(PICTURES FORTHCOMING)
After the week of working on the information for the market study, we headed back out to begin the next stage of our work for FONDESURCO, which is a client satisfaction survey. This is really similar to what we did for PRISMA, in that we are looking for a list of existing clients to survey. For PRISMA, it was a food security survey to know what kind of hunger they face, but this one with FONDESURCO is interviewing them to find out their level of satisfaction with the loans and services offered. It is rather easy to administer, but the trick is finding the people that we are looking for. We have a list of 38 people, and we need to find 19 of them. So far, the clients have been spread out in 5-8 different cities in each area, and coordinating travel can be tricky, hand in hand with the difficulty of actually finding the people when they are home.
After the week of working on the information for the market study, we headed back out to begin the next stage of our work for FONDESURCO, which is a client satisfaction survey. This is really similar to what we did for PRISMA, in that we are looking for a list of existing clients to survey. For PRISMA, it was a food security survey to know what kind of hunger they face, but this one with FONDESURCO is interviewing them to find out their level of satisfaction with the loans and services offered. It is rather easy to administer, but the trick is finding the people that we are looking for. We have a list of 38 people, and we need to find 19 of them. So far, the clients have been spread out in 5-8 different cities in each area, and coordinating travel can be tricky, hand in hand with the difficulty of actually finding the people when they are home.
We headed back out to the Valle de Tambo to begin the survey on Monday, July 7, and got to work immediately. (Cam Nelson wasn't with us, because the previous Friday he had gone to Cuzco to help 2 students out there settle in with some organizations to do internships for about a month. They were part of the group of students that had gone to Bolivia, but their internships had struggled and in the end fallen through, so those two had come to Cuzco to work with other organizations that Cam had contacted.) So we worked that day and got a few done. Tuesday morning we were woken up in our hotel rooms by a small earthquake at 4:10 am. I woke up and just thought that it was kind of neat and exciting. It lasted 15-20 seconds, at least to my recollection. Later, we learned that at the epicenter it measured more than 6 on the Richter scale, and that it even made news in the US. On Tuesday, we went back out and worked on finding people and giving them the survey. Cam arrived at some point and joined us. We worked in the afternoon, and by 7 pm or so had found all that we needed to find. I went back to the hotel to meet up with the other 3 students, and when they found that I had gotten the rest, we made a lightning decision to head out that night and try and catch the bus to Arequipa. It was late, but we did this because the next day was some sort of national strike, and there wasn't going to be any way to travel to Arequipa. It was kind of exciting, leaving on such an unexpected decision. So we were able to finish up all the surveys in two days.
Wednesday was spent in Arequipa, resting and working on the report of the market study for FONDESURCO.
Thursday morning we left in the truck once again, this time with David Álvarez, one of the analysts working in Colca. He had become our friend the first time we went there, and he was very helpful this second time around as well. All of the Colca staff were, really, and we were able to finish everything up by Friday afternoon and drive back to Arequipa. One interesting experience I had was going to Tuti in a small minivan bus (called a combi here), a small town an hour away, looking for a client on our list. Fortunately, I found the client almost immediately. On the way back, in the same combi, I chatted with a young boy doing a word search as part of his homework, and with some young girls who were also heading home from school. They all thought it was interesting to talk to a gringo. At one point of the hour-long ride, we passed a group white tourists, and I called out "Gringos!" because a lot of the Peruvians in the bus were looking at them out the window. They all laughed at my joke, (my pointing out the fact and terming them gringos, when I myself am a gringo), and I was pleased. Another funny story from our efforts here in Colca was when Carly, Chelsea, and I were sitting in the truck waiting for David to do some business of his own, and we saw an older Peruvian man leading his donkey off to work, but the donkey wasn't in a cooperative mood and kept stopping. Each time this happened, the man would desasperatedly yell "Burro!" We knew it must have been frustrating for him, but it was funny to hear him call out "burro" so many times.
So that was our first week of the client satisfaction survey work, and we're glad that we were able to get it done quickly in each area so far.
On Saturday the 12th of June, back in Arequipa, we did some work and also went and played soccer with the FONDESURCO staff, which was enjoyable. It was also refreshed in my mind how much better Latin Americans are at soccer than us silly gringos!
Wednesday was spent in Arequipa, resting and working on the report of the market study for FONDESURCO.
Thursday morning we left in the truck once again, this time with David Álvarez, one of the analysts working in Colca. He had become our friend the first time we went there, and he was very helpful this second time around as well. All of the Colca staff were, really, and we were able to finish everything up by Friday afternoon and drive back to Arequipa. One interesting experience I had was going to Tuti in a small minivan bus (called a combi here), a small town an hour away, looking for a client on our list. Fortunately, I found the client almost immediately. On the way back, in the same combi, I chatted with a young boy doing a word search as part of his homework, and with some young girls who were also heading home from school. They all thought it was interesting to talk to a gringo. At one point of the hour-long ride, we passed a group white tourists, and I called out "Gringos!" because a lot of the Peruvians in the bus were looking at them out the window. They all laughed at my joke, (my pointing out the fact and terming them gringos, when I myself am a gringo), and I was pleased. Another funny story from our efforts here in Colca was when Carly, Chelsea, and I were sitting in the truck waiting for David to do some business of his own, and we saw an older Peruvian man leading his donkey off to work, but the donkey wasn't in a cooperative mood and kept stopping. Each time this happened, the man would desasperatedly yell "Burro!" We knew it must have been frustrating for him, but it was funny to hear him call out "burro" so many times.
So that was our first week of the client satisfaction survey work, and we're glad that we were able to get it done quickly in each area so far.
On Saturday the 12th of June, back in Arequipa, we did some work and also went and played soccer with the FONDESURCO staff, which was enjoyable. It was also refreshed in my mind how much better Latin Americans are at soccer than us silly gringos!
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