Kiva Fellows are all about the Schwag?

So I’m on day 4 out of a week-long Kiva Fellows training program that starts promptly at 8:00 a.m. straight through to 6:30 p.m. along with 28 other trainees from all over the world. We’re fighting off all kinds of sicknesses from being together 10+ hours a day (i.e. braving a rainy outdoor trolley ride around San Francisco, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in the computer “sauna” room, and hi-fiving when our team scores on Kiva Jeopardy).

I thought I was the only one who quit my job to do a 3-month service project as a Kiva Fellow, but I quickly learned that 90% of the fellows have done the same. The million-dollar question is WHY? Why would these bright, ridiculously good looking and successful people quit their jobs to work in a developing country for free for 3 months and pay their own way to do so?

a) Because of the cool schwag that we get (check out the green Kiva water canteen given to us on Day 1)?

b) Because we hated our jobs and wanted a change?

c) Because we want to tangibly perpetuate Kiva’s mission of connecting people through micro-lending for the sake of alleviating poverty?

I’ll leave the guess-work to the online community and trust that the answer to this question will be apparent at the end of our Kiva placement when more lenders like YOU leverage your finances to make a real difference to someone across the globe!