new kids on the calle

As promised, our house has been completely infested (in a good way!) with summer volunteers for session one. It seems like ages ago when we thought fleetingly about what life would be like in a house full of 19 people for 2 months straight; so far it's been refreshing and without a dull moment. This past week was full of bike tours in Quito, strolling through the Sangloqui market, shadowing classes in the centro, gigantic family dinners and dozens of overlapping programmatic meetings. I can also tell you that these vols are not slackers; many are involved in four or more different programs and a few of the girls went straight from an 8a.m. women's exercise class to three back-to-back meetings for the library, health, and art class, well into the afternoon.

Since we're already backed up a bit on PD interviews (Chet's WILL be posted next week), we won't have time to film and edit summer interviews. However, we will to introduce you to the ten wonderful additions to MPIE via photos and social/programmatic updates throughout the next month!

Intros: Part 1

Jenni Adams from Denver, Colorado is our resident pastry chef (She and Stef made all three of Jen's beautiful birthday cakes on Tuesday). She is a 3rd year pre-med student at Clark University in Massachusetts. Jenni has a lot more than sweets on her plate as she is participating in Adult English, Agriculture, Women's Exercise and running library programs over the next few weeks!

Sonia and Jenni before Adult English in the centro

Sonia Savani and Drew Kittrell both just finished their first year of medical school at Southern Alabama University. They'll be working on health-related projects such as preventative health center research and shadowing our MPI family doctor, Lance, once a week. Sonia is also involved in Children's English, San Juan English, teen center, and falling asleep anywhere and everywhere (even in Pobre Diablo) Drew is teaching San Juan English, Adult English B and can be found reading in hammocks or being one of the most entertaining new catch phrase players.

Chet, Claire, and Drew man the front desk of the library

Claire Mueller, one our eight-weekers, hails from Nebraska and is going into her Sophomore year at Pomona University in California. She is a fantastic cuarenta player and is prominently involved in the teen center and is helping with library projects like painting chalkboard paint for the kids to draw on instead of gluing coloring pages to the wall - a new pastime they embarked upon last week under our noses.

Jen Weidman (yes, we are related and no just because she is a foot taller than I am doesn't mean she's older than me) just finished her Freshman year at Cornell University. She's studying Environmental Engineering and will use her skills to help plan agriculture projects and build planting boxes and other things for the library. She is also participating in San Juan English and Women's exercise and will be with us for all eight weeks as well.

Celebrating Jen's 19th birthday!

Get excited to meet the second half of the group next week and hear all about their 3-day weekend trip to Baños!

- Jackie