2010-11-15
I don’t think that van would have passed a car inspection back in the states. In fact I know it wouldn’t have. Not with the door constantly flying open during the drive. The seats were unsteady and the glass in the window was cracked. The busboy poking me in my back repeatedly urging me to...
Read More2010-11-14
I had spent the last 24 hours running between my bedroom and the bathroom, being force-fed oregano tea and chicken broth, and battling between “finding the light” in the situation and being thoroughly bummed out I wasn’t at my first day of my apprenticeship. After a day of this, I was starved, and Mamá and...
Read More2010-11-14
At 12:13 on Thursday, I should be delving into the first day of my apprenticeship at Pastoral Migratoria de Ibarra. I should be jabbering away with Mariela, my advisor, soaking in all that is political advocacy for the Human Rights of immigrants, anxiously planning tomorrow’s trip to Quito where I will be introduced to one...
Read More2010-11-14
As I am walking to work in the morning, I am mesmerized by the dominant view of wispy clouds floating past the beautiful visage of the Imbabura volcano. One week has passed since I have moved-in to La Calera, an indigenous community near the market town of Otavalo. It’s an interesting and important change from...
Read More2010-11-12
I am Darwin’s white moth against a forest of soot-covered trees, and I am evolving. Individualism is a strangely defined term, and as I learn three new languages, more and more definitions become difficult to understand. Los Angeles has a tendency to idealize individualism, with an extreme focus on breeding the independent self. To that I...
Read More2010-11-12
So, it was not quite a barbershop. It was more of a decrepit barber-shack on the side of the road, huddled among the other barely-standing, hand-built structures under which people house their livelihoods, selling fruit by the kilo and plastic bags full of sugar to saturate morning coffee and the grotesquely sweet third cup of...
Read More2010-11-12
Quimbolitos are little gifts from the gods. I’m not kidding. They’re these delectable pound cake-like, steamed concoctions of sweet, buttery goodness wrapped up in the leaf of some secret plant I still can’t figure out. If you ever come to Ecuador, make sure quimbolitos are the first meal you eat—they’ll also be the last, because...
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