MFI Visit #1

This photograph was taken in a small Mayan village outside of Tumula, Mexico. Jose Miguel (pictured, left) is guiding the unnamed borrower´s (pictured, right) thumb onto the loan contract. Thumb prints are used in place of signatures when borrowers are illiterate. The elderly mayan woman is smiling because she has just paid off her third successful loan without default and has decided, along with her other solidarity group members, to extract a fourth loan of approximately $100, which she will use to purchase unrefined sheered sheep wool. She dyes the wool, spins it into yarn, and then using the yarn, stitches traditional skirts similar to the one she is wearing in the picture.