Kiva Stories from the Field

By Suzy Marinkovich, KF8 Peru

As I sat this morning, drowning in over 50 borrower interviews I’d done that need to be typed and uploaded, I felt overwhelmed with bureaucracy.  Our Kiva Coordinator then walked in to let me know we had five more community bank meetings – FIVE – meaning I had a ton more interviews to do.   For a moment, I actually thought about turning her down so I could catch up on typing up the previous ones.  Regardless, I picked up my scrappy notebook and pen and ran downstairs to meet with the first group of women.

As I interviewed, I laughed with them, listened closely to them, hugged them, told them I admired them, and made sure to hang on to every word.  I was beside myself that I almost turned them down to do paperwork.  I’d gotten so used to the importance of paperwork at my last job in the US, it had actually pained me to ignore it.

At lunch I walked (more like trekked) to my apartment and took a seat on my fluorescent green plastic chair, took a long stare at the wall and began to think about the phrase “ignorance is bliss.”

Let’s pretend that its converse is “education is cynicism.”

Criticism abounds for Kiva, and more noticeably, for microfinance in general.  In fact, criticism pervades international development.  When one thing goes wrong, one borrower gets deeper into poverty, suddenly microfinance is moot.  If 99% of stories we hear are positive, we play extra close attention to that flaw.  And suddenly, every attempt at tackling poverty is debunked or worse yet, accused of worsening the situation.

This is an enormous problem with the way we look at poverty.

We sit comfortably at cafes sipping lovely lattes, pondering life.

Myself included, we look at certain international crises and we debate over what the solution may be – then we conclude there is no solution.  “Man… that’s a crappy situation.  Let’s talk about something else now.  So… the Chargers are totally going all the way this year..”

Then we move on with our night.

Thomas Pogge says it beautifully.

That we are naturally myopic and conformist enough to be easily reconciled to the hunger abroad may be fortunate for us, who can ‘recognize ourselves’, can lead worthwhile and fulfilling lives without much thought about the origins of our affluence. But it is quite unfortunate for the global poor, whose best hope may be our moral reflection.

Okay, moral reflectors and idea-debating post-graduates… I’m about to drop a bomb.

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