Hi there Dani! So you’re just about ready to leave for Ecuador. You’ve got a backpack stuffed to the brim with clothes, ambitions, and expectation. I hope you’re enjoying your clean clothes, because in just a few months every single article will have become a dwelling for an impressive amount of bed bugs. Also you can tell Mom you…

29 March, 2013

With her bubble gum pink shall, bowler hat, long anako skirt, and shoes that garishly advertises Jesus as he savior, she stands defiantly on the side of the road. She is fourteen-year-old indigenous girl of Guamote. As her parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents do, she speaks Kichwa. Unlike her relatives, however, she also knows Spanish. She attends a bilingual school,…

14 March, 2013

This blog was first published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review.  You can read the original posting here. _________________________ For the past decade or so, the validity of the term “third world” has been a topic of debate. A phrase coined during the Cold War to distinguish allegiances, many argued that it is outdated. Others…

05 February, 2013

Guamote has but one claim to fame. It is the only reason the small Ecuadorean town gets a sentence in “The Lonely Planet Travel Guide”, or receives any hits on Google. It attracts locals from all over the Southern Sierra, and even the occasional gringo. Every Thursday hundreds of vendors, buyers, and livestock inundate the streets of Guamote for the…

04 January, 2013

The video below documents a day in my life here in Ecuador. Of course, no two days have ever been the same, and a “typical” day really just doesn’t exist. Nonetheless, enjoy, and a Happy Thanksgiving to all! A Day in the Life  

27 November, 2012

Almost exactly a year ago the Lexington high school yearbook committee assigned me the notorious task of choosing a senior quote. Like everyone else, I pretended not to care. Of course I actually spent hours googling “cool sounding quotes” in hopes of finding the perfect combination of words to leave behind for others to inevitably …

18 October, 2012

I was taught from a young age, as most children are, about the virtue of sharing. I learned that sharing is caring, that greed was an ugly trait, and that yes, I really did have to give some of my chocolate to my sister. Of course I’ve had my fair share of avaricious moments, but…

13 September, 2012

I never thought I’d see the day where I was grateful for being rejected from my top school. Six months ago if you had told me that I would eventually feel this way, I probably would have said you were crazy with that impressive cynicism only we teenagers are capable of. But here I stand,…

13 August, 2012