First actual entry of the trip!

I am kinda excited to write the first entry actually being in Mexico :)
I spent the last week with Spanish and Salsa classes at the Instituto Cultural de Oaxaca (http://www.icomexico.com), certainly not the cheapest, but one of the nicest places to learn Spanish in Oaxaca. They are situated in a well restored old building with a nice park around it, where it is a pleasure to sit under a palm tree. The main street behind the wall is a bit disturbing though.

Oaxaca itself is a very nice city, as far as I know it. I mostly have been to the center, which is really beautiful and it's very nice to walk around there, for example but not only at the Zocaló.

So today was my first day in Oaxaca without school. I used this day to participate at a tour organized by a NGO called En Via (http://www.envia.org/).
It was a very special tour. Envia uses the money brought in by the tours to give interest-free loans to groups of local women in Teotitlán, so they can improve their business. The tour consists of six visists to women who applied for a loan, so they can present their business, their ideas and the their plans.
Teotitlán is famous for its weaving products, mostly carpets, so most of the women applying for a loan do weave and need the money to buy yarn or other materials. But there also was for example this women who makes Tortillas out of wheat. She is the only one in Teotitlán who knows how to make them (normaly the people make them out of sweet corn), so she her Tortillas are quite known there and she sells up to 2 kg per day. However, she could sell even more if she had the proper equipment to make them, so she needs a loan to expand her business and buy a new stove. She is really optimistic about it and hopes that, if she can sell enough, she may be able to employ other women form the neighborhood who need jobs. It was really fascinating listening to her, and I hope she can realise her plans.

So if you ever go to Oaxaca, take a day and join tour!