It would have been so much easier with email...

My latest project here in Nicaragua relates to two of the schools that serve the dump communities. We are trying to improve their lunch program, since they are associated with Fabretto, but it will be more of an uphill battle there than in many of the other schools. There are several reasons for this. First, the schools are HUGE. They serve lunch to a combined total of 1,400 kids, with one serving 800 alone. The comedors (lunch rooms) for these schools are about the same size as the comedors in San Isidro, but for 2-3 times as many kids. The storage and cooking space in them is also equally tiny.

The second big problem there is help. The model for all of the school kitchens is typically to pay one cook and then enlist mothers of the students to help out each week. This system works well enough in most of the smaller communities, but for whatever reason - perhaps lack of accountability - it has not worked so well in the dump. Therefore, there is often a major shortage of people in the kitchen trying to turn out 600-800 plates of food a day.

Finally, the cooks have not been trained in the schools, so they don't always know how to work with some of the ingredients we use (namely some dehydrated beans and soup that we get donated and soy). Therefore, I would like to take one of the cooks from San Isidro to the schools at the dump to help teach them. However, the process to coordinate this, which I attempted this morning, was the inspiration for the title "It would have been so much easier with email."

Because the cooks, who I actually need to communicate with fairly regularly, do not have email or phones, most communication with them needs to be done in person. All I needed to do today was ask two people if they'd be available for training Saturday. To do that, I first took a bus to the furthest school. By bus, I mean the loaded high school bus that packs about 125 kids when capacity is probably 75. Then I ran into the first kitchen and asked the cook if she'd be available. From there, I took one of the moto taxis to the school closest to my house and ran in to talk to that cook. Finally, I waited for the bus driver to come by, this time on a motorcycle, and then got picked up by him and went in to the office. As an aside, this was my first motorcycle ride in Nicaragua, and it was fun, if a little nervewracking.

After all of that chasing this morning, it turns out we are changing the date of the training, so somehow I need to get in touch with the cooks all over again. I have no cell phone charge, and I'm at the office now. Should be interesting!