Shereef’s Kiva Blog

Arequipa, Peru

Please accept my apologies regarding the lack of updates recently — but certain events in Perú have been exciting and keeping me busy.

I am in Arequipa (in the far south) where I originally came to attend a Kiva conference with representatives from nearly all of our Central and South American partners. The longer I work with Kiva the more impressed I am by its ability to connect people, institutions and causes. This experience was especially meaningful for me because so few Fellows get to witness the breadth and depth of the  microfinance community created as a result of our efforts. We had an all day knowledge-share where we discussed problems, best practices, new site features, social goals and created some great friendships along the way.

Little did I know that the Kiva conference would only be the prologue to my week. Arequipa was chosen as the conference location because many of Kiva’s partner institutions were traveling here to participate in Foromic - the leading Microfinance conference in the Americas. Three days of panel discussions on a range of issues facing the development and finance communities coupled with business card jockeying shmoozefsts and an unending supply of logo covered flair\gift bags, little sandwiches and exotic juices. And I would be remiss if I neglected to mention the incredible lunches and shwanky (fully sponsored) after parties each night. Both socially and professionally the old guard and the new phalanx of microfinance professionals were present, with luminares and rookies alike able to learn from one another in this rapdily growing and rapidly transforming field.

And I had the sheer luck of being able to attend. Unfortunately, Kiva only registered one attendee and one reperesentative to stay at the stand so I had to gain access by furtive means. One of our colleagues from Fundación X (anonymized just in case) snuck me his entrance pass and let me keep it for the duration of the 3 day conference. I had some explaining to do as I networked with nothing short of reckless disregard in disclosing identity: “No I am not Juan Smith (false name) and no I am not from Fundación X…”  I learned a tremendous amount, was offered more than one job as Kiva’s reputation really does open doors and met the right people to help me finally break into the field of  microfinance with the emphasis on ecologically sustainable develolpment (specifically solar power credits in the developing world). Sheer luck…

I also had another opportunity that most other Fellows do not get. I spent the better part of a week with Michelle and Giovanna -Kiva staff from SF- and Cynthia -the newest Kiva staff member who was once a Fellow but now works as field support specialist out of Cuzco- who are some of the unsung heroes of the organization. Their intelligence, enthusiasm and knoweldge of the region make Kiva’s model work and I am thrilled to have become friends with them.

And now for some random lessons I learned this week: I can drink a lot of Pisco sour then dance for hours and make a lot of new friends — none of whom I will recognize in the light of day when they hug or smile or wave enthusiastically at me, the directors of MFIs love foreigners who can dance like Latinos, Bolivians party like rock stars, Paraguayans are unimaginably kind, trying to lead an Alapaca around on a leash is as BAD idea, coca tea and antibiotics can eradicate stomach problems (my body finally functions properly again), I love Swiss travelers, one small city wedged in the peaks of the Andes can never have too many churches, and that I need more than one day to acclimatize from sea level before attempting to summit a 19,000 foot volcano (I’ll post that story next week).

Photos are coming next week — and there is even a shot of an unexpected and genuinely alarmed animal in an inapproriate plastic sack.

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