Welcome to Peru!

We spent this week getting oriented in Trujillo - visiting DanPer, meeting with past loan recipients, and reviewing project financials. Elena has helped us to jump right in and kept us busy.

On Monday, we toured the DanPer facility and learned about the production of artichokes, asparagus, mangoes, pimientos, and salsa. We also met Alejandro, the director of Sembrando Futuro. We'll be working with him more to evaluate the program's success and promote growth. At the end of the day we got to take a tour of the plant and see just how they process the asparagus and get it ready to be packaged and shipped, it was pretty sweet!

 We got to start working with a few of our clients from last phase as well, on of which is named Bertha. Bertha, received a loan to make modifications to her home to prepare it for an internet business she wants to run in her neighborhood. The interns before us helped her with the construction part and we got to help her find, buy, and install her new computers in her house! It was amazing to see the before and after pictures. Bertha and her daughter were so proud of what they had accomplished, and their joy was infectious. We were grateful to be able to help them!

We spent a lot of time getting to know several of our clients this week. We made trip to Huancaquito to visit the Panaderia and we also went to Moche to do small business checkups with several businesses, all of which seem to be doing well and making great progress with their businesses.

This week in Peru is the celebration of spring so we had a fun night in the Plaza de Armas listening to musical groups play and we got to see a huge group of queens from the Lions Club come through the plaza. It was a super fun night and it was cool to see other Americans in the celebration who we could speak English too!


We love Trujillo and the work we've been able to do with SEED so far! We start teaching our classes next week so we have lots of preparation work to do this week in order to be ready for that experience.

Welcome Peru Fall Interns

Friday brings the start of a new class and the beginning of another internship.  Here is a little bit about the interns that will be working in Trujillo Peru this fall.

Dalton Birky

Sophomore – International Business

My name is Dalton Birky, I am a 21 year old resident of Logan Utah and student at Utah State University. I come from a family of eight, and have lived in Logan all my life. I served an LDS mission in Argentina, which is how I learned my Spanish, and developed my love for South America. I am a sophomore in college and my intended major is International Business, I have always been interested in business and I would love to continue to use my Spanish in my job somehow. I love to dirt bike, camp, fish, shoot guns and go digging! Pretty much anything outdoors interests me.

When I was first introduced to the SEED program I knew it was something I wanted to do because it’s the perfect way to not only learn the basics of how to create and manage a business, but it is also a great way to share what I have learned thus far.  Hopefully this will be an experience that will take not only my knowledge but also my experience in the business field to the next level. I plan to use this experience as a base for my future studies and career decision.

Katrina Nieveen

Senior – Accounting with MIS minor

I love to learn, particularly through reading and traveling. I especially enjoy Jane Austen and Shakespeare, along with contemporary literature discussing ethics and gender roles. I also like to spend time outdoors: swimming, hiking, canoeing, and camping.

I was interested in a SEED internship as an opportunity to help give back while expanding my own understanding of business concepts and entrepreneurship. I’m excited to get to know and work with the people of Trujillo.

A Time for Reflection

Wow, I can't believe that three months has already come and gone! I have really had a great experience here in Peru. This past week I have had a lot of time to reflect on the things that we've done and the experiences we have been through and I would have to say that it has been worth the trip. So to end off I would just like share a few of things that I think have made this an excellent internship and experience.

The Work

As a SEED Intern I was able to get a lot of exposure to creating business plans and financial projections for real people. It really brought to life a lot of the basic business principles that I had learned throughout school. Also it was neat to be able to go and visit already existing businesses and to see their successes and struggles and then try and find ways to help them overcome those struggles or become in more successful.

The Culture

I don't think there's a better way to get to know a foreign culture than actually visiting the country and surrounding yourself with it. Really throughout the three months that I have been here, the Latin-American culture has continued to grow on me. Everyone is so nice to visitors and you know that the family is one of the most important things to them. Also, even though the music is a little more reggae than I'm used to, I somehow still managed to kind of learn how to dance to it.

The People

I can't even express how great the people are down in Peru.There are the people I worked with, Elena Pajilla, Jacqueline Saavedra and Alejandro Falcón. Each one of these people have been nothing but nice to us and have gone out of their way to make sure that we are comfortable and have everything we need and not to mention that they've become our friends. Also Dallin and I have had the opportunity to make friends with a lot of other peruvians and it has definitely enriched and made our experience that much better.

I'm excited to come home, but the thing I'll miss the most are the people, the friends that I have made here in Peru. Thank goodness for Facebook!

And now I would like to end by saying the SEED Internship is definitely a most do for college students!

Penultimate Semana

As our title suggests, nearing the end of our experience here, we are getting really good at mixing languages. Some words are just better expressed in Spanish while others are better in English. It's nice having another bi-lingual friend to share so many wonderful experiences with.

Good News! This week we issued our first official loan during our stay. Santos, a long time loan client whom we trust very much, requested about a month ago a medium sized loan to prepare for the Peruvian Independence holiday. The holidays took place this past weekend on July 28th and 29th. Santos owns a mini-market in a town outside of Trujillo called Alto Moche. She has a great location right off the Plaza in the center. She requested her loan to increase her inventory expecting to have high sales during the weekend. As we have not yet been in contact with her since the holiday, we do not know how well it has gone for her, but we expect to find out sometime this week. Santos has been great to work with. She constantly is thinking of ideas on how to expand and grow.

As for us, we spent our weekend participating in LDS Young Single Adult activities. Starting on Friday, regional YSA activities have taken place in various locations and we were able to spend time with the great young adults of this area. Monday the 29th we traveled with hundreds of young adults to a recreational park and participated in various activities throughout the day including soccer, group games, a dance, and other competitions. We had a great time!

Most of the group after the activities!