"We shall not cease from exploration..."

I do feel I’m arriving where I started after decades - a lifetime, even - of exploration. And, while beautiful, it’s also unsettling.

Chantal PasquarelloFebruary 11, 2022

Stories as resistance, connection as power

I see sharing stories as a form of resistance - it creates a solidarity that makes outside forces (patriarchy, capitalism, you name it) seem less absolute.

Chantal PasquarelloFebruary 4, 2022

Who is Bubba?

I hadn’t heard the term Bubba before, and it’s been nagging me ever since.

Chantal PasquarelloJanuary 13, 2022

A very Cape Town Christmas

For ten days, I took a vow of noble silence and forsook the outside world and its distractions.

Chantal PasquarelloDecember 22, 2021

Great-full

With my favorite (thankful) holiday around the corner and the end of this year in sight, I can feel a shift happening.

Chantal PasquarelloNovember 21, 2021

Decolonize it all

I’ve talked about coloniality as a pervasive legacy underpinning and weighing down what I loosely refer to as “development” work, but it felt like I should try to cogently present my case. Ultimately, I decided it was wiser to let some of the experts speak.

Chantal PasquarelloOctober 17, 2021

A cog in the wheel

It doesn’t look as dramatic as Kabul airport, but over time the death toll from poorly thought out, rushed, or just plain bad policy in so many other countries (some of which I have personally worked in) is greater.

Chantal PasquarelloSeptember 21, 2021

Dark days

It all just feels impossibly bleak. And then I think, it’s going to get darker.

Chantal PasquarelloAugust 20, 2021

On the road again

One of the many strange things about spending over half my life outside the U.S. as a quasi-nomadic immigrant is that I’ve always had the option to leave.

Chantal PasquarelloJune 23, 2021

Aspiration not expectation

If we hold on too tightly to a certain expected result, we not only get frustrated when it doesn’t happen, we might miss other, unexpected things that did.

Chantal PasquarelloJune 16, 2021

Autopilot

Fair and equitable development is becoming like all the box gardens and sourdough starter and Zoom happy hours - relics of that terrifying time we were all on the brink together.

Chantal PasquarelloMay 11, 2021

A year of the blog.

A year ago, I started this blog because I felt that more genuine connection was quite literally at the heart of better, more effective social justice work.

Chantal PasquarelloApril 8, 2021