Three-Day Weekend Voyages

Even though Guayquil is over 160 miles from here, we were fortunate enough to celebrate its independence day with a day off from work. We spent the weekend rather scattered throughout the country; Sonia was off in Tena with Ricky (we miss you Ricky!). Haley and Sarah ventured north to the infamous Rose Cottage for a quiet weekend in the mountains of Otovalo. And the rest of us braved the Estadio Olimpico Atahualpa for the Ecuador vs. Uruguay game.

The hammocks they barely left for 24 hours

Future save-the-date announcement?

We had been looking forward to this game for about two months, ever since Serena sent an e-mail informing us that the first five people to write her back would claim tickets owned by last year's PDs. Chet, Erik, Krysta, Mike and I were lucky to have read our e-mails first and after a couple of weeks trying to find the receipt, plus two days trying to pick up the actual tickets in Quito, we we're geared up and ready to go Saturday morning. You would probably think that a 5p.m. game wouldn't require us to get there much more than an hour or so ahead of time. However, as we made our way into the stadium around noon, we barely found enough open seats and the crowd was already extremely rowdy.

Me and Krysta (hour one of waiting for the game to start)

The flag that covered our whole section (hours 1 - 5, multiple times)

Erik rocks out, fully-dressed in Ecuador gear

Mike and Chet just before the opening kick off!

Unfortunately, as you probably already know, Ecuador lost 2 - 1 to Uruguay. Before we had enough time to marvel in the glory of scoring the first goal towards the end of the second half, Uruguay retaliated and somehow got themselves a penalty shot within mere seconds of the game ending. Though we were all disappointed, it was an amazing experience and tons of fun, even the five hours of basking in the sun playing cards.

Thanks to some advice from Seth, we'll be attempting to watch Wednesday's game against Chile in the teen center. Although our chances are slim since being pushed down into 6th place with 23 points (we need to be in at least 4th place to qualify for South Africa 2010), we're still hopeful!

Si Se Puede!

- Jackie

October Showers Bring Courtyard Gardens

It's officially October and you know what that means... MLB playoffs!  As well as some Ecuadorian-specific things, such as the beginning of the rainy season.  Tonight was the first Camioneta ride home in the rain and half of us were really prepared (perhaps too prepared.. cough cough Chet put on rain paints over his jeans) while others braved the pelting wind in tee-shirts.  

But the rain also means exciting things for us, specifically less dust to wipe off of our faces at the end of the day AND the start of our vegetable/herb garden!  While our original plan was to use the expertly-crafted boxes Eliah built for a rooftop garden, their services were heavily demanded for compost containers when it became clear that the nine of us consume a lot of food.  So at least for now, we've decided to focus on revamping the courtyard, which no offense to last year's PDs, is pretty gross.  We have two plots on either side of our walkway, one to be used for our vegetable and herb garden (featuring plantas de tomatoes, onions, mint, basil, and lettuce) and the other to be used for small lime trees and aromatic flora.    

Eliah demonstrating his craftsmanship back in August

A closer look at the box base

I'll be using part of this three day weekend to weed and plant, while the other half will be spent at the Ecuador vs. Colombia (World cup qualifier!) futbol game this Saturday.  If you can, be sure to check it out and look for the five Gringos somewhere in the crowd... that is assuming we can claim our tickets (we've been having some difficulty finding the box office open).  

Time to get back baseball and listen on Shawn's radio to the Yankees beat the Twins... 

Don't you just love October? 

 

- Jackie

Barrios and Presidentes

Now first things first - what exactly is a barrio? A barrio is a small community, or perhaps a large neighborhood (from what I can tell); the divisions between them are apparent only if you know which street is what. Our library is located within the barrio of Rumiloma, but we are within close walking distance to San Fransisco, Tena, Fajardo, Chaupitena and a few others. Each barrio has its own president, and it just so happens that Rumiloma elected a new president just a few weeks ago. The president-elect, Mr. Jose Vilane, has shown a great deal of interest in our library and what we are doing within the community. He even stopped by the library a few weeks ago to formally invite us to his presidential inauguration.

Nine PDs and Bibi rolled up to the Casa Barrial last Saturday afternoon, after spending the morning picking up trash for the minga. The fanfare was significantly smaller than that of Washington DC last January, but it was exciting nonetheless. We shared the room with presidents from several neighboring barrios, presidents of the major bus companies, and a representative from Sangolqui. In the speeches given by Mr. Vilane and several community members, we (the "senoritas" of Manna Project... sorry about that, boys...) were thanked repeatedly for the work that we have done and continue to do in Rumiloma. One man said he has been living in another barrio for over 10 years, but that he is seriously considering moving to Rumiloma because of the numerous unique opportunities that exist here - including our library.

The short ceremony ended less than 1.5 hours later, after a free almuerzo (that I actually ate) and a lot of "Que le vaya bien's" to each of the people sitting at the front of the room (it's Ecuadorian custom that you greet and/or say goodbye to everyone in the room). As we jumped back onto the bus and set off for our various Saturday night activities, I (at least) felt a sense of contentment about what we are doing in Rumiloma and our surrounding communities. It was nice to be reassured that we are making an impact.

Thanks for checking in! Off to the biblioteca and Women's Exercise! (It's aerobics night... lots of squats... ay.)
Sarah

The men at the front of the room... and the random gringo who was invited to sit up there, too
(the President is the one with the tie... and you can see Erik's blond head over to the right)

Bibi gives her impromptu speech

PS. The Casa Barrial doubles as a pre-school... can you tell by the pictures? :)
PPS. Check out our new and improved (i.e. updated) Amazon Wishlist link to the right!

Minga de Limpieza Comunitaria

This past Saturday marked our first Minga of the year.  (Minga |meen-gah|noun: an Ecuadorian word for people coming together to do a community service project)  

Nine PDs awoke at 6:45 a.m. to the smell of brewing coffee and a scramble to collect brooms, gloves, and as many trash bags as we could find.  Though we sleepily commuted into Rumiloma, we perked right up as we stepped off of the bus to find a dozen kids and parents already gathered in front of the library, ready to clean up their community.  As we split into groups to tackle the various neighborhood streets and sidewalks, we found many residents cleaning streets and sidewalks by their homes as well, asking us to borrow supplies.

Our neighbors, brushing up garbage from the drain pipes 

We spent the better part of 3 hours cleaning up around Rumiloma; my main job was to run around making sure everyone had enough trash bags, haul full bags back to the library, label them with kids' names and then weigh them to keep track of which kid collected the most, by volume.  By 11a.m. we had run out of bags (something I never thought would happen given the amount we stole from the house and wiped out of the library stash) and rounded up all of the kids in the library to tally the weight results, which are the following:

Total Combined Kids' Weight: 376.5 lbs 

Total Combined Profe's Weight: 70 lbs (plus Sarah's 2 tires)

------------------------------

Total Weight: 446.5 lbs 

Team Iori proudly showing off their loot 

A few notes about the weights: the profes had significantly less weight because we mostly helped the kids (we're not lazy, don't worry) and there was an estimate of 60-70 lbs not weighed that were left on street corners, where other residents were instructed to put their trash for pick up.  Though there were only 4 kids who got our grande sopresa, we dolled out lollipops to the other kids who answered our environmental quiz questions correctly and provided other refreshments for the families.  

Mike and Dana haul kids (and trash) from the plaza to the library

Lucia, Shawn, Erik and Bibi weighing the trash

The whole group in front of 450lbs. of collected trash!

Everyone helps throw trash bags into the truck

Some people question the sustainability of such an event, wondering if the streets will simply become riddled with garbage again a week later.  While that reality is more likely than not, clean-ups are a powerful tool for a number of reasons: they bring people together, engage them in a service dedicated to the area where they live, and quite frankly, after participating in something like picking up trash for house, you tend to think twice about dropping a candy wrapper onto the street.  

The event also opens the door for bigger projects.  There are two major trash issues in Rumiloma: burning household trash, mostly out of habit since there are reliable waste haulers now, and water contamination as a result of excessive litter and agricultural/livestock practices.  It is a priority of our environmental program here in Ecuador to tackle both issues in collaboration with USAID, FONAG (El Fondo de protección del agua), and most importantly, local leaders and organizations.   But I'm getting ahead of myself.. you'll have to wait to hear more about that in future posts!

Litter-less and feeling free (not really because quarterly reports are due next week!), 

Jackie

When Nomads Come Together

Tonight's guest blog comes from Erik Swanson, a native-born Tennessean but Coloradan ski/snowboarder at heart.  Erik is both one of my apartment-mates, and Minga extraordinaire with whom I'm co-running a community clean-up in Rumiloma this Saturday.  On top of that, he is co-running the Microfinance program with Chet and running around the valley in recruiting university students to volunteer in our library.  In his spare time he enjoys weekly trips to a hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant (and bringing us lots of dumpling leftovers!) and playing rugby on the weekends, which is what he chose to write about tonight: 

"During my freshman year of college, the sport of Rugby became a formidable part of my life. In the recruitment meeting, many of the seniors talked about the worldwide community that the sport has slowly created over the years. I quickly came to realize the unique camaraderie that rugby players share, especially at the social that follows a game (or "third half").

During the application process for Manna Project, I noticed many differences between the Nicaragua and Ecuador programs, most notably the "Minga" program that is unique to MPI-Ecuador and that I believe best falls into line with my past experience with Amigos de las Americas. I also noticed that there would not be a chance for me to play rugby had I chosen MPI-Nicaragua. Knowing that there were more than a few teams in Ecuador, and 3 in Quito, I wanted to put what the seniors told us all about in that initial meeting to the test.

Though his hair is longer now, this is a classic Erik face

I found Nomadas R.F.C and quickly got into contact with Miguel Montes, the captain of the team, who invited me to a tournament at the Universidad Catolica in Quito that Saturday. I quickly found out that the team was composed of expatriates from all over the world (hence the name Nomadas R.F.C or Nomad Rugby Football Club). I was amazed by the fact that people from Argentina, Venezuela, Chile, Colombia, France, the UK, and the states had all come together to form this team. Despite the fact that the Argentines generally provide most of the comedic relief, it is an extremely welcoming community, holding everything said in that first recruitment meeting to be true. I am extremely thankful for the opportunity to play the sport in South America, but even more grateful for the opportunity to instantly step into a group of people that legitimately accept each other as they are. The ability to so quickly find like-minded people has augmented every aspect of my life in Ecuador.

We practice in a French school in Quito known as La Condamine, mostly because one of our players manages the grounds. The field is located on the northern side of Parque La Carolina. Despite the occasional presence of multiple llamas on the field, I gladly dedicate my Saturday mornings to training with Nomadas R.F.C. 

The field at La Condamine (llamas regretfully not included)

- Erik"