I have been on Kiva for about 10 months now and all my lending has been in the name of the FT team. I haven't just posted in this thread to make myself visible.

So far I have invested in 222 loans and out of those the larger investments have been $XXX. I lend mainly to women, since I believe the entrepreneurial skills of women are important for solving the microeconomics in the 3rd world. To me it's not surprising that my top 3 countries are as follows:

El Salvador 22.52 %
Timor-Leste 14.41 %
Honduras 12.16 %

One can tell that I have flown to SAL and DIL.

I personally recommend lending to productive individuals that will use the capital for manufacturing new items, doing other manual labour or running a useful business. For instance I have loaned for beauty services only very selectively, while raising farm animals has always my backing (somekind of Victorian wisdom, I suppose). Also rendering food services is something I find constructive. I have avoided e.g. medical bills, because I think Kiva should be used to foster becoming financially empowered in a constructive way. My sentiment is very similar to the one of George Peabody. For a good/sensible cause, my coffers may provide up to XXX of dollars, since I then trust the loan will also be repayed. My only serious slacker has been a Ugandan woman, that wanted to buy items for her general store. I guess the energy saving bulbs vanished or something... The loan hasn't defaulted, but it's lagging behind badly. Either way, I didn't follow my doctrine, which I should've. Interesting to see what happens with a female Bolivian police officer, that wanted to lend for selling appliances. No, I don't expect honesty for being a law enforcement officer. I decided to see what happens when one loans $25 to a Bolivian police officer.

Looking forward to visiting more of the countries I lend to. Some of my countries are based on a big likelihood it will happen, it's just a matter of when.

Happy lending!