Outside of Otavalo, hundreds of indigenous villages lie scattered throughout the highland Andes terrain. Most of these communities struggle to survive via subsistance farming; most have little access to adequate schools, healthcare, transportation or electricity.

Several international non-profit groups have begun working in these highland communities to help address their medical and educational needs. For a month and a half in the fall of 2005, I joined one of these groups as a volunteer, teaching basic grammar, math and art skills to 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th graders attending a tiny school in the village of Urcusiqui, near the Volcano Cotacachi. Sales of images in this portfolio, along with generous contributions from local residents, are being used to build a colegio (junior high school) for the students, who were previously unable to attend school past sixth grade.