Why not Huachipa?

The most action-packed of my job is visiting borrowers.  I hop-on the combi with a loan officer and follow him or her to a totally unknown location.  On Friday, I went to Huachipa- a little region in the eastern cone of Lima.  The loan officer, named Jonathan (not Juanito- there are a ton of anglicized names here), told me last minute that he had a Kiva borrower meeting and that I should come immediately to do a follow-up on that group.  I asked him if he was sure the group was receiving Kiva funding (about a third of the loans with this organization are financed thru Kiva) and he said he was sure.  So we were off.  (Main drag of Huachipa pictured below).

The majority of the ride there was on an unpaved road, and it was crazy bumpy.  About half-way there, a tall blonde-haired teenager got on the bus in a shirt and tie.  Who else could it be but an LDS missionary?  I talked to him in English and he told me about his time in Huachipa- a zone he affectionately called "Iraq" because of all the dust and the lack of plumbing.  Hmmm. 


We made it to the meeting just in time and I listened in and took pictures.  All in all it was pleasant and interesting, but it took a bunch of time- about three hours from the time I left the office till I returned.  I looked the group up in the Kiva database when I get back to the office (which I usually do before I meet with a group), and they weren't there.  Ugh- as I suspected when I checked the paper file- not Kiva funding!  Well, I visited Huachipa just for the hell of it.  Loan officer Jonathan gets points for being tall (he is about 6'2" and may be the tallest Peruvian I have met- he is Afro-Peruvian), but not for attention to detail. 

One more pic of Huachipa above- notice all of the unfinished houses.  This is really common in the outlying, impoverished area of Lima.   Hardly anyone lived here 15 years ago and the vast majority of residents have come from the "provincias," or more remote regions of Peru.  Folks live in the houses while they are being built, inhabiting the finished rooms only.  The building process can literally last a lifetime.