Nicaragua of course.

We decided to take on the canopy tour at the base of Volcan Mombacho, which was not nearly as great as the one I did in Costa Rica, but made for some very fun, slightly awkward pics. 




Dia international de mujer

So yesterday was the International Day of Women.  My only other experience with this holiday was Spanish class one year when my prof made all the guys in our class stop by his office beforehand and together they all walked in with roses for each of us.  Needless to say, I'm a fan.

Turns out, the day is even better when you're surrounded by latinos.  My taxi driver was the first to inform me that it was the dia international de mujers- thank you Jose.  So at least I had an idea of what was going on when everyone in the office greeted me with "Felicidades."  Apparently this one day out of the year, half of the country gets congratulated for being a woman.  The office even gave a rose to every lady.

The salutations continued with very numerous chain emails with cheesy latino ppt presentations set to cheesy music on the value of a woman, including a translation of John Lennon's "Woman" choreographed with bizarre photos.  My gringo friends and I all passed around the ones we'd received to get some extra laughs. 

My favorite of the day? God offered a gift of peeing standing up and Adam said "I want it, I want it.  Por fa!" So Adam received the gift and proceeded to pee all over the garden of Eden, on all the trees and plants.  Then Eve asked God "What is my gift?" God answered "Brains, Eve, brains."

At 4pm, it was really time to celebrate.  Apparently at TNS, you get chicken, spreadable cheese on crackers and chocolate cake just for being a woman.  And since women are so generous, we shared the love, though we made the men serve us.  One of my coworkers even made a little speech about how glad he is that women work there and how much they add in being sensitive, multi-tasking and staying organized.  In the states, I think some women would have punched him, but I thought the whole sentiment was very sweet.  He said women are his whole life: he's got a wife and two daughters.  Makes me think of my poor dad. :)

So I propose we adopt this holiday in the states.  Afterall, it's much better than Valentine's Day and puts no pressure on all the poor suckers who happened to be dating someone in February.

Suit search

I realize I haven't been writing frequently enough and I've still yet to tell you all about what I've been working on recently at Technoserve and the weekend travels I've had.  I promise, I will soon.  However, given that I'm back in the states for a week for bschool interviews, I thought it more fitting to write about life currently.

So why not another entertaining saga/rant from yours truly?  Enjoy.

I think feminists have waged a rather one-sided war that hasn't truly brought about equality just yet.  What am I speaking of exactly?  Suits.  There is no equal opportunity for women in buying suits.  I think this is due to a variety of factors:

1) Dresscode rules for women are much more vague; the female fashion is very much a black box.  This is why we women are always having to ask the other what we're wearing to each event; rules are very much based on relative social context.  In the workplace, male execs never seemed to set strict dress rules for their female counterparts who were breaking through the glass ceiling.  I mean, if feminists are burning bras, who would dare require a suit?  And what exactly is the female equivalent of a coat & tie?

2) Supply always rises to meet demand.  Because of less-than-clear dress codes for women, the forced demand for suits just isn't there.

3) Women (in general) enjoy shopping and men don't.  Nordstroms has just one floor for men, and one section for suits.  You can find womens clothes on all 3 floors and a small sampling of suits in 3 departments.  Men wouldn't dare shop around for suits; your best bet as a retailer is to make it as simple as possible for a quick-in, quick-out sale.  God forbid a women actually want the same!

Unfortunately, this causes serious issues for myself.  I had a suit in Dallas that I pulled out of storage, but given that I am a slightly thinner now, my friend remarked "It looks like you're wearing another person's clothes." Not exactly the impression you want to give Harvard or Berkeley in an interview.

So I went suit shopping the day before my first interview.  The experience was far less than enjoyable and suits have now been added to my list of shopping to avoid at all costs: bras, swimsuits and jeans.

I hate suits for a myriad of reasons really.  Besides the astronomical price (which stuns even more now that I have a Nicaragua point of reference), they simply weren't designed with women in mind.  Think about it: suits are incredibly attractive on men because they accentuate their boxy frame.  Yet the female body is anything but boxy. 

Additionally, mens suits are made to fit.  They come in a variety of sizes and are generally tailored.  Pants are fit for waist and length.  Do you want to know what my options are for suits?  S M L jackets (or #s if you're lucky) and 2-14 for pants.  Have you seen a womens body?  How is it men get 2 measurements for pants and I get one?  Pretty sure girls have more curves that deserve more measurements.  We're probably just so complicated that it wasn't cost effective.  So now women with body issues are trying to fit into one size fits all type styles.  Not good.

I was once measured for a bridesmaid dress and told I was a 4, 6 and 10 at different measurements of my body.  So what size should I try on?  It's a miracle I'm able to find clothes at all really. 

I tried The Limited, but nothing seemed to fit right and I thought I needed a little better quality.  Unfortunately, stepping up in quality means losing options.  Nordstroms had only 8 suits in the whole store, which included two types: 1) professional, boring suits designed for older women and 2) suits designed for young women that are trendy and therefore seasonal.   If I'm going to pay that much, why would I buy something that will look out of style next year?  Chances are I'll need it again next year.

Finally settled on a grey pant-suit that worked well enough.  My mom saw it and said "aww, it has a cute little ruffle."  So it does.  She said I'm a walking oxymoron and I couldn't agree more.  I love pink, bows, ruffles and I work at one of the most high powered corporate jobs out of undergrad and have a shot at the top business schools in the nation.  The feminists don't know what to do with me!

My interview felt more like a psychoanalysis than an interview and I left with my head spinning. Driven, somewhat lazy, sensitive, logical, timid in formal settings, bold among peers, structured, adventurous, etc.  Loves foosball, ultimate frisbee and ballet.  Knows a lot about aerospace & dense, telecommunications, o, and beans.  Go figure.   I realized I really don't make sense as one coherent person.  But maybe that's why I like myself so much.  

My friends in Nicaragua frequently remark "you're so weird" whenever I say or do something new to them. I don't understand how this keeps surprising people.  I think I just have the gift of appearing normal that confuses my audience on a regular basis.   At least I'm not boring.