Half the world hates
What half the world does every day
Half the world waits
While half gets on with it anyway
For the last seven days I have stood up in front of captive audiences in the Amazon jungle and the Andes mountains, giving presentations on how to start a Community Bank. Community Banks are established and operated by village members as a way to save and borrow money, and keep that money inside the community. The Community Bank system was first started in Peace Corps Africa and has since spread to all continents, with the exception of Antarctica.
I gave the workshops with other Peace Corps volunteers, as well as some Ecuadorian Community Bank experts.
The first workshop took place in a Catholic mission on the banks of an Amazonian tributary. The convent we stayed in was fantastic, with wonderful food and accomodations.
The second workshop took place in the reknowned town of Vilcabama in Southern Ecuador. Vilcabama is famous because of the legend that its residents live to be well over 100 years old, due to the near perfect climate and fresh air. No doubt, I saw lots of old people there and the weather was nice, but the place was so damn windy that it probably blew away most of the really old folks!
The hotel we stayed in was a total dump. The ceilings were sagging inwards, there were cobwebs everywhere, and the wooden floors were falling apart. Plus there was a huge leak directly above the toilet in my room, so everytime I sat down to take a dump, a steady cascade of water would fall onto my head. And the food? Questionable. One night for dessert, they gave us spoonful of jelly.
But what do you expect for $6 a night?
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