Vignettes from Honduras

I suppose I can't let Linda dominate the blogging too much since my boy B has dropped the ball so badly.  But, since I'm writing this on a plane and can't research my next post, military drafts, you'll get just my musings.  But let's call them vignettes and not musings.  So, over the next ten minutes you'll get to read about, gov't inefficiency, gov't efficiency, community activities, non-profit bumblings, and for profit excellence.

Plates in Process (Government Inefficiency)

I bought my motorcycle in mid December with no license plate and left Honduras in early April still with no plates.  I never got a Honduran motorcycle license either but that’s another issue entirely.  Apparently there is about a one year delay on getting plates of any kind in Honduras.  A friend from work told me that it was due to a lack of materials and some slow bureaucracy.  Last I checked, metal was in decent supply so I’m chalking up about 11.5 of the12 months up to bureaucracy / inefficiency. 

Don’t worry though, I had a permit to drive without plates.  I had to renew this once every three months.  This consisted of standing next to long desk and waving my expired permit and a 50 lempira note a lá late night bar style until a functionary grabbed it.  After about a two minute wait, my permit returned with a smudged blue stamp giving me another three month’s grace.

On the flight back, a chubby American that was living in Honduras told me that if your plates get damaged (in a fender bender let’s say) it is advisable to have a counterfeit plate made.  This pokes another hole in the lack of materials theory.

Overhead (Government Efficiency)

Much of my work required interacting with members of the government’s Promotion of Agriculture office.  This group is part of the larger Secretary of Agriculture (equivalent of our USDA) and is a legit organization of it’s own.  I’m on a first name basis with it’s Director (shoulder brush off).  Anyways.  What an interesting set up.  When you walk in, no reception.   Nothing.  Just stairs.  I told a passerby what I was there for and they led me up to flights of stairs and down a hallway to a door with a rainbow colored word art sign.  This was the office of PRONAGRO.

After my meetings, we would exchange emails so that I can follow up with more questions as I had them.  Everyone uses yahoo, hotmail, or gmail addresses.  No official .SAG or .PRONAGRO or even .gob (that’s spanish for .gov for you gringos). 

That’s how you cut overhead America. 

Soccer in La Esperanza (Community Activities)

I went up to the town of La Esperanza for some interviews and stayed with a co-worker.  On our way back from an evening meeting, we stopped in the central square where there was a soccer match underway.  Every night there are two games in this square between many team’s in various leagues.  The teams were composed of all ages.  Teenagers and 60-year-olds ran around the field with equal abandon if not equal speed. 

There was one especially short player that I noticed.  My colleague told me he was one of the Lencas, an indigenous group that lives in the area.  Apparently he runs into town to play.  10km each way.  Not bad.

Debt Forgiveness (Non-profit Bumblings)

I stumbled across this little gym in an NGO report on Honduras.  I’m sure this was a huge revelation to them.

(ii) the debt forgiveness mandated by the government of Honduras has distorted the lending market and encouraged a culture of nonpayment, which is a challenge to overcome;

Who would have ever guessed?

Data Visualización (For Profit Excellence)

My preferred Honduran periodical, La Prensa, published a little gem of data visualization every day towards the back of the paper.

Impressive and sobering.  It shows the reported crime in San Pedro Sula over the last three days.  The key icons are the sprawled bodies (homicides) and the guns (armed robberies).  The red icons with cars are car robberies and the blue icons with busses are bus robberies.  I worked just under the “s” in Noroeste in the top left and lived on the left side of the map just under BLV Los Proceres.  Relatively safe areas.

Why I love the Economist

This is a brilliant leader article on the drug and crime problems of Central America.  Brilliant.

Internal Brain Drain?

This is something I've been thinking about recently.  Brain drain as we typically talk about it is "the large-scale emigration of individuals with technical skills or knowledge" from one country to another.  But, I feel that it occurs within a country as well.  Some others agree with me but this isn't a widely accepted idea, that I can tell.

Also, this thought deserves much more writing than I have the patience for at the moment so here is the abbreviated version.

Well paid, stable jobs with NGOs (and to some extent, the government) lure some of the most capable people away from the private sector, depriving a country of a dynamic driver of growth, entrepreneurs.

I've seen this in a number of situations: 

• My co-workers are experts in growing specialty coffee and fine cocoa but don't do it themselves, leaving it to subsistence farmers
• A beekeeping contact, instead of using his PhD in queen bee rearing to start a much needed queen-rearing facility, works for the government
• A very competent potato grower quit producing to work for the government, planning potato growing instead

The NGO and governmental jobs are very attractive to them.  They are well paid.  They are stable and accountability is not linked to profit-making.  They are esteemed.  They have perks (company truck, computer, phone, expenses).  They are serving a greater purpose.  These are  compelling reasons and if I were a skilled Honduran with a wife and kids to feed, I'd probably pursue an NGO as well.

However, Honduras needs entrepreneurs to drive growth.  NGOs and government can't create wealth, they can only enable its creation.  The average Honduran beekeeper (<3rd grade education, <5 years of beekeeping experience, little financial resources) is most likely not going to make an efficient business.  But Honduras needs this.  Beekeeping can be profitable here.  A highly successful operation here would employ many and teach them valuable skills. 

If I were given $100,000 for development in Honduras, I wouldn’t give the money to anyone.  I would use it to start my own beekeeping operation.  I would start with the local market where prices are high and demand unmet.  I would do some aggressive advertising so that my brand and quality are known.  Then, increase my capacity and improve my processing and value add.  From there I'd create a second brand for US export.  Get organic certification.  Use a single source of nectar and vary by season.  Make honey produced purely from mangoes, oranges, or coffee plants.  Obviously, I'm glossing over the difficulties that one would encounter but the potential is there.  However it won’t be captured by someone that isn’t skilled and motivated.  Right now the people that fit this bill are being picked off by NGOs.

How is it that non-profits and government are able to offer better wages than the private sector?  Even a friend I made that works for Cervecería Hondureña (one of the most successful companies in Honduras) was looking for a job with an NGO.  Something is off.

Mozambican (sp?) Ministry of Health salaries vs. NGO salaries. 

Oh, by the way, shout out to my boy BM who is heading to Mozambique (coincidentally) in a few weeks to test a new development concept with maize processors.

Viva la Maquina!

Back in December I went with Omar to the final of the Honduran soccer league.  His (and my adopted) team Real España (aka La Maquina) was playing the Honduran soccer equivalent of the Yankees.  Dirty, cheating Olympia.  The game was on the Maquina's home turf in San Pedro and we were pumped.

 The game got off to a tense start when the Olympia fans threw a firework at our goalie with it exploding just next to his head.  I thought he had been shot but after five minutes he was up again and ready to play.  The game was exciting and went back and forth.  Olympia scored first but then received a red card (dirty cheaters).  With a one man advantage, the Maquina surged forward putting in one goal and then another!  We were up!  At the 90 minute mark the fans went nuts.

Que viva la Maquina!  Later that night I tuned in to the main Honduran channel to catch the highlights but was surprised to find a telethon-like program running.  Apparently the owner of the channel is an Olimpista and his channel decided not to show the unfavorable outcome.

Shouts and Murmurs From a Bus

Shout out to the New Yorker!  Thoughts from a bus ride.

I'm on the bus on my way to La Esperanza when we pull over to the side of the road, nearest town of any size 1.5 hours away.  A girl gets off the bus and walks off the side of the road to a small concrete house wearing heels and jeans with sequined pockets.

Still on the bus and I see some Honduran graffiti.  Carved into the clay face of the hill along the roadside someone has etched out two donkeys getting frisky.  On the back of one of the donkeys they carved a Nike swoosh.  What?

Getting close to La Esperanza now.  We are navigating our way around a small landslide that has covered part of the roadway.  I look out my window and see three kids breaking rock.  Kids. Breaking. Rock.  One carries a torso sized rock to the other who hits it with a hammer until it breaks into smaller pieces.  A third kid then moves the chunks to a new pile.  Why are kids doing inmates' work?  Why do they need to move the rock to the hammer kid?  They could save 30% on labor.

Geez, long bus ride.  Political ads and company ads painted on to the hillsides along the road.  I guess they are taking advantage of the free advertising space just like Nike.

Last murmur, promise.  The small Toyota pickup in front of me has four cops sitting in the back bed with three... prisoners?  Yep, they are handcuffed and headed to jail.  The little yellow truck is official since it says, "Propiedad de Honduras" on the side.  One of them waves as we pass.

Honduran Style

Hondurans got style.  No denying.  From mohawks, to machetes, to cool boots; we gots it.

I really enjoy my Honduran friends with machetes.  Especially in the more rural areas, machetes are carried by almost all adult males.  It's sort of like a pocket knife / shovel / crowbar all rolled into one.  

"Leaving for the day, honey?  Don't forget your machete!"

Anyways, I like it and wish I could pull it off myself.  One interesting thing about it though is how elaborate their sheaths are.  Lots are carried loose but some have heavily tasseled, leather affairs.  I'll admire them on the long bus rides or spy them on my moto adventures.  Not sure what the rationale is but oh well.

But leather sheaths aren't all we do down here.  My boys are all over the Hunter boots craze that has been driving girls crazy up north.  Interesting contrast.

vs.

Incidentally this is where I buy my breakfast in the morning.  36 lempiras ($2), not bad.

Thirsty?

So, after a good vball practice or match down here, I get thirsty.  What to reach for in this instance?  A bag of water, that's right.  We don't do water bottles down here nearly as much as we do bags.  Check out the photo.

These little guys are actually pretty good.  You just tear off a corner and drink away.  You can even set the bag down and not spill the water as long as the open part is facing up.  Pretty amazing technology down here.

Or, if you want to drink from one of the large, five gallon guys, you can use a twisted piece of paper.  You can't drink from the tap of course.  These little guys are so insubstantial they feel like they are about to disintegrate in your hand.

What are we doing in the US? Disposable bottles, give me a break.  Oh, and on a recent trip back to the US I had water from individually wrapped disposable plastic cups!  What a luxury.  I wonder if they thought of getting rid of the cup and just using the bag?

Hmm, I wonder which country contributes more water related trash per capita to the giant island of garbage in the Pacific.

Beach Tourney in Puerto Cortés

Big news: played in my second beach tournament ever on Sunday.  What a day.  Not a cloud in the sky, mid 80’s, 15 teams, soft sand.  What a day.  I didn’t play very well, sorry Felipe, but it was fun nonetheless.

 

 

 

  

I would of course love to talk about the play here but understand that not everyone is as interested as I am in how to adjust your approach to sand from indoor (walk, stop, jump, for the record).  So instead, I’ll talk about the restaurant that was their for the day.

When I go to a tournament in Seattle, be it indoor or grass, I have to make a trip to the grocery the night before to load up on snacks and water.  The next day I’ll need to drive to a restaurant and find a quick bite in between matches.  Here though, there was a small mobile restaurant that came to us.  It’s not usually on the beach; it came just for the day.  Prices were great and the food was tasty.

Now why did this happen?  Unlike many enterprises in Honduras, this restaurant was highly efficient and as a result, it made a profit and satisfied customers.  Really, it was an ideal outcome.  I think this happened for a few key reasons:

1.     The owner was willing to work to make a profit

2.     The owner knew about the opportunity of the tournament

3.     The restaurant didn’t need a permit

Wee might take these points for granted but we should recognize that they don’t exist in much of Honduras.  Let’s go point by point.

1.     The owner was willing to work to make a profit:  While we assume that this is always the case with an individual, I think the truth is a little more complex.  Many farmers here are unwilling to try new methods or to change their current processes.  Some of our technicians have told me that their clients flatly refuse to follow their instructions because they think it will be too hard.  These are zero cost recommendation such as controlling the depth at which seeds are planted.  Or, they won’t do something different than what their father did.  If that was storing potatoes on a concrete floor under a bed, that’s what they’ll do.  I’m all for tradition but not when that tradition leads to 20% post harvest losses.  The hunger to work for a profit is not always present, sadly.

2.     The owner knew about the opportunity of the tournament:  The owner, while being willing to work to make a profit, was also aware of an opportunity and pursued it.  Again, we can’t assume that people always have this information.  There is a method of harvesting potatoes that costs less money than the traditional hand-plowing method, takes less time, and increases the amount of potatoes the farmer can harvest.  Unfortunately, the majority of farmers don’t know that this method exists and if they do, don’t know about its efficacy.

3.     The restaurant didn’t need a permit:  I’m going to make this point a bit more far reaching.  Basically, regulation didn’t get in the way.  I didn’t get sick though so we assume that our restaurant met some basic standard of cleanliness.  Interestingly enough, on this point, Honduras is more efficient than the US.  I never have the option of a food at my US volleyball tournaments because a restaurant can’t get the permits it needs at a cost that is low enough to make it worth their time.  However in Honduras, they only needed to roll up and fire up their generator.  Unfortunately in many other industries here (like potatoes and honey) the regulations are very cumbersome and actually retard growth in some cases.  Interestingly enough no one has put together that restaurants work very well here but other, far less complicated industries don’t.

So: find willing entrepreneurs, make opportunities known, fix regulations.  Sounds good to me.  I’m sure it’s just that easy.

Office Skillz

In case there was any doubt, I’m a nerd.  Especially when it comes to Microsoft Office.  What can I say, I like spreadsheets and making decks.  Sometimes I think of things in terms of Excel formula terminology or reference commands by their shortcuts.  =IF(ISERROR(FIND(H4,G4)),"","x") and Alt+N+V+T are both favorites.  But I digress.  The point is that some people aren’t as into the Office suite as I am.  This is amply evidenced by some truly atrocious ppt slides that I’ve seen in my bee research.  And don’t get me started on excel.

So, let's get right to it.  I know it's all in Spanish; trust me it makes just as little sense even if you can read it.

 

   

  

 

And, I like this one.  What to do if you’re attacked by bees...not clear.  Better to just not bee (get it?) attacked.

But, I’ll let my friends have the final word, twice.

Actually, I kind of like the bee balloons.

The Real Honduras

A good friend of mine recently came down to visit me to take advantage of the long President's Day weekend.  Let’s call him “Russell”.  Russell is a good traveler.  He’s studied abroad, worked in Istanbul, did an around the world trip, and drove 3,000 kilometers on a motorcycle in Vietnam; he’s no slouch. 

So, to take full advantage of his presence here, I decided to take him to the most authentic place in Honduras, the Bay Islands.  Okay, I’m speaking tongue in cheek.  The Bay Islands are three gorgeous islands off the north coast of Honduras where the locals speak English and Spanish with equal ease.  Hotels are big business, taking advantage of the gorgeous weather, sparkling white sand, and brilliantly clear water.  Maybe it wasn’t the best use of Russell’s time but we enjoyed our decision.

Not a lot of cultural activities to partake in so we filled our time with eating seafood, playing pool, and snorkeling.  Food was definitely more expensive as was lodging but pool was free and snorkeling was dirt cheap.  We spent the entire first day snorkeling (for $10 (or $5 if you are a good bargainer)), walking straight off the beach and swimming out to amazing coral.  We got some vball in as well with some expats that were doing extended visits to the Islands.  Russell did impressively well with doubles!  The next day we hired our boy Humberto (water taxi “captain”) to take us offshore to snorkel in the Blue Channel and to Tortuga Channel.  Gorgeous.  Gorgeous. 

Our ongoing joke was that this place was far too dangerous for our girlfriends to have joined us.  “Oh man, Leslie would hate all of this white sand.”  “There’s no way I could bring Victoria here, she hates fresh, coconut-flavored seafood.”  Yeah, we’re really funny.  However, on the last day, as I was giving my email a quick check on the hotel computer, I saw a word doc saved on the desktop.  It was titled “Dear LP”.  I have a good friend with those initials so I opened it up.

The letter was actually meant for the Lonely Planet guidebook.  In a few short paragraphs, Justin and Jennifer recounted how they had been taken hostage at gunpoint and held captive for 6 hours.  They had been riding scooters on the north end of the island when a masked gunmen came running up to them from out of the forest and forced them off their scooters.  Their captors took their belongings and used their credit and debit cards to withdraw money.  Once that was completed, they let them go.

That made us feel better about not inviting the girls along with us.

Cold Fronts

Unfortunately, it is raining here today.  This is bad news because it keeps me from taking another moto adventure.  Brag photos below:

But, fortunately, the weather is easily explained down here.  Any and all weather in San Pedro is caused by a cold front (or its absence).  There is no such thing as high pressure, southerly winds, frigid Canadian air, moist humid air from the Caribbean; nope.  Cold front.  The only questions are when the cold front arrives, leaves, and what number it is.  They number them.  I heard, "frente frío número 23" on the news back in December.  

I suppose it makes sense if that is really only the variable.  Hopefully it passes soon.  I'm hoping to head to the beach tomorrow to play some volleyball.

Semi Literacy

While the majority of Hondurans are literate (80%) they don't seem to place as high of a premium on accuracy of spelling as most Americans do.  Part of this is due to the fact that Spanish has far fewer wonky rules than English and it doesn't necessarily make sense to devote entire classes to the subject in primary school.  But in general, I think there is less importance applied to spelling.

Not a big deal but sometimes results in some funny situations.  For example, I'm working with one Javier Quan down here.  Javier is the man when it comes to bees in Honduras, let me tell you.  This guy knows everything about bees.  You might think that would mean he could give me a cost model for beekeeping but you would be wrong.  I digress.  Javier Quan.  I have his seen his name in various official documents as:  

 

Javier Kuang

Javier Cuan

Javier Quan (nice!)

Javier Quant (my favorite)

There is also my boy Marco.  Poor guy.  His last name is Teodorocopulus...

Literacy

A few weeks ago I had a visit from a locksmith, Carlos.  My apartment door lock had gotten stuck somehow and the key wouldn't open despite my best and repeated efforts.  Finally I caved and called in help.  

Carlos was a nice guy and we talked about what I was doing down here, his moto that was being held together by wires in many places, and the evils of drinking in excess.  After handing him my fistful of lempiras to pay for his work, I asked for a receipt.  He pulled out his pad of receipts and looked at it uncertainly.  Carlos was illiterate.  He said he had trouble with the long words so I helped him spell "llavin".  He was probably 25-30 years old.  Nice guy.  I have a standing offer to go and play cards with him and his friends at the gas station by City Mall whenever I want.  I've got his number so it just might happen.

Just Pictures

   

1. Fishing in Puerto Cortes

2. Caribbean 

3. Working on the honeys

4. Also working on the honeys (not really)

5. Merendon mountains (one block from work)

6. On my way back from work with lunch

7. 3pm happiness

I Need Some Copper

Quick question, how much does scrap metal fetch per pound?  Answer I don’t know but I bet I could find some Hondurans that do.  At least I assume they do since they are going to the trouble of stealing it.  This bothers me for two reasons.

1.   It makes driving my moto that much more dangerous (don’t tell my mother or lovely girlfriend please). If you can believe it, people steal manhole covers, leaving gaping holes in the streets.  These holes are just big enough to catch my front tire and send me flying, I fear.  Sometimes they are marked by palm fronds poking out the top, but not always.  I guess the largeness and roundness (interview questions there) of the manhole covers makes them easy targets.  Let this be a lesson not to be large and round.

2.  It keeps Carolina from calling other aid agencies for me.  This morning when I asked her if she had the number for Swiss Contact (an NGO) she said yes but I would have to call them on my cell; the phone lines in our neighborhood had been stolen for the copper they contain.  I’m not joking.

I suppose it bothers me just because they are stealing in general.  Mostly for the selfish reasons though.

Oh yeah, and the post title was inspired by this song.  I bet those crafty villains sing this all the way to the banco.

Idiosyncrasies of Dev NGOs

Let me be clear, I like the work my organization does here and think it is powerful stuff.  My colleagues turn around businesses and make them successful.  They convert producers from low margin bulk cacao to high margin fine cacao.  They improve the quality of coffee by matching financiers with opportunities to invest in additional processing.  Good work.  However, I’ve also noticed some interesting aspects to how we go about our work.

For one, we pursue many goals in alleviating poverty: increasing human and financial capital, increasing productivity, finding new markets, and financing cooperatives to capture greater margins at the producer level.  It is this last piece that gives me pause.  How did we decide that farmers deserve these margins and not the businesses?  I get that producers are poor but don’t think that justifies $20+ M USAID projects helping them and excluding the functioning intermediaries.  They also need to provide for employees and their families.  And to be callous, they are frequently harder and more adept workers than the producers we help. 

This type of zero sum game occurs elsewhere also.  For instance, a good friend of mine was working on a project to improve bean production in Nicaragua.  Working for the same organization as me actually.  At one point she mentioned to me that the Nica producers had a cost advantage over Honduran producers (not a shock) and could potentially export to Honduras.  This would help Nica producers but would take even more market share from my fellow Catrachos (Hondurans).  And now, I am proposing recommendations so that Honduran apiarists can replace Guatemalan honey imports.  If I were in Guatemala (where we also have an office) I’d probably be looking at how to increase production there.  I’m all for the best producer taking a market but does it make sense for me to take a country focused approach?

Also, I think working in the non-profit world dulls knowledge of the profit motive.  I’ve frequently heard, “If we could only get the banks to loan” or “We need intermediaries that don’t just think of themselves!” These entities aren’t bleeding heart aid agencies; they are businesses.  If a bank makes bad loans, it goes out of business.  If an intermediary turns altruistic and foregoes profit, he’ll be out of a job soon enough.  Instead of wishing for things that won’t and shouldn’t happen, we should be looking for solutions that work with the market forces that everyone responds to.  I tried to do that in my plan for the potato industry despite some of the push back I got to focus on financing and respecting contracts.  By no means do I think I know best but I do know that businesses generally need to make money.

Okay, last thought, I swear.  We as an NGO take an interesting view of our fellows down here.  For one, we view them as competitors.  I even heard a co-worker describe another NGO as having a monopoly on the honey industry.  A monopoly on helping poor honey producers for free?  Yes, we get aid dollars based on projects that we design and execute and yes, we currently don’t get any for working in the honey industry, but how silly.  You would think that all aid organizations would be interested in cooperating and sharing their unique strengths in the interests of HELPING THE POOR.  Which is my second thought.  We don’t really share our lessons learned here.  We have a “competitor” down here that does very similar work to our own and recently completed a great project.  And we know nothing about how it went down.  Again, shouldn’t they share that info with us?  I wonder what would happen if aid agencies ever saw that they were actually close to eliminating poverty.  Maybe Sachs has thought about this already.

Again, on the whole, we do great work, but, it is interesting to see some of the more peculiar aspects of development.  For one, we think we are qualified to make decisions about who deserves what money, both at a local and national level.  And, while we don’t believe that for-profit institutions should be self interested, we are ourselves.  Peculiar peculiar.