Some general impressions

Had my first interviews here today. I met with the mayor at his office
in the Municipal building (which looks like a disaster area, by the
way. Piles of tires and building material and what appeared to be a
hospital gurney...)

But the interview went well.

The mayor was an amicable guy. Answered all my questions, and took
plenty of time with me, considering there was a pretty long line waiting
for him out the door. But I wouldn't say that I got a hell of a lot out
of the interview.

More useful was a talk I had with one of the local Peace Corps
volunteers here in town--she gave me quite a bit of good information
about what's going on, which actually generally lined up pretty well
with what the mayor said.

In general, at least at first glance, Uspantán looks, like Santa
Catarina Barahona, like a reasonable case of good governance. It sounds
like the mayor and Vice are genuinely concerned about the welfare of
their people, or at least realize that doing a good job for them is an
important part of staying employed as politicians.

But forestry isn't a major concern. Quite the contrary. There are a
lot of bigger problems out here, including infrastructure, education,
water... all compounded by the effects of the brutal Guatemalan civil
war, and by the great size of the municipality.

So I need to try out some of those things in the data and see if they
work...