Back in November, when I first heard about Kiva, I went to the website and I felt like I was a kid on Christmas morning. The very first time that I browsed through all of the different loans, I was so excited; I mean, where do you start? Who do you decide to give a loan to? Do you choose by country, amount, repayment period, male/female, or sector? There were so many options, I didn’t know where to start. Eventually I decided to donate to Dilrabo Toshoeva of J.Rasulov, Tajikistan.

I really liked her story, so I decide to loan to her, and that is where my journey began.

A few days ago I logged into my account and found that Dilrabo had repaid all of her loan. I was ecstatic. Even though I don’t know Dilrabo, I felt really proud to be a part of her success.

In addition to being linked to Dilrabo, I really enjoyed being a part of her lender community. It was really interesting to be able to see all the names and faces of the other people who were going through the same experience with Dilrabo as me. I found myself constantly clicking on other peoples profiles to see what other people they were lending to. It got me wondering, will I see these people in other lender communities? There are a lot of entrepeneurs on Kiva, but I found that most people give multiple loans, not just one. It’s sort of like an addiction, you feel so good about yourself, you just what to keep lending. Additionally, I found that lending is like the gift that keeps on giving. Once you loan once, you most likely will not take your money and leave. When one loan is up, I get to start the exciting process all over.

If you haven’t had a chance to look at Kiva, I suggest you give it a try. Even if you don’t end up lending to anybody, just browsing through the Kiva community and field partners is a great experience. It’s great to see how many people are out there making a difference.