My job

So, for those of you that think I'm just here on vacation, that is in fact not the case, despite my previous posts.  This week I spent 3 days "in the field", which meant a 6 hour drive with 3 colleagues to Livingstone, where Care has projects in nearby Kalomo and Kazungula.  Quick tourist note - don't plan a trip to Vic Falls in September when the water flow is down to a trickle.  But I digress.
I got to visit three different rural villages, where life is really beyond belief coming from the sheltered West.  But the work Care is doing to help people improve their lives is very impressive and impactful.
For example, NGOs like Care have been setting up Village Savings and Loan Associations in many villages over the past decade.  Where people previously lived week to week or day to day, they now pool their savings and lend it out to each other, so they can afford to send their kids to school or buy a generator or buy fertilizer to grow crops.  Just about all of the borrowings are for "income generating activities" so they earn enough to pay back the loan with interest.  But here's the kicker: at the end of a "savings cycle", the VSLA pays the members back all the principal they have saved as savers and all the interest they have paid as borrowers!  How would you like it if your bank gave you back your mortgage interest at the end of the year?  Pretty sweet arrangement actually. 
It was amazing to see - indescribable really, but here are a few photos of one of the villages we visited to give you an idea.
Bruce