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Kiva, Transparency and P2P Microlending

I never knew when I signed up to represent Kiva for 10 weeks in Indonesia that I was also signing myself up for a much longer-term commitment as a Kiva Ambassador. But all jesting aside, as someone who has gone behind the curtain and seen the inner workings of Kiva and one of their MFI field partners, here's my own personal opinion (not endorsed in any way by Kiva) on whether or not Kiva is actually peer-to-peer microlending.

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On microcredit, power, influence and cultural relativity

Today, I visited a man who collects and buys recyclables, then sells them to a “boss,” who runs a similar business but on a larger scale. The only thing separating someone who picks through trash and a collector and buyer is capital, which a microfinance institution (MFI) can provide. During the interview, he admitted that [...]

Asides

• I've been awfully remiss in taking and posting photographs of my adventures in Bali. Thankfully, my roommate has been a lot more diligent. Visit his online album for photographs of our house and first week on the island and more recently, for photographs from a weekend road trip four of us lads took earlier this month, where we got an ice cream moped to pull over on the "highway" so we could have a frozen treat, where we spent 4 hours at sea looking for dolphins (we eventually spotted about 10 of them), and where we swam in hot springs and waterfalls. #
• Weeks spent in Bali so far: 3 // Largest gecko spotted (in inches): 12 // Smallest gecko spotted (in inches): 2 // Most people on a moped at one time: 4 (plus a dog) // Price of a coconut lassi, in local currency: 25,000 // Size of current swell in Kuta: 9ft@15secs #