Swimming, sweating...and hoping I still have a job next week.

Time is flying by and I just realized I haven't taken a single picture yet. I need to get on it.

I joined a gym here last week, called Megatlon, mainly for the indoor lap pool. And swimming has been an unbelievable experience thus far. There are only four lanes in this pool -- one for slow (lente), medium (medio), and fast (rapido) swimmers. The last lane is for lessons. So, it's basically three lanes to share with an entire gym's worth of people who want to swim. I've been there three times so far and have had to share the rapido lane with no less than four other people every time. Which doesn't sound that bad...expect the other swimmers don't like to swim for long spurts of time. They like to take breaks -- a lot of breaks. They socialize. They hangout. And they do all this inside the lane. It doesn't even cross their minds to get out of the pool if they're swimming. So, it's usually two or three others swimming around two people just hanging out...talking. And, then one of the swimmers will take a breather and stand next to them. And you're left with no wall space to kick off of. I've almost run head on with somebody, been kicked by breaststrokers swimming in the opposite direction, and pushed off of the wall at the same time as someone else, vying for one spot. It's a nerve-wracking experience.

The best part of all this...the pool lifeguard sitting back, sipping on mate (the local tea), talking to...the other lifeguard.

The other thing I don't get is having to wear a swimcap and flip-flops. If Lifetime fitness in the states doesn't make you wear those...is it really necessary? But then I realize that Lifetime doesn't require these because they're cleaning their floors and pool regularly. What I think Megatlon is trying to say: "look, the mop handle broke years ago...and the pool water isn't blue for a reason...enter at your own risk".

******

My coworker and I have a coined the term, Sweat O'clock...which is normally about 5pm, when the heat reaches the daytime high and I start sweating through my shirt in the office.

******

It's been raining like crazy the last few days. They had major floods last Friday evening. It took me over 2.5 hours to get home from work on the city bus. Can't complain though...at least I can be reading or sleeping instead of driving.

******

Work took major change today. The GM called Ford (other American coworker) into the office to him

1) they're completely changing our audience from people who have little to no credit histories to people with credit histories and established business (kind of goes against the social -- and premier -- mission of microfinance)
2) they want to cut back the number of loan officers from 5 to 2, and
3) they do not want him working on "state of the company" report because it's going to reflect very poorly on the managers' performance.

This basically turns all the work Ford has put into improving operations (and eventually bottomline) into a waste of time. The GM is getting pressure from the directors to be sustainable in a year's time and, as a result, is making the very rash decision to make the portfolio a majority of individual lenders, as opposed to group lenders (the proven Grameen method). Individual loans of the same size as one big group loan (divvied up among 4 group members) have much better returns than group loans. This is because you're doing leg work and administrative work for the same revenues. The biggest problem, however, is the company does not have tight enough credit policies to pick out minimally risky individuals. Such tight credit policies include background check, verifying long-term established business income, etc. This is the whole point of microfinance: finding a way to sustainably lend to poor people who have little or no collateral. And group lending is the way. The GM's answer is forget microfinance to the people that most need it...let's lend to people who we can trust and our bottom line will be better.

It's very demoralizing. The GM is very stubborn. And as good as Ford's Spanish is...there's still a major language and cultural barrier between him and the GM.

The GM has given us a week to present our results with a group-lending dominated portfolio. We have to show that the company can be sustainable, and sooner rather than later. It will involve growth models...something I know little about. I'm looking forward to the learning opportunity.