Just shout it out: Obama! On the streets off Kenya, this gets you cheeers and hoots and offers off friendship and prayers…a good word, indeed.
It is good to be American in Kenya, that much I can say. Nairobi was not totally wild, but I definitely got shouts from buses and Matatus all day long. People [...]

• Good Charlotte G Rock, Pop Music Memorabilia Entertainment Memorabilia

• Buses, Taxi Cabs Transportation Collectibles

Continue reading → Universal Language: Obama

When I last corresponded with you, dear Kiva Fellows Blog reader, I was still in my home country, chucking trespassing snakes out of my house and considering whether just one bottle of Pepto-Bismol would be enough for 10 months on a foreign continent. 
I write to you now from my desk at K-MET, in Kisumu Kenya, [...]

• Odd Fellows Fraternal Groups Historical Memorabilia Collectibles

• Maxwell House Coffee, Tea Advertising Collectibles

Continue reading → Welcome to the 3 K’s: K-MET, Kisumu, Kenya

People always use toothpicks after meals…you don’t “get off” a bus or Matatu, you “alight” (I have actually never heard this word before)…people make “blunders” instead of “mistakes”…Kenya produces great coffee, but since the domestic demand is rather for tea, most places serving coffee here are surprisingly bad…people love eating meat…when I ask people for [...]

• People Postcards Collectibles

• Coffee, Tea Advertising Collectibles

Continue reading → Impressions…

Nairobi is a mad, mad place for the unfamiliar visitor. Traffic, pollution, swarms of people…
The simplest, most convenient way to get around is on a Matatu. A Matatu is a little van, almost like a VW bus, except outfitted with seats for 14 people…and sometimes a flat screen TV and Pioneer speakers, which are [...]

• Traffic Lights, Signals Automobilia Transportation Collectibles

• People Postcards Collectibles

Continue reading → NAIROBI: It’s a mad, mad world…

My name is David Stewart and I am the Kiva Fellow in Nairobi, Kenya. I am working with Opportunity Kenya, part of Opportunity International. Opportunity just bought Sunlink, a small MFI here in Nairobi. I am here to help the transition and get all of the Sunlink staff on board with this thing from [...]

• Staff Bags Golf Bags Golf

• Swamp Thing Superhero Modern Age 1980-Now Comics Collectibles

Continue reading → Let’s start from the beginning…

I found a snake in the living room closet.

I had been trying to mentally prepare for just this sort of moment, imagining myself cool and collected, taking snakes in the house in my stride. “Oh, just another snake!” I’d smile to everyone as I calmly shooed the snake from the house, proving myself not some [...]

• Snake Animals Collectibles

• Maxwell House Coffee, Tea Advertising Collectibles

Continue reading → snake! in my house!

As the next round of Kiva Fellows finished their training, Nabomita, Zack, and Julie (KF5) met for a weekend getaway in Mombasa, Kenya. During our reunion, we came up with some words to live by both for successfully completing your fellowship and for happily taking a respite from the rigors of life at an [...]

• Odd Fellows Fraternal Groups Historical Memorabilia Collectibles

• II Attack of the Clones Star Wars Science Fiction Collectibles

Continue reading → When Primates Attack (And Other Tales of Fellows’ Mayhem and Adventure)

Jambo everyone! Or, to prove that I’m “in the know”, Mambo!
Okay, so these may be the only two words I know in Swahili at this point, but I am expecting/hoping that my vocabulary will exponentially increase in the next 13 weeks. At this moment, I am sitting among 29 other, and infinitely more interesting than [...]

• Ball Point Pens Pens Writing Instruments Collectibles

• Cross Ball Point Pens Pens Writing Instruments Collectibles

Continue reading → Mambo Jambo

It has been sometime since I’ve updated for the Kiva Fellows blog. As cliché as it is lots has happened and I’ve promised a more in depth description of the impact of the post-election crisis on micro-finance. So in baseball terminology I offer a double header (or double-dip in the vernacular of the [...]

• Odd Fellows Fraternal Groups Historical Memorabilia Collectibles

• Identity Crisis Superhero Modern Age 1980-Now Comics Collectibles

Continue reading → Micro-finance in Post-Conflict: Meet OI-Wedco

The last several weeks I’ve been traveling all over West Kenya visiting groups in the branch offices of OI-Wedco to do journal updates. I return back to Kisumu with a deeply somber heart.
A few weeks ago in Kakemega I met two Kikuyu single mothers from a Kiva funded group. They told me about how [...]

• Nine West Womens Shoes

• Identity Crisis Superhero Modern Age 1980-Now Comics Collectibles

Continue reading → Brief Summary of the Post-Election Crisis in Kenya

This past week Opportunity International-Wedco was able to finally report it’s loan repayments on Kiva and to its lenders (after pausing during the post-election crisis). Now I can jump into coordinating visits to do journal updates. Special thanks to the sick excel skills of my MPM, Ben Elberger.
I wanted to share a quick [...]

• Crazy Quilts Quilts, Bedspreads Textiles, Linens Antiques

• Identity Crisis Superhero Modern Age 1980-Now Comics Collectibles

Continue reading → My crazy boda-boda adventure

I have made it safely and timely to my destination in Kisumu, Kenya.  It has been a rush.  One of my professors, Dr. Omedi Ochieng, who is from Kenya told me before I left that nothing could prepared me to fully understand what Africa would be.  Personal descriptions, books, photos, UN data, only go so [...]

• Rush R Rock, Pop Music Memorabilia Entertainment Memorabilia

• Africa Stamps

Continue reading → Karibu to Kisumu

Hi readers!  My name is Ben Elberger and I work with Kiva as a Microfinance Partnerships Manager.  I’ll be blogging for the next six weeks from Africa as I travel with Chelsa Bocci and John Berry, Kiva Microfinance Partnership Directors, to our partners in Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique.
Right now, I’m sitting in my [...]

• Work Womens Shoes

• Africa Stamps

Continue reading → 7 Hours To Go

 
So alas, despite my proclamations last week of being the ‘Britney Spears of Africa’ or as I prefer the ‘Princess Di’, no one has asked me for my autograph. But fret not, I still have about a month to go and many more adventures to have! I am really enjoying this blogging malarkey, I will [...]

• Spears, Britney S Rock, Pop Music Memorabilia Entertainment Memorabilia

• Britney Spears Women Discount Fragrances Store

Continue reading → Kibera Continued…..

Prior to departure from the states, I was given the option of staying in either a hotel or a home stay for the duration of the trip—I chose the latter for the cultural experience. I stayed with staff members Patrick Oketch and Rogers Otieno, both aged 23 and great hosts despite the constant attention [...]

• Staff Bags Golf Bags Golf

• Hotel, Motel Advertising Collectibles

Continue reading → Life in Kisumu

I’ve been in Nairobi since last Wednesday evening. Eb-F opened a new Unit here about three months ago. On Thursday we moved to a more permanent and bigger office and have just been getting settled. Friday I was able to go to the field - Kibera Slums. A lot of what I could write about [...]

• Evening Bags Handbags

• Evening Womens Shoes

Continue reading → Quick thoughts from Nairobi

So I’m in the home stretch of my time as a Kiva Fellow. I’ll be returning to New York next week. I have mixed emotions about this - it will be wonderful to see my family and friends again, to enjoy American efficiency and hot water and not eat barbecued red meat with every meal, [...]

• New York Mixed Lots New York US State, Town Views Postcards Collectibles

• Family Guy Animation Characters Animation Art, Characters Collectibles

Continue reading → Mombasa

Jambo Jambo everyone from Nairobi! Once again it has been a rather overcast week here in the highlands, but I have faith since we have had two sunny days this week! For all the Kenyans this weather is freezing, but as a Brit, its a normal English summer spent without sun and some rain, pretty [...]

• Summer Olympics Autographs-Original Sports Collectibles

• Halcyon Days Decorative Collectible Brands Decorative Collectibles Collectibles

Continue reading → Kayole, Kibera and lots of Totos

Jambo once again from cold Nairobi! I am going to start this blog talking about my trip to Kayole to visit some Kiva clients last Wednesday. Kayole is located about 30 minutes from downtown Nairobi, and is not really considered a slum, more of an ‘informal settlement’ whatever that really means. So we loaded up [...]

• Talking Heads T Rock, Pop Music Memorabilia Entertainment Memorabilia

• Hot Cold Water Dispensers Kitchen Plumbing Fixtures Home Improvement

Continue reading → Sawa, Sawa

 
 
My apologies! I’ve been in Kenya for three weeks and haven’t found time to even introduce myself – my name is Alan McGee, and I’m in Kenya working with the SEED Development Group. My time thus far has been spent in Kisumu, a city bordered on the west by the well-known Lake Victoria [...]

• Deals Lake Placid New York Skiing Vacation

• Victoria UK Great Britain Stamps

Continue reading → Alan in Kenya

Well I have been here for over a month now and have a little less than a month left. I can’t believe so much time has passed already. Next week I will be taking some time off from my Fellow duties to visit Tanzania with some family. Then I return to Nakuru for a week. [...]

• Family Guy Animation Characters Animation Art, Characters Collectibles

• VI Return of the Jedi Star Wars Science Fiction Collectibles

Continue reading → Overdue update

Continuing on from my last blog, I believe I was talking about my adventures last Wednesday, which would have been July 11th. Firstly, one thing I would like to discuss was my bus ride that morning. I waited for 45 minutes to get on a bus, because they were all full. So imagine my delight [...]

• July 4th Holiday, Seasonal Collectibles

• Full Runs Comics Collectibles

Continue reading → Baadaye…..

I must apologize since I have been in Nairobi for a week now and have not blogged! But fret not, I will make amends. There is so much to write already, I don’t quite know where to begin, so I guess I will start from the moment I stumbled off the plane from London after [...]

• London UK Non-US Countries, Town Views Postcards Collectibles

• Guess Men Discount Fragrances Store

Continue reading → Karibu!

It’s been a while since my last entry and I have a few different momentsI want to cover, so I apologize in advance if the following is a little disjointed and meandering. (And for Russell, I apologize that I’ll most likely switch tenses several times in this entry.) I think the best way to cover [...]

• Cover Girl Foundation Makeup Store

• Sheer Cover Foundation Makeup Store

Continue reading → Snapshots of the last two weeks

The other day I got to witness the excitement felt at PEMCI when a loan is filled on the Kiva web site. One of the loan officers had put a great deal of effort into writing a descriptive profile for Fred Wafula Lubisia, who sought a loan to purchase a motorbike.  The loan was for [...]

• Border Collie Dog Animals Collectibles

• Border Terrier Dog Animals Collectibles

Continue reading → Struggles at the border

Before arriving in Malaba as a Kiva fellow, one of the assumptions I had about the businesses is that they would be entirely profit driven. Considering the economic situation that most of the clients here are living in, I could only imagine that people’s efforts would be entirely focused on making enough money to support [...]

• Service Businesses Businesses for Sale Opportunities

• Businesses for Sale Opportunities

Continue reading → Kiva Social Entrepreneurs