today was the best day of all... we had a chance to look back, evaluate our work, give and get feedback.. have a great dinner at Antoine's.. and spend the night alternately in a jazz bar and reggae bar... and most important of all, announce to our entrepreneurs, give them our deliverables and feel the sense of closure (albeit there were a few questions left at the end of it all)
the day started with our sleepy selves presenting our decisions to the advisory committee.. who then raised some tough questions about the entrepreneur and about 14 gsb students, a staff and a professor working very hard for three days to give a 1000 sq ft space and 25 k grant to a lady who wanted to start a beauty parlor named "reflections of beauty" different people interpreted it differently and had different responses to it.. as for me, i am still not sure of how idea village gains from this or what. but as students, we gained a lot of insight into how the mind of an entrepreneur works and what it is be so poor that to save 10k for a worthy business is a monumental task.. but still the question remains of whether we could have all done something more..
next was my favorite moment.. when we told our entrepreneur that she won the space and some money.. she started crying and all our group members (except leo, who saved it for later ;) ) shed a few tears too.. it was actually a vague feeling.. i felt like we were giving someone else's money to someone else just because she was the best of the four options we had a choice of evaluating... i was not very sure of the value we created by being there.. i do question myself if Idea Village could not have done all this themselves.. but then, as i said, there are some questions that remain unanswered...
we spent the next hour going through the facts and figures with our entrepreneur though i wonder how she was able to think at all given that she would keep melting into tears every few minutes and speak about how when she grew up, she did not that there was a city beyond the bridge that separate new orleans from the lower ninth ward.. and that she wanted to help the people of ninth ward... so much... it was all very touching and we tried our best to convey our confidence in her and reassure her that she will be great...
we then had a couple of great speakers, Dr. Francis, who had won the Presidential medal of honor, the highest civil award given to an American who spoke to us about what was lacking in the post katrina efforts (decision making) and what is required to be done now. and then we had one of the gsb alum, mike, who spoke to us about what you need to make a career out of new orleans (be a new orleanian!)..
and then came our feedback and thank you and award certificates.. all of which was fun... and gave us a "warm fuzzy feeling" (I may seem a bit cynical here, but i did feel that way at that time), though nothing critical was revealed in the feedback we gave or received.. probably we reserved it for the written format...
AND THEN... we had an awesome french dinner at Antoine's, a 168 year old restaurant capable of seating 1100 people.. it is one of those miss not experiences... just to hear the chef recite his menu in his grand old fashioned flourish explaining to us the meaning of dishes in an accent that we did not quite get (or maybe it was just me!).. it was awesome food (I mean the bread and the salads) and some excellent wine chosen by one of our friends (yes, we had a wine expert in our group) and most important of all, some emotional moments, given it was our last dinner together. With that the trip officially got over. Hope you guys enjoyed reading the blog!!
no, was just kidding, how can I miss writing about our experiences later in the french quarter? we strolled in the frenh quarter till 3.30 that night only to go back to the hotel and leave by 4 am to catch our 6.30 am flight.. we had some hurricanes to help us unwind and spent a few hours at Cats meow, gaping at teenagers who were making fools of themselves (or just enjoying themselves) in the middle of the road.. it was a crazy experience... we also got a bit of exposure of the american culture (as our trip leader puts it) inside the bar... post that we split into two groups, some desiding to pursue more pleasurable alternatives while the rest of us headed to a jazz bar and later to a reggae bar, where we had a great time (it is always great when we know that it's going to end soon) dancing, taking our last snaps and bidding a warm spirited new orleans a reluctant good bye....
hope after reading this, you will all want to visit sun-kissed new orleans soon!
it is definitely worth it..
maalika
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