Although this blog has largely focused on my early gastronomic and recreational experiences, I’ve also been hard at work these past few weeks in my capacity as an adviser to aspiring entrepreneurs in the region. One aspect of my work I’ve particularly enjoyed is that my days aren’t all that typical.
I might spend a morning wandering through one of the local markets, studying the prices and packaging used by potential competitors to one of my clients. An afternoon could be spent at the factory of a major coconut exporter, chatting with the owner while drinking straight out of a coconut that a machete-wielding laborer just opened for me. On another day, I may be at a construction site to guide a client through the creation of a project plan, or touring the laboratory of a herbal medicines manufacturer to study their processes.
Randy Farmer Women
Then there was this past Friday, when I traveled a few hours south to meet with a group of a couple dozen cacao farmers. The cool thing about them is that they are all women, and they have banded together collectively to sell chocolates and other cacao-related products. On the day I visited them it happened to be the birthday of one of the women, and so I was invited to join in their celebration.
One of my more unforgettable experiences is seeing the birthday lady (who, like many of the others, is even older than my mom) unwrap her presents from the group. The first was a musical stuffed animal — cute, innocuous. The other? A ridiculously tiny and bright blue thong, and a condom. As soon as she opened it, this group of elderly women surrounded her, one of them taking the thong and stretching it over the birthday lady’s head. Then, as the birthday lady mimed certain unprintable actions with the condom, the women all made several lewd and ribald jokes for which my own Spanish was too meager to completely understand.
Jay Nargundkar
Mi Vida S.A. 