Challenges & Highlights

The past week I had a few challenges but many highlights. Feeling a little sick all of the time-challenge. Walking along the beach and seeing 3 baby goats- highlight. Here is a brief recap from the last week.

Sunday was Jim's birthday. We joined some friends in Liquica, where we swam, ate, and relaxed. But it seemed like the whole day lead up to bringing out the homemade chocolate magnificently frosted T-rex cake. It was delicious.

One of my favorite days was when I went to drop off Ela, the nanny, at her home. Ela has sort of been my window into Timorese life, so far. She speaks really good english and translates for me. Plus, we like to chat about life, her new economics classes, our families, and eating good food. When we pulled up to her house there were her 2 brothers, 4 sisters, and 2 nieces out on the patio. They happily welcomed me in and greeted me with a kiss on each cheek, the customary greeting. She showed me around the house, which was similar to Alda's, but with more rooms. I loved sitting on the porch with the family while the dog and kids ran around.  They brought out an old photo album and shared pictures of their childhood and a few of their parents' wedding photos. They even showed me their pet pigs and piglets! The whole trip made me very happy. 

I finished my first project for TRM this week! My project included creating a system so their client's can give them feedback or report a complaint and creating a privacy policy for client data.  I hope to present my work within the next week, although I'm a little nervous. Challenges of my first few weeks included learning to communicate without knowing the language, not knowing anything about TRM's operations, and frequent power outages. Even though I've only learned a few words in Tetun, smiling goes a long way here. I've been doing a lot of smiling.  I'm lucky some of the staff speak english and are happy to explain the business to me.

TRM staff

Highlights of the first few weeks include when the CEO told me he is very thankful I'm there helping out and that now I'm part of the family, being greeted every morning with big smiles and "Bondia"  (good morning), and a going away party for one of the employees. The party was a great way to meet some of the staff that I don't get to see very often. There was delicious fried food, cake, and champagne. They played music, took tons of pictures, and presented gifts to the man that was leaving. When we were ready to eat they looked at me and pointed to the bottle of champagne and said "Mana, please" ( sister, please) I watched the other guy shake up the other bottle and I followed him; the top blasted off and champagne exploded everywhere! It was party time!

I went to Tracey's for dinner this week, too. This is the place I will be calling home for the next two months. Beautiful garden, quite a few cats, and an endless supply of new people to meet. One of the first things I noticed when I walked in was a huge framed portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. The possibility of acquiring a British accent while I'm there is something to look forward to.  I move in this weekend. 

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the week. 

Tuba Rai Metin

This week I started working at Tuba Rai Metin (TRM), a Microfinance Institution (MFI) that provides financial services to small businesses and entrepreneurs.  I was graciously welcomed into the office by the Angelo, the CEO, and Subhash, the Transformation Advisor.  I was assigned to learn about the Smart Campaign, create a system to implement the principles of the Smart Campaign, and train the staff on these principles; this is all to be done within my 2 1/2 months here! 

Street view from my office

A little background on microfinance: 

Check out this great video! 

Microfinance was created to help people, usually the very poor, who do not have access to traditional banking services. The idea of microfinance purposes that if given access to financial services, these people will be able to lift themselves out of poverty. However, it is understood that microfinance is not the only answer to ending poverty. 

The Smart Campaign was created to protect clients of the microfinance industry. They have developed 7 Client Protection Principles that responsible MFIs should follow to ensure their clients know their rights as consumers and are prevented from falling victim to over-indebtededness. This is the first industry‐wide client protection initiative and I'm excited to be helping implement these ideas!

My job is to provide TRM with the tools and resources they need to deliver respectful, transparent, and prudent financial services to their clients; I will get these tools and resources from the Smart Campaign. Specifically, one of the things I will look into is how TRM can create a system so their clients can give feedback, make a complaint, or ask questions so they can be served more effectively.  

The Smart Campaign is important because the people who use these financial services- small loans for their businesses, savings accounts, and micro-insurance- are already a vulnerable population and they must be protected. It's important to ensure that the women and men who use these services, are not only able to repay their loans on time, but in doing so are not making huge sacrifices- like going hungry or selling items that are valuable to their business. The Smart Campaign is designed to prevent these huge sacrifices from being made. 

I understand this is a very complicated project to address a huge complicated issue, but I'm really looking forward to learning more about this industry and I hope that my work will go on to benefit the people of Timor-Leste. I'll be sure to keep you updated on the progress!