Nuevo hogar, nuevos observaciones, nueva vision.

More Photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051675&l=63df1&id=40402759

It was a brief moment as I was walking back from work, that I noticed it. The lack of attention. The looks of familiarity instead of curiosity. "Verita, Verita!" The simple shouts coming from behind the small snack stand sealed the deal.

I am not a tourist in my neighborhood anymore. I am still a gringo, but not one that buys the souvenirs, wears inappropriately short shorts unobservant of the common attire, and gives a few cordobas to the persistent children who are simply encouraged by this new jump in earnings to skip classes yet another day. Today I felt that I was at the doorstep of being a part of this community, something quite unimaginable for my short stay. However, it is not time that I use as a unit of measurement, but a comfortable coexistence I can sense in myself and the people around me, such as Opportunity's staff, the persons working at the guesthouse, and those whose houses I walk by a few times a day.
It is a humbling and encouraging feeling at the same time.

My Spanish has also improved. Traveling to visit microentrepreneurs with Carolina, and the desire to ask them questions, learn more about their lives, hear their stories, forced me out of my cowardly shell and got me spitting correct and incorrect words in a jumble of sentences; the correct pile growing slightly each day. I also abandoned the awkward feeling of confusion mixed with curiosity and excitement, and replaced it with a feeling of comfort mixed with the desire to observe, participate and absorb especially since I already know my way around the city. Though work is quite unique every day, my day has some positive routine to it:

1. I wake up very early, and while getting ready I drink a cup of good coffee and fruit cut fresh by my host as she scorns why I leave with no desayuno completo (complete breakfast). She does it every day and strangely, I like it even though I never actually have time to sit down and satisfy her wishes.

2. Work goes from 8-5:30. It is a long day made much easier by the fact that I adore the people with whom I work, I enjoy the privilege of having a small working desk and wireless internet, and await for the next exciting opportunity to go out in the field. I rarely get disappointed. There is much to do and I do not grow tired of it.

3. I have 1 break to take when I want and for how long I want. As I have been working since the first day I got here, and return home with the sunset at 6, I have been spending my breaks exploring the city, walking around, watching, smelling, listening. I found that I especially enjoy the market and purposefully do not stalk up on food so I can go every afternoon.

A night view from my room into the house' open courtyard.

3. As the weather is about 33 d C, or 95 d F, I come back from work scorching hot and I dive right into the small pool in the middle of my guesthouse. Its too small for serious laps but I make it work. Also, as of yesterday I am a member of the gym a block up north, where I now have taken Zumba dancing lessons and a very good, quite intense, yoga classes.

4. After a shower and a fix of my tiny closet-room that I have grown to call my pleasant haven, I fix up some food, oftentimes simply consisting of a fresh pineapple, cantaloupe or tomatoes with goat cheese. Not sure if its the heat, but my meat intake has decreased immensely. I am sorry mom.

5. Being new and alone in town, I have no acquaintances or connections. However, this is not limiting or ultimate. I meet people everyday, whether at the coffee shop or the market. I also met two brothers from Amsterdam who are traveling around Central America on quad bikes and were my company for a few days. Spending time at their hostel's restaurant/bar got me acquainted with many more backpackers with incredibly unique stories making for great late-night conversations. It has also been a bit easier to explore the youngen-spots around town. I was quite unsure about the cautions agianst walking around alone at night as this place appears very safe. However, as I have come to learn, a girl my age does not walk around solo as she may be easily mistaken for a prostitute.

Though my backpacker friends left as all backpackers do, I said adios, promising to keep in touch. However, I am not sad because I am not only sure I will meet new company, but also because I have also found that I do enjoy my time alone. The first two days I was so curiously anxious that I wished I had someone to share these feelings with. However, I have grown so comfortable being with me, myself and I in my new short-term home. Being alone is incredibly serene, peaceful, and wholesome. I actually follow through with the thought-chains that form in my head as there is oftentimes no one around me to interrupt this random mind-blabber solely to avoid silence, which we so often do. I have grown to appreciate my silence as it gives me the chance to note my surrounding and its voices. People are fascinating to observe' their performance of daily activities and their facial expressions like a chapter of a good book.

As I am trying to shape this blog into a personal journal and an internship reflection, I will not so smoothly transition into some thoughts, conversations and observations from my working hours.

I finally found the fair trade certification most applicable to Opportunity's brand of Ojala products--IFAT, or the Word Fair Trade Organization. The application is quite extensive, yet not my present focus. What I have successfully got myself into is exactly what the women producing for Ojala needed--promotion and the possibility for a greater market for their products. The first I am addressing by taking photographs of all the products, as well their stores, production sites, all while recording their stories. By Monday I will be sending Zach, a web designer from Cali, pictures and detailed descriptions of products, as well as the faces behind these products. The web page will allow more store owners around Nicaragua to view the products and extend help in retailing, as well as open up a way for persons from the US and Canada to purchase products online. This second goal of exporting to the US is a bit ahead of the possibilities at the moment, as storage and transportation of larger quantities must first be assured.

Yesterday, Carolina and I visited Maria in Masaya who has been receiving loans from Opportunity (through its local partner ASODENIC) for 4 years now. She uses the money to buy differing types of wood, employs her whole family (3 men) to cut, glue, mold, and shape the wooden containers and vases, and then sells them with the distributional help of Opportunity to the 3 stores in Nicaragua (in Granada, Managua and San Juan del Sur).

Today Carolina and I took a bus to get to a small neighborhood outside of Managua. It was probably the poorest spot I have seen so far, with its lack of roads, clogged sewage system that could be smelled from kilometers away, and its the shack-style houses. However, it still seemed carelessly lively; people busying around the streets, concrete or tin houses colored brightly, and children providing an alive background noise. Myra has been receiving loans for 8 years now, declaring a large improvement in her business' success and her standard of living throughout the years. She heard from her brother in Mexico that items made of recycled aluminium can be attractive for tourists so she began investing in her own business, employing her 2 sons and her husband. What was most encouraging was her confession that she wouldn't have been able to send her third son to university if she hadn't improved her business.
The workshop was full of molds and products, while the small store she opened in front of her house was full of shining wall decorations, vases, mirrors, decorative plates. We discussed the possibility of advertising her products to churches as well as in the more touristy, artisan market in Masaya. The local market is simply for necessities, the focus group completely mistaken.

Before I end this incredibly long blog entry, I must mention something about my observant criticisms of microfinancing, prompted by long conversations with my supervisor at the office. Though I am far from a critic (yet), trying to be a realist I have grown to calculate the real interest rates of microfinace institutions, and that is not the poverty-allivating tool it started as. 2% is the interest rate MFIs write on promotional material, the interest rate they explain to the borrower sitting across the table. They vaguely mention the commission fee, the service charge, and the cancellation fees, all which contribute to the real numbers: 38-60% depending on the MFI. Now ASODENIC's records show they remain at a "low" 42% even with the increasing trend due to commercial banks entering the microfinance investment pool. This has turned microfianance around for many regions. It simply has become a profit-making tool for banks (even commercial banks like American Express) while it has remained a "maintenance" tool for the poor, a tool that provides business owners with capital to begin a business with a rare chance to prosper beyond subsistence. Raising to substance is an improvement for many, and therefore I do still believe that loaning to the poor is a human right andmicrofinance does that. However, it is not development. Development is bigger than 3 months, and $150.

I have come to understand that investing WITH the poor, for 5-10 year periods, in community projects that benefit the community as a whole is the second step that has not yet been recognized behind the hype that small loaning has caused. Asset Based Community Development, as two professors from Northwester define it, is the process of finding the assets in the community, engaging the people with one another and their community's associations, facilitating means for them to map out a project they would like to accomplish. For example, while ASODENIC continued to loan out the small, short-term loans, Opportunity got involved in investing with the poor in a community north of the city to bring water to their homes. The process, from digging ditches, to well creation, to pipe installment was done by community members solely with the oversight of Opportunity staff.

This is the type of continual, larger-scale and long-term investment that must occur in communities around the world. While microfinance can provide for small loans for business start-up, investing with the poor in larger, sustainable projects will truly mean economic development. So when the microfinance hype ends as more and more question the reason commercial banks enter this process that is meant to aid the poor not make money from it, my hopes are that funding will turn to more sustainable projects that use local assets and talents all while improving the standard of living of the community as a whole.

Speaking to Geralyn is like a development class in its own unique category. She has been great to work with, and quite influential with her criticisms and her inspirations.

Now as the hammock is leaving permanent diamonds on my legs, I will drift off to sleep. I have a strong desire to spend 2 days by the lagoon right below the Mombacho volcano, so I will be attempting the local bus tomorrow, the bus that has persons hanging on all sides of it, in hopes of an empty bed in the lagoon huts.

Buenas Noches.