September 16, 2006

• Countdown to Honduras

  I was pleased to see an article in the Thursday Houston Chronicle on the back page of the Business Section that talked about the push by Central American countries to attract American Retirees.  Anything that validates the quest that I am on is welcomed with open arms.  When I read the article I had to ask myself why I was still working for the man.  The obvious answer was the deposit that shows up every two weeks like clock work.
  
  I have five days of sorting through issues that will ultimately contribute to the growth of our company before I head down to La Ceiba Honduras.  My flight is from Houston to Roatan and then I take a puddle jumper over to La Ceiba.  I am going to be brave and rent a vehicle while in La Ceiba so that I can experience the full court press of how it will be when I am actually building the retirement community in this third world country.
  
  I am starting to think that I need to spend some time in the community of the city that I have targeted for the project.  The mistake most gringos make is to go in with guns blazing and offend the locals when attempting to help out.  Many mission groups go down there and take no time to listen to the people and consider the best way to help out.  I have been reading some documents regarding USAID and the average Honduran lives off of one dollar a day.  The average annual income is less than one thousand American dollars.  Knowing this will help me to NOT throw money around and offend those who live on so very little.
  
  I have seen how throwing money around can have a negative affect on people.  One of the owners of the company that I work for had the habit of taking some employees out to lunch and spending a substantial amount of money on the meal thinking that he was rewarding the employees for a job well done.  The thing that he did not take into account was that he was spending as much money on one meal for this employee as they had budgeted for two weeks of groceries.  It is hard to swallow a steak when you know that you have hungry children at home and don’t know how you are going to make your next electricity bill.
  
  All for now, I am finishing up the hot dogs and hamburgers for the oldest J’s birthday party.  He and his lovely wife flew in from Florida for the weekend.

  • 5:42 pm
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