By Ed Coambs, The Philippines, Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation
Bago Branch Staff
What will the field hold for me today as I go out to complete my first Kiva mission. I have been asked to spend time completing ten borrower verifications. The idea is first introduced to me during my fellowship training. The borrower verification process is one of the requirements for a Micro Finance Institution (MFI) that has partnered with Kiva to move from pilot to active status. (The pilot stage is designed to allow Kiva to evaluate the MFI, and their ability to meet all Kiva requirements. All MFI’s start in pilot status with a low fundraising limit and once they move to active status have their fundraising limit raised.) During training as I am introduced to the borrower verification process I think oh no problem I can knock this out in a day. All I have to do is take some photo’s, check documents, and ask some questions about the borrowers business. Well what unfolds during my borrower verification experience is far from what I expected.
Good morning Ed this is Vicvic she will be taking you to Bago branch today for your first five borrowers to verify. Vicvic and I grab the first available trisikad. If you will imagine an old rusty bmx bike with a specially manufactured side car made to accommodate people who for the most part are shorter then 5’10” and weigh less the 160 pounds. Alright if you must here is a picture
A Typical Trisikad
To say I didn’t fit well is an understatement, it would be better to say that I was not meant to ride this type of transportation. But Vicvic and I needed to get to the minibus depot at the public market to catch a ride to Bago City, so I folded myself into a pretzel and away we went.
Once at the public market we find the minibus headed to Bago city. We enjoy a lively conversation about where I am from and where she is from during our ride to Bago city. We hop off in Bago city and walk a block to the branch office. As we step in the branch Vicvic introduces me to everyone in a whirlwind, leaving me just hopping to remember one name. I spend a few minutes reviewing with Vicvic and the branch manager Marlon who I need to see for the day. During the review of the list one of the loan officers pipes in to say oh she is not available today. Then as I make my way through the rest of the list the same loan officer says she is not available as well. Ok well there goes two of the five people that I needed to see. After some brief conversation we determine that if I come back in two days the two borrowers that are not available now will be available then.
Welcome to Bago branch
Now that I have identified who we need to see, the real adventure begins. Vicvic, Marlon and I head out to visit the clients that I have identified. Back into a trisikad we go to get to the minibus area of Bago city, where we catch a minibus for a 10 or 15 minute ride to transfer to a jeepney that will drive us another 15 minutes and drops us in front of the market place where Jasmin sells her goods at her Sari Sari store. This is my first verification so I am a little nervous, I just want to make sure that I get all the details that I need. At the same time as I am getting prepared for the verification in this busy market a fear of having my backpack grabbed and taken emerges. So I keep an eagle eye on my bag as I am introduced to Jasmin who greats me with a big smile. She willingly gets all the documentation that I ask for and happily shares with me about her business. She explains that through many loans like the one that she has received from Kiva. Her business started with selling fruit and now includes a wide variety of goods. The goods range from fruit to candies to household cleaners that are all being sold from a store that is probably not more than 10 feet by 10 feet with every inch housing a different product.
Meet Jasmine Gargarita
We spend 30 minutes or so with Jasmin capturing all the details. The first verification is complete and I still have my bag so my fear of having my bag taken subsides some. My experience with Jasmin put to rest some of my fears about meeting the borrowers and having them open up their loan documents and share a bit of their story with a stranger.
To get to the next borrower I am told that it is a pretty long ride. For the next leg of the trip we catch a tricycle not to be confused with a trisikad. What’s the difference, I am glad that you asked. The tricycle is a motorcycle with a sidecar attached. So you get an engine instead of leg power and a side cart that is slightly larger, perfect for 99% of Filipinos but less than perfect for this large American. The tricycle ride is short and gets us to a jeepney which carries us a long distance and will get us close to the next borrower that will then only be a short tricycle ride away. The borrowers name is Lina and she runs a sari sari store that is stocked full of useful and need to have items ranging from snacks and sodas to more important items like medicine. Lina explains that the medicine is the most important thing that she carries because if she did not have it her community would have to travel a long distance to get medicine. Everything with her verification checks out and we part with a purchased ice cold coke.
After arriving in Bago city at about 8:30 it is now approaching 11:30 and Vicvic says we will head back into the city to get lunch which puts us on a tricycle to transition to the jeepney going back to town. We sit down at Vicvic and Marlon’s favorite local restaurant. They are curious about what I like to eat and then almost always insist on ordering it for me. I don’t fully understand the practice, but somehow at our lunch table for this meal a wide range of tasty items arrive.
We have chicken and pork on a stick, soup, something that looks like a spring role and rice. Unlike the typical American lunch where we would rush through the meal to get on to the next activity we take our time enjoying the food and good conversation about family. After the leisurely lunch I am more ready for a nap then a hot and dusty trip to the next borrower. But hey Kiva lenders want to make sure that they are lending their money to legitimate borrowers. So we rise from the table and head out to find our next minibus which will take us directly to our last borrower to verify for the day. I know what you are thinking no tricycle ride, what a letdown. Let me just say the minibus is no picnic for me either. I now know after riding the major modes of transportation in the Philippines none of it is designed to fit a 6’1” body. VicVic actually finds it very comical that I have to sit sideways on the bench seat in the minibus but of course she would because she is about 5 feet tall.
We arrive at our last borrower for the day and I feel like after two verifications I have a method to ensure that I get all the needed information. Joana sells kitchen wares. When we show up at the market she is not there. It turns out her sister is manning her table while also operating her own table where she sells t-shirts and flip flops. I am thinking great now I have three people that I will have to come back to check on. But as luck would have it Joana shows up a few minutes later, she had left her table to go home and have lunch. Now that I have my process down we collect the necessary information and have a chance to find out what Joana expects to sell with the Christmas season coming up. She thinks people will want to buy tuber ware to give as gifts for Christmas. So she says she plans to stock up and have tuber ware to sell.
After collecting all the needed information we head back out and catch the next minibus to Bago city. As we are riding back to Bago city I tell Vicvic that there is no need for her to catch the next bus with me back to Bacolod another 40 minutes past Bago city. She already got up early to come and get me in Bacolod to make sure that I got to Bago city ok. Vicvic insists that she ride back to Bacolod with me just to turnaround and take another bus back to Bago city. That settles it, you don’t disagree with the hospitality of the Filipinos as they just want to make sure that you are well taken care of.
So after a quick stop in Bago city to let off Marlon, Vicvic and I catch the next minibus back to Bacolod. The ride back to Bacolod involves more friendly chatter with Vicvic but I don’t remember the conversation as I am busy reflecting on all that I have experienced in this one day. No hair on my head lays in the same place as it started this morning. My face is slightly reddened from the afternoon sun beating down on us across the fields of sugarcane. My back is starting to remind me of all the bumps and awkward positions it was contorted into during the days travel and yet I am over my fear of doing the verifications and excited about my next day’s adventure of borrower verifications.
The next day I am sent out on my own to the other branch I will work with for the borrower verification. I am sent with reassurance that Sheila will meet me where the van stops. Sure no problem I am a big boy I can ride a van by myself, yet there is still a little boy inside me that screams out in terror “what are you crazy you don’t know where you are going or who you are meeting” I temper the little boy in me and remind myself not to worry there will be someone there to meet me. Sure enough as I step out of the van in La Castallana and am trying to get orientated I hear my name “Ed”. I look up to see Sheila smiling and saying hi we just have a short walk to the branch. We get to the branch at about 8 and they are just getting started for the day. Sheila invites me to just sit and relax while they get started for the day. She makes sure to introduce me to all the staff, especially Rowena the branch manager who will travel with us for the day.
I will spare you the blow by blow of transportation changes for the day’s borrower verification and just say that it followed the same pattern as the previous day. I however would love to share one particularly fun and inspiring experience that I had during the days travel. If my memory serves me right it was our fourth borrower for the day and we were headed to meet her at her local market place. On the way there riding the tricycle I feel this flood of wetness down the front of my pants. Oh no did I wet myself in fear for my life. Nope a water bottle lid is not closed tight in my backpack and I feel the consequence of this in my wet pants. Not to worry only my laptop and several books I was reading where in the bag. So you guessed it I rip my bag open while clinging for dear life to tricycle just to save my books and computer from eminent destruction. Fortunately most of the water went through the bag and onto my lap. I was able to get the books out which Sheila kindly held in her bag and my computer was in a soft sided carrying pouch that kept it dry.
Just as the water bottle incident is sorted out, it starts to rain or maybe I should say a bucket of water was dropped on us from the skies above. As naturally as I tie my shoes in the morning our tricycle driver slickly pulls out a crinkled plastic sheet that he tries to wrap around the front of his bike and the front of the sidecar. He hands clothespins for Sheila and Rowena to attach the plastic sheet to the frame of the side car. As soon as the plastic sheet is secured in place the rain subsides as quickly as it came and we are spared from being drenched.
When we arrive at the market place stall for Erlinda the borrower I am supposed to verify we are told that she has sold out for the day and went to a friend’s house. We head over to the friend’s house and find Erlinda there. We start asking a few questions of Erlinda only to find out she does not have her loan documents with her that I need to verify. When we explain what we need, she agrees to take us to her house.
Erlinda flags down a teenage boy that is driving a tricycle to take us to her house. Little does he know what he is about to get into. We turn through a couple of streets and then onto the highway. Oh, did I tell you that Erlinda is a duck farmer and lives in the middle of a sugarcane field. No I didn’t think so. We pull off the highway and onto the sugarcane field road. Not too bad at first, very bumpy but manageable. It does not take long for me to hear eruptions of laughter as the girls are getting bounced around on our ride. Then comes the deep trenches that the sugarcane trucks have worn into the road. Our fearless tricycle driver with a look of determination in his eyes carries us further into the sugarcane fields plowing through the deep trenches. At last he can go no further. Yet all the eye can see is sugarcane.
We get off the tricycle and start to walk up the road and as the sugarcane parts in just a small place a few huts appear. Great we have arrived at our destination. No not yet, we walk another couple hundred yards and Erlinda’s sky blue concrete house appears. We settle on her small front porch to begin the borrower verification process. Before I know it her husband shimmies up the coconut tree in front of their house and I hear the loud thud of coconuts dropping from the sky. Her husband then with a couple quick strikes of his machete is pouring fresh coconut water in glasses for us to enjoy as we talk with his wife about her business.
Erlinda gleams with pride as she talks proudly more about the accomplishments of her daughters then her own business, but it is the skills that she has learned from her business that have helped her to teach the lessons of hard work to her daughters. In order for her daughters to pay for primary school she would send them every day with a duck egg to sell and help pay for their school. This work ethic has helped carry one of her daughters into a successful career in computers and another daughter finish classes to become a cruise ship stewardess.
We wrap up our verification with Erlinda that almost felt more like afternoon tea or should I say afternoon coconut water then a borrower verification. She walks us confidently back to where we left our tricycle driver in the middle of the sugarcane field. He has managed to get the tricycle turned around and is patiently waiting for our return. While approaching the tricycle I can’t help myself to stop and admire the beautiful setting that surrounds the sugarcane fields. There are mountains in one direction and an afternoon sun slowly moving towards the horizon in the other direction.
One muddy road traveled
Our fearless tricycle driver, Sheila, Rowena, Erlinda
View from the sugarcane field
The tricycle roars back to life and we head back to the highway. Oh did you forget because I didn’t, the road back is waiting for us full of mud pits, large rocks, and a questionable bridge to cross. As we rumble over the rocks and in to the first mud pit the tricycle gets stuck. Sheila, Rowena and I climb out of the side car and the driver guns the bike hoping the lighter load will allow him to clear the mud pit. No such luck, but at last my size and strength come in hand. I help to push the tricycle past this mud pit. We all climb back on only to get bogged down in another mud pit. This cycle of everybody off, Ed help the tricycle clear the mud pit everybody get back on happens no less than five times before we clear all the mud.
Now you are probably wondering much like I was how in the world did they get to Erlinda’s house and not get stuck once and now leaving they get stuck multiple times. Well your guess is as good as mine, the only thing I can think of is God wanted me to really remember my visit to see Erlinda.
Two days have passed I have met and verified 8 of the 10 borrowers that I need to. Now I just need to get back to Bago city and catch up with the last two borrowers. Fortunately the arrangements work out and I am able to successfully meet the last two borrowers and complete my verifications in two and half days after riding many, many, many trisikads, tricycles and minibuses. Completing the borrower verification was nothing like I expected during training, it was better. I got to meet ten great borrowers, see the country side, and experience all of the Philippines modes of transportation. Not bad for two and half days.
As a Kiva lender or maybe soon to be Kiva lender you can rest assured that everything checks out good. Each entrepreneur has a real story and much like any of us they have their successes, their failures and their dreams, but the important thing is that they are all working hard to create a better life for themselves, family, and community. Please join me in changing life’s by making a loan today.
