Counterpart Day

Monday, May 6, we had counterpart day. All the business aspirantes went to Managua to meet our school counterparts. Everyone had a least a couple of the principals, vice principals, teachers or técnicos. We had a full day, about 8 or 9 hours, of presentations, activities, planning sessions and more. In my opinion, it was worthwhile. I was able to meet 3 of my principals, 1 vice principal, and 1 técnica. One of my schools has never had the help of a volunteer before and the other ones have. They were all very nice and seemed interested in the material for the most part. Counterpart Day is time to meet with the leadership of the school and emphasize the importance of the class and the relevance of the material. 

The day started with a presentation by the PC Nicaragua Director on the history and goals of Peace Corps. Then PC staff explained the goals of Small Business. They showed an informative and inspirational video about the national competition, which the students in Emprededurismo work towards all year developing a product or service with the goal of making it to the national competition. We also did cultural awareness exercises to highlight the differences in work and communication styles between Americans and Nicaraguans. At the end of the day, we worked on making a schedule of events for our time at site, which included when we would be visiting all the schools and what are some activities we can either observe or participate in during our first two months at site.

I felt bad for my counterparts. They had gotten on the bus at 3 or 4am to make it to Managua by 9am. A few of them had to stand for half the ride. They then participated in all the activities and spent the night at the center with us. We stayed in rooms of 4 or 6 in small bunk beds. They had thin cot mattresses, which were well-worn and as a result were extremely uncomfortable. And the place is in Managua so it was really hot. There were overhead fans in each room but they didn’t reach everyone in the room. The bathroom situation was more like campsite showers. Between the 20+ of us there were 2 showers and 2 toilets. We all felt pretty bad for the counterparts. In the states, I don’t think you could expect principals to travel 5+ hours on the bus during the night, to participate in a conference, to sleep in rustic conditions, to wake up at 5 or 6am to head back to their sites. They were all good sports about it!