Lone Man

After one joyful week of no work, no school, just kids, I am again a solo lobo. Sigh.

Western Nebraska smells like cow poop. Omaha, no poop smell. Phew, I was getting worried.

Guatemalan Traffic Laws

Green means go.

Red means turn on hazard lights and go.

Otro

One week to go. Making T-Shirts. Doing street surveys. EOQ. NPV. We're rocking it out.

Saw a four-inch scorpion. Creepy. Saw some Mayan and Olmec ruins. Cool. Miss my family. Not cool.

Micro

Carmen spends hours each night making elaborate piñatas by hand. She sells them at the market in the center of town. She's in the the second-aisle from the center, behind three other piñata stores with more variety. So she charges less. For her hours of effort, she makes about $1 profit on each piñata.

We're working with a butcher. He is the fifth of seven butchers on a street of nothing but butchers. They all have the same providers, the same prices, the same selection.

Granizadas Las Delicias is a mobile snow cone cart. Berta is the proprietor. She has to sell 16 snow cones per day to meet expenses and repay her loan. She sells 10 on a good day.

Marketing surveys are underway. We're working on logos and signs. We're contemplating coupons and "frequent flyer cards." Hopefully we'll find a breakthrough.

La Abuelita

Norma makes "Cafe de Cereales." She charrs corn, rice, wheat, and other secret ingredients and then grinds it, by hand, and packages it as La Abuelita, a wholesome coffee alternative. I helped her make a batch on her make-shift wood burning stove.

So far she makes about $20 a week, which supports her father and her sister and her two children. We're trying to help her brand it properly and scale it. The cultural distance is bigger than I anticipated. This is hard.