Are You Freaking Serious?

(Written by: Joel)

On Tuesday, two days after walking away from the most serious accident I have ever witnessed, we got in a car and drove 4 hours to Bafoussam to meet another AGA client. Oh yeah, we were happy. Windy mountain roads, speed bumps without warning, and some mint condition *cough* pavement? What’s not to like? I think what was particularly upsetting was that Flobert didn’t seem to understand our nervous behavior. We had to ask the driver to slow down twice (he was amazingly able to get a 1980’s Explorer up to 90 mph).

We were able to shake off our initial reaction to this by reminding ourselves that we were here to help, and this is what they needed for us to do. That said, we also didn’t keep our nervous ideas to ourselves.

Flobert: Are you nervous?
Joel: Yes. I was in a roll-over accident that nearly killed us and you’re going 50 mph on a dirt road in a beat up Ford. I’m nervous.

The new businesses are very interesting. We visited a palm plantation and a palm-oil refinery (palm oil is used for cooking, margarine, and is an ingredient in soap). The palm plantation is pretty cool, in large part because it’s located in the jungle. The road to get there wouldn’t be acceptable as a fire trail for any self-respecting state park, yet apparently there are oil tanker trucks that drive this every month. Luckily for us, this is likely also our last business to visit, so we should be able to start focusing on the numbers and presentation. We hope to be able to start showing it to PE firms and other interested parties next week.