Hi all! If you want to check out or lend to entrepreneurs with whom Esperanza International, I, and all my other intern friends are working, check out this link:
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&partner_id=44&status=fundRaising&sortBy=New+to+Old
Monday, June 29, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Con mas despacio por favor
Hola, hola, hola. As Jaclyn and Laurel noted while we were traveling during spring break, I tend to repeat things in sets of three for emphasis—I didn’t notice this until they told me repeatedly and now I catch myself doing it all the time, though I rarely censor accordingly. First of all, I want to apologize for the format of my first post. My friend Joey kindly pointed out that paragraphs are a good thing and I should use them…hopefully this will improve your reading experience. I’m a noob to blogging and I’m sure I’ll make many more mistakes in the future—please point them out to me in a kind and loving fashion and I’ll try to improve. Such cluelessnesses seem to mark this summer—I recently out-gringad myself with respect to my princess mosquito canopy. Rebecca was checking out how I had set up my room and started laughing when she saw my canopy. Apparently I needed to rotate it 90 degrees. The canopy is rectangular, but I figured it was square when I hung it. Now, if you know of any square beds, please send me a photo because as far as I know that was a general lapse of common sense on my part. Nonetheless, my canopy is now properly hung and I continue to enjoy my nighttime routine of journaling/reading/general princessing.
On Friday, we drove and dropped off each volunteer at his/her respective site. It was sad to say goodbye because we grew quite close over the past few days and it’s dubious whether or not we’ll all be in the same locale at one time. I’m normally the kid who attends a week or weekend camp and does not really connect with any of the other kids in a meaningful or sustainable fashion. But, over the past two years in particular, I’ve dramatically improved in my ability to make friends quickly. Now, as I learned in econometrics, many forces can be working to affect one change AND we can also have causes that affect the affecter, effectively. I’ve always been a bit of an old soul (as Mom puts it) so I think the general growing up of my generation facilitates those relationships. Also, I think I’ve grown down. That is, I’ve become generally less uptight and serious in new situations. Thirdly, this internship opportunity is narrow in scope and attracted people with similar drive, academic focus, and life passion…overlap, overlap, overlap. Right now, some of us are planning on exploring Punta Cana (awesome beach area on the eastern coast) this weekend.
Quite frankly, I believe I would have plenty to do if I remained in Los Alcarrizos this coming weekend, but I’m trying to grow my traveling confidence and experience and exploring with these friends would greatly aid the process. Also, I am aware that eleven weeks may seem like a lot of time, but it’s slipping by quite quickly and I want to fill it intentionally. Additionally, I spent this past weekend in Los Alcarrizos, so a change of scenery will be valuable.
I woke up about 8 on Saturday and enjoyed a breakfast of harina con negritos (cloves). It’s a sweet hot breakfast made from (I think) cornflower, milk, and sugar. It’s really quite good. Saturday was basically filled with hanging out at the house, meandering around the neighborhood, and meeting lots and lots of people. In the states, my family is good friends with a family with eight children. When you visit their house, it is hectic and crazy. There are children and children’s friends everywhere. Various people have lived with the family for stints of time and others pop in and out for a visit. Now, imagine an entire country like that. I am slowly beginning to piece together who belongs to whom and who lives where—and I’m fairly certain it’s a fluid mosaic.
The first couple of days living with Rebecca and her family I was a bit frustrated by lack of ability to understan. The Dominican accent can be fairly strong and there are many expressions that are solo de La Republica Dominicana. For example, to say “how are you?” People normally say “como estas?” (accents on vowels not included) but here most people say “como tu ta?” For common expressions, that is perfectly fine and I can follow. But s’s drop out all over the place and words I know I know, I no longer know any more. But, four days later, my comprehension has vastly improved. I was beginning to worry that I would never have a real conversation and that I was in way too deep, but it takes time and ears adjust quickly. On that note, another difficulty is knowing what words are new to me and what words’ pronunciations are different and when to ask for clarification and when to just move forward. We now fondly refer to my Spanish→English dictionary as “el amigo de Anne.” One of my favorite new expressions is “que chebera” (I highly encourage you to say this one aloud…very fun) and it means “cool” or “awesome.” I have adopted this expression so expect to hear it upon my return.
Patricia, the girl with whom I traveled to Los Alcarrizos from Santo Domingo, said we could hang out. First of all, she speaks Spanish with a great amount of clarity and she also has a good deal of English experience too, making communication rapid and easy. After a day (Saturday) of rapid/very Dominican Spanish in my home community, I was eager to hang out with her and her friends. Furthermore, I wanted to make sure that I developed any friend leads I had and I both liked and trusted her (still do…in Spanish I would have used the imperfect tense to indicate a continuous sentiment). I sent Patricia a text and we made plans to meet up on Sunday…I was to join her at her church.
On Sunday, I went with Rebecca and her family to their church for about a half hour before I was picked up by a montoconcho with Patricia (basically a motorbike that is very commonly used). Don’t worry, it’s not that sketchy. In general, people use the same motoconcho or taxi drivers repeatedly and mine was a friend of the family. He then drove us to Patricia’s church. While riding the montoconcho I’m filled with mixed emotions. Part of me is quite alert, watching out for traffic and speed bumps and loose gravel so as to warn as necessary, and the other part of me feels quite daring—like Steve McQueen in the Great Escape, but we all know how that one ends.
Patricia sings with her worship band and so we were about a half hour early to church so she could practice with the rest of the group. The service was about two hours long—one hour of singing and one hour of a sermon and other general testimonies. Normally I’m quite impatient when it comes to singing in church, but on Sunday I found it to be quite refreshing. The words were projected in the church and many of tunes were familiar. For that one hour, I felt like I knew (almost 100%) what was going on. It was really nice not to feel like the smiling, nodding, clueless gringa.
Every Sunday after the service, Patricia’s church serves a meal. Now, as a kid whose parents always stayed at church for what seemed like hours, a meal (or at least a snack) would have been wonderful. The meal fostered good community time and a wonderful opportunity for me to observe that and hang out with Patricia and her friends.
On the note of not knowing who belongs with whom, there are many, many babies and I have no idea who are the siblings and who are the parents. Babies are passed around like 99 bottles of beer on the wall and every baby is the most precious and the most beautiful baby. With all of these babies (both in the church and in the DR in general) I’ve seen surprisingly few pregnant women…I’m keeping an unofficial tally and I think I’ve only spotted three. My favorite word I’ve heard used to describe a baby is “gordito.” Gordo is fat and you add –ito or –ita to the end of a word to make it small. It’s a perfect because many babies really are little fat people!
When I was hanging out with Patricia and her friends eating and chatting, it was incredibly awkward for me at a first. I was just the tagalong friend and my Spanish wasn’t fairing so well. Nevertheless, I was determined to stick it out and make it work, if only to prove I could to myself. I’ve found I can connect best with people here if I first make a few self-deprecating jokes (tre Hugh Grant). And, I knew I’d been accepted by the group when all the guys insisted that I stand up and turn around like a model so they could check me out. They had to see whether or not I was pretty because they can only be friends with pretty girls. Now, as soon as they asked me to stand up, I knew the ice was broken. However, I wasn’t about to cave easily. At first, I refused to stand up on the principle that ugly girls can be good friends. Later, I refused to stand up because I liked the group and didn’t want to be forced to leave. Finally, I stood up, struck a pose, and then sheepishly and dejectedly turned around. The boys consulted and decided I could stay. The group made mention of a birthday party and other activities that I could join in the future, which is encouraging because it means they like me. However, it’s still the DR, so I’m not expecting any calls…I’ll have to keep calling Patricia to find out what the deal is.
Later in the day, I helped Patricia round up about a dozen children to bring to the afternoon church service for kids. All in all, there were about 200 kids and it was a very happy chaos. One of the things I really like is how the leaders (ages 15-25 more or less) really get involved with the children. They enthusiastically sang the songs and participated in the activities. In general, Dominicans seem to be a soulful and enthusiastic bunch and I’m very much appreciating it.
During the children’s service was also the first time that I received extended attention. A few of the little girls (ages 7-9) insisted on sitting next to me (and on my lap) and playing with my hair and they peppered me with questions. I also received three invitations to become a girlfriend (and maybe a marriage proposal)—all were under the age of ten. Children tend not to speak clearly and adding that to the mix of DR accent and Spanish meant that we didn’t really say very much, but children are quite forgiving and it wasn’t actually an issue. That is not to say that others have not been. Rather, I’ve been incredibly fortunate with how patient people have been with me. In the months preceding this trip, both I and others had noticed that I was becoming increasingly less patient. In reflection, the patience I’ve received has been quite humbling. Without the patience of others I would not only be completely clueless (a bit of an overstatement), but I would also feel awful. The latter has been avoided due to truly gracious people.
Two of my Spanish goals are to be able to carry on conversations with children and to decipher the messages that loudspeakers that are attached to the trucks that sell platanos are projecting. When I can do those two things, it will be a grand mark in my Spanish career.
After the service, we walked the dozen children home and met up with Patricia’s two best girl friends who I met earlier in the day. We made dinner, chatted, and watched tv until about 8:30 when I took a motoconcho back to Rebecca’s. I was exhausted…just listening and talking can be tiring…and so I went to bed at about 10PM.
Monday was my first day in the Los Alcarrizos office and Rebecca and I traveled to work in the style of Ralph S. Mouse. There are seven people who work in the office including a secretary, loan officers, and the boss. Every Monday, each Esperanza office conducts a devotional Bible study with singing, reading, and discussion. There were books to follow along with and again I felt comforted by a script. I’m fairly happy with my reading comprehension and part of me thinks all this would be much easier if people just had their own personal subtitles.
The rest of the day I basically spent getting to know the other people in the office, it’s a lively and fun group, which will make office time speedy and enjoyable. I also organized myself for the rest of the week so I could actually be productive. Most of what I would consider to be the real and interesting work does not take place in the office. Rather, the loan collection meetings and initial signup meetings and training meetings all occur in the local communities, typically at a local church. I’ll be going to all of these meetings, tagging along with the loan officers so I can gather my Kiva/personal research project info.
Monday evening was the first night that I wasn’t completely exhausted and I was able to enjoy hanging out with the family. It’s pretty hot and humid during the day, so most people lay low and don’t have much of an appetite. That means that people stay up later and also enjoy a later dinner as well…we ate about 9PM last night. It’s a perfect temperature outside at night, so the family usually moves the TV out there and chats well into the night. Rebecca, Wendy, and I also played a few games before retiring to bed.
My friend Tess is stationed in Hato Mayor and unfortunately has very unstable water; we’ve been brainstorming techniques for bucket showers. Luckily, my water situation is more constant and I’ve always had it when I wanted to shower. However, it’s always cold. The cold is refreshing in the afternoon, but in the morning it can be downright chilly and I prefer to start the day fresh. This has spurred on my morning exercise routine of basic core activities that help me work up a sweat (or glisten rather) and enjoy the shower as a cold treat directly thereafter.
This morning (Tuesday) I saw my frog prince friend in the shower. He’s a small frog who I’ve spotted in the shower about three times now. After my shower this morning, I returned to my room to get dressed, etc. There’s an armoire against the wall across from my bed. I was doing something at the armoire when I looked down to the left and spotted a tarantula the size of my hand on the baseboard. I immediately gasped in surprise, but then quickly calmed as he wasn’t moving. My first thought was “Wow, I’ll be sure to check my shoes from here on out.” My second was “I’m not too worried about this one; rather, it’s the ones I don’t see that worry me.” I’d really rather not wake up to a tarantula crawling across my body. I then finished my morning routine and asked my host mom to help me remove the beast. According to one of the brothers who lives with us, tarantulas only like girls. Swell, just swell.
Today was my first day going to meetings and the result of over two years of anticipation. I really first learned about microfinance and Kiva second semester of my senior year of high school and since then I’ve been itching to see it up close and personal. I traveled (alone…aka sans Rebecca but con driver) via montoconcho to Ruth’s house (loan officer). We then journeyed via car to a neighboring area called Haina where we conducted two loan collection meetings (reunions bisemanales) and then met with fifteen other women individually who were about to take out their first loan (8:30 AM—3:30 PM). The first meeting, I took a back seat and really just observed what was going on. With the following meetings, I just asked questions as they came up and made conversation. Technically, we volunteers are supposed to be collecting as much information for a specific person so we can post Kiva profiles, but I needed to take today to get my feet wet. Tomorrow, and all the following days, I’ll have plenty of time to dive in deep, but today I just needed to take it as it came. For me, that meant that at some of the houses of the fifteen women I let Ruth do all the official talking with the prospective borrowers while I hung out with the kids.
My favorite experience was with a little girl named Annabelle. I promise we connected over more than just similar names. (By the by Anne is a very difficult name to pronounce here. If I don’t get “Anna” I get “Ain”) This nine-year-old girl had a sweet seriousness about her. Her older brother and friend were working on building a table and she was eagerly helping to piece it together. (I’ve been impressed with people’s ability to makeshift things together in general). She also engaged me in an informal dialogue about school and her family. Frequently the kids become really giggly or shy in these circumstances, but she connected in an earnest fashion and answered my questions honestly. When I asked Annabelle, after talking for a few minutes, if I could take her picture she said no. I was initially quite disappointed because she’d made a distinct impression on me. However, I was also impressed that she stood her ground. Often when I ask children questions, they respond in the affirmative even when that yields contradictions. We chatted and laughed some more and she shared how she wants to study to be a doctor and that she works hard in school. I told her I’m a university student and encouraged her keep up with the good studies. She then showed me her vegetable garden and later gave me a flower, which I’ve now put in my notebook and is pressing nicely. After she gave me the flower, I asked if we (Anne and Annabelle) could take a photo with the flower and she eagerly agreed this time. It’s encouraging to know that if I want to see Annabelle again, I can because Esperanza has made contact with her mother and, for at least the next six months, will foster opportunities to visit her family due to her mother’s soon-to-be loan.
While meeting the various associates (entrepreneurs/borrowers), I took in a lot about the general environment. The community of Haina is at the base of tropical hills that are a lush green, green, green. It’s interesting because one house will have a solid roof and cement floor and the next will have unintentional skylight and dirt floor. Some are kept remarkably clean and tidy and others seem disheveled. However, there did not seem to be a strong correlation between tidiness of house and person and income bracket and perspective loan amount. Having only spent one day in the field (an expression I don’t like but have yet to find a replacement for), I am not inclined to speculate upon these issues. They will, however, remain present in my mind and questions during the coming weeks and I’ll be sure to comment more.
Again, thank you for putting up with my longwinded post. I’d really appreciate comments so I can best cater my responses to the audience…that includes but is not limited to stylistic suggestions and questions!
Hasta luego,
Anne la gringa
On Friday, we drove and dropped off each volunteer at his/her respective site. It was sad to say goodbye because we grew quite close over the past few days and it’s dubious whether or not we’ll all be in the same locale at one time. I’m normally the kid who attends a week or weekend camp and does not really connect with any of the other kids in a meaningful or sustainable fashion. But, over the past two years in particular, I’ve dramatically improved in my ability to make friends quickly. Now, as I learned in econometrics, many forces can be working to affect one change AND we can also have causes that affect the affecter, effectively. I’ve always been a bit of an old soul (as Mom puts it) so I think the general growing up of my generation facilitates those relationships. Also, I think I’ve grown down. That is, I’ve become generally less uptight and serious in new situations. Thirdly, this internship opportunity is narrow in scope and attracted people with similar drive, academic focus, and life passion…overlap, overlap, overlap. Right now, some of us are planning on exploring Punta Cana (awesome beach area on the eastern coast) this weekend.
Quite frankly, I believe I would have plenty to do if I remained in Los Alcarrizos this coming weekend, but I’m trying to grow my traveling confidence and experience and exploring with these friends would greatly aid the process. Also, I am aware that eleven weeks may seem like a lot of time, but it’s slipping by quite quickly and I want to fill it intentionally. Additionally, I spent this past weekend in Los Alcarrizos, so a change of scenery will be valuable.
I woke up about 8 on Saturday and enjoyed a breakfast of harina con negritos (cloves). It’s a sweet hot breakfast made from (I think) cornflower, milk, and sugar. It’s really quite good. Saturday was basically filled with hanging out at the house, meandering around the neighborhood, and meeting lots and lots of people. In the states, my family is good friends with a family with eight children. When you visit their house, it is hectic and crazy. There are children and children’s friends everywhere. Various people have lived with the family for stints of time and others pop in and out for a visit. Now, imagine an entire country like that. I am slowly beginning to piece together who belongs to whom and who lives where—and I’m fairly certain it’s a fluid mosaic.
The first couple of days living with Rebecca and her family I was a bit frustrated by lack of ability to understan. The Dominican accent can be fairly strong and there are many expressions that are solo de La Republica Dominicana. For example, to say “how are you?” People normally say “como estas?” (accents on vowels not included) but here most people say “como tu ta?” For common expressions, that is perfectly fine and I can follow. But s’s drop out all over the place and words I know I know, I no longer know any more. But, four days later, my comprehension has vastly improved. I was beginning to worry that I would never have a real conversation and that I was in way too deep, but it takes time and ears adjust quickly. On that note, another difficulty is knowing what words are new to me and what words’ pronunciations are different and when to ask for clarification and when to just move forward. We now fondly refer to my Spanish→English dictionary as “el amigo de Anne.” One of my favorite new expressions is “que chebera” (I highly encourage you to say this one aloud…very fun) and it means “cool” or “awesome.” I have adopted this expression so expect to hear it upon my return.
Patricia, the girl with whom I traveled to Los Alcarrizos from Santo Domingo, said we could hang out. First of all, she speaks Spanish with a great amount of clarity and she also has a good deal of English experience too, making communication rapid and easy. After a day (Saturday) of rapid/very Dominican Spanish in my home community, I was eager to hang out with her and her friends. Furthermore, I wanted to make sure that I developed any friend leads I had and I both liked and trusted her (still do…in Spanish I would have used the imperfect tense to indicate a continuous sentiment). I sent Patricia a text and we made plans to meet up on Sunday…I was to join her at her church.
On Sunday, I went with Rebecca and her family to their church for about a half hour before I was picked up by a montoconcho with Patricia (basically a motorbike that is very commonly used). Don’t worry, it’s not that sketchy. In general, people use the same motoconcho or taxi drivers repeatedly and mine was a friend of the family. He then drove us to Patricia’s church. While riding the montoconcho I’m filled with mixed emotions. Part of me is quite alert, watching out for traffic and speed bumps and loose gravel so as to warn as necessary, and the other part of me feels quite daring—like Steve McQueen in the Great Escape, but we all know how that one ends.
Patricia sings with her worship band and so we were about a half hour early to church so she could practice with the rest of the group. The service was about two hours long—one hour of singing and one hour of a sermon and other general testimonies. Normally I’m quite impatient when it comes to singing in church, but on Sunday I found it to be quite refreshing. The words were projected in the church and many of tunes were familiar. For that one hour, I felt like I knew (almost 100%) what was going on. It was really nice not to feel like the smiling, nodding, clueless gringa.
Every Sunday after the service, Patricia’s church serves a meal. Now, as a kid whose parents always stayed at church for what seemed like hours, a meal (or at least a snack) would have been wonderful. The meal fostered good community time and a wonderful opportunity for me to observe that and hang out with Patricia and her friends.
On the note of not knowing who belongs with whom, there are many, many babies and I have no idea who are the siblings and who are the parents. Babies are passed around like 99 bottles of beer on the wall and every baby is the most precious and the most beautiful baby. With all of these babies (both in the church and in the DR in general) I’ve seen surprisingly few pregnant women…I’m keeping an unofficial tally and I think I’ve only spotted three. My favorite word I’ve heard used to describe a baby is “gordito.” Gordo is fat and you add –ito or –ita to the end of a word to make it small. It’s a perfect because many babies really are little fat people!
When I was hanging out with Patricia and her friends eating and chatting, it was incredibly awkward for me at a first. I was just the tagalong friend and my Spanish wasn’t fairing so well. Nevertheless, I was determined to stick it out and make it work, if only to prove I could to myself. I’ve found I can connect best with people here if I first make a few self-deprecating jokes (tre Hugh Grant). And, I knew I’d been accepted by the group when all the guys insisted that I stand up and turn around like a model so they could check me out. They had to see whether or not I was pretty because they can only be friends with pretty girls. Now, as soon as they asked me to stand up, I knew the ice was broken. However, I wasn’t about to cave easily. At first, I refused to stand up on the principle that ugly girls can be good friends. Later, I refused to stand up because I liked the group and didn’t want to be forced to leave. Finally, I stood up, struck a pose, and then sheepishly and dejectedly turned around. The boys consulted and decided I could stay. The group made mention of a birthday party and other activities that I could join in the future, which is encouraging because it means they like me. However, it’s still the DR, so I’m not expecting any calls…I’ll have to keep calling Patricia to find out what the deal is.
Later in the day, I helped Patricia round up about a dozen children to bring to the afternoon church service for kids. All in all, there were about 200 kids and it was a very happy chaos. One of the things I really like is how the leaders (ages 15-25 more or less) really get involved with the children. They enthusiastically sang the songs and participated in the activities. In general, Dominicans seem to be a soulful and enthusiastic bunch and I’m very much appreciating it.
During the children’s service was also the first time that I received extended attention. A few of the little girls (ages 7-9) insisted on sitting next to me (and on my lap) and playing with my hair and they peppered me with questions. I also received three invitations to become a girlfriend (and maybe a marriage proposal)—all were under the age of ten. Children tend not to speak clearly and adding that to the mix of DR accent and Spanish meant that we didn’t really say very much, but children are quite forgiving and it wasn’t actually an issue. That is not to say that others have not been. Rather, I’ve been incredibly fortunate with how patient people have been with me. In the months preceding this trip, both I and others had noticed that I was becoming increasingly less patient. In reflection, the patience I’ve received has been quite humbling. Without the patience of others I would not only be completely clueless (a bit of an overstatement), but I would also feel awful. The latter has been avoided due to truly gracious people.
Two of my Spanish goals are to be able to carry on conversations with children and to decipher the messages that loudspeakers that are attached to the trucks that sell platanos are projecting. When I can do those two things, it will be a grand mark in my Spanish career.
After the service, we walked the dozen children home and met up with Patricia’s two best girl friends who I met earlier in the day. We made dinner, chatted, and watched tv until about 8:30 when I took a motoconcho back to Rebecca’s. I was exhausted…just listening and talking can be tiring…and so I went to bed at about 10PM.
Monday was my first day in the Los Alcarrizos office and Rebecca and I traveled to work in the style of Ralph S. Mouse. There are seven people who work in the office including a secretary, loan officers, and the boss. Every Monday, each Esperanza office conducts a devotional Bible study with singing, reading, and discussion. There were books to follow along with and again I felt comforted by a script. I’m fairly happy with my reading comprehension and part of me thinks all this would be much easier if people just had their own personal subtitles.
The rest of the day I basically spent getting to know the other people in the office, it’s a lively and fun group, which will make office time speedy and enjoyable. I also organized myself for the rest of the week so I could actually be productive. Most of what I would consider to be the real and interesting work does not take place in the office. Rather, the loan collection meetings and initial signup meetings and training meetings all occur in the local communities, typically at a local church. I’ll be going to all of these meetings, tagging along with the loan officers so I can gather my Kiva/personal research project info.
Monday evening was the first night that I wasn’t completely exhausted and I was able to enjoy hanging out with the family. It’s pretty hot and humid during the day, so most people lay low and don’t have much of an appetite. That means that people stay up later and also enjoy a later dinner as well…we ate about 9PM last night. It’s a perfect temperature outside at night, so the family usually moves the TV out there and chats well into the night. Rebecca, Wendy, and I also played a few games before retiring to bed.
My friend Tess is stationed in Hato Mayor and unfortunately has very unstable water; we’ve been brainstorming techniques for bucket showers. Luckily, my water situation is more constant and I’ve always had it when I wanted to shower. However, it’s always cold. The cold is refreshing in the afternoon, but in the morning it can be downright chilly and I prefer to start the day fresh. This has spurred on my morning exercise routine of basic core activities that help me work up a sweat (or glisten rather) and enjoy the shower as a cold treat directly thereafter.
This morning (Tuesday) I saw my frog prince friend in the shower. He’s a small frog who I’ve spotted in the shower about three times now. After my shower this morning, I returned to my room to get dressed, etc. There’s an armoire against the wall across from my bed. I was doing something at the armoire when I looked down to the left and spotted a tarantula the size of my hand on the baseboard. I immediately gasped in surprise, but then quickly calmed as he wasn’t moving. My first thought was “Wow, I’ll be sure to check my shoes from here on out.” My second was “I’m not too worried about this one; rather, it’s the ones I don’t see that worry me.” I’d really rather not wake up to a tarantula crawling across my body. I then finished my morning routine and asked my host mom to help me remove the beast. According to one of the brothers who lives with us, tarantulas only like girls. Swell, just swell.
Today was my first day going to meetings and the result of over two years of anticipation. I really first learned about microfinance and Kiva second semester of my senior year of high school and since then I’ve been itching to see it up close and personal. I traveled (alone…aka sans Rebecca but con driver) via montoconcho to Ruth’s house (loan officer). We then journeyed via car to a neighboring area called Haina where we conducted two loan collection meetings (reunions bisemanales) and then met with fifteen other women individually who were about to take out their first loan (8:30 AM—3:30 PM). The first meeting, I took a back seat and really just observed what was going on. With the following meetings, I just asked questions as they came up and made conversation. Technically, we volunteers are supposed to be collecting as much information for a specific person so we can post Kiva profiles, but I needed to take today to get my feet wet. Tomorrow, and all the following days, I’ll have plenty of time to dive in deep, but today I just needed to take it as it came. For me, that meant that at some of the houses of the fifteen women I let Ruth do all the official talking with the prospective borrowers while I hung out with the kids.
My favorite experience was with a little girl named Annabelle. I promise we connected over more than just similar names. (By the by Anne is a very difficult name to pronounce here. If I don’t get “Anna” I get “Ain”) This nine-year-old girl had a sweet seriousness about her. Her older brother and friend were working on building a table and she was eagerly helping to piece it together. (I’ve been impressed with people’s ability to makeshift things together in general). She also engaged me in an informal dialogue about school and her family. Frequently the kids become really giggly or shy in these circumstances, but she connected in an earnest fashion and answered my questions honestly. When I asked Annabelle, after talking for a few minutes, if I could take her picture she said no. I was initially quite disappointed because she’d made a distinct impression on me. However, I was also impressed that she stood her ground. Often when I ask children questions, they respond in the affirmative even when that yields contradictions. We chatted and laughed some more and she shared how she wants to study to be a doctor and that she works hard in school. I told her I’m a university student and encouraged her keep up with the good studies. She then showed me her vegetable garden and later gave me a flower, which I’ve now put in my notebook and is pressing nicely. After she gave me the flower, I asked if we (Anne and Annabelle) could take a photo with the flower and she eagerly agreed this time. It’s encouraging to know that if I want to see Annabelle again, I can because Esperanza has made contact with her mother and, for at least the next six months, will foster opportunities to visit her family due to her mother’s soon-to-be loan.
While meeting the various associates (entrepreneurs/borrowers), I took in a lot about the general environment. The community of Haina is at the base of tropical hills that are a lush green, green, green. It’s interesting because one house will have a solid roof and cement floor and the next will have unintentional skylight and dirt floor. Some are kept remarkably clean and tidy and others seem disheveled. However, there did not seem to be a strong correlation between tidiness of house and person and income bracket and perspective loan amount. Having only spent one day in the field (an expression I don’t like but have yet to find a replacement for), I am not inclined to speculate upon these issues. They will, however, remain present in my mind and questions during the coming weeks and I’ll be sure to comment more.
Again, thank you for putting up with my longwinded post. I’d really appreciate comments so I can best cater my responses to the audience…that includes but is not limited to stylistic suggestions and questions!
Hasta luego,
Anne la gringa
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Mi primera semana!
Hi all,
I'm not typically much of a public communicator. Usually, I do not even post on people's facebook walls, but as I was thinking about how best to share and update, a blog seemed the most efficient way to communicate as well as a wonderful way to keep me journaling and reflecting.
Thanks for reading, I’m sure future posts won’t be quite so so so long, but there was a lot to get out in terms of background for this first one. Also, I’d love email updates and comments from all of you. My thought is that the blog can be a baseline of information for everyone and then we can specialize our own conversations from here.
For those of you who don’t know, I am interning/conducting a research project with the microfinance organization Esperanza International in the Dominican Republic. (http://esperanza.org/us/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1)
One of Esperanza’s key partners is Kiva (Kiva.org). Kiva is an online platform that provides peer-to-peer lending (with a microfinance institute as the middleman). Basically, you can go online, scroll through various entrepreneurs’ profiles and business plans, and choose to lend to a specific individual or group. It truly is a loan and the entrepreneurs repay you, the lender (all this takes place through PayPal). Kiva and Esperanza’s view toward development is that, for the most part, people do not need charity. Rather, people merely need an opportunity and more resources to better their lives, families, and communities. There is a true emphasis on empowering individuals and bolstering dignity and self-respect, which ideally results in sustained development.
Up to a third of Esperanza’s loan portfolio can be fulfilled through its partnership with Kiva. Thus, it is quite important that Esperanza fills the allowance of profiles it can post through Kiva. Currently at Esperanza, there are no paid positions that officially cover Kiva postings. Thus, one of my primary responsibilities, along with the other interns, will be to interview Esperanza’s associates (aka entrepreneurs), take their photos, and post their profiles on Kiva.org for funding. I will also be journaling through Kiva about these associates. One of my goals is to link to flickr or some other online photo journal so I can share more photos with the lenders. By writing dynamic profiles and journals for these entrepreneurs, I hope to help improve Esperanza’s competitive edge in the Kiva market.
One of Esperanza’s distinguishing factors is that it is the only MFI that operates both in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Interestingly enough, the profiles posted for Haiti are almost always filled quicker than those for the Dominican Republic, even though many of Esperanza’s DR associates are Haitian immigrants.
Yesterday I arrived at my summer station, Los Alcarrizos. It’s in the Santo Domingo region outside Santo Domingo proper (the capital). Due to crazy, gridlocked traffic, it can take about 45 minutes to travel between Los Alcarrizoz and Santo Domingo. I am living in a homestay with Rebecca, one of the Los Alcarrizos loan officers, and her family. That is quite convenient because Rebecca and I can travel to and from work daily and I won’t have to worry about navigating alone, which will be particularly comforting in the beginning. Additionally, they are a warm and loving family and I am excited to get to know them better. Rebecca´s five-year-old cousin, Wendy, lives with us and she has been lots of fun and has a lot of energy.
All in all, The last few days have been a whirlwind of emotions and learning--all good. Jon (check out his blog: http://jwoleson.blogspot.com/) and I arrived at SFO on Tuesday night (15th) and checked in with ease. I was really craving a McDonald's soft serve cone....(yes, Eric and Emma--like the ones we got at Newark airport on the way back from Israel [cone, not coke J]) but we made our way through security and were disappointed to find no McDonald's. Fortunately, the whole trip was not ruined. Instead, we bolstered our broken spirits by buying trail mix and by biting the heads off of gummy bears (may they rest in peace). By the time we settled down in the terminal, we only had about forty minutes to wait prior to boarding our flight to Atlanta. Right when we were sitting down, we met Tess. Tess is another one of Esperanza's interns and is about to enter her super senior year at Cal Poly. We three chatted and shared our stories and anticipations/concerns for this summer. The plane trip to Atlanta was uneventful and I even managed to catch a few hours of sleep, though I don’t think Tess and Jon were so fortunate. Every time before I fly somewhere I make exorbitant plans about all the reading I will do on the flight. In reality, IF I read, it is barely at all. This again was the case and I was frustrated with having over packed my carryon (being 5’2’’ I require a lot of leg room). We arrived in the Atlanta airport at 6 AM and had four hours before our next flight. Emma (little sister) kindly donated a Starbucks giftcard to the Anne needs caffeine fund and I convinced Tess and Jon to join me in the adventure. The Dominican coffee is wonderful and pervasive and I´m not quite sure how I´m going to transition back to normal American coffee—I´m being spoiled right now.
Our flight from Atlanta to Santo Domingo was much more lively. Jon and I were originally scheduled to sit together, but there was a large family (2 parents and 4 kids under the age of 8) that was split up. We decided it would be best for them and the rest of the flight if we switched seats with them so they could be together. I ended up sitting in the window seat next to the mother and her baby. She was relieved to be heading home—I would think traveling with the whole family would be quite exhausting. She (originally from the DR, but grew up in the states) and her family is a Jehovah Witness missionary family that has been living in the DR for the past six year. She and her husband decided they wanted to live there rather than the US because they wanted to avoid the fast pace and materialism that they found in the states. Since she homeschools her children, we were able to talk about different philosophies of home teaching and various curriculums. I shared the books that I remembered enjoying most from my formidable days as a young homeschooler and she shared about her two oldest boys and their academic talents and interests—the oldest is math/science and the youngest is definitely a wordy. She also shared a bunch of DR tips—everything from how much to expect a bottle of water and plantain to cost and which kinds of taxis to avoid. Sitting next to the family made me excited and slightly less nervous about this summer. Everyone had been telling me that Dominicans are warm and welcoming and I certainly felt so…I didn’t even feel bad when I had to ask them to move so I could sneak out to the bathroom.
Upon arriving in Santo Domingo, we three bought our travel cards, exchanged money, and went through customs. We then looked for Kayla and Kalie our superiors who were supposed to pick us up. After waiting outside for a little bit, I realized that my phone from home still had service and I successfully contacted Kayla who had just missed us. It figures…Verizon doesn’t get service at Stanford but it gets three bars in the DR. Oh, feel free to text me or call me (1+8093600294) on my DR phone…it´s free for me to receive calls and messages.
After having communicated with Kayla for almost nine months, it was incredibly exciting to meet her. I had read several of Kalie’s blog postings so it was good to meet her too. We waited in a foodcourt-esque place outside the airport as the next intern was to arrive an hour after we three did. While talking with Kayla and Kalie it became immediately apparent that they are way more confident than I was. While it makes sense that they have this confidence (Kayla’s been here two years and Kalie’s spent over a year here), it was intimidating because I did not know how I was going to go about acquiring the knowledge and understanding I would need to justify such confidence in myself.
Throughout the first day here in the DR, I met all the interns and a small group of us went out to dinner. Throughout our conversations, I learned about all the other interns’ independent or at least study abroad travel. I heard their Spanish and I watched them climb off the planes eager to take on this new challenge. While I traveled with the besties in Europe over spring break, I do not have the independent experience that these other interns have. I began to feel small and doubt my ability to successfully take on this challenge. The first day, I had a dear-caught-in-the-headlights look/feeling. I felt fairly vulnerable and felt even more so by the fact that I knew looking as such was bad. I thought that because I did not have the travel experience and wisdom that the other interns have, I would not be able to safely explore this country. This made me even more nervous because I did not want to spend the entire summer either in the Esperanza office or at my homestay home, and I did not want to spend this summer in the shadow of the other interns. I wanted to take full advantage of being in the Dominican Republic.
That night, back in our hotel
The next day we underwent an all-day training at the Esperanza office in Santo Domingo. The combination of this training and my practiced skills completely changed my attitude. The training provided the logistics I needed to conceptualize work on a day-to-day basis and thus much of my life here in the DR, giving me a way to organize my thoughts and questions. Furthermore, our group morphed. One of my favorite things is to watch a group change from being a collection of people who can converse and respect one another to a group with a distinct dynamic and personality. I’m not quite sure what fostered the change for our group. It might have been the time we spent at lunch or the fact that we became tired during training and started joking. However, I’m pretty sure it took place when we conducted mock interviews with Esperanza associates. For all of us interns, this summer is a shift of understanding with respect to microfinance. We’ve all been reading about and learning about microfinance for a couple of years. We’ve all heard the inspiring stories and engaged in the various debates surrounding microfinance and its strengths and limitations. However, none of us have engaged in microfinance on a personal level…we’re all here to gain a first hand experience so we can directly hear these stories and we can better engage in microfinance. The mock interview, which we then wrote up as a mock profile for Kiva, brought to life these dreams and gave us a glimpse of how we really are going to fit in to this system and benefit it (and from it). Essentially, we were all filled with a sense of purpose and direction and this bonded us together. This bond was immediately apparent as we walked back to
One of the other interns, Madeleine, has a friend who is spending the summer in Santo Domingo with her Dominican boyfriend. The rest of the interns joined Madeleine and her friends for a night of dancing (merengue and salsa). An older man from across the street from
After the first day, my goal was to abandon my dear-in-the-headlights feelings/expression. After the second day, my goal was to temper my over-eager-puppyness.
The following day we finished up last minute logistical training at Esperanza’s office and learned a bit more about Esperanza’s mission and perspective on poverty and development. We also ran basic errands (bought cell phones). The previous day was quite full with respect to time spent in the office and training, so we ended a bit earlier this day. We then had a few hours to relax at
Kalie then took us interns to her favorite empanada stand and we enjoyed our last evening all together in Santo Domingo. While we interns aim to meet up and travel during the weekends, there certainly is a possibility that we will not all be together again. One of the things that I like about being in the DR is that meals take place at a much slower pace. We probably spent two hours sitting at the plastic tables set up outside this empanada stand.
We all arrived in our respective communities yesterday(Friday). I am living in the country outskirts of Los Alcarrizos. The bugs were not too bad in Santo Domingo, but they´re much worse here. At home I wear a scent called Amber Romance (oolala), now I wear Ben´s 30% deet bug spray! When I was little, I really wanted a princess canopy over my bed. Now I have a mosquito net that covers my bed—I love the contrast. Last night, before falling asleep, I sat in bed under my princess/mosquito canopy with my headlight and journaled and read a bit. I think I´m really going to like my evening routine here.
In travel, I think it is important to talk to locals and learn their stories and share thoughts. I’m incredibly happy because that is basically what my job duties and research project entail…with the added benefit of having to write up what I learn (mandatory reflection, if you will). Ideally, I will come to appreciate the written reflection that I do this summer so it will carry over in the fall and future life. I’ve never been much of a journaler, but I’d like to be one. So far so good!
LOVE,
Anne
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