Note: This was written yesterday, couldn't post because we were out of electricity.
So it’s been a while since my last blog. Please forgive me. I am going to try to summarize as much as I can from this past week.
I am a little more organized now as far as job description and tasks go. I have mapped out my goals for the week and share them with the loan officers in the weekly Monday meeting. There we plan how I can accomplish my tasks more effectively. They have also trusted me with a list of their daily activities so I can easily see where the officers are traveling to and can ask with more confidence to join them when I am free.
The English course I am teaching is going well. The kids are still very interested and engaged. They have improved significantly since the first class, they can master the colors, numbers (1-20) and the alphabet, they are still practicing and improving basic greetings, days of the week, how to tell time, and body parts. I absolutely love teaching the class that I am beginning to question if I want to work with kids as a career…
(Some of the kids hw they turned in)
I have become good friends with Milan. She has taken me in as her daughter. On Sunday I literally spent all day with her and Milenia. She picked me up at 9am from my home. We had fruit for breakfast, what they call “zapote” a combination of papaya and cantaloupe. She prepared a special meal for lunch that included rice, beans, chicken, and a salad. After lunch we visited the hospital, MUSA, where we went to see two of her neighbors, one of them had a stroke while and the other got both of his legs badly injured with a machete. I helped her with some homework, she is getting her Masters from the Universidad del Caribe. All three of us spent some girl time before church, Milan was busy doing her hair, I was getting a manicure and Milenia was doing her own pedicure. We went to Iglesia Jerusalem for worship at 6:30pm. The church is 80 years old and really big; it’s two stories and has at least one thousand members. The service itself really reminded me of a church I used to visit when I was younger, Llamada final (Final Calling). It’s a very concert type of service, where they worship and dance for most of the service. I really enjoyed it.
But let me skip back to Friday and Saturday… On Friday we got a new volunteer, Jonathan. Jonathan is from Los Gatos (close to San Jose) and studies at UC Berkley. He is shadowing me until he is placed at his permanent office in La Romana. To celebrate the special occasion, we took him out to the Restaurant Amable where they serve pastels. Pasteles are very similar to tamales but instead of being corn mash, they are plantain mash filled with meat (in my case mixed veggies). They were delicious! On Saturday I went to a graduation ceremony at the Adventist church next door, Esmeida’s son graduated from high school. I hung out with Jonathan for practically the whole day, showing him around our local area and eating some Jun Jun (shaved ice with fruit syrup).
Before I forget, Wednesday of last week I spent the entire afternoon visiting the complimentary services that Esperanza offers. I visited the Esperanza Clinic in San Pedro, a tech center, and a literacy course. The Esperanza clinic began in ’98 in conjunction with the Episcopal Church. At that time there were only 5 people working at the clinic and 8 full time staff at Esperanza. Now that clinic is huge, they employ 43 full time staff. Besides being a general clinic they also have an AIDS treatment/counseling center, an injury rehabilitation center, a pediatric center, and bring in well known specialist on a periodic basis. The computer center is also co-partnered with the Episcopal Church. The center is split into two main rooms, an internet room that is free and open to the community, and a computer course room. Courses are taught for six months, twice a week for a total of 3 hours a week. Courses teach two months of Word, two months of Power Point, and two months of Excel, and they have an option to take a month of Internet. All of this goodness for only 450 DR pesos ($12.86 USD)! They have a 20 student cap per instructor; they currently have 150 students and employ 8 instructors. Personally I was amazed with the up to date technology, cleanliness, and professionalism of the center. And to end the day, I visited the literacy course. That literacy course will forever be in my mind. I was astonished to hear and see the women read from small books only after a three month course. There were about 11 women in the room from 15 active participants. When they first started almost all the women couldn’t write their names much less distinguish the letters of the alphabet. Now all the women can write their names and slowly but surely can read and write. The oldest women in the group was71 years old, half of them were Haitian immigrants, and all but 4 were current Esperanza associates. About 43% of our associates are illiterate, but all of them are given the opportunity to attend a local literacy course. Esperanza partners with local churches for a location, pays for a local woman to receive training to be an adult teacher, gives all the literacy materials and pays for a monthly stipend for teacher.
But this journey hasn’t been all fun and rosy. I attended a few meetings that were ridiculously long because there was someone that either didn’t show up with the payment or was missing a significant amount to complete their payment. The loan officers are not allowed to collect payments if there is a group that is incomplete. And if payments aren’t collected the meetings cannot be dismissed, everyone has to sit around and wait until the issue is resolved. Fortunately this doesn’t happen frequently but when it does there are a lot of hot, hungry and upset people together, not a nice sight…
Also, remember that sun burn I got at Punta Cana? Well I am peeling now, yeah doesn’t look very attractive… I’ve had a few headaches throughout the week that are probably due to the intense heat. I scraped and cut my right leg on a glass table today, luckily I carry Neosporin so I hope the 3 inch or so cut doesn’t scar. I have some lower back pain that has been giving trouble to sit, lay or even to walk. I plan to visit the doctor either tomorrow or Friday. And lastly, mosquitoes are still aggressively evil! I’ve gone through 5 or 6 bottles of repellant, today I have to buy a new bottle since I am running low and don’t want to risk running out.
But I can’t end on a negative note. Despite my physical discomforts I am happy here. I enjoy my host family. I am also becoming good friends with people in the office and at the school. Some associates that I interviewed have confirmed my theory that Christian microfinance changes lives both financially and spiritually. There are a few people that through their actions are continuously inspiring me to continue searching for my passion. I still don’t know what I am going to do after graduation. I still question what my purpose in life is? What’s my calling, do I have one? Because I don’t know and probably won’t know anytime soon, I will end meditating on Jeremiah 29:11. I see this verse every time I enter Esperanza’s doors, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you hope and a future’”.
(I can't help playing with the babies, they are so cute! This is Ana, her mom is an associate in Punta Cana)
Yesterday, Thursday, I went to Boca Chica for a bank meeting. This particular bank has eight groups and a total of forty people. The meeting took longer than usual because there was people missing and all the payments weren’t complete. One lady was unable to do her payment of 600 Dominican pesos, approximately $17 US dollars because she had been sick and could not work. Everyone pitched in 15 pesos, an equivalent of .42 US cents. It was great to see that everyone in an organized matter did this without any real protest. 
When the payments were complete Alejandro, the loan officer, jots down their information on individual booklets. Each person takes the booklet home and is able to see how much they have paid, what is left, their savings, interest, etc. While the loan officer is doing this (takes time to do 40!), Esmeida, the Human development coordinator, talked about the literacy course that was in session. An associate (client) also brought to the attention the desperate need to have Esperanza help with the people in the community who were not registered. If you are not registered you cannot be legally inscribed in schools, so many of them who do attend cannot get their degree. I was surprised when everyone in the community raised their hand to say that they had a family member, friend or neighbor they knew who weren’t registered.
