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Our House in the Clouds: Building a Second Life in the Andes of Ecuador
Contributor(s): Blankenship, Judy (Author)
ISBN: 0292745273     ISBN-13: 9780292745278
Publisher: University of Texas Press
OUR PRICE:   $22.46  
Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats
Published: March 2013
Qty:
Temporarily out of stock - Will ship within 2 to 5 weeks
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- History | Latin America - South America
- Biography & Autobiography | Personal Memoirs
Dewey: 986.6
LCCN: 2012025778
Series: Louann Atkins Temple Women & Culture
Physical Information: 0.7" H x 6" W x 9" (0.80 lbs) 240 pages
Themes:
- Cultural Region - Latin America
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
While many baby boomers are downsizing to a simpler retirement lifestyle, photographer and writer Judy Blankenship and her husband Michael Jenkins took a more challenging leap in deciding to build a house on the side of a mountain in southern Ecuador. They now live half the year in Cañar, an indigenous community they came to know in the early nineties when Blankenship taught photography there. They are the only extranjeros (outsiders) in this homely, chilly town at 10,100 feet, where every afternoon a spectacular mass of clouds rolls up from the river valley below and envelopes the town. In this absorbing memoir, Blankenship tells the interwoven stories of building their house in the clouds and strengthening their ties to the community. Although she and Michael had spent considerable time in Cañar before deciding to move there, they still had much to learn about local customs as they navigated the process of building a house with traditional materials using a local architect and craftspeople. Likewise, fulfilling their obligations as neighbors in a community based on reciprocity presented its own challenges and rewards. Blankenship writes vividly of the rituals of births, baptisms, marriages, festival days, and deaths that counterpoint her and Michael's solitary pursuits of reading, writing, listening to opera, playing chess, and cooking. Their story will appeal to anyone contemplating a second life, as well as those seeking a deeper understanding of daily life in the developing world.

Contributor Bio(s): Blankenship, Judy: - Judy Blankenship is an award-winning photographer, writer, and editor. She is the author of Cañar: A Year in the Highlands of Ecuador, and her photographic exhibition, The Cañari of Southern Ecuador, traveled to museums, universities, and cultural venues across the United States, Canada, and Ecuador. With Cañari colleagues, Blankenship has collaborated on several documentary projects with the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, including photographs, videos, audio recordings, and a bilingual Quichua-Spanish book.