It seemed like a presentation from an elementary school cafetorium. There were even parents taking pictures of their "little butterflies" as they created traffic for miles! Anyway, from there we parked the car and walked about a half mile to the office.
But backtracking a little, yesterday, Roberto the head of the loan officers, took me to the Pedregal Office where I met Susan, Dilsia, and Shely.
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| From Honduras |
After showing me a little of what they do, like calculating "mora" or late fees, I went with Susan (the office manager/head loan officer for the Pedregal Office) and Dilia to five or six places to seek out avales (a financial guarantee by a third party to assume the burden of a debt in the event of default) of people who are behind on payments.
According to Susan, more people than usual have fallen behind because of a few reasons. One of the largest factors being that the goverment raised the minimum wage 45% in March. Raising the minimum wage seems like a good thing until businesses are closing their doors because they can't pay workers. Many people think that the president, Manuel Zelaya, did this to gain favor among poorer workers because elections come in November. The political situation here is very interesting and I hope to be able to write a little more about it in the future. This subject made me think about unions in the U.S., but that's another discussion for another trip!
Today I went to the Pedregal Office again, as I mentioned earlier. It's great to be there because all of the ladies who work there really want me to understand exactly what they do and how they do it. They have tons of patience with my broken Spanish and difficulties understanding them. They even feed me! Nothing like beans, butter, and tortillas! I can't say that the combination sat well in my stomach, but it tasted good :).
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| From Honduras |
Tomorrow I won't go to the office because they say that there won't be much for me to learn. I guess that means my day will consist of the gym, then the Honduras vs. U.S. soccer game which everyone has been talking about for the past few days. I want the U.S. to win, of course, but I don't know if it's worth having to work and live with a bunch of angry Hondurans!
