After completing business training classes and saving the required amounts, LEAD clients receive loans relative to the amount that they have saved. This process is not a simple one. In order to get the physical cash-in-hand to our business clientele, we must first secure the said funds. This is perhaps the most difficult aspect of the process. Most of our loans are given out in Liberian dollars (68 of which are worth 1 US dollar, as of today), however, in order to get our hands on the necessary cash Allen, our National Director, and AB, our Finance Officer, have spent many, MANY, hours at the banks, trying to get enough cash.
LEAD's Buchanan staff Prince, Massa and Matthew prepare for a long day of disbursements.Its not a simple matter of running to the bank and picking up a cashier's check. Instead, we must find a bank with enough actual money (which can take days, even at the main branch office in Monrovia), find a parking space close to the bank's doors, count up the Liberian dollars (a few million for each disbursement) in 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 dollar bills and pile them into suitcases and rice bags, load it all up into the waiting car, and then speed off into the sunset.
AB with one of the rice sacks full a' dough.
Ben, lookin' good, while he waits for the next client.After arriving at whichever branch office, my job has been to work with our clients to get the appropriate loan agreements signed. Once this is done, they are called in for an interview with Allen, before continuing on to another room to receive further instruction on how to repay the loan, and to get the actual funds from Ben and AB.
Pastor (okay, I forget his last name) receives a loan to expand his bakery. The atmosphere is understandably tense. For LEAD clients, these loans mean the difference between continuing on with life at the status quo, and expanding their businesses in order to better provide for the livelihoods of their families. Furthermore, in an impoverished country like Liberia, to travel with any large amount of cash on hand is never advised.
Two LEAD clients hire a moto-taxi to take them and their loans back home. Finally, receiving a large amount of cash right before Christmas is a very trying undertaking. The holiday season in Liberia, like anywhere else, is a time when friends, family and employees have expectations to receive gifts, party invites, and year-end bonuses. The social pressure to 'invest' loan funds in things other than business is enormous, and LEAD clients must be credited for being quite diligent in separating their personal and business finances.
The LEAD staff must also be given huge props for their hand in all of this. Between recruitment, screening, training, interviews and preparation, each county office has an enormous amount of legwork to do before the national staff arrives at the door with the bags-o-money. The national staff also have a great deal of work when they (myself included) undertake the exhausting travel away from home to each of the county offices.
I've really appreciated these trips as a way to grow closer to Allen, AB and Ben, our IT officer. Debates over the merits of Chelsea vs. Manchester United football teams, or conversations of the legal implications of allowing the international community to prosecute former president Charles Taylor have been a great way to learn about and bond with my coworkers, and are a great way to test if you are still able to understand Liberian English while concentrating on dodging enormous potholes, in the dark, with one headlight.
These trips are not without their downfalls. After drinking some bad water, or perhaps some bad grilled 'street meat' (or was it that mosquito bite?), I got quite sick while helping to disburse loans in Ganta. With only a 'squatty potty' and limited toilet paper, I was not a happy camper. On the way home we took a quick break at Paulma's Guesthouse, an establishment owned by a LEAD client, where I decided fruit juice would be a good choice to calm my stomach: a mistake. I'll spare my readers the details, but it was an uncomfortable five hour drive home on the bumpy roads.
Waiting on my pillow at the guesthouse in Buchanan (actual size, but evidently not living).Today is December 23. Two days to Christmas and the official due date of my sister Karen and my brother-in-law Dave's second child! I definitely miss home but Allen has invited me to his home town (five hours back up north!) for Christmas. I'm beginning to make some good friends here in Monrovia and its feeling more like home.
As they say in Liberia, "Benefits of the season."
Take care folks,
Derek
