Julios wedding

There is a moment in every company’s life when it transitions from being a bunch of people with a shared goal and who collect a pay check from the same place, to being a “family”. This feeling is reinforced both by crisis and by the celebration of happy events that transcend from being happy events for an individual employee in the company and become a shared experience for members of the team. Such was the occasion of Julio’s wedding to Lourdes.

Ben with the Managua office of architects and engineers for CO2 Bambu.
Pablo, Gustavo, Jefferson, Julio, Ben, Victor, Martin

Julio is the now 27 year old civil engineer from a small rural town in the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua who entered the company with a relatively modest job two years ago as CO2 Bambu’s first technical staff. His natural talent and ambition was matched by Ben’s management style of giving large challenges to test the limits of individual’s potential contribution to CO2 Bambu. Whatever Ben assigned to Julio he exectued with gusto and in the process started to build a technical team around himself. First he needed to build our offices in record time for a customer visit, then he was parachuted in Rosita with little more than “go build us a bamboo factory” instructions from Ben.

Over time he matured at warp speed into Nicaragua’s leading bamboo builder and demonstrated the capability to manage as many as 75 direct employees. All the while, his stature, responsiblities, and his salary grew, allowing him to now be in a position to get married. These are all contributing elements of social impact in a very tangible personal way. Ben was honored to be Julio’s “Padrino” for the wedding.

The wedding is a two part affair. Part one is hosted by Lourdes’ family in Managua. Sergio, Lourdes’ father, (on left) is a well respected civil engineer who teaches as the University of Engineering. It is thanks to him that Ben met Julio. Sergio remains a close friend of CO2 Bambu and our key interface with the various technical agencies and ministries for engineering matters.

Lourdes with her parents coming down the aisle in church in Managua

We have both had a strong personal connection and friendship with Julio, from the start. We are proud of the impact we have had on his life and look forward to many more years of adventure together.

Lourdes and Julio with Julio’s grandmother who has about 60 grandchildren – she has lost count though!

And the wedding continues a few days later, from the formal reception in Managua, to Julio’s hometown of MUELLE DE LOS BUEYES (“Landing of the Oxen”)

Painted mural depicting the name sake “Muelle de los Bueyes”,

this town of 30,000 which sits on a river that used to be

the main mode of transportation.

Oxen would carry heavy loads of goods transported by canoe,

from the river to the town.

This is where oxen would come up from the river into the town, Julio’s house on left

Julio outside his house, which has become MdlB “headquarters” for all CO2 Bambu staff who come through town.

Food preparation has been ongoing for 2 days prior to wedding celebration

200+ guests to feed! Julio’s family did an excellent job cooking / preparing all the food

The calm before the fiesta!

walking to the river

Julio shows us his child-hood natural playground… the river

Time for a quick dip to cool off after the 5 hour drive from Granada

Now THAT’s the way to have a staff meeting!
On left, Jefferson, who will head our next construction project
as field Civil Engineer in charge, Julio and Ben..
Strategizing our bamboo harvesting strategy…