Extreme volcano boarding

The last two days have been busy, as per usual. I had to take a three hour nap last afternoon to recuperate enough to go out for dinner at an awesome place called Bar Barrero, an Encuentros-type place that serves excellent food and whose drink menu takes up half of their overall menu. To give you an idea, I ordered Schnitzel, which I had for the last time in Germany over winter break. While the schnitzel wasn’t as thin as I’d like it was absolutely delicious. I sense a repeat tonight. 

Before dinner however, we had another one our of weekly campaigns in Máximo Jerez, a small town about 45 minutes away from our hostel. The two asesoras are extremely young; I think that both of them are either university age or lower. Suge definitely is still in high school for example. I think it’s admirable that she’s getting involved in entrepreneurial work at such a young age and also pretty cool that Soluciones Comunitarias also reaches out to entrepreneurs of all backgrounds and ages. The campaign itself was only average; the other campaign that was being held at the same time went extraordinarily well. The two asesoras there had had the lowest reputations beforehand, only bringing in about 120 cord each campaign, which is under par. However, they made more than 500 cord each at this campaign last Saturday, which served as a huge inspiration to work harder in the future. I love seeing how excited the asesoras get when they empower themselves. Next to watching people learn, it’s a pretty good feeling. 

What a typical campaign looks like.

Our campaign however, only produced enough sales to give each asesora about 150 cord each, which is around average. I think that the two, Faviola and Suge, were  a bit disappointed because they had had an extremely successful campaign a few weeks before in which they brought in 700 cord each. However, the real problem was not that we had faulted on any of the steps of the MicroConsignment model; rather many of the people in the town were interested in the products, but didn’t have the money up front to pay for glasses or lamps for example. Therefore, Suge and Faviola currently have a list of names and contact information of people who want to buy products on July 1, when the asesoras return. 

I had a great time explaining the products to customers. Although we didn’t sell a huge amount of goods, we spoke to  lot of people and filled out surveys (ever important!) about new and existing products. Conversations are extremely important to get feedback and to test out new products. With the internet and standardized forms of collecting knowledge in the US, we’re spoiled by how easy it is to access data and demographic information. Here in Nicaragua, where the government doesn’t have an obligation or don’t follow up responsibilities to check out water quality for example, we have no way of assessing need besides talking to as many local people as possible. The same goes for things as simple as finding out bus routes and discovering new villages in which to conduct campaigns. 

I was in charge of the solar lamp station and had a great time impressing people with the solar lamp, which is highly coveted in Máximo Jerez due to the faulty electricity and expensive rates. They also, as it turned out, had problems with water contamination (which some believed was the primary cause of IRC) and stoves. This was also the first campaign in which we sold the seeds, which were highly successful. Because it seemed that seeds here are only sold in huge canisters, in huge amounts, and at extremely high prices, the prospect of being able to buy small amounts at affordable rates was appealing to people.

By the end of the campaign, traffic died down, and I learned to play Hearts. 

After coming back, we got lunch, where I had delicious pancakes (really crepes) with honey and bananas, and then after a three hour nap, it was back out for dinner, Surprisingly, I was starving after only a few hours of sleep. 

Today was our one free day. We woke up to get banana pancakes at Pure Earth Café, the cafe attached to Big Foot Hostel which was hosting our tour to go VOLCANO boarding. Volcano boarding is pretty extreme; we climb 45 minutes up to the top of Cerro Negro, the world’s most active cone volcano EVER. Because it’s formed completely from its own eruptions, Cerro Negro is completely black. It’s essentially a giant sand dune made from black sediment from 160+ years of eruptions. Cerro Negro is overdue for another explosion (the last one was in 1999) so the tour guide, Anthony, kept joking about escaping on our boards. 

Not only was breakfast absolutely delicious (recommendation: try blending together bananas and milk. Que rico!), but volcano boarding was awesome. It was an hour ride in one of those open back trucks across bucolic countryside. All of a sudden, this huge black shape just emerged out of the sky. It was Cerro Negro. If one squinted enough, one could just make out a small file of dots moving slowly across an upper ride, where hikers were completing a climb we were just about to take. Due to prevailing East-west winds, the front side of Cerro Negro is covered by a smooth surface of fine gravel (which we later sledded down) and the back (which we hiked up) covered by larger rocks and boulders. All angles afforded amazing views. I got extremely dehydrated about halfway up (it’s hard work when gravel keeps shifting under every step) and apparently was staggering around on the last half up until someone was nice enough to take my board. Oh, and we had to hike up with a bag containing our orange canvas suits (we looked like a prison road crew) and also our wooden boards which weighed way too much. After 45 minutes of hiking, including a few breaks and visits to the crater, we reached the launch site. The craters here are still active, meaning that as you stood at the edge, you could feel alternately cool breeze due to altitude and blasts of hot air from the crater. We slid our way into one crater (that was the only way you could get closer - to slide on waves of gravel into the center) and due to the heat of the crater, my feet were burning by the end because heat gets trapped in the sand. 

Halfway up the mountain! 

I was among the first of the girls to go (for some reason, the tour guide made the girls go first). Sitting on the flimsy wooden board at the top of the hill (which is so steep you can’t see the bottom) was terrifying, akin to the moment on the top of a roller coaster when you doubt your decision to even get on and wonder how you’re going to survive the next few minutes. The record for going down is 90 km/hour - that’s if you use no breaks whatsoever and remain extraordinarily lucky and don’t fall of the board. I ended up falling over twice and flipping over multiple times, sustaining a few cuts and gouges on my legs. Breaking and turning involves tapping the ground with your heels, which is extremely hard to manage when you’re going 30-40 km/hour. One of the girls flipped over 10 to fifteen times and lost her board. All of us got a mouthful of rocks, despite our best to keep our mouths shut. Even though we had jumpsuits, I shook out a good fistful of rocks from my bra and pants. My face, neck and chest were completely covered with black soot from the ride and my hair felt like wire due to how full it was from little rocks. We looked like miners on the way back. Overall, however, a great experience. 

In our prison worker jumpsuits

My face after boarding....