The Motorcycle Diary

Trip Log (Letter written July 4, 2008)

reh@knology.net — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 06:00:00 GMT

July 4, 2008, Friday

5:30AM At Airport, in line. Already 15 people ahead of me and I can see why! Every stop, ticket counter, tax paying cashier, security #1 and #2, was long and slow. I don’t know if the congestion is due to the Teguci Airport closure or if this is SOP. At the gate in plenty of time but it was a very tedious morning.

Trip Log (Letter written July 3, 2008)

reh@knology.net — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:00:00 GMT

July 3, 2008, Thursday

Dr. Avila’s contact never called; I’ll put UN visit on front of next trip, not on back.

8:30AM Called bus station, ticket to San Pedro Sula is Lps. 480. Since time is short and I can’t afford to get there to an already full bus, I took a cab to the bus station to buy a ticket. Actually, a good thing; most of the seats were already taken.

1:30PM Bus left on time and arrived in San Pedro Sula on time.

5:30PM Ask taxi driver for a secure/clean hotel near airport. He calls one that is full then recommends one. Like an idiot I said OK. Took me to a third rate hotel in the city center. No way! He took me to another just as bad. Clearly, he gets a cut for everyone he takes to these particular motels. I showed him one in a brochure by the airport and we went there. This motel/apartment complex reminds me of an old, rundown Best Western or Ramada. At least the security is substantial. I am told there is no Marriott in San Pedro Sula. At least I know it’s not near the airport. While I was told there was a room, they wouldn’t give reservations over the phone. I stood in line for a room from 6:20 till 7:00PM. By the time I got to the desk it was dark outside and I was really concerned there would be no room. First time I was relieved to get a room in a second rate motel!
8:00PM The restaurant fit the motel; large room with cafeteria line on one side, linoleum floors and nondescript wooden tables and chairs. Roadside wall is all storefront windows. Food was tolerable.

8:45PM End of day.

Trip Log (Letter written July 2, 2008)

reh@knology.net — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:00:00 GMT

July 2, 2008, Wednesday

8:00AM Finished breakfast with Fernando and Jessica and headed back to Tegucigalpa for our meeting with our lawyer regarding Sigfredo’s letter.

11:30AM In Hotel Maya.

2:30PM Meeting with lawyer Ochoa. Good meeting; he is very thorough. He will get letter for Sigfredo to sign to Jessica tomorrow. Jessica will print the letter on L4L letterhead and set up meeting with Sigfredo.

3:30PM Jessica’s husband picked her up.
Still no word from the UN. Am out of time and must get to San Pedro Sula tomorrow for my flight home. I will set up meeting with Dr. Avila early in my next trip, rather than at the end. Am disappointed but remain confident that Dr. Avila will help us in its own time.
If Valle District was out of the way when the Teguci Airport was opened, it is much further out of the way now. For an early flight, one must add half a day and one night at a secure hotel; for a late flight one must use up a day traveling. Hopefully, Teguci Airport will be opened soon.

4:00PM End of day.

Trip Log (Letter written July 1, 2008)

reh@knology.net — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:00:00 GMT

July 1, 2008, Tuesday

7:30AM Jessica and I headed south to Nacaomi.

9:30AM At Fernando’s house finishing up info to go with GPS map locations.

11:00AM Meeting with Roxana. Discussed her projects:
• Evaluate average grades prior to L4L and see if trends are developing.
• Work with Principals to write a monthly letter.
We talked till 12:30, Roxana understands what I want and seems enthusiastic; we’ll see.

2:00PM Drove out to look at school kitchen progress at Rincon.

3:00PM Need phone minutes so drove to Sal Lucas. Had dinner at my favorite fish restaurant. I took this opportunity to explain to Fernando and Jessica that we are very pleased with the way they are managing things and they should continue with every confidence that we are satisfied with their management. I asked if they had any questions/comments. Positive discussion for next 1.5 hours. During the discussion Fernando stated that he was very happy working with L4L, it is what he wants to do; however he doesn’t know anything about the financial strength of L4L as it relates to the long term security of the program. I assured him that we are in it for the long term; I expect we will stay the same size for a while then slowly grow; there is no reason for him (Fernando) to be looking for replacement employment.

6:30PM At motel, end of day.

Trip Log (Letter written June 30, 2008)

reh@knology.net — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 06:00:00 GMT

June 30, 2008, Monday

10:00AM Jessica arrived in anticipation of our meeting with Sigfredo. We reviewed several historical facts, dates and details. Called Fernando for confirmation of a few items. The whole story:
At the very start Roxana did not understand the management function of an accountant. She was insulted by Sigfredo’s prying. On his part, by virtue of his position as a “Licencia” from Teguci, Sigfredo’s approach was pretty heavy handed. We hired Fernando who is also an accountant who studied in Teguci. Things improved but Sigfredo continued to beat the drums of probable corruption that he is trying to save us from. The original agreement with Sigfredo was that he provide two weeks of accounting services per month for $350 per month. This accounting service would include enough time in Valle District to assure that materials moved as per our management system and that all accounting is accurate and complete. With Fernando’s arrival, Sigfredo (and his very capable assistant, Cristobal) spent less and less time in Valle District and actually quit conducting on-site inspections. All of Sigfredo’s correspondence continued to carry that edge of suspicion even though Fernando could document all transactions and Sigfredo never did on-site inspections.

I came to understand that Sigfredo works with several US companies with Honduras interests. Most of these companies have a very marginal US presence in Honduras. By causing doubts within the US organization about the competence or integrity of the Honduras staff, Sigfredo increases his influence and billable hours while actually doing very little. As Fernando got his feet on the ground, our need for Sigredo decreased. His ’07 audit letter (as full of disqualifiers and lacking in supporting documentation as it was) marked the time for going our separate ways. By this time, Sigfredo had quit receiving calls from Jessica and Fernando and only communicated with me on a limited bases. I believe this was his attempt to demonstrate his aloofness to our staff and his importance to us. It didn’t work. By this time (late ’07) I was spending much more time in Valle District evaluating the Program than Sigfredo was and knew his stated concerns had no bases in actual observations or data. Before my February ’08 visit, I sent an email to Sigfredo stating that I would be in country and that we would set up a meeting with him once my schedule was settled. Both Fernando and Jessica tried to call Sigfredo; he would not return their calls. When I got in country, I called and left a message; no return call. I assumed he had gotten tired of fooling with us and moved on; I went on about my business.

In late April, I received an email from Sigfredo stating that he thinks Fernando’s conduct is similar to Roxana (where the observations came from, I don’t know as neither Sigfredo nor Cristobal had visited Valle District since January and had not toured our Project since October, ’07). Then, in May, I received a very stern demand for 6 month’s pay.

Back to today’s meeting:
11:45AM Sigfredo arrived; a few minutes of small talk. Then I explained to Sigfredo that, prior to my February visit, each of us (Fernando, Jessica, and I) had tried to call him but he didn’t respond; I knew he was not happy with our management system and assumed he had moved on. At that time I wanted to discuss his involvement as an outside auditor to review our books every six months as Fernando can take care of the month-end books. I did not understand the email of May and would like him to explain what services he has provided this year that we should pay for. He said he had never been notified and had been available so we owed him the money and he was sure any lawyer would agree with him. I said I was very disappointed and concerned to hear talk of a lawyers, that we would each spend more on lawyers than his claim is worth and that I am confident that we would prevail. Sigfredo said “Oh, I would never call a lawyer; I just wanted to make a point.” I said “OK, tell me what I would be paying for?” After a few minutes of both making indefinite and general statements, I said “Sigfredo, some of the confusion is mine but you did no work. I will offer $350 to get us up to date and put all of this behind us.” Sigfredo said “That’s ok if I continue as the independent auditor.” I said “We must separate the two issues. First we must get your email and the past behind us. If we settle in good faith, I will talk with our Executive Committee about the future; I can promise nothing”. Sigfredo: “With no promise of future work I would need at least 2 month’s pay ($700)”. Me: “Sigfredo, I consider any amount up to $500 as a good faith settlement and would ask the Exec Committee to consider future work. Anything over $500, I would consider bad faith and the door to future work will be closed. Sigfredo: “$500 is acceptable”. Me: “I will have Fernando write a check for $500 and a letter stating that your account is paid in full and that you have no further claims against L4L. If I am not in Honduras, Jessica will arrange to deliver the letter for your signature and that check for $500. We will complete this transaction before the end of July.” Meeting adjourned.

1:45PM Dr Avila called, gave his apologies and asked if we could meet at 4:00PM.

4:00PM Dr. Avila and I discussed the lunch program. He made some calls and said he expects we will have a meeting with the UN Thursday morning. I should get a call tomorrow. Adjourned to the bar. Dr. Avila is a true advocate for L4L and is a well respected, influential person; our relationship with him will produce positive results in it’s own time.

6:00PM End of day.

June 2008 Trip Summary, by Kristi Holzimmer

reh@knology.net — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Honduras Operations
The infrastructure implemented in Honduras is operating very effectively and efficiently under the leadership of Fernando Cortez. He is absolutely the right individual to lead our in-country operations. On many occasions during my visit, he demonstrated his effectiveness in building and maintaining relationships with people, which is a critical skill in the oversight of our organization. Additionally, Fernando affirmed with his words and his actions that his mission is to protect the best interests of L4L as well as the well being of the kids in our program.

Additionally, Jessica Gonzalez, who often works as L4L’s in-country interpreter, has become an increasingly important person in our organization. She has a tenacious spirit and a skill for getting things done on behalf of L4L that might ordinarily take the U.S. management team a long time.

Kitchen Projects
I visited the school where our first kitchen was built and I spoke to the school principal, who is very proud of the new structure. She gave me a tour of the kitchen and told me that because of the kitchen, the community involvement in preparation of the lunches is even Jueater. She has actually created a “kitchen team” complete with its own elected President and Secretary who are responsible for organizing the parent volunteers.

I also saw the school where another kitchen was in the middle of construction. It appeared as if construction was progressing quickly as a result of the huge community participation in the construction.

TIGO
Ron and I had the opportunity to meet with Ms. Chincilla at TIGO, which is a cellular phone company that has the largest market share in Central America. The TIGO logo is evident in every single community one visits and is often painted on fences, roofs, walls and any other flat surfaces in addition to the various signs and billboards throughout the country.

In addition to its normal business operations, TIGO has a charitable division that focuses on education. In our meeting, Ms. Chinchilla confirmed the importance of an education and, for this reason she was interested in the L4L mission. We suggested a marketing strategy for L4L and TIGO which Ms. Chinchilla did not think would work due to logo restrictions as mandated in TIGO’s Amsterdam headquarters, yet she continued to engage us in discussions about working with L4L.

Ron and I left the meeting with no assurances of monetary support but we both felt as if Ms. Chinchilla gave us enough verbal cues for us to conclude that we have a reasonably good chance that TIGO will give L4L some sort of monetary support.

Ron and I also have a secondary marketing concept for TIGO to present when the time is right.

Fundacion Brazos Abiertos
The Fundacion Brazos Abiertos is a charitable arm of the Executive branch of the Honduran government and is directly sponsored by Becky Santos, the Vice President’s wife. The mission of the Fundacion is to intervene with medical assistance and parental education in the lives of severely malnourished kids under the age of five. The Fundacion believes based on well-known research that the early years of development are impacted by nutrition.

While I was in Honduras, Fernando, Jessica and Ron arranged for the Fundacion to visit several L4L’s schools with medical teams so that the rate of malnutrition among the rural population could be determined and documented. Becky Santos sent her secretary, Rosibel, Cristina and several other team members that included a doctor a nurse and several social workers.

We divided into teams with Ron, Rosibel and Fernando in one and Cristina, Jessica and me in another. Each of us had our own medical team and supplies and we each were scheduled to visit two schools.

After several hours of weighing, measuring and documenting ages of the children who were 5 and under, the statistics revealed that 50% of the kids were malnourished. These statistics were slightly skewed by the number of babies who were analyzed because most of the babies were within acceptable nutritional limits because they were all still breast feeding. However, nutrition quickly declines when breast feeding stops.

It is clear from spending a day with the Fundacion that we are kindred spirits in our missions but it is quite unclear how we proceed in working with each other. However, if nothing more comes of the visit to our schools except that we have a contact in the government office, then I think our efforts were well spent. We intend to maintain our communication with the Fundacion to ensure we have an ally in the future.

Miscellaneous

When traveling in between schools, I asked Cristina what impact a 6th grade education has in the life of a child and she responded, “it is life changing.” She went further to explain that without at least a 6th grade education, employers will not even grant them an interview. With a 6th grade education, they have basic reading and writing skills which gives them a chance at a better job.
I had the opportunity to spend Sunday afternoon with Anabelle. When I met Anabelle 2 _ years ago, she was an awkward, skinny street kid who didn’t know where she fit in life. Despite being given an opportunity, she rebelled against the structure in her life and returned to the streets. However through a series of events, Anabelle went to live with an older sister outside of El Amatillo and she is a completely different child. She recently turned 13, she attends a L4L school and she even sings in a kids choir at church. She seemed happy and as if she had found a place she can belong.
I had the opportunity to visit the secondary education campus where kids attend what is the equivalent of junior high and high school. The secondary campus was located a significant distance from the feeder elementary schools but it was a decent campus when compared to most of the elementary schools. Most of the buildings were in good repair, they had a computer lab as a result of some donated computers and they even had various curriculums. It seems that when a student reaches high school, they must declare a “major” which can range from carpentry/construction, agriculture/farming to home economics.

Trip Log (Letter written June 29, 2008)

reh@knology.net — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:00:00 GMT

June 29, 2008, Sunday

9:00AM Checked out of Hotel El Picacho. Too bad; large room with sitting/study area and small kitchenette, but no kitchen and no restaurants close by.

11:00AM In the Hotel Maya. Compiling notes and getting ready for next week. Finally got on internet. Set up meeting with Dr. Avila for tomorrow at 2:15PM and a meeting with Sigfredo at 11:00AM. Jessica will arrive at 10:00AM to review notes prior to meeting with Sigfredo.

4:00PM End of day.

Trip Log (Letter written June 28, 2008)

reh@knology.net — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 06:00:00 GMT

June 28, 2008, Saturday

8:30AM Checked out of motel and driving toward Teguci.
10:30AM Hotel El Picacho. Was told of this nice hotel on the other side of town that costs $75/night (+/-); this gets us back below $100/night. It’s on the road that leads to the US Ambassador’s residence and other very large houses compounds. The hotel is clean and secure with spacious rooms; kitchen opens at 6:30AM. The road goes up the mountain north of town with a spectacular view of Teguci. Signed in, went to room. Settled in, watched some CNN, world events haven’t changed over the last week. Went down for late lunch; kitchen is only opened for breakfast! No snack shop, no bar, just a hotel. I am told there is a “nice” restaurant around the corner; a short drive up the hill and, of course, many down the hill in the center of Teguci. I really don’t like driving in town so decided to go up the hill. This “nice” restaurant is a small tin-roof building with picnic benches on a dirt floor. The kitchen is in the shack with a concrete floor. Items available are chicharons (Honduras chitlins) and pork or cheese papoosas (cheese, pork, or other filling in a pancake like wheat dough. That left me with the choice of cheese papoosas. Taking a cab back and forth from centro (down town) would raise the cost of a stay to $100 +; also, I am hearing more and more that using random taxis is becoming very unsafe. Prudence dictates that one take a taxi summonsed by the hotel, restaurant, etc. Of course, this costs a premium. Looks like we’re back to the Hotel Maya at $100+/-.

4:00PM End of day.

Trip Log (Letter written June 27, 2008)

reh@knology.net — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 06:00:00 GMT

June 27, 2008, Friday

Took the day off. Went to Choluteca sightseeing. There are reasons it’s not on the lists of tourist attractions. Ate dinner at my favorite restaurant in San Lorenz. Took a nap.

Trip Log (Letter written June 26, 2008)

reh@knology.net — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 06:00:00 GMT

June 26, 2008, Thursday

6:30AM Fernando and I took the GPS and went to each school, designated the school, and Fernando listed School name, Community name, Principal’s mane, number of teachers, and number of students. I will get that info to with coordinates to Hanan and have the website map updated and accurately labeled. Anyone that has been here knows the condition of the dirt roads and the distance between schools; even recognizing the correct designation of certain schools without driving all the way to them, this was still a full day’s job.
Stopped by the high school to pick up report cards of the two girls. We are 16 weeks into the school year. We were told that grades come out next week. It took a while but I finally got across that I wanted a copy of the report card for the previous term. The next part I couldn’t get so called Jessica. It seems that no report card was issued at the end of the first term; kids were only told their grades. I asked Jessica “you’re telling me that not a single parent has gotten a single written report from the school about their kids in 16 weeks?” Jessica: “Yes, this is the public school, you understand.” I was shown their grades. Basically, Waldina is doing high 70’s to low 90’s (very good according to staff); Helda is doing mostly 50’s (not good at all, she probably will not pull herself out of the hole).
After my first visit to the high school at the beginning of the year, Fernando warned me that L4L can expect no help from the high school staff “this is high school, the kids are expected to take care of themselves, the staff just does their job.” I saw some of that on this visit.

3:00PM Went to the bank where Fernando banks and opened a personal account so I don’t have to carry all my trip cash all the time. If you recall, we had to put our original L4L bank account in Roxana’s name because a non-resident cannot open an account. Fernando went with me, we used his home address, and everyone was happy.

5:00PM End of day.