MFI Visit 4 - León, Nicaragua

My mode of transportation for visiting all the borrowers on my fourth microfinance instition visit... details to come.

MFI Visit 3 - Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras

I had not intended on attending this women's resource center meeting when I scheduled my microfinance institution meetings from my computer in Dallas four weeks ago. How did I find out about it? I was explaining to a Honduran woman one evening how I just graduated from college and was planning to work for microfinance group in Peru beginning in August and how I was visiting microfinance groups in central america. She informed me that was a secretary at a microfinance group and that tomorrow, the microfinance group was doing a presentation on their job training, character development, education, and women's health pilot program... similar to the type of program that I am charged with developing in Peru! Divine appointment! I was pumped. The photo is of some of the borrowers listening to the presentation. These borrowers are the presidents of their respective solidarity groups and are therefore considered to be most responsible and well-educated among their peers. Aside from the great deal that I learned, highlights included a spontaneous prayer in the middle of the presentation (one of the borrowers declared that felt led by the Holy Spirit) and frequent breaks for locally manufactured grape, cherry, and orange sodas.

MFI Visit 2 - San Salvador, El Salvador

But for the referral I received to visit a microfinance networking organization down the road, my second MFI visit would have been a complete failure. The El Salvadorian country director who agreed to meet with me blew off our meeting and the other employees of the office weren't interested in conversing with a kid equipped with sub-average spanish. Fortunately, I found a great resource center down the street. It had a small library, well really a large chest full of books about microfinance, and the resource center employees were nice enough to let me to peruse through them for an hour or two.

MFI Visit 1 Cont'd

Jose Miguel (pictured, left) is a little bewildered that I want to document his work. Thanks for letting me tag along Jose! The indigenous woman (pictured, right) has been approved for a new loan.

MFI Visit 1 Cont'd

Thinking that this woman was just self-conscientious or shy I ignored her efforts to veil her face with her jacket and continued to photograph her... I later learned that among her tribal community, cameras are believed to steal spirits...