savings training for the ladies

I put together some basic savings training for the 28 women in our group, i wasn't sure how it would go not speaking the language and if they would understand what i was talking about. One of our leaders (Yvonne) was my translator, I started by handing out notebooks, the homemade cards that my kids made for them and the solar powered calculator - they loved the cards and the calculators, there was lots of talking and laughter in the group. The training went WAY better than i had hoped for, it was amazing to the wheels turning in their heads when i asked them to write down what they spend their money (expenses) and then how much their monthly income is. then we broke out the calculators and they had to calcute their income less their expenses. this took a very long time, they couldnt figure out how to use the calculators so yvonne had them all work on the same equation until they all got the answer (if you got the worng answer you had to satnd up beside her til you figured it out) I was very impressed with her leadership skills. once we did the calculations one woman asked said "well what if my income is less than my expenses?" to this I said "you are not alone sista, people from all around the world have this same problem every month!"

Then I had them think if what they could save money on, this is what they came up with:

pork

beer

sugar

airtime for their cell phones (cell phones here are very inexpensive)

I then asked what they could to to earn more money and they said they could:

cultivate coffee

farm potatoes

use their beading money to open a restaurant

I was so happy with the way the training went, the women were so receptive and there was lots of laughter. My first blog post was "why am i doing this?" doing stuff like this makes me feel like i'm a good person.

love to you all,

wendy