Post for Kiva Lenders

Each Kiva Fellow, at the end of his or her placement, composes a note to all of people who lent money to clients of their partner microfinance institution. This is what I wrote:

My name is Alexis Ditkowsky and I am writing to you today to thank you for your generous support of microfinance clients served by Women’s Development Businesses (WDB) in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa. I served in the 14th class of Kiva Fellows and was the second Fellow placed in South Africa.

Over the past three months, I have seen for myself the impact that small loans have had on the lives and businesses of rural Zulu women. While each woman’s situation was different, most were supporting multiple family members with their earnings, most were eligible (and enthusiastically used) government child support grants to send the children in their care to school, many had lost multiple family members to premature death (I never asked why but KZN has the highest HIV infection rate in South Africa, estimated at 40% for women aged 15-49), and all of the women I met just wanted to see their family well fed, living in a sturdy home, educated for as long as they wanted to be in school, and taking advantage of the opportunities they did not have for themselves.

If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to explore the posts about South Africa on the Kiva Fellows blog, I encourage you to take a moment to read more about specific borrowers, life in KZN, and what WDB has been working on during their pilot partnership with Kiva. Here’s a list of posts from my time in the field:

Spazas + Tuck Shops: Corner Stores in South Africa
Photos from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Database Detective: South Africa Edition
The Meaning of “Now” in South Africa
Next Steps for Kiva’s Partner in South Africa
First Borrower Visit (Take 350+)
A Hand-Delivered Kiva Fellow
Drawings from Training and Greetings from Boston

I’ll leave you with a short video that provides a snapshot of the gratitude WDB’s clients express at the start of their group meetings. The hymn translates to:

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful grace
We raise our hands
With our knees we bow
With our mouth we sing
For this wonderful grace

From all of the borrowers who have benefited from your support, Siyabonga! (We thank you!)

Alexis Ditkowsky, KF14, South Africa

Good excuses

It’s been two weeks since I updated this blog. My good excuses include family arriving from the States, hosting a film crew, unexpectedly moving on two days’ notice, being out of cell/Internet range in Swaziland, family time in the Midlands, flying to Cape Town, and prepping for a trip to Home Affairs to sort out staying in the country legally. (Apparently the borders we crossed didn’t have the authority to restart our permitted 90 days in South Africa and we didn’t realize this until we left Swaziland on Saturday with one valid day left!)

Here are the posts I created for the Kiva Fellows blog in the thick of all of this craziness. Enjoy!

Weekly update post from this past Monday

A post all about spazas and tuck shops in South Africa

Update from a week ago Monday

This post is dedicated to Dan (video game edition)

Dan’s put up with a lot this year but the past few months have been especially challenging. As mentioned in other posts, we are living in quite possibly the most boring place ever and Dan has had the unenviable task of finding ways to entertain himself.

Since there are only so many hours you can teach yourself calculus and trigonometry each day (he really has been diligently studying!), he’s found the time to conquer feudal Japan (Shogun) and the laws of physics (Portal). While I’m not a big video game player these days, some of my earliest memories are of playing lode runner. Plus, allegedly one of my first words was “puter” (short for “computer”) so I totally get it. Not only that, games like Shogun require serious tactical maneuvering and critical thought while Portal sounds like an awesome psychological mind-fuck. Portal even made the “reading list” for Wabash College, not that anyone needs justification for a good distraction in desperate times!

So, in honor of Dan, the closing song for Portal, which he’s been playing on loop since last night and singing in the car the rest of the time. Listen closely – it’s super creepy!

Weekly Kiva Update

While I didn’t actually enter receipts into a spreadsheet or fill out a travel insurance claim, I did work on the weekly update post for Kiva last night. It makes for a very pleasant Sunday routine and I hope that whoever takes over for the next class of Fellows has as much fun with it as I have.

This week's update

Blogging as Avoidance Tactic

As much fun as entering receipts into a spreadsheet can be, I think I’ll post my last round of Thailand pics instead. And maybe if I sit in front of my computer for long enough, I’ll find the inner strength to fill out a travel insurance claim, too. What a super fun Sunday afternoon!

Market in Chiang Mai

Market traffic jam

So many delightful water installations to choose from!

View from the crazy bug museum

A very lumpy panda sculpture

Taking the songthaew to a temple

Another photo that tourists are legally required to take when visiting Thailand

At the temple

More temple

Snooping around

Gold!

Back to Bangkok. Wandering around by the river.

Despite being completely wrecked and utterly unprepared for zero degree weather, Dan and I dragged ourselves into Seoul via public transportation at the crack of dawn

After thirty minutes of wandering around and making a key purchase (gloves!), we settled into a delicious feast of my Korean food favorites before spending another 1.5 hours on public transport to get back to the airport in time for our flight

Blogging Break

Well, to be accurate, I’ve still been blogging but in my capacity as a Kiva Fellow. I just haven’t had much to say on the personal front, mostly because Richards Bay is without a doubt the most boring place I’ve ever lived and we’re still playing the waiting game when it comes to Dan’s continuing education this fall. Just doesn’t make for riveting dispatches. So, while Dan is forcing himself awake right now with some coffee, I’m going to post a few more Thailand pictures so at some point I can finally, officially move on to safaris pics and Mozambique.

First full day in Bangkok

Classic BKK pic. I think tourists are pretty much required to take a picture like this.

Wandering around by the train station

Waiting for our night train to Chiang Mai

Trains always have the best lighting schemes

Interior detail

It's so nice when everyone gets along...

Doesn't Dan look like he's having a great time?

Getting close to Chiang Mai. A few more pics coming soon.

A real update from the field

Things have been pretty busy for me Kiva-wise but I hope to get around to a proper post here soon. In the meantime, you can read this week’s Update from the Field, which includes stories about terrible coffee, trekking through the jungle, and colorful campaign slogans.

This week's real update

April Fools Day, Kiva Fellows Style

Quite honestly, I think creating a “fake” blog post is way harder than working on a real one. Fortunately, our satirical “Special Update from the Field” is out the door and I can go back to working on troubleshooting databases and visiting borrowers. Hope you enjoy the efforts of the 14th class of Kiva Fellows!

Fake "Update from the Field" for April Fools Day

Weekly Kiva Fellows Update

This week’s post – Update from the Field: Social Quirks, Justin Bieber + Lots of Carbs – is short and sweet but there’s some entertaining stuff planned for later this week. Stay tuned….

Inside a taxi in West Timor

Petty Corruption in Mozambique

What petty corruption looks like. Wish I could have gotten a better shot as we pulled away.

I’ll devote a separate post to our time in Maputo but this one is all about experiencing petty corruption and not being as prepared as we should have been. While we were aware that traffic police in Mozambique are notorious for pulling over speeders, we weren’t prepared when a traffic officer with a gun “asked” us to pay a “fine” for an “illegal turn” in order to “keep things friendly”. We did our best dumb tourist act – “we’re on the way out of town, we’d like to go to the office and pay in person, we need to see a ticket, we don’t have enough, etc…, etc…” – but at the end of the day we caved and paid part of the “fine” just so we could get the hell out of town. Considering the driver for the hostel we were staying in got beat up the day before for not having his “fine” ready, that we had read about tourists with computers being treated as criminals for having “stolen goods”, and that the “officer” had a gun, I think we made a prudent decision but it sure as hell didn’t feel great to be putting money in that guy’s pocket.

In Swaziland, our host at the guest house told us this was exceedingly common – that most South Africans traveling to Mozambique by car basically have to factor this cost into their planning. He also said that in most places, you see the police and feel safe but in Mozambique, you cross the street and stay away.

After we returned to Richards Bay, we did some searching online and found numerous accounts of police corruption, with tourists unsurprisingly a favorite target. Between the seeming impunity with which “traffic police” conduct their business to the expense of getting a visa ($61 for 30 days, single entry) to the hustle we experienced at the border, I’m sorry to say that we won’t be going back to Mozambique on this trip. Maybe when we have a little more time, no electronics, no car, and our cellphones charged, in our pockets, and with the numbers for the US Embassy and the Tourism Bureau pre-programed…. Maybe then we’ll go back.

In the meantime, here are some links that I found interesting:
Mozambique: Intolerable Levels of Corruption Within Traffic Police (allafrica.com)
Wikitravel Mozambique (“Stay safe” section)
USAID Corruption Assessment – Mozambique (PDF)
Mozambique Tourism Bureau Bribery and Corruption Incident Report Form (PDF)

And here’s where you can find our “traffic cop”:

The "traffic cop" who pulled us over was on the west side of Avenida Samora Machel between Avenida Fernao De Magalhaes and Independence Square. He had a parking space set aside for his transactions.