Happy Turkey Day!

Family and friends of MPI,
This Thanksgiving I am blessed to say that I am grateful for many things. I am grateful for my family, my friends, my MPI family, an awesome boss (gaining brownie points with Bibi), a dozen beautiful, orange, Thanksgiving roses I just bought at the market for $2, my health, my sanity (most days), the opportunity to be down here in Ecuador... the list goes on and on. I do want to say a specific thank you to all of the PDs who came before us and paved the way for the work that we are currently doing down here in Rumiloma. Thank you to the board of MPI and to the original PDs (even though they were in Nicaragua) - without you none of us would be down here working for Manna.
There are other great reasons to be excited about this time of the year - the main reason being that we can now remove the Christmas tree from hiding and crank up the holiday tunes that I have been sneakily listening to for the last week (okay, two weeks). We will be missing Brock as he is spending this holiday in the States with his family and has been insistent that we stifle our Christmas cheer until after this 25th of November. The time has come!


Noel and I setting up our Christmas tree!


The finished product!

Although we are not celebrating Thanksgiving today and instead will be having a feast on Saturday evening, we wish you all the happiest of Thanksgivings. I can only hope you all feel as blessed as I do this Holiday Season.

Mannamor.

Birthdays in Ecuador!

Manna PDs 2010-2011 at C'est La Vie with the owner for Becky's birthday

This year’s PDs have celebrated much since arriving in Ecuador. Just last week we indulged in a Cajun meal at a Louisiana-themed restaurant in the north of Quito for Becky’s 23rd birthday! Jambalaya, gumbo, shrimp etoufee, and chicken fried steak were the welcome fare for the night at this establishment, founded and run by a native of Lafayette, Louisiana, who has called Ecuador his home for the last 28 years, and his Ecuadorian wife. Although it at times proved confusing (Tabasco sauce and a throw rug on the wall featuring a lobster and crab declaring laissez les bons temps rouler over a boiling pot of gumbo? Where are we??), the location turned out to provide a perfect atmosphere for birthday revelry, complete with the now highly anticipated presentation of Zoë’s beautifully creative birthday card. One of the highlights of all our birthdays here is receiving her card, though it’s for no small amount of anxiety on her part to create a work of art to memorialize each birthday in Ecuador. Overall, hooray for delicious food and wonderful company together to bring in Becky’s 24th year!

Zoë reading Becky's birthday card aloud to the delight of the table.

Becky and her complimentary cake and balloon at C'est La Vie

Admittedly, we have neglected to mark here the growing older (and wiser) of two more of our group. To right this wrong, we here give tribute to those old souls among us. In September we celebrated Sam’s 24th birthday at a Mexican restaurant in Quito. On a festively lit patio and joined by an old friend of Sam’s from California who happens to also be living and working in Quito, we partook in copious amounts of enchiladas and nachos to quench Sam’s longing for his favorite home comfort food. There’s really nothing like Mexican food to make one feel like one is home in the States, no?

In October we were not lacking for celebration either, as Luke turned 26 in our midst at an all-you-can-eat buffet in Quito. Meats, salads, sides, and desserts from an inexplicable assortment of culinary heritages decorated our table for Luke’s birthday dinner. The meal was followed karaoke, dancing, and more laughter with the entire group – not to mention a champagne cork popped in his honor when a bartender discovered it was Luke’s birthday. A night of friendship and joviality, it seemed the perfect way to mark the passing of another year for Profe Lukay, as our Centro kids so fondly refer to him.

Our two senior men, Luke and Sam, celebrating Luke's birthday!

¡Feliz Cumpleaños a todos!

Our business class gets off to a running start

Today brings an update on one of MPI Ecuador's fastest growing programs, microfinance. Here to give a run-down on the launching of our business class is Brock!

Seeing last year’s leg work come to fruition has been one of the best parts of the microfinance program thus far. Last year Chet and Eric took a class to become certified and learn how to teach small business classes from a local university. After taking the class, they were unable to get a small business class off the ground in Rumiloma. However, they were able to create a course manual, which Jack, Luke, and I have used to get the class started. Of course the class started in true Latin American style over a year after the initial push was made.

After walking around the community surveying potential class participants, we settled on teaching the class Saturday afternoons. It seems like we chose the correct time as 10 people came to our first class. 10 may sound like a small class, but this number actually seems to indicate definite success. Christian and Laura from Anamisi, our agriculture partner organization, were amazed at the turn out. Following the first class we asked all the students that wished to continue with the course to inscribe and all 10 did so. Jack, Luke and I were all ecstatic about the turn out and avid participation of our students. We have high hopes as we continue with our 6 week course.

Nestor, the head of our microfinance partner organization EPV, attended the first class and thought so highly of it that he has asked us to give some classes to their employees for training. It has been so cool for Jack, Luke and me to see this partnership grow in a way that Manna has been striving to obtain for a while. We do have to give credit to the foundation work which was done by the PDs before us. The realization of these new classes is a tribute to the hard work Manna has done in Ecuador for the last three and a half years.

Introducing: Don Quixote, Goldie, Fea and Dulcinea

Dear readers... The moment has finally come! We have them! We finally have chickens! The boys have been looking forward to this day for months and since the new house conveniently has a built-in chicken coop in the back yard, we figured... why not? The boys returned with three chickens and a rooster. So far it has been quite an interesting experience.

The chickens are adjusting to a new roost so I am trying to cut them some slack but there are a few things we are all hopeful will change before too long. Firstly, we are sincerely hoping they will stop climbing the fence and attempting to make a break for it. Just this morning one of the chickens (Goldie) and our rooster (Don Quixote) almost tasted freedom by finding a hole in the fence. Luckily our fearless boys chased them down and returned them home to safety. Secondly, the rooster has not quite adjusted to a normal crowing schedule. Some days he is quite an eager beaver crowing at 4:30am (must to my chagrin since my room is right next to the coop) and other days he forgets to crow and calls us to lunch around 11:30 or noon. Lastly, the chickens are severely lacking in maternal instinct; we have 7 eggs so far but the chickens refuse to lay on them. From what I know from children's books, chickens are supposed to lay on their eggs and wait for them to hatch. Our chickens would rather run around the coop and hatch plans with El Gallo (Don Quixote) about an eventual escape from their cozy new homes.

Here are a few pictures to show off our lovely new additions to the Manna team:


Don Quixote and Fea commiserating near the trough. They know the boys are coming to get them.


The boys attempting to capture the chickens as they fly, hop and run around the coop.


Brock giving el gallo Don Quixote some lovin'.


Success! Chickens captured. Photo taken.

Until next time!
BesosChaoChao

Our first weekend at Jesus Divino de Preso

We have begun a partnership with a new organization here in the Valley: Jesus Divino de Preso. Today Ashley brings a little more information about our inaugural activities and conversations with Jesus Divino.

Ashley here again, ready and excited to update you on an interesting new volunteer opportunity in which we have decided to take part. Bibi and Hannah initially met with Juana (affectionately known at their foundation as “Juanita”) from Jesus Divino de Preso, an organization that houses children whose mothers are in prison. While their intent was to discuss spring break, another opportunity emerged out of the meeting - the chance for us to volunteer every other weekend to give the “tías” (house aunts) a few days off.

Jesus Divino operates a number of houses on their beautifully lush property, in which children all live together as a family with their tía. Children are expected to take responsibility for themselves and all of their belongings, including doing dishes, cleaning the house, and washing their laundry daily. The foundation is run by a strong base of professionals who want the children to grow up feeling empowered instead of feeling poor and pitied.

Noel and I were the first to volunteer for a weekend, and it was quite an experience. We traveled to their property not knowing at all what to anticipate or what our role would be in relating to the kids. It ended up being a weekend of dualities: feeling both necessary and superfluous, connecting with kids and yet maintaining distance, loving spending time with them and being frustrated at their periodic disrespect.

It was fascinating to see our shifting roles in relation to the kids as well: at different times we served as authority figures, stand-in loving mothers, disciplinarians, and playmates. After leaving from the weekend both tired and slightly confused at our responsibilities, we met with Juana and a few other professionals from the foundation, including a psychologist with a great deal of insight. They provided us with information about our relationships with the kids as well as the benefits (on both sides) of our volunteering with them. It was incredibly helpful, and we are excited to continue working with them in this unique opportunity!


Two of the houses where the children and tías live on Jesus Divino's grounds, including the one we occupied (left) during our stay.

A tía and some girls waiting out the rain.

John Kevin playing with Noel's umbrella.

Me playing with Freddy and John Kevin in the windows of their house.

Noel reading Aladdin to Freddy, Junior, and Jorge.