A Fellow’s Five Favorite Posts (on Peru!)

The Fellows’ Blog is fast approaching its 1000^th entry. With fresh updates posted multiple times daily, even the most dedicated readers can’t help but miss some real gems. With that in mind, I’d like to shine a light on some of the great work done by recent fellows in Peru.

Along with Cambodia, Peru is Kiva’s most heavily blogged about country. I took advantage of this spectacular repository on my 22 hours of bouncing between airports en route to Peru. Here are a few I really liked:

1. Re-Introducing the Guinea Pig While visiting borrowers in Huancayo, Bryan hits a cuy farm and checks out Peru’s fluffiest form of animal husbandry.
2. Getting there Shereef compiles a cool photographic timeline of a loan officer’s typical day visiting borrowers in Chiclayo, Peru
3. A stockpile of Dollars Josh, my predecessor in Ica, presents part 2 of his critically acclaimed* video diary and looks into one of the more exciting facets of Kiva’s interest-free funding: new loan products to target riskier borrowers.
4. A Tale of Two Cities in One Rob discusses economic and cultural stratification in Lima and laments the current shortage of local lenders on Kiva.
5. Just want to be starting something Suzy exhorts lenders to dig a bit deeper before making loans in order to learn about the institutions disbursing them. Different microfinance institutions have different approaches, and it only takes a moment to read about the field partners who manage Kiva loans locally.

*he gets lots of Kiva love in the comments to his blogs

Newbie fellows (like me) are lucky to have this wealth of material to check out in preparation for our placements. Even more importantly, the blog gives the Kiva community a wonderful, multimedia window into the world of borrowers, loan officers, local microfinance institutions (MFIs), and the world affected by Kiva loans. Whether you’re a new reader or an old fan, I urge you to take a look back through the archives to find some of the great stories you’ve missed.

I’m David

You’ll hear more from me soon as I work with Caja Rural Señor de Luren in Ica, Peru

By David Connelly, KF10 Peru