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’
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[...]
Rural Poverty in Costa Rica: A Local Farmer’s Perspective
As the world spins into the year 2011, groups are battling for control. Countries, companies, NGOs and their various public relations departments are focusing their energies on how to look good in an increasingly ugly global economy. Everywhere you look, every product you pick up, whether it be an a[...]
Profits vs. People
Costa Rica is arguably the most “developed” country in Central America. But at what cost has this “development” been attained? Is it really an accomplishment to be able to say, ¨We cater to the interests of gringos better than anyone else?¨ Or would it be more noble to pass[...]
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[...]
Happiness is: New Experiences and Unpredictability in a Foreign Country
“Maybe we mistakenly think we want ‘happiness’, which we tend to picture in very vague, soft-focus terms, when what we really crave is the harder-edged intensity of experience.” I read this in a New York Times article two days before leaving the States for my yearlong stint in Cusco. Nine mo[...]
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[...]
