Guinea pigs, cows, sheep, and pigs…. Let’s see, are those all the animals I saw today? Oh wait, I also saw horses, chickens, cats… and dogs, of course. Lots and lots of dogs. Ecuador seems to be full of them - pets and strays alike. Today we visited borrowers in the field with INSOTEC in Riobamba, in their acres of farms with cabbages, tomatoes and other crops.
INSOTEC provides financial and social support to those who are usually turned down by traditional financial institutions - indigenous people, rural/agricultural business owners, and people who have finished 6th grade equivalent education or less.
The great thing about organizations like INSOTEC is that they are as much focused on education and training as they are financial support, if not more. It makes sense to educate the borrowers about not only business related topics but also things like basic health care; the better the borrowers understand the importance, the lower the risk of late payment (borrowers who get sick may need to use the money to treat their illness rather than make the loan payment) and the healthier they and their family members are, the better the whole community gets.
Had a fantastic time at a local market talking to borrowers in their places of businesses!
It was great to see different types of micro-enterprises enabled by microfinace loans and get a sense of how much it costs to keep the small shops going. Visiting markets is one of my favorite activities when traveling abroad; snacking on street food was a big plus, too!
Yesterday and today’s visits taught me how hard these people work and how great they do when given the chance. This whole study tour has been a humbling experience - reminding me once again how physically taxing a lot of the borrowers’ work can be, yet how thankful they are.
Finally got to meet with two rural “micro-entrepreneurs,” the small business owners you probably picture when you hear the words ”microfinance borrowers.”
FACES provides about 7,600 loans to individuals like them, at an average of 1,500 USD per loan, ranging from $50 to $10,000. Some of the borrowers have disabled family members and that qualifies them to lower interest rate on loans.
First we visited Sergio, who owns a shop where he sells drums, flutes and crafts (like handwoven bracelets) made by his wife. Before he opened his shop, Sergio earned his living from doing agricultural and construction work. He looked happy and proud to have his own successful business (he’s never been late in making the loan payment except when the office was closed and he had to wait until the next day.) The neighbors we came across even said they’re the richest family on the hill! :)
Next, Ms. Carmen Flores showed us around her house, where she processes, grinds and roasts coffee that she sells to hotels and restaurants in Vilcabamba. She looked like a hardworking woman who’s doing good business with the help of her daughter. In fact, she’s doing so good that she was temporarily out of coffee to sell, so we could only have a tantalizing whiff of her sample!
Now we’re in Cuenca, the third largest city in Ecuador. Our adventure
and learning continue….
Flew to Loja to visit FAPECAFES and learn about organic coffee trade and how microfinance plays a part in their business.
The Quality Assurance Manager Mr. José Apolo Espinoza taught us how keeping the quality of coffee is crucial. They keep the number of bad beans to 5-10 beans per 350g of coffee grounds at max. Impressive!
Machines can keep it to under 10 but depending on the standards required, they need to keep it down under 5 beans. That’s when the sorting ladies come in; they check for bad beans by sight amazingly fast.
WCCN makes loans to FAPECAFES at almost half the interest rate of the local banks, and gives opportunities to those who wouldn’t otherwise have it.
It was also very informative and interesting to visit Daniel’s farm
where he grows coffee and other crops, and see how he processes his
coffee.
Now we’re staying in Vilcabamba, the Valley of Eternal Youth where a lot of the inhabitants grow to be a very old age. Let’s see if we can find out their secret tomorrow!
A lot to digest today. Starting with the lecture by the former
minister of foreign relations Dr. Ortiz followed by a visit to Kallari
Cafe, and Mitad del Mundo (the Equator.)
The General Director of Kallari Cafe Mr. Carlos Pozos told us how
their business is providing 5,000 people in 850 families of the
Quichuas an alternative way to make a living in sustainable and
environmentally friendly manner.
The Quichuas are the biggest indigenous group in the province of Napo
living along the rivers of Napo, Arajuno, and Misahualli.
Great to learn that there’s effort put into preserving dissapearing
culture and creating future for those in the Amazon in a
self-sufficient way.
The visit to the Equator was fun. Full of experiments like watching
how the water drains directly down on the Equator, trying to balance
an egg on the head of a nail, and trying to walk straight on the
Equator with eyes closed.
Arrived in Quito, the capital of Ecuador.
Got up at 3am to catch the 6am flight from SFO - quite a long day.
Met with a few fellow tour participants and Jeanne. Going to bed now after a light meal. Feels a bit light headed - maybe because of the high altitude?
Hope to have a good night’s sleep to be ready for a full day of learning and touring through Quito tomorrow!
Mayu
I’m looking forward to talking with the local partners and the borrowers about what their experience has been like, how they see themselves in the future, and have a better understanding of where the money goes once it leaves my (the investor’s) bank.
I’d also love to know their business and culture, and just enjoy the experience!
Saturday-jan 21, 2012: last day here in Ecuador. We bid farewell to our wonderful hotel and drove about 90 mins via a modern tollway road, then the local roads, winding through areas that are known for plums, peaches, pears and other fruits. We stopped at the open-air market of artisans in Salasaca where we followed the good tourist’s code of purchasing local handicrafts. Afterward, we visited a shaman who demonstrated the skills passed on to him by his father, a great shaman-of-all-shamans in his day.
We drove back along a spectacular tollroad, the Avenue of the Volcanoes: simply beautiful scenery and a series of stunning volcanoes, including Cotopaxi.
Friday was spent with INSOTEC in Riobamba - meeting the employees and some of their clients. It was impressive to see the farming efforts (mainly organic) of these people. One woman who was 26 years old with two children and lots of productive farmland, told us she hoped her young children would become professionals “because farming is a very hard life.” I felt my feet anchor me to the ground with the raw reality of her words. How many 26-year-olds back in the states could offer such a worldly comment, based on genuine experience?
Most clients’ families appeared to be part of the farming business. One farmer has his two sons in university, studying to become teachers. In between their studies they help out on the farm.
At lunch, several INSOTEC associates shared more insights about their organization, their work, and their clients. When they asked us, the WCCN delegation, about why we invest in WCCN (and through them, Ecuador & INSOTEC). One delegate, Bob, passionately explained, “Because I believe in the power of investing, charity and hand-outs just don’t seem to have the same impact as when you invest in something or someone.” Besides sharing his own thoughts, I thought Bob summarized why we do what we do at MicroPlace!
Saturday we make our way back to Quito. I think I could stay here just a bit longer to soak in the spirit of these good people.
Hasta luego, amigos!
After a very full day yesterday with ESPOIR clients, today was dedicated to Ecuador tourism. We drove several hours to get to the site of the Inca ruins at Ingapirca - an amazing site to see at elevation 10,800 ft.
Several hours later, we boarded a train that goes through the area known as Devil’s Nose - incredible scenery and trainride, though not for the weak when it comes to heights and traversing of mountains.
Halfway through we stopped in a small rest area that services this train’s passengers. We were showered by the hospitality and local music of the people who not only work there but have created this area. Dancers invited each of us to take part in their traditional, lively dances, with the fancy footwork of the (professional) dancers gracefully leading us into a very enjoyable, and energetic, time!
I learned that many of the people who work at the cafes and artisan stalls at the rest area walk up to 2 hrs a day to work here. Not one looked tired from their journey - if anything, they exuded the warm and genuine spirit of the borrowers we’ve met on prior days. As the light on the bus is dimming, and the power on my laptop is fading, I reflect on this warmth, spirit and strong work ethic that is clearly a part of Ecuador’s people and culture. While so many - too many - are poor, living at/below $2/day wages, the nature of these people convey a richness I find enviable and encouraging.
More tomorrowI
After a restful night in our hostels, we gathered at Vilcabamba’s town plaza to get ready for a day focused on getting to know the microfinance foundation, FACES, and some of their borrowers. Besides WCCN, FACES has an impressive list of investors that also includes another of our partners, Oikocredit. FACES has enjoyed explosive growth in the last year and in the coming month of February, is on track to open 3 more offices.
Unlike some other microfinance groups, the clients of FACES come to the nearest office to apply for loans. In the case of Sergio, a borrower and producer of musical instruments (drums and recorders), he travels at least 1.5 hrs to get to the closest office on a month basis, to make timely repayments on his now current $1,000 loan. His wife also is a client, using her loan to purchase supplies for her jewelry business. Because the couple’s son has Down’s Syndrome, they qualify for a loan called “Esperanza” that offers lower interest rates to families with a handicapped child or parent.
We also visited Carmen, who purchases coffee beans and then cleans, dries, roasts and grinds the coffee into a final product, which goes into a large sack. With the sack thrown over her shoulder, she walks into town to sell her coffee to her clients: restaurants, food shops, private families and offices. Carmen also qualifies for an Esperanza loan due to her daughter, who she says is her best helper!
As we departed through a side alley, trekking across mud, pebbles and debris, I heard a soft purring. And right there, in front of Carmen’s house, nested into a perfectly pristine spot, was Carmen’s cat, staring at me with the most beautiful green eyes. Sticking her head up to look this group of curious WCCN supporters and investors, she purred again, changed positions and settled into another nap. The juxtaposition of this cat with Carmen’s simple coffee factory /house, now tracked with our muddy footprints, seemed the purrfect reminder of beauty’s existence, everywhere.
The majority of the group gathered for dinner last night - mainly folks with longterm ties to WCCN and veterans of their previous study tours. Lots of anticipation and excitement about the upcoming wk, with the exception of the early flight scheduled to take us to Loja (change in schedule- departing hotel at 4.30am for 5.45sm flight- guess we’ll catch the sunrise!)
Following dinner, Giulia, a WCCN intern, and I managed to watch the last quarter of the 49-ers game (vs the saints). And in the words of the sportscaster after the saints scored with less than 1.30 to go, ‘Todo es posible’, Anything is possible. The final seconds of the game, indeed, showed that to be true.
When I think of the work of WCCN, and the drive and spirit of their partners whom we will be meeting this week, something tells me that I, again, will recall those words: Todo es posible.
Stay tuned.
I am looking forward to better understanding—and seeing firsthand—the impact of WCCN’s investments in local partners in Ecuador. I would like to understand how the investment capital flows from WCCN to the local partner and to their borrowers/recipients, and from the borrower/recipient’s perspective, how the experience has been/what affect(s) it has had on them/their business/their family.
Today we had our last partner agency visit and I feel like the study tour is over. Tomorrow we travel back to Quito and Sunday everyone leaves. I am beginning to feel like my job is done.
We visited several microfinance borrowers of our partner agency, INSOTEC. The borrowers all worked with their families growing vegetables and raising animals - to sell in the market and for their families to eat. When we arrived at their farms, they were all hard at work under the hot equatorial sun, but graciously stopped to tell us about their farms and why they like working with INSOTEC—because INSOTEC does not drown them in paperwork and they receive their loan proceeds within one day of applying for the loan.
Farming in Andes is not mechanized. To weed the fields, people use hoes; to harvest tomatoes from 4,000 tomato plants growing in a green house, you do it by hand. The farmers were all a bit shy at the beginning of our visit, but by the end they were rightly, proudly telling us all the different steps they complete to grow vegetables. They were all a bit mystified that we had traveled so far to see them.
I am leaving Ecuador proud of the work WCCN does and the people we help. I hope all the other tour participants feel the same way!
Today we visited microfinance borrowers of Espoir. The women we met were proud of their accomplishments and also very funny. When asked what they would be doing if they were not sewing for a living one said, “looking for a husband”. One woman who opened her own business 8 years ago, said she had four children, but said she had them before she had her own business when she had nothing to do. Then to completely contradict her flippant statement, she talked about how her oldest son is attending the University next year to be a dentist and how she would do anything to help him attend university, but because of her sewing business she is able to help him through university.
One microfinance borrower who has her own vegetable stand in the market works from 3AM to 6PM EVERY DAY 7 DAYS A WEEK!
In complete contrast with the women we met this morning who worked day and night, we had some free time this afternoon and spent it being tourists. We went to the Panama hat factory, where all most everyone purchased a new hat. (FYI—panama hats are really made in Ecuador, they were just popularized in Panama) We then went on a walking tour of historic downtown Cuenca.
Today was a short day. We left the hotel in Villacabamba at 9AM and arrived at our hotel in Cuenca at 8PM. (I was waiting for mutiny, but it never happened!)
Along the way, we met with our microfinance partner agency FACES, and also met two of their borrowers, one of whom, Sergio, happens to live in the most beautiful valley next to a stream. Our tour bus was too big for the one lane road, so we hiked the last 15 minutes to his house. Well, the hike should have been 15 minutes, but with all the stops to take pictures it was closer to 30 minutes. When we arrived at Sergio’s house, we were greeted by him playing the wooden flute he makes from bamboo.
The second borrower, Carmen, is a widow with a daughter who has Down’s Syndrome. Carmen uses her loan to buy freshly picked coffee which she dries, roasts—over a fire—and grinds to sell to local hotels, stores, and families.My real hope is the travel between cities goes smoothly, everyone stays healthy, and the partner visits go as planned.
What I always love about visiting microfinance borrowers is learning how they grow crops in foreign countries, learning about new fruits or vegetables, and seeing how products are made. It is always impressive and humbling how much physical labor our end-borrowers do, from making cement blocks, baking hundreds of bread rolls, or tying-up acres of cucumber vines by hand.
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