Days in Dar

Well since I have been here five weeks now, I guess its about time I talked a little bit about my research! I suppose that is the reason why I am here. The first, well, four weeks of my research went pretty slow. But last week it suddenly all seemed to come together. My assignment is to find out what financial resources are available in Vingunguti (V). I don’t think my host could have been any broader! As such, I spent everyday the first couple weeks here, waking up and thinking to myself, “hmmm, I wonder what I will do today?” After finding out within the first few days that there are no banks in V and supposedly, no Microfinance Institutions (MFIs), I started to wonder about what I would be doing this summer then. But I persevered, and kept digging deeper to see what I could find.

Last week, God gave me the right people to talk to, and I found out that there are a few places in V to get loans. I was talking to a group of men and asked them, “do you know where you can get loans in V?” One man eagerly piped in, yes! My father works at a place where you can get loans. I said oh, what is the name of it? Where is it? He said, well, its over near the titanic bar, and its called SACCOS. I thanked them heartily and told my translator, “do you know where the titanic bar is?” he said yes, and I was like, let’s go! We trudged through mud and puddles (it had been raining all morning) for about a mile until we saw the sign for “titanic bar.” My translator went over and asked some men at the bar if they knew where a place was to get loans around here. One man seemed to know and so we followed him down the road to a small house. This is it he said, but its not open today. It will be open tomorrow. I was so excited! Oh well if it wasn’t open, at least I knew where one was now.

So we went back to the same place the next day. Thankfully, it was actually open that day. It turned out that the loan place just used the front room of the small house, and there was no sign marking what it was. Joseph went into the room to see if we could talk to someone, he came back out and said that we would have to wait at least an hour to talk to the loan officer. That’s fine I said. There were three women sitting on a bench outside the office. I started up a conversation with them right away. Are you here to get loans? A resounding yes. So what is the name of this place? They confidently replied, UNICEF. I tried to keep my composure, but I was laughing inside. Oh really? Wow, it seems as if this place is too nice to be UNICEF, haha.

I sat and talked to those women for over an hour. It started to rain and so we moved the bench under the front porch and all huddled close. Over a hundred flies shared the small space under the porch with us. We all stared out at the rain and the railroad tracks stretching out before us.

Finally, there was word that I could go in and talk to the loan officer. I followed Joseph into the room, expecting for it just to be me and him and the loan officer. I walked in and my eyes got wide as my eyes fell on over 20 people sitting in rows on benches, all staring at me as I walked in. The loan officer introduced himself and asked me for my papers (cover letters from Steve and the government officer of V giving me permission to do research). While I sat down in front of everyone, he read over my letters. He seemed to approve of them. “Okay, well go ahead and introduce yourself and then you can ask them a few questions.” I tried not to laugh. I don’t even know who these people are or why they’re here, what am I supposed to ask them?! I glimpsed a sign on the wall, ‘YOSEFO’ ah, I had heard of them before, they were an MFI, well, at least I knew what this place was now.  So I started and Joseph translated, “hello, my name is Rachel. I am learning about the microfinance resources in V. I am very glad to be able to be here with you today. So, are you here to get loans? What do you use the loans for?” I could tell the people didn’t want to be there any longer, and they certainly didn’t want to answer my questions. “Um, oh so you use them for small businesses? What kind of businesses?”  After finding out they mostly sell animals, the loan officer abruptly told me I could go back outside now and wait until he could talk to me. I kindly thanked the group for their time and hurried back out to my comfortable spot on the front porch.

After about another hour, the loan officer finally let me in. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the room was empty. The loan officer ended up being very nice (and he spoke English!). He let me interview him for about an hour and ask anything I wanted. So I ended up with a lot of good information about YOSEFO (not to be confused with UNICEF).

The rest of my stories are all very similar. The women outside of YOSEFO had told me about three other places where you can get loans in V, of course, not knowing the names of any of them, or where exactly they were. I am lucky that my translator is not too proud to ask directions from anyone. So just last week, we “stumbled” across five MFIs in V (not finding out the names of them until we were inside of them and shyly asking, “so what is this organization?”)

My goal for right now is to be able to talk to people from each of the 8 loan offices in V (I have done 4 so far) and write up reports on them, containing the history of the organization, their mission and vision, how long they have been in V, where they are, when they are open (because you never know!), what the qualifications are to get a loan there, what their interest rates are, etc. I am also working on drawing a big map of V and putting each of the loan offices on it.

Three of the organizations have made me go to their main offices in downtown Dar and get permission from their head managers to get information from them. Only one of these have called me back and given me permission so far, so you can pray that the other two would give me the permission I need, and in a timely fashion!

After I am done with the reports, I plan on following up on each of the organizations and going to some of their business training sessions and other meetings they have for their clients.

So I am at a very exciting point. I am glad I have clear direction now. I am also happy because my host is very excited about my research and I think it is really going to help them.

I can’t say thank you enough for all of your prayers and your emails and notes of encouragement to me! Thank you!