The most intense business meeting I have ever attended thus far

Talk about an exciting day! Yesterday Erik and I took up the reins of the microfinancing program. Today Erik, Duncan (the old microfinance PD) Bibi (the country director) and I met with two professors from ESPE, the military polytechnic college in the Chillos Valley (remember, the valley where MPI works) to discuss small business classes. Dunc offered one of those last year, with mixed success, mostly due to the timeline he had to work with. Well, we are going to try again this year in a big new way. This class is offered by college professors, which is incredible, but honestly just not properly formatted for the people we work with. It is a 40 hour class that they teach in one week, with 5-eight hour sessions. Most of the people we want to offer this class to work during the day. I basically sat in on this meeting conducted in very rapid Spanish, but while I initially thought I picked up about 30% of what was discussed, it seems like I picked up about 80% with only one huge translation error (they will not in fact be charging us $200 for the class this time around). But beyond it being an exciting meeting because of how successful I feel my Spanish was, we talked about a big new idea. We (and I mean everyone at the table, as far as I can tell) want Erik and I to undergo training to be certified to teach instructors for this small business class, which would make us more than qualified to teach this class in Conocoto at our leisure. This is great for a whole bunch of reasons. First, if Erik and I are able to administer these classes, then we could teach them at a schedule that actually works for our community—probably every Saturday afternoon for two months, instead of one impossible week. Also, if we are certified to train instructors, we can find someone in the valley and train them to continue to teach these classes to others, making it a sustainable program, something we are always striving for with our growth philosophy. Third, we can change the classroom dynamic so our attendees are not scared away (a problem Dunc encountered last year). Finally, it just sounds cool to say that I am certified to train small business class instructors in Ecuador.

The only requirement for attending a class is that you are literate, though they do prefer those who have completed high school (colegio). However, to complete the coursework for be an instructor trainer, you need to either have a university degree (which, incidentally, I do. In fact, here one describes an undergraduate degree as a licensure; apparently I’m an economista licenciado.) or be pursuing one. So Erik and I need to make 13 friends who either have degrees or are actively pursuing one by September 1, when we call the professors back to set up the class. If everything goes according to plan (and we really hope it does) we should be done with the class and ready to teach our own by the end of September. It is really exciting to already have something concrete to work for.

Chao,

Chet

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