Day 22: Starting the Week in Style

Every morning, I have an arrangement with a taxi driver to pick me and take me to work. The curious thing is that I believe he is the only Honduran who ever arrives early. I woke up this morning at the usual time, took a shower and just as I was pouring my cereal, the phone rang, to indicate that Leonel, the taxi driver, had arrived… 15 minutes early at that. I scarfed my food down and grabbed a bottle of homemade juice from the small refrigerator in my room and ran out the door.

When I arrived at work, I tried to open the bottle of juice, but it was under an extreme amount of pressure. As I slowly twisted the top, I thought to myself, “This is some strange type of juice.” Having finally opened the bottle, I gave a sniff and wasn’t sure if it was still good or not. I figured that my friends would have a better nose for the smell of local juices, so I asked Jovel and Javier to smell the golden liquid. Both agreed that it was fine, so with that I sat down to work with the strange concoction by my side. After quite a few sips of the pineapple liquid, Javier came by and said, “You know that it is alcoholic, right?” Here I was, Monday morning, drinking a homemade Honduran wine without having the slightest idea that it was alcoholic.

Later in the day, I met with both Espectro Ganzua (Graphic Design) and Centro America Consulting regarding the progress of their business plans. It is incredibly satisfying to see the teams struggling through the process of refining their ideas and putting their strategies together on paper. The step-by-step guide that I am developing to help the teams through the business plan process is proving to be quite useful as it gives them a point of reference as to where they are and how all the pieces fit together. I have also developed an Excel worksheet that helps the teams through the process of building the financial aspect of their business. This is the area where people seem to need the most help.


Joel Montgomery

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