Shereef’s Kiva Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Kiva’

With only three weeks remaining in my Kiva Fellowship, I have begun to pay an exceptional amount of attention to the unnoticed loose threads of life in Chiclayo. I believe that the potential people have for adaptation has the unfortunate consequence of casting the exceptional into the molds of the acceptable. Establishing normalcy sometimes means overlooking noteworthy idiosyncrasies, especially in urban landscapes with an endless source of … quirks.

I have photographed a series of them below and written descriptions for each – just click on the photo.

I decided to name this post ‘the apothecary’ because their presence has been the most ubiquitous and consistently disregarded as ‘normal.’ But honestly this must be totally unique: having carts with mortars & pestles, elixirs, herbs and steaming vats that can be used and combined into any kind of panacea on request, located at every street corner after sundown.

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10.17.09 – the apothecary

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One of my first posts was titled ‘recession proof’’ in which I described the resilience of micro-businesses and the integrity of micro-lending. This time around, I want to detail a theme I had only painted with large brushstrokes.

Although EDPYME Alternativa’s borrowers are scattered throughout the region, I live in Chiclayo and it has become the backdrop and the context of my life. To me, one of the most fascinating parts of this small city is the dearth of big box stores. In their absence exists a constant buzz of small-scale commerce.

Let me describe this vibrant economic landscape. In the center of the city, around the main plaza, there is a mixture of restaurants and shops devoted to clothing and electronics (especially cell phones). As one ventures further from the center, the streets become organized by economic themes.

Although that string of stores on Cuglievan is far less efficient than Home Depot, it encourages competition, diversity of selection and keeps more people employed. One of the strangest paradoxes of a modern economy is the contradiction of scale: with efficiency at a large scale less people can do more. Progress becomes self-defeating if people do not have the jobs and incomes to keep on buying from the big box stores!

The hectic flow of social and economic interactions in Chiclayo keeps people interacting with one another, asking for advice and building a community. And on a personal level, it is way more fun to walk through high energy markets and themed streets asking where to find that one little thing than to navigate down the well-marked aisle 3.

*King Kong is the most rich dessert imaginable: a layer of thick caramel, a layer of candied fruit preserves (generally pineapple) and a layer of cake – cut into rectangles, circles or squares

Last week definitely seems to have been the high point of my time working with Kiva so far. For me, it became one of those moments where one is able to see why all the seemingly disparate pieces and decisions of life actually have an order and elegance to them. Enjoy the photos!

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09.29.09 - kiva cumbre and foromic

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