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271 “Did you know that the building would have to be rebuilt when you bought it?” James, one of my U.S. board members, asked. “No.” I could hardly believe this was happening. I had no idea what to do. At the time we bought the building, the Bahia Street Board in the States consisted of five people: Joyce, by then my longest serving board member; Almuht, a sharp-minded realtor and leading member of the Brazilian community; Henry, a Rotarian and lawyer who had, pro bono, spent hours rewriting our by-laws and making sure our legal papers were in order; Mo, a general contractor and guitarist who also worked with “at-risk” young people; and James, a fairly new addition to the board, whom I had asked to join because he had strong local business ties and a good head for business methods. I liked them all. Some of them were my closest friends in Seattle. They had always given me good advice and support. I had never been political or “strategic” with my board, but had always told them my straight thoughts or reactions. Too late I realized this was a huge mistake, that being on a board was always political, no matter how much one might like its members. I had not allowed for the obvious fact that the board had never had the experiences in Brazil or the history there that I had. I had just told the Board that we would not be refurbishing the building in Salvador; we would be rebuilding it. That this included demolition and would likely take at least a year. “Did Rita know this?” “No. But she understands how Bahia works. I don’t think it makes so much difference to her. We have the building, that’s the most important part. Now we just make it work for us.” “But this is going to take much more money than we have,” Joyce said. “They say no, that they can do something reasonable with what we already have.” “And how are we supposed to believe them?” Henry asked. “When they can’t even determine if the building is sound? What twenty-eight heartbreak 272 dance lest we all fall down about liability? We’re incurring a huge amount more liability now than we would have before.” “I don’t know that we are.” “That’s the problem,” James said. “You don’t know. We should have someone there working on this who does.” “Rita knows what she’s doing.” “She certainly didn’t on the building,” James said. “She’ll be working with her brother who’s a general contractor. He’s very knowledgeable.” “Wait, wait,” Henry said. “Who said she could hire her brother? We own the building. We should be the ones who decide who she can hire. I would think hiring her brother is a very bad idea. Then we won’t be able to control anything.” “In Brazil, it’s better to work with close friends; relatives are best. You can trust relatives much more than you can others. And her brother is a very competent person.” “But we don’t know that,” Henry said. “I think at this point we need to get an outsider, someone who is credible, who has done projects that have a name that we can research.Then we hire them.That person would need to check all the finances before we release any more money.” “Actually, Margaret is right. In Brazil, the closer the relationship with a person working with you, the better.” Almuht said. “Rita’s brother is probably a decent choice.” “Liability is a big issue here,” Henry said. “We owe money on this building. The loan is our responsibility as board members. We are legally responsible if all our meetings are not conducted correctly. Have we done everything in formal procedures here? No. I can answer that. I’m a lawyer. You don’t understand the danger you have put yourselves in. We could be sued for thousands of dollars if something goes wrong on the building—we would all be legally responsible.” “Surely not,” Mo said. “I don’t consider myself responsible for this loan,” James said. “I will try to contribute, but I’m not going to make promises.” “And what about the lien I suggested we get?” Henry asked. “You never did that, did you, Margaret? You said it was too complicated to do internationally. Well, I consulted with a lawyer in S...

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