Year End Evaluation in progress...

This week is purely dedicated to compiling the year end report and reviewing the successes and examining challenges in the Social Program piece of our village banking project. It is a lot of work, but so rewarding to review numbers and stories that tell OUR STORY of changing lives in our loan recipients. Above you can see the Math test results of our basic literacy students. They moved mountains and, in some cases, double their percentage test score. The same is true for their reading skills. I am so, so very proud of this group of determined and dedicate women. Congrats to all!

The HAIRCUT

After our all bank event on Friday, I woke up on Saturday to prepare for another big event. The Haircut. I was asked to be the Godmother of the hair cutting ceremony of the son of one of our loan recipients. It is a strong tradition in the countryside to save the first haircut for the selected 'Godmother,' although do take note the Madrina (Godmother) does not need to have experience cutting hair or even have to be good at it. We went with Hugo and his parents and the kiddos to join my co-padres in their simple adobe house for a guinea pig lunch followed by the hair cutting ceremony. The cuy was actually quite good; I might have enjoyed it more than usual knowing it might be the last time I eat guinea pig for awhile.

The ceremony was simple. I brought scissors and cut a little piece of Christian's hair. Then I put a "tip" on the plate where the cut hair was placed. I passed around the scissors and the "tip" plate so that all the invitees could cut Christian's hair and also put a little bit of money on the plate. Once everyone had a turn with the scissors, I finished the haircut. It wasn't my best work, but it will grow. There was then music, dancing and drinking. Jovita, Christan's mom, gave us 3 whole cuyes to take home and eat for dinner.

It was an honor to be with Jovita's family yesterday and be a part of something so special. It was a wonderful reminder of how in the humblest of homes there can be gratitude and love so wide and full.

Celebrating a year of Success!

Yesterday we celebrated the completion of our successful year working with village banks together with our local partner Multicredit. It was a lot of prep and hard work up until our start time, which of course was 40 minutes later then planned, but worth all the effort. To give you a small re-cap, I will highlight some of my favorite moments, and let the pictures tell the rest.

The idea of our gathering was to invite all the loan recipients from all 12 village banks in the same room, so we could share their successes with everyone and at the same time motivate the women to continue working hard in the coming year. We had outstanding attendance, out of 100 active loan recipients I would estimate that more than 80 women were present. Each village bank was invited to participate in the "Best Table" Competition where the women put on display their works and were then judged by 4 criteria: presentation, creativity, unity, and quality of works. In the morning when the women came to set up their tables I was in complete awe. They were taking the competition very seriously. 3 of our village banks went above and beyond. "United Women" all came in red shirts that had their village bank name on the front and then their individual names on the back of their shirts. That says TEAM to me. "Strength and Blessings" had each crochet purple vests (and also made my purple crochet cape for the occasion) and arrived in complete unison. Finally, the winner, "Start of Belen" put up a starry night backdrop for their table and every loan recipient had a star filled t-shirt. The competition brought out the best out in some of our banks, and was such a joy to see the unity that our banks have come to grow into.

Certificates were given all afternoon. I was especially filled with pride as our literacy students stood in front of the crowd and received recognition for not only for their hard work and dedication, but their personal decision to invest in themselves with a tool as basic (for many of us) as literacy. Near the end of the event I introduced the crowd to our 2011 village banking team: Desiree, Ahidee, Jheny and Oswaldo. It was an emotional moment, symbolically 'passing on the torch' and giving my blessing to our incredible team to continue the good work into next year.

We finished the event with a raffle and prizes; our friends and collaborators at GyC, as well at the head nun Sor Reyna, helped us throw numbers in the air to select our winners. Then the room turned into chaos as the drinking hot chocolate and eating fruit cake time began. All in all, Success. As I compile information for our Year End report next week I will make sure to share it here on the blog, so you all can get a better idea of specific successes, as there are many. But, now it is time for me to relax and regain strength for the coming week. Enjoy the photos!

The Despedida to Top all Despedidas!

I was speechless, still am.

Desi gave me the greatest gift ever yesterday. She brought all our 12 village banks together for a surprise Goodbye (Despidida) party. I knew something was up her sleeve, but I never would have guessed a room filled with so much love and appreciation. She lead me, eye closed, into the auditorium filled with close to 100 women. I opened my eyes and was surrounded by the faces that inspire and motivate me. On top of that, there was the most beautiful buffet table of peruvian delicasses laid out across the table. POTLUCK, every village bank had brought a dish to share!

But, first was the speeches and songs and poems. Desi made me sit in front of everyone on, what felt like, the queens chair (I was just missing a crown). Different women and teachers and coworkers came up to give their heart-felt gratitude words of goodbye. It was incredibly touching. I felt a wave of love and gratitude so big I could have exploded right then and there. Then, the food. Nourish the body and soul.

Although it was my GoodBye party, I was infused with all the energy and power that our women hold. I know Desi will do amazing things with DHF in the coming year, I mean, She brought 100 women together in the same room and organized the most beautiful Peruvian buffet, anything in Peru is a piece of cake after that. Our women are thristy for more knowledge and learning opportunities. Only great things will be created from all this goodness.

Paz ~ Nora

Vision

Last leadership workshop this week. It was bittersweet. I have really enjoyed putting together these workshops as it is the confidence building and real work that opens doors for self-esteem for many women. Yea, I get them playing, laughing, listening to stories...but with the goal of new ideas and thought processing springing up within.

We talked about Vision, both personal and group, for this last session. How do you plan for the future?, a topic that is not a common topic among Peruvians. I had the women evaluate their personal motivations for being in their village banks and then we did TV interviews. What is your life going to be like in 10 years? Think about your life, job, your surroundings. What is different and (hopefully) better? How did you get there? What decisions and steps did you have to make? From these experiences the women had to write down their personal vision on a small sheet of paper. Above you can see that Olga wrote "I want to have all the basic services (electricity and water) in my house so that I can put my small business in my house." Below you can see Laura had written, "I want to be a professional and sell real estate."

Start of Goodbyes

With only 1 month left in Cajamarca, we decided to have our first Despidia (good bye party). We had a BBQ potluck and it was delicious. Dear friends and family came and we squeezed into our apartment for an afternoon of eating, drinking, conversation and music. However, I am sure this was only the beginning of the Goodbyes.

Week in a Nutshell

Taking a break from the office workload yesterday, poolside, and feeling the gratitude to be here, in Cajamarca, doing what we are doing. Our work is so fufilling and, although it has it's challenges, it has endless rewards. Although yesterday we took a little break, there hasn't been many other breaks to speak of. Last Saturday our First Aid students finished their health session with the topic of Diarrhea. Again, another health session filled with questions and addressed doubts. Then, as the week got underway we had a Christmas cake class and Christmas crochet class. Finally, our computer class finished their 3 month Word 2007 Documents course with flying colors. Our students made incredible strides to greatly improve not only their typing speed, but their level of comfort with creating formal documents. According to Damaris, one of our top computer students, "This course has helped me a lot. I can make all kinds of documents and I am not scared to do them on my own. Because I learned so many new things with Word I can also help my younger family members at home with their homework."