ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the socio-economy of Pesillo, followed by the ethnography of the NGO's credit scheme and the practice of el castillo. It analyses these ideas in relation to Pesillo's long term domination by the Catholic Church that has always played a prominent economic, political, and moral role in the life of the indigenous peoples of the area of fieldwork. Pesillo is a Quichua community in the northern Andes of Ecuador, in the parish of Olmedo, canton of Cayambe. Pesillanos emphasise the moral imperative to return the money borrowed from the Catholic Church (CC) scheme. Beside the money borrowed from the CC credit scheme, the term pago is used also to refer to the repayment of another type of loan in money, locally known with the name of el castillo. The lender, called the owner' of el castillo, receives requests of money in his house where the deal with borrowers is sealed with a drink.
