Undergraduate Blog / Career Development

Collecting the Battery Replacement Second Payment

As I previously mentioned, Alex and I did a battery replacement in the community of Mano de Leon. The replacement was for our host-family’s system. While the replacement went very smoothly, we were very concerned that Fidelia would try and not pay the second half of the payment. She was constantly “joking” that there might be some problems with getting the money—which is also a very real problem because if someone gets sick, like her Grandchild who was in the hospital, then the payment can disappear.

After explaining the importance of this second payment. We scheduled to have Fidelia drop the money off at a store in Antigua—the main town about 30 minutes from Mano de Leon. We got very worried when our contact Jose said she had not dropped the money off on the agreed upon date; however, the next morning Fidelia called us and proudly said she had made the second payment. This is a great example that if you work one-on-one with people and explain the importance than the job will get done.