Micro Finance

5th August 2010 – Andahuaylas

I am in the main plaza, here in Andahuaylas, expecting the profesora at 6pm. As we are in Peru I have come equip with my note pad because I anticipate a fair wait. We are meeting tonight because we are going to set up a micro finance organisation that she believes will help the local mothers and families at Rumi Rumi. The intent is to loan a mother about 20 soles for a couple of weeks and ask for one sole in return as interest (total of 20 out and 21 in). We are going to give the organisation 500 soles in the hope that 25 mothers can be helped. The idea was put to us at breakfast yesterday at the profesora's casa and we said that we would be happy to help but we wanted to be sure that the organisation has a good structure and policy. As our spanish is not fantastic (quite the opposite really), we are meeting tonight to go to El Cappuccino and use the google translator to finalise the transaction and to be sure the organisation has structure. 6:10pm and the professora has arrived, and gives me an apology for being late. I am surprised that she was much earlier than my expectations but think that it is due to the fact we have always arrived at the time she has stated in the past and she must realise that Australian's are punctual. We walk to El Cappuccino but were expecting Alexandra as well, Luzmila tried to call her on the phone but no answer. Prudencia awaits us at the restaurant using the computer are she too was expecting a wait. Luzmila sits and explains that Alexandra has trouble in her house as her husband is not happy with her studying and spending time at the kinder-garden to gain her practical experience as a profesora. She then explains that her husband expects she stays at home keeping the house clean and the meals cooked, tears start to well in her eyes. We understand most of what is said but as our spanish is ordinary we do not get the full picture. Luzmila then reaches for some paper on the table and explains that it is the same at her house, her husband does not support her and gives her all sorts of trouble. It is hard sitting here watching her be so sad as I want to be able to comfort her with kind words and give her some encouragement, alas the language barrier kicks in. We had not seen her upset before, she seemed to be happy and in control of everything. I think that it is normal, here in Peru, for the wives to be treated poorly as the husbands have a very old school attitude. Luzmila pulls herself together and we cheer our glasses of red wine toasting for good luck. She then pulls out a couple of gifts for Prue and I, it is some traditional clothing for a couple of children. We have seen this clothing in the parades in Cusco and we wore something similar in the parade we marched in for Rumi Rumi Jarden (kinder). We marched in the streets in Andahuaylas with a police escort and all, we marched with the children all dressed up and with a band playing music. Prue and I lead the march through the streets and we were given many strange looks and laughs as it is not often a “gringo” is seen wearing the traditional dress and marching in a parade. Well, the clothing we were given was similar to this and at this time a couple of our American friends arrived into the restaurant, we asked them to give us a moment as the gift giving process was in mid swing. I was so happy to see our American friends as they speak very good spanish and I thought that they might be able to help us with the exchange. I went to Dan and Leah's table and explained that we wanted to help Luzmila with her idea and they were more than willing to help out, they are in Andahuaylas as volunteer's as well. They are working with a human rights organisation and only have one more week in Andahuaylas. We met them on the street after we were stood up for a meeting that was to arrange our volunteering work here in Andahuaylas, 6 weeks ago. Both Prue and I were feeling very dejected and thought that we were never going to be able to help the community, again our lack of spanish was an issue. Dan and Leah spotted us from afar and chased us down to see if we spoke english. There are not many westerners here in Andahuaylas, in fact I can think of us (4) plus a couple of French people that work here at El Cappuccino. They are a nice couple and we were going to help them in their community work when we first met, but again our spanish was an issue plus we managed to meet with the mayor and arrange volunteer work at Rumi Rumi.
So Dan and Leah join us at the table and Leah helps translate our conversations.
Luzmila explains to us that she has been praying for help and feels that we are an answer to her prayers, she says that she has learnt so much from us as we have travelled so far to help expecting nothing in return. It is so good to have a translator, as I am sure that she tried to tell us this yesterday at her place during breakfast but I only managed to pick up that she was praying, the comprehension is hard for us. Leah translates that the families of Rumi Rumi are sad to see us leave as they feel like we are a part of their family and have seen how we interact with their children. She says that she feels bad asking us for more help and in particular about asking us to see if we can get some money for the project. We explain, through Leah, that we have received a huge amount from our experience at the kinder and that we have learnt a lot about the local culture and from the professora. She is teaching the children that it is important to be clean, shows them how to clean their hands and explains how to take showers etc. We see her explain how to make a table if they have not got one (most of the children do not) then they can eat using this table, she helps them with their manners and teaches them to thank god when they are given food at the kinder.

Luzmila has been busy since we last saw her at breakfast yesterday, she pulls out a book with a project plan and explains the policy of the organisation. This was all a concept yesterday and it is great to see that it is now becoming a reality. She explains that the aim of the organisation is to provide for the children under the age of 6 years by helping their families with financial loans. This will enable the mothers to work closer to their homes as at present they have to work in the fields or away from their homes for the total day, their children suffer. The organisation has a goal that by 2015 the 28 children, that are to be helped initially (all children from Rumi Rumi kinder-garden), will have three meals a day, not suffer from malnutrition, and have education. Luzmila called a meeting last night with some of the mothers and explains that they have elected a committee for the organisation with a president, treasurer, secretary and someone to follow up on the debts. We are astounded with how much work she has done in such little time. She explains that at the meeting she asked the mothers what it is that were their biggest problems and the said three. 1) difficulty in obtaining capital 2) having to work so far from their homes 3) being able to give their children proper food and care. She then shows a project schedule that has months and major activities for those months, all this work in a couple of days. She explains that there would be three main projects that the organisation would support, making jumpers (sweaters) and making textile cloth, growing vegetables for the locals and also growing small animals like the guinea pig.

We have learnt a lot from Luzmila over the past six weeks and learnt a lot about her. She is a lovely lady with a very kind heart, she has the best intentions in mind for the children and puts all of her efforts into helping them. It is very hard for her to do all of this on her own and she has been thinking of this micro finance idea for a while now as a solution. Luzmila was hoping that we could raise some money for the organisation when we return to Australian and starts to explain how the banking would need to be quick as the bank fees are large. We explain that we have the money with us today and we are willing to give it to her now and then try to raise the money when we return. She will be keeping us updated via e-mail and snail mail on how the organisation is doing, she explains that she will ensure we get the full picture (the good and the bad).

Leah and Dan leave and Prue, Luzmila and I enjoy our last meal together. It is a great feeling to know that this organisation has just begun and that we will be able to see it grow over time. We wanted to do something sustainable in our work here and although we did a few things around at the kinder, we felt that it would still struggle one we had left.

TC


9th August 2010

Well I am in Cusco now and tomorrow we set off on our trek to Choquequiroa (ancient Inca ruins) for 5 days and 60kms! It will be hard but I am told beautiful, then we are going into the Jungle for a couple of weeks doing some more volunteering work, this time to help with the preservation of the jungle (Manu). I'll update again when I can. Oh, yesterday we saw Machupicchu... WOW! Is all I can say, I will put together my shots and reduce as I took many, we also saw Sacred Valley the day before yesterday and that too was a blast. It is nice to be a tourist again, although they do love to charge a bomb for everything. Life is good.

TC

August 2nd 2010 – Andahuaylas

It is actually hard to know where to start when I have not written for so long, it is strange to learn that the longer you leave it the harder it is. I am sitting in the kitchen, a stand alone building in our court yard, and writing after having just cooked breakfast. It is Monday and yet another day of vacation from the kinder-garden, Rumi Rumi. We seem to have come over here at a good time of the year as far as festivals and vacations are concerned as we have seen many. Looking back on our time here it is hard to believe that 5 weeks have gone and we now only have a matter of days left until we leave for Cusco. Yesterday we went to Senor Roberto Montoya's family home and cooked up a lasagne for them. It was great to see some other people (Peruvians) enjoy our cooking as we have cooked a few times at Rumi Rumi and the kids are really not a fan of all the vegetables that we put in the food.

How is life in Andahuaylas? Well, our mornings start with me getting up and getting things ready for our breakfast. Luckily we have heaps of fresh food here that is both cheap and easy to obtain so I squeeze our orange juice and get the kettle boiling. We have created our own cereal by purchasing different items from the markets like oats, seeds, grated coconut, roasted nuts, banana's and long life milk. Oh yes, we have no refrigerator so the long life milk is perfect. In fact there are little refrigerators here and I have not seen any fresh milk available to purchase. We then leave our little refuge at about 8:15am and hale a moto outside our house. There are plenty of these things cruising around, I'll try to put a photo in this for you to see. They are like a took took in Asia, and have little horse power. The driver asks “¿Donde?” and we reply with “Rumi Rumi, por favor” he generally asks if we wish to go one of two ways and we always choose the road that takes us up to above the kinder as the walk down from here is so much more peaceful. The driver puts his moto into first or second gear at times and always tries to up a gear when climbing a very steep road, it is interesting for me to sit and see the engine start to rev and then the driver slam it into a higher gear which only punishes the engine and he is once again forced to return to a slower gear. One thing that I have learnt is that the locals are not too keen on waiting and experiencing this gear shift with every driver proves to me that they are impatient. It takes about 15 minutes for us to get to the top of Rumi Rumi and two soles, about one Aussie dollar.

We then start our walk down a very rough road towards the kinder-garden and are greeted by the local kiddies with much enthusiasm. They yell out from their houses “Hola, buenos dias, que tal?”, their yelling breaks the silence as the place is so peaceful at this time of the morning. It takes us around ten minutes to walk to Rumi Rumi and we meet some of our students on the way. They are always very keen to see us and yell “Senor Todd, Senor Todd”, I think that it is a little harder for them to remember (or say) Senorita Prudencia.

When we get there, the professora is normally there and a few kids are playing or drawing pictures. There is no running water at the kinder so I climb to the neighbour and ask to borrow the water so we can fill up some buckets to get us through the day. The hose is shitty and has plastic holding it together, which I twitched some wire around to keep the water running through it. I sometimes get the kids to help fill the buckets, with the hose, and they enjoy playing with the water. Remember the kids are 3, 4 and 5 years of age. The water is used for the cooking, and cleaning the kids hands and the dishes once they have eaten. We then ask if there is anything else we can do to help and are often given tasks that involve cutting or writing on paper in preparation for the class. The teacher has no help, and 28 kids to teach and of all the ages between 3 and 5, she is glad that we are here to help but I fear for the future as I know there are no others replacing us. We have built onto the fence so that it is higher and harder for the kids to climb over, however I see the kids climbing higher now and think perhaps I might have created a bigger danger than before. By about 10.30am we clean the kids hands, as they are getting fed around 11. To clean their hands we sit on a chair and have two buckets in front of us, one empty and the other with “clean” water (it is not always clean). We then have about 4 kids around the bucket and they use the soap and request water to be tipped over their hands whilst cleaning. They fight amongst themselves for the soap and water and I am forever getting them to use words such as “por favor”. The kids do not get much discipline at home (if any) and I struggle to keep them in line (really struggle, fail?) as I am not able to speak their language plus I do not think they care too much about manners, we try. We help serve the food that is cooked for them which is either rice and potatoes or potatoes and rice, simple food and a staple for them. With the teacher they all sit thanking god for their food and then they tuck into it, quickly. We are usually given some food and do the same, as we then resume position to clean up the dishes as the kids finish. They are cute in that they put their empty dishes in a bucket and thank us for their food. Nearly always one of the girls helps clean the dishes, she actually seems to enjoy it. I think that the kids probably are quite use to cleaning up as I see them washing clothes in their houses. How can these kids be so more able to do these tasks than others in more developed countries? The kids then run riot for a while in the yard, making fun with simple things like a block of wood or a tree. Amazing to see how they do not need toys, just an imagination and a couple of mates.

So the dishes are done and it is close to midday, the kids are on their last stretch before going home. Once they leave we sweep and mop the classroom and clean up around the kinder ready for the mess makers the next day. The teacher is trying to explain that rubbish is best in a bin rather than the street so we have two bins, Organico and Inorganico. The kids use a lot of toilet paper, when we tell them to, for a tissue as they seem to constantly have boogers. Basically, the bin fills and by the end of the day we have a plastic bag of rubbish to take away (both inorganic and organic are put together). We walk down from Rumi Rumi toward Andahuaylas with the teacher and another lady that has one more month of practical work ahead of her. Amazingly we approach a rubbish pile on the side of the street and we ditch the rubbish bag on top of it. The feeling of letting go of a bag of rubbish onto the street is so awkward for me, not the locals.

Prue and I then decide if we are going to visit the local markets and have lunch there or if we will go home and then visit the markets later. So our days at Rumi Rumi are generally from about 8:45am until about 1pm and then we have the remainder of the day to do as we please. We have been going to the markets most days as we'd rather purchase the food “fresh” and then cook it.