Mlowa – “We have a CVP plot, we need a SACCOS”

Mlowa is located 1 hour and fifteen minutes to the northeast of Iringa.  It is an emerging SACCOS rather than an existing one, like those we have visited previously.  The villagers of Mlowa started talking about having a SACCOS last year.  Early in the year Itiweni visited this village and talked with them about what a SACCOS was and how to form one.  They were very excited about this and sent a letter to their companion congregation, Christus Victor, asking if they would support them.  The letter they got back said, “YES!”  

There was a lot of excitement and 108 people signed a list to get more information and training.  Then they sent a letter to the diocese and waited and waited and waited.  (It seems that the diocese assumed they would contact us so did not say anything.  They assumed the diocese wanted them to wait so they did.  Itiweni had told them to call her when they wanted to start training and, with other things going on, had not called them back.)

When we got to Mlowa the pastor was not there (he had to go to another preaching point) so we met with the church treasurer.  We, of course, had tea first.  Tom spied some kids and so had to hand out suckers.

Slowly the people gathered and the meeting began.  Since this is an emerging SACCOS Itiweni changed her course to focus on the basics of organizing and running a SACCOS.  There were 24 who attended this meeting – half women and half men.  We emphasized the responsibilities and roles of the members and officers as well as the role of savings and planning.  Overall we spent about two and one half hours presenting materials.

It was during the presentation that Tom’s candy habits came home to roost.  First one small boy, then two, then three, then a whole group came creeping up to stare at Tom and make faces.  They of course wanted candy – but the adults in the course and wanted no interruptions!  A compromise was struck when Tom gave them each one piece and they were told to shoo!  (Tom then started noticing the little kids that the mothers were holding – so he soon had to get up and give them suckers!)

After the meeting we met with some of the members.  Why I asked do you want a SACCOS, after all Pride In Africa has a person here and there are some other groups around.  “Pride In Africa charges 4% per month and will only loan us money for 1 or 2 months (sometimes they will go three) so it does not help the farmers.  The other groups in Mlowa are about the same.  We really need to have something to address the needs of the farmer.” I was told.

One of the evangelists, Dinas Mlowe, is a single woman helping to support some of her nieces and nephews.  “Rural areas need the opportunities for borrowing that we can get from a SACCOS.  I have learned how to improve my farming from the CVP plot but I do not have the capital to do it.  This last year I could only plant 1 acre of rice and some ground nuts.”

Mama Mchungaji (the pastor’s wife) said, “There is a lot of knowledge that comes from the SACCOS training.  This will help the whole village do better.  By giving the farmers the capital they need to follow the CVP teachings the incomes will increase here and people will be able to start other businesses.  Our children will benefit and our future will be brighter.”

Jonas Mukusa, father of four and one of the leaders of the group told us, “Village people have nowhere to go to get the capital they need.  I have four acres to farm.  I followed most of the CVP teachings on one acre (he could not buy enough fertilizer so he skimped a bit) and only followed the spacing rules on the other 3 acres.  On the CVP acre I got 25 bags of corn, on each of the other acres I only got 13 bags of corn.  I have one child I am sending to school now and 2 more that want to go soon.  I need to get a loan so I can farm the way I know I should.”

 We told them to hold a meeting of those who were serious about joining a SACCOS (probably the 24 who came plus a few others) and choose some leaders.  Then send these people to our training session next month.  After this we told them we would work with them to schedule some more training sessions with Itiweni and work to get them started this year.

We were very pleased with this group.  They have a good balance of men and women, they did not want to do anything until they had the right training, and they are all there for the right reasons.  It was a good day!

(PS-I hope you will forgive my paraphrasing of Itiweni’s translation.  Everyone of course spoke in Swahili.)

The road to Mlowe is actually pretty good driving.

We were greeted by the pastor's wife and the church treasurer.

24 potential members gathered to meet with us.

The chickens had to check out the classroom before we got started.

Itiweni gave a lesson on what a SACCOS is, how to buy shares, voting and organizing, etc.

Earlier Tom had been giving the kids some suckers - so during the meeting these kids were creeping closer and closer wanting theirs!

Even this little one eventually got a sucker.

After the meeting some people wanted to meet with us to talk about why they want a SACCOS.

The evangelist wanted to follow the CVP lessons, but she could not get enough capital.

Mama Mchungaji wants her village to improve.  "A SACCOS will bring hope for our children."

Jonas Mukusa knows how to increase his crops - he just needs to be able to borrow the capital to do it!

Ilambilole - A Widow and A CVP Demo Plot

We planned to leave Iringa at 9:00.  First we had a few errands to run – dropping off a bill at the procurement office at Tumaini and then going over to make a payment at the CRDB bank.  Walking into the bank it seemed that Itiweni knows everyone who works here.  As a result we were ushered to the front of the line and helped immediately.

On returning to our vehicle we discovered that it wouldn’t start.  In fact, it wouldn’t even turn over or make a noise.  We called Denis Ngede (he talks care of the car for us) and he sent someone over.  After looking things over it was discovered that the wiring was bad – so we needed another ride for the day.

While this was going on Itiweni called Brown to tell him we would be late.  He told us that he and his wife had just been in a motorcycle accident and he had injured his side and arm.  Fortunately mama (who is pregnant) is OK.

So we sat in front of the bank waiting for Denis to send another car and driver.  While sitting there there was a steady stream of people that Itiweni or we knew who stopped to say “Hi” and ask what we were doing.  Soon we are joined by a parking officer – are we illegally parked as well???  She was friendly enough and understood the problem so we paid her a parking fee and she went on her way.

After an hour we got another car and a driver and left for Ilambilole.  The drive is about 1 hour from Iringa going north on the road to Dodoma.  This of course meant that we were an hour late in getting there – but no problem TIA (this is Africa).  And of course, FIRST we have tea with the pastor.

On the way to meeting with the SACCOS officers Tom spied some school children.  It’s candy time!!!  Tom started to hand out candy and kids just kept appearing.  Good thing that the kids quit coming before the candy ran out!  (Tom started with 100 suckers and ended with a hand full.)

After the bad news of yesterday, it was a pleasure to discover that the Ilambilole SACCOS is very well run.  We met with the officers and the board members of the SACCOS in their office (about 10 people over all).  About half of them were women.  They had all of their books, their bank statement, and records up to date and waiting for us.  When I asked them about how they dealt with delinquent loans they immediately pulled out their constitution and showed me – what a great way to start!!

This SACCOS has 62 members – 32 men and 30 women.  They proudly told me that they started with a $4,700 gift from their partner Our Saviors Lutheran in Hastings.  In fact they kept mentioning Our Saviors so often it seemed that they should be paid for advertising (seriously, they are very proud of their connection – they have named their SACCOS “Our Saviors Ilambilole SACCOS”).

Looking over the records I noted that last year they made 64 loans and had 3 that had not been paid back in full.  They told me that these 3 members had been sick and that they had rescheduled their loans to give them another 6 months.  I asked if they were charging interest for the whole time and they looked at me strangely – of course they will pay all of the interest!  Are they paying now?  Their co-guarantors have started to pay and they will collect it all!

After meeting the officers and board members, we went to the church and held the general meeting.  As usual Itiweni’s talk was very well received with lots of questions.  I noticed that many people had brought copies of the constitution and had good questions about their rights and obligations – good work!

After the meeting we talked to some members about their loans.  Talking with Pendo Mtoji, 36, we found that he and his wife had 4 children in primary school.  He had taken a loan out for $200 and bought some chickens (41).  He built a house for them and was selling eggs.  “30-40 eggs a day at $0.20 each with a $.03 profit” he told us (in Swahili of course).  After paying off his loan this money was set aside to buy school uniforms and supplies (about $330/year).  His second loan was for $420.  He is using this to farm his corn using the CVP demonstration plot approach.

Our second visit was with Jema Kevike, 48.  She has five children, one in secondary school and the rest gone elsewhere to work.  She took out a loan for $170.  She farmed corn using the CVP methods and made a profit (after repaying her loan) of $250.  This she used to buy some goats to milk.  With the profit from the goats she has now started to build a house.  Her second loan is for $270 to raise more corn.  She plans to use the profits from this crop to pay school fees and work on her house.

The last visit was with Beata Mgimba, 42.  This widow has 3 children; one in teacher’s college and two in secondary school.  She has been sending them to school with a combination of scholarships (thanks Our Saviors) and what money she can make off of her work in the village and her ¾ acre of land.  Everyone agreed that she does the best job in the village of following the CVP teachings.  Her first loan was for $60.  Her profit on her crop was $120! (She bought 2 pigs and helped her children pay their school fees.)  Her second loan is for $80 to buy more pigs and plant another crop.  Very impressive!

Everyone involved with the SACCOS here was very happy and appreciative of their opportunity to get loans.  They currently have 17 members waiting to get loans and need another $3,000 in capital.  I would say that any money sent here is well sent indeed!!

After an hour's delay we were on our way.  The traffic jam added a little additional delay.

When we got to Ilambilole we were greeted by an old friend.  Pastor Doricus Kimbavala was there to say, "Welcome!"

The board members and officers were about 50-50 men and women.

There were lots of good questions and many referred to their copies of the constitution of the SACCOS!

Tom gave suckers to all of the children.

Pendo Mtoji bought some chickens and is selling eggs.

Mama Kevike bought some goats and is building a house.

Widow Mgimba is helping to send her 3 children to get an education (one is in teacher's college and two are in secondary school).

On To Nyanzwa!

After visiting five very successful SACCOS last week, we had a disappointing start to our second week of visits when we visited Nyanzwa today.  Nyanzwa is located about 3 hours drive from Iringa.  To reach Nyanzwa you take the road back towards Dar Es Salaam down the escarpment.  At the foot you take a dirt road for about 35 kilometers.  Assuming the Masai and their cattle don’t delay you too long you will make it in 45 minutes.

Arriving at the church we were met by the pastor and the SACCOS chairman.  The pastor seemed somehow familiar to us – but we could not place him.  We have been to Nyanzwa on 4 other occasions – but we were sure we had not met him here.  We went into his house where we were greeted by his wife.  Suddenly it struck us; we had met him when we were at Kipaduka a few years ago.  When we asked if they remembered us from Kipaduka mama said, “No – but then all white people look alike.”

 After having coffee we met with the officers of the SACCOS.  When we had been here in 2008 we were impressed by the good records and active participation of the members, now we felt that the SACCOS is being poorly managed and needs some changes.  We found that recent record keeping is so poor that we were unable to come away with any details.  We also confirmed that despite having assets of $33,000 this SACCOS has only $1,350 in cash available.  And where is the rest?  It is currently loaned to the members – who all seem to be falling behind in their payments!

The Nyanza SACCOS has about 200 members; only 48 of them are women. At our meeting today with the SACCOS leadership we noticed that of the nine members present, only one of them was a woman.  Lukia, the woman, was the only member in the roomful of leaders who had repaid her loan in full.  All of the other leaders had loans outstanding, some of them small, others fairly substantial (by Tanzanian standards).  Sandy commented that in every other SACCOS we visited where the membership and leadership was equally divided between men and women (and heavily favoring women in the case of Mkimbizi), record keeping was well done and loan repayment was close to 100%.  She followed with a question of whether or not the men in the room thought there might be a correlation here.  This brought smiles.  Then Tom asked if this (repaying loans on time) was something that women can do and that the men were not capable of.  This brought some frowns and a bit of discussion.

Brown (a representative of the Iringa Diocese head office), Tom, and Itiweni took turns lecturing the leaders about responsibility, setting an example, commitment, etc.  We told them they needed to form a committee to go to each and every member with a loan and sit with them and make a plan to repay their loans by the end of June (harvest time).  They said we will do this tomorrow.  “YOU WILL DO THIS TODAY” Brown told them. 

Following the meeting we interviewed Lukia about her dealings with the Nyanzwa SACCOS.  Her loans were taken out in the early days of the SACCOS (2007-2008).  She had taken out loans twice; her first loan in 2007 was for $50 which she used to plant onions.  This loan was repaid and she took out a second in 2008 for $120 which she used to plant beans and onions.   After she repaid her loan she bought pigs, and has situated herself so that she hasn’t needed to borrow anything in the last three years.  She has used her profits to send her two children to secondary school.

Our second interview was with Salima, a widow supporting two children and two grandchildren.  We recognized her immediately as a woman we interviewed in 2008.  She is another woman who borrowed money in 2007 and 2008; loans that were paid in full.  She didn’t take out a loan in 2009 because the weather that year was such that she didn’t want to gamble on being able to repay a loan.  When she applied in 2010 her loan application was turned down, due to lack of money for loans.  Salima was probably one of the best credit risks that this SACCOS could have taken. 

When we went to start the car to go home we found the battery was dead!  “Ooops – I forgot and left the headlights on,” said Tom.  Never mind – with a handful of volunteers pushing the car was soon started and we were on our way.  Getting back to our house at 6:30 we realized that it had been another 11 and ½ hour day!

Going down the escarpment can be a bit tricky with the run away trucks!

It's only a 45 minute drive if you don't meet too many cattle.

Mama didn't recognize us.

Itiweni pounds the table.  Will they listen?

Of the officers and board members only Lukia had repaid her loan.

The widow Salima was turned down for her loan.  She was probably the most reliable borrower of all!

The goats sure liked our car!

I guess it takes one battery or five men to start our car!

Our Second Sunday in Iringa (At Cathedral)

Today, being Sunday, we took the day off!  No long drives, no early mornings, just a leisurely drive to church.  We decided to try going to one of the churches in town today – so we picked up Itiweni and off we went to Cathedral.  The service at Cathedral was a bit like those we’ve attended at the rural churches; that is, it lasted 2 hours with many choirs and multiple offerings.  The one thing missing though was the energy and dancing.  The more reserved nature of the service reminded us more of home; the one exception being the sermon which took 45 minutes and was full of energy.  We could understand the energy, but unfortunately, not the words. 

 After church we went outside for an auction of items donated during the offerings.  While standing there we started to meet people we knew from town.  There was Beatrice (Denis Ngede’s wife), Brown (who is traveling with us), Harry (a Tumaini businessman we’ve met during past visits), Obadiah (from Tumaini’s choir), and many others.  We wound up leaving the service with a variety of “we need to have dinner” and an invitation to a wedding early next month. 

After leaving church we went to get gas.  The tank was half full so it only took $65 to fill it up.  That’s right – a full tank of gas here costs about $140.  As close as I can estimate the current price is about $6.50/gallon.  It costs about $35-40 every day for fuel for our visits.  At this rate we will be spending about $1,000 on gas to make our visits!  No wonder people don’t have cars and visitors to the villages are not that frequent.

Oh well – a quiet afternoon catching up on our writing and then off at 7 tomorrow morning to Nyanzwa.

Outside the church with Itiweni and her daughter Mercy.

The choir sang and the auction was held in the courtyard after the service.

We kept meeting people we knew.  Shown here are Harry (on the left) and Obadiah (on the right).

We got gas and did some shopping - not much chance to visit the market during the week!

Mkimbizi

Today we had a pretty easy day.  I say “easy” because we went to visit Mkimbizi.  Mkimbizi is located on the north west part of Iringa, not too far from Tumaini.  The drive over is short and easy to make.  Being in town the members of this parish are mainly “in business” with less than 10% farming.  (Being in business includes raising live stock for market – probably the main activity of the members)

When we got to Mkimbizi the pastor was waiting for us.  We went over to his office while he called the members to come to the meeting.  While we talked about their companion relationship, the church, and their SACCOS start up efforts, the members were gathering in the meeting room.

“Immanuel Lutheran has been a very good partner,” the pastor told us. “They have sent 24 students to school, they have supported a CVP demonstration plot, they have sent money to start our SACCOS, they have helped us in the 1,000,000 tree project, and they are now helping us with a motorcycle,” he proudly said.

When we went into the meeting room we found that there were still only a few members there.  Tom took the occasion to give candy to children in the street.  Finally 14 members gathered and we began.

This SACCOS currently has 61 members.  Among these are 10 non-Christians.  Since the SACCOS is in town there are alternative micro finance banks around.  I asked the members why they wanted to start this one rather than use one of the existing ones.  One woman told me that the other ones she had belonged to charged 4-5% per month and she could not make any money paying that much (we suggest 2% per month).  Another person said that she kept trying to get a loan from a different SACCOS, but the loan committee there only gave loans to their relatives (possible).  Another one said that the SACCOS she had belonged to was guaranteed by the government so the members often defaulted on their loans.  Whenever they did this the members lost part of their capital.  Overall there seemed to be a variety of reasons that people had for not feeling that they had real alternatives.

We proceeded with our meeting.  Itiweni gave them some lessons Rights and Responsibilities of  SACCOS members.  She urged them to come to Tumaini soon and get a constitution that they can register (they have not applied for registration).  They promiseed to send their leaders to the next training session at Tumaini. When the meeting was over we interviewed two of the members, both of them women.  This SACCOS has a large majority of women members; 49 women to 12 men.

The first woman we spoke with was a Muslim who had joined the SACCOS last year (10 out of the 61 members are non church members).  Farida, 39, had borrowed $140 to develop a clothing “kiosk”.  She explained that she took her clothing from village to village where it was auctioned off.   Her second loan was for $400.  She used this to expand her merchandise and upgrade her kiosk.  Taking her profit from this kiosk she is now able to pay school fees for her children (one is in technical college and two are in secondary).   She is also planning to raise chickens.

Esther, 61, and her husband Weston, 70, took a loan of $140 to buy some cows.  She gathers the scraps and grass from her neighborhood, fattens the cows, and then sells them in the market.  Her second loan was for another $140 which she used to buy some pigs.  She now has piglets which she will raise to sell in the market.  She currently has 2 children at college.  She is using the profits from her business to pay school tuition. Her next venture will be to buy some “better” cows from which she hopes to get milk!

Overall the people at this SACCOS seemed to be working well together.  They have made 21 loans so far (it has been running less than 2 years) and have a 100% repayment rate.  They hope to get another $10,000 in capital to loan to their members.

We got home today at 2 PM – amazing!!!  Tomorrow is Sunday so we are not doing any visits.  We will most likely go to Cathedral with Itiweni and her daughter.  We try to go to different local churches when we are here.

We arrive at the church.  Mkimbizi is located on the far end of Iringa near Tumaini University.

The pastor fills us in on the many things they are doing with Immanuel.  Quite a difference in his office from the village churches!

The meeting finally got started.  I think that the introductions and closing comments took longer than Itiweni's class!

A member of the SACCOS stops by to tell us her story.  She was very enthusiastic telling me that her loan was "a must."

This woman is a Muslim member of the SACCOS.  She has developed a portable clothing kiosk she takes to villages.

Esther is 61.  She is fattening and selling cattle to help her children go to school.

A Visit to Tungamalinga

Tungamalinga lies about two hours north west of Iringa down a dirt road.  We set off about 8 AM , planning on making a 10 o’clock meeting.  The road would be OK for a few kilometers then suddenly, washboard set in that would do a Minnesota winter proud!!!  At one point the car was shaking so violently that I was afraid that we would shake right off the road.  Sandy remarked that this was the first ride she had had where she was able to get a massage while riding in the car!

We got there promptly at 10 only to discover that most of the SACCOS members were off working on an irrigation project.  It seems that the village shares an irrigation system with another village.  This system had broken in the morning and was now pouring water down a ditch rather than irrigating anything.  Of the 60 members who had signed up to be there, 55 of them were off trying to fix the problem!

So, off we went to talk to some borrowers.  The first man we visited owned a small corn trading shop.  It turns out that while Tungamalinga sells a lot of rice, etc. they do not grow enough corn for the local demand for Ugali!  To meet the demand this gentleman bought corn, hauled it to his shop and resold it locally.  Noel is 46 years old, married, and the father of four.  His first loan was for $200 to plant rice on an irrigated field.  Combining a second loan with his profits from the rice, he took $670 and started his shop.  Currently the profits from his shop allow him to send his eldest boy to teacher’s college, his next two to secondary school, and his youngest to a private primary school.  His comment on his loans – “they were a must.”

We went on down the street and met with another farmer.  George, 46, had borrowed $200 to plant rice on 3 acres.  Using his profits plus another loan for $400 allowed him to buy another 4 acres of land.  On this land he planted rice and sunflowers.  His third loan of $400 went to plant 5 acres of rice and 3 acres of sunflowers.  With the profits from this he is building a house for himself and his 6 children.  He is also sending his two eldest children to secondary school.

Finally enough members had come back from working on the irrigation system so we could start.  The meeting went well with no surprises.  As it was breaking up several of the SACCOS members came up to greet me.  It seemd clear that they had rehearsed their talk – “You have given us hope for the future of our children.  God bless you – God bless you – God bless you . . .” I finally escaped.

Reviewing the records with the SACCOS officers we were impressed.  This group had started with 5,500,000 schillings (about $3,700) and had grown their capital to 24,284,400 – an increase of 340%!!  They had done this by having members buy shares, save from their profits, and receiving interest from the loans the members took our – nzuri sana (good work).

While looking at their books we noticed that there were 8 loans marked as behind.  So what was this?  It turns out that 8 members had a crop failure last year.  Rather than give up, the loan committee had met with them and suggested that they forgive the interest for a time and reschedule the loan over a longer period – good thinking!  The members were now repaying their loans and the SACCOS was sure it would get all of its money back.

Driving back to Iringa we could not help but believe that it would have been better if the US had had some of the good sense of this committee when our housing crisis hit.

It may be hard to see but this road will give any Minnesota spring road a run for its money.

A proud partner of Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran (Tungamilinga's Minnesota partner)

Off on a stroll through the village.

Tom just can't help handing out candy.

A visit to the corn store.

Out of this small shop there is a college education and two secondary school tuitions being paid for!

At our next stop we found a man building his dream home for his wife and 6 children.

The corn seems pretty high here.

Finally 16 or so members returned from working on the irrigation system and we started.

Once again there were lots of questions.

On the way home we saw lots of Masaii herding their cattle.

Pommern SACCOS

This morning we started out a little bit later than usual – leaving town about 9.  This gave us a chance to go to Vodafone and talk to the manager about the modem they sold us that seems not to work.  We took it in; he turned it on, and immediately got connected to the “EDGE” network.  We told him that it may connect, but you cannot get anything from the web.  “Oh” he said –“the 3G network (the one that actually gives you some web access) has not been working for the past 2 weeks.  It will start working again soon (I took this as meaning probably never again).”  After a few tense moments I told him I wanted my money back – “How much of it do you want?” he asked.  “All of it,” I replied.  We settled for everything but a $6 “fee” and left.

The trip to Pommern was relatively uneventful.  By yesterday’s standards it was smooth sailing.  When we got there we had coffee with the pastor and then were off to visit a duca owned by one of the SACCOS members. 

When we got to the duca (a small shop) Sandy spied bras hanging from the back display.  “I need a bra – I forgot to pack any” – so saying she banned the men from view and she and the women proceeded to discuss whatever women discuss while buying bras.  Whatever that was she left the duca with a purchase.

After making her purchase we went over to talk to the owner.  She had taken  out a loan for $400 to buy the shop and put in merchandize.  The profits from the shop have repaid the loan and are now providing the funds for her new farm!  She expects to make $400-500 in profit this year from her shop.

Following the interview, the SACCOS meeting was called to order.  The majority of  this SACCOS is women (33 women and 20 men).  When we got there there were only 12 members plus the officers.  It turned out that the members had thought that we were there to scold those who were still paying back their loans (all of the loans here are being paid on time and in full – but the rumor had gone round that those who were still paying were to be scolded) so many had stayed away!

None the less, the meeting went well.  This SACCOS has members from the parish as well as others from the community at large.  They have 30 people waiting to join – but first they need to have their savings and prove that they are “trustworthy” before they will be accepted.

After the meeting we talked to a lady who is waiting for a loan.  She wants to borrow $200 to grow peas.  (She has been waiting for 6 months for a loan.)  She says that with her profit she wants  to build a house for her and her five girls!

The last woman we spoke with raises pigs.  Her first loan was for $140 which she used to buy 4 pigs.  After being fattened up, three of the pigs were sold for $210.  From her profits the woman gave a tithe to the church, then purchased 3 more pigs, and used the rest to plant peas.

It was good to be home before dark.  We took advantage of the earlier hour to do some errands in town – one of our errands being a much needed car wash.  “Wash” in this case is a bit of an under-statement, as an inch or so of caked-on mud had to be scraped off the running boards and even the hinges and floor needed to have the mud cleaned off. 

On returning home Sandy finally tried out the cutlery and the oven and is happy to report that they work just fine.

First we have coffee

We walked by this house built by the Germans during their control of the country.  It is now a guest house and is (about) 100 years old.

This is the duca we visited.

When Sandy spied a bra we men were promptly banished.

Tom passed the time by giving candy to the children.

Finally the bra fitting was completed and the purchase made.

No child was too small to escape the suckers!

There is an old church and a new one - the old one is used for Sunday school and meetings - we liked it best.

Itiweni got so carried away with her lesson that they brought in a blackboard for her to write on.

We went over the books - they were all in order, but not kept in the right format.  We will have to work on that.

This lady is hoping for a loan.  She wants to plant peas and earn the money for a house for herself and her 5 daughters.