My New Job(s)

So I’ve been here a week…although there is never hot water unless you boil it, I have to flush the toilet by dumping a bucket a water and use the same bucket to wash my hair… I love it here!

I wake up around 6:30 have a delicious breakfast of eggs and veggies, a roll and café and then wait for the bus that comes generally around 7:45ish…it’s the only bus that comes to my community so even though I don’t have to be at work until 8:30ish I generally take it (18 cents) … sometimes I walk…its about a 40 min walk into town buts its beautiful, the whole way you can see mountains, a volcano, farms, cows, and the best part is the people.. everyone is super nice greeting you with a Buenos dias as you pass!

So per usual I had to be difficult and work at two places instead of just one…

1: Cooperativa Santa Anita de crédito y ahorros….

It is the main cooperative of Cotacachi, when I am here I follow around Luis, a 23 year indigenous young man… a typical day consist of some paperwork at the office and by 10 o’clock were off to visit clients in the communities further up in the mountains… the best part is that we travel by motorcycle! There really isn't a better way to spend the day then cruising through windy mountain roads on the back of a motorcycle!

The downside is I understand practically nothing because when you get up in the mountains a lot of the people only speak kichwa… which is nothing remotely like Spanish or English… but I really want to learn it… I already have one phrase down “ally punchga” (no clue how to spell it but that’s what it sounds like) means “good day”….

2: Unión de Organizaciones Campesinas de Cotacachi: UNORCA

Here I am working with a 24 year girl Mira who just started there as well a month ago, she is currently working on a project with “cajas de mujers.” The project first consists of doing a diagnosis of all the cajas, which are basically women’s group that take out credit from the cooperativas because it is a lot of work and paperwork and time for one person to take out credit on their own and if you only need a small amount then the cajas are a much better route…

After evaluating the cajas she’s going to make some huge report and evaluate how the cajas are doing … and then go to the communities and teach the women how to operate more effectively.

Right now we are in the stage of visiting the communities, so I go with her and another indegious woman and we sit with group meetings for sometimes as long as 3 hours talking and learning all about their caja, again a lot of this is done in kichwa…

Sometimes we stay in the office and I help here record the information about loans and debts into excel files…

I’ve only been at both places a few days because I’m splitting my time each week so I still don’t know exactly what I’ll be doing but that’s the general idea