Portraits from Valle de Chota

Scope of work and more...

Pictures below are mostly of my travels in the area near Guayaquil last week. My time there was spent visiting rural banks, interviewing FINCA clients, oh, and hitch hiking. I’ve never even considered hitch hiking in the US, but it’s becoming a part of my, if not daily then certainly weekly, routine. Often we just have no other option. I think my favorite experience so far was catching a ride on the back of a pick up truck filled with recently cut eucalyptus trees. It’s certainly the best way to get good view of the deep valleys and dramatic cliffs that are so prevalent here. What impresses me about Ecuador is that they actually have roads that go just about everywhere…however, transportation without your own car is in short supply as you can tell.

I’ve been interviewing FINCA clients as well as people in communities where FINCA doesn’t operate, about what they think they need in order to be more successful in their income generating activities. This was going to be part of my thesis, as well as good information for FINCA re new service offerings and client satisfaction… but now that I am down here I am once again getting swept up in the world of Latin American artisans and the thesis plans are changing.

I talked to FINCA Ecuador about the export project that I worked with at FINCA Peru a few years back (see blog entries from Oct – December 2006). I proposed that I write up a business plan to assess the feasibility of replicating that project here in Ecuador, and they liked the idea. Sooo…they’re sending me to Peru next week in order to investigate the project’s progress. I couldn´t be more excited about doing this. The artisan products here are amazing, and so many people work in this area - but they hardly make any money as they sell to intermediaries who sell in the tourist markets here...the artists don´t even have access to booths in these markets as they operate with some convoluted system that only providing booths to the wealthier merchants (which is a system that I have not yet been able to fully understand, nor does it seem that many people here do.) I think that this type of project could have a real impact on the lives of the artisans here. It´s funny how things have come full cirlce since I first started in on these Latin America adventures 2 years ago!

When I get back from Peru (Megan will be here then!) I will be mostly talking with Artisans about what they think a fair price for their goods is, how much they currently make, what their supply chain looks like…and what their capacity and willingness is to adapt their products to the global market.

And that should keep me busy for some time now! So, all in all, things are going well. I like this little city, but am looking forward to the last semester in Medford as well, which is a nice feeling. I hope everyone reading this is doing well!

Besos (kisses)

-Amanda

The people I´ve met and places I´ve been

More pictures from outside of Ibarra

And more pictures from outside of Ibarra

A few days ago I went out to determine the feasibility of carrying out some research for my thesis in these communities about an hour outside of Ibarra. Talked to the President's of the communities, and I'm heading back this week to meet more of the communities - one in particular, San Clemente, is where I took the picture of the corn stalks. They were honestly some of the most naturally beautiful places I have ever seen. Rolling hills and lush fields are cut through by a cobblestone road, which connects even the most rural communities. My goal is to find where the road ends. More details on my latest adventures to come this week.

Thoughts on Ibarra

I´m still trying to decide if I think that Ibarra is a beautiful place. Sometimes, as I´m walking through the park with palms, a million kinds of flowers and people lounging on benches in the near perfect weather, cute old men selling newspapers in sidewalk stands, I think it is. Even the little boys shining shoes don´t trigger the feeling of despair as they do in many latin american cities. But more towards the commercial district it seems as though an experiment in 1970´s architecture has gone very very wrong. The huge tacky signs, advertising jewlery, hotels, cellphones, and ice cream. Man do they love their ice cream here. And of course there´s the electricity cables. At least they have electricity.

I´m living with a Columbian painter, who has a nice house a little bit outside of town. As soon as you step out the front door your hit with huge views Volcan Imbabura (apparently inactive) on one side, and an impressive mountain range, on the other. There´s definitely a breath of fresh air there.

Overall, people seem to be fairly well off in the city. And not from tourism. I´ve only seen one group of tourists since I got here. Now, to be fair, I have been sick in bed for the last 3 days due to an unfortunate incident with some bbq chicken...but things seem to be bussling along just fine without tourism, which is nice to see.

I´m working out in the rural areas outside of Ibarra, and life is defintely harder in those parts. I´m still figuring out the details on the project but it´s looking good, and there´s less electricity cables out in the ´campo´(country).

Tomorrow I take off for La Libertad, a smallish town on the coast, to carry out some survey´s for FINCA. It´s right next to what has been described to me as the Miami beach of Ecuador, so that´s at least worth a look. As long as my stomach cooperates I´m looking forward to it.

a couple more from Lake Cuicoca!

This is lago de cuicocha, and the other is a little girl in this artesan village of la esperanza (meaning - hope)

Pictures from Quito

San Luis de Chillo Gallo

Here are some pictures from a Village Bank (Banco Comunal) meeting in a southern quito neighborhood. When I asked if they minded if I took a few pictures, they all immediately smiled and clapped. Apparently they like pictures. I can't wait to return with hard copies for them to take home.

My new temporary home

As Megan and I found out as we were traveling through Panama last summer...I'm too old for hostels. I spent the afternoon looking for a place to stay for the next week, and while $8 a night is certainly appealing, I have reached the point where I just don't want to stay in a place that smells bad, if I have the choice. And I know that at some points this summer I will be places where I will not have that choice, so I'm taking advantage of it now. MacGregor's friends got me a great deal in a hotel over looking this Plaza. This view is from the restaurant where I enjoy a breakfast of toast eggs and coffee. Unfortunately they only serve instant coffee...but since I can take a real hot water shower, it all evens out. Plus, thanks to Michelle I have a wonderful portable coffee maker so I'm doing pretty well.

Day 2

Hello from Quito, Ecuador!

I arrived with no problems - in fact the flight was almost the same length as the Boston-SF trip that I'm so accustomed to. A FINCA driver picked up from the airport, and the next day I was at the office at 9am to start work. Lucia, the head of marketing with whom I'm working, is great! I think we'll have a lot of fun together - and we seem to work together very well. After a few visionary differences we managed to come up with a project schedule and terms of reference that I am quite excited about.

I'll spend the first week or so in Quito, then head to La Libertad, on the coast, then to Guayaquil (the other main city) to interview clients in the different branch offices. The back to Quito....then up to Ibarra (in the Northern highlands) where I will spend most of the remaining time. For FINCA, I'm gathering information about the demand for savings accounts. FINCA Ecuador is in the processing of converting from a non-profit into a registered bank - and so in a few months they will be able to offer clients individual savings accounts. At this point clients only have small group savings accounts as part of their village banking group. (For more info on FINCA or village banking click: www.villagebanking.org )

The research for my thesis will mostly be carried out in Ibarra...and will be focusing on 2 or 3 communities in the region. The field research will consist of learning about the communities main livelihood strategies and their access to markets. The main question will be how they think they could better take advantage of market opportunities, and the role that microfinance might be able to play in that process. As it gets more defined I'll give an update on the specifics.

For now, I'm off to meet my new Quiteño friends for lunch and to find a better place to stay for the rest of my time in Quito. Keep in touch!

Pictures from Nicaragua and Panama

rain rain go away

downsides to the rainy season

Well, my latest exotic adventure was quite literally dampened by an influx of 4 tropical storms in a period of a week. I made it out to Bluefields, which is the capital of the Southern Atlantic Autonomous Region, (RAAS) and gathered most of the HIV statistics I needed. But I didn't make it to the Caribbean island where I was planning exploring a little and relaxing a lot. The rain was incredibly hard and incredibly constant. Many villages out there are completely flooded by now. Bluefields is normally extremely isolated as they haven't even considered making roads to stretch over the miles and miles of wetlands that separate it from the capital. And now, the increasing isolation that the floods bring are pushing up the prices of basic goods and people are continuing to be evacuated. But this isn't an emergency - it happens every year.

Here in Managua all is good. I have three weeks to finish this project and no other travel plans until then. The big holiday of the year is approaching on August 1st. Somthing to celebrate Santo Domingo...which, as luck would have it, is the name of the church directly behind my house and the epicenter of all firecrackers, parades, and general brewhaha. My alarm clock is now drowned out by loud Nicaragua pop music that starts promply at 6:30am. I expect it to get louder and earlier until August 1st arrives. The anticipation is killing me.

I'll post some damp and dreary pictures of Bluefields momentarily...

Weekend at 'home'

So far my weekends in Nicaragua have been spent galavanting off to the nearest watering hole to escape the heat - but this weekend I was looking forward to a relaxing couple days at the pool in my yard. I caught up on some reading, studying and partook in the upper echelons of the Danish society in Managua. Friday night there was a going away party for a Danish women who, born to diplomats, had spent most of her life in Nicaragua. She and her husband threw quite the catered party complete with bar, food, and DJ spinning nothing but the best Nicaraguan classics - all surrounding a pool with overarching palm trees. Quintessential diplomat style.

To make it all the more interesting, our house guest this weekend was a Danish women who works for the Danish consulate. She was here to meet with embassy officials, as well as Daniel Ortega (President of Nicaragua). After him only canceling one of the scheduled meetings, they did actually meet and she returned with stories of his bizarrely decorated house and incessant need to talk. I guess you'd expect nothing else from a former revolutionary turned mainstream (but still kinda leftish) leader.

(Side note - here "leftist" means aligned with the US, so all the pro-business people are leftists...good thing I learned that one before any embarrassing mishaps at a cocktail party.)

So, things are good. My project has taken a bit of a turn. I was supposed to be compiling some Health Ministry projections on HIV and then writing an additional analysis of the potential economic costs of the epidemic in the Caribbean Coast. But as it turns out, the government team hasn't actually started their project... So it looks like I have to do theirs and then do mine on top of it. (that's what she said?)

It's one hell of an experience and I'm definitely learning a lot from the process. Not the very least is how to get things done in an unorganized and inefficient environment. (and given my inclination for efficiency you can imagine the deep breathing routines I have adopted...) And this is no knock on UNICEF here - it's more the governments lack of organization or information networks, to which I'm referring. But it's this same lack of functioning systems that gets me out of Managua and back to the Coast in a week or two. Email and phones don't quite reach the region so off I go in search of the type of information that a few clicks of a mouse could yield in the motherland.


Hope the summer in the states is treating everyone well. Send along emails when you have time!

Comunidad Naranjal

Here is a view from underneath a house where I took shelter during a rain storm with a very friendly school boy. Houses are built on stilts to avoid flooding, and in this case, this space also doubled as the 'barn' as it's where the animals sleep. Next one is a boy looking out the school window. I think we were quite the distraction from their normal school day. Although I'm not entirely sure that they didn't all just run into the school house once they heard that the people from UNICEF were coming up from the river! Last is a view of one of the communities from the river. Quite a lawn!

Miskitu village

Here's a few pictures from a Miskitu village about an hour or two down river from any road. They have a church, which is the only solid structure, other than the large row on latrines that the government built. Each family has one latrine, although from the looks of them, no one ever uses them. In the picture of the two kids - the oldest is 12, and pregnant. Her sister has a cleft lip and they daily drink polluted river water despite the wells the government installed in the village.

you heard it here first...& Coast commentary

The cable that brings internet to Central America was broken for 2 days last week at the fault of fishermen. Or at least that's what they're telling us. Doesn't sound like a likely story to me, but it is true that most countries in this part of the world were without internet for almost 2 days. I tried to find an article about it, but the only one I found was just about columbia. (although this same article has the little nugget about the culpable fisherman, which was news to me)

But I wasn't too affected as I spent most of last week in the eastern side of Nicaragua. It was quite an experience. A little background: the two regions in the Caribbean side are called RAAN and RAAS, and they are autonmous regions consisting mostly of indigeous villages. In the early 90's these regiones gained autonomy, which in principle it gives them control over their own resources, including land.

The UN publishes a Human Development Index, which ranks the level of "development" within 177 countries. If RAAN and RAAS were officially their own country, they would rank at number 171 out of 177. (While all of Nicaragua ranks at 113.)

It was like nothing I'd ever seen. It's sort of like everyone is permanently camping. They have houses, which they've made from wood cut from the abundent forest. They eat fruit, grain, vegatables grown from their land and the meat from the animals, which are also quite plentiful. But they have no roads so trade between villages is very low, and most people don't particpate in anything close to a formal economy, nor have access to any social services. The education system is virtually non-existent other than donor sponsored schools, most people have no access to medical services or access to clean water.

So, they have the potential to have great lives because the land they live on is so furtile, and thanks to the laws of autonomy in this region, most people actual own the rights to their land. Unfortunately, thanks to a few select companies who extract wood and minerals, the river is polluted and clean water is hard to come by. Lack of education about keeping animal carcasses and both human and animal waste out of river is also a large 'natural' source of pollution, so we can't blame everything on big business here. The main kicker is that lack of roads means that all transporation between communities is by river or horse or foot...combine this remoteness with unsanitory conditions and the potential paradise quickly fades away to a standard of living far below anything a human should have to bare. But at least they're not starving.

I was there with a team of consultants who were deciding which villages to sponsor over a 5 year period. The project would involve education on sanitation, as well as training on, and the provision of, appropriate clean water technology. I accompanied them on their first day...which included 6 hours in a wooden oversized canoe with a motor. And we didnt' even reach the furthest communities which would take a good 12 hours round trip. Keep in mind that this is the distance with a motor - which makes the 'main' town and the health clinic virtually imposible to reach for most.

The purpose of the community visits were to interview households on their current water and sanitation habits and view the existing technology they had. In most cases 'technology' was nothing more than a bucket to catch rain water, or perhaps a filter or a well at the very highest level. However, the only community I saw that had a well, didn't even use it because it had a broken cable, and they didnt' know where in the world to get a cable to fix it. We were also there to gauge the level of interest the village had in recieving outside help. Despite the even need, some communities are eager to 'develop' while others are not, which has a lot to do with the indigenous culture of living directly off the land. As opposed to some government sponsored projects which have left many wellbuilt wells and latrines unused, UNICEF trys to make sure that the technology will actually be used and that the people are eager to try something new.

I read a statistic saying that 9% of the people had access to water, and as the house we stayed in didn't even have running water, i though that at least those 9% must be fairly well off. After a little investigation I learned that it was 9% that had access to clean water.

After a 3 hour return trip consisting of 3 downpours and 3 periods of powerful sun in the very open air canoeish boat, I was a bit beat. But loved every second of it. The next day wasn't as eventful, but it was interesting all the same. Visitng an area further north, I interviewed health administrators about their policies regarding HIV/AIDS and began gathering data for my report. I have a lot of work to do, but it's going to be a great experience.

I'm back in Managua now where the weather has cooled thanks to the rains that continue to wash away entire houses. The women who works in my house is making fresh orange juice and doing my laundry as we speak, while the young man who works in my friends house is taking a few days off because his 18 year old brother just drowned trying to help two children who fell into an open drainage system in the most recent downpour.

Rain rain rain

The rainy season is here in full affect. That said, the temperature is more to my liking. Or maybe it's because i'm in an air conditioned office all day, so it just doesn't seem so bad. Office work does have its perks. I was awakened last night by a forceful storm with so much lighteining I felt I was in a night club with strobe lights...and the rain on the tin roofs so loud I had no choice but to lie awake listening to it. Once I accepted that I wasn't getting any sleep I just enjoyed it. Until I realized that houses in the shanty towns where likely being destroyed as hillsides are usually wiped out in these types of rains. Then I feel asleep, woke up, swam in my pool, ate breakfast and left my dirty dishes in the sink for the maid who comes to clean today. Guilt is a strange thing.

I leave Monday for the RAAN, (Caribbean Coast northern region) where electricty, never mind internet, will be scare. I'll be interviewing people about the prevelance of (and measures taken to prevent) HIV in their communities. The main problem I'm having gathering information is that the government is full of conflicting reports. So I'm trying to get the information directly from the health clinics and determine what is really happening. One of the first reasons I became interested in developing countries is that I felt you could actually do something that hasn't been done before, and contribute to improving the situation somehow...everything is the US is so developed and set in place, it seems harder to actually influence things. Here, no one's ever done any study to determine what the impact of HIV is on the communities. The information just doesn't exist. So this will be a first shot at comparing gov't reports to what's actually happening.

Will report back when I return in a week or so.

Love,
Amanda