8/8/2019 Gustavo's Musings (5 of 10) - Coal Miners (Part 2 of 3) - "The Case of the Missing Coal..."

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Gustavos Musings (#5 of 10)

(Sep 2004)

These three articles were written successively as little vignettes highlighting a community

development project in which I invested. The main characters are Joel Caete and his family who

are members of the Lambar Methodist Church in Paraguay. Joel and his brother Nathanielapproached me shortly our arrival in Paraguay to ask if I would invest in a small coal sellingbusiness with them.

Essentially, the idea was to give them a cash infusion sufficient for them to purchase coal from a

central distributor. Afterward, they were to bring the coal home, break it up into smaller pieces,and bag it for selling to the various small markets and convenience stores in the surrounding

neighborhood. This process was to generate a profit sufficient for the Caete family to make aliving.

The Coal Miners (Part 2 of 3)

The Case of the Missing Coal

The numbers were not looking good. I leafed through Joels small notebook where hekept a list of daily revenues and expenses from the sale of the familys coal. The list of entrieswas minimal.

On days when coal was distributed, he had scribbled in the purchase price for two litresof gasoline ($3.00); the cost of a light breakfast (50 cents), usually a few small biscuits andcoffee for two people; and the revenues generated on the sale of coal for that morning (about$30). The soot-stained pages also showed one additional daily entry of $5.00: the amount Joelsfamily was using to defray their living expenses.

With 5,000 lbs of coal, we had projected that the Caete family could replace theirinventory every two weeks and generate a monthly income to cover their household necessities.

And yet, as I began to enter Joels figures into a simple spreadsheet, I could see that somethingwas seriously wrong.

Scarcely a month into the business, it appeared that the familys entire profit had beenwiped out. In addition, they had only generated sufficient revenues to purchase 3,000 lbs of coalfor their next shipment (not 5,000 as we had originally estimated). Somewhere between thedelivery of the coal and its sale to local merchants, over 2,000 lbs of coal (and its revenue) hadsimply disappeared. Poof! Gone! Snatched by some coal demon from the pitch-black coalnetherworld and never to be seen again. I closed my eyes and rested them in my hand as the pitin my stomach began to grow.

I remembered that after Joel and his family had made their initial coal purchase, they hadcomplained to me about its quality. The joke around town was that the coal they were selling

wouldnt light even if it were doused with gasoline. At the time, I found this anecdote extremelyamusing, but now it was becoming quite clear exactly why they were 2,000 lbs short, and it wasno laughing matter. The novice coal miners had fallen prey to one of the oldest tricks in thebusiness; they had purchased coal that had been hosed down with water, making it heavier thanits true weight.

Once they had taken delivery of the coal, any recourse left to them was lost. So they didwhat any sensible person would do given the circumstances. They set their coal out to dry inorder to have a better product. In the span of two days, as the water evaporated, the quality of

8/8/2019 Gustavo's Musings (5 of 10) - Coal Miners (Part 2 of 3) - "The Case of the Missing Coal..."

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