Week 3, May 26-June 1

We are getting down to the wire for the current cycle. The travel abroad group is set to arrive the 11^th of June and we are pushing to get all the business plans finished. This past week we were able to finalize the finances for the Danper participants. Many of them are still missing parts of their business plan.  We will meet with most of them one last time to collect these final portions, make some polishing touches on the plans, and finalizing the English translations. As for the Employment Center group, we are still trying to finish up finances. Luckily, almost everyone from the EC group had at least a rough draft for their entire plan. Kory and I will be spending a considerable amount of time this coming week translating and formatting that information.

It’s fun to get a feel for how these projects run and what a solid financial analysis is like.  Kory and I make a pretty good team.  After doing a few of them for the EC group by ourselves, it feels like we are catching on, even though we haven’t seen as many projects as Elena or Cesar.  It feels good to be able to look over a plan and automatically know something amiss, even if it’s something small.  We can look over a plan or finances and say “that’s too high” or “that’s too low”, “we better go into some more details on that.”  We may not be professionals quite yet, but it’s a valuable learning experience!

Not only have we been busy with preparing business plans, but we’ve also been working with a couple of delinquent loans.    It is difficult when you know someone is trying to pull the wool over your eyes, unfortunately it’s still something that we have had to deal with at times. Equally as frustrating is knowing that these businesses are profitable; it's not that these businesses can't pay, its that they don't want to.  What some of our debtors fail to realize is that we have a secret weapon: Elena.  Since we’ve arrived in Trujillo Kory and I have defiantly seen, and appreciated, how much value Elena adds to Danper’s Social Responsibility operations.  Her People skills and patience are even more obvious an asset when we deal in these turbulent, delicate situations.  We rely on her not only for these stressful issues but for everyday items as well. Any future interns or study abroad students reading this would be wise to remember that.

Tomorrow is Monday, I can’t believe we have already been here 3 weeks.  It’s going by way too quick! Let’s see what week 4 has in store for us; hopefully some good business plans and some awesome papas rellenas!