Five weeks to go in the Internship

My goal in coming here to Ecuador was simple. I wanted to experience and see and feel and expose myself to as much "Microcredit" as I could get my hands on. I wanted to see what happens in the field. I wanted to see how a Microcredit institution works. I wanted to meet the clients.

Of course, more deeply, I wanted to see if Microfinance holds any possibilities for me in the future.

Right now, I would say my experience has been mixed. So far, I have definitely seen how village banks (i.e. Bancos Comunales) work in the field. [Village Banking is one "area" of Microfinance. Other areas are "individual lending" and "solidarity groups." I haven't received any exposure to these latter two types.]

I have attended at least a dozen meetings of different Banco Comunales -- some rural, some in the city. Unfortunately, I am not seeing much of the "back-end" of the operation. Ideally, I would like to see more of the administration.

I am aware that it is probably unreasonable to expect to walk into an organization for three months and expect to be shown everything inside and out.

Let's see what my last five weeks in Ecuador brings . . .