A Letter to Myself Seven Months Ago

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…

29 March, 2013

Unapologetic Pride

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…

14 March, 2013

Defining Developing

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…

05 February, 2013

Getting the Hang of Thursdays

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…

04 January, 2013

A Day in the Life

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

The Fool

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…

18 October, 2012

The Virtue of Sharing

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…

13 September, 2012

An Unlikely Thank You

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…

13 August, 2012