ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the anthropological literature on volunteering and the literature on volunteer tourism, both of which have recently begun to explore volunteering as a form of affective labor. It shows how being a Kiva Fellow mobilizes affective investments by first examining Fellows' accounts of their MFI placements and changing understandings of microfinance, poverty and development. According to the Kiva website, the Kiva Fellow is an integral part of the Kiva Team, acting as Kiva's eyes and ears in the field and helping to extend limited resources to maximum effect. Learning how microfinance works on the ground is a central feature of the Fellowship. Most of the Fellows' posts are framed as stories of entrepreneurial empowerment enabled by microfinance. They are introducing their readers to the variety of businesses people run in the global South and thereby contribute to a condensed understanding of local economies.
