Looking back on the 5 or so weeks I spent in Peru interviewing, observing how microfinance works, entering and analyzing data, I realize how much of an impact each person has on those surrounding them. Although I cannot quantify the value of this impact with numbers, it can be seen through observing how others feed of the energy (positive or negative) of one another. The immense power of peer influence presents an interesting opportunity for social change. However, with the multi-dimensional issues development workers (such as ourselves) are facing, peer pressure is not the only answer. The infrastructure of the country is also in need of stabilization, so that the peer influence can be directed in a positive direction.
After doing the Client Assessment report, I have realized how beneficial quantitative numbers can be in presenting a general overview of the clients. However, when analyzing the data, there was some information that numbers could simply not provide us with. For example, although we asked a question intending to find out more about the empowerment of each client, the numbers could only tell half the story. We questioned who played the principal role in making household decisions between the client, their spouse, or both. Although we were able to receive information, we were not able to put it in the context of each individual relationship and why they did or did not play a certain role. In hoping to empower women, the lack of quantitative numbers which clearly explain and demonstrate change presents the opportunity to further examine the issue.
Each development issue presents opportunity for examination from a million different perspectives. Although for some quantitative numbers can present the information needed, other more intricate issues require other approaches. Numbers may be the first step to discovering the best solutions, but they certainly are not the last.
- Rachel
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Nilma's Interview
Last Thursday morning Lauren and I spent the morning wandering around Juliaca, list of adresses in hand, finding PRISMA clients to interview for Kiva stories (see Kiva.org!). We had gotten names and adresses for various clientes from Luz, one of the loan officers and basically knocked on doors, introduced ourselves, and did interviews.
We ended up in Manco Capac, a working neighborhood named after the legendary founder of the Inca Empire, son of the Sun God and the Mother Earth (Pachamama) who rose out of Lake Titicaca, just an hour from Juliaca, to search out a place to found thier empire. That place ended up being in Cusco, a good 8 or 9 hours from the harsh winds and dust storms of Juliaca in the fertile Sacrad Valley. Now however, as one Puneño said, the Sacrad Valley inhabitants are all of Spanish decent and the only “pure incans” are relegated to the altitudes of Puno and Juliaca. Thus many neighborhoods, streets, landmarks and even people or businesses are named in Quechua or after famous indigenous heroes.
As we walked through Manco Capac we saw work proceeding in every doorway and on the wide, dusty streets in this working class neighborhood. Welders welding what appeared to be evolving into a set of fire-escape stairs, carpenters sawing and drilling, women preparing street food or cleaning their stalls that they had sold late-night street food from the night before, ojotos (rubber sandals) being made out of old tires. The sounds of work were augmented by the children playing in the street (often wearing ojotos) and acianos gossiping or watching from a step while chewing coca, peeling or cutting various roots of vegetables, and or knitting.
Our first interview was on Pasaje los Zorritos, or Little Foxes Pass. We turned from the wide, rocky avenue into a smaller, still rocky street and came to the number. The metal doors were partially open revealing a carpentry shop indside with two men at work. We knocked anyway and introduced ourselves, asking for our client, Nilma.
She emerged from a back room with a baby in her manta and invited us into her home. We passed through the carpentery shop, an 6 by 15 courtyard filled with stacks of lumber, partially completed shelves, and a few tools and entered into a small room made of mud bricks. We sat down across from Nilma in one of her two rooms, a narrow space with a table and stove top at one end and a bench on either side and began our interview.
Nilma had begun as a buyer and seller of “ropa americana” or American-style clothing. She brought it fromDesaguadero, on the southern border of Peru, close to Bolivia and sold to stores or stalls in Juliaca. Then, about 15 years ago she met her husband, a carpenter, and the two of them started an independent carpentry shop. However, during a difficult period about 10 years ago her husband went to the gold mines of Ananeya where he forgot his wife (and two children), leaving her sola to provide for and raise a family. She took over the carpentry shop, which she runs to this day. Some years later when her husband returned they reunited and he now works with her in the shop. She says, however, that she takes care of all of the finances because “unfortunately he has had some errors.” Now they sometimes employ another employee, often one of her 16 younger siblings or a boy from the neighborhood. She hopes to one day be able to buy power tools (a sander and a saw) and eventually be able to employ a full time helper.
Sitting in her room I asked if she had bought a TV in the time since she´d taken out a loan with PRISMA. TVs are often one of the first applainces women buy when their finances improve even minimally, telenovelas are extremely popular here, you can see “Gitanas” or “Asi es la Vida” playing even in artesania stalls on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Telenovelas have sometimes been called the opiate of the poor women and here that may be true. Nilma however responded “No, I don´t have money for a television yet. I just got electricity, la señorita Luz (a PRISMA loan officer) helped me with that. Now I´m saving up for a place to live with my children (she now has six). Once we have a nicer house we can get appliances like that. But right now, a television doesn´t help me pay my loan. It wont bring me any money, it will just waste my time.”
Later in the interview we asked about the stack of cigar boxes dividing her small home into two rooms. “Oh, I sell those on the side, along with my used clothing business. When we have enough money for an electric sander we will be able to live off of only our carpentry business. Until then selling used clothing and cigars helps us pay for things when we don´t have a lot of orders.¨
Many, maybe the majority of women we have talked to have multiple businesses to keep them alive year round. Nilma says when orders are low her husband goes off to look for work in other parts of the state, anything from mining to trash collection. Even our host family in Puno has had multiple businesses. In the early 90´s they bought shrimp in Arequipa, my host mother Carmen´s birth city, and brought them by bus to Puno where they sold them to touristic restaurants. Later Carmen opened a polleria and a restaurant operating from their house and in the summers taught dance classes to neighborhood children. When I asked her why she did all this when she and her husband have full time jobs she said, ¨We didn´t have enough money. First we had to feed Annie, and then after we got our own house we needed money to put up curtains and buy furniture.¨ Now Carmen, who also works as a schoolteacher, has a store in her house because, in her words, she doesn´t want to ¨always have to be asking Darwin for money.¨
Anyway, as we finished interviewing Nilma she asked where we were going next. We told her the woman´s name, and she knew the woman and insisted on walking us over to her house. This was certainly one of my favorite interviews so far but Nilma´s story seems anything but unusual among her compañeras in PRISMA and in Juliaca. It seemed plausible that in every house in that neighborhood, and many other neighborhoods in Juliaca, there were woman working just like Nilma with similar goals and histories, and with equally well-used loans.
Jessie
We ended up in Manco Capac, a working neighborhood named after the legendary founder of the Inca Empire, son of the Sun God and the Mother Earth (Pachamama) who rose out of Lake Titicaca, just an hour from Juliaca, to search out a place to found thier empire. That place ended up being in Cusco, a good 8 or 9 hours from the harsh winds and dust storms of Juliaca in the fertile Sacrad Valley. Now however, as one Puneño said, the Sacrad Valley inhabitants are all of Spanish decent and the only “pure incans” are relegated to the altitudes of Puno and Juliaca. Thus many neighborhoods, streets, landmarks and even people or businesses are named in Quechua or after famous indigenous heroes.
As we walked through Manco Capac we saw work proceeding in every doorway and on the wide, dusty streets in this working class neighborhood. Welders welding what appeared to be evolving into a set of fire-escape stairs, carpenters sawing and drilling, women preparing street food or cleaning their stalls that they had sold late-night street food from the night before, ojotos (rubber sandals) being made out of old tires. The sounds of work were augmented by the children playing in the street (often wearing ojotos) and acianos gossiping or watching from a step while chewing coca, peeling or cutting various roots of vegetables, and or knitting.
Our first interview was on Pasaje los Zorritos, or Little Foxes Pass. We turned from the wide, rocky avenue into a smaller, still rocky street and came to the number. The metal doors were partially open revealing a carpentry shop indside with two men at work. We knocked anyway and introduced ourselves, asking for our client, Nilma.
She emerged from a back room with a baby in her manta and invited us into her home. We passed through the carpentery shop, an 6 by 15 courtyard filled with stacks of lumber, partially completed shelves, and a few tools and entered into a small room made of mud bricks. We sat down across from Nilma in one of her two rooms, a narrow space with a table and stove top at one end and a bench on either side and began our interview.
Nilma had begun as a buyer and seller of “ropa americana” or American-style clothing. She brought it fromDesaguadero, on the southern border of Peru, close to Bolivia and sold to stores or stalls in Juliaca. Then, about 15 years ago she met her husband, a carpenter, and the two of them started an independent carpentry shop. However, during a difficult period about 10 years ago her husband went to the gold mines of Ananeya where he forgot his wife (and two children), leaving her sola to provide for and raise a family. She took over the carpentry shop, which she runs to this day. Some years later when her husband returned they reunited and he now works with her in the shop. She says, however, that she takes care of all of the finances because “unfortunately he has had some errors.” Now they sometimes employ another employee, often one of her 16 younger siblings or a boy from the neighborhood. She hopes to one day be able to buy power tools (a sander and a saw) and eventually be able to employ a full time helper.
Sitting in her room I asked if she had bought a TV in the time since she´d taken out a loan with PRISMA. TVs are often one of the first applainces women buy when their finances improve even minimally, telenovelas are extremely popular here, you can see “Gitanas” or “Asi es la Vida” playing even in artesania stalls on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Telenovelas have sometimes been called the opiate of the poor women and here that may be true. Nilma however responded “No, I don´t have money for a television yet. I just got electricity, la señorita Luz (a PRISMA loan officer) helped me with that. Now I´m saving up for a place to live with my children (she now has six). Once we have a nicer house we can get appliances like that. But right now, a television doesn´t help me pay my loan. It wont bring me any money, it will just waste my time.”
Later in the interview we asked about the stack of cigar boxes dividing her small home into two rooms. “Oh, I sell those on the side, along with my used clothing business. When we have enough money for an electric sander we will be able to live off of only our carpentry business. Until then selling used clothing and cigars helps us pay for things when we don´t have a lot of orders.¨
Many, maybe the majority of women we have talked to have multiple businesses to keep them alive year round. Nilma says when orders are low her husband goes off to look for work in other parts of the state, anything from mining to trash collection. Even our host family in Puno has had multiple businesses. In the early 90´s they bought shrimp in Arequipa, my host mother Carmen´s birth city, and brought them by bus to Puno where they sold them to touristic restaurants. Later Carmen opened a polleria and a restaurant operating from their house and in the summers taught dance classes to neighborhood children. When I asked her why she did all this when she and her husband have full time jobs she said, ¨We didn´t have enough money. First we had to feed Annie, and then after we got our own house we needed money to put up curtains and buy furniture.¨ Now Carmen, who also works as a schoolteacher, has a store in her house because, in her words, she doesn´t want to ¨always have to be asking Darwin for money.¨
Anyway, as we finished interviewing Nilma she asked where we were going next. We told her the woman´s name, and she knew the woman and insisted on walking us over to her house. This was certainly one of my favorite interviews so far but Nilma´s story seems anything but unusual among her compañeras in PRISMA and in Juliaca. It seemed plausible that in every house in that neighborhood, and many other neighborhoods in Juliaca, there were woman working just like Nilma with similar goals and histories, and with equally well-used loans.
Jessie
Monday, July 23, 2007
Monday Madness for CMI
This past Monday marked one of CMI's most productive, if zany workdays thus far. The team set out a full two hours earlier than usual for their trip to the Prisma offices in Juliaca, anticipating the day's 20+ borrower meetings. By sunset, the team had completed over 70 individual surveys (a record!), purchased two egg-bearing Quails, and doled out free marshmallows to Juliacans everywhere. Just another day in the life of the CMI second session volunteers.
Working like a well-oiled microfinance machine, CMI is ahead of schedule in achieving their goal of collecting 250 borrower surveys. Once processed, this data will yield a wealth of important information about the micro-entrepreneurs in the Puno region. All of CMI's hard work will culminate in a report to be finalized in the coming weeks. To boot, our video documentary will bring all the action of microfinance in live color and sound to all of CMI's fans and followers back home.
Finally, the city of Puno is still frigid and developing, but CMI loves its lakeside home in the highlands. At night, cool air from lake Titicaca breezes through city's sprawling concrete grid. Spires of tangled rebar and mortar make up Puno's peculiar skyline, and the city almost blends into the hills of brown grass sloping high and treeless around the town. More overly dramatic descriptions of Puno to come...
Joey
Working like a well-oiled microfinance machine, CMI is ahead of schedule in achieving their goal of collecting 250 borrower surveys. Once processed, this data will yield a wealth of important information about the micro-entrepreneurs in the Puno region. All of CMI's hard work will culminate in a report to be finalized in the coming weeks. To boot, our video documentary will bring all the action of microfinance in live color and sound to all of CMI's fans and followers back home.
Finally, the city of Puno is still frigid and developing, but CMI loves its lakeside home in the highlands. At night, cool air from lake Titicaca breezes through city's sprawling concrete grid. Spires of tangled rebar and mortar make up Puno's peculiar skyline, and the city almost blends into the hills of brown grass sloping high and treeless around the town. More overly dramatic descriptions of Puno to come...
Joey
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Surveys, Spreadsheets, and Longing for Summertime
Eight days have passed since the final members of CMI Second Session arrived in Puno, Peru, and much has been accomplished by the new Micro-Crew. Working efficiently all week in Juliaca, the group has managed to complete close to 60 individual client surveys, conduct several group interviews, and reel in some great footage for a CMI documentary. In addition, two profiles of PRISMA borrowers have been added to KIVA.org, and both received their full requested loan amounts within 24 hours of uploading! A huge success!
While CMIers aren´t working hard, time is spent teaching english to college students, eating at local bakeries, and basking in the warmth of CMI´s newest member, a 1200 Watt space-heater. The weather is cold in Puno, but the people are friendly, and there is plenty of nescafe to go around. All in all, CMI is on track for completing a highly productive summer of providing microfinance to Peru!
While CMIers aren´t working hard, time is spent teaching english to college students, eating at local bakeries, and basking in the warmth of CMI´s newest member, a 1200 Watt space-heater. The weather is cold in Puno, but the people are friendly, and there is plenty of nescafe to go around. All in all, CMI is on track for completing a highly productive summer of providing microfinance to Peru!
Ben
Friday, July 20, 2007
First Day at Prisma
After a week and a half of exploring Cuzco and the surrounding area and waiting for the strikes to end, I am very excited to be in Puno. After hearing so much from other members of CMI, it has been nice to actually meet the host family and work at Prisma. The host family could not be more welcoming. This past Saturday, Jessie and I celebrated our birthdays. The host family went out of their way to make it a wonderful, memorable day as did the other members of CMI. Our peers cooked a fabulous Mexican dinner and our Peruvian hosts taught us several games. It was one of my most memorable birthdays. I have enjoyed having the connection through the host family and receiving insight into the Peruvian culture and every day life. In addition, I had a chance to be a tourist and visit the floating islands which were fascinating. We spent a relaxing afternoon touring the island settlements built of beds of reeds. The houses had solar panels for electricity and the tourist area even had a hotel! The views of Lake Titicaca were beautiful as was the view of Puno from the boat.
Today is my first day at Prisma. After having studied and read so much about microfinance it is incredible to actually be able to participate in the work. I have enjoyed taking surveys and talking with the women about their businesses and their lives. Each woman has a different story and I cannot wait to keep working here. I am so glad to be in Puno!
Lauren
Today is my first day at Prisma. After having studied and read so much about microfinance it is incredible to actually be able to participate in the work. I have enjoyed taking surveys and talking with the women about their businesses and their lives. Each woman has a different story and I cannot wait to keep working here. I am so glad to be in Puno!
Lauren
Sunday, July 15, 2007
New Arrivals to CMI
After a week of intense strikes and several failed attempts to arrive in Puno members of second session CMI finally arrived. Five AM on Friday morning Carmen, our host mom, awoke me: ¨Jessita, Jessita, tus amigos ya llegaron.¨ They were outside in a taxi. Juliana ran down to meet them and took them to the apartment so they could try and get a few hours of sleep.
In the morning we had a final meeting with Juliana before she left. Then we showed the new group around town where they were welcomed by thousands of puneños shouting in the streets. Unfortunately they weren’t shouting welcomes but ¨El pueblo unido/ jamás será vencido!¨ (the people united/ will never be divided!). That afternoon and Saturday morning we had a slew of meetings, getting everyone up to speed on the details of our work, the next steps and dividing tasks among new group members. I am so excited about this new group and the great start we’ve gotten off to. CMI has so much to do this week and the rest of our time in Peru and our new members have already shown dedication and energy. From the puneños we’ve questioned striking should not pose a problem for transportation next week so we will be continuing with our Kiva Interviews, Satisfaction Focal Groups, Charlas, Client Assessments and Joey will be starting our documentary film. Next weekend we will also be starting on our final report, which will be based on the data gathered from Client Assessments.
Jessie
In the morning we had a final meeting with Juliana before she left. Then we showed the new group around town where they were welcomed by thousands of puneños shouting in the streets. Unfortunately they weren’t shouting welcomes but ¨El pueblo unido/ jamás será vencido!¨ (the people united/ will never be divided!). That afternoon and Saturday morning we had a slew of meetings, getting everyone up to speed on the details of our work, the next steps and dividing tasks among new group members. I am so excited about this new group and the great start we’ve gotten off to. CMI has so much to do this week and the rest of our time in Peru and our new members have already shown dedication and energy. From the puneños we’ve questioned striking should not pose a problem for transportation next week so we will be continuing with our Kiva Interviews, Satisfaction Focal Groups, Charlas, Client Assessments and Joey will be starting our documentary film. Next weekend we will also be starting on our final report, which will be based on the data gathered from Client Assessments.
Jessie
Good-bye Juliana
After working through many hardships to provide CMI with a great start Juliana has decided to return to the US and continue working to support us from there. She left Friday at 1pm. We were all sad to say good bye to such a great friend and leader.
After brainstorming ideas for special good-bye dinners we were lucky to get food at all due to two days of ¨Paro fuerte¨(strong striking) in which no stores were open, no vehicles ran (or they ran at the risk of being pelted by stones – I saw this twice) and schools were closed. We ended up at the homestay, playing games with our wonderful and loving host family and eating a cake Carmen, Tyler and I hunted down amidst strikers (we saw a woman in the street with a cake and rushed to ask where it was from, it turned out Mercedes bakery was operating ¨with doors closed¨ so as not to be targeted by strikers).
The next day, after leaving us with lots of advice (and her Spanish-English Dictionary) Juliana departed from the bus station. We received an email Friday night and Juliana is safe and well on her way to Lima. We will miss her!
Jessie
After brainstorming ideas for special good-bye dinners we were lucky to get food at all due to two days of ¨Paro fuerte¨(strong striking) in which no stores were open, no vehicles ran (or they ran at the risk of being pelted by stones – I saw this twice) and schools were closed. We ended up at the homestay, playing games with our wonderful and loving host family and eating a cake Carmen, Tyler and I hunted down amidst strikers (we saw a woman in the street with a cake and rushed to ask where it was from, it turned out Mercedes bakery was operating ¨with doors closed¨ so as not to be targeted by strikers).
The next day, after leaving us with lots of advice (and her Spanish-English Dictionary) Juliana departed from the bus station. We received an email Friday night and Juliana is safe and well on her way to Lima. We will miss her!
Jessie
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