My Strawberry Neighborhood

I haven't been very clear thus far as to what it is exactly that I'm doing here. I'm a Kiva Fellow. Nuffsaid? Kiva, for those of you that don't know, is an organization that connects people in the developed world with people in the developing world through microloans. If you aren't familiar with Kiva, you'll get the idea very quickly by visiting http://kiva.org.

Kiva Fellows are volunteers that travel to exotic fun places like Mexico, Sierra Leone, Cambodia, Bolivia or Armenia, among many others, to serve as a liaison between Kiva and one or more microfinance institutions, or MFIs. My MFI is called CrediComún. It's a for-profit social business that primarily loans to groups of women in rural areas. CrediComún gets a sizeable chunk of its funding from Kiva.

I spent several days apartment hunting. Since I'll only be here for four months, I need a furnished place that will accept a short-term resident, so the best thing for me was to find someone with a room to rent. I told myself "No hip neighborhoods overrun with expatriates!" But there were few options, and the one I saw in Condesa comes with really wonderful flatmates. So here I am in Condesa, hippest of the hip places. One look is all it takes. But there aren't that many foreigners, and despite all the chic cafes and Krispy Kreme doughnuts, I just have to walk a block or less to find great street food. And it's reasonably safe to be outside at midnight. Try that in other neighborhoods! (Just kidding. Don't.)

In Chilango slang, Condesa is a "barrio fresa", a hip, or upscale neighborhood. That literally translates to "strawberry neighborhood". I think it fits!