Open Hands and Dirty Feet

Teen Center Paseo

2012-01-31T14:43:00.006-06:00

Last Saturday the Teen Center took its first paseo of the New Year to a natural rock-climbing wall near Sangolquí. The trip was lead by an Ecuadorian friend of ours, Joshua, who is a certified mountain guide. He supplied us with all of the necessary equipment, and talked to the teens about safety and proper climbing technique. The wall we used was a natural rock face with built in hooks for ropes that climbers have installed over the years. It was a beautiful place, hidden away behind farmhouses and right alongside a river. We got lucky with the weather and the typical afternoon rain-showers held off (for the most part) until all of the teens and adults had their chance to try out the wall.

We advertised for the trip during the Fiestas de Rumiloma last weekend, and received a lot of interest. Several kids wanted to come but couldn’t because of scheduling issues, and we look forward to seeing them at future Teen Center events. Six teens participated in the paseo, three Teen Center regulars and three of our new English students, as well as Walter, a friend and student of ours who has been helping us out with Teen Center events. Walter is an active participant in several Manna programs, and is always a pleasure to have around. It is especially nice to have him helping with the Teen Center, since he can joke around and relate to the kids in a way that is much harder for Charlie, Watkins and I.

The rock-climbing trip was something we have been planning for a while now, and we were all pleased with the outcome. We are trying to introduce the teens to more positive Ecuadorian role models, and expose them to opportunities they may not have otherwise. Only one of the teens had ever been rock-climbing before, but after they got over the initial fear everyone seemed to really enjoy it. Mishell, one of the new teens in my adult English class, was the only girl on the trip, and the first person to reach the top of the wall. We all had a great time joking around, and cheering one another on. It was fun for me to hang out with some of my new English students outside of the classroom setting, even as they pestered me to translate inappropriate rap lyrics. The paseo was overall a great success, and we look forward to planning and executing the next one.

Carlitos (Profe Charlie) giving it a shot

Joshua and I belaying

Mishell, almost at the top

Johan getting started

Steven (TC regular) crawled up the wall like a spider

FDR

2012-01-24T13:53:00.000-06:00

This past Saturday saw the culmination of much planning,advertising, and preparation undertaken over the last several weeks by ourPDs. The fruit of our labor wasthe successful Fiesta de Rumiloma (or FDR), a community-wide celebration now inits second year.

The festival’s purpose is to promote Manna Project, theclasses and services we offer, to promote other local organizations that dogood work in our community, and to bring residents together for a goodtime. Other organizations thatattended the festival included the Red Cross Ecuador, Antorcha de Vida (anonprofit that provides opportunities and services to handicapped children),Fundación Añamisi (an organic farming cooperative and produce vender), La CasaVictoria (an Ecuadorian organization similar to ours but operating in Quito),Protección de Animales Ecuador (or PAE, an organization offering freeveterinary services), and several local firefighters who put on an emergencymedical response demonstration with the Red Cross.

About his organization’s participation in the festival,Christian Añamisi of Fundación Añamisi said, “It was nice to have theopportunity to actually show our produce to potential customers,” and addedthat he hoped the event would continue in future years.

The Fiesta was held at the Plaza de Rumiloma, a grassy spacein front of a church near our Centro, and in the neighborhoodof many people we serve. Among thehighlights of the activities were the very popular “saltarín” kids’ bouncehouse, spirited games of musical chairs and three-legged races, and thepresence of our friend and MC, Christian Guachamin.

We thank all of the people and organizations who attended,as well as the weather gods who waited until three o’clock to release the rainand lightning, and we look forward to continue working with our community thisweek as our programs begin anew.

The MC and life of the party! Muchas gracias Christian...

A new word for our Spanish vocabulary: "el saltarín" - kids' bounce house

Tug o' War: a game that is simple, timeless, and cross-culturally attractive

Not an actual emergency: the Red Cross and local firefighters demonstrate the procedure for responding to car accidents

From left to right: Nicole, Heather, Emily, and Taylor

Solo Para Mujeres!

2012-01-17T11:49:00.002-06:00

Last Saturday the Women’s Exercise program held our first of hopefully many “women only” parties. The idea was to get to know more women from the community, share health information that they may not have access to otherwise, promote our nutrition and exercise program, and introduce more people to the centro. The party was a lot of fun, and a big success with 12 women and teenagers from the community attending, as well as all of the MPI girls. We took advantage of the opportunity to show off our new mirrors which we were finally able to purchase thanks to a generous donation of $200 annually that was designated to our Women’s Exercise program.

We started off the party in the kitchen, handing out recipes and working together to make healthy snacks. We listened to music and chatted while preparing the food and allowing latecomers to trickle in. While the women ate, Emily and I gave a charla on the healthy way to lose weight, tackling the nutrition and healthy diet aspect as well as the importance of exercise. In order to promote our exercise program, we put on music and each gave a 3-4 minute demonstration of our various workout classes. Some of the women who have been to our classes before joined in on the demos while the others watched, cheered us on, and took videos.

After the demos, dripping with sweat, we discussed our plans for the next few months, which include a 5k race in March and a potential 4-week bootcamp to help prepare for it. The women were really interested in our ideas, and gave tons of valuable feedback and suggestions. We listened to questions and comments, and then ended the party by handing out health related articles that pertain specifically to Ecuador. Everyone seemed pleased with the get-together and thankful for the information. We had a great time hosting, and are looking forward to our next fiesta solo para mujeres!

Discussing the importance of healthy diet and exercise

Gigi and Paola joining in on the Zumba demo

Taylor leading the class

Nicole discussing proper weight-lifting form

Weight class demo

2012-01-12T12:19:00.002-06:00

We are finally back and settled into our normal schedule at the library, and our regulars are starting to trickle back in. Us PDs are all fully refreshed after our weekend retreat to Cojimies, on the coast of Ecuador. We spent the weekend in a cabin on the beach that was recommended to us by a friend. It was nice to spend time together again after our separate vacations. We discussed our successes and shortcomings from the last two quarters and reassessed our goals for the upcoming semester. We have a lot of big plans we want to see carried out before the next group of PDs comes in July, and we have the renewed energy and motivation to make it happen.

We have a big week coming up so we are all busy preparing, making phone calls, and advertising, advertising, advertising! Next Saturday we are hosting our annual community celebration, Fiestas de Rumiloma (which we lovingly refer to as FDR). This celebration is a great chance for us to meet new people and really expand our reach in the community. We are inviting all of our partner organizations and other local foundations to come, give demonstrations, and hand out information. Local food vendors will be selling snacks, and the president of Rumiloma is set to give a speech.

Preparations for the celebration have included traveling all around the valley and into Quito to deliver invitations, hunting down a bounce-house, DJ and sound equipment, and talking up the event to everyone we meet. We are hoping to bring in a record number of community members and boost interest for our classes, which start on January 24th. This will be our first major community event, and we are all really excited to see how it turns out. There are lots of exciting things happening here in the next few weeks so stay tuned for more updates and pictures!

Rainbow over our cabaña in Cojimies (sadly we didn't find the pot of gold)

Sunset on the beach

(Nicole Hamilton's photos)

Feliz Año!

2012-01-06T14:29:00.002-06:00

Happy New Year everyone!

MPI Ecuador is back from vacation and ready to start a new quarter. While some of the PDs returned to the States for the holidays, others stayed to travel around Latin America and visit with friends and family. Four of us traveled to Peru before Christmas and hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. We spent four days walking in the footsteps of the Incans, sleeping in tents, visiting ruins, and hearing the rich history of the area (not to mention carrying 20lb backpacks). We finished the hike exhausted and sore, but the experience was definitely vale la pena. Two of our PDs visited Guatemala, Taylor traveling with Jesse and Fiona (Nicaragua PDs) and Watkins with his mom after a trip to Belize.

Nicole, Rachel and I got the opportunity to spend New Years Eve in Ecuador, which was a very different experience than we were used to. A few days before the holiday we started to see these almost life-sized dolls called año viejos spring up on doorsteps, in storefronts, and tied to hoods of cars. These dolls are made to look like famous people, politicians, or family members, and represent the year that is passing. In Quito they hold huge competitions to see who can make the biggest and best año Viejo and win a cash prize. At midnight on New Years Eve family and friends gather in the streets to burn the dolls as a way to get rid of bad luck and negative energy from the past year.

All throughout the day busses were stopped in traffic as random fireworks went off and guys dressed up as women begged for change at stoplights… not something you typically experience in the States. These “women” are supposed to represent the widows of the año viejos who will be burned at midnight.

A friend of ours Christian invited us to spend the evening with his family in Selva Alegre, a neighborhood nearby, so we got to experience all of these rituals first hand, along with an explanation of their meaning. We wore red underwear (for love in the new year) and jumped over the fire where they burned an effigy of Christian’s younger primo Gabo. Although slightly overwhelmed by all the new traditions and superstitions, I think we succeeded in securing ourselves a lucky, love-filled and prosperous 2012.

Taylor and Jesse (MPI Nicaragua) kayaking in Guatemala

Our Inca Trail hiking group

Really excited to see Machu Picchu

Año viejos on display

Saying goodbye to bad luck and negative energy

Christmas Party

2011-12-15T14:24:00.010-06:00

As a holiday send-off for all our library regulars (and some new ones as well), on Saturday the Ecuador PDs hosted a Christmas party with themed drinks, games, and prizes. If attendance is a measure of success, our party was a hit, and a good sign for the next quarter. It was also an important chance to say goodbye to the kids who we will not see until January, after our upcoming 3-week vacation. Thank you to all adults and children who attended, and ¡Feliz Navidad!

By the numbers: with over 120 people officially signing their name at the door, we estimate that there were around 170 people at the Christmas party

Meet Pedro, the new Manna ping pong champion

'Tis the season for... arts and crafts

New faces in the teen center

Emily, a library regular, with her Christmas snowman

Everyone loves chess in the teen center, especially these jóvenes from Emily and Taylor's nutrition class

Blog Swap: Nicaragua!

2011-12-08T11:51:00.003-06:00

And for our next blog we have and update from our oldest MPI site, here is Samantha with a day in the life of a Nicaragua Program Director:

Hi! My name is Samantha and I’m a member of MPI’s Nicaragua team. This week, MPI Nicaragua is excited to share a bit more about what we do here at Manna’s oldest site. Rather than rattle off a list of programs, we thought it might be fun to share a Thursday in the life. Below is a typical, if slightly busy, Thursday in my life. Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

7:30 a.m.: Wake up, sneak out of my room so as not to wake up my roommate Carrie, and head to the kitchen. There I find Elena, our amazing cook, finishing up a batch of French toast. We have a cook Monday through Thursday to allow us to focus on programs during our four busy days of the week.

9:00 a.m.: Pile into the micro with all nine fellow PDs to head to La Chureca (Managua's trash dump). The drive to Chureca takes about 20 minutes, and provides an interesting cross-section of life in Managua. At one main intersection, two familiar men propel themselves onto the hood of the micro and begin cleaning the windshield. We keep a stash of cookies in the glove compartment for such occasions, and these guys always remember us, making sure to shake everyone’s hand through the windows before the light turns green.

9:45 a.m.: We arrive at the clinic and community center in La Chureca after a brief but incredibly sweaty walk. On Tuesdays, I help Jesse teach our brand-new kids’ English class in Chureca’s Esperanza School. Thursdays, however, I still work with Jenny and Karen, my older, more advanced students. Unfortunately, Karen was unable to come this morning due to a university soccer game, and Jenny is nowhere to be found. On the walk to Esperanza we run into Milton, one of our students. His regular teacher, Matt, is busy, so I offer to work with Milton. Milton is 17 years old and recently moved out of Chureca, but returns to the dump to hang out with friends because he feels that people outside are too fresa (pretentious). Milton knows everyone in Chureca, and offers to help me find Jenny’s house to check in and schedule our next class.

10:10 a.m.: Milton and I find Jenny’s house, and, in lieu of ringing a non-existent doorbell, we peer over the fence (constructed with black trash bags). We see Jenny’s head peeping out of a structure on the other side, and realize that she’s in the shower. While rinsing shampoo out of her hair, she tells us with a smile that she’ll be ready to meet next Tuesday.

11:00 a.m.: I conclude a short but productive lesson on the past simple tense with Milton. After finishing our discussion on Lil Wayne vs. Eminem and giving him a homework assignment, I meet up with the other PDs (who have been walking around talking to moms in our Child Sponsorship Program) and we make our way back to the micro.

12:30 p.m.: Arrive at El Farito, the community center where we work in the local community of Cedro Galan. Thirty kids promptly spill through the gates and line up to wash their hands before sitting down to collectively scream/sing their prayers and eat (“GRACIASSSSS SEÑOOOOOOOR POOOOR TU AMOOOOOR!!!”). I have a great talk with Armando and Gerald as they inhale their arroz con pollo.

1:15 p.m.: To incentivize and reward kids for helping with Comedor cleanup, every two weeks we put on a venta in which helpers who have earned “dolares” can purchase items ranging from silly bands to crayons or—for the big spenders—a Frisbee. The venta runs smoothly this afternoon, without any tears or drama!

1:30 p.m.: Today, I stick around for Fiona and Christin’s Kids English class. I sit at the back table with Agdiel, a 16-year-old with a severe mental disability. Agdiel is great today, super quiet and well behaved. We draw squiggles and participate when Fiona shouts call-and-response questions (“IS HE ON THE BUS?!” “YES HE IS!”)

2:30 p.m.: On the way back to the house, I pass by Jorge, one of the students in our Kids English class at Salero. Even though he’s with his cool friends, Jorge still waves to me! Yes!

3:15 p.m: Get home and help Carrie and Anna to prep for the women’s exercise pool party. Today all of the regular attendees of women’s exercise are coming to the house for a pool workout!

4:15 p.m.: After taking some amazing photos of everyone bouncing around the pool, Maggie and I watch Peter Pan and play Frisbee with Henry, Junior, and Jose, three boys who have tagged along with their moms.

5:30 p.m.: Time for Adult Beginner’s English! Fiona reviews object pronouns, and we do a worksheet in class to practice. We have a big class today, and everyone is a little more chatty than normal, but also excited to participate. We’ve recently decided to incorporate more listening activities, so we end class by asking students to fill in the missing lyrics of a Taylor Swift song. Unfortunately Love Story is way to difficult for our class, but everyone remains enthusiastic, especially after seeing Fiona and I sing along.

6:45 p.m.: Get home, eat a quick dinner, and get ready for Anna and Maggie’s Advanced English class. I don’t teach advanced, but enjoy going, as it tends to be very social and conversation-based. A lot of our close friends in the community go, and it’s invariably a good time.

8:30 p.m.: Get home from advanced, do some dishes with Fiona, and relax. Friday’s a light day—our only programs are computer class and girls’ soccer—so there’s nothing to prepare for!

If you'd like to keep up with Samantha and MPI Nicaragua's work, you can follow their blog. Thanks for reading!

Blog Swap: Guatemala!

2011-12-06T10:46:00.006-06:00

Every week you hear about what is going on here in Ecuador, but did you know that Manna operates three international sites in Latin America? Though all three sites are driven by the same mission, each site looks very different on the ground. This week you will hear from PDs in Guatemala and Nicaragua who will share their first hand experiences with Manna in their respective countries. Here is this week's guest blog from Cameron Roth of MPI Guatemala:

What’s up Manna friends, family, fans and followers! My name is Cameron Roth and I am a Program Director in Sololá, Guatemala. Today, I have the distinct pleasure of sharing a little bit of our life in Guatemala. For starters, we live in the town of Sololá on Lake Atitlan. For those of you who have never heard of this little heaven on Earth, allow me to turn to my good friend Aldous Huxley (the casual author of everyone’s favorite high school novel Brave New World). Mr. Huxley describes Lake Atitlan as “[Lake] Como with additional embellishments of several immense volcanoes. It really is too much of a good thing." Mr. Huxley, I agree with you.

However, Manna Project is about collaborating with and helping target communities abroad, not just living in beautiful places (although it is a plus). Our programs differ from those in Ecuador and Nicaragua as we run all of them through two schools, Central and Cooperativa. In Chaquijyá, about twenty minutes outside of Sololá on the Pan-American Highway, we work with kids teaching English, giving health talks, and working on environmental awareness. In Guatemala, English is a government-mandated subject, but as you can imagine most rural teachers do not speak a word of English. So we teach in La Primaría, which is 1^st – 6^th grade, and give English classes to 3^rd – 6^th graders. In addition, we offer after-school English for advanced and/or motivated students, and Teacher’s English so that they can begin forming their own curricula. Our health talks consist of preventative health measures such as proper dental hygiene, the importance of washing your hands, and good nutrition. Additionally, we are collaborating with women in the community to make soap from household items to provide it to the schools. When school is out, as it is right now, we run an educational summer camp as well. Easily the most fun part of the year, we have science experiments, sports tournaments, dance-offs, art projects and of course the daily game of cat and mouse.

Finally, we have just broken ground on construction of a four-room addition to the Central school. However, this addition is not your run-of-the-mill construction. Instead, we are constructing a second floor with plastic bottles stuffed with inorganic trash from the community. Each bottle holds about a pound of trash, and we plan to use about 13,000 bottles, so let me do the math…carry the one…that’s 13,000 less pounds of trash burned or thrown in a landfill! Wowzers!

Yes, life is wonderful here in Guatemala. I encourage all who have the opportunity to come visit the beautiful Lake Atitlan and the authentic Maya communities surrounding the lake. Every day, as we soak in the beauty of the “land of eternal spring,” we are reminded of how lucky we are to be here. The people are warm and passionate, and accept us although we may be a little bit different… and a little bit taller. It is a pleasure to build relationships and work together with the people in Chaquijyá.

To keep up with the MPI Guatemala team follow our blog at www.mpiguatemala.blogspot.com!

Orale,

Cameron

A Very Manna Thanksgiving (Part Dos)

2011-12-01T09:00:00.005-06:00

Here are some photos from our second Thanksgiving feast which we celebrated on Sunday. We all had to work on the holiday itself so we wanted another chance to cook and eat, listen to Christmas music, and spend time with our Manna family.

We spent all day cooking and taste testing

A vegetarian elbow deep in turkey... talk about personal sacrifice

A picture-perfect turkey, despite our broken oven

Dinner is served

And our lovely desserts modeled by the lovely PDs who made them

UGA Volunteers

2011-11-26T13:44:00.009-06:00

We dropped off our first group of short-term volunteers at the airport yesterday morning. The group of five UGA girls arrived late last Saturday night and spent the week exploring Quito, helping us with some manual labor, and visiting our programs. Sunday was spent hitting the tourist highlights of Quito with a visit to the Panecillo (the huge statue of the Virgin which overlooks the city), climbing the steep ladders of the Basilica, and shopping in the artisan market. On Monday they gave the library a much needed paint job, covering scuffmarks and dirty hand prints with a lovely shade sea-foam green. We moved around our usual Tuesday Morning Meeting to take the girls on a hike along Rio Pita to see the waterfalls and experience a bit of nature. They survived their first camioneta ride (gracias Joshua) along the bumpy roads of Sangolqui, and tested their lungs hiking through the woods. Although the trail was flat (más o menos) the girls were still hiking around at an elevation close to 9,000 feet, no easy task when you are used to living close to sea level.

They’ve spent the afternoons hanging out in the library, getting to know the niños, and sitting in on our classes. They helped us put the final touches on our plastic-bottle Christmas tree and practiced their Spanish while playing Egipto with the kids. The girls raised money for the trip to go towards some of our program needs. We took advantage of this extra funding and the extra sets of hands to build some new, sturdier aerobic steps for the women’s exercise class. The volunteers came up with the new design, took a trip to Hiper Market to get the supplies, and spent Wednesday hammering and gluing away. The steps are a huge improvement from the ones we made a few months ago, and now we have enough for a full class.

After the centro closed on Wednesday night we all hopped on a bus to Quito for some Great Indian Food (their cooking is better than their creativity) and the girls got to experience a little salsa dancing in the Mariscal. Some of the volunteers got to see the Chaupitena nutrition class, and accompany the kids on a fieldtrip to the Añamisi’s organic garden. Others stayed at home finishing up the steps and helping to prepare our Thanksgiving dinner (round one for the PDs). We were all feeling a little homesick being so far away on the holiday, so it was nice to come back from the centro to a home-cooked feast. After dinner we all sat down to de-brief and to get the girls’ perspective on our programs and the Ecuador site overall. It was a great chance for us to chat about the experience, discuss some of our challenges, and remind ourselves of the many rewards. The week flew by for us in a busy blur, but we want to thank the UGA girls for their positive attitudes, suggestions, and hard work.

The UGA girls painting the library

Camioneta ride to Rio Pita

We finally made it to the waterfall

Building steps for aerobics class

Manna Thanksgiving (part I)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T13:45:00.001-06:00

Although we are far from home for the holiday, we find ourselves among family and with many reasons to be thankful. I am thankful for this amazing opportunity to travel and to experience the richness of the Ecuadorian culture. I am thankful for the chance to teach and learn from the beautiful people in the Chillos Valley. I am thankful to the community of Rumiloma for inviting us into their hearts and homes. I am thankful to my fellow PD’s for sharing in this unique experience. I am thankful to all of our supporters (both financial and emotional), and to the UGA girls for choosing to spend their holiday with us.

For most of us it is our first time being away from home for Thanksgiving. Here in the Manna House we have decided to ease our homesickness by celebrating twice. We will have one feast tonight with our UGA volunteers (though slightly less extravagant since we are all working today), and a second Thanksgiving on Sunday with some of our friends and loved ones in Ecuador. We were able to find a reasonably priced Turkey (I hear Nicaragua wasn’t as lucky?) and will all be cooking our favorite recipes to share. We hope everyone at home is enjoying the holiday and we will share pictures of our celebrations in a few days.

Happy Thanksgiving from MPI Ecuador!

Your Moment of Zen...

2011-11-18T12:58:00.003-06:00

Rachel, doing roadside yoga with some kids we met while hiking

Antorcha de Vida

2011-11-15T12:46:00.003-06:00

Antorcha de Vida is a rehabilitation center and educational facility for special needs children, located right down the street from our house in Sangolquí. The directora Nancy is a wonderful, hardworking woman with a huge heart. Noel introduced me to Nancy my first week in the Manna House in an effort to keep up our relationship with this wonderful foundation. This woman was so sweet, welcoming, and passionate about her cause that I immediately started brainstorming ways we could get more involved in what they were doing. She took us on a tour of the facilities and showed us the beautiful organic gardens that are planted and maintained by the children, their mothers, and the women who work for the foundation. Nicole and I decided to expand our Agriculture Program to volunteer once a week during their agricultural workshops. We are only able to give them an hour and a half of our time on Thursdays, but we are learning a ton about organic gardening. The women are so sweet and appreciative, and working with the niños has been an amazing experience, as well as a lesson in patience.

The kids at Antorcha de Vida have a variety of mental and physical handicaps, which they work on through different types of therapy. We spend the morning helping them pull weeds, water the plants (and often ourselves in the process), and look after the gardens. Keeping the kids occupied and interested in the work can be a difficult task, and our extra sets of hands are definitely useful. One of our favorite kids, Michael, has a problem with his legs and needs to hold onto someone for support when he’s walking. He is in the process of learning to walk on his own, but sometimes gets too excited and needs to be reminded to slow down and take it one step at a time. The kids really seem to enjoy working in the gardens, and love to show us the handfuls of weeds they pull.

My favorite part of the experience is listening to the Ingeniero tell stories (often the same ones) about the political history of Ecuador, the medicinal properties of eggplant, and his grandsons in Miami. This 80-something year old engineer stumbled upon Antorcha de Vida one day, and has been sharing his agricultural expertise with them ever since. His secret formula named MBO (after him of course) is an organic, chemical free, fertilizer that keeps diseases and pests away from the crops. This mixture has done wonders for the plants there, and the women continue to pester the Ingeniero for his recipe. Unfortunately for them, the secret is just for him and his nietos in Miami.

The Ingeniero can recite the same love poem in Quechua, Spanish, and French… but can’t remember our names. He affectionately refers to us as the Señoritas Extranjeras and after several failed attempts to correct him; we have decided to let that one slide. Listening to his stories is an incredible way to learn about the country, and about organic gardening. This man knows everything there is to know about agriculture and herbal remedies. So whether we are mixing secret organic formulas with the Ingeniero, or just walking back and forth with Michael, volunteering with Antorcha is always a beautiful experience.

El Feriado (The Holiday)

2011-11-09T22:30:00.010-06:00

While the month of November brings colder weather and the beginning of the holiday season for everyone Stateside, the new month heralds the arrival of a different holiday for Ecuadorians. While the temperature remains a perfect 65 to 70 degrees most days, many Ecuadorians have been busy making plans for what to do with a four- (or more-) day weekend in honor of Día de los Difuntos, which was officially celebrated November 2^nd. Similar to Day of the Dead in Mexico, el Día de los Difuntos honors the souls of family members who have passed away with a celebration of cooking and graveside remembrance. At the Manna house, we were fortunate to enjoy two particular Ecuadorian traditions: colada morada, a hearty drink made from berries similar to blueberries, and guagua de pan, which are baked creations shaped like children. Check out pictures below that Heather posted from the Manna house get-together.

Aside from sampling cultural fare and learning about Ecuadorian traditions, the four-day weekend provided the opportunity for PDs to travel and explore Ecuador. One group of PDs, including Emily, Charlie, and country director Darcy made a long trip to the Amazon rainforest in “el oriente” to see its exotic biodiversity. Another group of PDs, including Watkins, Heather, Nicole, and Rachel, chose to stay behind and explore places near Sangolquí. With the accompaniment and guidance of a couple of our adult English students, we discovered a former lime mine in the heart of traditional Quechua land and also hiked to “la gran cascada” of Rio Pita, which is the highest waterfall in Ecuador.

On the first day of the Sangolquí-based adventurers’ vacation, the group of PDs accompanied English student Nadia Torres on a work-related trip. Nadia works as a photographer and journalist, and is helping write a book about the history of Sangolquí. Our trip began with a bus ride along dirt roads to a small town called Tolóntag, near where we hoped to find a mine from which lime (cal) was taken that was used in the construction of the plaza of Sangolquí. Nadia, being a journalist, procured us permission to visit the mine and some general directions from the town’s mayor. While Nadia worked her magic, the PDs made friends with some locals and were gifted with maqueños, a kind of plantain with a reddish peel and peach-colored fruit. In our casual conversation, we were told that children from Tolóntag traveled an hour each way to school every day. We also noticed that the Spanish spoken in this small town differed markedly in pronunciation from what we’re used to, a difference Nadia attributed to the Quechua tradition.

With permission, vague directions, and a hired camioneta (pick-up truck), we embarked down a rocky road until the driver bade us farewell and we began walking. We enjoyed good views of hills and volcanoes, and after a while encountered a family working a field of crops near the road. After pleasantries, the adults had their children guide us to the site of the former mine, where we had lunch and took pictures, and laughed at our guides’ antics. The kids were intrigued by our accents and happily showed us the former mine, which is now a thermal pool of water, and other sites near their farm. We ended our trip that day by returning to Sangolquí and having ice cream at an heladería next to the plaza of Sangolquí.

The next day, the PDs piled into a truck with another friend and English student, Ivo Vaca, and drove down a bumpy road to the path toward “La Gran Cascada” of Rio Pita. The hour-and-a-half walk through a gorge alongside the river Rio Pita was marked by smaller waterfalls, jumping-off points for swimmers, and untypically lush vegetation. Due to the water’s freezing temperature, we did not do very much swimming, and instead admired the views of the river and waterfall. We were thankful to find near our house such interesting places as the waterfall and abandoned mine from the day before, and to be in the authentic company of Ecuadorian families on vacation. For all the PDs on Team Ecuador, the holiday was a welcome break and a chance to learn more about Ecuador.

Long Weekend

2011-11-08T11:06:00.005-06:00

So we are back to work after a lovely long weekend off to celebrate el día de los difuntos (day of the dead). Joaquin will have a longer blog up in a few days to give you all full details of our weekend adventures, in the meantime enjoy these photos.

Two of our English students and friends, Ivo and Ismael, brought us colada morada and guaguas de pan, the traditional food for the day of the dead (roughly translates to purple drink and baby bread)

Nicole made her own gluten-free version of baby bread (on right)

Colada morada, a delicious fruit drink that is also very filling. We couldn't finish the huge pot of colada that our guests brought.

Gathering around as Christian explains to us that since we didn't finish all of the colada morada we were doomed to be visited by the dead in our sleep... and no one slept well in the Manna house that night.

Note: These photos (and most of the photos I use in this blog) were taken by Nicole Hamilton. Gracias Nicole!

The Year of the Dog

2011-11-03T10:18:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone, I turn this week's blog over to Profe Nicole for a Children's Art update:

Children’s Art is one of our programs that operates almost entirely off of in-kind donations. To date the art program has not spent a dime for any of our classes. Each week, Taylor and I spend time researching traditional and popular forms of art from various countries; we then take these projects and themes and adapt them into something we can do with what we have: a finite art supply shelf and the short attention span of 5-10 year olds.

We chose to start this quarter by working our way through different countries in Asia. At the beginning of each week I start getting the question, “Profe, qué vamos a hacer en la clase de arte?”, but our eager students never get the answer they want…Taylor and I usually claim that we haven’t the slightest idea or turn the question around on them and so they continue asking us and every other profe in the vicinity. Each class starts with a slideshow about the country we are studying, which often contains more pictures then facts – appealing to that attention span! – but it’s always fun to hear them pronounce the names of the capitals, cities, and buildings, try to claim they can read Hindi, and see the information they retain. After explaining the Chinese calendar and animal for each year, we figured out who was born under which animal; Matias was so excited to find out that he was born in the year of the dog that he continues to include drawings of dogs in every other art project we’ve done, constantly reminding us that he was born “en el día del perro” – close enough!

This past week guest profe Charlie and I mixed things up a bit and got the kids out of the classroom and doing a project that for once they couldn’t take home. The country of the week was India, and I had previously asked help from a friend in the states, Dolly, whose family is from India. After struggling to narrow down the incredible and extensive list of cultural traditions and ideas she gave me, we decided to focus on the Peacock – a sacred bird in Indian culture – and traditional chalk drawings. Despite the typical rainy season schedule that called for rain at 3-4 in the afternoon, the weather was perfect for an outside art project. Some kids used designs and peacock pictures I had printed out, but most of them just went at it…working together and using their hands, elbows, and feet to mix colors and color our sidewalk nothing short of awesome.

After class I came back upstairs and immediately told Heather that we have to add sidewalk chalk to the online wish list. If our students had half as much fun as I did, we might be out there everyday!

Children's Art class hard at work

Matias, knee-deep in chalk and rather pleased with himself

A very impressive peacock

Emily and Wendy working together

Emily and Matias

2011-10-31T19:52:00.004-05:00

Meet Emily and Matias... two of our sweetest regulars in the library. The two of them greet us daily as we get off the bus at 2:30 to open the library. A toothless grin and hug from Matias makes any day infinitely better.

They are crazy for Children's Art class and ask us every five minutes "Profe Cuanto falta?" how much longer until la clase de arte? They are slowly learning the virtue of patience.

Matias is 5 years old and is learning to read. My favorite activity is curling up next to him in a beanbag chair and listening to him carefully pronounce every syllable. Him and his older cousin Emily are best friends and partners in crime. They have found a soft spot in the hearts of all the profes.

Nutrition News

2011-10-26T13:13:00.003-05:00

The Children’s Nutrition program got a fresh start this year since MPI and Alinambi (last year’s nutrition school) decided to discontinue their program. This turned out to be a great thing as with the help of an influential community member we were able to make a new connection with a great school in Santa Isabel. The teachers at Chuapitena (the new school) welcomed Emily and Taylor with open arms, giving them a full load of five classes to teach each week!

In addition to teaching classes about the food pyramid, food cycle, food safety, and nutrition-related diseases, Emily and Taylor also include some basic English vocab into their lessons. They have been meeting weekly with a few of the teachers from Chuapitena to give them a preview of that week’s lesson and offer them an opportunity to ask nutrition and health-related questions. They also have plans to do a cultural exchange of recipes with the women, one week cooking a healthy recipe from the US and the next week a traditional Ecuadorian dish. This relationship with Chuapitena has brought many new regulars to the library and teen center, as well as new students to our English classes.

Emily and Taylor have also made some great changes to the Cooking program, transforming Saturday’s cooking class into a combined adult nutrition charla and healthy cooking lesson. Each class is about two hours long, beginning with a health discussion and followed by the preparation of a recipe that relates to the discussion topic of the day. All of the class participants help to prepare the food, and take home a copy of the recipe to use with their families. They changed the time of cooking class so that it occurs after Adult English on Saturday, giving our English students a chance to participate. Attendance has been increasing each week as more and more English students stay after to help out, and 10^th graders from Chuapitena join the class to learn more about the cooking aspect of nutrition. All of these changes have been very beneficial to MPI and to the community we serve. Thanks Emily and Taylor, keep up the good work!

Profe Emily reviewing vocab

Profe Taylor with Chuapitena students

The food pyramid

Chopping veggies in Adult Nutrition/Cooking Class

Teen Center Revival

2011-10-20T11:19:00.004-05:00

When school started up again in September the Teen Center attendance suffered greatly. Some of the older regulars have classes in the afternoon, after school activities, or too much homework to come and play video games. Just when Charlie, Watkins and I were starting to get concerned about our program, the library party gave us a huge advertising boost and brought a swarm of new faces to the teen center. With several of Emily and Taylor’s nutrition students now frequenting the Centro, we can once again bother nearby English classes with sounds of Mario and bouncing ping-pong balls.

Profe Joaquin has started teaching some of the teens how to play chess, which has been a huge hit. Steven, a 12 year old from nutrition class has been to the Teen Center every day since the library party and is always begging to play. It is an awesome game for them to learn because of all the concentration and thinking ahead it requires. It is also great to see them turn off the video games for a while and doing something more mentally stimulating. Surprisingly, the teens have also gotten very excited about making bracelets. Since we re-organized the Center and left out string to make jewelry, it has been a new favorite activity. Nothing makes my day like having teenage boys beg me to help them make friendship bracelets.

We decided to re-instated monthly movie nights, which the teens are very happy about. Although we wish they wouldn’t always pick bad horror movies, the profes enjoy it as well. We decided to alternate every two weeks having either a Friday night movie, or some other organized weekend activity. Last Saturday we took the teens on a paseo to Parque Carolina in Quito, to meet up with Profe Ashley who ran the teen center last year. We lucked out with a rain-free afternoon and got to spend a few hours playing soccer, skateboarding, climbing trees, and eating cookies in the park. We were joined on the trip by two of our Adult English students and friends Walter and Evo who also wanted to see Ashley, and get out of the valley for a while. While attendance wasn’t quite as high as we were expecting (many teens signed up but then didn’t show up) our first teen center paseo was a success. For the next paseo we are going to try and stay a little closer to the Centro so that more teens are allowed to come. We have some exciting things planned for the Teen Center in the coming months so stay tuned for more updates!

Our new regular Steven, now a Chess pro

Who wouldn't want to hang out with us in the Teen Center?

The guitar is bigger than he is

Manna 101

2011-10-19T22:17:00.002-05:00

As Ecuador’s new team of program directors gets into full swing with classes and programs, I feel that it will be helpful to give everyone on the outside a brief overview of Manna Project’s theoretical foundation, because while this is a blog about our daily lives, our work and many of the daily micro-decisions we make are influenced by the theory underlying our organization. What follows is a brief summary of asset-based community development, the theoretical paradigm under which MPI Ecuador was founded, and which continues to influence our behavior and decisions as an organization.

Asset-based community development can best be described as a way to help people help themselves. It is an approach that involves discovering existing organizations, resources, or capacities within communities that can be leveraged to improve the conditions of individuals and of the community as a whole. One of the most important goals of development under this framework is the empowerment of individuals and of the community, making people “more likely to take control of aspects of their lives, to plan for their future and deal with economic uncertainty, to support their children’s educational achievements, and to work to ensure that the lives of the next generations are better than their own,” in the words of Melvin Oliver¹, a past vice-president of the Ford Foundation.

To empower individuals, our Manna site was founded with the cooperation and support of local leaders and an Ecuadorian partner organization in the San Francisco municipality. Since then, Manna has expanded its service beyond San Francisco and now operates a library and community center, which was developed as a response to the community’s assets and the desired outcomes of our work, as stated by individuals in a community-wide survey. Manna still relies upon collaboration with local organizations and the participation of community members in order to build trust and be aware of other development within the community. One of the local organizations we support is the Red Cross Ecuador (La Cruz Roja Ecuatoriana), by volunteering time when they need volunteers, as detailed in a recent blog. This past summer we also hosted a summer camp in conjunction with Añamisi, an organic farming cooperative, with whom we continue to work. We also have individual local volunteers who spend time at our Centro helping with our programs. La Cruz Roja and other organizations that we support are important assets to the community because they are already established organizations. By supporting them, we are upholding one of the principles of asset-based community development by avoiding “the fragmentation of efforts”², or competition with organizations that already do good work and have a strong foundation. Furthermore, by promoting the goals of local organizations not in competition with us and enlisting the help of local volunteers, we hope to spur a cycle of activism and empowerment within the community.

Being involved with local Ecuadorian actors is important to our work, because although we try hard and are often successful at communicating with and understanding community members, volunteers from the same cultural background as the people we serve is an easier and more effective way for us to build trust and legitimacy. By involving local community members and helping other local organizations, we hope that people in the community continue to see that we are genuinely trying to help them and give the them a stake in the process, instead of seeing us as outsiders with pretensions of being able to drop in and solve the their problems, an unfortunate occurrence for some international development efforts. By forming relationships and being involved in the community, we can, and are, seen for what we really are: motivated young people with a desire to change the world in a positive way.

1. Oliver, Melvin. Assets for the Poor: The Benefits of Spreading Asset Ownership. Ed. by T.M. Shapiro and E.N. Wolff. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. 2001. Pg. xii.

2. Kretzman, John P., and John L. McKnight. Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets. Evanston, IL: Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research, Northwestern University. 1993. Pg. 4.

Library Party!

2011-10-11T12:38:00.005-05:00

On Friday we held a Fall-themed party in the library to celebrate the start of classes and to attract some new community members to the Centro. The party was a wild success (slight emphasis on the wild) largely thanks to the students in Emily and Taylor’s high school Nutrition Classes, many of whom were first timers in the library. We estimate that a total of 70 kids and teens were running around the library and teen center at one point or another during the party. Our modest food preparations didn’t stand a chance… after 3 hours of preparing Fall-themed snacks, everything was gobbled up within the first half hour. Bobbing for apples was a huge success (and a huge mess) as kids with dripping wet faces raced to the back of the line for another chance at winning a prize. After lots of preparation and lots of excitement, we PDs were thoroughly exhausted. Although the chaos probably chased away any adults who might have attended the celebration, the kids certainly enjoyed themselves and we expect to see lots of new regulars in the Centro.

Ping-Pong Tournament

New faces in the library

Some of our regulars playing Monopoly

The line to bob for apples

Egipto Tournament

A Big Thank You for All Your Support

2011-10-08T19:17:00.002-05:00

The Chase Community Giving Competition has ended and the official results are finally available. Unfortunately, MPI did not win our division and will not be moving onto the next round, but we did finish a respectable 3^rdbehind some other well-known nonprofits.

Also, we would like to send a special thanks to the following individuals, organizations, and networks, who kindly promoted Manna Project during the competition:

v Pencils of Promise

v Brad Corrigan, of the bands Dispatch and Braddigan, as well as his own nonprofit Love Light & Melody

v Catchafire

v Lacrosse the Nations

v Our Time

v Razoo

v ORPHANetwork

v Giving Matters

v Spark Microgrants

v Other Places Publishing

v The US Center of Citizen Diplomacy

v Building Bridges Coalition

v Spark Microgrants and the Local Solutions Forum

v Matthew Perryman

v The band Relient K

v The band Jars of Clay

v Alongside Ministries

v Members of Save the Children's Corporate Partnership team

v Duke University's Center for International Development

And all of our friends who endured our relentless pressure to spread the vote.

While we are of course disappointed to have not moved on to the next round, we are sure that the publicity Manna has garnered during this competition will serve us well in the future. Having visibility is an important component for nonprofits to grow and receive funding, and with more than 10,000 votes, it is certain that MPI has increased its visibility both in the U.S. and in Ecuador.

Hola teacher!

2011-10-05T21:41:00.009-05:00

We are now three weeks into our first quarter of classes and thoroughly enjoying all of the new faces around the Centro. It has been nice to see all of our advertising hours pay off as more and more people poured into the library during the first weeks of inscriptions. It was awesome to see the Adult Basic and Intermediate classes reach capacity, and even to have enough interest for an Advanced and Super Advanced English conversation class. It has also been nice to settle into a normal schedule now that all of our programs are finally up and running.

I had been anxiously waiting for Adult English to start; it is a program I was excited about from the beginning. While some of the other PD’s were nervous about teaching, I had a little bit of experience teaching ESL and already knew what a cool experience it can be. I was also looking forward to interacting with some of the older people in the community, since the majority of our library users are niños.

There is something really intriguing about watching adults learn. We think of the educational process as something that we go through as children and young adults but no matter what our age, we still have a lot to learn. It is fascinating to watch adults automatically return to the school-children mentality as they find themselves once again in a classroom setting. My English class whispers answers back and forth and copies off each other when my back is turned. They speak too softly when they are unsure and smile proudly when praised. They groan when I give them tests and make up excuses for why their homework isn’t done. No matter what our age, learning new things seems to keep us young at heart.

Unlike most school children however, the adults in our English classes seem to genuinely enjoy being there. This was made apparent to me when I tried to dismiss my class ten minutes early on Saturday since I assumed they were tired after the three-hour class. No one moved from their chairs, they instead started quizzing me about what kind of music I like and insisted that I sing “Yo no sé mañana” for them, translated into English. After hearing me sing they obviously didn’t beg me for an encore, but it was a fun way to pass the last ten minutes of class.

Some of the adults hang around in the library after classes on Saturday just to chat, which brings a lot of liveliness to the Centro on a day that used to be slow. Last week all of the Adult English classes learned the “Happy Birthday” song and serenaded Profe Emily after class for her birthday. One of her super advanced students and a good friend of ours Evo even brought in a cake to share. While the niños make us smile fast with a hug and an “hola profe,” having the Adult English students around has given us close friends in the community. While we try and shy away from being just an English teaching organization because there are a lot of other ways to serve the community, it is nice to provide members of the valley with a skill they so highly value and desire.

Nicole's Children's English class hard at work

Teacher Charlie explaining the future...

Keep up the voting!

2011-09-30T12:58:00.003-05:00

Thanks so much for all the support so far. We are currently in 3rd place, with plenty of time left to go in the voting. Please take a second to vote if you haven't already, just follow this link and cast a vote for Manna Project International under the Youth Developer category.

This is real money that will make a huge difference to the communities we serve in Guatemala, Nicaragua and Ecuador.

Please help us spread the word by sharing the link with your friends on facebook and asking coworkers and family members to cast a vote.

We will continue to provide updates on the progress of the competition, thanks so much for your continued support!

Help us win a MILLION dollars!!!!

2011-09-28T07:40:00.004-05:00

Manna Project has been invited to participate in the Case Community American Giving Awards for a chance to win a MILLION dollars! This is an incredible opportunity for us and we could really use the funding. The contest is simple; it all comes down to Facebook voting. For the first round we are competing against just four other organizations in the youth development category. We have one week to beat out the other four and move onto the second round. If we advance to the second round we automatically win $125,000 and we have the chance at a million!

We won before, we can do it again! In 2009 when Chase first started their Community Giving Awards MPI won $25,000 so we know it is possible, we just need your help!

Voting lasts just one week, from September 28^th- October 5^th.

Just follow this link it only takes a few seconds and could help us make a real difference in the communities we work in.

You will be prompted to “like” Chase Community Giving and then have the chance to vote for Manna Project under the Youth Developer category.

Help us even more by posting this link as your status on Facebook and Twitter so we can reach out to as many people as possible.

We will keep you updated throughout the voting process, thanks for all the support!

Happy Birthday Vinicio!

2011-09-27T12:03:00.005-05:00

Celebrating Vinicio's birthday at the Manna House

Birthday boy and his brother enjoying the cake

Stepping it up in Women’s Exercise

2011-09-20T11:05:00.003-05:00

All five of us female PD’s came into this year excited about the Women’s Exercise program. We all came from a background in various types of group exercise and athletics, and were eager to put our personal touches on the classes that Manna offers. It was a little disappointing at first to see the low levels of attendance in our first classes, but it motivated us to get advertising, fine-tune our classes, and start talking to the women in the community to find out what they wanted from a work-out class. We learned quickly that the women want to dance, and they are concerned about their abs, so we have been creatively incorporating both into all of our classes.

A heartwarming moment for me was when Dayana, a 10 year old who attended our summer camp and frequents the library, asked if she could come to women’s exercise because yoga helps her relieve stress. I personally started taking aerobic kickboxing classes with my mom and sister when I was her age, and by far the youngest woman in the class. It was awesome to see her proudly take her place in the front of the room as she bravely tested out each of the classes that her busy schedule allows.

The newest and biggest change we will be implementing this year is a step aerobic class, to be taught by Emily on Friday mornings. The women were very excited about the idea, so all we needed were the steps. After walking to the gym down the street to check out models, watching various Youtube videos on how to make steps, and pricing wood at a nearby hardware store, we were ready to get started. The process didn’t turn out to be all that hard, and we managed to make the first 6 steps for free! We used wood and nails we found around the house, got the wood cut for free by some nice gentleman down the street, and had the steps transported to the Centro by our favorite vecino, Ceasar.

The next step for the program, and something we are all anxious for, will be mounting mirrors on the wall of the exercise room. The room occupies a large open space on the top floor of our Centro, with racks of exercise balls and floor mats, and windows overlooking the mountains. It is a fantastic space and perfect for giving classes, but it lacks mirrors, which are fundamental for checking form and accurately following routines. We are currently working hard contacting gyms and athletic stores in the U.S. trying to get money donated so we can have mirrors installed. In the meantime we’ll continue working to improve our workout classes and get more community members interested in their personal health and fitness.

Building steps

The finished product

Testing it out

Dinner at Jenni's

2011-09-09T21:38:00.002-05:00

This week's guest blog comes from Nicole, who reflects on a recent visit to a community member's home for dinner:

All of us here in Ecuador are quickly learning that nothing is ever going to be quite

as it seems, exactly as you plan, or as any preconceived ideas predict. Sometimes

this unpredictability turns out to be something awesome, and sometimes not

so awesome (stay tuned for an example of the former), but it’s teaching all of us

patience. And to just go with the flow.

This past Sunday we were all asked to dinner by Jenni, a lady whose family attends

classes at our Centro. Everyone was really up for going, but given the fact that it

was our day “off” and we also wanted and needed some down time, we hoped and

planned on going for 2 hours, no más. We left our house a little after 4 to meet them

in Amaguaña and take a camioñeta (new favorite form of transportation) to their

house where we met the family, dogs, ducks, and guinea pigs that may or may not

have been the ones they ate for dinner later.

The visit then really kicked off with what turned out to be a two and a half hour

walk around Amaguaña – one of the prettiest suburbs of Quito I’ve seen so far.

We spent the evening meeting even more extended family as we traipsed through

their farms and gardens, drank fresh spring water, took lots of pictures, and spoke

lots of Spanish. By the end of our impromptu tour, we were all convinced that

the Manna house should relocate to Amaguaña (still working on the logistics of

this!). My favorite part of the evening was meeting Jenni’s grandmother and 100-

year old grandfather – both very Quechua. They were so welcoming to a large

group of Gringos taking over their kitchen and spoke to us in Quechua, which I had

never heard before save for a few words and phrases that have been passed down

into modern Ecuadorian Spanish. Being able to walk around the town with local

residents and hear stories about the history of Amaguaña, who the people are, and

how things have changed, among other stories, definitely made this tour the best of

any I’ve been on so far.

We returned to the house and finally sat down to dinner at 7. In no time, our “2 hour

visit” turned into a 5-hour experience, but, despite any amount of yawns, one that

none of us would have traded for a little r&r.

Guinea pig... its what's for dinner

Corn and Tourism

2011-09-05T13:43:00.004-05:00

Now those are two things worth celebrating. These past two weeks have been a big deal for Sangolqui and the surrounding towns in the valley as they have been holding various events to celebrate their annual festival of Maíz y Turismo. We Program Directors have had the opportunity to collaborate with the Ecuadorian Red Cross during some of these events. We are lucky enough to live right next to the Monumento de Rumiñahui, a large statue of the famous Incan warrior for which our district is named. The festival’s parade route ended right in front of the monument, and a majority of the festival’s events happened just a short walk away from the Manna house.

Last Saturday’s parade was a bigger event than any of us had expected, with roads closed off all around the monument and thousands of people crowding the streets (this made getting to the Centro a difficult task). During the event, I had the pleasure of volunteering in the Red Cross tent where I was taught how to give an IV… and then given the opportunity to practice on a fellow volunteer. Luckily for everyone involved, I was never called upon to use my newfound skill. The parade lasted hours, with a continuous flow of musicians, indigenous dancers, Sangolqui beauty queens, and small children dressed like corn. Since people from all over the district showed up for the parade, we had an awesome opportunity to mingle with community members and spread the word about Manna Project.

This weekend’s Corrida de Toros (bullfight) was another story altogether. Traditional bullfights in Spain involve trained Matadors and skilled horsemen collaborating to kill a bull. There is a lot of controversy over the sport, and in some parts of the world it is prohibited to kill the bull in front of the crowd. Sangolqui’s toros give the bulls a chance to fight back. A few days before the Corrida a makeshift ring and stands are constructed out of wood and… what appears to be socks, to hold the bull, the participants, and hundreds of spectators. Unarmed, untrained Ecuadorian men (and once in a great while women) enter the ring with the bull to try their hand as amateur bullfighters, or just for the thrill of being close to such a powerful animal. Participants antagonize the bull and then run terrified for the stands when the bull starts to chase them. Props to our very own Nicole Hamilton and our friend Evo Vaca for being the only mujeres to enter the ring this year. Although it is very entertaining to watch, people do get badly injured during the festival. Needless to say, volunteering with the Red Cross this weekend was a very different experience than helping out during the parade. Our future health care professional Emily was thrilled at the chance to help the injured toreros, and has spent the last three days helping out in the tent. I on the other hand saw enough the first day and have officially retired as a Red Cross volunteer.

Nicole and I volunteering in the Red Cross tent

Some very happy corn

View of the backside of the stands for the bulls

Los toros de Sangolqui

Grassroots Advertising, Inscriptions, and “¡Tu Lenguaje!”

2011-08-30T22:38:00.004-05:00

The academic year is fast approaching for MPI Ecuador. I do not mean that any of the recent college graduates that make up the new team of program directors will be enrolling for classes, however. Instead, all of us will soon be assuming the role of teacher, a frightening and ironic thought to any of us who have ever been sent out of class for being disruptive but colluded with other disruptive classmates to avoid punishment from the teacher (definitely not me). Collectively, we will be doing our best to impart our gringo accents to our English students, inspire creativity in young art students, demonstrate healthy cooking techniques to adults, and motivate women from the Chillos Valley to master Zumba routines in women’s exercise classes. But before the fun can begin, a certain amount of work is required of the teachers-to-be, and this work is also the subject of this week’s blog. In the lead-up to classes, which begin on September 13^th, the new team of program directors has been walking the streets of the Chillos Valley making MPI’s presence known and advertising our fall classes. In the process we’ve had our share of laughs, shrugs, and reasons for optimism.

Even the best ideas require marketing before they catch on. At MPI Ecuador we think that the classes we offer are at least “very important” for the communities we serve— so it’s important that we find ways to advertise what we offer. However, our options are limited by the lack of widespread Internet access in the communities we serve. No matter. This week each program director has taken part in what in reality may be the best form of advertising for us: approaching strangers on the street and explaining to them about Manna Project and the classes we offer. To maximize our reach, we divvyed up all of the different municipalities that Manna Project serves in the Chillos Valley, and with flyers in hand, sent a pair of PDs to each community to advertise our English, cooking and nutrition, children’s art, and women’s exercise classes.

The PDs already take buses to our Centro in Rumiloma as well as everywhere else we go, and this proved to be a valuable platform for reaching large numbers of people. My compadre Charlie and I took turns standing at the front of the buses speaking loudly about MPI and our classes, while the other passed out flyers to the people seated.

In San Pedro, a smaller and less dense municipality in between Rumiloma and Sangolquí, we targeted families with children as we walked around, introducing ourselves as volunteers from a nonprofit organization, and briefly describing MPI’s classes and services. Often our approaches were met initially with confusion or suspicion, but we were encouraged that most people appeared piqued afterward, and almost everybody accepted our flyers. Once, after chatting with a group of people gathered around a grill on a street corner about their interest in our English classes, a woman responded that “No entendí tu lenguaje.” We recovered from her not understanding our Spanish by countering, “So now you know that we can definitely speak English.” Like the other program directors, Charlie and I talked to many people during our walk-around, and gained permission from several storeowners to leave information in windows. We ended our advertising campaign in good spirits, discussing how the people we were recruiting would probably be taking the same bus to the Centro that we do.

Making the rounds in the communities we serve is important for more reasons than simply increasing participation in our programs. By talking to people and gauging their reactions, the experience was both an exercise in communication with the very people we are trying to serve, and a reassurance to these people that our intentions are sincere. My experiences talking to strangers and being pushed out of my comfort zone this week gave me a heightened sense of purpose and enthusiasm for our work, and I believe the rest of the team shared this experience. Speaking on behalf of all the current team of program directors, I am excited that our fall class offerings will soon begin and hope to see in the Centro with us some of the same faces from the streets that we walked this week.

Games Games Games

2011-08-25T21:47:00.006-05:00

Hey everyone, for this week’s guest blog I would like to introduce an important member of our library Daniel Ajoy, an Ecuadorian volunteer who comes to the centro regularly to play games with the niños. Daniel brings a variety of games that teach the kids valuable lessons and also give them a break from the standard choices at the library. The kids really enjoy playing with him, and always ask for him when he isn't around. Here are a few words from Daniel himself about what he does:

Hi, my name is Daniel Ajoy and I go to the Manna library at Rumiloma as often as other obligations allow. I enjoy very much playing and teaching board games to the kids there, because I remember the times when I was bored at home when I was young, as these kids are, and I didn't know how to use the game pieces I had, to play with my brother and sister.

The library has a few board games the kids are free to play with. I imagine that all of the games were donated with all of their components complete. They are in shelves accessible even to the younger kids, but through the months of use and exploration, many of them have lost pieces or have broken ones. From what I've seen, the most resilient games are the ever popular Uno, and Othello, because the board is sturdy and the pieces are identical and abundant, so if some of them get lost the game is still playable.

I usually go with a bag that contains:

· two Piecepacks, which are generic sets of pieces: numbered tiles, numbered coins, dice, and pawns.

· two bags of many nice-looking glass beads

· one bag of buttons in four colors

· a white set of Dominoes

· a deck of regular cards

With the pawns we have been able to play a few games of Candyland, changing the rules a bit so that it's not just a matter of taking a color card from the top of your stack and moving you pawn to that spot in the track through the Land of Candy, but having each kid manage a hand of three color cards, and make decisions about which card to play next. This rule change was suggested by Tom Vasel in this video.

With the glass beads we have played Breakthrough on the Chess tables, I think it is a very nice simple game to play with the kids, but the problem is that it is just for two players. I'm trying to find games for more players that use the Chess tables and we have tried Pente and Halma with the colored buttons. The kids have enjoyed both. Also with simple buttons, glass beads and pawns, we have played other multi-player games like: Veleno (which we call "Help your friend"), Poison Pot, Pandora's box and Yavalath. For those a simple printable board was needed.

We have a nice set of thick black Dominoes... but it lacks three pieces. I realized that the incomplete black set of Dominoes had enough pieces to play an adaptation of Raj, we use those pieces and a deck of regular playing cards, and each player gets all the 13 cards of a suite, so with one deck up to 4 players can participate. Playing cards are relatively cheap here, and I'm still trying to find simple, yet novel games to play with them. We have played Army Ants, Sequence, with a printable board; and Eleusis, but in its Express version. I think kids would benefit from playing more Eleusis (which I presented to them as "Nature against Scientists") but I suspect they don't appreciate my representing Nature every time, and they don't yet have a sense of what good rules are, to play as Nature themselves affectively. However, their favorite card game is Egyptian Rat Slap.

With the Piecepack tiles we have explored games like Hey, That's my Fish!, Penguin and The Secret Door. With the Piecepack dice we have played: Can't Stop and Pickomino (which they usually just call Worms). And lately we have tried more sophisticated adaptations like: Way of the Dragon, Forbidden Island, Royal Racers and Cloud 9 (which we call "7 Heaven" and we assemble with Piecepack components, a Dominoes set to indicate "cloud points", and origami dice)

The idea of using origami dice came from the desire of playing fun games with what we have at hand, paper for example. We use origami dice to play Sushizock im Gockelwok, and regular notebooks and pencils to play Dots and Boxes which in Ecuador is called "Galleta" and Sprouts. I still want to show them how to play Racetrack with more than two players, but that looks like an all-boys game, so I'll wait for the right opportunity.

It would be nice to have generic sets of Dominoes, dice, cards and color tokens at the library, so that kids can play the games rules we learn on their own.

Thank you Daniel! The PDs and the niños genuinely appreciate your help!

Daniel playing with some of the library regulars

Montañita

2011-08-18T13:26:00.003-05:00

I Y Montañita

This past weekend we PDs had four days off for a holiday, 10 de agosto, the day on which Ecuador first declared its independence from Spain. Although actual independence wasn’t achieved until much later, the day is very important in Ecuadorian history, especially for Quito. Everyone had time off for the holiday and like almost everyone else in the city, we took advantage of the long weekend to take a trip to the coast. Although Ecuador is a very small country, it takes a long time to navigate through the sierra to get the beach. We have heard a lot of horror stories about long bus rides through the mountains, so we were all a little apprehensive about how to get there. After a lot of deliberation we opted to fly to Guayaquil, then take the three hour bus ride to Montañita, a small but lively beach town that was highly recommended to us by former PDs and locals alike. At 5am on Friday we grabbed our bags and piled into the back of a camioneta (pick up truck) for the 40-minute ride to the airport in Quito. Due to flight issues and an overcrowded bus terminal it ended up taking us a lot longer to get there than planned, but we passed the time with lots of card games and cheap food.

The town was like nothing I have ever experienced. It is full of surfers, international travelers, wandering craftsman, expats, and Ecuadorians looking to have a good time. We stayed in a really neat hostel right in the center of town, which was awesome until it was time to go to sleep. The music and celebrations finally started to wind down around 6am and which point we could finally catch a few hours of shut-eye under our mosquito nets. By the end of our trip we were scraping our change together to buy choclo con queso (grilled corn with pesto sauce, mayo, and cheese) and most of us were indebted to the bank of Emily. We are quickly learning how to make a little money go a long way. Unfortunately we didn’t see the sun once during our trip (though some of us still managed to get sunburned). We did however play in monstrous waves, dance in the streets, buy lots of jewelry, and get to know each other a lot better.

Emily and I walking to the plane

Nicole and Taylor relaxing on the beach

Surf school

Walter's Story

2011-08-09T12:18:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone, I would like to share with you a piece written by Noel about Walter, a community member who had a particularly large impact on the 2010-2011 Program Directors:

Walter first showed up at the Manna centro in Rumiloma in September to register for English classes. It was his first venture into the English language and the first time teaching for us 2010-2011 Program Directors. As the basic adult English teacher that quarter, I was Walter’s teacher from September-December 2010.

Walter struggled a lot. He was shy to speak English, and when he did his pronunciation was garbled nonsense. But he came faithfully to every class, and he did his homework consistently, turning in nearly illegible and often incorrect but always complete pages each week. He came early and stayed late to talk to us PDs. about soccer and his work and Ecuadorian slang. He joked with me during class, laying down Spanish puns that I didn’t understand but that always got a laugh from the rest of the class. I frequently felt that I was learning more from him than he from me.

One day I was pushing Walter to answer a question in English. “My head hurts,” he evaded in Spanish. “It hurts your head to think of the answer?” I responded. “Yes,” he said; “I was shot in the head in July, and sometimes when I think too hard my head hurts.” I was stunned. Walter had been assaulted on the coast over the summer in an act of random violence. Incredibly, he’d recovered enough by September to sign up for English with us and not give a hair’s breadth of indication that anything so traumatic could’ve happened so recently.

Walter finished basic English in December and came back in January to register again. Having not progressed enough to enter intermediate, he happily re-registered for basic English. Walter began trying out English pronunciation both during and outside of class. He’d been the slowest member of my basic class, but now in Brock’s basic class he was pushing the speed past his fellow students’ pace.

By April, Walter was ready to enter Sam’s intermediate level for our final quarter. By this time all the PDs were fond of him. He was no longer afraid to speak in class and persisted in his commitment to attendance and homework. He told me that he used to go out drinking and dancing on Friday nights until the wee hours, but now he went to bed early so he could be rested and mentally prepared for English Saturday morning.

Walter’s 26^th birthday was July 25. The Saturday preceding we all walked a few blocks from thecentro to his Rumiloma home, where we met his mother and his sister, whom Walter had invited from the coast expressly to cook us traditional Ecuadorian coastal food. Through the afternoon and into the evening we played Ecua-volley (a version of volleyball nearly as popular as fútbol in Ecuador) and talked and greeted Walter’s friends. In the early evening we lay into the coastal fish tamales and stuffed crab and fried plantains so exuberantly as to render even more incredible the entire day that Walter’s mother and sister had spent making it. With the sun down and the outside lights on, we salsa danced on the patio. Before we gave hugs goodbye and good luck all around and left for the evening, we sang Happy Birthday, once in Spanish and once in English, and Walter blew out his candles.

Walter came for us to symbolize our year with Manna. He, like we, arrived nervous and skeptical but eager to learn. He, like we, tried to finish each task to the best of his ability, knowing that he was making mistakes along the way. He, like we, kept coming back to the task at hand in an effort to improve no matter what the obstacles. And he, like we, found at the end of the year that the most valuable things he’d gained were not an improved grasp of another language or even firsthand knowledge of a foreign culture, but new relationships that now enriched his life. To spend an afternoon and evening in his home celebrating his birthday as dear friends was absolutely the perfect way to close out the year. We have all learned so much about community development and running an international non-profit on the ground, but we have also learned about forming and sustaining relationships across barriers of language and culture and experience.

With these lessons and Walter’s friendship in hand and heart, we now disperse along different paths, forever changed by the unlikely intersection of our lives this year. We hope and trust that MPI Ecuador PDs of 2011-2012 are now embarking on a year that will be equally – though idiosyncratically – full of stories and relationships like ours with Walter.

The 2010-2011 PDs at Walter's Birthday Party

Walter teaching Rachel (2011-2012 PD) how to salsa

Noel's English class receiving certificates (Walter on the far right)

Wait… We have been here for a month already?

2011-08-06T16:54:00.005-05:00

Hola! This is Heather, as Noel mentioned in her last post I will be taking over the Blog for the 2011-2012 year along with Watkins, who will be arriving in Ecuador this coming Wednesday (Yay Watkins!). It is hard to believe that us new PDs have been in the country for almost a month already, but we are really starting to feel at home! After spending the first two weeks living with host families in Quito and brushing up on our Spanish, we were excited to move into the house and get to work. With the support and guidance of last year’s PDs we were able to get our feet wet at the library and start getting to know community members. It has taken us no time at all to adjust to life in the Valley. We have quickly discovered how to mount moving buses and fight back when they try to charge us an extra 2 cents for the ride to the Centro. We also have survived our first week of summer camp!

We were all a little nervous to see the herd of 5-10 year olds waiting impatiently in the library on the first day, but they quickly warmed our hearts and we have had a blast playing with them all week. From the youngest camper Miguel who always has a smile on his face to our oldest Dayana who is a wiz at U.S. geography, the kids have really made us Profe’s feel welcome. Today we took the kids on a paseo to the Museo del Agua in Quito. The museum trip reinforced what our partner org Añamisi had taught the kids about the importance of water, where it comes from, and how we can protect it. The niños enjoyed playing in a giant bubble room and getting splashed by the fountain after lunch. It was a long series of bus rides into the city, but most of us were able to catch a little siesta on the way home… and we will surely sleep well tonight!

Arts and Crafts time

Relay races with Profe Taylor

"Profe dice" also known as Simon Says

Chau, Ecuador! You are in good hands.

2011-08-03T07:03:00.001-05:00

As I write this, I am sitting in my room listening to voices in the office downstairs: the 2011-2012 Program Director team is preparing to head off to the library, where they yesterday began our annual summer camp, and suddenly we 2010-2011 PDs are obsolete. We have been tying up final duties over the past couple of weeks, and now Manna Project International, Ecuador, is in new hands.

New PDs introducing themselves: Charlie, Taylor, Rachel, Emily, Nicole, and Heather!

Two Saturdays ago we held a Bienvenida / Despedida at the library to introduce the new group of PDs and to say our goodbyes to the community that has welcomed us with open arms and has truly been there for us as both an organization as well as individuals over the past year. Now in a surreal state of departure, I am finding it hard to believe that Rumiloma is soon to be a town and a community far, far away.

But perhaps my denial at leaving is because in many ways it won’t be far away. All of us PDs have spent this year working in both group and individual capacities, and we will have many shared as well as many entirely personal memories that we will carry with us for the rest of our lives. We have each gotten close to different members of this community, be it via our classes or our partner organizations or from origins much more difficult to trace (how did we meet Nelson from the ferreteria, anyway?). Though we will scatter and no longer use our mannaproject.org email addresses, we will carry bits and pieces of Rumiloma and our beloved Manna centro with us.

With this final post, I turn the Open Hands, Dirty Feet blog over to Heather and Watkins for the next year. Have fun with it, guys!

Brock and Luke with Laura, their agriculture partner and friend.

Jack and kids who love to tease him.

Thank you to all of our readers and continued supporters over the last year! We are deeply appreciative of you and hope you continue to support us through this blog in the year to come! I know I will.

Hey, you're a gringa - teach us English!

2011-06-26T20:52:00.001-05:00

Thanks for following us! It’s hard to believe we’ve been here a year already. Contributing to the blog every now and again gives me the chance to reflect on where we were last July and where we are now. We’ve made some steps and progress in many of our programs, and today I’m going to talk about our growth in our Children’s English program.

Contrary to the popular belief among many of the people we encounter down here, Manna Project International is NOT just an English-teaching organization. English is, however, in very high-demand. Many people see it as fundamental to professional success- be that in business, tourism, law, medicine, or many other career options. Therefore, we receive constant inquiries about our English classes. Although children almost unilaterally receive English instruction in school, many parents are eager to get their children supplementary lessons. Our being native speakers as well as our classes’ fair prices make Manna Project’s English program a desirable option.

Since September, we have added a third class to accommodate greater enrollment as well as a wider range of ability. I teach the intermediate class, but we all follow a similar structure and set of teaching methods. Students are placed based on their score on a placement test. We keep our classes small- no more than 10-12 students- in order to ensure that each student has optimum opportunity to participate in each class. We follow the Let’s Go curriculum and complement the curriculum with games, activities, and exercises that build students’ writing, comprehension, and speaking abilities.

Each student must score an 80% on the final exam in order to advance to the next level. The three instructors coordinate to make sure that each level starts off where the previous level finished. This creates a fluid and comprehensive English program.

On a more personal note, teaching English has been one of my biggest challenges here. I used to sit in class as a young child and fantasize about what kind of teacher I would be. I would be “cool” and always nice. I would give no homework. Quizzes and tests would certainly be unnecessary. You can imagine my surprise when I found myself with a disciplinary system identical to that of my 4^th grade teacher’s- a system of red, yellow, and green cards. The class starts out on green and cards are taken down whenever the class misbehaves, talking out of turn, looking at each other’s quizzes, or getting up and walking around the room. 10 classes on green amounts to some sort of prize. Getting all the way to red negates a “green day”. Even more surprising is that I give weekly homework and quizzes. What I didn’t understand as a young student was that my teachers probably did all of these things out of a genuine desire to see their students understand and master the material put in front of them. At least that’s why I do it.

It also turns out that English is extremely difficult. Learning Spanish was a piece of cake compared to what these kids face. We break rules, arbitrarily assign prepositions to different words, and randomly designate letters silent in certain words. For every frustrating moment I have, I am equally impressed by these 7 year olds’ ability to understand such a challenging language.

English really is one of our strongest programs, and we are a resource for the community- providing a skill for them that they see as vital. When I look at it that way, the work and frustration is more than worth it and I’m proud to have been part of this program for the past year!

Me and my intermediate children's English class

Getting back in the game at Jesus Divino

2011-06-20T21:29:00.001-05:00

Reporting on a weekend at Jesus Divino is guest blogger Brock:

Luke and I resumed our bimonthly stays at Jesus Divino, one of our partner organizations that takes in children whose parents are incarcerated, after a short hiatus due to our conflicting schedules. While our partnership has continued in the last couple of months from us going to paint some of their houses, having spring break volunteers stay and work there, and summer volunteers going and giving charlas, they were still really excited for us to start spending the night there every other weekend allowing a tía to have a rare weekend off.

The familiarity we have gained with the kids over the past several months has allowed these weekends at Jesus Divino to be very enjoyable and practically problem free. From gaining the respect of the kids we are able to play, watch movies, and hang out with the children rather than only act as authoritative figures. Luke and I arrived on Saturday afternoon and immediately jumped into things with the kids by playing soccer and billiards – they now have a child-sized pool table that is a favorite with the younger boys. We had a typically Ecuadorian dinner and then put on the movie Rio as a treat for the kids. Halfway through all of the younger ones had fallen asleep, while the older kids continued to enjoy every bit of it.

We woke up to a beautiful Sunday without a cloud in the sky. We ran around outside all day with the kids only taking breaks to eat or for do their chores. Admittedly Luke and I were not extremely enthusiastic about spending a weekend a Jesus Divino but being there with the kids, who are so cute and precious and did everything they could to not let us leave, along with seeing the gratitude on the tía’s face, made every second worth it.

Kelly, Diana, Tiffany, and Vanessa sit on the front stoop of the house Luke and I were in charge of.

Little Willey was my favorite kid of the weekend, always wanting to play sports with the bigger kids.

Everyone took advantage of the beautiful day!

Jefferson smiling as he continued to go undefeated in pool.

Luke eating lunch with the kids who never want to sit still.

Me hitting another terrible shot while someone else beats me.

Short-term volunteering has definitely made an impact

2011-06-14T13:53:00.001-05:00

With a synopsis of summer session 1 in Ecuador, Sam comes to us with a guest blog. We also are now getting underway with session 2, which you can track in their own tab at the top of the page!

Sitting at the airport at 4 AM doesn’t sound like it would be very fun, but when you are with a crew of summer volunteers that you have just shared a month of great adventures, wonderful triumphs and lasting memories—there could be much worse places to be. It was then, in the wee hours of the morning, we said goodbye to our beloved first summer session volunteer group (with the exception on the one eight-weeker, Elizabeth—or ‘Sista Fix’). It was a sad goodbye for me. I spent an enormous amount of time with the summer session one volunteers, being as I am the summer session one coordinator.

People have often asked me whether volunteers being here in Ecuador, helping MPI out for ‘only a month,’ really makes a difference. Well, I am here to tell you that the presence of these summer volunteers DID make a difference— in so many ways. They constructed a set of shelves for backpacks and a sturdy bench and storage box. They ran their own English classes for adults and children and worked at two different orphanages teaching preventative health and general knowledge. They painted our upstairs space where we hold cooking, English and exercise classes. They helped in Children’s Art Classes and with the Small Business Development program. They lovingly and willingly played with and taught children, teens and adults in our library—and much much more.

Not only did the summer volunteer group help in an operational capacity, but they brought a certain state of mind that we PDs sometimes lose throughout the year. They bring fresh ideas and a new and exciting energy that has such a wide reaching impact that it is difficult to describe. It is easy to merely fall into a routine here. After ten months, I know that I was guilty of that. However, when the summer volunteers came, I felt revitalized and I know that the rest of the house appreciated their insight and energy as well. The summer volunteer experience is meant to expose volunteers to another culture, while allowing them the opportunity to volunteer abroad, but the byproduct of this is much more far-reaching than I really expected. They made an impact on the communities and organizations that they worked with, but they also made a strong impact on me. I am very grateful to have had the summer session one volunteers in our house here in Ecuador. MPI Ecuador will miss them.

And now for summer session two….

De la Mata a la Olla - Organic Agriculture with Añamisi

2011-06-07T14:27:00.001-05:00

Our agriculture partner organization has been doing exciting things in the realm of organic farming lately, and Luke, one of MPI Ecuador's agriculture PDs, would like to give a shout out to our wonderful friends at Añamisi:

What is better than food? If you ask the men of the Manna house the answer would be “Nothing!” In my eyes they are right, (I happen to be one of these men of the Manna house) but only partially. The correct answer is organic food! Yes I know, it is a bit of a trick question.

The distressing reality is that not everyone has access to organic produce and products, and even some that do don’t take advantage of the environmental/health benefits of organic produce and products .

De la Mata a la Olla (roughly translated as “from the earth to the stove pot”), a project started by our agriculture partner organization, Centro de Investigación Enrique Añamisi, works to remedy this problem. Within Quito and the surrounding Chillos Valley, De la Mata a la Olla supports the agrarian livelihood of many local farmers while giving the opportunity for families in Quito, without yards of their own, to enjoy the benefits of organic produce. As Christian and Laura, the founders of Centro de Investigación Enrique Añamisi, describe it, their project is an online social network connecting organic farmers with local household buyers, and is the first of its kind in Ecuador. Christian and Laura work as the intermediaries, picking up the preordered fruits and vegetables from the organic farmers and delivering them to the families that have purchased them. Furthermore, this service is virtually free of charge for the local producers. They only pay a small fee to cover the traveling expenses of Laura and Christian. Sounds too good to be true for the organic farmers, right? If you want to learn more about De la Mata a la Olla and/or support their project, check out their website for more information at http://delamataalaolla.wordpress.com/.

Hope all is well with our Manna readers/supporters!

¡Capitán Mineral! ...and other tales of healthy living

2011-06-02T10:41:00.002-05:00

As MPI Ecuador team 2010-2011 heads into its final couple of months (I’m sorry, it’s June?! Where are the long days and warm nights to alert us to summer?? Oh, yes: we left them at higher latitudes.), we are finding it hard to believe it’s been nearly a year since we arrived. Many of our programs have undergone several incarnations as classes stopped and started again with each quarter or we made changes to meet the apparently changing landscape of our community in the Valley. However, one program that has followed a steady track since we sat down to meet in August has been the nutrition program at Fundación Aliñambi.

The curriculum we planned for the sixth grade class at Aliñambi is an ambitious one including three components: the garden, the kitchen, and the classroom, interwoven to bring a practical, hands-on element to the theory. We began in January with the five themes that have governed the class: the cycle connecting food in the earth and its preparation to health in the body, hygiene in the kitchen and food preparation, the food pyramid (which is slightly different in Ecuador from the one that until recently existed in the US), macro- and micronutrients, and foods of Ecuador. Our Tuesday classes have consisted either of a charla (lecture) or a portfolio entry with which we reinforce the unit we’re in. Our macro-/micronutrient charla (and subsequent lessons) introduced each nutrient as a superhero or personage that does various things for the body. The classroom now features a big poster of the food pyramid with colored pictures of food pasted in each category, and each child has in his or her portfolio a personal food pyramid that contains that child’s favorite foods peppered with images of characters like Capitán Mineral, el Rey Carbohidrato, and el Gato Gordo.

Being able to work with one consistent group of kids over the course of the year has been great for the nutrition team. I feel like I’ve grown close to them, and it’s been amazing to watch them learn throughout the year. It will be really hard to say goodbye in July!

Me with our nutrition class on a field trip to Añamisi, our partner agricultural organization, in January.

Shaking things up in Women's Exercise

2011-05-28T11:14:00.002-05:00

Three out of four of the women living in the Manna house are involved in the women's exercise program, which continues to run six different classes five days a week. With an update on some changes that have been underway in this ever-popular program, here's Ashley!

Time is zooming by and things are changing upstairs in women’s exercise. All of our classes are getting revamped - new kicks and punches for tae bo, challenging stretching and flexing for pilates, exciting dance moves for zumba, creative steps for weights, and fresh combinations for yoga. But the class that has been upgraded the most is our circuits class, which has recently been transformed entirely.

In addition to using new exercises for the individual stations, we have altered the music (and the way of telling when to change stations). Initially, we would play 45 seconds of a song, and then 15 seconds of another one for the station change. It was somewhat confusing, and women who had not attended classes often needed our prompting to know when to switch. Now, we have a new system: the same song continues to play until it’s over, and gets quiet when Noel’s voice says “¡Cambie!” indicating that it’s time to change! The women loved it and said that it was so much easier to figure out!

In addition, we’ve added a more interactive aspect to the circuits class. We used to go through the sets of circuits 4 times during one class, but we’ve now added a group cardio section for 15 minutes in the middle of class. It allows us to all do something together, and of course, sweat a lot. Noel, Becky, and I even have a hard time making it through those 15 minutes, as we try to push ourselves to doing a variety of really intense cardio activities!

Zumba has also gotten a change, even if it’s just of an instructor. I have recently started teaching Zumba classes every other week. To start with, it was just nerve-wracking, as I am not a particularly skilled dancer, but has ended up being a blast for all of us. It’s another intense cardio workout to add to our plethora of classes, and everyone loves a workout that makes you sweat and is so much fun!

Vote to win $5,000 for Manna!

2011-05-25T20:38:00.001-05:00

The Wills Company in Nashville is celebrating its 20th anniversary by donating $5,000 to a Nashville charity voted on by visitors to its website. Since Manna is a Nashville-based organization (if this is news to you, please visit our main website to find out more), we fit the bill! You can help us by submitting your vote, and polls close very soon: May 31st.

Vote for Manna!