A little review time

Sitting in the airport terminal, and this last week has granted me time to ponder what I’ve accomplished at AHA and in Bolivia over these last few weeks. A definite highlight was working side-by-side every day with Anna. Anna’s passion, drive, humor, compassion, and bright personality made going to work fulfilling. She entrusted the fellows with some important aspects of the company and relied on us to do them to the best of our abilities. Working in the cost analysis arena was very interesting for me. It wasn’t the easiest at times, as the language barrier between the head manufacturer, Marco, and I made conversations difficult to convey our exact points. However, as we met almost daily by the end of our time, Marco and I developed a real connection and worked hard to earn the most profit for the products. I also improved my excel skills by making a pricing spreadsheet for the five new products AHA was putting on Amazon. As the launching point was nearing, this spreadsheet served as the countless profit possibilities AHA could take with these products given the various markups of Marco, AHA itself, and Amazon. Also working in excel, I decided to update Marco’s costing sheet for all manufacturing products. Although Marco works solely on paper, making this sheet serves AHA the possibility of storing these sheets on a drive, rather than as loose pieces of paper in the office. The vision is to keep a sheet for each of the hundreds of products AHA makes, so that when the time comes to make more of the product, it is right there in the drive.

On other notes, after leaving Cochabamba last week, Lacey, DJ, and I decided to check out Peru for a week. Exploring only a few of the country’s many beautiful and iconic landscapes was a week I will definitely not forget. Machu Picchu is as good as everyone says it is, and the first glance was a sight to remember. We also got to horseback ride through ancient Incan temples, and make the 3am trek to Rainbow Mountain. Glad I was able to do it with these two goons by my side, and I don’t mean to brag but we’re pretty good at this whole traveling thing. Well, I shouldn’t speak too soon yet, we’re almost home. No jinxing it yet!