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Lady in Saint Louis
Blog: A Lady in London - 15 February 2010
The first thing that struck me about Dakar was how much more developed it was than Bamako. Tall buildings—or really any buildings at all—were a stark contrast to the low-slung structures that lined the streets of the Malian capital. All of the roads were paved instead of just the few main streets, and some of the buildings reminded me of ones I would see back home in London.
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Lady Gets Africa Visas
Blog: A Lady in London - 3 February 2010
One of the nice things about living in London is that seemingly every country in the world has an embassy, high commission, or other visa-dispensing diplomatic mission in the city. Sometimes this makes it really easy to get visas. It also sometimes works to my advantage when the UK visa fees are lower than the US ones, as sometimes I'm only required to pay the UK fee despite my blue-and-gold passport.Sometimes.
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Working with Ecovillages in Senegal
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 19 January 2010
By Nicki Goh, KF9 Senegal Now that I am well into my second month here in Senegal, I thought it was worth sharing a little background on the MFI where I am working. Senegal Ecovillage Microfinance was set up in 2004 by an American volunteer, John Fay, who was carrying out an economic assessment of the village [...]
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Senegal’s Answer to the Golden Arches?
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 8 January 2010
By Ilmari Soininen, KF9 Thies, Senegal Of the forty-eight countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, how many would you guess have a Mcdonald’s? Why would one care? Thomas Friedman, the columnist and author, posited “No two countries that both had McDonald’s had fought a war against each other since each got its McDonald’s”. If one had missed the [...]
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Getting by with a little help from your friends
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 29 December 2009
By Nicki Goh, KF9 Senegal Last week, I took my first field visit to the southern Casamance region of Senegal. Separated from the north of the country by the Gambia, the large Diola population of the Casamance region is primarily involved in fishing, rice cultivation and tourism. However, many SEM borrowers have other types of business: [...]
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Holiday Greetings – KF9 on Christmas
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 25 December 2009
By KF9, All Over The World Merry Christmas! This holiday season Kiva Fellows are celebrating Christmas all over the world, in all sorts of different ways. Whether it be traveling, feasting, or working hard to bring you some additional Kiva magic over the holidays, it’s safe to say we’re all thankful to be serving as Kiva [...]
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Welcome to Senegal – the land of ‘Teranga’
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 13 December 2009
By Nicki Goh, KF9 Senegal After more than 2 months of waiting, the time has finally come for me to put into practice all that I learned back at the KF9 training week in San Francisco. As I sit here at the beginning of my second week working at Senegal Ecovillage Microfinance (SEM) I remember the [...]
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Global Slowdown: Senegal
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 3 December 2009
Ilmari Soininen KF9 UIMCEC Senegal Many developing countries were just beginning to recover from the havoc caused by sky-rocketing food and fuel prices, when the last F-bomb hit – the financial crisis. A year in, what are the effects on Kiva’s borrowers, partner MFIs and the diverse array of countries we work in? Is there [...]
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Phonecards and Peanuts: Looking at Micro-finance through the Macro Lens
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 16 November 2009
Ilmari Soininen KF9 UIMCEC Dakar, Senegal Topping up one’s phone credit is never a problem in Dakar – on every street corner you will find one, or usually three or four young men hawking the same exact Orange Telecom cards. They offer the exact same cards, in the exact same spot, at the exact same time. [...]
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Geopolitics and giant goats: thoughts from a week in Dakar
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 12 October 2009
By Ilmari Soininen, KF9 UIMCEC Dakar, Senegal “Africa lite” is how a retired career diplomat once described Senegal to me. Glancing at a map of West Africa he may have a point. Bloody diamond-fuelled conflicts in Sierra Leone and Liberia, violent Islamic extremism in Mali and Mauritania and the recent military coup in Guinea make Senegal look like [...]
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Signing Off from Senegal
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 26 May 2009
My memories of the last eight months away from home are a jumbled mass of color, freedom, fear, patience, frustration, and energy – raw, shifting memories that have not yet arranged themselves into neat, packageable stories that I can pull from the shelf at parties when I get home. I have tested my sense of self [...]
