Atop the Andes

Panorama of Quito with Patricio and Me. Patricio is FINCA International's social performance monitor in Ecuador.
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I was hoping to punch out a few journal entries while in Ecuador, but have been so busy between research and sight-seeing that only now, a day before I depart the country, have I found time to sit down and post about my experiances.  Originally, I had expected to stay at a hostel for the majority of my time in the Quito, but was invited to stay with the family of a loan officer named Nelly with whom I spent my first day of field research.  Since then, Nelly and her boyfriend/co-worker Miguel have played host to me both in the field and around the city.  Using my Spanish and the help of Nelly and Miguel´s English, I managed to sucessfully complete 42 interviews of female village bank clients (I had originally planned on only 25).  All the village banks interviewed were in the southern Quito, which has been described to me as the poorest part of the capital city.  Despite the geographical concentration, , I found within my sample considerable diversity from one group to the next, including: size, age (both of the individual members and of the group as a whole), experience (some group members had parpicipated in previous village banks), average income-level, ethnic composition (indigenous vs. mestizo), along with an assortment of other idiosyncrasies (e.g. - some groups also included a handful of male clients).  I conducted all interviews in Spanish using a translated version of my questionnaire and was always able to clarify for respondents questions that were unclear.  Contributing invaluably to my research in Ecaudor were the insights of Nelly and Miguel.  They provided me with qualitative observations from the loan-officer perspective.  These observations often helped explain peculiarities in particular respondent interviews (e.g., one woman expressed very little trust in her group members while the the remainder of the group expressed the opposite.  Miguel explained to me that this woman had only recently joined the group after leaving a group in which trust had been a serious problem.  Her supsicion likely carried over, though her interest in obtaining credit through the village bank had hardly diminshed). The most surprising finding in my interviews was the paucity of membership in voluntary associations besides the village bank.  Whether or not this trend is reflected in the forthcoming interviews in El Salvador (and onward) should be interesting.

Nelly, the loan officer whose family I stayed with while in Ecuador, working with her client at the first village bank meeting I attended.
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Outside of work, Nelly and Miguel have also guided me around Quito and its surrounding wonders.  Last weekend, I spent Saturday brushing up on my basketball in a pick-up game with Miguel at el parque Carolina.  More than my poor physical shape, the altitude of this Andean capital city proved to be the limiting factor in my game -- a convenient excuse for poor scoring on my part.  In the evening we toured la ciudad vieja, home to a variety colonial-style buildings including spectacular churches and the presidential palace.  From the old town, it was a short car ride to the nearby mountain on top of which stands the towering Virgen de Panacilla.  Besides a closer look at the statue, the mountain crest offered us an amazing view of the Quito cityscape.  During the work week, Miguel and I took a detour from our San Antonio village bank stops to visit the famous moment at la Mitad del Mundo (the equator).  Afterwards, we drove to up a mountain to a vantage point looking over the massive volcanic crater of Pululahua, occupied today by a little farm pueblo. Yesterday, we ventured outside of Quito  to the volcano-heated thermal baths of Papallactawhere we enjoyed some much-deserved rejuvination after the hectic work week.

Yesterday, we ventured outside of Quito to the volcano-heated thermal baths of Papallacta where we enjoyed some much-deserved rejuvination after the hectic work week

The women of another village bank were kind to gather around for a photo. All of these women are in the wholesale meat business.
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Between the sight-seeing I have had the pleasure to chat and dine with the families of Nelly and Miguel.  Nelly´s parents own a hardware shop and another tienda while Miguel´s parents are artists.  I was introduced to Miguel´s father, Miguel Sr., in the park where he sells photographic art.  After listening to the poetical stories behind each picture, I decided to buy one entitled La Casa Blanca, a photograph of a white hut in rural Ecuador with symbolism that speaks loudly to a politically-minded DC resident such as myself. Tonight, La Casa Blanca gets packed away with stacks of hand-written interview notes as I prepare for tomorrow´s flight to El Salvador.