There exist moments during service that stand out from the rest. They are a culmination of the work invested both personally and professionally. I’m happy to report that year two has been full of these moments. One of the most significant happened just this last weekend.
For weeks, I didn’t know how I was going to get eleven women to the other side of the country. The importance and seemingly impossibility of the task literally kept me up at night. We were to visit a recipient of a Bricks to Bread* to learn how to mass produce baked products using brick ovens. This trip was to be one step in a much larger project aimed at helping my women’s group expand their baking business. After weeks of meetings, talks with Nancy - the founder of Bricks to Bread, and several mattress donations from other Peace Corps volunteers, we packed our overnight bags and crammed ourselves into a van at 6:00 in the morning.
When we arrived, the former oven recipients, Laura and Cristina, welcomed us with open arms. The first day the women learned from Laura and Cristina about oven maintenance, swapped recipes and business practices and of course, baked bread. Laura told us of their business, selling bread every other week going door to door in the community. This is exactly what my women’s group does, just on a much smaller scale. My women’s group immediately started talking about the opportunities that mass producing would present.
At night, we sat around the oven and played games that left everyone in tears of laughter. Connections were made and friendships formed. Part of the goal of Bricks to Bread is to connect the recipients to help empower and inspire each-other. That goal was completed in that nighttime circle and into the next morning when the learning continued in the form of brick oven baked pizza.
The learning was the main reason for the trip but what came out of it was so much bigger than that. The members of my group, with whom I have worked for a year and a half and who have often been unconfident in their business abilities, were giddy beyond belief. Nancy and I took a back seat all weekend and watched from a distance as the women networked, collaborated and inspired women similar to themselves.
In conclusion… The trip ignited some badass women empowerment that will help push this project across the finish line in the coming months.
* Bricks to Bread is an organization started by a former Peace Corps Volunteer that donates brick ovens to rural communities to empower entrepreneurs, especially women. My women’s group currently is being considered to receive one of these ovens.