Rosa Iris, the loan officer I was traveling with on a sunny February morning north of Santo Domingo, stood waiting for the motoconcho which would take us to the next loan meeting.
“I’ll wait for you here,” she says.
I hurry off to Raquel’s house, the microloan associate I had just interviewed. After I snap her picture, she asks to see it.
“You’re so beautiful,” I tell her.
“Me?” Raquel laughs incredulously. She tells me that she is facing troubles in her business, and that she misses her family.
Earlier, I had asked Raquel what her favorite Bible verse was.
“Jeremiah 1:19,” she had said. Back at the branch office, I pull out my Spanish Bible and look it up:
“They will fight against you, but they will not conquer you, because I AM with you, says YAHWEH, to deliver you.”
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