The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

This week's guest blog comes from Mike of the teen center... and the library. Lucky for us, he's taken a break from facilitating Halo, manning the front desk, and inputting books into our online database to detail how happy we are that it's December. Enjoy!

"To quote Andy Williams, December is 'the most wonderful time of the the year.' Starting backwards, you have New Years Eve, proceeded by Christmas, Christmas Eve, my birthday*, the last day of Hanukkah*, and the first day of Hanukkah, all days that lead to general good cheer (*generally in that order). Well this year, we must tack on to the end of that list Feria de Quito, the 9-day festival celebrating the (re)founding of Quito on December 6, 1534.

The Feria de Quito, among other things, celebrates Quito's Spanish heritage, complete with a compliment of parades, chivas parties on large trucks with live music, and bull fights. It's also a time to celebrate Ecuadorian culture, with local artisans touting panama hats and leather goods, available for sale in the markets and near the Plaza de Toros.

Another highlight of December is our Secret Snowflake. Similar to Secret Santa but with more irony (snowflakes in this equatorial sun?), we have all drawn names and sworn secrecy until the exchange this Sunday. While a limit of $5 would stifle any gift attempts in the States, it has only spurred creativity, due to a penchant we all share for baked goods and the still-coolness of Ecuadorian markets. Shawn, Chet, and I all picked up our gifts Friday, leading to the most difficult part for me as I have to wait 6 more days to give my gift to a certian MPI hermano.

Erik and Mike enthused about our homemade Christmas decorations

While I am not joining the seven other PDs going home for the holidays (the joys of a one-way ticket), I will have the opportunity to celebrate Christmas with my family here in Ecuador. This will be only the second time I'm not in Michigan to celebrate with extended family, and while I'll miss the snow and cold, I'm looking forward to showing off my new city to my mom, dad, and sister.

I wish you and your family a wonderful December filled with family, friends, and, perhaps, a little reflection; afterall, New Years resolutions are only a few weeks away (followed shortly there after by my second favorite month- February, when we break our New Years resolutions).

Besitos,
Mike"

Fiestas de Quito!

We've come to learn that Ecuadorians like to name big streets after important dates. Since the day we set foot in Quito, much of our public transportation lives have revolved around this big street that runs through the middle of Quito that's called 6 de diciembre. Turns out December 6th is Quito's founding day, and thus, cause for an annual celebration of epic proportion.

The streets of Centro Historico at night during Fiestas de Quito

Fiestas de Quito started on November 27th and ran all the way through December 6th. There were parades, concerts... and, of course, the infamous bullfights. While all of us trekked our way into Quito several times throughout the weekend, only five of us chose to attend the bullfight last Sunday. Besides being one of the most popular Fiestas de Quito events, we decided it was also a significant cultural event... a learning experience, if you will.

The five of us made our way into the city on Sunday morning and made it to the Plaza de Torros early enough to eat our fill of delicious empanadas de morocho, dance to the blaring reggaeton music, and take pictures with the colorful bull statues (clearly a must). Once we made our way to our seats (in the nosebleed section... but with a great view!), we realized we had no idea what to expect. Flash forward to the end of the first round bullfight (who knew there were SIX rounds?!) - there were five gringos with their mouths wide open (and maybe a few girls with some tears in their eyes...) surrounded by cheering Ecuadorians. I guess you could say we caught on pretty quickly.

Told you we took pictures with the cool painted bull statues

Me and the boys with the cool bull

Although a few of us didn't think we'd make it through 5 more rounds, we stuck it out and became intrigued by the tradition and cultural significance behind the bullfight. Personally, the jury is still out on how I feel about bullfights, in general. And I'm pretty sure I'll be content to have only gone to one bullfight in my lifetime. But even so, I think it was an enlightening experience, and one that I am glad I got to witness.

Plaza de Torros under the beautiful Ecuadorian sky

Nose bleed section! What up!
Note their cool Panama hats. They don't even look like gringos...

The opening ceremony of the bullfight

El Juli, a super famous matador from Spain, during the first round

Hasta pronto,
Sarah

25,000 SMACKERS! :)

Hello hello! Long time no see... er... blog. November was a crazy month with daily power outages, long weekends, and globe-trotting Thanksgiving Breaks. But now we're back in full force, and working hard to win $25,000! Yes, you heard correctly... $25,000!

Chase Banks is putting on this competition called Chase Community Giving, in which the top 100 non-profit organizations to earn the most votes on Facebook will win $25,000. This is HUGE. As of right now, we have a definite shot of being within the top 100... but WE NEED YOUR HELP.

Here's what YOU need to do:

1. Click here to become a "fan" of the Chase Community Giving contest on Facebook.

2. Click here to vote for Manna Project International.

(3. Or you can just click that handy little button at the top of our blog, which Jackie, the tech genius, put up yesterday...)

That's all you have to do! One vote really does make a difference. (And if you want to send an e-mail out to any friends, groups, co-workers or listservs who might be willing to vote for us, that would be fabulous!)

If we win the 25k, $5,000 will go directly to funding Ecuador's programs... this could include more furniture for the library (we are in desperate need of more tables and chairs!), appliances for the nutrition program kitchen, more books for the library, and much MUCH more! (How was that for a sales pitch?)

Additionally... since you can vote for up to 20 organizations, we are teaming up with a coalition of other non-profits to cross-promote and increase our chances of winning. This joint effort is sure to give us a leg up on the competition, so please vote for these organizations as well:

Atlas Service Corps

National Youth Rights Association

Think Impact (Student Movement for Real Change)

Service for Peace

Arlington Street People's Assistance Network

Youth Venture

Arlington Food Assistance Center

Thank you so much for your support... we stand a great chance of winning this competition and we can't do it without you! We appreciate your commitment to our ongoing initiatives, as well as your votes!

Dale pues,

Sarah

Top Chef: Ecuador

I’m happy to report that all nine PDs are back in Ecuador and accounted for. After spending our Thanksgiving holidays globetrotting to Nicaragua for the MPI 5-year reunion, Argentina, Venezuela and the good old US of A, we’re all glad to be back in the country we call home. Though we only have two weeks from today until winter break, there’s a lot to be wrapped up and more importantly, lots of brainstorming to be had envisioning new projects to start in January.

One such project is building a kitchen on the third floor of our library. As you may have read in previous posts, this space is now being used for English and natural science classes as well as women’s exercise. The focus groups that we’ve held have emphasized the importance of nutrition education in our community. Last year’s PDs also hosted two different cooking classes for the women in our exercise classes.

The goal of these classes is to increase the extent of which Ecuadorian produce is cooked with as well as how to maximize their nutritional value. In order to accomplish this goal, we plan to install a kitchen on our third floor.

We’ve compiled a wish list, in order of necessity below. Sonia and Krysta have spent the past month running around the valley pricing these items and compiling a comprehensive budget for this project.

Our Wish List:

1. Stove
2. Gas tanks (2)
3. Gas hose (6m)
4. Wood for gas tank cover
5. Plastic table
6. Water filter
7. Dish rack
8. Set of knives (2)
9. Pans (3)
10. Plastic mixing blows (4)
11. Peeler (3)
12. Measuring cups
13. Measuring spoons
14. Forks (12)
15. Knives (12)
16. Spoons (12)
17. Oven pan (2)
18. Metal grater
19. Whisk
20. Wood spoons (3)
21. Strainer
22. Rubber spatula (2)
23. Laddel (2)
24. Pot (26cm)
25. Pot (22cm)
26. Wood cutting board (2)
27. Plastic cutting board (2)
28. Metal spatula (1)
29. Rolling pin
30. Fine strainer
31. Plastic shelves (3)
32. Pot hooks (7)
33. Spice rack
34. Oven mits (2)
35. Plates (10)
36. Bowls (10)
37. Plastic cups (10)
38. Cake pan (2)
39. Towel set

In total, our wish list items add up to an expense of $735.20. We plan to cover food costs from inscriptions or from asking our students to bring in items. Our short-term goal is to get this class up and running as soon as we obtain enough donations to cover our basic expenses. Any support that you would be able to give towards this project would be so appreciative; we literally can’t do it without you!

Checks can be made out to Manna Project International, with “Ecuador kitchen” in the memo. Checks should be mailed to the MPI headquarters in Nashville:

Manna Project International

P.O. Box 121052

Nashville, TN 37212

Additionally, support can be given online at www.mannaproject.org/donate. Please click "donate here!" and when prompted, fill in “Ecuador kitchen” designated on under the‘support for.’

We're no strangers to the kitchen, cooking for each other 6 days a week

Only fresh from the local market produce in our kitchen!

If you have any questions, concerns, or wish to learn more about this project please feel free to e-mail me here.

Stay tuned to our side bar as we keep you updated on our fundraising status and project process!

Cheers, Jackie

Ready... Set... EXPLODE!!

Tonight's guest blog comes from Miss Krysta Peterson, fellow natural science profe and my traveling companion for the next week. Since you already know how fabulous she is, I'll let her blog do most of the talking:

"A our natural science class sadly came to end this week, we decided we want to go out with a bang…. or rather an EXPLOSION!

Our 2-part class on volcanoes had a suspenseful start with a volcano diagram and learning, in Spanish AND English, about the various parts of a volcano. Then we swiftly transitioned into our lecture for the day with material stopping just short of discussing plate tectonics, but none the less just as invigorating! We had planned to do a worksheet and show a video but due to the awesome power outages, neither of those caught a glimpse of action on Volcanoes Day one. We ended day one with the actual building of the volcanoes! WOOHOO! Since our class is so large, we split them up into 2 groups allowing each group to make their own paper mache volcano. And naturally without fail they teamed up into boys and girls teams. As day one came to a close the volcanoes were taking shape and looked awesome!

Cotopaxi is one of Ecuador’s more famous volcanoes with its spectacular summit peeking over mountains and clouds providing views from all around Quito. Did you know that Cotopaxi has erupted 50 times since 1738?! If you were in our class Friday, you would have learned this! NO WAY! Yes way...

After some English vocabulary review, a Discovery Channel video about volcanoes, a worksheet and a lesson about the effects of volcanoes on the environment, the time had come…Explosion time! Needless to say they were a huge hit, I mean what kid doesn’t love volcano eruption day in elementary school? So, I’ll let the video and pictures do the talking from here….

The boys enjoying constructing (and sticking newspaper up their noses)

Jackie and Krysta (and more thumbs up)

Profe Krysta completes the second demonstration

Our whole class!

And FINALLY, our epic video explosion:

If you are just beside yourself with excitement and jealousy that you didn’t get to build a volcano with us, we offer free Skype dates so you too can learn how to bring the fun to your home! (*Materials not included.)

Thanks for reading and have a splendid Thanksgiving week!

Hugs and an Ecuadorian side kiss,

Krysta"