The week started with the arrival of Gib Cooper, bambusero extraordinaire, who spun through Nicaragua as part of a broader Central American bamboo tour. Gib is the kind of guy who knows his stuff (in this case bamboo), i.e. THE American expert who has accompanied CO2 BAMBU alongs its journey to date. He is just a pleasure to work with, a pro in his field and autonomous. So off he goes into the Northern cloud forest region of Matagalpa, where bamboo grows and CO2 BAMBU has launched a reforestation effort.
Besides doing his “rounds” to see how the project is progressing and doing a necessary “audit” of the situation on the ground, he is also given a travel companion, Nicole, the journalist from the Nica Times, the English language newspaper for Nicaragua. Peta, ever watchful for a marketing opportunity for the company, had struck a conversation at a party we attended with this young journalist. She had pitched what she believes to be the “social impact” narrative of our story. It’s about poverty eradication through low cost housing solutions; it’s about job creation, both in the factory and in the fields. It’s also about creating a whole new industry with export potential based on a native resource of Nicaragua. Fast forward 3 weeks and Nicole is interviewing all of us for her story on Co2 BAMBU and the development of an industry. The article runs next week.
Meanwhile, talking about press, “Aviation Week”, a leading aerospace industry magazine that I hoped to convince to run a story on CO2 BAMBU (i.e. aerospace guy gone green) , interviewed me a few weeks ago, and this week the article came out. Haven’t read it yet, but will post it at a later date…
Back to bamboo – while Gib was driving 4×4 through raging rivers with reporter in tow, my partner Jonathan and I were meeting with the Ministry of Transport and Industry, in order to lauch the certification process for CO2 BAMBU’s future houses. Key message: go figure out what they need in RAAN, the vast autonomous region that lies yonder, far, far away on the Atlantic Coast.
So what and where is RAAN? RAAN is a region that only the most intrepid adventurers will tackle. It’s also called the Triangulo de las minas, the mining triangle, because that’s where Nicaragua’s gold mines are. There are many reasons why this region is unique. Most importantly, it has ALWAYS been so remote that it has escaped the reach of the capital. The population is a mix of Spaniard descendants (who speak Spanish), African slave descendants (who speak English) and Meskito indians. These extremely impoverished people are poor by Nicaraguan standards. There is no industry (other than mining) and there are repeated natural disasters in this area. The last, Hurricane Mitch, tore through their land and deforested 250, 000 hectares of land, and wrecked havoc in its path.
The guide book says “at the moment, it is strictly the territory of adventure travel due to safety concern and the lack of infrastructure”.
Why am I going into so much detail? Because tomorrow at 6 am I am off on a tiny plane to RAAN. I am doing a quick round trip (I hope), to meet with the Mayor of Rosita. I hope to hear what his priorities re low cost housing might be. And why am I oh so eager to go to the area of RAAN? Because Wednesday morning, when I get back from RAAN, we meet with the German government to discuss their funding of a housing project in RAAN. The deal is this: European governments want to have social impact in Nicaragua, but they increasingly prefer to give the money to businesses, not the government. So I aim to convince them that we are just what they are looking for – an environmental impact and social / economic development solution wrapped around a bamboo business.
That’s Wednesday, and Thursday it’s off to Ecuador to meet the current global role models in terms of bamboo low cost housing. (And take a week off for a break with my girlfriend, to see something of the country.)
Whew.