Podcast Episode #10 – Happy Faces Worth A Million Smiles [ 29:54 | 27.38 MB ] Play NowPlay in Popup | Download (350)

The road less traveled often reveals the perfect opportunity… and the search is over.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ~Mark Twain

In Episode # 10 Lainie and Miro share a bit of their experiences as they start traveling once again.

For the last 4 weeks, the duo find themselves in a state of change, returning back to some of the places they’ve been before, but they are clearly  changed, themselves.  Their travels have taken them south, from Guatemala, through El Salvador and Honduras, landing back  to a welcoming Nicaragua.   Although the two have not released a podcast  over the last four weeks because of computer problems,  they have been busy as they continue to prepare for upcoming shows. Within this episode, you will learn what they’ve been  working on as they preview  a few of the interviews they’ve got “in the can”.

Next, Lainie  and Miro speak with  social entrepreneur Peder Kolind, founder of Carita Feliz,  an organization providing services to under-privileged children in Granada, Nicaragua.

“Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by.” ~ Robert Frost

Peder Kolind is a retired Danish business man,  who along with his brother, Lars Kolind founded and ran over 20 successful companies around the world.  One of Peder’s notable accomplishments  was founding and running  the well known company Brinks Home Security . Since retiring,  Kolind has spent the last 10 years living in Granada, Nicaragua which he fondly refers to as “paradise”.

Peder started several projects or organizations since his arrival including Carita Feliz which means “happy faces”. Carita Feliz is a community center that has  grown in the 10 years, since it’s inception to include a broad scope of  educational services,  preschools, warm meals, work training, health services, scholarships and many other programs, to over 1500 children, for free. In this interview , Peder talks about providing opportunities for Granada’s underprivileged children through health and education  including teaching  “real -life skills” like business and marketing  techniques.

Peder shares with Lainie and Miro a few of his other “inspired” projects as he drives the pair around Granada to  experience  the inspiration a to be “useful”.  After Carita Feliz, they  visit the impressive  Mi Museo Collection Granada, which Peder founded.

Mi Museo, is a private collection of Nicaraguan Pre-Colombian ceramics that is open to the public at no charge. The collection contains more than 5000 pieces which originate from the period between 2000 BC to 1550 AD.  The museum welcomes  all visitors who are interested in the appreciation of cultural material from the indigenous societies of Nicaragua. The Granada Collection was established with the intention of preserving the cultural heritage that lies at the source of what it means to be Nicaraguan. The museum was opened in December 2005.

Another of Peders’ projects is called Villa Sonia, a different and relatively new approach,  a fenced community,  constructed for the working class in Nicaragua, in 2007. The idea was to create an undisturbed society with its own police station where the citizens can break free of the negative social heritage.  We toured the property  and saw some of the 101  homes within the community which house more than 350 people .

The residents  all pay rent, but those who have fewer resources than others have the opportunity to get jobs inside the gated community to pay their rent. The jobs available include shop managers, gardeners and security guards, etc.

Peder explained the project to Lainie and Miro as a “social experiment”, providing  the opportunity to for those with lower economic status to live beside those with higher statuses and better jobs, usually creating the desire and inspiration to better one’s  life.

Last, Peder took us to the Sport College, a beautiful lake side building that offers classes in martial arts, and many other team- sports, like soccer and baseball.

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Special Thanks

To those of you who have supported us so far on this journey, the donations we’ve received and the wonderful words of encouragement. Thank you all for your comments and feedback, and please keep them coming. Thank you Hanna for giving us a wonderful professional boost with the intro & outro, engineered by Hanna Jakobson, music “Multilayered Timbres” by Dr. Pimp courtesy of CC (creative commons) license.