Fellow Stories

The Volcanoes

Jeremy Chan

2018-11-15

Closing seminar just ended, meaning no more catch and release, also meaning we are spending more time with our families and apprenticeships. For the past month and a half, catching the 8:45am bus has been the norm every single day. As I wake up and leave the house, the 2 volcanoes welcome me out of...

Two Months without a Comfort Zone

Holly Shankin

2018-11-15

I want to start this blog by saying that Ecuador is beautiful, and not just it’s landscape. This country is full of vergüenza but everyone still loves to dance, and the kids still scream Teacher even though they don’t know it means profe. The sky is so full of clouds every night that I can’t...

‘Mi hija’

Surabhee Arjunwadkar

2018-11-15

I was waiting for my bus to Quiroga, the town I live in. It hadn’t arrived yet. I took a chance and asked the bus conductor. ‘A Quiroga?’ ‘No, mi hija…’ I don’t know what he said after that. I stopped listening after mi hija. Mi hija. My daughter. My father says it. My mother...

Portraits of Home

Maya Foster

2018-11-14

It occurs to me that sometimes conventional language isn’t sufficient. I find, increasingly each day, that words alone cannot describe the complexities of my life here in Cuenca. This realization actually has more to do with the absence of words than their presence.   Photography has always been my primary medium of choice. Portraiture, specifically,...

​¿Te gustas el Ecuador?

Macy Lipkin

2018-11-14

The short answer: yes and no. Every time I introduce myself to someone new, I explain that I’m here until April, living with a host family in Quiroga and interning at Radio Pública Cotacachi. Usually, the stranger asks, “¿Te gustas el Ecuador?” Sometimes, I just answer, “sí.” Other times, I’m more honest: “Hay cosas que...

Live From The Field

Luis Juarez

2018-11-14

How I Became Lara Croft, Tomb Raider. Interestingly enough, I see my first step off the plane as my first step on my journey back home. If I view this experience as a whole, it’s easy to see that it begins to end the moment it begins, and only stops ending once it’s over. While...

What is Family?

Talia Hafer

2018-11-13

What is a family? Is family a creation of the people we were taught to love and protect that share the same DNA? Or is it a creation of the people we learn to love and protect? Is it the comfort you have with the family you’ve known your whole life? Or is it creating...

Live From The Field

Jacqueline Oeschger

2018-11-13

In 5 Months At our last catch my team leader asked our regional cohort to write vision statements for our next five months here. What we hope to accomplish, what we’ve learned, who we’ll be. I wanted to share mine: In 5 Months * In Five months I will have grown in ways I can’t...

A couple photos from my experience

Kaya Pearson-Gaglia

2018-11-12

Two months in the land of Açaí.

Marco Barracchia

2018-11-10

And maybe yes, I should have written my blog on a daily basis. That was my plan, initially. A perfect start of my gap year resuming every day what it was like living in a new country, immersing myself into a new context, new language, new people. However, the start of my gap year took...

What’s With the Rush?

Ara Vickers

2018-11-10

From an early-age, I was taught that there were two paths in life. One, towards the “American Dream” and one towards fast-food worker purgatory. To reach this “American Dream” one must not just succeed, but succeed young. Youth is a modern commodity, the younger you know your path, the more likely your chance at success...

Dias de la Vida

Selena Harris

2018-11-09

What are we really celebrating? This is what I think about as I step over the forgotten graves at the Indigenous cemetery in Otavalo (a separate and exclusive location from the Mestizo cemetery, I might add). Some headstones are disappearing into the earth, buried in 100 years of dirt and forgotten holidays. Others shine with...