Siiri Morley '00
Be-aware Woman
It's the rainy season in Cuenca, Ecuador, but for a few days in February much of what falls from above seems to be coming from the balconies of gleeful residents. Carnival is in full swing in this South American city, and passers-by are routinely targeted by revelers young and old lobbing water balloons and dumping water buckets and then dredging their prey in flour.
"Good fun," writes Siiri Morley '00, "but a bit daunting at times."
Not that a little sticky batter is going to throw Morley off by much. She arrived for work a few days after Christmas 2004 fresh from a three-year stint with the Peace Corps in Lesotho, southern Africa. If there's one thing she brought with her from that challenging experience, it's an ability to adapt. "I feel like I can now land in any position, anywhere, in nearly any language, and function well," explains Morley. The Peace Corps teaches you lots about patience and resourcefulness.
Cuenca is also familiar territory. She had visited this city in the Andes as a teenager, when her father, a Spanish teacher at the Berkshire School in Massachusetts and former Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador, was scouting sites for a summer program.
"Ecuador is what sparked so many things in my life," Morley says from her office at the Center for International Studies. Not only did that first trip, made decidedly in the rough, acclimatize her to the often strenuous conditions of life in less-developed nations, but it kindled an interest in native handicrafts, environmental issues, human rights, and travel.
An international-studies major at Kenyon, Morley received the Chinese Prize as a sophomore and studied in China and Nepal before graduating cum laude. Researching her senior thesis on Navajo and Tibetan weaving traditions deepened her understanding of handicraft as a tool of native empowerment. She furthered her research interests in Asia and West Africa and South America before joining the Peace Corps and working for three years with indigenous craftswomen in Ty, Lesotho.
The Elelloang Basali (Be Aware Women) Weavers hand weave rugs, wall hangings, bags, and jackets from mohair. Morley's assignment was to assist the cooperative's members in export marketing, publicity, computer skills, English, and product development, including the revival of tribal designs.
She also initiated collaboration with an online crafts marketing company (africancraft.com/artist/elelloang) that now documents and publicizes the women's products. (A paper she wrote examining this artisan/Internet relationship received accolades and was presented at an international technology conference in Ghana.) As her relationship deepened with the weavers, Morley delved into HIV/AIDS education, nutritional training, and solar energy and recycling awareness.
Ty, Morley's adopted home base, was a densely populated urban village with many of the features of struggling African cities: garbage everywhere, growing crime, and intolerance toward outsiders. But she also found herself at the center of a loving host family with a beautiful garden where figs, peaches, carrots-and familial relationships-were sown and nurtured. Saying goodbye at the end of her tour was very hard, Morley said, especially to her adopted mother.
"She taught me everything I know about gardening and I taught her about herbs and their medicinal uses. It was a painful separation, but we're still in touch via letter and I e-mail regularly with one of her daughters."
In Cuenca, Morley has found old ties and new challenges. She is facilitating study-abroad programs for the school her father uses as the site for his summer classes, and is hoping to connect with Ecuador's rich community of indigenous artisans through a student volunteer program. "Funny how things come full circle," she says. "If it weren't for my parents' own Peace Corps experience, I would never have joined Peace Corps myself or taken this job."
Her plans for the future are flexible. Her hands-on experience in handicraft development and fair trade could well lead to work with nonprofits in this growing field. On the other hand, Cuenca, with its quirky February passions, is feeling very much like a good place to be just now. Says the intrepid Ms. Morley, "I could see myself staying in Ecuador for quite some time."
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