My introdcution to Villa Ygatimi

So I am actually back in Asuncion for the weekend but I made the journey out to Villa Ygatimi and met a lot of people and saw a lot of things. I am heading back out on Monday for good but I thought I would use this opportunity to give you a taste of where I am going to be. Getting there was a little more complicated than anyone could have planned. The last 50 km of the journey is down a dirt road and it was raining really hard so the dirt road was a like an ice skating rink. We watched oil trucks slide backwards down a hill and countless other cars slip and slide around. Then about 10 km before arriving we spun out and got full on stuck in the mud. So we spent over an hour trying to get the truck out of the mud and finally with a little pushing we were free to continue on. Once arriving I moved my stuff into the room that I have at the Fundacion Moseis Bertoni where I will be living. I have a nice little house with a kitchen a full bathroom and anything else I would really need. It is a much nicer place than I was expecting which is exciting. Then we went to get some food and drove through the town. It is very small but there are a couple stores, a couple of restaurants and a school. It is very small but seems nice. There are two really funny things that I have already learned about it. #1 there is no cell phone reception for at least 30 km and most people have cell phones and there is even a cell phone store. I asked a couple of my co-workers about it and they use them as watches and alarm clocks, I just think they could buy watches or alarm clocks but hey it is Paraguay and I have learned to stop questioning things. #2 Everything shut down with the rain. Everyone just sits on their porch and watches people walk by (but there are many people walking so they just watch the street). The school was even shut down because of the rain. Imagine if that was the case in Portland, we would never learn anything.

Later than afternoon we went out and met the comites that I will be working with. There are five in the area around Villa, three of men and two of women. They all seemed like wonderful people and I am really excited to get to know them better. Also Hugo (my supervisor) told me that everyone spoke Guarani but I didnt really believe it but in the end it was the case. I am going to have to learn Guarani which is exciting. Overall I really excited about being able to live there but it is going to be a change in life style for sure. There is really nothing to do and the world stops at about 7 pm. So i am going to be reading a lot of books and a friend of mine in Asuncion loaned me her guitar and I am going to learn. As most of you know I am a busy person so this will be the ultimate deprogramming and I think that will be really good for me. If anyone wants to give me a call there is a land line in my office (the only type of technology for 40 km) and the number is 59548210556. You should all get Skype and call me. So yeah that is the first update and I will let you know what is going on when I have a chance but please send emails so that i know what you are all up to.

Comité de Mujeres, so cool

So I am still in Asunción because in Latin America things never really happen when they are supposed to or when people tell you they will. But it looks like I will finally be moving out to Villa Ygatimy next week but who knows. As of now I have been in the office creating a lesson plan and visiting Comité de Mujeres meetings. I am going to tell you all a little about them because I think it is one of the coolest things that this organization does.
These comittees are groups of 15 to 25 women who are receiving a loan from the Fundación as a group rather than as individuals. They receive the loan as a group and they need to make all of the payments as a group. Therefore if one woman gets sick for a week the other women have to/ get to support her by helping her make her payment. They receive three or four month micro-loans and have to pay a their dues every 8 days. This a way to make sure that all the women are going to be able to pay the loans and also helps the women in that they will start to learn about investment and credit. Along with receiving loans the women go through a training about fiscal responsibility, the details of running a business and setting goals for the future. In the past week I have been able to visit a couple of these training sessions and they were amazing. There is also a savings element. Each time they make a payment they have to put a percentage into a savings account.
Both the meetings where held in front of one of the women´s house underneath a tree and we were all drinking Terere (this is a cold version of Mate that people drink here constantly. We are talking on the bus, on the street and even in the gym it is another element of Paraguay that is a mystery to me). I was sitting there immersed in these women´s lives and talking about how to maintain a budget (something I need to learn more about than they do probably). The women were very interested in the trainning and joking around and giving each other crap about going to the hair styler too much. It was great to get out of the office and experience real people. A lot of my time thus far in Paraguay has been spent in a office and you forget about how that really does effect real people and their lives. These Comités are amazing because they bring together many different elements of development and allows for the better of quality of life, my ultimate goal. It empowers these women to have their own business, work directly with loans and other financial institutions but it also creates a support network. They instantly have 14 women who are going to support them through the good times and the bad. The Fundación is currently working on using this Comité as the base for youth projects. One is teaching the children of the Mujeres how to play musical instruments and the other is teaching them how to start saving now at a very young age. It is a way to further establish the sense of community that goes hand in hand with the loans they are receiving. Overall these comités are very interesting and uses a combination of the different elements of development.
One of my new plans for the future is try and spread this idea through the United States. There are some big changes that would have to be made but I think that the basic idea can go work in both places. So if you know of any micro-finance organizations in the Portland area you should let me know.