Despedida #1

It's becoming quite apparent that we don't have very much time left in Ecuador... things that we scheduled 3 months ago (thinking June would never get here) have come and gone. Funny how that happens. Our most recent reminder of our impending departure was the Despedida we hosted in Parque Moya last Saturday.

A Despedida (literally "a farewell") is a goodbye party, and it is customary in Ecuador to do something special before people leave. We decided to have 2 Despedidas this year - 1 for our friends who are less library-goers and the other for the Rumiloma/library community. This Despedida was for our less library-going friends, homestay families, soccer teammates, etc. We all gathered in the park for a Saturday afternoon of good conversation, basketball games, eating, and listening to the painful USA-Ghana soccer game via radio.

Here are some pictures of the party:

Pick-up basketball game

My strategy for beating the opponents

Relaxing and eating in Parque Moya

Krysta with Dr. Escobar and his son

Mike, Emilia and Alison

Shawn and me listening to the pathetic USA vs. Ghana soccer game via radio

Haley and Krysta with some Women's Exercise students and their families

Haley and Susana

Chaooo,

Sarah

Lists and Art Pics

(This week's Guest Blog comes from Miss Sonia Patel, who also happens to be next up for the PD Interviews. These days Sonia can be tracked to virtually any location in the house due to her computer's broken fan, which makes it sound like it will initiate liftoff about every 30 seconds. She's been involved in both Art Classes and the Preventive Health Center since the beginning, and has played a huge role in the success of both programs. Sonia's also a total baller because she'll be attending med school at Georgetown next year. Because class starts on August 2nd, Sonia's leaving early, and this is her last Guest Blog... Enjoy!)

"Over the past 11 months, certain events have become especially memorable for me. While some have been surprisingly horrific at the time of their occurrences, they now, with the more traditionally happy events, land themselves on my list of “things that I will most truly and dearly miss about Ecuador.” Since this is my last guest blog, I only find it appropriate to share that list with you. Enjoy!

1. Eating dessert once a week…directly from the pan

2. Waking up with my body covered in bug bites

3. Teaching children’s art to precious 8 year olds (and the occasional 2 year old) who haven’t quite learned how to follow directions.

4. Building casitas for gas tanks

5. Coming together for dinner and discussing the day’s embarrassing moments

6. Playing catch phrase for 4 hours

7. Opening the Preventative Health Center

8. Not communicating with a person who has stepped in poop for 24 hours

9. Climbing the Andes Mountains

10. Joseph Oña

11. Sitting next to a woman as she breast feeds her child who will occasionally take breaks to converse with his mother

12. Finding a silver fish in my underwear

13. Learning how to “nutritionize” myself through Aliméntate Ecuador’s weekly charla in our Centro

14. Making 120 animal balloons for the children in our community

15. Having one of my socks clog the washer drain

16. “el gas, el gas”…”el gas el gas”…”el gas el gas”

17. Losing the internet every other minute, my screaming computer, and cuddling with a board

18. Watching Wendy learn how to read

19. The world’s most beautiful sunsets

20. Pan de Yuca, Sanduche el Rey, homemade popcorn for breakfast, lunch, and dinner

21. Boiling eggs for so long that all the water evaporates

22. Monday Morning Meetings

23. Advertising with a perefeneo

24. Observing an appendix being removed...fainting in the Sangolquí Hospital

25. Kuka’s psuedopregnancy

26. Shawn, Sarah, Jackie, Mike, Krysta, Chet, Haley, Erik, and Bibi

Nostalgically yours,
Sonia"

Here are some pictures of the masterpieces that the kids have created in Sonia and Chet's Art Class... and, yes, I know some of them are upside-down... I tried uploading them about 10 times and I couldn't fix it...

Picasso faces

Frida Kahlo self-portraits

Norman Rockwell "Freedom from Fear"

Vincent Van Gogh "Starry Night"

Monet "Water Lilies"

Summer Session II: More Introductions!

Onto the second half of session two!

So far, four of the volunteers have been volunteering at Fundacion Añamisi twice a week, weeding and planting in the garden, and sometimes saving hens from decapitation by Christian's dogs...

Mae and Laura help protect the Gallina while Karla, Kendra and Jen keep Tommy away

Last week, Kendra Peters and her green thumb unearthed this giant turnip (somehow it only took a month and a half to grow). Kendra graduated from Georgetown University this past spring and will be starting work at a consulting firm in San Francisco in the fall. When she's not in the garden, she helps survey for microfinance, teaches San Juan English, Adult English B and Women's Exercise

Kendra and her prized turnip!

Karla Luna, born and raised in Texas, has been a wonderful help for finishing up our Aliñambi Nutrition Program; her fluency in Spanish helps entertain the kids (although when she accidentally called a beet 'rumilacha' instead of 'remolacha' they never let her hear the end of it). She just graduated from UT with a degree in nutrition and spent a week in Nicaragua this past spring. She's helping to plan a charla for our preventative health program here in a few weeks as well as teaching Adult English and Women's Exercise.

Karla poses atop the Panecillo

Mae Nester comes from the great University of Delaware and the even greater undergraduate club, Students for the Environment! Mae just finished her freshman year studying biology and advocating for environmental issues on campus. We share a mutual love of compost, the first state, and bright clothing (specifically scarves). When we're not reminiscing about S4E, Mae works hard teaching literacy class, Children's English, and explaining how to pronounce her name to kids in the library ('como MAYO').

Mae and I squinting atop Quilotoa this past weekend

We are so excited to have Isabel Delgado, who lived in Cuenca for the first 14 years of her life, here with us this session! Isabel just finished school in Minnesota. On top of helping us with Spanish, providing cultural insight, and cooking delicious soups for us, she teaches Adult English A and B, Natural Science class and Art class. Last week, along with Karla, Mike and myself, she talked at length about deforestation in Ecuador during our monthly radio charla. I can't properly express how excited they were to have native speakers on the show after months of our Spanglish!

Isabel (left) broadcasting at Super K with Mike and Karla

Kendra, Mae, and I etch our names into a plant in the Plaza (a trick that Isabel taught us)

Until next time,
Jackie

Summer Session II - Volunteer Introductions!

Summer Session II is almost half finished! The volunteers have spent the last two weeks integrating themselves into our programs, and teaching some of their own. I'd say this calls for some introductions...

Bobo (striped green sweater and blue hat) hanging out with fellow summer vols during their weekend trip to Quilotoa

Elizabeth Bobo hails from Arkansas and just finished her freshman year at Tulane, majoring in Latin American Studies and Spanish. Bobo, as she has come to be known, is involved in a ton of programs including: Women's Exercise, Adult English, Kid's English, Art, and Cooking class. Quite the busy woman!

Flori (far left) after a morning volunteering with a partner organization, Remanzo

Flori Garcia joins us from Crown Point, Indiana. Flori just completed her freshman year at Pomona College in California, where she played soccer with Claire (an 8-week volunteer). She is spending most of her time teaching Kid's English both at our Centro and in San Juan, helping out with Women's Exercise and dominating Microfinance with Chet and Erik.

Elizabeth riding a horse back up the very steep Quilotoa trail

Elizabeth Murray is from John's Creek, Georgia. She is going to be a senior at the University of South Carolina majoring in Management and Economics. Elizabeth is involved in the Teen Center, Microfinance, Agriculture and Adult English.

Samah (far right) stops for a shot with the group in front of the laguna

Samah Rizvi graduated from the University of Colorado and dove straight into Americorps, where she spent the last year living and working outside of Chicago. Samah is working with Kid's English in San Juan, Adult English at the Centro, as well as in the brand new Preventive Health Center.

Later,

Sarah

PS. Thanks to Claire for donating the pictures!

Preguntas para Sonia

Next week I get to interview Sonia Patel! Although I'm not sure we can get her to sing "Milkshake" on the internet, I'm certain that you readers can come up with some (almost as) entertaining questions. And some thought-provoking ones too!

Bibi messing with Sonia on a retreat

Topics can include anything from:

• "what is your favorite color?" (a question she posed to all of the summer volunteers last weekend in Quilotoa)
• what she would do if any form of feces touched her
• what it's like to be a vegetarian in Ecuador
  
• how many episodes of Lost she's watched in the past week
• her inspirations for Art Class
• participating in the Alimentate nutrition classes
• all of the awesome things she's going to do in med school in DC next year
  

Please post question as a comment to this entry, or e-mail me (jmw8387@gmail.com) by next MONDAY June 28th!

thanks and happy summer!
- Jackie