The Weirdness of Normalcy
Ely Kadish
May 15, 2013
As someone who had experienced Reverse Culture Shock before, I prepared myself for the worst. I had lived that type of emotional period, before after only six weeks over seas, so I could only imagine how bad this was going to be. I painted on my smile, stuffed my most precious memories in little boxes...
Read More
Just One
Ely Kadish
March 27, 2013
[This was originally a speech given at training seminar. I left it as it was to give the most organic experience.] I have always struggled with the idea of one. I was the kid who could never read one page, only watch one more hour or just eat one cookie. One just never seemed like enough,...
Read More
The Uneven Road to The Unknown Destination
Ely Kadish
February 28, 2013
As the bus chugs up the side of Volcán Imbabura I catch myself associating the rhythmic whining sounds of overworked gears with the Little Engine That Could’s positive motto, “I think I can, I think I can”; only I’m really hoping we make it up in one try. The bus bounces over the jutting rocks...
Read More
The Age Line
Ely Kadish
February 26, 2013
Age is a funny thing; it is a concept that seems to have us wrapped around its finger. We are always worrying about how our age changes us, not how we change our age. I have always seen age stages that are split but the invisible, yet decisive, Age Line. The first stage is childhood:...
Read More
It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World
Ely Kadish
January 4, 2013
…But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl. Before arriving in Ecuador I read and was told many stories about the culture I would be living in, and one concept that constantly recurred was the idea of Machismo. In short it is the practice of a largely male dominated society — unequal work...
Read MoreA Day In My Life
Ely Kadish
November 28, 2012
7:00 am I wake up and begin my day Mornings consist of helping get Valentina (the baby) dressed, cleaning my half of the room and setting the table for breakfast 8:40am I wait for my bus to come speeding down the road.. In the background I watch Volcán Imbabura peak out through the...
Read More
Reacting to Reality
Ely Kadish
November 10, 2012
The three way intersection at my bus-stop has no stop sign. It has no traffic light or Policeman directing the way. The first day, I stood on the corner horrified that no one would stop, that the car would crash with the gas truck clamoring down the other road or crush the child passing on...
Read More
Here I am
Ely Kadish
September 10, 2012
Here I am a baby. I do not yet know how to live in this place. I am guided and my hand is held. I see all, but understand much less. I soak up all I can each day hoping to retain something for tomorrow. I am ready to grow. Here I am a child....
Read More
Passion
Ely Kadish
July 10, 2012
Life places many questions before us, shaping and molding our way of thinking and acting. Some question the “why” and others question the “how” but in the end the “so what!” is all that really matters. In the end, a life is not measured by the atoms or the bonds but by the path and...
Read More