The Map

(Today's guest entry comes from Mark Hand, MPI Ecuador's Country Director and all around instigator. He is currently working his way through Wilentz's "The Rise of American Democracy", still hasn't beaten Zak at cuarenta, and 'loves' serving as sous-chef every Friday evening.)

Since I first read Malcom Gladwell's The Tipping Point, I've fancied myself to be what Gladwell calls a connector - not necessarily the guy who knows where all the information is (mavens), or the gal that convinces everybody they should buy this product or join that cause (salesmen), but the guy who gets a real kick out of introducing people that really ought to know each other.

I got a chance to do just that kind of introducing this weekend, when I went to DC for a meet-up of internationally-focused student groups hosted by a coalition called UCGH. I did, in fact, get a kick out of finding and creating connections among the folks there, and look forward to some 'output' from this network sometime in the very near future. Just to give you an idea, one of the projects we'll be working on is a one-stop online shop for internationally interested young people. Part of that will be easy-to-use tools, like this one, to help students determine how to get plugged into international opportunities:


View Larger Map

Pretty cool, right?

Mark

The Occasional Glitch

Hi. I know what you're thinking: Holly, the Daily Life blog has only been up and running for 2 days and you've already started slacking, ahh... where have you been for the last 5 days?! I'd like to take this opportunity to explain a little something we like to call "s.w" or Shifty Wireless. Ok no, we actually don't call it that, but I am putting in a concerted effort to help it catch on. Every once in a while, for reasons beyond our understanding, our internet signal up and leaves us in a manner reminiscent of the Keith Urban song "You'll Think of Me". Considering we've all spent the past few days dreaming about wireless internet, the similarities are quite strong.

In the most recent case, Friday morning rolls around, Jos and Dunc headed out to English class, and with them went our sweet and precious internet signal. We thought it was just another one of those random, inexplicable technological failings. Apparently we were wrong. Turns out (thanks to Dunc and Eliah's investigative skills and countless phone calls to the internet company) our connection was terminated because of confusion over a bill payment. Note: we paid the bill, it was the company who was confused.

Regardless, the signal is back, albeit currently limited to a single cord connection. Now begins the task of sharing between 10 of us one internet cord. I would propose a UFC wrestling match to determine priority, but considering Mark almost broke Dunc's rib the last time that happened, not sure that'd be the best idea.

Happy belated birthday wishes to Luke, and stay tuned for Mark Hand's first guest blog tomorrow!

Best, Holly

Morning Adventures

Starting this past Monday, Jocelyn and Dunc have been teaching an intensive English course for students in the San Franciscan community. Lasting two weeks, the course is designed to act as a refresher in order to prepare the students for the start of school come September 1st. They have five students enrolled, and come back each day a little exhausted, absolutely famished (first thing Jos does is get out the ketchup, regardless of what's on the lunch menu), but positive about the progress their students are making.

This morning, however, they came back in a frenzy. Eliah, Annie, Luke and I were all working on our respective computers (writing program proposals, researching for upcoming projects, emailing the Ecuador09 listserve an obnoxious amount of articles, the usual) when Jos and Dunc came bursting through the front door, each talking a mile a minute. Turns out this morning's class veered a little off course.

Apparently a pregnant cow had picked the grass right outside the Casa Barrial (building where we host our programs) to give birth at 8:30am, to the astonished horror of Jos and Dunc. The cow's labor noises, coupled with the early morning downpour of rain, flustered Jos so much that she used a little too much force in her attempt to open the lock to the Casa Barrial, snapping off the key head while leaving the body jammed in the lock's interior. Thus, the class trudged over to the Cooperative to search for help, managing to find someone with an enormous saw to effectively destroy the lock. After buying a second lock and key and tracking down the rest of the students who had dispersed in the rain-soaked chaos, the group was finally able to start class an hour later. The mother cow (now eating the umbilical cord) and her baby also joined them for a few hours of English grammar.

It speaks to Jos and Dunc's ability as teachers that they were able to run an effective class after all of the morning's excitement. There never is any way of predicting what exactly will happen on any given morning here in the Valley, but that's part of the adventure of it.

Until tomorrow,

Holly

Welcome to the World, Little Blog

Hi and welcome to the freshly minted 'daily life' Manna Ecuador Blog!  This little guy was born out of a desire on our part to offer those who are interested a more in depth look into what exactly goes on in the Ecuadorian world as see through the lens of Manna Project International.  Thus, here stands our brand-spankin' new blog.

I, Holly Ward (of the soon to be released monthly email updates), will be updating this blog daily with tidbits about life in the house, the ever-evolving status of each of our various programs, random (but much sought after) information regarding fellow PDs, ideas we're spitting around regarding potential projects, and a rating system regarding our nightly Manna family dinners.

Each Wednesday will feature a "guest blogger" (ie. one of the other Program Directors) to weigh in on issues important to them.  This means you will most likely read a lot about the importance of protecting mangrove forests, be introduced to a number of Jocelyn's famous cake recipes, encounter any number of Economist articles, etc. 

Here's to our next year, and let the daily blogging begin!

Holly