Sunday, March 25, 2007

Exciting Developments...


I apologize for the delay with this post. I have been occupied with many other things and have not had a chance to write an update. All is well in Cochabamba at the moment. The last two weeks, I have been working on several projects that i mentioned in the last entry. The micro enterprise continues to develop and go very well. We surpassed the 2000 Boliviano mark in sales this week. I was very excited about that. That is a lot of bread that we have sold. Thus far, our principle prodects have been empanadas, cakes, cookies, and bread. We added a new type of bread this week called “pan integral” or “ch’millo” in Quechuan. It’s a darker type of wheat bread that is healthier, and I prefer it more as well. This week we are planning to experiment with some new products such as brownies and bagels. Our production and delivery processes have been streamlined in the last two weeks and my direct involvement with the selling of the bread at the language institute has decreased. This is a very positive step, because ultimately, the goal is to have the bakery function completely independently without me or Chris. I am very encouragement by the progress of the micro enterprise and the leadership at the Villa has been very open and enthusiastic about the idea.

Yesterday, I went with the the Peace Corps volunteer (Corey) who is working with us on the project around the city and did some market research. We went to seven bakeries and some open air markets to try and gauge some potential markets. We learned a lot and will be trying to branch out our clientele in the next few weeks. The next important step is to acquire another oven and to further involve the kids in the production and administrative processes.

Also, today we had the second consecutive mass at the Villa, said by one of the fathers studying here at the Language Institute with me. The kids have really enjoyed having the opportunity to participate in a worship service in the Villa. We have priests signed up for the next few weeks as well and I hope that this can become a permanent fixture at the Villa. It is a great service to the kids as well as to the priests who get an opportunity to practice their Spanish.

My language learning continues to go well. I have become very comfortable in conversations that last few weeks. This development has been very encouraging. I have also began some new classes. After finishing my textbook, I had the opportunity to select my own classes. I enjoyed my classes more this last week than any previous week. I am taking a grammar class, a class on the Bible, a class on legal terms and the Bolivian court system, and a class on current events and history in Bolivia. It is very nice to just have conversation classes. I will likely continue with the schedule for the remaining three weeks.

The pictures at the top are of two celebrations we have had recently. One is of the Father's day celebration we had this past Monday. The children of the Montessori program (3-6 year olds) at the Villa treated us to a very nice breakfast, complete with cards and song. The other is of a Saint Patrick's Day celebration that the Irish priests hosted for all of the students and teachers. I am pictured with two of my classmates (Martin from Korea and Michael from Ireland in a truly international Karaoke experience).

As I enter into the last month of my time here, I can’t believe everything has gone so quickly. This experience in South America has certainly been everything I could have hoped for and much more. I eagerly await what the next month has in store. I am confident that this will be my most productive time of all here as my improvements in language are allowing me to do more everyday. I appreciate all of your prayers and thoughts. I look forward to sharing and catching up with everyone in the next month.

Thanks for reading,

Gray

Monday, March 12, 2007

More Happenings...




Wow what a busy week. This week was the first full week of our bakery’s operation. It has been a lot of work smoothing out the production and working on ways to improve efficiency. We have the most crucial element of a micro enterprise though, which is a market. The demand has continued to be sky high and our humble bakery is struggling to keep up. Here is a rundown of what we sold this week:

Monday: 120 bread
Tuesday: 150 bread
Wednesday: 100 Bread, 6 cakes, 40 empanadas (a cheese filled pastry)
Thursday: 100 Bread, 6 cakes, 100 cookies
Friday: 200 Bread, 6 cakes, 40 empanadas

So you can see that the demand has steadily increased, we are clearly limited by the amount we are able to produce. Also, I sold all of this in less than 15 minutes everyday, with several unhappy people who did not get to me quickly enough.

Making the bread is a lot of work and the mamas are waking up at 3:30 in the morning to have the bread ready by 7:30. Their work is truly amazing. To make good bread, it requires a lot of work by hand so that the bread will rise properly. They are very skilled at this work and the bread comes out perfectly every time. We are looking to purchase another oven in order to increase out ability to produce more baked goods. The demand is highest for the bread, but this is the most time consuming and least profit generating item we make. We are trying to balance our bread production with our other more profitable products. It will probably be another week until I have devised an efficient plan of ordering, production, and transport of the bread. I am currently taking the bread and baked good to the Institute on my bike (6km each way) early in the morning (sometimes making two trips). This is obviously not a sustainable practice and I am working to devise an alternative means of transportation. The other thing I am working on is an ordering procedure for the students and professors of the Institute. This would streamline our production and prevent me from having to personally sell the bread at the Institute everyday. Ideally, the production and selling process would involve as few people as possible would become a fixture at the Institute. I hope to have the micro enterprise sustainable without any of my help in two to three weeks. The sky seems to be the limit with this bread business and I am very optimistic that it will prove to be a profitable experience for the children of the Villa.

Another project I have been working on is getting the kids an opportunity to go to mass every Sunday. The first few weeks I was here, I accompanied a group of about twenty kids to mass at the local parish. This involves a 30+ minutes walk to the church which is huge and always full. It is very hard for 20 7-13 year olds to sit through a mass when they are standing up in the back of a very large sanctuary. This experience became quite frustrating after a few times, and I have been trying to come up with a better way for the kids to have a chance to celebrate mass each week. The solution came when I was reflecting on the large number of priests we have studying at the Institute. There are about 20-30 from all over the world year round at the Institute. These priests have no one in the city to celebrate mass for every Sunday, and at the Villa we do not have a priest to celebrate mass for the kids. This is the perfect match for the priests to practice saying the mass in Spanish (which they all will have to do in their respective missions after their language study anyway) and for all of the kids to have a much more convenient opportunity to participate. A 30+ minute walk to a crowded church at 8:00 Sunday morning does not seem like the best way to encourage the kids to attend the service. I am excited about the new plan and have posted a sign up sheet in the Institute. I have commitments for the next two Sundays and expect there to be a high demand for the opportunity as well.

The third project I have been working on is the compost pile. I have planned the construction of the pile with the Gardener, German. We will be digging and constructing this week. Also I have been writing instructions for the collection of compost in each of the eight houses. This project will help to reduce garbage in the Villa and provide a source of fertilizer for our garden here. I am also hoping that it will help educate the kids about the environment. Cochabamba has an incredible problem with waste disposal and the entire neighborhood is littered with garbage. By directly involving the kids in this project, I hope to help instill in them a sense of environmental responsibility. We will see how it goes.

That’s about is for now. Classes continue to be challenging, but I am really enjoying them. There is hardly ever a free moment, except sometimes on the weekends.
If you are interested in reading more about some of my time here, check out my posting on NashvilleCyclist.com.

Thanks for reading,
Gray
grayskinner@hotmail.com

Friday, March 2, 2007

Bread for Sale...

I am glad to report today was the official start of our first micro-enterprise at the Villa. Today I sold over 200 pieces of bread at the Language Institute to students and professors. While the idea of making bread to sell as part of a micro-enterprise has been floating around the Villa since I arrived here several weeks ago, this week some important developments led to the first substantial sale. Previously Chris and I had been the only customers of the best-kept secret in Cochabamba. However on Monday, when I brought bread for my friend Kim at the Institute, my teacher Tatiana became very intrigued and spread the word to the other professors. News spread pretty quick and yesterday I began negotiating a contract with the Institute to provide the bread for our three daily coffee breaks. Our first official order of eighty pieces will be for Monday. Yesterday I sold fifty pieces just to my teachers and today the demand more than quadrupled to over 200. Chris had to provide me with reinforcements this morning, as I had not anticipated such demand. So the bakery is well on its way to becoming a profitable venture for the kids of the Villa. We are looking to add a few new varieties to our repertoire as well as cookies and cakes. As of right now the mamas are making the bread and we are in the process of training the kids to make the bread themselves. I am very encouraged that we have found a market for the bread which is always the hardest part. Hopefully this can develop into a viable source of income for the Villa and give the kids some training in micro-enterprises. Having read Yunus’s book “Banker to the Poor” before I came here, I am became very interested in applying this model in the Villa. This can be an empowering experience for the kids and give them a chance to provide for themselves to an extent. I am excited about the possibilities and will write more about the project in the coming weeks.

I finished the first half of my language classes today. I have six more weeks of classes and am enjoying them more everyday. I am really starting to feel comfortable with the language and recently during conversations, have forgotten that I was speaking a foreign language. This experience was encouraging for me, and with the help of the excellent teachers here, I feel that I am making good progress with the language. I will also be changing my schedule next week to allow for time in the mornings to work with the gardener at the Villa to start a compost program for our garden. I will write more about this soon. My classes will be in the afternoons for the next two weeks and I will work with the kids in the mornings.

I continue to stay very busy with work at Amistad and with classes.

Thanks for reading.
Gray
grayskinner@hotmail.com