Kiva warned me about this. Three times a year during training, the Kiva Fellows Program issues its new recruits some counsel: at some point in your fellowship, you will fall into the Trough of Disillusionment. It’s a dark and scary place. You won’t like it there, but you can’t sto[...]
Posts Tagged ‘Kiva Fellow’
Migration, Microloans, and the Journey of a Kiva Fellow
On Monday morning, long before the sun rose on Quito, Fundación Alternativa’s Business Manager, two Loan Officers and I embarked on an all-day journey to remote Chunchi, Ecuador. After the promised “three-and-a-half hour drive, at the most,” we arrived at our final destination another five ho[...]
Quito, Kiva, and the Delicious Results of Cross-Cultural Connectivity
Saturday afternoon I found myself bending over the kitchen table, squeezing shredded carrots into spring rolls... I have never made spring rolls from scratch before, and certainly was not expecting to when I moved to Ecuador. But let me tell you- these homemade Ecuadorian-Chinese spring rolls blow N[...]
May 11th, 2011 - 7:18 am § in Tips & Resources
How to Fundraise Your Own Salary: 5 “Easy” Steps
Anyone who has been in the nonprofit or development sector for anytime at all knows the ugly truth about “good” work: it just does not pay. Sometimes it doesn’t pay much, sometimes not at all. And sometimes, you have to shell out to help out. Sure, there’s the intangible compensation of[...]
High Definition
Idealistic adventurers (whether in Latin America or elsewhere) inevitably find themselves in a world of contrasts. Some contrasts are devastating, others empowering, and then there are the contrasts that are neither here-nor-there. The last of these, whether they make us chuckle or swear, add uniq[...]
Fatalism and Optimism
On Monday I worked with a group of women to identify characteristics that they relate to being a good entrepreneur. The activity was part of the professional training program they take part in as part of their loan through Fondo Esperanza, and to begin the session I asked one of the women to descri[...]
Mother Hen
In the past week I bid my family of Honduran friends farewell, packed my things, moved continents (now in Santiago, Chile!), found a new apartment, learned a new public transportation system, and visited three offices of Fondo Esperanza (the new Kiva partner I’m working with). This morning[...]
