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Searching for "She-roes" in Nicaragua

Our trip to Nicaragua, through Darcy's eyes:

Yesterday was life-changing. I could write a book about this one part of my visit to Nicaragua, so describing it in a few paragraphs is going to be a challenge. I'll start at the beginning. The main reason for our visit to Nicaragua: to interview a woman for the book my mom and I are writing together. The book, "How Strong Women Lead," which will come out in 2011, will feature women of all backgrounds - famous, unheard of, and everything in-between- who are leaders of their community or even the known world! We have already interviewed the President of Liberia and are setting up interviews with the Chairman of Deloitte and the CEO of Eileen Fisher Clothing (namely, Eileen Fisher).

The woman we wanted to interview in Nicaragua is Noemi Vivas Ocana who promised to be a shining example of how women lead everywhere, at all levels.  She had received a micro-finance loan through Opportunity International when her life was on the edge and now she worked full time empowering other women to improve their lives.  Opportunity International had graciously agreed to introduce us and help us meet and interview her co-workers and family to get the full story.

We took a taxi from Granada (where we were staying) to Managua where we met up with the rest of gang before heading down to Masachapa. The cast of characters:

Veronique - our professional photographer, with beautiful, curly black hair as thick as her French accent.

Raquel - our Spanish translator. We would have been completely lost not only without her translations, but her warmth and wisdom, as well. Ruth - an Opportunity International employee from Chicago who took far more notes as we went along than even I did.

Although most of us were complete strangers to one another at the start, by the end of the day we were closer than some become in a lifetime.

December 2009 | Blog Comments
Categories: Women

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