Bright New Ideas » Posts De Nicaragua

Interview from Nicaragua

admin — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 07:21:00 +0000

This is an interview from Felix of Avecinia, Nicaragua – a gentleman who lives in a community without access to electricity. He and others in his community were recipients of Bright New Ideas solar lamps. Patrick of Bright New Ideas was able to talk with him and discuss the solar lamps using Skype – he had access in the city of Jinotega, Nicaragua about an hour from where he lives.

Scarcity and Execution

patrick — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:07:21 +0000

One piece of the pie of trying to get things done in Nicaragua is the fact that a lot of times, there just is never enough of what you need. Articles about doing business in Nicaragua which I have seen (1) (2) highlight legal aspects, infrastructure, political situation, real estate, but they don’t talk about purchasing.

Below is a picture of Mario chatting with a man at a store where we were buying switches and wire.

Stores keep inventories low because in Nicaragua people don’t buy as much as they do in the US – or any other country I have seen for that matter. Since we are here attempting to find some of the parts we need to build solar lamps, this has been really frustrating. It’s not like you can go to Fleet Farm and buy 20 roles of tape if you need them – you have to go to 10 different stores and buy 2 rolls of tape at each store. We ran into this problem with AAA battery holders this past Friday…it turns out there are only about three of them in the whole country and they need to be shipped in from Costa Rica which takes a week or two. I suppose it’s possible there are more and we will find out one way or another whether there are or whether we have to make them!

Where the Streets Have No Name

patrick — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:45:02 +0000

Arriving in Managua from Minnesota this time of year is like jumping from winter straight into summer – 80 degree heat, sunny, everyone is wearing sandals and t-shirts. I arrived in Nicaragua yesterday night after an exhausting week in frigid Minnesota of frantically compiling all of the materials and procedures necessary to make twenty of our solar lamps, about four hours of sleep in the last three days, and the death and funeral of my dear grandfather.

Despite tradgety and hardship, I am happy to be here with my good freind and long time cohort on the project, Mario Aleman. We have been working for two years to be able to work on the accomplishments we hope to achieve in the coming weeks. I am happy to feel sunlight on my face and to see dust clouds disapear with out a trace, to put it in the words of U2. If you have ever heard the song, “Where the Streets Have No Name,” which according to Time Magazine is often linked to Managua since the streets quite literally do not have names, you might remember the line, “I want to reach out and touch the flame…” I think I know what that came from – driving through the city late last night, there they were – the familiar sight of small garbage fires on the side of the street in every other neighborhood. The first time I saw those years ago they surprised and somewhat disturbed me – now they look so familiar that they comfort me in a way.

I wanted to take this opportunity to post a picture of Mario in his office here in Managua – as a young entrepreneur he runs his small imports service business from here. To me it symbolizes the begining of our journey because we have been able to use this small space today to budget and schedule for the next month. I am writing this post for the moment now as he had to go to a job interview for an engineering position. Later today we will be purchasing the remainder of our supplies. Be well and until next post…