Neatest Way to help the Poor; Mexican Medicine; Used Cars

Kiva, Neatest Way to Help the Poor.

I was surfing the WEB one day and came across an extraordinary site that contains what strikes me as the neatest way of helping poor people in underdeveloped countries. I was so taken with it that I immediately made three small loans using Kiva, which is a word in Swahili that means “agreement” or “unity.” Kiva is a program that lets you lend a sum of money to specific budding entrepreneurs in the developing world, empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty. An interesting aspect of the program is that it is set up so that you can get the money that you loaned returned to your account. You can cash out or re-loan the money, whatever you desire. While the rate of repayment for loans has been 97% for micro finance programs of this type, so far, Kiva loans have been returned 100% of the time. Kiva suggests that you diversify your advance by making smaller loans to several entrepreneurs. So instead of lending $100 to a single third-world entrepreneur, you might lend $25 to four. To see an excellent video of the Kiva process produced by PBS Frontline, log on to: http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/uganda601/uganda-601.html?&c=3wm You really have to see this.

The Kiva site : http://www.kiva.org/ provides a photo of the entrepeneur, a paragraph or two of information on each entrepreneur and their proposal, the amount of loan needed, the repayment term, and the percent of the loan already subscribed, if any. In each geographic area where there are entrepreneurs receiving these loans, there is a local partner and a partner organization that actually handles the loan and the return of funds. Here are some of the people to whom I have made loans:

Maria Cecilia Ramírez González is the mother of two daughters, both in school. She is married and lives in the city of Santa Catarina, Nueve Leon, Mexico. It has been 5 years since she started her own business renting gowns for school events. Maria Cecilia has always been interested in business. Her little store generates extra income for herself and covers the household expenses that her husband's paycheck cannot cover. For this reason she struggles to keep and expand her business.

The love of her family and the support she gets from them has permitted Maria Cecilia to keep going with her project. She now needs a loan of $925 to increase her stock that she will repay in a term of 8-16 months. You can help her grow her business and contribute towards a better quality of life for her daughters and permit the completion of their education.

Elizabeth Njeri Mungai is a 35 year old entrepreneur in Nakuru, Kenya who is married with two kids.
Both of her children are in school; the first born is in the 6th grade while the youngest is in 2nd grade . Her husband works as a bus driver in Nakuru City. Because her husband works long hours and makes a small income, Elizabeth decided to start her own business of slaughtering and selling meat to the local butcher and supermarkets. This has helped meet her family’s basic needs and pay the pending school fees and arrears. Elizabeth wants to expand her business and is requesting a loan of US $1,000.

Her budget is US $900 to purchase more livestock for slaughter and US $100 to meet veterinary costs. She is a focused woman and expects to repay the loan in 16 to 18 months.

Cynthia Gutiérrez Torres also lives in the city of Santa Catarina in Mexico. She sells shoes by catalogue, a business she has had for 6 years now. She is married, her husband is employed, and they have two daughters that are currently completing their studies. Cynthia started her business because she likes sales needed to augment the familiy's income. Through her business, she has been able to actively support her family. She requires a loan of $925 to purchase merchandise stock and thereby increase her sales. Responsibility and hard work are the characteristics that have made it possible for Cynthia to keep up her business for six years. It has not been easy but she has succeeded. Her loan is to be repaid in 8 to 16 months.

Well, these are three persons that I have loaned small amounts of money to. It was fun to pick out these entrepeneurs out of a group of many. If my money is returned, which I expect, I want to re-invest the amount in other micro-businesses. Later, when I see the results, I will report in the comments section at the end of this Blog how these enterpeneurs performed.

Of the three people I have made micro-loans to, I have selected two persons from Mexico, because that is where I live and I very much want to help, at least in a small way, the people in this country. For the third person, I selected Elizabeth Njeri Mungai from Kenya because I am intrigued with her business plan of slaughtering cattle and selling it wholesale. This must be some woman!

Mexican Medicine-
One of the first questions Americans visiting here ask us is: “What do you do about medical care in Mexico?” There is a concern that one might be in trouble without American medical care, and besides, does your American health insurance and your Medicare Plan apply here? I am not an expert on health or health insurance coverage in Mexico, but I can relate a few observations and our own experience. I invite others to add their experience and knowledge, which may be posted at the end of this blog as a comment.

In our case, we kept both our Medicare and our Medicare supplemental insurance policy, although as of now, they can only be used in the U.S. We reckon, for something grand in the way of ailments, we will travel back to the U.S. where our health coverage applies.

In the city of Leon, which is less than an hour’s drive from here, there is an excellent new facility, Hospital Angeles. Web site: http://www.hospitalangelesleon.com/new/
Angeles is a beautiful and very modern hospital. Many of the doctors there speak some English so that you can generally be understood. We are told that the hospital is working on being certified for U.S. Medicare. This hasn’t happened yet but we are hopeful. We have found the doctors and surgeons at this hospital to be excellent. My first contact with Hospital Angeles was when I had an ingrown toenail. I was unable to find a Podiatrist in Guanajuato so I thought I would enquire at the Angeles Hospital in Leon. I wanted to see how they could handle a case like my onychocryptosis, which is what this condition is called and sounds much more serious than an ingrown toenail. A visit there would give me a chance to test this new medical facility that I had been hearing so much about. The receptionist at the front desk said that they didn’t have a Podiatrist on staff, but, “Please follow me.” A nurse led me into a small operating room with a medical couch and after a short wait, a doctor arrived and I was introduced to Dr. Felipe Gonzales Parada, a Plastic Surgeon. “Wow,” I thought, “this is the kind of medical attention I could get used to.” Dr. Gonzales Parada and the nurse numbed my toe with an ice pack, so that I wouldn’t feel the injection of a pain killer, and after the injection the surgeon carefully cut away the nail and some flesh. I never felt any discomfort. The bill for the hospital facility, including the nurse, was 400 pesos or about U.S. $36. Of course there was a fee for the surgeon to cover his operation and for his post surgery checkups. This part of the service totaled U.S. $91. This included five post operative office visits to check up on the progress of my big toe, all for $91.

In one of my visits to the Plastic Surgeon’s office I happened to mention that I had just heard about a woman in France whose face was horribly torn off by her large dog. The French Plastic Surgeons were reported to have performed the first facial transplant in the world. As one can see from this “after” picture the operation was quite a success. I asked Dr. Gonzales Parada what he thought of this operation by the French doctors. He said that this type of operation was not meant for people who just wanted to improve their looks by getting a new face, but rather for cases like the woman in France who had a terribly deformed face. He said, “Come into my office, I want to show you something.” He turned on his laptop computer and proceeded to display pictures of young children who had hideously mangled faces. More than anything, this convinced me that there is a great need for this type of reconstructive facial surgery for humans. Then he displayed a video of two dogs, both of similar size and breed, except one was white and the other was black. The video showed an operation where Doctor Gonzales Parada and his partner, with the help of several staff people, proceeded to remove the face of the white dog and transplant it on to the black dog, and the face of the black dog on to the white one. Almost as amazing, was a video he showed of the two dogs the next day after the operation. The dogs were running around the facility's parking lot, sniffing tires on the cars and having a great time.

The doctors were learning how to do facial transplants right here in Leon, Mexico. Now I am not recommending that you fly down here for something more than a nose job but it is interesting that there is some highly developed medical research and experimentation going on here.

For ordinary ailments, we go to Dr. Barba Crosby, who is a general practitioner in Guanajuato, and whom we like a lot. He has a computer and keeps a record of the data from the physical exams he gives us and of any medicines he has prescribed or ones that other doctors have prescribed that we have reported to him. It’s reassuring to see various American medical journals and books on his shelves of this warm and carrying medic. I’m sure that the doctors in Mexico could teach a few things about gastrointestinal ailments (las touristas) to doctors in our country. Whenever we visit Dr. Barba Crosby, he keeps good tabs on our medical history. When we first came to Guanajuato an office visit with him was about $6, now it is $18. No appointment is required and usually only a short wait is necessary, which seems rather amazing because he is exceedingly patient in his consultations and takes all the time you need and does not rush the visit. After he has dealt with your problem, Dr. Barba Crosby asks you if there is anything else you would like him to discuss with you. We are very pleased to have medical attention like this.

When we first came to Mexico, we thought we should sign up for Mexico’s social security medical care program. It costs about U.S. $220 a year and can include both husband and wife. Surely at that price, it must be subsidized by the Mexican government. Some years ago, when I was visiting the lake shore community of Ajijic, near Guadalajara, I ran into an American living there who by all appearances was fairly well off. I am sorry to say that while most ex-pats we have met in Mexico are very nice people, one would have to classify this gringo as an example of an “ugly American.” For example, he related that he hit and killed a cow on the highway while driving one night. He explained how he cut the brand off the cow with a knife to avoid having to compensate some poor campesino for the animal as required by Mexican law. He laughed when he said that his Mexican insurance company gave him credit for a “totaled” car, but that he sent a worker to the States to get parts and he rebuilt it, thus keeping his car while collecting its full value.

Back to Mexican medicine: Our ugly American related that while he and his wife participated in the Mexican health insurance program and that it was O.K, he didn’t really think much of it because one had to wait in line with the Mexicans. Golly! I suppose they should have a separate line for Americans!

We see programs on our American satellite television, such as Lou Dobbs, complaining of the burden caused by Mexican undocumented workers and their families on the health care system in the U.S. Nobody has figured out the cost to Mexico for the Americans who are utilizing the service here, and I haven’t heard of any uproar or complaints about this.

I have noticed that there are many, many choices for medical care in Mexico. One of these is the curandero. This is a Spanish word that means healer, and these curanderos, who have been around for a long time, are still around. As I understand it, they are often respected members of the community, being highly religious and spiritual. Curanderos often use herbs and other natural remedies to cure illnesses, but their primary method of healing is the supernatural. This is because they believe that the cause of many illnesses is evil spirits, the punishment of God, or a curse. Although I have never sought the services of a curandero, I know some Americans who swear by them. I suppose one disadvantage of using a curandero, is that you have to wait in line with the Mexicans.

Just last week I was in the nearby town of Silao and noticed a bakery store with a sign pointing to a stairway and containing a notice that there was a “consulta medico- 15 pesos por visita.” Now that’s about $1.40 for a medical consultation. I decided not to stop and check out my arthritis that’s been bothering me in the knees, but dang, you can’t beat the price!


Used Cars-

Aside from a couple of very small ones, one thing you hardly ever see here are used car lots. I have heard that financing of cars is now possible and popular, albeit at high rates, and this may account for the increase in automobiles. The Ford dealership here, has a car finance agency that has the unfortunate name of “Conauto.” We see an ever growing number of cars on the streets here in Guanajuato, but not a lot of used car lots although I have seen a couple with a big sign saying their cars were “semi nuevo.” When one wants to buy a new car the buyer doesn’t usually trade his old car in at the dealer, but rather sells his car directly to someone looking for a used car. You see cars on the street with white painted letters in the back window, for example $732-4656. That’s short hand in Spanish for “Car for sale, call 732-4656.” I presume that one can get a better deal by selling one’s old car directly to a buyer rather than through a dealer. The car dealers don’t seem to have much of a used car business.

The other day I went to the Pemex gas station to fill my tank. Adjoining the station, I saw two old cars that had signs painted in the windows: $1 por kilo. I asked the station attendant if that meant you could buy that semi nuevo wrecko for 1 peso per kilogram. That’s about ten cents for 2.2 pounds of car, or less than a nickel per pound. I don’t remember what kind of cars these two specimens were but if they were Ford Escorts, which weigh in at 1,070 kilos, this would translate to U.S. $98, probably less, because one of the cars lacked tires.