Kiva Stories from the Field

It was 3 months ago that I stepped off the plane and into the tropical Samoan rain. It seems those same storm clouds have gathered on my last day on the island to see me off. Over the course of my stay, I’d like to think that I learned a few of things. 

I’ve learned of the incredible dedication and hard-work it takes for the staff of a small MFI like SPBD to run its operations.

I’ve learned that despite their demanding daily schedules, the SPBD staff rarely shows signs of stress or frustration. I think I’ll have a better chance of mastering the Samoan language in my remaining hours here than encountering a similar work environment back in North America.

I’ve learned that I have yet to scratch the surface of understanding the complex Pacific way of life. The faa Samoa is a riddle, wrapped in a conundrum, wrapped in taro leaves.

I’ve learned how to snorkel, how to change a tire, and how to subsist on an alternating diet of corned beef and Yellowfin tuna. I’m not yet sure how useful that last bit will prove to be.

I’ve learned that, despite not having any international volunteering experience prior to this, I was able to survive for three months in a country many of my friends have never heard of before.

I’ve learned to appreciate how lucky I am to not have to worry about running water or working electricity. One of the great perks of travel is that it often provides a measure of perspective on your own life.

And finally, I’ve learned that that the loans made through Kiva are helping the proud women of Samoa to take advantage of their talents and resourcefulness. It’s been a real honour to have helped out in any way.

Tofa Soifua

Every year, SPBD holds an event to celebrate its clients. An award ceremony is usually held to recognize exceptional members among the ladies who participate in the loan program. This year’s event was held this past Saturday, and it proved to be the grandest celebration to date. For the first time ever, a parade was organized to march down the main road of Apia, featuring over one thousand of SPBD’s clients. The boisterous women arrived in the early morning and, decked out in matching uniforms according to their borrowing centres, sang and danced their way to the starting line of the parade.

Since it was being held early Saturday morning, traffic was light and only a brief police cordoning of the main road was necessary. I had the honor (and surreal experience) of marching at the front of the parade, right behind the main banner, along with the rest of the SPBD staff as well as the president of SPBD, Greg Casagrande. Because of the early hour, the spectator crowd was rather light, but the ladies sang and danced their hearts out nevertheless.

Once the tail of the parade arrived at the ceremony hall, it took a while for everyone to be seated. The venue was not designed to hold this many people, and the spectrum of colors from the ladies uniforms formed a sort of tightly packed rainbow in the cramped space. The packed seats, festive mood and wandering taro chips vendors created an atmosphere not entirely unlike that of a ballgame. The highlight of the ceremony was the keynote speech given by the Prime Minister of Samoa. He praised the efforts of SPBD and joked with Greg that even the prime minister himself has trouble organizing a gathering of the ladies of his own village, and wondered what it was about Greg that attracted a thousand women to gather in a single hall.

The ceremony proceeded with the presentation for the awards for the Centre Chief of the Year, Centre Secretary of the Year, Businesswomen of the Year, and finally the Centre of the Year. The presentations were followed by a song performance by the centre from Levi Saleimoa, the winner of the Centre of the Year award, and a dance routine by the centre from Nu’usuatia village. It’s a shame that I am unable to post the video of the performances due to bandwidth restrictions- the songs were especially fun and lighthearted, involving props and audience interaction. At the conclusion of the performances, a quick closing prayer was held and everyone rushed off to do their shopping for the upcoming week.

After tossing out some statistics on the poverty situation in Samoa in my first entry, I think I’m ready for a more personal take on the impact of impact of micro-credit and the overall economic situation in Samoa.

South Pacific Business Development is one of Kiva’s earliest partner microfinance institutions. With an entire staff of just 16 employees (including management), the institution covers over 2,000 active clients, whose loans total over $700,000. SPBD follows the original Grameen Bank model by administering its loans via borrowing groups. With very few exceptions, all of its clients are women.

My first field visit was to accompany Tafauga, one SPBD’s 8 loan officers, to a client group meeting at the Leauvaa village, where I was to take Kiva profile photos for members of a newly-formed borrowing group. As we maneuvered along ever-narrowing roads towards the village center, I glanced outside the passenger window and was strangely transported back to my early childhood. Hazy memories of my brief times spent in the rural Chinese countryside were stirred up as I watched pigs, chickens, and dogs roam free alongside the road. In contrast, the lush vegetation and towering palm trees provided an exotic tropical twist that I’ve never encountered before in my life.

We soon arrived at the meeting, which took place in a large open fale (fah-leh). Fales are the traditional housing units of Samoa, and are common even today among locals and tourists alike. Their lack of walls, external or internal, is designed to maximize the flow of cool breezes in the hot climate, but also neatly reflects the importance of family and community in Samoan culture. Makeshift blinds are used only in times of heavy storms, and wandering dogs and livestock regularly require shooing off during the night. I’m quite glad to be living in a western-style house myself, as it will take nothing short of a demolition crew to take my precious walls from me!

The meeting itself was a total blast. The ladies, most of whom were middle-aged, were extremely welcoming and had great senses of humor. The eldest among them were also the most outgoing, and they were completely unabashed in immediately asking me for my marital status. After confirming that I was single, they would jokingly flirt and titter amongst themselves in Samoan, making many off-color jokes (as Tafauga later told me). Meanwhile, I was running around snapping pictures, a goofy grin on my face, feeling like I was at a fashion shoot. Most of the ladies really seemed to enjoy having their photos taken, and I even had a few request for multiple shots, each one for a different pose.

Since my eye-opening first visit, I have been to several other client group meetings. These visits have been to accompany various loan officers on their actual payment-collection rounds, and I soon realized that my first foray did nothing to prepare me for these utterly grueling outings. Leaving the office usually just after 9am, the loan officers rarely complete their rounds before 4pm. Many meetings are conducted in fales with no chairs, where everyone is expected to sit cross-legged (it is considered rude to point your feet towards the center of the meeting). After a few accumulated hours in this position, I was having difficulty standing back up! It is amazing to watch only 8 officers cover over 2,000 clients around the island on a weekly basis, and I have gained a great amount of respect for their tremendous hard work.

After a couple of weeks of field visits, I am beginning to better grasp the island’s complex socioeconomic condition. Most notably, I was never struck by a sense of overwhelming poverty and destitution in the same way that many of my fellow Kiva Fellows in other countries have described in their blogs. There were no dilapidated slums, no starving infants, and street begging is extremely rare. The strong social support from tightly-knit communities, combined with the extremely fertile island soil and an abundance of livestock, has meant that the vast majority of the population does not experience the severest of hardships, such as starvation or homelessness. The literacy rate is at an astronomical 99.7% (due largely to the support of education by the church) and life expectancy is at 71 years.

Despite the lack of desperation-level poverty, the continuing prevalence of subsidence living reveals several deep underlying issues. The strong sense of community that I described earlier presents a truly double-edged sword. The same support system that takes care of the lazy, disabled, and powerless members of society also means that domestic breadwinners will often have to support large extended families. A system of communal ownership, combined with a lack of rewards for individual effort, can effectively stifle individual initiative and broader economic development. Fa’alavelave, lavish gift-exchange ceremonies that accompany weddings, funerals, and church openings, are great fun to attend, but can drain months’ worth of funds in an instance. At church, families compete against each other to see who can donate the most money, as the amount given by each family is called out and recorded during service. Often, families give more than they can afford in order to maintain their social standing. All these obligations tend to add up quickly, and many families struggle along life without hope of ever gaining financial independence.

Compounding the problem is that, like many other Pacific Island nations, the presence of poverty tends to be hushed up. Before arriving here, I had no idea of the harsh economic conditions. From my impression and conversations with locals and fellow expatriates, unemployment has been rising for quite some time, while the cost of living is steadily creeping up, resulting in more and more families becoming dependent on financial remittances from relatives abroad (total transfers having reached an estimated $57.9 million already in 2002). There has not been much effort from the government, at least from my limited perspective, to combat the problem. Hopefully in time, the proud island nation will realize that its cultural richness and breathtaking natural beauty cannot serve as a substitute for economic self sufficiency.

All of this makes Kiva and SPBD’s efforts all the more important. It has been so encouraging to see the spirited persistence these enterprising ladies as they seek to build a financially-liberated future for themselves and their children. I am truly glad to be part of it all.

Talofa! I can hardly believe that I am writing this from Samoa, the “Treasured Islands of the South Pacific”. I hope you will bear with me over the next 13 weeks as I share my experiences of working at the South Pacific Business Development (SPBD), Kiva’s partner MFI on the island.

Departing Los Angeles on a direct red-eye to Samoa, I arrived in the wee hours of the morning, weary and excited. The humid island air and a light rain were the first things to greet me as I stepped off the plane. I was later informed that my arrival coincided with the first signs of precipitation in several weeks. Since then, not a day goes by without at least the falling of a light shower. Fortunately, the onset of rain is considered an auspicious event, saving my journey from an ominous start.

You might be wondering if island life is all that it’s cracked up to be. Well, in a lot of ways, it truly is. The people are incredibly friendly and welcoming, the pace of life is nice and slow, and the beaches are just gorgeous. However, Samoa is far from a tropical paradise. Poverty on the island is real and apparent. According to the UN, Samoa is one of the 49 least developed countries in the world. Most of SPBD’s clients, before their first loan, lived on less than $2 USD per day, and 48% of Samoan families were assessed to be living below the poverty line. The pacific islands tend to be left out of the discussion when people talk about world poverty, but the islands’ struggles are very real.

The presence of religion on the island really made an immediate impression on me. I couldn’t help but notice the number of ornate churches, dwarfing all other nearby structures, populating almost every corner of every village throughout the island. Even at the airport, advertisements for local churches appear next to ones for mobile phones. Perhaps less traditional faiths are starting to make inroads as well, as I had to rub my eyes in disbelief when a large box marked with Scientology literature rolled past me on the conveyor belt during baggage claim.

Being of Chinese heritage myself, I was very surprised by the noticeable Chinese presence in Samoa. Throughout the streets of Apia (the capital and commercial center of Samoa), many restaurants have shops have alternate signs written in unmistakable Chinese characters. I was told that Chinese migrant workers arrived en masse before the First World War, during colonial rule (not sure if it was German or British then). Many stayed behind, started families, and have built some of the most successful local restaurants and trading businesses around. I tested out a couple of the local Chinese restaurants, and while it didn’t exactly taste like home (by which I mean Chinatown of course), it’s never a bad thing to have quick access to some fried rice!

Well, that’s it for introductions and first impressions. Until next time, Tofa Soifua!