En Via MicroFinance Tour

On Friday, we went to En Via's 'office', a desk on the patio of an English school in the Cultural Institute of Oaxaca grounds.  Mom and I booked our tour for the next morning.  We were lucky, they had added an extra group for the next day.  I guess this tour is very popular.  

This is their logo (I really want the t-shirt but they are sold out!)

I had heard about En Via's tour from one of the bird group ladies.  And then I saw it on Oaxaca Events.  I had no idea what exactly it was but I convinced mom to join me. 

So, En Via.  To start with the basics, microfinancing is when someone is able to borrow small amounts of money, usually too small for a bank to handle, to start or expand a small business.  For example, when I was in Africa, one microloan I heard about was a woman who needed enough money to buy a barrel of cooking oil. She then divided that barrel into small litre bottles and sold them for a profit.  That profit financed the next barrel and over time she would be able to pay back the loan and earn a living.  Loans can be for as little as a few dollars. 

Our guide Ellie explained that some microfinancing companies can actually charge from 70 to 300% annual interest (compounding weekly!).  Of course, this is not necessarily gouging, microloans have no collateral, and they are hard to collect because the borrowers are off the grid and have to be contacted in person, from far and wide.  But it does make it difficult for the borrowers to keep up with their payments.

En Via was started 10 or so years ago with a new vision/plan.  They would fund their microloans by offering 'responsible tourism' tours to earn the money needed for the program.  Tourists pay 850 pesos and they get to go meet the borrowers who will give a little presentation of what their business is and how they used their loan.  Of that 850, 70 goes for lunch (provided by a En Via borrower), 120 goes to transportation (van, driver and gas) and the rest goes to finance the microloans and education.  Because the loans are 'financed' by the tours, En Via is able to offer the loans interest free! 

They only loan to women.  Each woman has to form a team with two other women.  Ellie says the teams of three helps to keep everyone accountable, on track and they can support each other.  Each member of each team has to take eight free business classes before they can get their first small loans.  They learn basics such as idea development, saving for low season, business development, interest, reinvesting into their business etc.

Each member of the team starts with a loan of 1500 pesos only.  That's only a $100 (Can).  They all have to keep up their payments of 20-100 pesos a month (week?).  If one can't pay, they are all on the hook.  Ellie says between 2014 and 2017 they had a 99.7% loan repayment rate.  That's pretty amazing.  Once they all pay off their loan, they can take out another loan, each time a bit more if they need it, up to 7500 pesos.  But all three have to want to keep going.  If one leaves the team, the other two have to find a new partner and start back at the beginning.

We met 6 women. We got some ground rules in the van on the way.  We were encouraged to ask questions about their businesses.  Be respectful (obviously).  We can buy their products but we do not have to, our contribution to their business is the tour.  If we do buy something, no haggling.  They have learned in their business classes how to price their wares fairly and it isn't fair to undermine that (especially, I assume, with the perceived power imbalance). We started with the first two in San Miguel de Valle.  Here they are:

Carmela. 

Carmela by her cold oven and empty bread shelves.

Poor Carmela.  She has had multiple loans to get her bakery started.  Her last loan was to fix the chimney of the bread oven.  But, and I don't really understand this so forgive me, her husband has been 'drafted' to work for their community for a year (or more!) unpaid.  So, from what I understand, in some small Oaxacan Zapotec villages the people live with 'uses and customs' laws.  Community members do service for the community so they don't have to rely on the state.  Please read this because it is fairly fascinating. 

Anyway, Carmela's husband is working on the water system.  He can't work in the bakery and she can't run it alone.  So, no bakery for a year.  But as part of her loan, Carmela has to host the tour group, in this case, our group.  So no baked goods.  She is keeping up her household and her loan by helping her daughter with her weaving business. 

Demonstrating how she uses the oven

Mom trying to buy some woven coasters but Carmela didn't have
her daughter's price list so she couldn't sell us any of her daughter's weaving

Paulina:

Paulina at her loom, with her rugs in the background.

Paulina used to weave her rugs and then sell them to a wholesaler for way undervalue.  She would earn 100 pesos (7 bucks!) for one blanket which took two days to weave!.  Her loan allowed her to buy wool and supplies in bulk.  And her business classes taught her how to sell them herself!  Yay!  Her blankets were for sale for around 700 pesos, a much better deal for her and her family than 100 pesos.  I bought a bird hanging thing.

Mom learning to weave

Paulina with my wall hanging

After we met with Paulina, we headed to Teotitlan. 

Conchita:

Conchita in her restaurant, about to serve us our buffet lunch.

We had lunch at Conchita's restaurant, which she opened with En Via loans.  She was just making us lunch, she was not technically part of the tour so no presentation required by Conchita. But lunch was amazing.  We had fried chicken, chilis relleno, rice, beans, salads, tacos, mole sauce, and more.  We were all stuffed by the end of lunch.

Conchita with her daughter (granddaughter?)

Before we went on to our next group of three, we stopped at the church in Teotitlan.  It was so full of flowers it smelled like a perfumed garden (in a good way).  Here are some pictures, despite my poor track record for photos in churches (this one was a bit brighter so there may be hope?)

Eloisa:

Eloisa in her gift shop

Eloisa's family are weavers (I think everyone in Teotitlan is a weaver) and they run a hostel.  So Eloisa got her loan to open a little gift shop in the hostel to sell their weaving and other crafts from the town.

She has a three year old and a 10 month old.  Her husband wove that awesome blue rug on the wall which Ruth, our interpreter/guide bought.  I was very jealous!

Her goal for her next loan is to open an organic restaurant and to sell organic groceries.  She already has the space, now she needs to start buying equipment. She is only 26 so good on her!

Eloisa and her very cheeky baby

Magdalena:

Magdalena was as tiny as a peanut.  Here she is with her
little baggies of chocolates for use to taste/buy.

Magdalena is Eloisa's grandmother (abuela).  Her business is making chocolate.  She has probably been doing this her whole life but she used the business classes and additional speciality classes to learn how to make her chocolate more marketable.  For example, adding new flavours such as vanilla, peanuts and spices.  We got samples, so YES! 

Magdalena putting my mole/hot chocolate paste into a bag for me.

Alicia:

Alicia with her mother and sister behind her.

Alicia's family are, you guessed it, weavers.  There are five daughters.  FIVE!  Alicia is in the group of three with Eloisa and Magdalena.  She used her loan to start making aprons.   She bought cloth in bulk so she could make enough to sell.  She hand embroiders them.  Plus, in some of her 'extra' business classes, she learned how to make their weaving into purses.  So, now they sell rugs, purses and aprons.  They have been able to buy new equipment with the loans as well.  Next loan is to buy a computer because she is learning, through En Via classes, about selling her products on the internet.  Her sisters are considering creating their own group of three.   I bought a pillow case (any maybe another purse but you can't prove it).

Alicia's aprons

Alicia and her mom and two sisters

A chicken in their yard

And here are Ellie and Ruth.  They were excellent guides.  Both of them are volunteers with En Via.  Ellie is an intern and Ruth is an interpreter but really, they do every job as En Via is a small team, run mostly by volunteers.

What an awesome day!  I highly encourage anyone who is in Oaxaca to go.  

Here is one street art: 

Mom arrived, we did stuff, I got super sick... didn't die, did some more stuff.

Sorry for the delay.  I have received a couple of emails asking if I was dead since it has been several days since I last posted.  Not dead (anymore).

Mom arrived on Tuesday around 1:30 in the afternoon.  I wanted to go meet her at the airport and I reckoned I could figure out how to get there on the bus.  I asked La Nina (or Maria?) if the bus ran along the major road just to the west of us.  Yes, but I would have to walk a kilometer.  No problem.

But because the bus doesn't actually stop at the airport, none of the bus signs say 'airport'.  I will refrain from a rant about cities that don't provide public transportation to and from their airport, giving the taxi industry a monopoly (yes, I'm looking at you too Victoria!).  When we first arrived in Oaxaca so long ago, we had to buy a ticket for a ride into town, either a collectivo (group bus) or a private van.  I had no idea how to catch one back to the airport from the centro so I went with the city bus with a drop off a km away.

So, there I am on the side of the road, no idea which bus to take.  Eventually I asked a bus driver who answered with so many incomprehensible words!  But then a bus came by with one of those words painted on the window so I got on.  Eight pesos!  What a deal.  I said to the drive I wanted to go to the airport.  He sort of grunted, what I assumed was assent, or at least understanding.  We drove and drove, I knew we were close because we went by the park where I had gone with Sunday Bird Group and they had said it was close to the airport.

So many times before, I have asked a bus driver to indicate when to get off and can never quite tell if they will or won't.  But they ALWAYS do, so I was working on the assumption it would work this time too.   That is, until we parked in a dusty parking lot at the end of nowhere!  I asked, where's the airport?  And he responded, oh we passed that way back.  Gracias for Nada!  (Thanks for Nothing!).

End of the line, everybody off

So there I am, but no idea where I am, and no idea where the airport is.  Fortunately, I had left with plenty of time so I wasn't in a panic to be there on time (yet).  I saw some buildings up the dirt road so I stormed off in a huff toward those.   Eventually, a Mexican tuktuk (Moto-taxi) came by and the nice driver said that I had to go back to the 'rotunda' which I think means round-about and then take some sort of (incomprehensible) form of transport.  She could take me to the rotunda.  Since she was the only person/vehicle on the road, I was in no position to say no.  So, we get to the rotunda and she says she can take me all of the way to the airport.  YES, let's do that!

At which point, she starts heading down a dirt track, through farm fields, past crops and animals.  I'm pretty sure at this point that this is not the normal route to the airport.  Bumpity, bumpity bump down the road. Those three wheelers are not made for off-roading.

We get past the farms and into a little village and then she starts asking random pedestrians how to get to the airport.  No, I'm not worried!  It is now getting to the point, where I might be late for mom's plane.

The road (to the airport) less travelled

Bumpy road, turn onto another bumpy road, ask for directions, repeat several times and there we were at the entrance of the airport.  Yea!!   How much?  130 pesos!!!  So, 8 pesos + 130 pesos = 138 pesos.  A taxi would have cost 150 pesos.  So a grand savings of 12 pesos and a lose of two hours.  But I made it in time and a much better story than a taxi. After that experience, we just took the collectivo back to town.  Turns out it isn't a bad deal.  85 pesos ($6 ish) each and they delivered us to our door.

That night, I think we walked down Alcala to the Zocalo but I didn't take my camera so I can't be sure, that was days ago.  Mom hadn't slept on her overnight flight so we didn't stay out long.

Next day, we went to Chedraui.  This time I knew how to get there! I didn't get lost once!

Then we decided to check out the Pre-hispanic Museum of Rufino Tamayo .  He was a local artist who collected pre-hispanic art and donated it to the city (state? country?).  This was a beautiful museum, even if you have no interest in the art pieces.  Each room, corresponding to various eras or regions (I wasn't really paying attention), is a different colour.  Just the ceiling and the display cases but, as a total, it makes for a stunning walk through.

One of these heads does not belong on a wall.

After the museum we went to the 20th of November market to have mole #4.  Pollo con Mole Negro y arroz.  And some aqua fresa with unknown fruit which was quite tasty.  I should have been suspicious that there was no one else at the counter, street food rule #1, eat at the busy stalls.  I should have been even more wary when the cook  picked up the chicken leg off a plate on the counter, unrefridgerated, out in the open.   But nope, I have a stomach of steel I said (or would have if I had been suspicious or wary in any way).  Anyway, here is my Mole Negro.  Mom had Mole Rojo.

J'Accuse!

Probably avoid Comedor Cuquita, even if the aqua is good.
I just now noticing the brown fluid running down the wall, hmm,
another warning sign perhaps?

Thanks for taking our picture and poisoning me...

That night we stayed in.  I was feeling pretty tired and sore but I didn't think anything of it.  But that night, I had the sweats and couldn't sleep and was sore all over.  By morning, it was like I had been hit by a Mack truck, I could barely move.  Poor mom, I would wake up with her hovering over me like the spectre of death, she thought she was peering at actual death.  I think she went out for a while.  I'm glad I had spent the first two days pointing out major streets and routes home, to the zocalo etc.   She found her way home.

I think I got out of bed around 2pm and googled flu vs food poisoning.  The internet said it is hard to say, it depends on how long it lasts.  I was already feeling slightly better so diagnosed myself with food poisoning and blamed the chicken mole (even though mom wasn't sick).  By 4pm when I was up but not great and the 'mexican situation' was not abating, I broke down and finally took my Ciprofloxacin (antibiotics for traveler's diarrhea is literally on the label).  I have been carrying that around since 2009.  I renewed my prescription in 2014.  So, five years old.  Sure, why not. Ingesting random past due things hadn't gotten me into trouble before (at least before the day before, DIARRHEA FREE FOR 3640 1 DAYS).

Either the antibiotic or time worked fairly quickly.  I was still not feeling 100% so I stayed home the next day too, leaving mom to her own devices.  She went on a city bus tour, in Spanish, in some sketchy part of the city. She made it home again.

Next morning was Saturday.  I was up and ready to go, cured of all ills. So, not the flu.

The previous Saturday, I had tried to go to what I thought was a lecture on Archeology and  Pre-hispanic music.  If you remember, it didn't seem to be happening so that is how I ended up at the church service.  Oh, that reminds me, I asked someone why everyone was holding a baby Jesus that day.  Apparently,  the beginning of February is when the infant Jesus becomes the baby Jesus (?) and he can sit up.  So, if I had been paying attention, I would have noticed that all of the Jesuses were in little chairs.  Oh, well that makes sense then...

Anyway, back to Saturday of this week.  This time I realized that it wasn't a lecture, it was an exhibition.  At the Stamp Museum.  I'm not really a stamp guy but when travelling, one should be open to whatever, so I convinced mom this should be good.

Here's the poster

Well, another excellent museum!  Lots of stamps, lots of stamp based-art, all beautifully displayed.  And a welcoming courtyard with a little coffee shop, and a great gift shop too (where I bought nothing!).

Mural in the courtyard

Stamp Art

Frida letter and stamps

Drawers after drawers of stamps, by category

Another mural in another courtyard

Stamp Display (can't remember of what)

Finally the Archaeology and Pre-hispanic Music display 

The Stamp Biblioteca

Stamp Guitar

Stamp Art on a Stamp wall in a Stamp Room in a Stamp Museum

As it happened, we were leaving the stamp museum just as the English tour of the Botanical Garden was starting, just down the block.  So we headed over so mom could see it.  My last guide was good and so was this one.  But this one was a) very handsome and b) showed us different stuff.  Guide 1 was a retired white women from the US, Guide 2, this guy, is a young local - somewhat different perspectives.

This time we got to go to the greenhouse.  It has won awards for 'green' architecture, no pun intended. It is run on solar and geothermal energy.  It is actually a cool house, not a hot house.  The air is cooled by running underground to cool it and when it hits the hot air in the greenhouse, it condenses and waters the plants.  Neat!

We got to go on top but not in.

The stairs to the top where we could walk around the edges

Reflection of the sky on the roof, looking down

He also gave more info on the history of Oaxaca.  Cochineal are a parasite that live on cactus plants.  They look white but when you crush them. they turn bright red.  The colonizing Spaniards, finding little of the gold they came for, realized this was the real prize.  The red is used to dye clothing, food, pretty much anything, including apparently the Starbucks unicorn drink.

The Dominican monks dug their first well, not for drinking water, not for any of the other basics of life.  They built it for a lime kiln so they could make cement to start building.  Those 16th century monks were very single minded.  Anyway, oldest intact lime kiln in Mexico.

Well

Kiln

Here are some more random shots from the garden

The mirror pool

Cactus selfie!

Another excellent trip to the garden.  I am considering going for a third time with Shirley.

Then, another half block and we came upon another wedding coming out of the Santo Domingo church.  We caught them before they were on the move so even better shots this time.

Next stop, Artisan's Market.  Mom bought a hand embroidered blouse.  I bought nothing.  I did get a bit lost but only because both mom and I forgot both of our maps (not only don't we have any sense of direction, we forget we don't have any sense of direction and don't prepare for the inevitable).

Apparently, I only took one picture for the rest of the day:

Next day, Sunday, today, is bird group day.  We went to Monte Alban.  I won't inundate you with more Monte Alban shots since we have already been there and I will go again with mom and Shirley.  The group was there to bird, not waste time on those bird view blocking ruins!

Sunday Bird Group, doing what bird group does

Lizard (not a bird)

We did not see the coveted Oscillated Thrasher.  But I did well enough that one of the ladies joked that I have moved up to second tier.  Good spotting can get you far.  I can't ID to save my life but I can spot and usually identify at least family group.

It was kind of hard to get a taxi at the top of the hill so some of us decided to walk down!.  There is a lovely trail called the Ecological Route.

Who wouldn't follow this directional sign

I got home just in time for Shirley to arrive. Chat, chat chat, catch up on all of Shirley's travels.  Then we went for a nice walk and had tortas (hot sandwiches for dinner) and a walk down the Alcala.

I didn't take any pictures after Monte Alban, so let's finish up with some street art

And one last one for Chris (probably not technically street art but still, Chris will appreciate):