The Big Move Pt. I

This past week has been a test of ingenuity, patience, and (occasionally) pure muscle but we did it... we successfully moved out of the apartment and... drum roll please... we got our entire deposit back! Between moving everything out of the rooms, painting every wall twice and sealing up the hobbit door, it was certainly a time commitment. Although it is amazing to have two extra couches in the common room for meetings (and TV watching), the house certainly does feel smaller without our little apartment. Next week we will begin the process of moving out of this lovely home to our new one in Sangolqui! But until then... a little excerpt from Brock, our handyman extraordinaire.

The story of the hobbit door.

We finished moving out of the apartment this past week and I gotta tell you, a lot of work went into fixing and cleaning it. No project took more time and energy than the hobbit door. Background; the hobbit door was Bibi’s first project as Country Director and it served as the gateway to get from the house to the apartment. Before the door we had to climb on a ledge and through a window or walk around the outside of the house and into the neighbor’s house that was below the apartment.

The project started with Sam and me destroying the stairs inside the apartment that went to the hobbit door since the opening started about 3 feet off the ground. After taking out the stairs, Sam, Luke and I made mortar and filled in the hole with CMU block flush on the outside of the wall. While this was drying we took the sledge hammer to the outside hobbit door stairs. We
then used ghetto rigged form boards to pour concrete that we also made on the roof of the house. We had to hold the form boards in place until the concrete set. Once the concrete was dry it took several coats of stucco to make the inside wall smooth. But the landlord gave it the ok. This came as a great relief after Sam, Luke and I along with some help from Jack spent the better part of two and a half days working on the hobbit door.

And now... PICTURES!!

Teen Talk

Time already for our second guest blog: meet Ashley! Programatically, Ashley will be working with the teen center, women's exercise, children's English, and community liaisons with Manna. Today she's getting us up-to-date on happenings with teens:


Joseph, Ashley, Juan, and Jasson at the Manna Center

Hi there, I’m Ashley Hanson, a member of the super exciting group of ’10-’11 PDs. I am from Chagrin Falls, Ohio but definitely headed south for school at Vanderbilt (the weather is just so much nicer there), where I majored in Human and Organizational Development. I focused particularly on international and community development, which has led perfectly into our work here in Ecuador.

I have had the privilege of working with the teen center, which has been a complete blast. Some would say that it’s just a bunch of young teenagers playing video games, but it is so much more. Teens begin arriving at the library at 2:30 in order to stand by the desk and point at the clock, anxiously awaiting the opening of the teen center at 4:00. In addition to the beloved video games, we frequently play chess, ping pong, and a plethora of board games. Some of the teens serenade us with their guitar and vocal skills, at times passing along their knowledge so that we can all play together.

During an interview for our upcoming promotional video, one of the teens who recently became acquainted with the centro discussed how important it has been in his life. He explained that the teen center gives the teens a place to hang out, have fun with friends, and stay safe. Before that, at times I’ve questioned that depth of the impact that the teen center has in the community, but he made it clear that it has been integral in his life and in the lives of many of his friends and family. It makes it even more rewarding and encouraging to hear such positive feedback!


Jasson and Cynthia with their projects at one of our August workshops

As Hannah mentioned, we have also partnered with the Departamento Nacional de Jóvenes, a section of the Ecuadorian government that deals with children and adolescents. We have held 2 workshops already: the first one focused on discovering identity, and the second exploring teens’ rights and responsibilities. We played games, had discussions, and even incorporated some art. Our final workshop with just our group is this Friday. For our next event, we will meet with a broader group of 2,500 adolescents so that they can collectively work to make an impact using their rights. It is really exciting to be able to work together with the government toward improving the lives and situations of adolescents here in the valley.

Happy Birthday to our Jefa!

Wednesday we made a midweek trip into Quito to celebrate the 30th birthday of our wonderful country director, Bibi! After something of a disappointment in arriving at Café Toledo to find that the live music started 2 ½ hours later than we’d been led to believe over the phone (the band wasn’t even there yet), that we were the only customers in the restaurant at 8pm, and that food and drinks cost Stateside prices, Bibi decided to move the party down the street to a Thai/Japanese restaurant in La Mariscal. Over an assortment of Pad Thai and sushi roll dishes, we were able to properly commemorate Bibi’s big day!



Of course, a single day of festivities doesn’t suffice when it’s in honor of Bibi. We extended the celebration to Thursday night at the Manna House, giving it a home-grown flavor of kitchen-baked cake and dining table happy birthday singing.



Happy birthday, Bibi! We're so happy to share in your 30th with you!!

A Special Thanks

This past week we have been fortunate enough to have a visitor here to help us with promoting and marketing for MPI. Brooke Kingsland is a senior at Duke University and was kind enough to take time out of her busy summer schedule to help us out with promotional videos for Manna. We certainly demanded a lot of her during her time here hoping that she could make videos for future PDs, our donors and one for Ecuadorian volunteers as well. During the week she interviewed many PDs, took part in exercise classes and even encouraged a visit to Mindo, Ecuador which included canyoning and intense hikes of steep mountain passes. Although she returns to Duke in just a few days, she was still fully committed to her time here and we cannot wait to see the final products! So, from all of us... Thank you so much Brooke and we hope you enjoyed your stay as much as we did!!
Now for some fun photos:

Jack returns to Ecuador!

Today we have our first Guest Blog of 2010-2011 from Jack! Let me introduce- on second thought, he can speak for himself...

Guest post! Hey everyone, my name is Jack Butler and I am part of the 2010-2011 squad of PDs. I hail from Rockville, MD (right outside of D.C.) and graduated this past spring from Vanderbilt University with majors in Human and Organizational Development and Economics. This is actually my second trip to the Manna house in Ecuador; I volunteered here before for a month after my sophomore year of college. I knew I wanted to be a PD after that month, and spent my senior year helping to recruit Vandy students for the year-long PD position with Manna. It’s great to finally be here, and I am genuinely thrilled to be spending my year with such a bunch of enthusiastic, inspiring, and fun people.

After a 2 year absence from Ecuador, I can’t help but notice the significant number of developments that have occurred in a relatively short period of time. The biggest change has been the introduction of the library and the teen center. I had no idea that this program was in the works, but a few short months after I left in the summer of 2008, the MPI team in Ecuador devoted a huge amount of time and resources to securing a location, getting books, painting and decorating the rooms, and more. When I first saw the library a little over a month ago, I was really blown away by the success of such a young program. There are many families in Rumiloma (the neighborhood where the library is located) whose children come to the library every day to read, play board games, and socialize with new friends. It has been a pleasure to discover the success of the teen center as well; with the draw of video games (each child is allotted an hour per day), ping pong, 2 acoustic guitars, and a few other things, lots of local teens come to hang out in a healthy environment. The success and impact that MPI Ecuador has had through the library and teen center has reassured me that we are part of a program and formula that truly achieves tangible results.

Today, on our last day of summer camp, our campers gave us some encouraging words that further suggest that MPI Ecuador is making strides in the right direction. In a final talk, we asked our 8-13 year olds what they truly thought of our summer camp, if they planned on coming back next summer, and if there was anything they would change. They all firmly acknowledged their intent to return next summer and confirmed that the majority of the field trips, games, and activities had been lots of fun. One of the biggest complaints: summer camp needs to be longer than 3 weeks! I think I can live with that. I would say that I am going to miss these kids, but luckily I can count on seeing most of them every day next week in the library or the teen center.