Archive for December, 2009
A Lesson in Pottery
By Edward O. Coambs Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation, Philippines
Please give the video a few minutes to load, it is well worth the watch.
Lorna Sagario has just shared her business with you. She makes clay pots for a living. When I came to center 35 to observe their weekly repayment meeting I was met with a lot of excitement and enthusiasm. Of all the centers that I have visited center 35 was particularly welcoming and it was a real pleasure to learn about their craft of clay oven making. The clay pots not only represent (more…)
Women, Microfinance and the Middle East
By Mohammed Al-Shawaf, KF9 Palestine
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton states that “microenterpise is uniquely designed to empower women…” The New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof calls the oppression of women worldwide the “human rights cause of our time” and encourages people who want to get involved to (among other things) lend to a woman entrepreneur on Kiva.
These are weighty observations from important people. But how do these bold statements translate in a region of the world historically disparaged for the role of women in its society?
Signing off from the Philippines
By Adam Preston, KF9, Philippines
ASKI client performs beachside karaoke before annual client meeting
I was perusing through my IPhoto gallery when it occurred to me, I am almost done here. Since October, I have been working at the head office of Alalay sa Kaumlarun or ASKI. I have been on two week long field visits, a day trip to deliver relief goods to typhoons victims, 4 ASKI client annual meetings, and even day of team building through sports and exercise, where I participated in a cheer competition. Needless to say, it has been a very full three months.
As I page through the photos and videos of borrower visits, I feel that I should have a resounding conclusion on microfinance or at least of P2P banking or at least of of Kiva. But I don’t. I have traveled throughout northern Luzon and meet with over 80 ASKI clients. I have found that the Filipinos are proud, hardworking people not looking for handouts, but rather for opportunity. There were the visits to people, like Jelly, who is not renewing her loan. She is taking a break from selling banana chips to focus on caring for her newborn baby. She has no plans to renew. Others, like Lourinda, a smart, strong center chief women, is a pillar in her community. She has renewed her loan multiple times and was recently recognized for her achievements as a business woman in the 2009 annual client meeting. Still others like, Jose who is not renewing his loan due to an farming accident earlier this year. Right now, he can’t work. He said that once he recovers, he might renew. While I have not made any startling discoveries, I have made a few observations:
Microfinance Requires a Team Effort
One thing I came into the Kiva Fellowship with is this idea that Kiva helps regular people make a direct impact in the life a poor person. In my mind I envisioned a women living in a grass hut only needing my $25 loan to start a business to finally lift herself out of poverty. After reading A Banker to the Poor, can you blame me? You as a lender are making a difference, but when you hit that lend now button you not acting alone to help this borrower out, you’re joining a team. What I have learned since being here is that it takes a finely tuned machine to lift communities out of poverty – and that finely tuned machine is the MFI. Just at ASKI, there are the loan officers (or project officers as they are called here), who routinely risk their safety to visit borrowers to collect the payments. There are the documentation officers, who reside in the branches and transfer and translate the loan applications to posted loans on Kiva. There are the communications officers who reside in the head office who oversee and coordinate documentation officer’s work. And this is just the tip of the iceberg of the MFI. There is a team of people working tireless behind the scenes to produce that one photo and the borrower profiles. And this isn’t even counting the Kiva staff responsible for keeping the Kiva platform humming. To achieve this this noble goal of alleviating poverty it requires a sustained, team effort.
It’s the Percentages, Stupid
We hear a lot about how Kiva isn’t perfect or that microfinance isn’t perfect. You don’t have to go very far on the internet to find criticism of microfinance in general or even Kiva in particular . One thing that I have learned since being here is that you can not judge the effectiveness of microfinance based on success of single MFI client (or even a single MFI for that matter) anymore than you can judge the effectiveness of baseball player by a single at bat. I do not have to go far to find examples where additional credit did not result in a prosperous business. But a simple fact remains; access to credit is essential for any business to function. As ASKI Executive Director Roland Victoria once said credit is the lifeblood of an economy. By supplying life to even the road side sari-sari store, gives the small business owner the best chance and climbing to that next rung. Over time, making credit more accessible will result in a higher percentage of stronger, healthier businesses.
Poverty Alleviation Requires More than Microcredit
One reoccurring message I have heard here is how ASKI is “Going beyond microfinance.” To truly lift an individual from poverty, credit is important, but so are other services such as insurance, savings programs, vocational training, community development, and disaster relief. Last week, along with the ASKI management team, I attended 4 ASKI client general assembly meetings. These meetings attended by up to 1500 ASKI clients are usually held around Christmas and serve as an opportunity to update the ASKI clients on the various ASKI programs. Local government officials are also there detailing government run social programs and also educating the audience on a variety of topics such consumer rights . These meetings require a considerable amount of work to plan and run, but are a great example of how ASKI is going beyond microfinance.
Mature Microfinance Institutions, such as ASKI, offer their clients an array of services that previously were not available to this segment of the population and these services are not purely financial in nature. I think mistakenly many of the academic studies are out to find a silver bullet. What I have learned in my short three month Kiva fellowship is that there is no silver bullet. However this should not dissuade us from participating. This is a very interesting time in our history where we finally have the technology to harness the collective power ordinary people for social good, and Kiva is leading the charge.
Adam Preston is a Kiva Fellow who proudly served at Alalay sa Kaunlaran, Inc (ASKI), Philippines.
So, what is discussed in these repayment meetings?
By Thomas Gold, KF9, Dominican Republic
I am quite a picky person when it comes about writing. I really make it a point to write as properly as possible, even in a non-native language. Therefore, when I am writing an entry for the Kivafellows blog, I use to plan it, prepare a draft, then write it in French (my native language), spend a lot of time trying to translate it in English, and then I hand it to Gemma, another Kiva Fellow, who corrects my English text and make it look like if it had been written by a native speaker. However, this time I felt like I would try to write in English directly, without taking too many looks at dictionaries and losing some spontaneity in the writing and translating process (I hope it won’t hurt the language purists in my kind!). I must say that I was also incited to do so as I read the articles of Kanae, Kiva Fellow alumni, who wasn’t a native English speaker either and wrote excellent blogs.
For the last four days, I couldn’t help but thinking that the group meeting I had attended last Friday was a perfect example of all that I have learned about microfinance, since I started my fellowship with the MFI Esperanza, and thus I would have to share it. Here is a short video shot during this meeting and sent as a journal update.
Welcome to Senegal – the land of ‘Teranga’
By Nicki Goh, KF9 Senegal
After more than 2 months of waiting, the time has finally come for me to put into practice all that I learned back at the KF9 training week in San Francisco. As I sit here at the beginning of my second week working at Senegal Ecovillage Microfinance (SEM) I remember the nervous anticipation and excitement that I felt back in September when I embarked upon this Kiva journey – a journey which has so far included two flights and 3000 miles in a converted Army truck.
During the past 5 weeks that I have spent travelling through West Africa prior to this Fellowship, I have watched the landscape slowly evolve from Marrakech’s Atlas Mountains, through the sand dunes of the Mauritanian Sahara, on into the rolling plains of the Sahel in Mali and Burkina Faso and ending in the lush, tropical forests of Ghana’s southern regions. Quite a journey. And along the way I had small insights into the culture of my final destination – Paris-Dakar rally cars racing through the West Saharan desert; Senegal’s national dish of ceeb u jen being served everywhere in Mauritania’s capital Nouakchott; snippets of Senegalese rap in the bars of Ouagadougou and the traditions of Mali’s Bambara population whose shared heritage with the Senegalese Malinke transcends the somewhat arbitrary national border dividing them. Overall, plenty to maintain the buzz from Kiva training and to give me plenty to look forward to!
And so, in Ghana I bid farewell to my English-speaking travel companions to immerse myself once again in a Francophone culture without the comfort and reassurance that fellow travellers tend to provide. I abandoned the truck, the tent and the travelling in favour of a place to settle into for a while. And what better place to call home than Senegal – the land of teranga (hospitality).
13 December 2009 at 09:00 nickigoh, KF9, Senegal 10 comments
A day in the life of a Kiva Roamer Fellow
By Adam Kemmis Betty, KF9, Bolivia
With this latest batch of volunteers, Kiva thought they’d try out something new: dedicate two Kiva Fellows to borrower verification (checking that the information posted on Kiva is correct for a random sample of borrowers) at a handful of different institutions. While my fellow roamer Bryan Goldfinger has been charging around Peru, eating guinea pigs and tearing up the dance floor wherever he goes, I’ve been making my way (in a far more understated manner) across central Bolivia.
To give you a taste of this glamorous lifestyle, I thought I would share my latest bus journey, from bustling, tropical lowland Santa Cruz to the laid back and refreshingly temperate city of Cochabamba. (more…)
Kiva Lending Team in the Spotlight: Para México
by Julie Pachico, KF9 Mexico
Lending teams (in case you aren’t already aware) are one of the funner features on Kiva. The idea behind lending teams is to create a community of Kiva lenders rallying behind a common cause. Teams rang from the commonplace, such as those based on countries and universities, to the more quirky, such as Beer Goggles Never Lie and the Flying Spagehtti Monster. After joining your lending team of choice (you can belong to as many as you want!), you can choose to have the next loan you make on Kiva “count” towards the lending team, so that the loan will show up in the team’s collective portfolio. It’s a fun way to create a little friendly competition while doing some good, as demonstrated by the recent “Kiva Smackdown” challenge. Basically, Josh and Chuck of “Stuff You Should Know” podcast fame recently challenged Stephen Colbert to see whose lending team could raise over $100k on Kiva first (you can visit the the Colbert Nation and HowStuffWorks.com Kiva Lending Team pages to see who’s currently winning!).
I was interested in learning more about lending teams and how to best utilize them in recruiting Kiva lenders around common interests and causes. I recently had the chance to interview Kiva user and lender M+M, captain and creator of the popular lending team Para México. He’s done a really stellar job at creating an active and involved lending team that has had a great impact on Kiva entrepeneurs! Para México currently has a total amount of $46,75 loaned and is still growing with 204 members and an active message board. Our interview was as follows:
1- How did you hear of Kiva?
I heard of Kiva from an article I read at my favorite online magazine, Slate.com about two years ago. It was an article where the author (Jude Stewart) wondered what charity organization could get the most done with small donations. He concluded that microcredit organizations could deliver the most good, and he ranked Kiva as the top choice.
(more…)
Nyanya (The Grandmother)
By Anne Hector, KF9, Kenya
At two months into my Kiva fellowship (and woefully late on my blogs…), I have now interviewed more than 50 micro-borrowers. The individuals I have met are always moving and impressive, but Jeska Silivano Mlanya truly stands out for her strength, warmth, and resourcefulness. Just take a moment and look at that face…!
Pedestrian in Nairobi
By Hanna Azemati, KF9 Kenya
Nairobi is dangerous, polluted and sinister. Nairobi is generous, beautiful and lively.
I woke up on my third morning in Nairobi to the twittering of a myriad of birds intermingled with roosters crowing, the occasional neighbors greeting one another in Swahili and finally the church bells announcing that I could go back to sleep as it was only 6 am.
Three Interesting Borrowers
By Victoria Kabak, KF9, Nicaragua
Last week I met three borrowers who struck me as particularly interesting, each for a different reason. All three have been thought-provoking and have stuck with me over the course of the week. In their own way, each of the three represented a unique experience for me. Even though I’d been here for over eight weeks, Gregoria, Gloria, and Maria each presented something new, so I want to introduce you to these three women, whose loans are disbursed through the microfinance institution where I’m a Kiva Fellow, Kiva’s field partner AFODENIC.
Gregoria
Each time I talk with a client in order to write a journal update to send to his or her lenders, I ask toward the end of the conversation, “What are your goals or dreams for the future?” I think this question reflects somewhat western notions, and I don’t always get the most exciting answers, even if they’re still very valid goals (and sometimes I get blank stares). Many borrowers say simply “seguir adelante,” to carry on or to move forward (as Julie discussed in an earlier post). Another response I frequently get is to grow or to improve their business in general.
Last week I met Gregoria, who sells a range of goods from her home, including clothes, soda, fresh fruit juices, nacatamales, ice cream, and soup. As always, I asked her the question about her long-term goals. Gregoria told me she would like to “llegar a trabajar con mi mismo dinero”–to be able to work with her own money, rather than borrowing money. She was the first borrower to express this aim to me, and to be honest I was thrilled by it. I have felt frustrated at times when I ask borrowers if they’re going to take out another loan after their current one and both borrowers and loan officers have responded as though it is the most obvious and inevitable thing in the world–of course they will take out another loan. Isn’t a big part of the point of microfinance to break the cycle of poverty, to make these borrowers’ businesses and lives sustainable on their own? Gregoria reminded me that yes, this is the point, and the fact that she had this drive made me believe it’s possible. I don’t think I’m quite ready to move from idealist to pragmatist. (more…)
Microfinance and Education
The road to the home of a Kiva borrower
by Josh Weinstein, KF9 Philippines
I spent the last three days in “the field,” a term used to describe the front lines of microfinance where the money is distributed to the clients of the MFI. Beginning early Tuesday morning, I set out for the town of Valladolid, a rural municipality about 50 km from Bacolod City. The road snakes along the coast through increasingly less urban communities, until reaching Pontevedra, where the NWTF (Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation) Valladolid branch is located. The branch manager, Linda Saraet, took me to see the first of 15 borrowers we would try to track down over the course of the three-day trip (with a 67% success rate). Riding in the metal grates on the back of a tricycle, where I’d spend most of my trip, we rode to a small village called a barangay to interview several women about their business and loan. The community here is small, and stopping for directions usually produced a friendly guide that brought us directly to the home of the borrower. Home constructions vary from 2-3 room nipa huts – bamboo structures with thatched roofs and dirt floors – to cement frames with roofs of corrugated aluminum. Sometimes the house has electricity and running water, sometimes not. Over the course of the week, I’d see all types represented. Housing loans are popular among borrowers, and many homes have been built with loans from NWTF. (more…)
“Hearing something one hundred times is little compared to seeing something once.”
By Gemma North, KF9, Cambodia
So goes my Cambodian colleague’s expression on the value of experience. It has been just over a week since I arrived in Phnom Penh to begin my fellowship with CREDIT. Before coming I had done some reading on Cambodia’s history and culture, but had tried to arrive without any preconceived notions. After spending just a short time in the field however, it became clear that I had brought along my “western” mind and misconceptions. Luckily, I have had the chance to address a few of my assumptions on microfinance. (more…)
Cocaine and Microfinance
By Suzy Marinkovich, KF9
“Coca is green, not white like cocaine.” – Evo Morales
The Chapare, the Yungas, the DEA, USAID, cocaine, drug trafficking, alternative crops, forced eradication, Evo Morales.
These are the buzz words constantly attached to Bolivian articles on the both domestic and foreign-aided drug war against cocaine production. While tough to get the facts on cocaine production by country, suffice it to say Bolivia is one of the world’s biggest cocaine producers along with the likes of Peru and Colombia. To put it in perspective, Bolivian police discovered one cocaine lab this year that, by itself, was capable of producing 220 pounds of cocaine a day. In the US, the street value of that amount equals approximately five million dollars.
The welcome sign in Villa Tunari, Chapare, which translates to read: "Land Free of USAID."
When I arrived at my first Kiva placement in Ayacucho, Peru, the region where the vast majority of Peruvian cocaine is produced, I learned about the ancient cultural ties between the Andean people and the coca leaf. It’s a part of everyday Andean life and the leaf itself is considered sacred; it is most often chewed and used in tea. There is something so strange about juxtaposing the image of an elderly Ayacuchan beggar chewing coca leaves against the image of a rich 20-something snorting lines of cocaine inside a VIP section in a Los Angeles club. I realize that sentence is very blunt, but it helps to highlight the reality that coca and cocaine are definitively worlds apart despite being of the same root. (more…)
Meet Santos
by Stephanie Meyer, KF9, Sierra Leone
I first met Santos through a mutual friend of ours, Dan, who is here in Makeni working at the orthopedic clinic in town (almost exclusively with amputees). Like many of the adult amputees here in Sierra Leone, Santos has a harrowing war-story to tell that reads like something straight out of the film “Blood Diamond”. This is not what is striking about him, however.
Another young boy!
By Ujwal Kharel KF9
Hello everyone!
My name’s Ujwal and I started as a Kiva fellow for CCT, Manila on Monday, December 07. For those fans of Prem, don’t worry he’s still here, and will be here for at least another month 
.
I left Atlanta on November 23rd and flew to Kathmandu for the best detour ever (I am of course ignoring that this ‘best detour ever’ required 40 hour long trip with long transits in DC, Frankfurt and Bahrain). Kathmandu is awesome as always. Despite the chaos, it has maintained its charm. Temples in Basantapur still stand tall. You can still savor the best dumplings in the world (Momos) in a long line of Nepali restaurants in King’s way. (Oh yeah! right in the middle of this line now stands a recently opened KFC, the most popular venue in Kathmandu right now).
I arrived in Manila on Saturday. Prem was nice to take me around the city over the weekend. We mostly went to malls. And there are so many of them! Manila seems great and not very unlike Kathmandu. I am sure I will get to share great things about Manila with you in next few months.
On my first day at CCT, Lala, the Kiva coordinator, introduced me to almost everyone. The most common comment I got: Another young boy!
The top 5 reasons why microloan repayments are more than a “micro” pain
By Julia Kastner, KF9 Mexico
What does it take for you to repay your credit card? A click of a button? A check in the mail?
Yesterday marked my last day at Fundacion Realidad A.C., a microlender based in Mexico City. Over the three months of my first Kiva placement, I’ve visited a lot of clients and witnessed a lot of repayment sessions (when groups gather weekly or bi-weekly to gather funds to pay back their loans). You, the lender, just get a nice email saying the loan’s been repaid, but I wanted to share with you some of the issues the MFI and the borrowers face in getting that money back to you. (more…)
Kiva Love Machine Leads to Visiting Samoa
By Alex Duong, KF9, Vietnam
I’m going to let you in on a secret: Kiva is one big hunk of love. Understanding the phrase ‘Kiva love machine’ sheds light on what motivates the work of Kiva fellows everyday. Why does Rebecca Corey rise at 5:30AM to catch the bus to work? Why does Thomas Gold risk driving in deathly traffic? Read on to learn about the bond that unites fellows.
A Pragmatist’s Guide to Microfinance
By Mohammed Al-Shawaf, KF9 Palestine
Kiva Client Hasan in front of his cab and only source of family's income. Still, other priorities have surpassed it.
Lately, I’ve been trying to rationalize the fact that of the ten borrowers I’ve visited in cities and villages throughout the West Bank, I haven’t met anyone who’s “lifted themselves out of poverty,” the most common social motive for microfinance organizations and practitioners and one that first drew me to the field.
Where the rainy season meets the springtime, the river meets the ocean, the good wrestles with the ugly…
Alana Solimeo, KF9, Costa Rica
I am a seasoned gringa-tica. I have made it through the rainy season and now enjoy the warmth of the sun…much deserved. It’s a hard thing to reason with your expectations of a big life event, such as a 3 month placement in America’s favorite destination, the happiest place on Earth, because we know we’ll deal with the good and bad, fun and scary, beautiful and horrific. The only catch is that just as the beautiful is more enlightening and refreshing than you could ever dream, the scary is darker and more lonely than you’d prepared for.
We Have to Know Our History Too? (part 2)
By Brian Kelly, KF9, Armenia
The symbol of Karabakh, grandmother and grandfather
I wrote about a week ago before embarking on a trip to Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region southeast of Armenia known as being a conflict zone between Armenia and Azerbaijan. I left in hopes of better grasping the political melee between the countries in the South Caucasus and how this plays into the Armenian identity. Hopefully this would garner some insight into the role of microfinance in Armenia as part of my 4 month crash-course to this completely new part of the world.
What Do Kiva Lenders Expect to Hear from Kiva Borrowers?
By Eva Wu, KF9 Philippines
Every time I come back from the field, I’m weighed down by videos, photos, barely legible notebook scribbles. Stories from Kiva borrowers, the good and the bad. As I turn these stories into journals I try to imagine what it would be like to be a Kiva lender on the other side, receiving an update on the Kiva borrower that they chose to fund. There’s a lot of joy in sharing the good, the success stories, a cause for celebration. Why we’re proud to be lending through Kiva. But what about the bad, stories of something gone awry? How does it feel, as a lender, to receive those updates?
What do Kiva lenders expect to hear from Kiva borrowers?
It’s Not Christmas
By Kelly McKinnon, KF9, León, Nicaragua
It’s not Christmas.
90 degree days and the glow of the Nicaraguan sunlight and my celebration of Thanksgiving in the reception of a medical clinic where I was diagnosed with a stomach bacteria, (Oh the irony!) somehow make the holiday season seem far away.
And yet, I didn’t think it was Friday either. After checking my calendar, twice, I now recognize that my coworkers are not trying to trick me. And neither is the rest of Nicaragua.
Signs of the (rapidly) approaching holiday have been springing up around León and surprising me left and right.
Women and Microfinance in Light of Machismo in Costa Rica
Alana Solimeo, KF9, Costa Rica
I’m not here to cry wolf. I know that the subordination of women exists to much more oppressive degrees around the world.
I am also aware that my ability to identify phenomena here as ‘machismo’ has everything to do with my perspective, that of a female born into a world where I have virtually no boundaries, where glass ceilings are slowly being pushed further and further away from my upper limits by the women that precede me. But I am here to tell my stories, and I’ll do so cautiously. This one is about my personal experience with machismo and the notions I’ve gathered spending my time with women and families in rural Costa Rica. (more…)
Peruvian MFI Asociación Arariwa’s 25th Anniversary Celebration
By Sheethal Shobowale, KF9, Peru
I had the pleasure of attending Asociación Arariwa’s 25th anniversary celebrations. In true Peruvian form, the celebrating lasted two weeks with lots of fanfare – a parade, music, dancing, eating and of course, Cusqueña (Peruvian beer) and sweet Peruvian wine.
A Kiva Borrower’s Christmas Store
by Julie Pachico, KF9 Mexico
I had the good fortune to visit the business of Kiva borrower Carmen Patricia Urquidez here in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Carmen Patricia (or “Pati” as she likes to be called) runs a little stall in front of her home where she sells holiday-themed merchandise. Right now her store is filled with lovely Christmas decorations: bells, ornaments, trees, Santa hats, lights, and light-up frames of the Virgin de Guadalupe. She even makes beautiful handmade wreaths to hang over windows and doors.
Here’s a video (with subtitles) of Pati’s business, in which she gives us a little tour of her stall, shows us her handmade wreaths and talks about her Kiva loan. She also discusses her hopes and plans for the future of her business and her family, and sends a message of thanks to Kiva lenders. Click “more” to continue reading about Pati’s business and life!
Global Slowdown: Ecuador
By Zal Bilimoria, KF9, Ecuador
Ecuador’s 14.5 million residents and their predecessors have experienced much instability in the form of economic strain, political transitions and social unrest. Despite 35 years of civilian government and, for the most part, democratically elected leaders, Ecuador still struggles to improve the livelihoods of the nearly 40% of Ecuadorians that live below the poverty line established by the World Bank. Ten years ago, Ecuador suffered a major economic crisis, forcing the government to abandon its domestic currency and adopt the US dollar. That decision had stabilized the country, but this year’s global financial crisis has again weakened the economy and forced a mass migration of temporal laborers into the urban areas, especially Ecuador’s three largest cities of Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca, resulting in a rising tide of crime and violence. The official unemployment rate is hovering below 10%, according to 2009 government-provided estimates, but based on evidence on the ground and what newspapers report here in the country, it is an order of magnitude higher.
That's Me with Pedro (the local Kiva Coordinator) in Cuenca
Global Slowdown: Senegal
Ilmari Soininen
KF9 UIMCEC Senegal
Many developing countries were just beginning to recover from the havoc caused by sky-rocketing food and fuel prices, when the last F-bomb hit – the financial crisis. A year in, what are the effects on Kiva’s borrowers, partner MFIs and the diverse array of countries we work in? Is there reason for optimism for the future?
Credit institutions issuing loans to local clients and then shuffling the risk to investors in the four corners of the world – hmmmm sounds oddly familiar. Fret not, Kiva is not responsible for the global financial crisis – even Premal knows Kiva’s not that huge…yet.
Senegal: car rapide or economy flaccid?
Globalization, Culture, and Kiva
Jeremy Lapedis, KF9, Guatemala
I spent thanksgiving in Costa Rica with four other Kiva Fellows who are placed in Central America. Before going, the Guatemalans who I had spoken with about my trip mentioned two things: Costa Rica is safer than Guatemala, but it has less of it’s own culture. Having spent only five days in Costa Rica, I can hardly make any judgments about Costa Rica’s culture (however you define culture, be it ideas, materials, art, family values, government etc.), but I can confidently confirm that Costa Rica is safer than Guatemala: walking down the street feels more comfortable, people aren’t afraid to ride buses, and you can drink the tap water. One thing did feel the same as Guatemala: the pervasive placement of American chain restaurants.
The security in Costa Rica is something that I am sure most Guatemalans would love to have. How did Costa Rica get to be so safe? I am sure that not having a civil war for a third of a century (Guatemalan Civil War) and multiple public works projects that bring electricity and clean water to all have helped. But the economic stability that Costa Rica has been able to find in the tourism industry must also be included in an analysis as to why Costa Rica is safer. And with this high level of tourism that Guatemala has yet to be able to harness, comes an exchanging and adopting of cultures. It is from the apparent adoption of so many foreign customs that the Guatemalans whom I spoke with derived their idea that Costa Rica had no culture of its own.
My intent of this post is not to evaluate Costa Rica’s culture, about which I know next to nothing, but rather it is to ask what is the destination of the rich Mayan culture that exists in Guatemala? (more…)
Pineapple, Plantains, Pitahaya…Oh My!
By Victoria Kabak, KF9, Nicaragua
Since arriving in Nicaragua for my Kiva Fellowship about two months ago, my time here has been marked by a range of new experiences. I have become surprisingly adept at pouring juice from a plastic bag into a glass. I am intimately familiar with the smell of burning garbage, the most common way trash is disposed of here in Managua. I have perfected (and passed on) the art of wagging my finger to tell a taxi driver that I don’t want to get in when he already has another passenger. And for the first time, I’ve gotten to see how some foods that I consume on a daily basis grow.
AFODENIC, the microfinance institution where I’m working as a Kiva Fellow, has a branch office in Ticuantepe, a municipality in the department of Managua, about 20 or 30 minutes outside of the city. There, AFODENIC makes loans to borrowers who work in agriculture. One loan officer works in Ticuantepe, and he is uniquely qualified to work with these particular clients, since he studied agricultural engineering. Just from spending one morning with him, I could tell that his role extends beyond the typical function of a loan officer, as he provided off-the-cuff advice to the borrowers I was meeting for journal updates.
As I mentioned, my experience in Ticuantepe was also interesting because I got to see many crops I’d never seen before: rice, beans, pineapple, pitahaya, plantains, and coffee beans. Some of these crops were definitely not what I expected – I had no idea that pineapples just sort of spring out of plants in the ground that hardly look as though they can support the weight of one pineapple, let alone many – so I thought I’d share my pictures of these crops with you. If you’ve never seen them before either, I hope you enjoy checking out what these foods look like at the beginning, long before they reach your supermarket or your plate. Click “more” to see the photos! (more…)
These are Former Street Dwellers?
By Prem Thomas, KF9, Philippines
They look like happy kids to me. As I mentioned in my first blog post, at the Center for Community Transformation Credit Cooperative (CCT) it’s not all about microfinance. I had the chance to take a look at some of the work CCT is doing with street dwellers (homeless) throughout the Philippines.
