Loan $25, Change a Life: Kiva Enters Mexico

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Maria Guadalupe outside her food stall in Acuna, Mexico. (photo from Kiva.org)

A few years ago I became involved with Kiva, an amazing organization that changes the lives of hardworking people all over the world. It’s a micro-loan program that offers life-saving financial aid to people who otherwise can’t quality for or simply don’t have access to typical bank loans. I first became aware of Kiva after seeing micro-loan billboards along the roadside in Uganda en route to the Impenetrable Forest, a gorilla preserve in the rugged, remote mountains bordering the Congo. Continue reading

??Mexico Today!

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I’ve just come back from a business meeting in Oaxaca, where I had an amazing lunch just outside of town in the village of San Martin. The entire community came together to put on an incredible feast of chiles rellenos, grilled chorizo, and two types of quesadillas, one of which was crafted from homemade blue-corn tortillas, squash blossoms and Oaxaca’s famous string cheese; the other made with white flour tortillas cooked over wood-burning coals. This was by far the best meal of the visit (which also included the supposed best restaurant in town, but that meal turned out to be somewhat disappointing.)  Continue reading