**Disclaimer: I have not had Internet access for the past three or four days. I will post all the other posts periodically until I am caught up. Plus I won’t be able to post pictures still for a few days. Sorry for the delay!**
Thursday, August 5th
Why hello there. Yes, I know I am still very far behind in my posts, but I promise that I will catch up. Eventually. But long days and irregular access to the Internet can dissuade even the best of us.
The Village Meeting
This morning started all too early at the rather unfortunate time of 4:45 am. After stumbling down to breakfast, blindly putting on clothes in the dark, and feel our way to the bus, we all head on an hour and a half drive to a nearby village outside of Bangalore. All I know at this point is that the plan is to meet with SKS Microfinance.
Surprisingly, I was awake for most of the ride, and it was really interesting passing through other small villages on the way there. Everyone came out of their houses and gawked at the huge bus that was slowly weaving its way along the dirt roads.
Arriving at the village at around 7 am, we look out of the window and see a group of about 50 women, all dressed in brightly colored sarees and barefoot, sitting on the ground in a perfect semi-circle waiting for us. At the mouth of the circle was a row of mats, conveniently placed for our group.
We are ushered over, we take off our shoes, claim a place on the mat, and then we watch as a whole meeting takes place. It was really fascinating, partly because we have no idea what is going on. The meeting starts off with a group chant/prayer and then one by one several different women come up to one of the main men, give him money and then sit back down.
It turns out that all the 50 women belong to one group within the microfinance company. I’ll try and give you a summary of how the process works:
1. A woman joins a group and then makes a pledge to always be on time to the weekly meetings, to make her payments on time, and to help others if they need it with their loan.
2. She then applies for a loan and if it is granted, then the husband is also required to be there as insurance.
3. She then makes her payments over the 50 week period – if she can’t make her full payment one week, the other 49 women will pull their money to help pay for it.
4. If there is a death in the family, then the rest of the loan is written off.
It really is an interesting system for a number of reasons:
1. The entire system is built on trust – a strange concept for us cynical, big business Americans.
2. It’s all dealt with locally, within each individual village, and money transfers out of the village are handled by male staffers (for security reasons).
3. Only married women are allowed to be a part of this microfinance organization.
a. More patience
b. Less irrelevant spending
c. More focus on family
d. Smarter (ok I reworded that. I believe her phrase was “less inclined to get involved in risky businesses)
e. Single women might move villages when she marries which makes loan collection very difficult.
It was just a really cool experience getting to watch the village meeting take place.
Touring the Village
After the meeting concluded, the women started to disperse. However, the majority sort of milled around, clearly fascinated with our group. Looking up, we then noticed that it looked like the entire village had gathered around the outside of the compound, clearly very curious and awed by this large pack of students that just invaded, American-style.
After asking permission the first few times, we begin to take photos of everyone in the village – which they LOVED. They started crowding around, begging for their picture to be taken and then would swarm the camera afterwards to see. I don’t think they had ever seen someone take their picture before. It was quite amazing.
The kids were the cutest. Ever. Cuter than, dare I say it, Boo from Monsters, Inc. If one was having their picture taken, the rest then swarmed the camera. The funny thing is, this experience just reaffirmed my belief that kids are the exact same everywhere, regardless of the culture in which they were raised. It’s kinda cool :).
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| Look at the kid on the left! |
Anyway, it was a really cool experience getting to tour this village. Dirt roads, animals running around…but everyone was super welcoming and excited to show us around. The wealth distribution was also very interesting: there would be a moderately nice house sitting right next to thatched hut. Though I did see one thatched hut that had a Masterlock on it, which made me chuckle.
But definitely, without a doubt, this has been my favorite experience so far. How often do you get to wander around a rural village in India?! Ahhh, amazing.
SKS Microfinance
After we said goodbye to our entourage at the village, we went to one of the local offices of SKS Microfinance, the company that arranged this village meeting. We were put in a small room, covered with mats and were given this strange tea made from milk, which was….interesting? I did have some slight problems during the act of sitting down, as the Indian pants that I was wearing did not stretch. At all. But fortunately, many tries later, I successfully managed sit with the appearance at least of being comfortable.
It was really quite interesting learned about SKS Microfinance, which surprisingly is quite a large company, much bigger and more widespread than I expected. They had over 2,600 branches in India and 7.2 million members who have outstanding loans. Initially a NGO, they just recently became a Non-Banking Financing Group (NBFG), and in fact just went public about three days ago. Don’t know what that means? That’s ok, I won’t judge you. Basically, it means that as a company, they no longer have to rely on grants but instead can now receive funding from large investors (and in fact received quite an amazing response).
Here are some cool facts I learned:
· 28% of the population is below the poverty line
· The poverty line is 300 rupees a month or about $7 (the price of a moderate meal at a moderate restaurant)
· The majority of the loans granted go to the purchase of a cow ($1,100) since it’s the best investment
· Most women stick with the company for about 3 years (at a 50 week loan period) in order to break even
· The repayment rate for the loans granted is 99.2%, which is amazing.
We also got the chance to go visit some of the stores that were financed through a loan from SKS Microfinance. All in all, a very cool experience.
Saatchi and Saatchi Advertising
Surprisingly enough, after all that happened this morning, it was only 11 am. It felt like an entire day had gone by. After lunch, we then go and visit Saatchi and Saatchi Advertising, which is (yepp, you guessed it) an advertising company. What gave it away?
This was a very cool meeting as well, as the lady who gave us the presentation was very entertaining and knew how to work with young people. She filled the presentation with lots of visual examples of how advertising in India worked and it was very cool getting to watch different ads.
The most interesting thing to me that I learned from this visit was that Indians really prefer direct, bright, in-the-face advertising. With famous endorsers, of course. If a famous cricketer says that Appy apple juice is his drink of choice, then clearly it’s the best product available. Though, when you think about it, this type of advertising does make a lot of sense with regards to their culture. Indians love bright colors and loud music. And why glance discretely out of the corner of your eye when outright staring would suffice? It’s not a culture based around the concept of subtley.
After the presentation, we had the opportunity to tour the office with one of the young employees or interns as our guide. Honestly, it was one of the coolest offices I’ve seen. All the walls were covered with bright movie posters, color coded by section. Loud upbeat music was playing. And my personal favorite? The dartboard and punching bag for when they have to deal with a really difficult client. (Hear that Mom? Might be the perfect idea for your classroom).
Also of note, today was also the first day that I noticed the infamous Indian head bob. You know, the bobbing of the head from side to side? Our guide kept doing it the entire time we were talking and while she didn’t notice, my neck muscles ached in sympathy. I feel like doing that constantly would rattle my brain completely, and lord knows we don’t need any more of that.
Big Bazaar
The final visit of the day was to Big Bazaar, the discount department store that was located right next to our hotel. I tell you what, the security that is so pervasive around India is rather off-putting. Any major electronics that you were carrying had to be recorded before entering Big Bazaar, bags had to be searched, and we had to go through a metal detector. After checking out, all bags were sealed with plastic bag ties, the receipt was marked with the number of bags you had, and the security guard punched holes in your receipt as you left. Kinda intense, no? (Still doesn’t quite compare to the hotels using mirrors to check under every car for bombs)
But anyway, tangent aside, the presentation was about how this Indian equivalent of Super Target did business in India. It was moderately interesting. OK not really. But here are the highlights:
· All the girls were wearing their ethnic wear…which they purchased from Big Bazaar the day before.
· Big Bazaar said they weren’t too worried about the possibility that Walmart might open up in India and compete with them. Ohhh poor Big Bazaar. You have no idea, do you?
I’m sure there was more but I was too distracted by the super cheap haircuts they were offering at their salon. Only $4?! Sooo tempted…
I also happened to catch a glimpse of one of the employee requirements list. On it, it stated that men needed to wax their hands and women couldn’t wear bindis. Interesting.
Out and About
That night, taking the advice of Jay, the hotel’s bartender, we decided to hit up Club Hint. It was actually pretty fun, despite the fact that it was a little expensive. The music was a mix of American hits from a couple years ago and Bollywood music, but the most interesting (I’ve gotta stop using this word) part was the fact that everyone was dressed pretty modern and dancing but no one actually touched one another. Kinda cool.
But the club did close at 11:30 (Lame) and so we all had to pile into rickshaws on our way back to the hotel. Lindsey, on the way back, asked the rickshaw driver if she could drive, and without the slightest hesitation, the driver handed over the rickshaw to her. Didn’t even blink an eye. Meanwhile, I am fervently try to signal that no, maybe we shouldn’t trust a young, slightly intoxicated American girl with a strange vehicle in a foreign country that drives on the wrong side of the road and no one follows the traffic laws. Just a thought.
Luckily, we make it back alive and in one piece, more or less, and the rest of the evening was spent debating hash browns and providing the hotel staff with dinner and a show.
That concludes our day’s many adventures. The adventures only continue tomorrow, so stay tuned!