So I think that maybe I (Lindsay) have been a little humbled this past week and a half or so by realizing that I too am susceptible to homesickness. Up until this point I have just been excited about everything new and different but perhaps now the reality of actually living here for 7 months is sinking in. I miss my friends and family (duh, I miss you all) and definitely feel slightly out of balance without the large support network I am used to at home. I just need to keep reminding myself that this is part of the process and certainly one of the reasons I did this: to challenge myself and live outside of my comfort zone for awhile.
That said, I want to share a few anecdotes from our daily life here.
For those of you who don't know, we still do not have a stove in our kitchen. "Cooking" usually consists of making sandwiches or salads or boiling eggs in our electric tea kettle. This past weekend however, we got the exciting news that a friend is able to lend us her gas stove and (empty) gas tank. Gas tanks here (even empty ones) are actually worth more than a stove so as soon as we heard this, we jumped on the offer. Sunday, Sara and I had what we considered a fairly comical though somewhat typical Ayacucho afternoon. We hopped on a public bus to go to our friend Roxana's house about 20 minutes away from downtown Ayacucho. Taking a bus is always an adventure in itself yet this was also our first time venturing to her house alone. However we made it just fine and then proudly rode back on the bus with our gas tank. When we got back to town it was almost 4:00 and we still had to do laundry. We pretty much ran to the roof washed all of our clothes and hung them up just in time for it to begin to rain. grrrrr. We actually ran through the center of town back to our apartment to take our clothes down. We already stand out here but two gringas sprinting down the street in the pouring rain is just something else. Perhaps this all sounds trivial, but it ended up being an exhausting afternoon for us and certainly out of the ordinary from our lives in the states. Next weekend we will venture out to Roxana's cousin Monica's house to get the stove, probs harder.
Finally we need to call the gas company and
have them come fill our tank...our goal is to have a functioning kitchen by Thanksgiving??? Despite my complaints of not having close friends, we do have a few friends and have invited them to eat some Thanksgiving food with us on thursday. We have no idea how many ingredients we will actually be able to find and are relying on one friend to make us a turkey...but we are going to try!
Not much more news for now other than I started teaching english a few evenings a week and on Saturday afternoons to make some money. I have only had two classes so far but I think I like it.
Finally, I thought I would leave you with a few examples of the KIVA stories we have been doing here at FINCA. Almost every day now, I am interviewing FINCA socias about their last loan cycle and their lives. Just in the past two weeks I have learned an amazing amount about these women's lives and seen lots of laughter and tears as they tell their stories. Of course, for more information I encourage you to check out kiva.org and you find FINCA Peru under the list of KIVA partners. However, since we don't have many pictures this week, I decided to post a few examples!
Isabel has 2 children, ages 8 and 12 and has been with FINCA Perú for about 6 years. She has a small food stand in which she makes and sells typical food from Ayacucho such as puca picante (potatoes with a spicy beet sauce), mondongo (hearty soup made from cow stomach and choclo) and chicharron (pork simmered with onions and spices for a few hours). Her husband sells household items and now is able to have an assistant. She and her husband have both learned a lot from the talks at FINCA Perú such as how to improve their businesses, be responsible and how to treat clients better. Someday she dreams of buying land, building a house and opening up a restaurant at her house,
Genoveva has been with FINCA Perú for 5 years and invested her most recent loan in her traveling produce business. Every week she travels 9 hours, both ways, to the city of Monterrico in the jungle to sell her fruits and vegetables. She has 7 children and 8 grandchildren. Despite business being a little slow right now, FINCA Perú has helped Genoveva save enough money to buy some land. She likes the positive energy at FINCA Perú and the work trainings. Genoveva says that she is really happy right now and wants to continue providing for her kids.
Sandra is 22 years old and is a single mother of two (ages 5 and 6). She used her most recent loan to invest in her business as a street vender. Sandra sells mostly sweets in the main plaza of Ayacucho. Though she admits that business has been slow lately, since joining FINCA Perú, Sandra has been able to increase sales and earn enough to better provide for her children. She likes the advice she has gotten from FINCA Peru regarding investing money, how to work hard, and how to be punctual with loan payments. Her dream is to one day start her own business selling clothing.
Hasta luego!
