Notes from the Field
Hello…Cell Phones or Landlines for Poverty Status Indicator?
Zoe Cohen, IRIS Center. June 11, 2009.
It is 4:45 am and I am on a small bus in Puno, Perú, heading towards the border with Bolivia. I am sitting with Violeta, one of the surveyors, and we are going to interview a group of women who are joining a new village bank in the town of Desaguadero. The sun has not risen and at 12,500 feet above sea level my fleece jacket and hat are not keeping me very warm. We are surrounded by women in their traditional “polleras” (large layered skirts), bowler hats, and they each have at least two wool blankets wrapped around their shoulders and across their laps to keep warm. Clearly they knew it was going to be freezing; I just thought it would be “cold”. As women chat away in Aymara I realize that this dark hour of the morning is a typical “rush hour” as people head out to sell their wares at the market in Desaguadero.
