Teddy Dondanville
Rock Climbing Guide & Freelance Writer
Archives
As my birthday approaches during the current pandemic, I am spending time reflecting on what it means to not necessarily feel special at this time. Me, like so many others, are experiencing what it feels like to have a meaningful event get put on hold, or worse, completely washed over. Others are postponing the weddings they’ve been planning for years while some high school and college graduates experience the anti-climatic culmination of… Read More
In Peru, one of the most common ways to say goodbye to someone is “cuidate“. For a group of people, it would be “cuidense“. It comes from the verb cuidarse which means to take care of or to look after. After a while, I found myself saying this a lot. I would even step it up a notch and say “cuidate mucho” which doesn’t really make sense in English. You probably wouldn’t… Read More
My two years in Peru were surrounded by mountains. I lived in the Andes. Between the Cordillera Blanca and the Cordillera Negra. It was epically beautiful to have such towering mountains on all sides of me every single day. They were always the highest things. The sun and moon would always set and rise behind them. My horizon was greatly diminished in distance because of how close I was living to the… Read More
Another thing I have noticed since I’ve been back in the US is that some of my eating habits have changed. The most obvious to me is my concern for not wasting food. While living in Peru I learned not to say no to someone who is offering you food. Along with that, it is very important to finish everything on your plate. Receiving food and being grateful for it is really… Read More
Since I have come to Perú my media intake has increased quite a bit. I find myself using my cell phone a lot more, and relying on my computer to entertain me. For some people I think this might sound like the opposite of the Peace Corps experience. In fact, I never would have predicted that my media intake in the Peace Corps would grow to be larger than it was when… Read More
In Peru there is a lot of waiting outside of doors. If you go to someone else’s house it is polite to wait for the host or hostess to invite you inside. Going to someone’s house and walking straight in would be really strange. This much is true for bedrooms also. When I lived with my host family, my host siblings would never just walk into my room. They would always be… Read More
A while back I bought a book for Whitney as a gift. I became interested in the book because the author was a climber and self-publisher. I had read some of his other stuff and liked his writing. When I found out I could contribute to his Kickstarter campaign and receive a copy of the book I went for it. I didn’t know much about the book besides that it was a… Read More
Teddy Dondanville 