First off, thanks for reading my blog. I try to update it as much as possible, but sometimes I find actually living life gets in the way of writing about it 
I hope you enjoy it though. Please leave comments, they are fun to read and respond to.
So, a bit about me, I have a degree in Cultural Anthropology with a minor Spanish. For the past four and half years, I worked in the foundation world for The Christensen Fund, a family foundation supporting stewards of biological-cultural diversity internationally (www.christensenfund.org). Over the course of those four and a half years, I became increasingly interested in helping promote livelihoods of indigenous and minority peoples. I figure unless people can feed themselves and their children, they cannot even consider promoting a resilient environment and/or culture, despite the obvious interconnection between a resilient environment and culture with a sustainable livelihood. To this end, I decided it was time for me to move on to my next endeavor and learn about the financial ways of this world while taking with me the tools I’d honed through my work at The Christensen Fund.
I applied to become a Kiva Fellow and was accepted. I am now a Kiva Fellow (www.kiva.org) volunteering in Cambodia with CREDIT Microfinance Institution struggling to learn Khmer. I am learning how microfinance works on the ground, while passing on my knowledge and skills of capacity building and bio-cultural diversity. I am also journaling and blogging about the small businesses lent to through Kiva by Kiva lenders bringing lenders rich, contextual, and informative updates regarding the small businesses they have supported.
I also recognize that I am here at a time of economic crisis, and I am working to understand how it is affecting the average Cambodian whose household income usually consists of at least one family member’s income from a factory that exports goods to the United States or another country. I worry daily for the people who live marginally and borrow money, and can’t help, but ask the questions, “As household incomes shrink, how will the burden of debt affect them?” “How will microfinance institutions change or restructure over the coming years to buffer its clients from this crisis, ultimately protecting the institution itself from collapse?” and “How will it all affect biological and cultural diversity?”
Through this blog, I’ll let you know how it all goes. Some stories will be on the lighter side, and some on the heavier side, but as a caution I always keep in mind where I am and what I chose to write about.
