Trip Log (Letter written October 18, 2008)

reh@knology.net — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Saturday, October 18, 2008

9:00AM After a late breakfast and checkout, I’m on the road to Nacaomi to set up for meeting with Roxana and, hopefully, tours for PRAF and Dr Moncada. Had to stop at the area where the highway is sliding down the mountain. Was held up for 15 minutes.

12:30PM In motel compound for the day.

While meeting with PRAF on Friday, Ms. Diaz asked what criteria we used to select schools for the L4L program. We explained that we have a long list of petitions from very poor schools, that our staff is local and knows the poorest among the applicants. We choose schools where 60%+ come to school hungry each day. What I didn’t say is that you can close your eyes and point; in Valle District, whatever school you are pointing at will meet the 60% criteria (at each meeting, our host points out that Valley is one of the poorest districts so everyone already knows). Mr. Diaz explained that PRAF requires an exhaustive study prior to initiating or accepting a group into any of the PRAF programs. “In many of our programs more than 40% of pre-school children are malnourished” she explained (as long as they use their money, they can do all the studies and surveys they want; all of our schools will meet requirements).

Each group we talk with is amazed that we can maintain $0.52 per meal. I am starting to understand that the reason is these other agencies heap huge bureaucratic systems with a lot of travel/entertainment on top of their programs.

The Motorcycle Diary

Trip Log (Letter written October 18, 2008)