Elvia Rodríguez Jaramillo received a loan at the beginning of this year and has started making the first repayments. She has a business raising chickens and pigs, and about nine months ago she started selling clothes as well. Doña Elvia bought 50 chicks with the money she received as well as one piglet and feed. However, she only has 30 chicks left, 20 died because of the unseasonal cold weather. She will sell these next month during festival season when prices are higher. Doña Elvia also bought clothes with the loan. She buys the clothes directly from factories and gets a discount and then sells them on a retail basis. She buys the clothes every 21 days when her husband, who is a policeman, has leave and can accompany her to the factories and advise her what type of menswear is popular. One of the principal challenges for them is that they live in quite a remote community and have to pay $10 for a pick-up taxi every time they travel to and from the town of Cariamanga. However, on the plus side they do know most of the people in their community and indeed these are their customers. The margin between buying and selling can be quite significant, for example she can buy a pair of men's trousers for $14 and sell these for $24. It might be that eventually she focuses just on selling clothes in the future because it is so profitable and raise animals just for supplementary income.