Filling the Void

So she took out her first loan of 300 nuevo soles (less than $100) with Mibanco eight years ago to buy a food cart and supplies. During the day, she'd sell hamburgers and salchipapas (a dish of cut-up hot dogs mixed with potatoes) before heading to a night job at a hospital. Four and a half years later, she had saved enough money to buy a plot of land and start building a drugstore, Las Boticas 24 Horas. Why a drugstore? "There wasn't one around at the time," she says. "I wanted to be the first."

Today, Epifania runs Las Boticas 24 Horas with occasional help from her children. She sleeps in the back room, and there's a bell outside to signal when a customer comes calling, at whatever hour. Most of the money she earns goes into paying for the college education of her children.

Years ago, Epifania's father had his own cart, selling fruits and vegetables off the side of the road, and his income was barely enough to get by, let alone to send his children to college or own a business. Asked what her father, now deceased, would think about her owning a store, she blushes, her eyes dropping low, a wide smile breaking out.

When she looks up again, tears well up as she says, "He'd have been very happy."

Reporting by Alyssa Danigelis, Jena McGregor, Michael A. Prospero, and Jennifer Vilaga.

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