La Esperanza and Intibuca

Here I sit in an internet cafe in La Esperanza/Intibuca (the two towns are right next to each other). I'd forgotten how much I love internet cafes! Since I have internet in the house where I'm living in Tegus, I miss out on the "ambiance" of cafes with computers. Anyway, last night I came here with Hugo (a Honduran college student who rents a room upstairs in the house I'm living in) because his semester just ended and his family lives here. The bus ride was about four hours and not too painful. It was really interesting to see the change in senery from higher altitude in Tegus to lower altitude in Comayagua and then back up again to get to La Esperanza. It was raining most of the time and got pretty foggy for a portion of the trek through the mountains. It reminded me of when Allison (my sister) and I travelled to the Amazon in Ecuador. Times like that you really have to trust the bus driver! Hugo has been very hospitable and his family is really nice! Here's a picture of me and him on the way to the internet cafe.

From Honduras

Work at Prisma the last few days has been really cool. On Thursday, we went out to an area of Tegus called Policarpo to do interviews with a group of women who will be put on Kiva. Their names are Esperanza, Doris, and Claudia. Esperanza sells food from her home (tacos, fried bananas, etc.), Doris sells fruit next door to Esperanza, and Claudia has a "pulperia" or a small market. They decided to name their group "Women in Victory." The women that Prisma works with play a big role in their homes and are always proud to be receiving loans and growing their businesses.

I learned a ton on Thurdsay. At one point, Dilcia (the loan officer) interviewed one of the group members while I filled out all of the information necessary for the application of another member. The most difficult part was helping Claudia with her "evaluacion", more easily described as the cost at which she buys everything and the cost at which she sells it. Fortunately Dilcia came toward the end of the interview to help me out. As for now, Dilcia has all of the photos we took but hopefully I will be able to post them soon.

On Friday (yesterday), we prepared the presentations of the loan applications so that they can be reviewed by the credit committee. We put a lot of the information into spreadsheets and typed out short descriptions of each of the women in the group. There was also discussion of how much we should ask from the credit committee. In the end, in total, the women will be asking for 19,000 Lempiras, or about $1,000.

And on a final note, Happy Father´s Day Dad! Even though father´s day isn't until tomorrow, I probably won't be near a computer so thanks Dad for all of the support you've given me and continue to give me! (Especially on this blog!)