But the players returned to Chile today and were greeted with pride by hundreds of fans and admirers in the Plaza Moneda here in Santiago.

Last week I was astonished by the lengths Chileans were going to in order to see their team play. Most especially by their obsession with acquiring high-def flatscreen TVs …

Dr. Kendall Mau, CFO of Prisma Microfinance (the institution I worked with in Honduras), writes about what they are doing to bring sustainable energy to their clients!

Use the following link to read his blog “Solar Energy on the Map”: http://microfinancetravels.typepad.com/microfinance_travels/2010/06/solar-energy-on-the-map.html

And here’s a blog I wrote about I visit I made to some of these clients in February: http://fellowsblog.kiva.org/2010/02/23/let-there-be-light-2/

the view from our porch!

A whirlwind summary of my whirlwind month in Chile:

Week one, May 1-7
Saturday: Arrive at 3:45 am, sleep on the airport floor for 4 hours until the buses and metro started running; arrive at the apartment I found on Couchsurfing; SLEEP; spend the afternoon with Sebastian (aka “Gato”) and Lily, my Couchsurfing hosts, Sebastian’s sister Katy (yes! the name exists here, which means no more having to repeat myself infinitely during introductions!), and her baby Sophia

Sunday: Go apartment hunting, find a number of pretty places and potentially cool roommies, but decide I would rather stay with Gato and Lily … make the proposal to them, negotiate terms of rent, and unpack my bags! Meet Isa, my supervisor at Fondo Esperanza (the microfinance organization I’m working with in Chile), and take a tour of Santiago

Monday: Day 1 at the central office of Fondo Esperanza (FE for short), meet-and-greet and set up my schedule for the next few weeks

Tuesday: visit a FE branch office in Santiago and attend my first communal bank meeting to meet clients!

Wednesday and Thursday: On the road to visit FE offices and survey borrowers in towns Curicó and Talca, about 2 hours south of Santiago, and the clients amaze me in their efforts to reconstruct their lives post-earthquake

Friday: back in Santiago writing up reports

Week two, May 8-14
Saturday: To Isa’s house in Peña Flor, a community in the vineyards outside of Santiago, to celebrate the first birthday of her niece. Drank wine, pisco sours, and discover that Chileans are also fanatics of dulce de leche (though they call it manjar)

Sunday: Let the cooking festivities begin! Turns out that roommate Lily is an avid and fantastic cook (not only because she insists on drinking wine while cooking), and that she loves to teach!

Monday and Tuesday: Back to the south visiting FE offices in Talca then Linares for more communal bank reviews; looking over piles and piles of client files makes my head swim, but it is really special to share the Kiva concept and webpage with borrowers. Technologically Chile is on a different level than Honduras was, which means that in many cases, FE clients actually have the capacity to check out Kiva.org and look at the information that’s posted about them there. Cool!

me with the group of women I worked with at Corazón Emprendedor

Wednesday and Thursday: To Valparaíso for a conference called Corazón Emprendedor (translates like “Heart of the Entrepreneur”). Put on by FE and other institutions, this conference brings FE clients (all micro-entrepreneurs) together to learn about business best practices, network amongst themselves, and to compete for the title of Corazón Emprendedor (this title comes with a hefty cash prize to boost the winner’s business, and a scholarship to a local university). INSPIRING!

Friday: FE’s annual reunion, where 240 employees from 30 offices around the country come to Santiago. Sitting through hours of presentations by motivational speakers, analyses of operations by directors, and workshops to discuss how to improve services is meant to promote team-spirit within the staff members. But we all know that the real bonding happens during the tug-of-war competitions in the rain and the costume dance party:)

playing dressup with the FE finance team - I love these ladies!

Week 3, May 15-21
I start to settle into my adventurous routine! In Santiago all week, I attend the first meeting of the Super Star communal bank which I’ll be following through their entire loan cycle. This means I get to help their loan officer Nancy lead bi-weekly meetings, where the bank members register repayments and participate in the business training course. Topics we’re covering now: How to identify characteristics that make you a good entrepreneur.

Lily helps me add more delicious recipes to my repertoire, and more inches to my waist. Good thing there’s an awesome gym a few blocks away, where they are giving me discounted membership in exchange for English lessons (again! what luck!)

Week 4, May 22-29
The 9-6:30 daily grind at FE honestly starts to wear on me. Mostly because we need to get reports submitted to Kiva in order to push FE to the next phase of the partnership (FE is a new partner as of December ’09, and still isn’t fully active on Kiva). Because of the earthquake in February, there’s a certain measure of disorder in the bookkeeping and we have trouble tracking down all the information we need for the reports. We are still working on this one, but all this wrestling with spreadsheets has built a lot of solidarity between Isa (la jefa), Valeria (the Kiva coordinator here), and me.

Friday: I escape to Cobquecura (7 hours south of Santiago by bus, and the epicentre of the earthquake, as it so happens) with Gato and Lily for some time with friends on the beach. Ceviche on the beach by day, asado and live music by night. Excellent.

roomies!

In the last two weeks the first heavy rains of winter arrived in Santiago and the southern cities affected by the earthquake, which put to the test this semblance of normalcy. Those fortunate enough to be in their homes crossed their fingers and prayed that their shaken roofs didn’t leak; and the Chileans living and/or working in tents gritted their teeth and prayed for winter to spare them a few more weeks to put up “mediaguas” (semi-permanent housing structures).

The consensus here is that direct government aid was slow and poorly organized. In the city of Talca, in the Maule region (one of the most severely affected), for example, government trucks carrying food and water supplies did arrive – but five days after the earthquake, and the precise day that the city water got turned back on. “It’s better late than never, though” commented one pedestrian just last week in the city of Curicó, as we watched a government truck loaded with wooden pallets (destined for mediaguas housing) rolled down the street.

Many buildings in the town centers of Southern Chile were made of adobe and wood, and did not withstand the earthquake. FE clients with businesses in spaces like this one, and have had to improvise, putting up tents and kiosks or selling on the streets

Some state-sponsored projects have already taken effect, like the Banco del Estado’s (Chilean National Bank) projects to reach out to affected customers. As part of its “Levantemos juntos nuestro pais” (Together We Lift Up our Country) campaign, the bank has offered some repayment leniency to the clients in severely affected areas. It also covers all of its mortgage loans with a seismic insurance plan, and has been actively publicizing these policies to encourage its clients to make claims against the earthquake damages.

Smaller institutions, like Kiva’s field partner Fondo Esperanza (FE), have been admirably quick at choreographing their emergency response, and have also been productive channels for funneling government aid. FE, its parent organization Hogar de Cristo (a nationwide social service institution), and the Banco del Estado have teamed up with Un Techo Para Chile (A Roof for Chile) to bring mediaguas to affected populations. These mediaguas are especially important as winter settles in, and FE is amping-up its efforts: thanks to a grant from the Chilean Ministry of Planning they will be constructing an additional 2,000 mediaguas for clients who lost their homes.

Twelve of FE’s 30 offices are in earthquake-affected areas, and immediately after the earthquake the organization sponsored “basic-needs” boxes and distributed them to these communities. FE loan officers arriving with supplies were the first point of contact for many FE clients, who were without power and phone service for the first week after the earthquake. Additionally, FE funded 41 soup kitchens and sent part of their staff to participate in immediate and follow-up cleanup and construction work. Those who remained in the office formed committees, reviewed accounts, and developed FE’s new portfolio of “Medidas Crediticias Para Emergencia” (Emergency Credit Measures).

Examining each individual “socio” within the communal banks, the committees divided these clients into three different categories of need. The homes and businesses of Category-A clients were either completely destroyed, or damaged to the extent that they were deemed inhabit/operable. Category-B clients suffered minor to moderate damages, but were determined to be capable of maintaining productive activity. The homes and businesses of Category-C clients suffered no structural damage, though they may have lost a small amount of merchandise.

For the month of March, FE gave all communal banks in affected areas a five-week “prórroga” (grace period), during which bank activity [weekly or bi-weekly meetings during which socios make repayments and receive business training] was suspended. To Category-A clients, FE offered to freeze the client’s debt for a period of up to six months, during which they may receive either an additional short-term loan; or a “capital de semilla” (seed capital), an institutional grant. FE will also offer refinancing plans to groups whose members fall in categories B and C, allowing them to repay the last two or four quotas of their current loan out of a new loan. To focus on maximizing service to active socios, FE loan officers in affected areas have not been forming new communal banks [ie: not distributing entirely new loans], but they have encouraged in-need entrepreneurs to join up with existing groups.

Ten of the 33 FE communal banks on Kiva took advantage of the prórroga, and though most of them have resumed commercial activity and repayments, some delinquencies will be reflected on Kiva’s website. Only two of these ten banks include clients ranked as Category-A and B, which is impressive considering that as much as 60% of the population in some of these communities lost their homes. This means that everyone knows someone who lost everything; the more fortunate FE socios are pooling their resources to help their friends, family members, and neighbors pick up the pieces.

At a recent nation-wide staff gathering, FE’s internal director commented that the earthquake gave the institution a unique opportunity to show Chile and the world its ability to respond to the needs of the community. He commended the team [240 employees in attendance at the event] for responding well in a time of crisis, as they continue to spend their weekends assembling mediaguas, serving in the soup kitchens, and reorganizing loan portfolios.
As for the FE clients: “You know what?” said Paola of the Blanca Estrella communal bank, “you could run us over with a giant truck, and would we lay there smashed on the street, complaining? No, we would get up, and keep going!”

They are, indeed, peeling themselves off the pavement and out of the rubble with spirit and with “FE” (faith).

“Fondo Esperanza” means Hope Fund. Click HERE to contribute to the spirit of faithful hope by funding a FE communal bank through Kiva.

The Itsy-Bitsy Spider climbed up the water spout
Down came the rain and washed the spider out
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain
And the Itsy-Bitsy Spider climbed up the spout again …

This song always comes to mind when I meet clients who seem to be trapped in the vicious cycle of poverty, loan dependence, and over-indebtedness. Meeting these clients makes me sad and disappointed. Sad that they are usually reluctant to talk to me although I try to tell them that I am not there to charge them money, only to charge a “plática”, or conversation. Disappointed that they are in such dire economic straits (whether by personal mismanagement of funds, or by a bad turn of the cards), that they can not make their payments. These clients are a statistical necessity, I suppose, representing the small industry-wide percentage* of micro-loan recipients who do not (or cannot) comply with their loan obligations.

There are other clients who, over many years and multiple loans manage to sustain themselves, but whose businesses grow meagerly if at all. It is clear that not everyone is an entrepreneur, and that not every business can succeed, but I still squirm in frustration for these itsy-bitsy spiders, who “luchan y luchan” (struggle and struggle) to climb out of the slippery spout of poverty, only to be inundated with bad sales or a family illness and washed right back down.

Then there are other clients on whom the sun shines brightly, like “Paty”. I met Paty last month when I wrote a journal update for her loan, and I was amazed by her story so I asked loan officer Manuel if we could make a special trip to meet with her again.

Paty is a married mother of four, who used to work in a cigar factory, but saved bit-by-bit and took out a Prisma loan to start her own “pulpería”, or small grocery store. Paty filled up her store with everything from basic household goods to bicycle repair parts to sodas, and because the store is right off a busy highway, business was good from the outset. After successfully repaying her first loan, she took out a second loan to begin purchasing sodas in bulk. She was selling a great deal of soda from her store, and decided to start acting as a soda intermediary, warehousing crates in her shop and saving up to buy a truck to distribute them herself. Saving up with these ventures and taking out yet another Prisma loan, Paty decided to take advantage of the vacant lot behind her home to build a hotel to house passers-by. Now that the five-room (five-star, if you ask me) hotel is built, Paty has used her most recent Prisma loan to start a “comedor” or restaurant to feed the hotel guests, and anyone else who stops by hungry.

After she gave us a tour of all the different projects, we sat in the shade of the comedor; I wrote my notes and impressions while Paty and Manuel talked-shop. Manuel made the observation that the comedor looked pretty empty (stock-wise and customer-wise), and Paty admitted that she has been trying to think of ways to promote the restaurant but that she is short on energy and time because she has been juggling all of the businesses. If you can believe it, Paty and her husband are running this four-business conglomerate on-their-own. Despite their success, Paty says she still has a lot to learn about business, which is why she likes chatting with Manuel when he stops by.

Manuel’s official duties as a loan officer are to find new clients, evaluate them, distribute the credit, and make follow-up visits to delinquent clients. But his title as “asesor de crédito”, which translates to credit advisor or credit consultant, better reflects his informal responsibility to share business tips with his clients. Manuel comes from a family of entrepreneurs and farmers and spends his 55-hour work-weeks observing and analyzing business best-practices, so he’s a great source of knowledge on everything from business administration to settling employee disputes to maximizing crop harvests. His is notably proud of clients like Paty, but his urgent piece of advice to her was to “HIRE AN EMPLOYEE!”

This super-star self-taught businesswoman has an inherent understanding of good business practices, like detailed bookkeeping, diversifying her products, and seizing good opportunities when she sees them. But Paty admitted being guilty of certain oversights, like tarrying so long in hiring an employee. She also said that she is having trouble navigating the stricter regulations and higher taxes being placed on the restaurant and hotel. She looks to advisors like Manuel for suggestions, but says she wishes that she had access to professional development programs or classes.

Though Prisma does not, there are many microfinance providers that do offer these services to clients; some even require clients to complete a series of training courses as part of the loan agreement. Such projects and programs, in conjunction with access to credit (and maybe a sprinkle of Paty’s entrepreneurial fairy dust) might just increase a microfinance client’s chance of success. Though recent press points out that micro-credit is not actually the magical development solution it is sometimes promoted to be, if these itsy-bitsy spiders can develop the know-how to secure their safety nets against unexpected downturns, they can focus on spinning their webs UP, ever-closer to the sun.

*as of June 2009, the overall percentage of loans past due > 30 days was 4%

To support the itsy-bitsy spiders, check out the Prisma entrepreneurs currently fundraising on Kiva.

It appeared as such for one client I spoke with last week. Hers was a particularly powerful interview because her father had recently been killed. As I wrote the journal update, I didn’t know how to relate the potency of her story to her investors except to put it in her own words: “because my father was a man of faith, I know that he is in a better place, and that God will also help me through my grieving process”. I found myself wanting to editorialize at the end of the email, wanting to justify the borrower’s certainty in God.

This surprised me, because if you asked me whether I belonged in the Kiva Christians team [number two in amount lent through Kiva] or in the aforementioned “Atheists, Agnostics …”, I would say the latter.

I will admit that I have been taking the process of cultural assimilation to the extreme here – saying “God be with you” before I hang up the phone with a coworker; shouting “God bless you, brother” to a client as we pull up for an interview; attending church once a week with my roommate (and singing heartily along to the hymns, I must admit!). So in jumping to defend the convictions of this client, was I really just defending my own budding religious conversion?

Well, the last five weeks have initiated a sort of spiritual awakening within me, but despite doing my best to mimic Honduran religious tendencies, I wouldn’t say that I’ve been “born-again”. Rather, my free-thinking ways are finding “God” in everything I do here. In humanity.

I’m excited, because I have been on the edge of this breakthrough for a long time. I began studying microfinance in college because the model of community-based financial growth inspired me. I applied to the Kiva Fellows program to learn more about this development strategy, and when I got accepted, I got a huge show of financial and moral support from my network of friends and family. It seems fitting that as I work with developing communities in Honduras, I am doing so on the good graces of my community in the US. And that, in talking with Prisma borrowers about their lives and their businesses, I get to be part of the process that links them to the international Kiva family.

This process and the last five weeks of Hallelujah!s finally sparked my own divine revelation: it’s all about Community and Connectedness. These are pillars of Kiva’s brand of faith, and they must be the reason Kiva attracted me in the first place.

Personal epiphanies are “común y corriente” among Kiva Fellows (read recent enlightened reflections by Mary, Monica, Brian, and Bryan), but I’ve decided to share my experience because I think that all members of the Kiva community can relate (even the most skeptical among us). I will not pretend that every Kiva lender sends a prayer to the borrower when they click the Lend button; nor that every borrower considers their loan to be a blessing. But many Prisma clients do tie their understanding of Kiva directly to God. They tell me that they received their loan “Gracias a Diós” (thanks to God), that their businesses flourish for the same reason, and that they repay responsibly because they are answerable to God. Though I wish they would credit their own hard work and ambition a bit more, I admire their faith in something larger than themselves. So as a Kiva Fellow I try to help clients conceptualize how Kiva fits into this “bigger picture”, and in the meantime I feel honored to be part of something they hold in such high spiritual esteem.

Trying to decide where you fit in the grand scheme of things? Make a Kiva loan through the Prisma Honduras lending team, and see if it speaks to you!

riding down the Nicaragua-Honduras border

I noticed happily when I got back to Colorado that a little acorn Nina had found, and a little stick Tanja had carved into a point, were still buried at the bottom of my purse, under my camera and journal. I’m not sure what customs would have said about transporting seed-like objects across the border, or what TSA would have said about the sharp stick, but that’s another story.

Here in Honduras, many of the objects in my purse are the same – the sweater, the camera, the notebook, the water bottle, the sunscreen, and the candies (many of Prisma clients make sweets, and sometimes I just can’t help myself:). I’ve learned also to always travel with a copy of my passport, after being stopped at one police check-point and told I was going to be detained until one of my coworkers went back to the office to get my identification. Thankfully they let me go after I explained what I was doing, and that I didn’t have my ID because we’d been visiting an area too risky to be carrying around cash and documents. Usually there’s also a bag-or-two of bananas (called “mínimos” here) and vegetables that I also bought from a client – they’re usually fresh-picked and much tastier than what I get in the supermarket. Some mornings when I’m in a hurry I buy a nactatamalé (a Honduran tamale, wrapped in plátano leaves which seem to hold in moisture much better than corn husks) from a woman who sells them on the street and tuck it hot-and-fresh into my purse to munch on later. When I’m out doing client interviews I’ve got a file folder with all their information; by the end of the day the folder’s usually covered with dust from the road and some sort of food stain (can you tell I’m eating a lot here?). This week I was visiting one of the branch offices in Danli, a town in the south near the Nicaraguan border, in fact, we stopped en-route in the middle of a banana plantation, and Octavio, the loan officer, told me to put my foot on the road – I was standing in Nicaragua! Though the offices are in Danli, the clients fan out as far as 100k in all directions, so we had a lot of motorcycle travel. The weight of two travelers got to be too much for the motorcycle at one point, so we sputtered to a stop and walked to the nearest store to buy a pint of oil. This bottle also made it into my purse. I’m feeling very cross-functional, considering that, stowed in the same pocket as the oil, I had hair clips and earrings (to spiff myself up once the helmet and dusty jacket came off and it comes time to interview clients).

When I look at the purse, it’s really quite incredible that I can fit in it all that I do. Admittedly, I robbed the purse from Alice, who has some sort of magical touch when it comes to fitting large amounts of things in little spaces, so I’m going to attribute the purse’s powers to her.

The newest addition to the contents of my purse is a bag of postcards, which I’ll soon be filling out, addressing, and sending to some of you!