Around town

Here´s a few pictures of the town plaza and one of the main streets, which is only for pedestrians. They were having some sort of parade to promote a candidate for county president this morning when i took these. All very peaceful, but all the same, very loud.

I´ve spend the last week and a half working, finding my way around and trying to figure out what I´m eating that is causing me stomach pains. They seem to have subsided, although the source I wasn´t able to distinguish. It´s just to difficult to be extremely careful about what you eat, so I´ve decided that I´m just going to have to get acustomed to it rather than be nuerotic about it. Civiche is a very popular dish here, which is delicious. However, eating raw fish I try to do only in the nicest of restaurants. I think the nicest restaurant in town may be equivalent to TGIFridays...or maybe a step up, but not too much higher. Most of the restaurants are small rooms in the front of peoples houses where you can eat for a couple dollars or less, but since i´ve been working so much i often make my own food or have the 86 year old lady that i live with make me a meal for $1.70.

Work is going well. Starting a new job is always challenging, and starting a new job speaking a new language is not any easier. But this week my communcation skills have started to pick up and I think I´m figuring out what projects they want me to do. It´s a great place to learn about microfinance and the people who work there are so sweet. It´s a bit exausting because you kiss everyone on the cheek hello AND goodbye - Even if you just had a 30 second conversation. I get a kick out of imaging that sort of interaction at a company in the US.

I had my first day of visiting clients on Friday, which was very eye-opening. The day started by riding off on the back of a motorcycle to the outskirts of town. Once you get out of the town center all of the streets are dirt and you are constanting dodging pigs, cows, sheep, goats, small children and what I can only assume are rabid dogs. We were visiting clients who were requesting large loans (over $500) or clients who were requesting individual loans (from $100-500), in order to make sure that they lived where they said, and ask questions about how the were planning to pay the loan back and what collateral they could put up for the individual loans. It´s was amazing to see how some people lived...houses built right into the hillside, dirt floors, children of 5 left home alone when the parents go off to work. All the while we were surrounded by very dramatic mountains, cliffs and valleys - next time I´ll take my camera.