Note: Written Tuesday, 3/30

Hello faithful readers. First of all, my sincerest apologies for the missing posts from the rest of my trip. To be honest, things got really busy with the investors in town, and while I look forward to recounting some of the events that transpired on those missing days, I did not have the time (nor my wits about me to successfully edit and type a blog post) for a couple of the days. However, it was a good weekend, and I will backfill Friday at the very least, possibly with a guest blogger as well.

Love from the goose.

For now though, I’ll sum up this trip from the comfort of my couch in Los Angeles. Yes, it’s good to be back in the City of Angels- after almost 13 hours of total travel time (yes, I’m including time to and from the airports), I arrived back home on Sunday night and have had a couple days to reflect on my second trip to Honduras. All in all, it was a very productive and fruitful trip. The goals outlined in my first post were met and then some, although I’m sure if the whole team was asked we’d be in agreement that we could’ve enjoyed an even longer stay and time together as a team.

Among other things taken away from this trip, it was great to meet all the smiling faces at the factory in Honduras. Lesly, Christine, Steve, Joel, all the other workers on the floor, and of course Darwin- I got to shake the hands of the hardworking people who are turning sketches into reality. Just seeing the factory abuzz with people bustling away was an inspiration and served as a reminder for those of us here in the States to do our job as best we can. The better we do our jobs, the more jobs we can provide.

The one and only Darwin Pavón!

The landscape of Honduras was different from my last trip, mostly because it’s no longer the rainy season. Looking back on photographs and comparing then to now, there’s a clear shade of brown that pervades the Honduran landscape that was previously green. The political state has also changed.  Last July, Honduras was a the forefront of all news outlets due to the developing situation with ousted president Manuel Zelaya that resulted in public unrest in the streets of Tegucigalpa, and police checkpoints every few miles on the major roads.  Thankfully, that time has passed, and there were few clues left behind to remind one of last summer’s turmoil.

Political commentary leftover from last summer.

The state of the people however remains the same. There is no way around it, Honduras is a country mired in poverty. The third poorest country in the Western hemisphere, the telltale signs are clear in just a quick trip through Tegucigalpa. It’s not a rare sight to see children running between cars stopped in traffic to sell their wares from window to window, nor is it rare to lay eyes on houses sheltering an entire family with nothing more than a corrugated piece of steel to serve as a roof. However bleak and or eye-opening, it’s great to know that there are people and organizations making a difference. The Micah Project is a home for Honduran street boys with the goal of getting kids off their addictions, and off the streets. The AFE school is committed to offering education to children who might otherwise have no other choice than to scavenge for recyclables in the city dump. Both are having success, and are growing. And both are inspirations to us here at Tegu.

The AFE school on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa.

At the Micah Project.

But what about the blocks? Oh yes, the blocks. The blocks are coming along quite well. As you all well know, we’re working away as hard as possible to make them as fast as we can, and we won’t stop until every child has the opportunity to stretch their imagination and creativity through unscripted play with magnetic blocks. And when that happens, we’ll move on to something else that stretches imagination. This is what we do now, and what we want to continue doing at Tegu, and this trip only emphasized that for the team. We believe in the power of the “Ah-Ha!” moment, and the inner genius in every child, big or small. And we hope you do too.

So from America, I’m signing off on this trip (b)log Tonight. Thanks to those of you who decided to start following Somewhere along the way, I think that’s pretty Cool. Don’t forget to keep an eye on this space for the missing day post, and also for the Rumble of more big news in the future. Something’s Coming.

-SoS

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

Note: I may or may not have received a complaint about the photo of the dead bird from yesterday, so I will make the promise right now that this post will be 100% dead bird free.

7:40a For those of you who were following my West meets East blog, you’ll know that apparently when I am traveling, being awakened by a knock on the door is rather commonplace. I think perhaps I should invest in a travel alarm clock. When my gracious host Cindy knocked on the door this morning, I tried to ignore it at first. Maybe she forgot I’m here? Maybe I can sleep for another few hours? Maybe it was just a dream? Alas, no. If you’re unfamiliar with the time zones, you’ll note that 7:40a is actually 6:40a where I’m from. And if you’re unfamiliar with me, you’ll note that waking up at 6:40a is on my list of things to do right after “hike straight up a mountain for seven hours, then promptly get dysentery.” Oh, wait….

My gracious hostess slash fearless driver for today!

8:05a Cindy and I are on the road to the factory. Brandon and Chris are already there, having gotten an early start to their day. Not sure how they do it, but while we share enthusiasm, we’re not all morning people. The traffic on the way to the factory is making me a little homesick. Apparently drivers in The Goose learn from the La Cienega school of driving. We may be a few thousand miles from the city of angels, but it’s not like it’s a whole new world or something.  It’s like LA, but the roads are bad, nobody has insurance, and everyone speaks Spanish.

Morning traffic.

9:23a I’m finally set up in my office away from home, although I have to say I miss my monitor(s). My itty-bitty laptop isn’t really the best platform to do any sort of graphic work, but we’ll have to make do for now. I’m sharing the “office” with Brandon and Lesly- one of our newest Honduran employees. Brandon is staring intently at his screen. I imagine there’s some sort of spreadsheet of extreme urgency on there right now. Time to plug in the earbuds and buckle down and get some work done. Will you count me in?

Brandon and Lesly hard at work.

12:02a On a conference call with Will and the retailer we visited last month. San Francisco, Connecticut, and Honduras. That’s a pretty big triangle.

12:51a Time for lunch. The factory workers are enjoying their meal under a tree outside the factory. I’m not going to lie, it looks wonderful out there. What I wouldn’t give to take a blanket out there and nap right about now.

The factory workers at lunch, plus stray dog.

1:30p Brandon is on a mission to vanquish this office of flies. He’s quite intense in his pursuit. Lesly is laughing at the absurd impossibility of this mission. It’s like trying to wash the stink off a Dodger.

2:18p Chris calls Brandon and me away from our work for a few minutes for a proper introduction to our various factory workers. We gathered the whole gang on the loading dock and said a few words. (I’m not sure which words I said… I think I need to learn Spanish.) It was an incredible sight to see some twenty Honduran workers all gathered together and smiling back at us, knowing that we’ve come this far. We’re looking at the people who handle every block that passes through these doors with our name on it, and we couldn’t be any prouder or more thankful for the work they’ve done. I don’t know if I can describe the feeling I got seeing them all gathered, except that it starts at my toes and makes me crinkle my nose. As much as I would have liked to have a photo of this event, I forgot my camera. Oh well, I’ll try to get some group shots on Thursday or Friday when the investors are here.

3:15p Clementine time. Clementime?

MMMGood ; )

4:51p I’m currently cranking away on a graphic that we want to try and paint on one of our walls. I hope it works out the way I want it to. If it does, I’ll post pictures. If not, I’ll distract you with another dead bird. Either way, it looks like I’ll be spending a good amount of my time tomorrow getting my hands dirty.

5:42p Okay, I’m not going to lie- I’m running on fumes right about now. Between all the travel that happened on Sunday and Monday and the six hours of sleep I got last night, I’m barely hanging in there. Thankfully we’re not much longer for the factory today, and I can’t wait to get back to my host house and kick off my shoes. The sun is setting behind the mountains in the distance and it’s painting a picturesque scene.

Dear sunset: If James Blunt saw you on the subway, he would write a song about you.

6:14p Time to GO!!!

7:25p I have to say, the commute from the factory to Chris’ house is just fantastic. And by fantastic, I mean: Absolutely horrible. Roughly twenty miles, it ranges from high speed white knuckle blind passes as you cross the double yellow into oncoming traffic to get around a janky cargo truck moseying along at 18 MPH, all the way to completely stop and go jam packed gridlock. Chris explains the cause of the traffic on this road: The main road out to the factory was just never finished. It was 99% of the way done, but then construction just up and stopped, and now there’s a 100 yard section of unpaved road. Think of it as a 100 yard speed bump, and you can understand the gridlock. It’s a seemingly contradictory combination of patience and aggression that is required to man the wheel of a car out here. It’s nuts. Today it took an hour to get home.

When you’re stopped in traffic, you can take pictures of The Goose at night.

7:26p Oh yeah, and by the way, don’t forget to ask Brandon about his questionable idea for a giant horchata bottle. Most likely he’ll laugh uncomfortably, and then try to deflect the conversation. Don’t let him. Press onward.

7:47p Time for dinner. Soon. So I’ve been told. I hear we’re going out, but I’m not sure where. I’m kind of hoping for Dunkin Donuts…

If this was a pie graph, the amount eaten would represent the percentage of Nate that will be awake at 6:30a tomorrow.

10:00p Dinner was delicious. Chris and Cindy took us to a local pizzeria where we regaled each other with interesting stories about topics that most definitely are not suited for the dinner table. The pizza was very tasty though, and it was dispatched quite hastily. It was at dinner when I was told my ride to the factory tomorrow morning will be arriving at 6:30a. I said that’s fine, but I didn’t know what she was going to do for the next three hours as I slept, and then eventually woke up. 6:30a? What am I, an astronaut? I’m realizing that if I go to sleep right this instant, I will still get less than eight hours of sleep, and that’s not likely to happen since these photos aren’t going to format themselves. So on that note, I’m signing off for tonight at the early hour of 10:05p. Maybe if I’m lucky I’ll be sleeping in an hour.

-SoS

editors note: Nate was NOT sleeping in an hour.