Finally, Perú is on Kiva. There are now two MFIs active, that Kiva has had discussions with for a while: Finca Perú and Prisma Microfinanzas. They are active in the Ayacucho and greater Puno/Juliaca regions, respectively. All very exciting.Let me add…

Continue reading → ¡Perú! ¡Perú! ¡Perú!

A topic on Kivafriends that doesn’t want to die (which shows its importance), is whether to offer interest rates to lenders or not. And it’s a topic that I can’t stop pondering about– I’ve often said that I support it, but that I prefer the “feel-good…

• Support Protective Gear Clothing, Shoes Accessories Gym, Workout Yoga Exercise Fitness

Continue reading → Interest for Kiva Lenders — why maybe yes, and why maybe not

It’s been a while. Work has been busy (my company was just bought by our largest competitor), and although I’ve been able to contribute various posts to KivaFriends, I haven’t been as active as I’d want to.Reading through Kendall’s reports on the state…

• Work Womens Shoes

• Annual Reports Paper Railroadiana, Trains Transportation Collectibles

Continue reading → Where the streets have no names and the poor have no chance

Yesterday, I received the following message from Kiva:From: Kiva Date: 3 May 2007 21:43:26 -0700Subject: Loan RedemptionTo: ramonDear Ramon,This email confirms that $25.00 of your loan to Venta de Mercancia por Temporada is now redeemable.This amount…

• Memories of Yesterday Enesco Decorative Collectible Brands Decorative Collectibles Collectibles

• Militaria Date Unknown Militaria Collectibles

Continue reading → First loan fully repaid

Ciriaca Colque is her name. She runs a milk transport business that brings milk from the farms in the Altiplano of La Paz to the local Pil Andina diary factory, in El Alto, Bolivia. El Alto literally means “The Height”, and high it is: 4150 meters (13,…

• Milk Modern 1900-Now Bottles Bottles Insulators Collectibles

• Bolivia South America Coins World Coins Paper Money

Continue reading → Finally… Bolivia!

Disclaimer / Challenge: please note that the blog post you’re reading is based on my personal insights and logic I think is true. As I have no economics or financial background at all, I would be thrilled to be proved wrong. Please let me know if you d…

• Home-Based Businesses Businesses for Sale Opportunities

• Challenge Coins Original Items Current Militaria 2001-Now Militaria Collectibles

Continue reading → Paying interest to Kiva lenders

Following Pondering Pig’s example, I created a My Google Map (or a Google My-Map or whatever) for my investments. Here it is.Some other users Kiva Maps:Christopher from LondonFred from TexasPomerleau Family’s mapPondering Pig’s map (which we already me…

• Pigs Animals Still, Piggy Banks Banks, Registers Vending Collectibles

• Investments Opportunities to Make Money

Continue reading → All Kiva investments on one Google Map!

This post is in direct response to Richard Kent’s encouragements to keep on investing in Kiva, in a thread at the Kivaloans Yahoogroup mailing list. Richard is the Ugandan CEO/D for Children Care Ministries, a religious based charity in Uganda.My reply…

• Richard Petty Racing-NASCAR Fan Apparel Souvenirs Sports Collectibles

• Home-Based Businesses Businesses for Sale Opportunities

Continue reading → Poverty: why bothering is good for us

For those of you that haven’t visited Kendall Mau’s blog in a while, or that haven’t visited his blog at all, please do so. He recently added a WEALTH of information about the inner workings and considerations of the MFI he runs in Honduras and Nicarag…

• Full Runs Comics Collectibles

Continue reading → Go see Kendall Mau’s blog!

Since it’s a new month, I just entered by bimonthly loan, my loan number 12. This one is to Dunia Herrera, why sells cloth in Choluteca, Honduras. Choluteca, in addition to having a cool name, looks on Google Maps just like the place I’d like to spend …

• Carolina Herrera Men Discount Fragrances Store

• Carolina Herrera Women Discount Fragrances Store

Continue reading → Small loan to Dunia Herrera in Choluteca, Honduras

As I have described over and again, my believe is that in order for a micro-entrepreneur to be successful, the business (and thereby inferred–the micro-loan) needs to fulfill several objective and subjective criteria. If they don’t, then the loan is n…

Continue reading → Kiva and longer loan terms

One of the advantages of investing into a local opportunity through Kiva is, that you, consciously or subconsciously, keep better track of what is going on in those countries in which you invested. And therefore, when things are happening in Ecuador, i…

• Ecuador South America Coins World Coins Paper Money

• Local US Political Historical Memorabilia Collectibles

Continue reading → Soon to be Republica Bolivariana de Ecuador?

As I must have told all of the 3 people that read this blog on an (ir)regular basis, for the last few months I have been trying to get something going between Kiva and Peruvian MFIs. My report on what I did while I was out there last month, has been lo…

• People Postcards Collectibles

• Real Estate Opportunities

Continue reading → Opportunities for Kiva in Perú

Recently, Perú’s president Alan Garcia launched a campaign called “La Hora Sin Demora”(time without delay) against a perceived endemic national (or even transnational) problem: tardiness. Although campaigns like this appear to be popular in Perú, I d…

• National Parks Postcards Collectibles

• National Parks Historical Memorabilia Collectibles

Continue reading → National Tardiness Campaign: will it work?

I just invested my bimonthly installment of $25 into a cattle and rice farm called Hacienda la Maria, owned by Ivan Romero in Ecuador. What made this one stand apart from all others?First, I should say that I am overinvested in Ecuador. Initially, I th…

• Ecuador South America Coins World Coins Paper Money

• Australian Cattle Dog Dog Animals Collectibles

Continue reading → What convinced me to make my latest Kiva.Org loan

Interestingly, my entrepreneurs in Ecuador appear to be paying back faster than the ones in Mexico. I guess to sample is too small to take any statistical conclusion…Change the world one loan at a time - visit Kiva.org to find out how.

• Ecuador South America Coins World Coins Paper Money

• Mexico North, Central America Paper Money World Coins Paper Money

Continue reading → Repayment rates…

As I wrote before, I’ve had quite a lot of troubles finding a new investment opportunity for the second half of January. The offer of Latin American businesses was quite low, often even zero. I even emailed Luis at Mifex to ask if there were new busine…

• Latin American Ethnographic Antiques

• European Latin American Comics Collectibles

Continue reading → Finally - invested again

We passed the 15th of the month a few days ago, and I have been frantically looking for a good Latin American business to invest in to fulfill my promise of “a new business every paycheck”. I need to diversify a little, as the only opportunities that a…

• Latin American Ethnographic Antiques

• European Latin American Comics Collectibles

Continue reading → More on the same theme…