What to Expect When You’re Not Expecting Anything
As a Kiva Fellow you have to be ready for the unexpected. And not just in the field. Often the biggest surprises come your off-times when you’re not expecting anything. This weekend I went surfing with Austrian circus performers at Dominical beach, planted trees on an ecologic forest preserve, played soccer with a group of Costa Rican boy scouts, and participated in the Peace Corp’s 10 year Costa Rican prospectus.
Let me recount the steps. Saturday morning I caught the 11:30 bus to the coast thinking I’d spend the weekend lounging around in a hammoc reading. But instead I got distracted by a group of cute Swiss girls. They led me to Dominical beach where we found a group of 18 year old circus performers from Austria. I spent the day watching them climb trees to fetch coconuts, flipping around on the sand, and juggling pins. Late that afternoon we rented surf boards and tried to manage the muddy waves. Late afternoon I get a call from Ernesto, who I had met a few weeks earlier at Leo´s girlfriends house. He asked me if I wanted to go to a barbque at his father’s ranch in the mountains. Of course I did. With the circus kids were still out surfing I said goodbye to the swiss girls and caught the 5pm bus back to San Isidro.
Ernesto’s father’s ranch turned out to be kind of a big deal. That night, high in the cold cold mountains of Quebradas, I found myself being given a lecture on William Walker by a couple of Economists from the Costa Rican ministry of Finance. These two economists argued at eachother late into the night- socialism vs capitalism, game theory, US imperialism, all kinds of things- and when they found out I also studied economics used me as a proxy to bounce their ideas. My life is a marvel I tell you. Since it was rather late Ernesto’s father Don Gilberto invited us to stay the night.
Ernesto’s father is the director of a nature preserve that serves as the water shed for Perez Zeledon province. His house sits on top of the mountain peaks surrounding San Isidro inside of a nature preserve that he founded thirty years ago. At 5:30 that morning Ernesto gave me a tour of the grounds, which I swear to you, is paradise on earth. Realizing I had found something special, and having no other plans for Sunday I asked Don Gilberto if I could spend the day at his house. Sure, he said, but as long as you come along to a meeting I have this morning. And with that Don Gilberto proceeded to tie a handkercheif around his neck with the emblem of the boy scouts. Ha!
Hours later I found myself bouncing along a dirt road in the back of Don Gilberto’s bright yellow truck surrounded by a group of 12 year old boy scouts. We spent the day playing soccer, building rafts, almost poking eachothers eyes out with carved sticks, planting trees, repeating oaths and all that stuff that boy scouts do.
Those other two gringos in the photo are Katie and Derrick, members of the Peace Corp who helped organize this troup of boy scouts. Katie is a phenomena. Born in California, living in New York, like me!, she has been living in Quebradas for the past two years. Aside from starting the boy scout troup she has organized the installation of a satellite in the town that serves the first internet cafe in the area, publishes a weekly town newspaper, and generally serves as the town liason for all kinds of economic issues. All of the Costa Ricans are completely enamored with her. Don Gilberto included. He marches to the beat of her drum. After we had sent the boy scouts home and the regular afternoon rains had started, Katie invited me along to a town hall meeting where she and her companion, Derrick, collected opinions and recommendations for the Peace Corps ten year prospectus which they would deliver tomorrow in San Jose to Directors flying in from Washingtown DC. I sat in the back, amazed at where this weekend had taken me.
And thus began my work week.
To my great chagrin, it has been more complicated than expected to visit borrowers in Costa Rica. Now that my office work is done, the greatest obstacle is that FUDECOSUR only has one car. The other loan officers ride motorcycles. While I have zero objection to riding on the back of a motorcycle, in fact I think I prefer it (adventure!), the fierce afternoon rains make that completely impractical. So Monday the loan officers and I sat down and optimized a solution for the classic travelling salesman problem. 300 Kiva borrowers in 39 communities within 2 months using 1 car shared among 3 loan officers. Oh yeah, and lots of rain. This week I’m travelling with Don Gerado.
The access I have as representative of Kiva is so very cool. I get to jump in and out of peoples lives and ask them private questions with total immunity. Do you have a good self-esteem? What challenges have you had this year? Oh, 18 of your piglets died? That sounds like a lot. Is that normal?. I can show up unannounced, enter their home, and stick a camera in their face and I’m given free license to do it. This is rather fun. I think I should have been a journalist. This week among many coffee farmers, grocery store owners, and cattle ranchers I interviewed one of the feistyiest old woman I’ve ever met.
Deep in the valley of China Kichá Doña Maria lives with her husband Wilber, 74 years. Recently Don Wilber decided crawling around the hills of his farm to harvest coffee was getting too hard. Never one to sit still, and besides, he needed the money, Wilber was saved by the ingenuity of his wife. One day Doña Maria had the great idea to raise pigs. You can keep them in a pen, they grow fast, reproduce quicker, and get a good price on market. With a loan of $800 she built a pig pen, purchased 3 piglets, and a whole ton of corn feed. Seven months later, on a normal day when she is out feeding her pigs, a gringo shows up with a big expensive camera and asks her life story.
Of course, the stories aren’t always happy. Just today I met a farmer who has gotten himself a little in over his head. He is struggling to juggle multiple loans, his grocery store just closed its doors because he allowed his neighbors to run tabs that they never intended to pay off, and on top of it all he is very sick just had surgery to insert a metal rod into his spine. His only recourse is to sell his house and even that probably won’t get him enough money to pay off his debt. Its unlikely he is going to be able to pay off his Kiva loan. It was an uncomfortable conversation and a sharp reminder that after all, this is still reality.
And that’s where I leave you. Tomorrow I’m headed to Nicaragua. The other Kiva Fellows in Central American and I are getting together for a mini reunion on Isla Ometepe.
I recently wrote a blog post for the Kiva Blog that received some attention. Check it out here.http://fellowsblog.kiva.org/2010/09/08/burgernomics-im-kiva-lovin-it/#comments
