Fellow Stories

Definitions

Kirin Gupta

2011-11-30

Sex: Female. Age: 29. Children: 3. Status: Married. Income: $600 per month. Primary/Subsequent: Primary. Diagnosis: Tentative. Breast Cancer, Stage 4. Recommendation: Immediate visit to oncologist, Hospital of Tena.   Filling this chart leaves me empty. My pen drops. Because how much can you see in the statistics, even when the notes are well-enough detailed? How...

Sifting Through

Priyanka Rao

2011-11-30

  Yesterday evening while sweeping the patio floor, I had a moment of realization.  Examining the line of my life, I saw America, the sidewalk before me.  And India, the concrete floor, and here I was sweeping the wooden slats of a Latin American patio, in a country verdant green, with the calls of chickens. ...

Finding Family II

Priyanka Rao

2011-11-30

I got to go to the river the other day with my family in order to shower and wash my clothes because there was no water in the tank at home.  This time I was prepared with dirty clothes and a skirt to change.  I was relieved to find that this was only a laundry...

Sinchi Aqua Center

Mitchell Mankin

2011-11-22

The pickup truck turns off the wide gravel road from Misahualli and onto a narrower track, carrying you and four members of your new family in the back. Thirty feet above your head, the trees nearly touch. You’re headed into the jungle. Then, to your right appears a half-constructed house, and chickens scatter back towards...

Power

Michael Winfield

2011-11-22

Never underestimate the things you can do the stars above the sky is underneath your feet, can’t you see You can leave them breathless Only if you try All your mistakes turn into gold this very moment you’re king When you conquer you shall feast too. You can’t tell them what it is Only what...

Requiem

Andre Olden

2011-11-17

Let me start by saying that I’ve had the displeasure of attending my fair share of funerals, but few things have touched me deeply as an Ecuadorian funeral. Subsequently, I’ve seldom been more mortified by the measures that must be taken to accommodate the departed. On a Tuesday morning the service was to be held...

Under Her Wing

Molly Owens

2011-11-17

Sometimes I look around and I can’t believe where I am. When I first moved to Zuleta, a small indigenous community in the Andes Mountains, I experienced a shock like nothing I had felt before. I couldn’t imagine how I could live for six more months with a shower that consisted of heating up water...

The Calm During the Storm

Joan Hanawi

2011-11-15

I don’t think I fully understood the definition of the word “rainforest” until I moved here. I’ve quickly learned that the rainforest is aptly named because it does, in fact, rain every day. As a Southern California native, my idea of rain is a ten minute drizzle storm that stops traffic and makes the top...

My first machete

Trevor Porter

2011-11-11

I awoke to my first morning at the Jumandi Caverns to roosters. Lots of roosters. If I was surprised then, I should have saved it for when I walked out the door. My family was gathering to go to a minga, or a communal meeting for work, and I was going, too. In order to...

Every Day, A Silent Hike

Andre Olden

2011-11-11

Each morning, I’m awoken to the sound of my host mother’s voice just outside my door, “venga al desayuno, Andrecito.” (Come to breakfast, Andrecito.) (Well, initially I’m awoken to the sound of roosters crowing outside my window at 4am, but that’s beside the point.) Before me, there is usually a breakfast quite uncharacteristic of what...

Lightning, Bugs, and Lightning Bugs

Tessalyn Morrison

2011-11-11

Nothing cheers you up after a day of dropping thermometers, dealing with screaming feverish children, and language misunderstandings like big, huge bugs and giant rainstorms. In all seriousness…nothing does. Sometimes I feel like I am living on the Discovery channel. Even in my own house you can see the mile-long lines of ants carrying leaves,...

Home/Family

Lily Ellenberg

2011-11-11