Premature Good-byes
Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Repeat. You keep your mind focused on your breathing just to keep it off of what the day holds for you. You are heading back home, but only to pack up your things and leave. It feels like no one knows what will happen so there is nothing left to do…
28 March, 2012
Piece of String
As I said my last goodbyes to my family, all the way back in August, my mother gave some last minute advice through the din: “And take that string off your wrist! Please, you want to look nice, don’t you?” Two weeks after receiving this message (and still wearing the string), I boarded a plane…
28 March, 2012
Close Your Eyes to See
Balance. Yin and yang, black and white, male and female, day and night, good and bad, sweet and salty, silence and cacophony; they compliment each other and make each other stronger. Because of the existence of one, the other is contrasted and highlighted. If we lived in perpetual winter, we would quickly grow tired of…
16 February, 2012
Not in Africa
(January 23, 2012) On our seven hour drive from Quito to the beach, there were plenty of interesting scenes to capture. We passed cascades, and churches, and landscapes, and drying laundry, and African Palm groves. What? African Palm? I’m in the Andes. What is an African palm doing here? And why…
16 February, 2012
Never the same in “Same”
It is pronounced sam-eh, and is a small coastal town towards the north of Ecuador. We were told the coast would be our host for the mid-term retreat. Since I am from PA, I was expecting a beach like New Jersey. Instead, as we drove through the mountains, all of a sudden the mountains tumbled…
07 February, 2012
Saturday Nights
Incidental music has never been so abused. The telenovelas here use all this intense music for a simple scene; things are way over-dramatized. My mom is watching a show and someone broke someone else’s heart, or killed someone, or saw something, whatever happens in soap-operas. All of a sudden this heartrending sad orchestral music pops out…
08 November, 2011
Whose Choice is This?
It’s midnight and the big day waits for me once I wake up, when I find out what my apprenticeship will be. It’s like the Ceremony of Twelves in The Giver. Jonas waits in apprehension while others decide what his career will be. His interests have been noted and his skills were tested and studied….
29 August, 2011
Familiar Faces
The usual questions I’m asked are “do you know any Spanish,” “have you ever been out if the country before,” “do you know anyone else in the organization.” My answer has so far been a huge grin and a laughing “no.” For a while I couldn’t understand why it might matter if I know people…
22 August, 2011
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