en ayacucho!

getting here was an adventure in itself for sure. A drive to LAX, red-eye at 2am to panama city (complete with beautiful crystal-clear views of the canal), short layover and onto the next leg to Lima, where i spent 6 hours at the airport before i took a 45 min taxi ride to the bus station where i took an 11 to beautiful ayacucho.

after seeing lima briefly, and then driving in to ayacucho in the morning, i cant imagine ever choosing to live anywhere else than ayacucho.

ayacucho is the andean people of peru at their finest, their most authentic, and is virtually tourist free. with the exception of a few other expat volunteers at finca peru (which i am very thankful for, for obvious reasons) the city doesnt really see many foreign tourists - mainly just peruvians looking for a weekend vacation.

the picturesque andes in the background and the crisp air, the churches on every corner, the women in traditional colorful peruvian attire with their long black hair, parted in the middle, braided and hanging long down their back, with the classic top hat on the back of their head, standing proud on their dusty black heels. their hands are worn, tired, their smiles big, and their babies on their backs and toddlers running around tugging on the other women's skirts. the more further out from ayacucho center they live, the more quechua they rely upon then spanish, or castellano as they call it.

i had the beautiful opportunity of sitting in on a bancomunal, a communal bank meeting, or a group loan as you may have seen them on kiva.

it was an extraodinarily powerful thing to watch these women seated, being taught by a convicted and passionate FINCA employee who explained to them how to understand FINCA's interest rates and how to build savings through their loans at FINCA. the women nodded and laughed, and then we all played a game to get our energy boosted. i, of course, was in the losing group, and had to dance in the center of the room while all the other women laughed at us. (ive noticed this quite a bit traveling. they really like to take the guedita american and make it dance. little do they know IM GOOD AT IT!!!!).

afterwords was collections. i laughed at myself that i actually teared up as these women were called one by one, by name, to hand over their payment in soles (Peru's currency, which runs about 3 nuevo soles for 1 USD). what an extraodinary thing to watch these women, farmers, campesinas, that came to town to proudly give their monthly loan repayment to FINCA. i loved the empowerment i felt in the room. i loved that many of the women had sleeping babies in their laps, were breastfeeding them even as they counted their repayment out to give to FINCA, toddlers running around. these women are juggling so much, quite literally in their hands, yet are not only willign and excited to take out loans, they are their in a timely fashion to learn from the classes FINCA offers its socios (partners/clients) and make their repayments on time. i was floored at the entrepreneurship these women have. that given the chance, they do take the offer of a loan, and they take it seriously. i am impressed as its not a level of entrepreneurship i wouldve imagined, given their circumstances. i feel empowered to be in their presence and to be translating their stories. i am really excited to be here for the next ten weeks. i actually couldn't fathom being more excited.

love love
la suz