Questionable Actions

The UN imposed a no-fly zone on Libya, which I think (and I'm guessing Libyans would agree with me) is a good thing.  See short article here.

However, what troubles me, aside from Gaddafi / Qaddafi / Ghadafi being a crazy person is that Brazil, Russia, India, and China all abstained from voting on the issue (along with Germany).  As the BRIC countries have grown, they've been asking for a greater say in world affairs, from the IMF, to the G-20, to the UN.  If you want more responsibility, you need to be worthy of it.  Vote yes or vote no and then explain why.

A pessimist's take:

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.