Day 6 and 7

Sick
I started to get sick yesterday morning. However, I thought I started to feel a little better in the afternoon. But yesterday evening, I started to feel sick again. Because of this, I took what I call a “bug bomb” or a pill that is supposed to kill parasites. I don’t know if I just got sicker or if this is how the parasite pill is supposed to work but I got REALLY SICK. I was in the bathroom all night last night (we’ll leave it at that). Fever, achy, weak, dizzy, lightheaded, sweating like crazy. I soaked through my pillow. I woke up extremely weak. I drank Gatorade and finally ate a cup of noodles at 2:30 pm. It appears the worst has passed…we’ll see how tonight goes. My kids think I have the pig flu.

Five Forces
I have to start by saying that any of my fellow MBA classmates are going to laugh at this. But one of our jobs here is to train the local office on how to train the businesses for success and how to decipher a good business plan from a mediocre or bad business plan. From the work we have done, it appears that there are a few businesses that probably shouldn’t have been started in the first place. To help manager in deciding which businesses to fund, we put together a presentation of the five forces. Well, Tim did most of the presentation since I was sick but I also gave input throughout. We also used the five forces to analyze a business plan that was just received by the office as well as a couple of the businesses that already exist. The presentation was a big hit. It was obvious that the manager will be able to use this tool to greatly enhance his ability to analyze business plans. We also spent some time discussing how you he can help existing businesses correct some of their deficiencies through the five forces.

Business in a Box
One of the things we would like to do is create a business in a box. This would be a business that we create that would be turn-key for a local entrepreneur to start. Then we would “microfranchise” it to other offices in the Cause for Hope. Any ideas?

Consulting
We visited various businesses over the last couple of days. Yesterday we visited La Blanca Carniceria, El Comedor Fidelina, and Granadizadas las delicias (a butcher, a prepared lunch little shop, and a mobile snow cone stand). Today we visited VIP, an upscale car stereo and speaker shop selling Pioneer, Infinity, etc. that is imports from the US as well as car alarms and cell phones. We also visited with Venta de Llaves (Sales of Tools...very creative business name) and spent some time brainstorming various ideas for businesses we have visited as well as for the office and the foundation.

Other

• Tim calls the cockroach, Cookie la cucaracha and Tim visits him each night during his midnight snack and they carry on conversations…it’s a weird relationship
• I think I got sick from McDonalds, go figure…
• Imodium, Pepto and 7-up are my new best friends
• There was a lady carrying a live rooster down the street…
• It rained four or five times harder today than any rain I have ever seen
• The culture gap is huge between the US and Guatemala
• Not having TV is kind of nice…but I am missing the NBA playoffs!
• Thank goodness for google video chat
• Guatemalans are not too worried about time...
• We drove to San Francisco (they call it San Pancho) and Samayak today
  
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Day 5

La Abuelita
We spent some time today working with Norma, the owner of La Abuelita: Cafe de Cereales (see post from yesterday). We stopped by the store where she sells her drink at around 5:30 pm and we were able to observe here while she sells. Tim and I also attempted to sell some of her product to the people passing by. This gave us a good idea of what her sales process is like and where there are dificiencies in her sales and marketing. Prior to stopping by, we visited a store to see how much similar products are selling for. We found a brand called Morcoff that also sales cafe de cereales. They are selling 350 grams (or about .77 lbs for Q11). Norma is selling a pound for Q10 (about $1.25). Since Norma is not established, we think her price point is pretty good. We also found out today that Norma is selling about 30 lbs. per week, which at her revenue and costs gives her a net income of about Q150 (or about $18.75). It is crazy to see someone working so hard all week for $18. It is also sad to think that she is making substantially more now than before. Tomorrow, we are planning to spend some time doing more market research for Norma. More to come on that.

Disory
Today we visited with Disory, a company which does graphic design and makes t-shirts. We spent quite a bit of time asking him questions about his business, how it works, how much he spends on everything, etc. One glaring deficiency in Disory's business is that he does not keep track of his finances. That obviously makes it hard to analyze his business because he is not really sure how he is spending on everything or how much he is bringing in. The plan to help him is to create a spreadsheet that tracks his income and expenses as well as help him better understand his operations and marketing.

Overall Vision
Since we are the first interns to work with this organization, we are having to develop the program and what we are trying to accomplish. The goal of the program is to increase to income and savings of the participants by 50%. The organization is doing an amazing job with this. However, we want to help the businesses continue to increase earnings and hopefully be able to hire more members of the church to work in them. Our ideas are evolving each day but we are planning to do the following things:

1. Create and implement a sales tracking sheet. We have found that most businesses are retail and the focus is on increasing sales (costs are usually pretty low many times consist of only the owner's time). Also, many of the businesses are mobile sales, like a cart. The sales tracking sheet will track what time the sale is made, where, to what gender, of what age group, etc. This will help the business owners understand their market and focus their sales efforts in the correct location and towards the correct market segment.
2. Train President Donis and his assistant Leonel on some strategy (basic 5 forces) and marketing that they will be able to use to train businesses after we are gone.
   
3. We created a sheet with questions to ask each business that we visit. The questions surround sales, marketing, operations, strategy, finance, and accounting. They are mainly fairly basic questions but will allow us to get a pretty good idea of where the business is dificient and where we can help.
   
4. Along with the first three, try to create a program including forms, questionaires, etc. that future interns can use so they don't have to figure this stuff out and can hit the ground running.

Other

• It was really nice to eat at McDonald's today (when was the last time you thought that?)
  
• I saw a Gecko today
• The local members of the chuch only provide 6% of the money needed to support the church here...the other 94% comes from elsewhere
• Heat and humidity make you sleepy!
  

Day 4

La Abuelita
We started off the morning by stopping in on a little business that was just started through the Cause for Hope called "La Abuelita" who makes "Cafe de Cereal". This little business makes what looks (and tastes like) coffee. However, it is made out of corn, rice, wheat, and some other grain that I can't remember right now. We were affectionately calling it "Cafe Mormon" because members here really like it and it is not really coffee. Anyway, we stopped by to see how she makes it and start the process of consulting her little business. It was really interesting to see the process she goes through. We are going to stop by tomorrow to get much more in depth with her. By the way, the picture of me grinding the cafe is inside the house. Also, Tim Hart took the picture of me drinking the "cafe". I think he thinks he is going to blackmail me with it. We all drank a glass and it was good.



















The Well
When we got to the house to check out "La Abuelita", there was a guy down in a 30 foot well inside their "house" cleaning it. We were looking at the well and all of the sudden I heard a voice asking to throw down a rope. I had no idea there was a guy down there. The grandpa grabbed a rope and lowered it down and the guy inside the well proceeded to Tarzan his way up and out. When he got out, he was wearing a t-shirt and underwear and was soaked.

Meetings
The rest of the day wasn't too exiciting. We were in meetings with Tim Evans and the mangers of the Mazatenango, Reu, and Quetzaltenango offices. Each manager gave a report on how this office is doing and some examples of sucess stories. It is amazing to see that about 60 families per office have already increased their earnings and savings by over 50% through this program. Also, Tim and I stayed after our meetings and watched the Reu manager give a seminar on starting businesses. About 10 people showed up and it was good. Today was our last day of training/meetings and tomorrow the real action begins.

Other

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• Yesterday when we were walking to church, we passed a pile of about eight bloody cow hides laying in the road
• I stink at Celsius and Kilometers
• Reading a Chinese food menu in Spanish is hard
• There are armed guards outside of any place which is half nice
  
• I saw the ginormous cockroach last night
• Reu is cleaner than Mazatenango (I am in Reu in the picture above)
• Notice how I am at least a head taller than the guy walking by in the picture, I feel huge here!
  
• Guatemala is really growing on me
  

Day 3

Church
Today we got up and walked to church. We didn't know how long it would take us to get there so we left pretty early. We got there at least 20 minutes before it started. It was interesting to watch the people come in. The men would go around and shake the hand of every single person in the chapel. Women would go around and shake the hand of every man and would kiss the other women on the cheek. The little boys would go around and shake the hand of every man and would kiss the older women and the cheek. They really know how to make everyone feel welcome. Overall, church was really good. Our lesson in Elder's Quorum was about trying to achieve Zion and it was a good lesson.

After Church
After church we were offered a ride home from a nice man in the ward. Little did we know it was in the back of his truck! It was a good ride though. I took a couple of pictures out the back of the truck and one of Tim Evans.


We got home and found out the electricity had been off for at least a couple of hours. We transferred our stuff to the freezer. The electricity finally came back on around 2:30, just in time to save our food.

After church, Tim Evans sat us down to discuss some of the blessings he felt we would see by being here. Tim Hart and I have been joking that this feels like the mission again. No families, paired up, living in a foreign place, sharing food, serving, etc. This meeting with Tim Evans definitely felt in line with that sentiment. Tim was a mission president in Mexico so he is very insightful regarding the Lamanites as well as the prophecies and blessings surrounding service to the Lamanites. He listed and discussed the blessings and other things he thinks will see while we are here:

1. Language - an improvement to our Spanish (and remembering our Spanish) including business Spanish.
   
2. Prophecies - George Q. Cannon said (this is me translating from Spanish to English so if you have heard the original, I apologize) - "The time will come in which the talents of business men will used to the benefit of the entire people… to elevate the multitudes (of poor that come into the church) to rescue them from poverty. That is one of the objectives in establishing Zion, and what falls short of that is not Zion." As well as 1 Nephi 22:6,8 regarding the Lamanites: "And after our seed is scattered the Lord God will proceed to do a marvelous work among the Gentiles, which shall be of great worth unto our seed; wherefore, it is likened unto their being nourished by the Gentiles and being carried in their arms and upon their shoulders...behold these things of which are spoken are temporal..." These scriptures and prophesies discuss the work of Gentiles to lift up the Lamanites from poverty. I know what we are doing can play a small part in the fulfillment of these prophesies.
   
3. Charity - A love of the people and a desire to help them
   
4. Culture - An understanding for their culture (and all that entails)
   

Other

• We don't have a mirror, shaving last night was interesting
• Mazatenango means "place of deer" in Mayan
  
• Tim Hart saw a ginormous cockroach last night (you're in good company Bronson)
• I have no idea how to properly peel and pit a Mango...but it still tasted good
• It is hard to stay hydrated...we take clean water for granted
• Uh...swine flu?

Day 1 and 2 in Guatemala

Purpose of the Blog
The purpose of this blog is to document my trip to Mazatenango, Guatemala for two reasons. 1) So my family and friends can follow what I am doing down here and 2) To help me write a report on my trip for BYU. I will try to keep a balance between the technical/business side of what we are doing and the interesting/personal side.

Purpose of the Trip
As this is the first post, I will also discuss the purpose of my trip to Mazatenango (it is going to be a long post...sorry!). Me and a friend of mine from school, Tim Hart, were selected for a mini internship with the Cause for Hope. Please take a look at their web site:
http://www.causeforhope.org/
We will be working with the Mazatenango manager to help teach business classes, write business plans, and help people start businesses, including micro-finance loans (think perpetual education fund for starting businesses). See the programs at the following link:
http://www.causeforhope.org/programs.htm
http://www.causeforhope.org/mazatenango.htm

The Trip
Yesterday (Friday) we flew from SLC to Houston and then to Guatemala City. We arrived after 9:00 pm. President Donis, the stake president from Mazatenango and also the Manager of the Cause for Hope in Mazatenango, was there waiting for us and drove us to Hotel Aeropuerto. We stayed the night and took off for Mazatenango early this morning. We arrived in Mazatenanto around 10:30 am and got our stuff loaded in to our office/apartment. The place where we are stying is actually pretty nice.

After we got our stuff loaded in, we headed off to see the Center of Mazatenango where we also ate a pretty tasty Guatemalan lunch. We then got some cash, Quetzales (exchange rate is about 8 Quetzales to 1 US dollar), and then picked up some groceries.

Digging the Well
After that, we headed off to Reu, a local town about 40 minutes away, to attempt to dig a well. The idea is that if we can do it, we can then interview candidates and find someone who could dig wells as a business. He would need to hire a few other guys so it would be great for what we are trying to accomplish. There are some pretty cheap tools you can use to dig a well and the materials to build it, including building a hand pump, are fairly inexpensive. We worked at digging the well for about 2 hours and got down about 4 to 5 feet. It was very rocky so it was tough work. We figure we need to get down about 5 meters or 15 feet to have a successful well. We will head back over there on Tuesday or Wednesday to see if we can get any deeper. (On a side note, I read a book about well digging on the plane in preparation. According to the book, well digging is a great way to build self-esteem and can be as fun as laying lenoluem!)


It was funny to see the reactions of the people in Reu as we walked around looking at a couple of existing wells to get a feel for how deep they are, etc. Our group consisted of President Donis and his assistant, the Manager of the Reu office and his assistant, Tim Evans, the Director of Operations for the Cause for Hope, Tim Hart and myself. I guess we looked pretty important walking through their little town because everyone started following us around. They then stayed and watched as we attempted to dig the well. There were some pretty cute little kids playing with kites made out of newspaper (that flew surprising well). I joked around with the people in between my turns on the auger. They are really humble, sweet people.

Mazatenango
Mazatenango (and Guatemala in general) is extremely poor. I am shocked at the living conditions of most of the people. It appears that most homes are not fully enclosed. There is garbage everywhere and it smells horrible. I don't say this to bag on Guatemala. It is just sad to see people living in these conditions and it humbles me to see how much we are blessed in the United States. It makes me respect our county and what we have been able to accomplish that much more.

Other

• Drivers here are CRAZY (I thought Utah was bad)
• This is the most humid place I have every been
• The fruit here is GOOD
• This place has the worst smell ever and it doesn't go away!
• I've never seen so much garbage and filth in my life
• Spanish is HARD (I am already doing a lot better but I have forgotten muchisimo!)
• Coca Cola dominates this area
• There are stray, sickly, skinny dogs everywhere
• I miss my wife and kids!