All in a Year’s Work

February

Air France is really heating up. Already I am having trouble getting reservations on the dates passengers request. We have one group tour (Tel Aviv) that looks as if it really will materialize. The agent booked a “Visit France” package for the overnight in Paris. Another travel agent is working on a tour and wants a quotation on a similar Paris stay. I want to put together my own 10-day tour to France and advertise it, but so far, I haven’t had time to pull it all together. I have thought of hiring María as a consultant to do it for me. She is excellent with detail work.

March

We have had another ill passenger from the Caribbean Prince, the cruise ship that does a three-month season here every winter. They made a special call ashore for a passenger with pneumonia. It was dramatic: The ship, all public rooms darkened as it made the treacherous nighttime trip to the pier; the ambulance, lights flashing; a doctor to meet the patient, a delightful, brisk young woman of a size substantially to the far side of “plump”; medics, gurney, and doctors disappearing into the darkness of the long Fort George pier then, after thirty minutes, beginning the long, slow trip back with the patient.

We have an excellent, new (expensive) small private hospital. The chest man was waiting. By the time I arrived with the patient’s wife and the ship’s cruise director, Colonel Savoie was hooked up to the EKG machine. He had a triple bypass a couple of years ago, which concerned everyone.

He received first-rate care and improved steadily after a rough first 24-hours. Mrs. Savoie was a darling. It was a weekend, of course; that’s the only time for emergencies. Alex met the ship when it brought the Colonel in, but he and María were off early the next morning for a party in Corozal.

I did the hospital run a couple of times a day over the weekend. It was fun driving back. All the little boys are out with their colorful kites, practicing for the kite competitions that have become a fixture along with the regatta on Baron Bliss Day.

The Colonel was well enough for them to fly home to San Antonio on Thursday.

April

A man from Japan Air Lines (JAL) is coming the week before the Air France meeting, to discuss their appointing a General Sales Agent (GSA) in Belize. I am getting up all the information I can for him about traffic to the Pacific area. I am a little dubious about the outcome. JAL passengers to Taipei or Hong Kong have to go through Tokyo. Singapore and China Air fly them nonstop from Los Angeles to Hong Kong. I think the success of JAL here will depend on a competitive fare, especially in the beginning. I also worry about our being such a small company. However, they had a good report of our operations from Air France, which should help.

May

Manuel Hernández, a representative of the sales department of JAL’s Mexico City regional office, was here this week. To my amazement, from the time he got into the car at the airport, he started talking details. No pussyfooting around with if-we-come-into-Belize or if-you-are appointed-GSA. He said that the director, Mr. Shimizu, was highly impressed by the enthusiastic recommendation of us sent them by the Salvador Air France office, as well as the recommendation by the director of Air France Mexico.

Manuel was a bright, pleasant young man. I think I endeared myself to him almost instantly when he emerged after checking into the Fort George. He was wearing standard informal business clothes—slacks, conservative jacket, shirt, and tie. I threw up my hands in horror and told him he couldn’t survive that way in Belize. I sent him back to his room to leave his tie and jacket. We were friends by the time he returned.

We had an intensive program of long talks daytimes then drinks at the house and going out for dinner. Manuel said he was sure he could offer a competitive JAL package. Although their schedule is not as good as others that make a 2-hour connection in Los Angeles, by offering hotel rooms and breaking the long trip, we hope to win a share of the traffic.

There are lots of details to be worked out, but Manuel said over and over that he wants to get started as soon as possible. He knew about my upcoming Air France conference in Guatemala and suggested that Mr. Shimizu might ask me to fly on to Mexico at the end of it.

June

The upshot of my meetings with Japan Airlines in Mexico City last month is that we will operate under a four-month temporary agreement while the GSA agreement is worked out with New York and Tokyo offices. All we need to get started is fares. Manuel should send those to us in the near future. Meanwhile, the one travel agent I have told about Japan Airlines is most enthusiastic and promises to do her best to switch as many as possible of her passengers for the Orient to us.

 

I should be able to get started on Japan Airlines this week. Still need final confirmation about fares. As for schedules, Manuel gave me a schedule book that is printed mainly in Japanese, with some small parts translated into English. I must find the strength to sort out the information we need from the off-putting mish-mash of characters.

July

I just got a fax from JAL in Mexico City saying that permission had been granted by Tokyo to offer us a 3-month trial period, July, August, and September, to introduce and start selling JAL in Belize.

I am increasingly dubious about JAL. We learned recently that Japan does not recognize passports of the Republic of China. Taiwanese nationals constitute our main block of prospective customers. Furthermore, U.S. visas are needed by all passengers because they have to overnight in Los Angeles, between either TACA or Continental and Japan Airlines. JAL offers a free hotel room, but lots of would-be passengers do not have and can’t get U.S. visas. Third on the discouraging list is the fact that only the JAL flight to Hong Kong goes through with an overnight in Japan. Again, JAL provides an hotel room, but that’s a second night en route. And Taiwanese need a special Japanese document (not available here) to overnight there before proceeding to Taipei.

On the positive side, JAL has given us excellent fares. The travel agents are excited about prospects. Obviously we will be able to sell to a fairly small pool of people, but with help from the travel agents, we may be able to make a start.

August

This has been a week. It is the sort of thing that always happens when Alex is off on holiday. I was thrown back into the kind of unexpected “situations” that keep life here interesting. Focal point: MV Ceti, which is loading sugar in the harbor.

Last weekend one of the welders, Naranjo, caught his leg between the hatch cover and coaming when they were securing against the rain. I was not notified. The captain arranged for a boat to take him ashore and to the hospital. X-rays showed damage to the knee and a hairline fracture of the femur. The doctor put him in a cast and sent him back to the ship. We only learned about it the middle of Monday morning when the stevedore who had assisted Naranjo came to the office.

It was a madhouse of planning, cancelling plans, and calls to the penny-pinching ship operators in Miami. I had a perfect schedule for Naranjo through Miami on a comfortable connection to Ecuador. No way. He had to go south from Belize (cheaper). The first ticket they ordered involved a 20-hour layover in San José. I pointed this out to the ship operators and suggested a slightly better schedule via Panama. They were grateful for the help, and I was grateful for the delay caused by the fact that the Panama schedule was not daily.

I sent Allan from our office out to the ship to get all the medical records. The ship owners had a fit about my hiring the boat. There was no alternative. Sugar tugs were not available for free transportation because monsoon rains from nearby Tropical Storm Dolly had closed down loading operations. Alan brought Naranjo’s passport in and arranged with Immigration for his exit.

A greater problem was the medical release demanded by the airline before they would board the injured man for repatriation. Two hours of wandering through our lovely new Government hospital failed to unearth the attending physician, despite the many gracious people who tried to help me. After work, in desperation, I went to the private clinic of the Chief Medical Officer. He established that the attending physician was on leave in Orange Walk. After some demurring, he decided to work something out by telephone with her rather than make my poor, hurting young man come into town by launch through heavy rain in rough seas so he could examine him. Twenty-four hours later I had the medical release.

On Thursday, the injured crewman was off for his home in Ecuador.

Friday morning, Immigration called to announce that they had “sufficient evidence” to put the captain of the Ceti in jail for six months to two years and/or levy a fine of $1,000 to $10,000. This was not information I needed to brighten my day.

The problem—two crewmen on successive days had applied to Immigration for clearance to go to Honduras on visits and return to their ship. The second man arrived with a letter of permission from the Captain. Unfortunately, Belize law requires a letter from the ship’s agent.

I assured Miss Willoughby that it all was an innocent misunderstanding. She gave me until 2:00 pm to “escort” the captain and miscreants to her office. She already was holding the crewmen’s passports.

I said we would cooperate in every way, but explained that the sugar tug schedule was so irregular that it might be difficult to meet a deadline.

Miss Willoughby: Send a launch out for them.

Kate: The ship owners might not approve the extra expense.

Miss Willoughby: I think they would prefer it to a $10,000 fine.

That sounded reasonable. I promised that we all would be in her office in the early afternoon.

I was reluctant to discuss the matter on an open radio channel with the captain. Instead, I telephoned the ship owners, knowing that they had telex communications with the vessel. Jail-or-fine was not what they needed to hear. I assured them that I probably could resolve the matter, despite Miss Willoughby’s repeated statement, “I want them all in jail.” After hanging up, I tried to decide which lawyer to contact in case I couldn’t.

With time to ponder the situation, I realized what apparently had happened. Later the captain confirmed my guesses. Bad weather kept the ship in Belize far longer than expected. The two crewmen in trouble both lived in neighboring Honduras. Out of kindness, the captain had given them leave to go home for a few days while the Ceti was in harbor. From Miss Willoughby’s point of view, sending them out of the country was wrong to begin with. The captain’s giving one of them a note authorizing the trip to Honduras and back was “evidence” of law-breaking that she could use to send him to jail.

I sent a carefully worded fax to Miss Willoughby repeating our intention of working with her to resolve the matter and suggesting that the captain had no intention of contravening Belize law. I hoped it would give her another slant on the situation and help her simmer down somewhat before we arrived.

After lunch, I picked up the captain and seamen, who had come ashore as instructed. I tried to describe the situation and convince the nice young captain that Miss Willoughby held his immediate future in her hands as I drove a circuitous route to Immigration, now located miles from anywhere on a street that was closed for construction.

Miss Willoughby made an excellent first impression that only got better as our interview proceeded. She was an attractive young black woman, probably in her late twenties, immaculate in her uniform. She was tough in the best sense of the word, implying a firm intention to do her job to the letter of the law. She also was open-minded.

Early in the interview, she said that the Chief Immigration Officer told her to take the captain and two crewmen to court as quickly as possible. She asked for time to get in touch with me. “If it were X shipping company, yes, but this is Marine & Services!”

Miss Willoughby quizzed the captain carefully, realized that, as I had suggested, he followed the same letter-to-Immigration procedure in other ports with no problem. He protested that he always insisted that his crewmen go to Immigration in the correct way.

Miss Willoughby remarked that, earlier this year, Immigration had a similar situation with several crewmen from a ship represented by X shipping company. Because of their history of noncompliance, she said, the captain was fined $2,000 and the shipping agency, $5,000. Our situation still was up in the air, so I found her story highly unsettling.

We had a rocky moment when it developed that Reyes, one of the crewmen, already had gone to Honduras and returned. It was when he asked to go again that he got into trouble. Unfortunately for him, he got Miss Willoughby for his second request. When she refused permission, he became loud and abusive. She confiscated his passport and tossed him out of the office.

Fairly quickly, it became apparent Miss Willoughby had decided that the captain was both reliable and truthful. After a brief conference with her superior, she told the captain that she would let him go with a warning. She approved the Honduras leave for the second crewman after I signed the captain’s letter giving authorization as agent. And she asked the captain to lecture Spanish-speaking Reyes severely about his behavior and about showing proper respect.

It was an elated group I drove back to our office so the captain could call the ship operators. I initiated the call with “Here’s the captain. He’s not in jail.”

September

Japan Airlines so far has been a bust. When we came in, Singapore Airlines and TACA lowered Far East fares and started a big promotion campaign, some of their newspaper ads written in Chinese. My best travel agents say they simply have not been able to talk passengers into trying JAL. Furthermore, this is a very slow time of year. They tell me that demands for tickets to the Pacific countries increase heavily in November and December.

I have faxed a full report to Japan Airlines in Mexico City. They already know that it took us three years of hard work to swing the Belize market around to accept Air France. I suggested that JAL extend their three-month trial period. If they do, fine. If they don’t, to hell with it. I’m tired of beating my head against a wall. I’m going to Atlanta.

October

Department of What Else Is New…

Monday morning not long after I returned from my annual trip to Georgia, we found the office without power. We did what we could, working around the problem. When the power still was not back on a little before 10:00, Alex checked with the office next door. They had power. He returned, furious, to verify that our bill had been paid. It had. He strode out of the office, waving the file, en route to the Belize Electricity Board (BEB) office nearby.

They verified that our account was up to date and that no disconnect order had been issued in error. Back Alex came. I returned from an emergency visit to Ro-Mac’s to find Dwight and Alex studying the empty glass case where our electric meter used to reside. We assumed it had been stolen.

By noon we had a new meter and were reconnected. The story finally emerged. Saturday night, a BEB employee had found our meter box open and the meter broken and loose. Whether someone tried to steal it for some weird reason or whether visitors to the bar downstairs had broken it during a brawl, no one knows. The BEB man removed the broken meter and reported it. A new one should have been installed before the office opened, but the order apparently dropped through the cracks.

November

We were agents for another auction of Oriental rugs. Like last year and despite promises, the company in England sent promotional material uncomfortably late. I had a last-minute scurry to place newspaper, radio, and TV ads. The former did not reach us when they were supposed to, and the latter were so long and wordy that I had to redo them completely.

Some of the rugs arrived in June. The nine boxes have been stacked among file cabinets in our back office. The main shipment of rugs was due November 9th and did not arrive. Ultimately, they were located in Miami. American Airlines had tucked them away in a corner because they did not have space to carry them on their now only 3-flights-weekly service to Belize. Protests worked. The rugs arrived on TACA just five days before the auction.

The auction brochures should have been sent two or three weeks in advance. They arrived the day before the auction, with barely time for Angelus Press to make 75 copies before the auction.

We lost the ads, we lost the rugs, we lost the brochures. As icing on the cake, the day before the auction, we lost the Austrian auctioneer. Alex went out to the airport in the morning to meet his 9:30 plane. No Herr Gutensohn. We checked with the Fort George every hour all day. Just before 5:00 pm, the dear soul telephoned me to say he had a disastrous 10-hour trip, rerouted to Belize due to a strike by air traffic controllers in Panama.

After the trouble-plagued build-up, everything finally fell into place, and the auction itself was a moderate success.

I was jolted and dismayed to find that, despite all my hard work on promotion, we had fewer people than last year. However, the proceeds were almost the same, thanks in large part to “contract bids.” A man from the Bahamas, who attended last year, put in prior bids for a number of items. He got some of them, but on others, I think prices were higher than they might otherwise have been because bidding started at a respectable level. I don’t think Belize can support another auction like this, much as we enjoy the slightly exotic activity for a change.

December

I will be in Miami December 10th through 12th. CGM, the French Government shipping line, has been privatized. Honchos from the new owners, CMA, plus brass from CGM are coming for a half-day meeting to see the agents from Central America, the Caribbean, Mexico, and northern South America. My friend Jean-Paul Gustin, Regional Director in Puerto Rico, gave me not at invitation, but instructions to attend.

 

1996 was a wretched year. Our European container line abruptly stopped calling in Belize the end of February with two weeks’ notice. They are our prime client, so it was hard even keeping the doors open until they started back mid-October. Air France was a godsend at keeping us afloat during the dry spell.

Things have been almost busier than we need since October. In December we had ten ships in one week—the container ship, a sugar ship, a tanker, three tugs, and four barges.

The last lot brought U.S. Military equipment for the largest humanitarian project they will have in Latin America in 1997. They will have troops here until June building roads, bridges, and schools. Old friends of ours from Miami were the lucky bidders on transport for enormous numbers of vehicles, heavy equipment, and seventy containers of building supplies. Being agents for the tugs and barges was a bonanza for us.

This was such a big project that we had hot-and-cold running Brass. A series of Army colonels with their aides arrived from Panama. The Navy sent two officers from Washington. The tug owners sent their man from Louisiana. And our friend came with one of his associates.

The rigs were held up loading and leaving by high water in the Mississippi. They slowed down through horrible weather in the Gulf. Surprisingly, discharge went remarkably smoothly and quickly. The rigs pulled out the morning of Christmas Eve, and the Brass headed for the airport and home.

The Army is setting up a base camp at Burrell Boom. They will have a cadre of regular Army engineers and will rotate National Guard units in for two-week stays during the project.