Hi all,
I'm not typically much of a public communicator. Usually, I do not even post on people's facebook walls, but as I was thinking about how best to share and update, a blog seemed the most efficient way to communicate as well as a wonderful way to keep me journaling and reflecting.
Thanks for reading, I’m sure future posts won’t be quite so so so long, but there was a lot to get out in terms of background for this first one. Also, I’d love email updates and comments from all of you. My thought is that the blog can be a baseline of information for everyone and then we can specialize our own conversations from here.
For those of you who don’t know, I am interning/conducting a research project with the microfinance organization Esperanza International in the Dominican Republic. (http://esperanza.org/us/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1)
One of Esperanza’s key partners is Kiva (Kiva.org). Kiva is an online platform that provides peer-to-peer lending (with a microfinance institute as the middleman). Basically, you can go online, scroll through various entrepreneurs’ profiles and business plans, and choose to lend to a specific individual or group. It truly is a loan and the entrepreneurs repay you, the lender (all this takes place through PayPal). Kiva and Esperanza’s view toward development is that, for the most part, people do not need charity. Rather, people merely need an opportunity and more resources to better their lives, families, and communities. There is a true emphasis on empowering individuals and bolstering dignity and self-respect, which ideally results in sustained development.
Up to a third of Esperanza’s loan portfolio can be fulfilled through its partnership with Kiva. Thus, it is quite important that Esperanza fills the allowance of profiles it can post through Kiva. Currently at Esperanza, there are no paid positions that officially cover Kiva postings. Thus, one of my primary responsibilities, along with the other interns, will be to interview Esperanza’s associates (aka entrepreneurs), take their photos, and post their profiles on Kiva.org for funding. I will also be journaling through Kiva about these associates. One of my goals is to link to flickr or some other online photo journal so I can share more photos with the lenders. By writing dynamic profiles and journals for these entrepreneurs, I hope to help improve Esperanza’s competitive edge in the Kiva market.
One of Esperanza’s distinguishing factors is that it is the only MFI that operates both in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Interestingly enough, the profiles posted for Haiti are almost always filled quicker than those for the Dominican Republic, even though many of Esperanza’s DR associates are Haitian immigrants.
Yesterday I arrived at my summer station, Los Alcarrizos. It’s in the Santo Domingo region outside Santo Domingo proper (the capital). Due to crazy, gridlocked traffic, it can take about 45 minutes to travel between Los Alcarrizoz and Santo Domingo. I am living in a homestay with Rebecca, one of the Los Alcarrizos loan officers, and her family. That is quite convenient because Rebecca and I can travel to and from work daily and I won’t have to worry about navigating alone, which will be particularly comforting in the beginning. Additionally, they are a warm and loving family and I am excited to get to know them better. Rebecca´s five-year-old cousin, Wendy, lives with us and she has been lots of fun and has a lot of energy.
All in all, The last few days have been a whirlwind of emotions and learning--all good. Jon (check out his blog: http://jwoleson.blogspot.com/) and I arrived at SFO on Tuesday night (15th) and checked in with ease. I was really craving a McDonald's soft serve cone....(yes, Eric and Emma--like the ones we got at Newark airport on the way back from Israel [cone, not coke J]) but we made our way through security and were disappointed to find no McDonald's. Fortunately, the whole trip was not ruined. Instead, we bolstered our broken spirits by buying trail mix and by biting the heads off of gummy bears (may they rest in peace). By the time we settled down in the terminal, we only had about forty minutes to wait prior to boarding our flight to Atlanta. Right when we were sitting down, we met Tess. Tess is another one of Esperanza's interns and is about to enter her super senior year at Cal Poly. We three chatted and shared our stories and anticipations/concerns for this summer. The plane trip to Atlanta was uneventful and I even managed to catch a few hours of sleep, though I don’t think Tess and Jon were so fortunate. Every time before I fly somewhere I make exorbitant plans about all the reading I will do on the flight. In reality, IF I read, it is barely at all. This again was the case and I was frustrated with having over packed my carryon (being 5’2’’ I require a lot of leg room). We arrived in the Atlanta airport at 6 AM and had four hours before our next flight. Emma (little sister) kindly donated a Starbucks giftcard to the Anne needs caffeine fund and I convinced Tess and Jon to join me in the adventure. The Dominican coffee is wonderful and pervasive and I´m not quite sure how I´m going to transition back to normal American coffee—I´m being spoiled right now.
Our flight from Atlanta to Santo Domingo was much more lively. Jon and I were originally scheduled to sit together, but there was a large family (2 parents and 4 kids under the age of 8) that was split up. We decided it would be best for them and the rest of the flight if we switched seats with them so they could be together. I ended up sitting in the window seat next to the mother and her baby. She was relieved to be heading home—I would think traveling with the whole family would be quite exhausting. She (originally from the DR, but grew up in the states) and her family is a Jehovah Witness missionary family that has been living in the DR for the past six year. She and her husband decided they wanted to live there rather than the US because they wanted to avoid the fast pace and materialism that they found in the states. Since she homeschools her children, we were able to talk about different philosophies of home teaching and various curriculums. I shared the books that I remembered enjoying most from my formidable days as a young homeschooler and she shared about her two oldest boys and their academic talents and interests—the oldest is math/science and the youngest is definitely a wordy. She also shared a bunch of DR tips—everything from how much to expect a bottle of water and plantain to cost and which kinds of taxis to avoid. Sitting next to the family made me excited and slightly less nervous about this summer. Everyone had been telling me that Dominicans are warm and welcoming and I certainly felt so…I didn’t even feel bad when I had to ask them to move so I could sneak out to the bathroom.
Upon arriving in Santo Domingo, we three bought our travel cards, exchanged money, and went through customs. We then looked for Kayla and Kalie our superiors who were supposed to pick us up. After waiting outside for a little bit, I realized that my phone from home still had service and I successfully contacted Kayla who had just missed us. It figures…Verizon doesn’t get service at Stanford but it gets three bars in the DR. Oh, feel free to text me or call me (1+8093600294) on my DR phone…it´s free for me to receive calls and messages.
After having communicated with Kayla for almost nine months, it was incredibly exciting to meet her. I had read several of Kalie’s blog postings so it was good to meet her too. We waited in a foodcourt-esque place outside the airport as the next intern was to arrive an hour after we three did. While talking with Kayla and Kalie it became immediately apparent that they are way more confident than I was. While it makes sense that they have this confidence (Kayla’s been here two years and Kalie’s spent over a year here), it was intimidating because I did not know how I was going to go about acquiring the knowledge and understanding I would need to justify such confidence in myself.
Throughout the first day here in the DR, I met all the interns and a small group of us went out to dinner. Throughout our conversations, I learned about all the other interns’ independent or at least study abroad travel. I heard their Spanish and I watched them climb off the planes eager to take on this new challenge. While I traveled with the besties in Europe over spring break, I do not have the independent experience that these other interns have. I began to feel small and doubt my ability to successfully take on this challenge. The first day, I had a dear-caught-in-the-headlights look/feeling. I felt fairly vulnerable and felt even more so by the fact that I knew looking as such was bad. I thought that because I did not have the travel experience and wisdom that the other interns have, I would not be able to safely explore this country. This made me even more nervous because I did not want to spend the entire summer either in the Esperanza office or at my homestay home, and I did not want to spend this summer in the shadow of the other interns. I wanted to take full advantage of being in the Dominican Republic.
That night, back in our hotel
The next day we underwent an all-day training at the Esperanza office in Santo Domingo. The combination of this training and my practiced skills completely changed my attitude. The training provided the logistics I needed to conceptualize work on a day-to-day basis and thus much of my life here in the DR, giving me a way to organize my thoughts and questions. Furthermore, our group morphed. One of my favorite things is to watch a group change from being a collection of people who can converse and respect one another to a group with a distinct dynamic and personality. I’m not quite sure what fostered the change for our group. It might have been the time we spent at lunch or the fact that we became tired during training and started joking. However, I’m pretty sure it took place when we conducted mock interviews with Esperanza associates. For all of us interns, this summer is a shift of understanding with respect to microfinance. We’ve all been reading about and learning about microfinance for a couple of years. We’ve all heard the inspiring stories and engaged in the various debates surrounding microfinance and its strengths and limitations. However, none of us have engaged in microfinance on a personal level…we’re all here to gain a first hand experience so we can directly hear these stories and we can better engage in microfinance. The mock interview, which we then wrote up as a mock profile for Kiva, brought to life these dreams and gave us a glimpse of how we really are going to fit in to this system and benefit it (and from it). Essentially, we were all filled with a sense of purpose and direction and this bonded us together. This bond was immediately apparent as we walked back to
One of the other interns, Madeleine, has a friend who is spending the summer in Santo Domingo with her Dominican boyfriend. The rest of the interns joined Madeleine and her friends for a night of dancing (merengue and salsa). An older man from across the street from
After the first day, my goal was to abandon my dear-in-the-headlights feelings/expression. After the second day, my goal was to temper my over-eager-puppyness.
The following day we finished up last minute logistical training at Esperanza’s office and learned a bit more about Esperanza’s mission and perspective on poverty and development. We also ran basic errands (bought cell phones). The previous day was quite full with respect to time spent in the office and training, so we ended a bit earlier this day. We then had a few hours to relax at
Kalie then took us interns to her favorite empanada stand and we enjoyed our last evening all together in Santo Domingo. While we interns aim to meet up and travel during the weekends, there certainly is a possibility that we will not all be together again. One of the things that I like about being in the DR is that meals take place at a much slower pace. We probably spent two hours sitting at the plastic tables set up outside this empanada stand.
We all arrived in our respective communities yesterday(Friday). I am living in the country outskirts of Los Alcarrizos. The bugs were not too bad in Santo Domingo, but they´re much worse here. At home I wear a scent called Amber Romance (oolala), now I wear Ben´s 30% deet bug spray! When I was little, I really wanted a princess canopy over my bed. Now I have a mosquito net that covers my bed—I love the contrast. Last night, before falling asleep, I sat in bed under my princess/mosquito canopy with my headlight and journaled and read a bit. I think I´m really going to like my evening routine here.
In travel, I think it is important to talk to locals and learn their stories and share thoughts. I’m incredibly happy because that is basically what my job duties and research project entail…with the added benefit of having to write up what I learn (mandatory reflection, if you will). Ideally, I will come to appreciate the written reflection that I do this summer so it will carry over in the fall and future life. I’ve never been much of a journaler, but I’d like to be one. So far so good!
LOVE,
Anne
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