Bird Flu

This past weekend was a full one. We hosted Jens, a state-side visitor from the organization HealtheChildren who came down to Ecuador to meet with Julia at Aliñambi about expanding the clinic there. Mark and Abbie (a recently departed, sorely missed 2007-08 MPIE founding member) have been working since April initiating, coordinating and nurturing a budding partnership between HealtheChildren and Aliñambi, and it was awesome to see months of emails, phone calls, and planning come together this weekend. After tomorrow mornings’ team meeting I will have a better idea of where the collaboration stands now, but we are, as Mark put it, “cautiously optimistic” about how things progress from here.

This weekend was also the close of the Sangolqui Corn Festival, and Saturday found Dunc, Jos, Serena and I watching an enormous parade of horses, searching for the much anticipated bulls, dancing on the sidewalks with questionably drunken Ecuadorians, and jostling our way through the throngs of people in an attempt to get to the “largest cake in Ecuador”. With Jos taking the initiative on that one, we got there pretty darn fast :)

We also added to our Manna family, but these little guys are a current point of house tension, so until tomorrow’s meeting I will refrain from posting anything more than just their pictures...


Holly

When in Doubt, Use Photography

Today I spent the majority of my time drafting, re-drafting, deleting, starting over, getting side-tracked, avoiding, thinking about, writing, editing, and obsessing over the monthly email update we at Manna send to all of our donors, friends, family, professors, neighbors...ie. you if you’ve found your way to this site. Thus it is midnight here in Ecuador and all I have to show for today’s Daily Life blog is a long run on sentence and what follows close after (read: THIS).

When you check your email and see something from Manna Project International, just know that I’ve poured more thoughts atop that sucker than I do syrup over Mark’s homemade griddle cakes. And that means a LOT.

So today instead of a story via words, you’ll get a story via photographs. Enjoy :)

(Marjorie, one of our Apoyo Escolar students, soaking up free time between homework)

(the much anticipated stop for cold Fantas in the glass bottle...by far the best, according to Dunc's grading scale. He'll probably post about it when it's his turn to guest blog)

(top of a church in downtown Sangolqui, site of last weekend's "Corn" Festival and our favorite outdoor food market)

Hasta,
Holly

While Waiting for Sugar Cookies

I’m writing today’s blog post (albeit late into the evening, I know) from the unnamed (but unanimously accepted) headquarters of the Manna Ecuador house, The Kitchen. Not much to look at, this room is without a doubt the most frequented room in the whole place. Dunc would clearly like to spend all of his time here, as evidenced by his constant insistence that we put a bed next to the oven. At any given time during the day, someone will be in here cooking an egg, pealing a banana, slicing some mozzarella, or spreading some peanut butter on, well, anything that's edible. Most days, come 4 o'clock when dinner cooking commences, an assortment of chairs will mysteriously make their way into the kitchen, computers will be perched on laps, and we'll all catch up on each other's days and programs as the poor cook chops an exorbitant amount of vegetables. It's a wonderfully telling form of MPI Ecuador community.

I will not tell you how dirty this place can get (ahem, the floor), mainly because I don’t want to instigate a flurry of emails from concerned moms back in the states. The sugar cookies I’m baking for dessert are still in the oven, (plate number two, that is, seeing as how plate one was just confiscated by one Luke Lockwood, who has retreated to the hammock room with 5 cookies in tow) and I have 10 glorious minutes of downtime in a day that hasn’t seemed to slow down yet.

Last night we said goodbye to yet another MPI 2007-08 Program Director, Zak, and each of us has expressed how empty our hearts feel now that he’s gone. Yes, maybe I’m being just a little bit emo, but we all have noticed how much emptier the Manna House feels with all of the old PDs gone. I know what you’re thinking, Holly, you still have seven roommates for Pete's sake, what in the world are you going to do when you get your first apartment by yourself? I will become a crazy bird lady, that’s what.

Anyway, this is probably just my overly dramatic way of telling all the old PDs “we miss you!” and attempting to distract my overly eager self from opening the oven door every 4 minutes. Gotta keep these hands busy :)

Holly

A Different Kind of List

(Wednesday's guest blog comes from Serena Zhou, a new MPI Ecuador Program Director and resident whiteboard drawer. Serena can eat Eliah under the table at any given meal, has picked up Spanish faster than anyone I've ever met, and nearly cried when Zak's girlfriend mailed her the Olympic opening ceremonies from her dearly loved China.)

Things I Wish I Had Known...

-When possible, choose the window seat on crowded buses (esp. if you are a female). You never know what to expect in this "machismo" society.

-Never flush ANYTHING down the toilet.

-Always bring your camera with you (in case a cow decides to give birth in front of the classroom like Jocelyn and Dunc)

-Avoid carrying anything over a 5 dollar bill; otherwise, you may not get change.

-Don't rely on the internet to find information on...anything around here.

-Do not look at an Ecuadorian man on the street in the eye for over 3 seconds. They will think you're interested.

-Don't trust a stray dog like Diego who will use Gringos for food and then leave you and break your heart.

-Do not tell an Ecuadorian you don't like Pilsener (the Ecuadorian beer) even though it really is gross. It will shatter their national pride and they will get defensive.

-Don't attempt to play soccer with locals until you have had plenty of time to acclimate.

- Always bring a rain coat with you...everywhere.

-The Godfather is the most confusing movie ever made in the history of mankind. Even the Wikipedia site is confusing.

-"Chinese" restaurants are owned by Ecuadorians.

-Bed bugs actually DO bite.

-Try to put national pride aside if you want to conquer the world in "Risk." I learned this the hard way.

Serena

Omelets and Meetings

Every Monday night we at the Manna house (Mu Pi Iota, as we like to refer to it. And by "we" I mean Jos, Serena and I) sit down for a fantastic Zak/Luke dinner and a team meeting. During the week we all add meeting topics to the big white board next to the stairs, and come Monday we tuck in to dissect everything on the agenda. These meeting topics can range from the mundane (house-cleaning) to the complex (defining this year’s approach). This week, given the intensity of our list, we decided to meet early Tuesday morning to ensure fresh minds. Seeing as how Mark offered to supply us with omelets to fuel conversation, it was a wise choice.

This week’s list is as follows:
1. White plastic chairs (if left on the porch, they will crack under the intense Ecuadorian sun)
2. Program Attendance (addressing the issues we’ve had with interest/investment by the San Franciscan community in our various programs)
2. a-p) in depth discussion about how to remedy/address #2.
3. Late night ice cream binges (the girls begged the boys to yell “muffin tops!” at us whenever we lock ourselves in the kitchen to eat cartons of ice cream. Eliah volunteered to head up the effort)
4. PD recruiting (when we need to start!)
5. Projector (how to take care of it, especially since a new blub costs 400 dollars!)
6. Small business classes (Dunc has an upcoming meeting to find a teacher for our class)
7. Mingas (Luke is working to put together Mingas in the neighborhood, potentially collaborating with Engineers without Borders)
8. Couch in kitchen (Dunc wants to put a bed in the kitchen to lounge in, but is willing to compromise with a couch. Eliah threatened to filibuster the already long meeting until we all consented.)
9. Thanksgiving break group from Vandy.
10. Finances (being aware of our food spending habits)
11. Zak off the reservation celebration (Zak heads out on Thursday :( so a dinner send-off is in order)

It was a packed meeting, but we all came off with a better understanding of where our focus needs to be. We were reminded of the importance of being in the community, of being fully there; of showing up to soccer games and church services and community meetings, of knowing the families who trust their kids to us every day after school, of being present and intentional and focused on what work we want to accomplish hand in hand with the San Franciscan community.

I have no doubt that we are all ready to be fully in it.

Holly