Meet Hope

I can't even begin to tell you how excited and proud I am. Today was the start of the 2nd loan cycle for Strength and Blessings. They elected a new Directive to lead them in their 2nd loan cycle. So, new secretary, new treasurer and new president. The new Directive will be fabulous, I just know it, but I am especially excited about the new president. Her name is Esperanza (translated from Spanish is Hope) and she is dynamic. You can not miss her laugh and her energy when you are in the same room as her. She jokes and motivates. She pushes her fellow loan recipients, "Neighbor, you can work with more money. I know you. You are a hard worker. Take out s/600 in your loan, invest it and you will make more. s/400 is nothing for you."
Esperanza is special not only because of her incredible spark, but also because she has been a dedicated literacy student these past 3 months. Esperanza never finished elementary school so when her village bank formed and she had the opportunity to attend literacy classes in her community she signed up. She has learned how to write her name and basic numbers. This month she started her 2nd literacy cycle, together with her loan cycle.

Strength and Blessings is one of our village banks that is located in the countryside. As I got on the combi to head to the countryside this morning I spotted Esperanza. We rode together to the village bank meeting. We stopped in the dirt road next to the river bridge to walk the rest of the way together. Esperanza had two big heavy (30 lbs.?) bins filled with "dirty water" (pig food, but often called agua sucia here in Peru, easier to say than restaurant leftovers) She travels into the city daily to gather 2-4 dirty water bins for her pregnant pigs. Together her two pigs consume 2 full bins of dirty water. They will give birth soon and soon she will need to increase their food availability so that the piglets grow big and strong and ready for market. Since her husband works and her kids are little, she doesn't have anyone to help her. She travels daily, sometimes waiting long hours for a combi that will take her and her bins close to home. Not all combi drivers want to take her bins on their short-of-space minivan. Sometimes they charge her 50 cents a bin, and that is after she pays s/3 a bin for the restaurant leftovers. Esperanza carrys these heavy bins on her back, daily. I couldn't even lift one.

So, these are just a few reasons why I think Esperanza will make a great president. Yeah for Hope!

Little Ones

Some of you are curious...you want to see Shakira's babies. Here they are!It is interesting this time around with puppies. Shakira, unlike Magnolia, has been overly protectively and surprisingly aggressive since giving birth. She won't let anyone except Hugo get close to her nest. She bit poor Sebastian one day when he was playing near the dog house. She also got aggressive with Magnolia another day. We can't wait til the pups get a little older, we can sell them, they can find a new home, and our Shakira will be back to her normal self.

Start of Cycle, End of Cycle

Pictured Above is the Village Bank "Strength and Blessing" during their last loan repayment meeting of Loan Cycle 1.

This week it feels like we are in the middle of movement. Then again, it always feels like that. But, if I sit down and reflect (which I have been able to do quite a bit of since I am sick with a cold again) I found myself one day going to a close of loan cycle 1 meeting with a bank and the next day celebrating the start of a loan cycle 1 with another bank. It is really rewarding to watch a bank grow into their 2nd loan cycle. I don't have kids, but I suspect that it is like watching your child grow and marking the milestones of their life. Pictured below you will see a new member of our village banking team: Mari. She is pictured next to Elizabeth helping the Directive of the village bank Violetas administer their first loan reimbursement. Mari hails from a rich background of helping women in poverty, graduated from law school in Cajamarca and is infusing our business assistance program with dynamic and participatory activities. In our village bank 2nd loan cycles Mari wants to get the women thinking about their accounting. Can they figure out how much they make? If they are making a profit? If so, how big or small? Pictures and more stories to come....

Elizabeth and Mari helping the village bank Directive of Violetas sort through their first loan paperwork.

New loan recipient from Violetas showing off her first loan money.

Let There Be Light!

Folks, the 46 days electric outage came to an end this week. On Tuesday our electric meter was installed and programmed and that night we had LIGHT. Not candle light, but real electricity light. There was stirfry, beers and music to celebrate. Hugo and I almost couldn't believe it. We had partly gotten use to living with out light while simultaneously dreading going home to a dark house every night. We both questioned how we survived for so long. And, we couldn't answer that question.

Getting light back into the house was not easy. The electric company didn't cooperate very much and my poor mother in law was making trips twice a day, daily, to get someone to install our meter. At first they claimed they couldn't install a meter for us because there was an electrification project finishing in our neighborhood (which we weren't a part of) and another entity was in charge of electricity in our neighborhood. Talk to them. Well, once we established we weren't part of the project and were not going to be part of the project, they accepted our petition for an electric meter. Once the technicians finally got out to the house to put in the meter, they installed it wrong and Maritza had to go back to the meter (on the same day when she had already spent more than 3 hours with the techinicians) so they could program it right once and for all.

We have a pre-pay meter. This means we put so much money on a card, swip our card in our meter and it charges for that certain amount. We have to recharge the card, then the meter when it looks like our electric credit is low. With this new re-charge system and our 45 lightless days we will be very careful about our electricity consumption.

Let There Be Light!

Leadership Drama at Hope House

Another Leadership Workshop started this week, but this time in the Hope House in Cajamarca. We invited 6 village banks to participate ( 3 banks participated in Los Banos). There was participation from all 6 village banks: a total of 23 women. This time around I took into consideration the literacy levels of our women and added a new activity to the 1st session - Theater! We (me and my lovely co-workers) introduced the theme of leadership using Sociodramas and asked the women themselves to participate in acting out scenes from repayment bank meetings. We acted out 3 scenes to show the group different types of leadership styles. After the 3rd scene we reflected on how the different leaders reacted to bank problems and what is the best type of leadership we can practice within our own banks. It was a hit. The dramas got the women laughing and participating much more than in the first series of workshop that we did in Los Banos. However, to be fair, we are working with a different group of women this month. The literacy levels are a bit higher in this group, but the group itself is much more active and talkative. And, this made for a excellent workshop.

I received headnods (women agreeing with me), questions and really great comments throughout the workshop. A couple of my favorite moments were :

1) When Juana, president of Amigas por Siempre village bank, asked me during our brainstorming activity, "I have never heard of leadership? What is it?" I replied, "Well, that is why we are here. If I tell you the answer now then you will all leave and the workshop will be done. What do you think it is?" Then a couple minutes later she replied, " Isn't a leader a responsible person who is in charge of a group." BINGO, she answered her own question!

2) Ingrid (our super star computer student) asked me at the end of the session, "Isn't this a capacitation? Because we are learning new stuff. Does that mean we get a certificate at the end?"

During one of our dramas. Elizabeth, our bank promotora, is acting as the authority (president) and different bank women are acting along with her.
We did group work within our village banks, reflecting on a leadership story and what it means to be a leader.

Wedding and Puppies

Eventful weekend.

My volunteers, Amy and Blake, left. So we went out til 4am on Friday to have a proper good bye (although they went home way earlier, but what ever).

Then, Hugo and I got the reminder call on Saturday at 10:30am that we had a wedding to go to at 11am. We left our house at 11am, showered at Hugo's parents and got to the church by 12. There was still an hour left of the ceremony. (Or maybe it had just started?)

Hugo's cousin got married in one of the oldest churches in Cajamarca. Stunning. Then, we went to an elegant reception where there was endless drinks and dancing. And, Crazy Hour. After the band had played for at least 3 hours, the clowns and magicians and guys on stilts came in with party favors and the dance floor turned wild. I guess that is the big thing now - Crazy Hour - but since I am not hip, I didn't know what was going on. We danced during Crazy Hour and then we were done. Two consecutive nights of dancing is rough on the body.

Finally, yesterday Shakira gave birth to 10 little puppies that look like rats. They are all, except 1, female. That means it
will be more difficult to sell them.

Back to work!

Cajabamba Again

The painter, waiting for his bus.The spot. Hugo painted up this dry hill, with absolutely nothing else around, except beauty.

Vicki and her clan (aka family), our company throughout the week.

We are back from Cajabamba, from the 2nd annual Open Air Painting Competition. It was a little different experience this year, compared to last. We traveled with Vicki and her family, which meant lots of time with 7-14 yr. olds. We stayed in her cousin's living room, in a tent. The road outside was noisy, and despite having electricity, we did not have a bathroom. Just a hole in the ground.

The competition itself was different this year. The artist were more spread out. I ended up hiking 4 hours to only see less than a dozen artists at work. Last year Hugo and I walked around the town of Cajabamba and saw close to 3 dozen artists.

Prizes were given out the last day and one of Hugo's fellow Cajamarcan artist (and good friend) won. Hugo didn't win a monetary prize, but his work was selected in the top 50 (out of 350) to be exhibited in an exposition in Lima.

We are now back at home, happy to have a bathroom, but not happy to still be without electricity. This week we will start looking for an apartment in town, WITH ELECTRICITY!