Double Time

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This week we added an additional class for financial literacy. My new class was more than 50% men. I was glad to be able to include them in the training. We started with budgeting, but as I learned about their businesses I determined they are slightly more advanced than my other class. Instead of doing the same lessons I plan to make a new set of lesson plans to address the topics they requested to learn about. One of the men has a small potato sales business and is trying to determine if the business is making money. Another one imports small tools from Chile and is struggling with pricing his items to account for his expenses to import them.

My afternoon class focused on savings. The women shared that savings was never part of their upbringing. Their parents spent all of the money they brought in. This would become a problem when an unexpected issue came up like a sick child. Majority of the women brought their homework which was a personal budget. We used this to help find opportunities that they could reduce spending and start to save.

I had a few more one on ones with the women to determine how I may be able to assist on an individual basis. One woman has the desire for capital to expand her business, but I think she has a ways to go before she will have a realistic plan for business success and an ability to repay the loan.

In the evening I checked off another dish: Anticuchos. This is exclusively a street food of beef heart served with potatoes and a spicy peanut sauce. I really liked the peanut sauce but the beef heart was a bit ‘stretchy’ haha. I also tried a few more fruits and so far I have loved them all !

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