The Best Story

5 August 2010 at 07:00 8 comments

“Again it might have been the American tendency to travel. One goes, not so much to see but to tell afterward” John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley. As a Kiva Fellow, I travel differently. I have too. Instead of trying to throw myself into those great stories that I could tell over and over to friends—about the times when I sipped mate with Argentine gauchos on the Pampa or hiked Machu Picchu in the pouring rain, I am looking for a different story.

If asked before I got here, I don’t know that I could have put a finger on what that story would be. Staring my first day at the mound of challenges that await, I wondered where this story would take me, and how I would tell this story differently.  Then I realized that this isn’t a story about me, it’s a story about you. It’s a story about the borrowers, and a story about the people of FAPE and all the other microfinance institutions that make it happen.  It’s a story about connecting people across the globe, a story about overcoming poverty, and a story about plugging into something greater than ourselves.

I’d be selfish to think that this story is mine to tell, and I’d be naïve to think that I could do this alone. It takes all of us to make this story a good one. To make it a story worth telling. A story that I invite you all to be a part of.

Lend now at www.kiva.org!

Eric Burdullis is a Kiva Fellow working with FAPE in Guatemala City.  He is currently dedicated to discovering how many types of fast food there are in La Ciudad and blending in.

Entry filed under: FAPE, Guatemala, KF12 (Kiva Fellows 12th Class). Tags: , , .

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