So I've been out of the loop the past, oh say, month and a half, catching up with old friends, giving out ecuadorian and otavalenan gifts, and getting reaquainted with life in the U.S. which is markedly different from life in Quito, Ecuador.
I'll include some pictures from my last days in Ecuador in the post and discuss them and then, hopefully post about my current job at the University of Michigan where I am writing from at the moment.
So as you may recall I was busy trying to decide what to do for my final paper in my class for the IPSL(International Partnerships in Service-Learning and Leadership) program called Social Organizations, Development and Service. Like my class on colonialism I wanted to take an Afro-Latin American perspective in my approach to this paper. I ended up writing on the role of NGOs(Non-Governmental Organizations) or ONGs(Organizacion no Gubernamental)----pronounced oh-eneh-hey(fun to say, haha). So again, I wrote about the effect of blanqueamiento on afro-ecuatorianos(as in my Andean Archeology class) and for the latter half of the paper discussed a couple ONGs that impact their lives such as the one that Chisara was working for (CARE). We also had to give a 20min. presentation IN SPANISH, on our organization, with analysis of our experience with the organization. Chisara took a picture of me during the presentation.
It was rough, the semester AND the papers that were both supposed to be 8-10pgs...mine were six and a half, not quite what they wanted but apparently it didn't hurt me too much. I ended the semester with a 3.75 overall GPA with my only B coming in the aforementioned program class. While the classes were challenging, as far as speaking in spanish 24/7, readings and papers were concerned, grading was not as critical as I would've expected.
The ABOVE is a post that I started the BEGINNING of TASS on 6/29/08 as the kids were arriving. I remember working on it while Abdul's sister and friends roame
d the Telluride house and have been in a severe procrastination drought over the past months. I think part of re-acclimating myself to life in the states was ignore this part of my Ecuadorian experience...posting weekly, bi weekly or whenever I could. Well, a combination of that and the whirlwind of a experience being a tutor for Telluride, and genuine procrastination/laziness. Anywho, I'm going to try and make one or two long posts about telluride and maybe one wrapping up Ecuador, but man, by now, that was a YEAR ago! Time flies, time to recap on the blog...In Retrospect,after posting these pictures:
I was going to make a post talking about this random demonstration me and Kristina bypassed the last day of our service job, obviously they weren't fans of president Correa with signs like Hambreador, which is like guy who makes you hungry(translated by me).
