Fall/Winter 2010  

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Washington University in
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Postcard from Ecuador

ecuador

Campesinos cross a bridge in Cuenca, Ecuador, in the early morning.

Sam Steinberger, AB 2010 and recipient of the Department of Anthropology’s prestigious Bennett Award, was an indispensable part of the department staff. He contributed greatly to the creation of our new website before he left to travel to Alaska and Ecuador for the year. We asked him to send us a postcard from his travels, and the piece below is excerpted from a longer message sent to us from Ecuador.

Greetings to the Department of Anthropology!

As I casually mentioned in my previous message, the bus ride from Quito to Cuenca was, well, really long. On that 11-hour bus ride, I decided to distill the long into the compact, short world of haiku. Here is an 11-hour segment of my life in Ecuador.

Florescent virgen,
reflejada en the wet
Panamerican highway.

Cemetery fog,
(lonely bus thru Andes’ night)
what caskets lie here?

Daze fluttering moth
Four cold lights, dim in a row
Headlight!--uncle’s face

A late night bus ride
(no movie). There’s not much more
to do, than think.

Capilla San Antonio:
There you sit! sturdy, small, square
‘neath yellow cones of light

Clothes on a line.
It’s night--a taxi in the country--
traveler, you must pass on.

Saludos!

Sam