zindagi migzara

Yesterday, I went back to Kafrein to continue investigating the status of the 30 loans we gave out. The rest of the day proved to be a real wake-up call into the world of development. We arrived in the village early in the morning and after asking some school boys where the home of our first recipient was, entered Nadia's small home. But we soon found out that it wasn't Nadia's home, and it wasn't really her loan either. Almost immediately after we walked through the door, Nadia's father-in-law started talking in great detail about a visit one of the Princesses made to his home more than 10 years ago. To him, it seemed as though it was just yesterday. Finally we coaxed everyone into sitting on the floor so we could actually discuss Nadia's progress with her shop, which rented supplies for weddings such as chairs, tablecloths, etc. Nadia and her sister sat in the corner of the room, and her father-in-law did the rest of the talking.

Apparently he had decided that instead of renting wedding supplies, the money should be put towards opening a grocery store. But soon he realized that 1200 JD was much to little to open a grocery store, so he sold his taxi and used that plus the 1200 JD to buy a new truck. He told us that he now uses the truck to transport vegetables and fruits from the Dead Sea Valley (where Kafrein is located) to sell in Amman, and is making a profit.

However, Nadia is 6 months late on paying back her loan. We asked her father-in-law why, if he was making such a great profit transporting vegetables (and how he is doing so with rising fuel costs in Jordan I have no idea), why have they not been making their monthly payments? As soon as Suhair asked him this, he stood up in a fury and started yelling and getting defensive, even storming out of the house to "look for receipts". He came back with a stack of papers, and sifted through them nervously claiming that he had been paying, and that he had the receipts to prove it.

We never saw any receipts.

During this whole episode, Nadia sat in the corner, saying nothing. Letting her father-in-law make decisions with her money. He wasn't even speaking for her- he was speaking for himself. It was known all along that Nadia's gender would be used to get that 1200 JD loan- and then he would use the money as he wished.

The loan is in Nadia's name, so it is she that has been called, bothered, and punished for not paying back the money.

As we tried to leave the home, the father-in-law began talking about his visit from the Princess, again, over 10 years ago.

After leaving, we tried to visit about 9 other homes. All told us that the loan recipient wasn't there, was visiting her parents in another town, or simply just didn't answer the door. One even lied to us and said that we had the wrong home, and no one by that name ever lived there.

Our system of giving out loans is obviously quite flawed- we basically set them up to lie. All applicants had to submit a business plan before the money was disbursed, but these were treated just as a formality. We gave them no training on how to run a business, and no support network to lean on. But once the money we disbursed, it was theirs- and they could do as they wished with it.

I hate to be pessimistic, but sometimes I just get so frustrated because status and name are so damn important in Jordan. The guy was visited by a princess over 10 years ago- and that was the only thing he could talk about as his daughter-in-law and granddaughter silently suffered in the corner.

posted by Laura @ 3:57 AM