2011-10-01
As the end of our training approached, I was struck by how we had come full circle. From the Skype conference call with a former Stanford professor about international development to a lecture from a Brazilian professor on the same topic but in Portuguese, speaking about PIB (produto interno bruto) instead of GDP.But there was...
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2011-10-01
“Ami! Aminata! Viens ici! Come here!” My 18-year-old Senegalese sister Aicha, calls for me, then, unsatisfied with my speed, pulls me from my room and plops me down in front of the television. “You won’t believe this” she tells me in French. A documentary is playing on TV, narrated in hushed tones by a solemn French actor,...
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2011-10-01
Just coming back from Cumbaya, the cutest town in Ecuador, and suffering from the paradise syndrome. A stucco church with bell tower edges a hedge-rowed garden park complete with a trickling fountain in the center. Boutiques surround the square across a cobblestone road that leads past the mission-style Educativo where the uniformed school-children are getting...
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2011-10-01
I’m here bumping along on the road to Tena. We drove through flat lands of farms and now we are going through those mountain roads that follow a river up through the wallowing hills. It’s all the browns and greens of moss and heather. Clay- the ground is saturated with water. And we feel very...
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2011-10-01
I have been very proud to learn how to ask questions, not only questions that arise in the end-of-a-chapter Review, but the ones that actually reflect what I am thinking. The ones that reflect the true issues that complicate me, but also questions that can bring out very interesting answers. Effective questions. They give me...
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2011-09-29
My first family outing was to a baby shower–it was a solid evening. By the time it was time to go, I decided my Indian outfit would pass for something unique at least, to avoid the other judgments. It was a nice town-house out in the mountainside with lots of nice people to kiss on...
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2011-09-29
I remember back in April, when I was first accepted into this program, dreaming of this part of the journey. The time when I’d have my final first. My last first day. The end of initial newness, unfamiliar introductions, constant irregularity—in a word, the end of discomfort. What I found instead was the hardest first...
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