By Anna Antoni, KF11, Indonesia

Although Indonesian women’s life is drastically different from what you see about Muslim women in media, the situation can still be described as- let’s call it- challenging…

After experiencing western and central Indonesia, I am now in Bali, known for a culture that couldn’t be more different from the rest of Indonesia. Tourism changed a lot in parts of Bali and most people are Hindu, so you witness a lot of ceremonies, see flowers behind ears and sooner or later you will walk over a little box with offerings to the gods. The...

By Nadia Anggraini, KF10, Indonesia

Last night I lay in bed for almost an hour, unable to sleep. It wasn’t because I was getting eaten alive by the mosquito colony that seems to have taken up camp my room, nor was it because I wanted to follow in Bryan Goldfinger’s example and starting an insomniac-Kiva-Fellows tradition. I had visited a borrower today, and unlike past journal visits, I did not leave this one feeling inspired by the diligence and conscientiousness of the entrepreneur, or even introspective after witnessing the slow pace at which microfinance helping...

You’re a pig farmer living in a village in West Bali. In the mornings you wake up, feed your pigs, get the children ready for school…the usual business. You’re just taking a break in the afternoon, right when the Balinese sun is at its hottest and people take shelter in the shade of their homes, when your loan officer comes zipping in on her motorbike. It’s not time for repayments, nor is it time for a group meeting with the other villagers who took a loan out with you, but you’re not surprised, as your loan officer often stops by for a chat when she’s in the area.

This time round,...

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
There’s a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

In 1962 the folk artist Malvina Reynolds wrote this song to describe the suburban development she saw in the communities south of San Francisco. While the hills of San Francisco are about as far away from the hills of Bali, Indonesia as can be—both literally and...