Join our Sultan of Sketch as he shares the daily comings and goings of the week preceding the Tegu Investor Summit in Honduras.

5:55a Gooooooood morning Honduuuuuuuuuras!!!

6:38a Lesly has arrived to take me to the factory this morning. Brandon and Chris are supposed to have been there by now, but in a rare showing of sanity, they have slept through their alarms. Thank goodness. I don’t know if I can work with people who consider me “the late one” at 6:38a.

6:53a We’re taking a different route to the factory than the one Cindy took me on yesterday. The upside is that it’s a shortcut that bypasses some of the traffic on the main road, and therefore is slightly faster. The downside is that about 40% of it is unpaved and pockmarked resulting in a ride that would make even the most seasoned rodeo veteran wet his chaps. Think Mr. Goose’s Wild Ride, this road is something else.

The road to the factory is paved with... well... nothing.

6:54a Lesly mentions that a girl was kidnapped on this road last week.

6:55a Lesly gestures to the houses overlooking the road and informs me that a majority of the youths who live in them are involved in violent gangs.

6:56a Lesly points to a part of the road to identify it as the place where she saw a dead body.

6:57a Nate locks his door.

7:30a We make it to the factory (Hallelujah). On the way, we stop to let some workers hitch a ride in our car. It’s Buenos Dias all around. I accidentally say “Hola” instead. I really should learn Spanish. At least I didn’t pronounce it “Holla.”

8:44a There are a couple workers doing packout right now. I think I explained in a previous blog post about the challenge and problem solving that takes place in configuring magnetic blocks into a package so they are snug but still have some empty space, and it’s neat to see the assembly line of smiling workers getting the blocks packed into their boxes. Soon these will be opened up by happy children all over the US, I wish I could see the smile on the other side too.

Packout!!!

10:58a Still no sign of Chris or Brandon. I’m beginning to think they’re just playing hookey today. Jerks.

11:37a Well well well, look who finally stumbles into the office. It’s Brandon and Chris, strolling in. I’m hearing tales of “hardware store” and “paint supplies” but the glitter on their faces and strong scent of cheap perfume leads my inner Columbo to question that.

12:32p Brandon has resumed his mission to eradicate the office of flies with a renewed vigor. He’s recently taken to speaking to the flies before he introduces them to the business end of a rolled up pamphlet, which is pretty stupid, since the flies can’t understand him. Maybe if he was speaking to them in Spanish…

5:29p Wow, it’s been a while since my last update, but I’ve been busy. One of my goals this week is to try and make the factory a little more aesthetically pleasing, which basically means: Make it pretty. Since the time I was last here, many of the walls have been painted either off white or green. Some might find the green a little too bright, but personally, I love it- it’s a splash of saturated verde in an otherwise drab industrial environment. I’ve spent the past several hours mapping out and beginning to paint a graphic to help liven up the inside (and outside) of the factory even more. That’s not to say that exciting stuff didn’t happen between my last update and this one, it’s just that I was too engrossed in my painting to notice. However, I can assure you that Brandon probably killed another fly or seven with extreme prejudice.

Prepping a wall for some sweet paint!

A taste of what's to come...

6:22p Well, it doesn’t happen often, but I would have rather stayed at work longer today. I’m smack in the middle of my indoor painting, but apparently we need to head out and head home. I look forward to trying to knock out the rest of the wall tomorrow, but I’m not quite sure how long it will take. It’s a little hard to tell so far, but I’m 93% sure that it will look good when it’s done. Which is good, because that means there’s a good chance I won’t have to distract you with more dead birds.

7:15p Cindy spent this afternoon cooking with the wife of a Tegu employee, and she had some nice piping hot pupusas waiting for us to chow down on when we got home. Yum. I wolfed mine down, and now am looking forward to getting on with some more painting. Yes, I took some painting home from the factory to work on here.

8:08p Kind of a side note, but one interesting thing about The Goose is that they are pretty short on street lamps, and while that makes the nighttime commute home a terrifying excursion into inky darkness, the upside is that there is very little light pollution, and the stars are readily visible simply by looking skyward. I didn’t really get a chance to recognize any constellations in the short time I’ve been outside at night (if only I had a map or something), but the stars are up there, and easy to see. It’s beautiful actually, although it’s not quite as perfect as wandering out to the end of the Malibu pier on an unseasonably warm Southern Californian evening and gazing up into the heavens while the waves softly lap the shore behind you… but then again, is anything?

Just like home!

9:07p Dinner was delicious again, but then everything is delicious after working in a factory for a whole day and then sitting in traffic for an hour to get home. We sampled the fare at a local Honduran restaurant that’s a favorite of Chris and Cindy’s. Brandon had the meat sampler plate, and I had the chicken. Both were delicious. We’re not sure what they pack into their refried beans here in The Goose, but they’re all delicious, especially combined with rice and meat. Anyway, as early as it is, I’m about to pack the running blog away for the night while I get some slides ready for our investor presentation. More tomorrow, thanks for reading!

-SoS

Tags: Honduras, SoS, The Goose 3.10