Quality of Life Interviews and Documentary Filming

After completing the new loan applicant interviews, we switched focus to interview each current loan recipients in Granada. There are over 150 current recipients! These mid-loan interviews focus on collecting information about our clients' quality of life, how the loan has helped them, suggestions for how we can improve the organization, and what other programs they would like to see in their community. Clients' suggestions for new programs have included computer classes, sports programs for children, educational programs for children, vocational training, and groups for new mothers. My original idea was to try to incorporate health education into PHPG's micro-finance model, but later decided it would be better to gauge our clients' opinions on what they would like to see in their community in order to create a more widely accepted and sustainable program. Not all of the suggested programs fall within the mission of People Helping People Global, but for those that don't PHPG could help organize or link community members to other organizations that offer other programs in the area. We had hoped to be a later stage in analysing the responses to the suggestions for new programs by the end of the internship, but we will have to leave that for the PHPG members or future interns. Our progress on the interview front was slowed by two unfortunate events: the death of Gilberts's father and the death of Marcela's uncle, both about a month and a half ago. Since then, Gilberts has taken over his fathers' business, which has been a tough transition for him and left him with little time to work with PHPG.

We've really enjoyed getting to know our clients better and making stronger connections with the community. In addition to the interviews, a few of us have spent time shadowing and filming a few clients in order to create mini-documentaries that show a glimpse of their everyday lives: their jobs and families, what they did with the loans, and how the loans have helped them. These have been the most rewarding experiences for me.

Our first shadowing session was with Ana Mondoy, who has a pulperia (convenient store) from her house. Phoebe, Alex, Emma, and I met Ana at her house at 6am. Well, we arrived a few minutes late because we were distracted by her neighbor's monkey, Panchita. The early morning light was perfect, so we stopped for a photo op with Panchita. We spent a few hours chatting with her about her life, family, work, and goals for hours while she tended the store. She is an intelligent, welcoming, and wonderful person. Emma has been working on a short video using the footage from the interview. When that is finished, I'll post a link.

Phoebe and I also spent one morning and two afternoons with other loan recipients to catch a glimpse of their daily lives and capture it on video. Phoebe has been working on the editing of Oswaldo Calderon's video- learning how to use iMovie as she goes. It's coming along really well, and should be done soon! Oswaldo works as a casket salesman for a funeral home during the week and started his own business selling CDs with the loan from PHPG. He is also a community leader in Nueva Esperanza, the community in which he lives. We interviewed him at his bosses house and then took a ride with him and his two colleagues to witness him selling casket and funeral service contracts.

Miriam Mendoza with three of her children and two grandchildren 

We also spent yesterday afternoon with Miriam Mendoza. She used her loan from PHPG to buy firewood so that her and her husband can shop it, bundle it, and sell it to pulperias in their neighborhood. Miriam has nine children, ages 7 to 27! Her oldest daughter has two children and lives in a small house on their property. A total of 11 people live on the property. Her younger children and grandchildren are adorable! After the interview, they were climbing all over us and had a blast using Phoebe's camera to take pictures. We have a few photos of the family together and some with Phoebe and I with them printed out to bring to them to thank them for their time. I'll be working on editing the video of Miriam over the next few weeks, so I will add then when it's finished as well!

Love and Marriage, Horse and Carriage

About the internship...

The past two weeks have been full of interviews. There are a total of 75 loan applicants and over the past two weeks, we've interviewed almost all of them. The interviews themselves were fairly straight forward, although, at times, I had to repeat my questions and repeat the loan applicants answers to make sure I was understanding correctly and getting all the information we need.

The most difficult part of the interview process was finding where each applicant lives. There are no formal addresses in Nicaragua, especially not in the communities on the outskirts of Granada where we work. Addresses are described by distances and directions from major landmarks, such as a school, a church, the health center, the statue, or the old water tank. The first few days of interviews we spent a lot of time trying to figure out where people lived. There was one group that was particularly hard to find. The directions to their house (translated to English) said 'From the health center, 3 blocks to the west and one to the east.' We asked a woman who lives in that vicinity and she did not know any of the women we were looking for.  We found the group of women eventually, but it took a lot of asking around.

The meeting with new loan applicants at Dona Nora's house

We set a meeting time for about twenty of the new loan applicants for Tuesday at 3 pm.  On our way to Marcela's house, Phoebe, Alex, Emma, and I got caught in the rain.  When we finally got to Marcela's we waited for a while for the rain to die out and for Gilberts (who also got caught in the rain on his motorbike) to arrive.  Because of the rain, we assumed the loan applicants would not show up for the meeting, but Gilberts drove to Dona Nora's house, where the meeting was supposed to take place, just to check anyway.  When he came back, we were all surprised to hear that nearly everyone was there!  The fact that the loan applicants were waiting for us in the rain is truly a testament to how much they want a loan from PHPG!  We set to work interviewing each new applicant and finished the interviews in about an hour.

About life in Nicaragua...

I love living in Granada! We walk through the market every time we go to Pantanal for loan repayments or interviews, and Phoebe and I usually stop on the way back to get fresh, delicious, and cheap produce at the market. Living with Phoebe is awesome! We've experimented with several new recipes: black bean burgers, chile, tomato sauce & pasta, falafel and yogurt sauce (with fresh tortillas as our 'pita'), brownies, salsa and guacamole, lots of curry, and daily smoothies with mango, pineapple, banana, or some combination of them. The constant cat-calling, I could live without. But once in a while, it can be amusing. Today when Phoebe and I were leaving the market, several men started yelling after us in English with thick accents saying things like, 'Hey baby!' or 'So beautiful, baby!' We immediately burst into laughter and kept laughing the whole way home.

One of the best parts of living and working in Granada is getting to know Marcela and Gilberts, the PHPG employees. We meet at Marcela's house before going out for loan repayment meetings or interviews and usually have some time to chat before everyone gets there.  Phoebe and I met Marcela's boyfriend (he recently became her fiancée!), who was very quiet but very nice.  We've also met her parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, grandmother, and numerous cousins.  Her aunt's stall in the market has become our favorite source of refresco de cacao- a chocolate drink sold in a baggie with a straw.  There are several types of refrescos, but they tend to be overly sweet (with the exception of cacao).  Last weekend we went to a dance club, Cesar, with Marcela and Gilberts.  The bartender was one of the guys I had interviewed that week for a loan, which was a bit awkward.  Even more awkward, is me dancing.  My dance skills definitely need some work, but I am such a slow learner when it comes to dancing that I don't have high hopes.  I will try though.

It's impossible not to make embarrassing mistakes when learning another language and it's not nearly as fun if you don't make mistakes.  I've made my fair share.  Usually, I realize my mistake as soon as I say it.  One of our neighbors, Rafael, stops to talk to us when he walks by.  The first time he stopped to talk to us he asked us a bunch of questions including 'Do you have any kids?'  I responded with 'No, pero quizas cuando estoy cansada' instead of 'No, pero quizas cuando estoy casada.'  For all you non-Spanish speakers, I told him 'No, but maybe when I'm tired' instead of 'No, but maybe when I'm married.'  I started laughing as soon as the wrong word came out.  Another good one was when I was talking to Gilberts after an afternoon in Pantanal.  I was trying to tell him how I wouldn't meet Alex or Isabel, the founders of PHPG, because I'll be leaving Nicaragua before they get back mid-August.  Instead of using the verb 'conocer' (to know), I used 'cocinar' (to cook).  I will not be meeting (or cooking) Alex and Isabel this summer.  I've definitely gotten used to laughing at myself.  More embarrassing than mixing up words in Spanish, I have been mixing up words in English.  As my Spanish improves, my English is getting worse!  Phoebe can attest to this.

Horse and cart a block from our house

Two more things I love about Granada- the colorful buildings and the horse and carts!  Horses and carriages line up near Parque Central.  I haven't taken a ride yet, but I plan on it before I leave.  Maybe a day when I'm feeling rather touristy or when I'm showing my sister around Granada.  She gets to Nicaragua in a little over 2 weeks!

Stay tuned!

Matagalpa & San Ramon

A view of the mountains from the Chocolate Castle

Early Tuesday morning (I'm talking like 5:30 am), Phoebe and I set out for Matagalpa.  We took a bus to Masaya (a half hour north from here) in order to catch the 6:45 am express bus to Matagalpa in order to avoid a stop in Managua.  I was a bit sick that morning so I slept the entire bus ride.  Once in Matagalpa, we spent the day walking around- we went to the Cathedral, a museum on the life of Carlos Fonseca (the founder of the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN)), the 'Chocolate Castle' a little outside of town where we bought lots of Nicaraguan Chocolate, and a coffee museum.  Matagalpa is a beautiful city in the mountains.

In the afternoon, we met up with Beth, a family friend that runs an NGO in the Matagalpa/San Ramon area called Planting Hope.  She took us to San Ramon where she set us up with a host family- the same host family my family stays with when they go to San Ramon.  Margarita (our host mom) and Alvaro (our host dad) and their kids, Enrique, Elvin, Mili, and Anabelin, were all very welcoming.  Mili (an adorable 6-year old) and her friend showed us around San Ramon that evening and then again the next day.  When we went to the playground, there was a Mariachi band just hanging out- a few of them on the swings.  I wish I had my camera them to snap a photo.

Phoebe, Mili, and I during our tour of San Ramon

San Ramon is a beautiful and peaceful town and I'm sure I'll be returning when my sister gets to Matagalpa in July.

Wednesday was Mother's Day, so we didn't want to impose too much on our family so we left in the afternoon.  We chatted with Beth a little about Planting Hope and their projects.  Planting Hope built a library in La Chispa, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Matagalpa, 10 years ago after she surveyed the children in the area asking what they would like to see in their community.  Sarah was there for the first few weeks it opened and she is returning for the month of July to teach photography classes at the library.  We also heard about the their mobile library program from Alvaro.  Planting Hope has a bus that Alvaro drives to rural communities to lend books for the day to school children.

Our return home consisted of three bus and two taxi rides, but we made it safely back to Granada!

Diakachimba

Phoebe, Shohta, and I have settled nicely into our house a few blocks from central park. We have a lovely house with a big open space, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom downstairs, and two bedrooms and one bathroom upstairs. Phoebe and I live upstairs and each have a shower in our rooms, which is awesome. We've explored the market thoroughly. We can buy anything from street food, to fruit, shampoo, rice, veggies, flip flops, bras, notebooks...the list goes on. It's all packed into a small area. People just throw garbage on the ground, but someone comes around with a garbage wagon to sweep it up. Two more interns arrived this week, Margot and Corie, so six interns went with Gilberts and Marcela (the Nicaraguan employees of People Helping People Global) to the Friday repayment meetings with the group leaders. On Fridays, we meet with a total of 6 group leaders. The first two leaders have 'Pulperias' or little convenient stores. Some of the other popular businesses of our clients are firewood cutting, selling clothes or other goods in the market, and there is even one dentist. I think I'm starting to get a better idea of the layout of the community. Shohta is working on a map of the area which we can then fill in and add more details, such as specific houses and landmarks, to help us get around when we don't have the guidance of Marcela and Gilberts. The picture is of some of the kids at the third or fourth group leaders house. They were super excited when Margot started taking pictures of them, so I had to join in and catch one of them posing for the camera. After our visits to the group leaders, we were asking Marcela and Gilberts about Nicaraguan slang and how to say things like 'cool.' They taught us 'dia kachimba' which means something along the lines of 'cool' or 'awesome' if someone asks you how you feel. On our way back to our house, we passed this little old lady selling merengues on the corner. So we decided to buy some. She counted our change for us in English, so Phoebe asked her how she knows English and she launched into her family history, telling us about her 9 children and how she was a nurse (we think that's what she said, but something might have been lost in translation). The merengues were too sweet for our liking, but we will stop and chat next time we pass her. Side Note: On our walk from house to house on Friday, we came across the coolest plant. It looks like a tiny fern, but when you touch the leaves, it folds and closes. Part of what we'll be doing this summer is working on independent projects, such as the map, quality of life surveys, and making small videos to send to donors. Phoebe and I are trying to gauge the health needs of the community to see if there is a health education program we can incorporate into the micro-lending model. We found out that visits to the local health center are free. However, prescription drugs are not. We plan on visiting the health center early Monday to ask them questions to find out more about the health problems specific to the communities we're working with.

Nicaragua

After almost three years since I left Asia, I'm back on the road for a few months. I'll be working for People Helping People Global, a non-profit NGO that give micro-loans to individuals in a few communities in Nicaragua. I'll be based in Granada but will be travelling around Nicaragua, and hopefully Honduras and El Salvador. I arrived in Managua, Nicaragua on Thursday night and made it to a hostel for the night just before it started pouring. The hostel was quiet and nice with a few hammocks out by the pool. A girl in my dorm was headed to the same bus station as me, so we split a taxi and went our own ways: me to Granada, a colonial city on Lake Nicaragua, and her to San Juan al Sur, a beach town. The bus cost about $3-$4 dollars including a tip for the guy who showed me to the right bus and carried my bag. It was only about an hour to Granada. I found a hostel, threw my stuff in a locker and headed to the central park to meet two fellow interns, Shohta and Morgan and one of the staff members of People Helping People Global, Gilbert. From there we walked about a mile to a community called Pantanal, first meeting up with Marcela, the other PHPG employee. Alex and Isabell, the founders of PHPG were here last week, but I didn't get to meet them. They will be in Vermont during the 2 and half months I'm here. In Pantanal, we visited the houses of six group leaders. PHPG lend out small amounts of money to groups of borrowers to improve or start their own business. Each individual is responsible for paying back their loan, but elect a group leader that collects the money, so each week we only have to visit a few households instead of everyone. I think they used to have repayment meetings in which all borrowers met at a specific time and day each week to repay the loans, but it was hard for everyone to make it and they turned to group leaders to improve efficiency. Individual borrowers are required to pay 60 cordoba each week (less than $3) to pay back the loan over a year period or they can opt to pay more to pay off the loan faster. PHPG charge no interest. This is largely due to the hight interest rates that plagued Nicaragua around 2008 and led to the 'no pago' (non-payment) movement in the north in which President Ortega encouraged agricultural producers to refuse to pay back their loans. Instead of charging interest, PHPG uses donor money to pay the Nicaraguan staff and other expenses to make sure the people who need the money most are getting it. They have been successful with approximately a 95% repayment rate. The group visits took several hours, partly because we had to wait about an hour for one woman receiving a loan to get home. But it was nice to chat with Gilbert and one of the group leaders Carlos for a while. My Spanish isn't great, but it's enough to get around and it will get better with practice. The community we visited, Pantanal had few paved roads, most were dirt roads or paths and we wound around visiting the six houses following Marcela and Gilbert. Most of the houses had barbed wire fences out front, mostly to mark their property, since the gaps in the wire are big enough for a dog or human to fit under. The floors were dirt and the ceilings were atin. The walls ranged from wood planks to tin. We were invited into one of the houses in which there were two beds, a freezer, a few chairs, and a tv. A few kids were on the beds watching tv and eyeing us suspiciously. Most of the kids we passed in the community yelled 'hello' to us and kept waving. The next round of repayment collections is Monday here in Granada and Tuesday in Matagalpa. I'm waiting to hear if there is room in the car that is going from Matagalpa to the community PHPG just starting loaning to. If there is, I plan on going to Matagalpa Monday morning and staying for two nights for the meetings there and heading back to Granada on Wednesday. I just settled into a room in house a few blocks from the central park. Shohta is also staying here and possibly another intern as well when she gets back from a mini-trip to the south. Right now there is an older gentleman who is living in one of the rooms, but he'll be moving out next week. In total, there are 3 rooms, so it'll be a little intern house. While walking around the central park in search of some breakfast, two high school girls approached me with a survey about what I think about Nicaragua. And then 3 boys with the same survey came up to me at a cafe. I think they were offended that I guessed their age was 14 (they're 16), but looked so much younger. They were friendly and were interested in my taste of music, particularly rock- they are slip-knot fans. Anyway, that is all I have time for now. I'm off to the market to buy a cell phone and some fruit.