Journal entry for Maritza Del Carmen Estrada Sanchez

A Visit to Maritza\'s Kiosk

When we stopped by Maritza Del Carmen Estrada Sanchez’s snack kiosk yesterday morning, the schoolyard at the Doctor Rene Shick School in Managua, Nicaragua was buzzing with activity. Some of the students at the school, which serves as a primary school in the morning and as both a primary and secondary school in the afternoon, were on a break, and periodically a young boy or girl would run up to Maritza’s stand and ask her whether she had whatever they had a hankering for.

As you may remember, earlier this year you helped fund a loan to Maritza on Kiva so that she could purchase and thus sell more goods at her kiosk. We got the chance to drop by the school and see how Maritza has been doing with her loan and her business.

Standing in her blue-painted kiosk, Maritza showed us some of the products she was able to purchase with the money from her loan, including cookies, rice, meat, oil, soda, and fruit to make “refrescos,” or fresh fruit juices. Maritza sells a combination of both products she purchases elsewhere, like sweets and chocolate milk, and food she makes herself, including enchiladas, tacos, and refrescos. While we visited her, it was still well before lunchtime and it seemed like her most popular product at that time of day was water (it’s pretty hot here in Managua, after all). Maritza works in the kiosk every day of the week starting around 9 a.m. and ending as late as 5 or 5:30 p.m.

Maritza has had her kiosk for five years and this was her third loan with AFODENIC. She plans to apply for another loan at the beginning of the next school year—the students are about to start their summer break, which runs from November to February (in Nicaragua, even though it is not below the equator, summer refers to the dry season, which lasts from November-May). While school is not in session, Maritza will sell food from her house, where she lives with her three children, ages 14, 22, and 24, all of whom also work. This off-season pursuit doesn’t bring in quite as much income. Maritza said that, thanks to her loan, she has increased both her sales and her income at the kiosk.

If you’d like a tour of Maritza Del Carmen Estrada Sanchez’s kiosk, check out the video below.

Thanks for reading!

Victoria Kabak, Kiva Fellow

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