travel

Lynda Barton is spending six months volunteering with MOTECH Ghana through Grameen Foundation’s global volunteer corps, Bankers without Borders. This is Part II of a two-part series. If you haven't yet, you can read part 1.

Along with several Grameen Foundation staff, the McCall Family - Jordan, Sarah, Ben, and Molly - flew to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to visit one of Grameen Foundation’s local Microfinance Institutions, Esperanza. This is an excerpt from Molly’s journal she wrote for school about her experience in the Dominican Republic.

October 5, 2010
At 1:30 pm our friends picked us up to go to the airport. First we flew to Dallas, Texas. We landed in Dallas at 9:30 pm. We spent the night at a Holiday Inn.

October 6, 2010

We had to wake up at 2:30 am! We drove to the airport with some funny old ladies who laughed and snorted. Our plan got to Miami, Florida at 9:45 am. At 10:45 am we left for Santo Domingo. We touched down at Santo Domingo at 1:45 pm. Then we went to our hotel and ate lunch. Factoid: every day in Santo Domingo it rains around 3 pm. Then we took some nice long naps. Next, we watched TV. Finally we went out to dinner with a group of people.

October 7, 2010

First we went on a bus to a bank meeting. Then we saw pigs. The owner of the pigs sells them for pesos. Next, we went to a clinic where people get help when they are sick. After that we went to a bank office and ate lunch. I liked the rice. After lunch, we went to a colmado which is like a little convenience store. Women borrow money from Esperanza to open them. Later we went to another colmado and a place that sold fried chicken. Then we went home. Then we went to dinner at an old colonial restaurant.

[caption id="attachment_1135" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Molly and her brother, Ben, in front of a home in Santo Domingo"][/caption]

October 8, 2010

First we had breakfast at our hotel. Next we went to a bank meeting where people talked about how they came to Esperanza. It took place in someone’s front yard at a coastal town. People deposit money at the bank meeting for their businesses. One woman sold shoes, another sold coffee and tea. Then we went to lunch because we were a half hour off schedule. That took place at an Esperanza office. I had rice and a salad. After that we went on a cool water purifying tour. It was very fun although very hot. In the afternoon we went on a tour of the colonial district in downtown Santo Domingo. There were a lot of pigeons there. We visited the place where heroes are buried. Finally we went to dinner at a magical place on the water. 

Sandra Adams is Grameen Foundation’s Vice President of External Affairs.

During the first week of April several Grameen Foundation board members, other staff and I traveled to Kiambu, Kenya—about 45 minutes outside Nairobi—to see how local organizations are making a difference in the lives of poor families. Staff at the microfinance institution Kenya Entrepreneurship Empowerment Foundation (KEEF) and some of the MFIs ambitious borrowers welcomed us and shared their triumphs and challenges in the fight against poverty in their communities.

I arrived at the Grameen Complex at 10:30am on Thursday, after having visited my old dentist (who does quality work for a fraction of the price charged back home).  Before I began my first meeting, I noticed the almost frenetic activity around me in each office I entered.  My good friend Mir Akhtar Hossain, who heads Dr. Yunus’ person staff, was so busy he could barely catch up with me – much less indulge in our traditional lunch of chicken biryani down the road in Mirpur One.  Even after thirty-three years in existence, complacency has hardly taken root in the Grameen family of companies.