Rumiloma kids take on the masters

This week Zoë brings us an update from one of our most popular programs.  Stay tuned in the weeks to come as the Manna house will be filled with our fabulous summer volunteers!


Greetings from Ecuador to all of our readers! Although we find ourselves with only 3 months left as Program Directors with Manna Project, our programs continue to gain momentum. Today I am going to update you all on the one class offered to children still too young to read and write: Arte para Niños! Children’s Art!

Our mission to promote within our community the value of art, which is exceedingly hard to come by in Ecuador’s public schools, seems to be reaching further because our enrollment has increased and attendance has become more consistent. Increasing enrollment has been a central goal of the art team since August, and Luke, Sam and I are very pleased to see results. Most satisfying, in my opinion, is that the same students are returning to class every week, which really indicates that they value the lessons and projects we do in art class and that it’s not just a fun hour with paints that students attend sporadically.

We have recently changed our curriculum. The previous three quarters we focused on different regions of the world, choosing art projects that reflected local culture and typical art forms from those regions. This quarter however, we are focusing instead on specific artists. Each class we present a small lesson about a different artist, and then do an art project inspired by him. At the end of class, we ask students questions and reward correct answers with pieces of candy in order to encourage retention of the information we offer them in the lesson.

By focusing on particular artists, it is our hope that our students will gain more appreciation for art as a medium of individual expression. They will see how the works of different artists from different eras and different continents vary in use of color, tone and style.

Finally, it is a continued goal of ours to encourage creativity and independent work. Many students, particularly our younger students who accompany older family members to class, tend to mimic the projects of their peers. We want to create a space in which students build up confidence in their own ability to be creative and create an art project on their own. Furthermore, we wish to reinforce that there is no “correct” or “right” final project. This may be the only class they attend in their childhood where this is the case and they are not encouraged to follow a strict set of rules in order to produce a final product.

The art team is very excited about how Children’s Art has progressed over the past few quarters, and we are also looking forward to seeing how our students respond to learning about a variety of influential artists!  Here’s to looking ahead!

Art at the MPI Ecuador Centro

Luke brings you today an update on our thriving children's art program.

Our art program attendance has nearly tripled since Zoë, Sam, and I took over the class in late August.  This is largely due to our push to advertise our art program within the library space.  The biggest promotion has come in the form of our monthly library parties, where we host a craft hour within the library open to all children who are interested in participating. 

Our children’s art program serves as a creative outlet for the children that frequent our library, and has quickly become one of my favorite programs that we run here in Ecuador.  As a supplement to the Ecuadorian school system in the way of creative thinking, I believe this program is extremely important.  And let’s be honest, it’s fun to spark the artistic bug in children which often times results in them getting paint and glue all over themselves. 

As well as stimulating creative thinking, another goal of our art program is to increase cultural awareness through focusing on art projects from around the world.  Each art class is preceded by a brief charla on the cultural region, art, or ethnic group that we have chosen to focus on.  Thus far we have focused on Native American art, where we did numerous projects including the construction of tipis; Asian art where we made origami frogs – they could actually hop! – Middle Eastern art where we made pyramids out of caramel, which later melted in the sun (bummer); and our current focus of South American art, where we are emulating art projects from famous South American artists. 

Our children’s art program serves as a learning tool, a vehicle which inspires creativity, and a fun class that creates a light atmosphere for children from different neighborhoods to enjoy each others company.

Week(s) in Review

A lot happens in the weeks that lead up to spring break, including running around Quito writing down directions, finalizing trip budgets, and setting up bunk beds / moving me and Erik into the house for the month. Thanks to Haley and the other group leaders, we feel pretty confident that things will good pretty smoothly come next Friday!

In the midst of all the planning, a number of other things have been happening that we've neglected to mention - a myriad of enthusiastic art classes, Erik's birthday, really professional grant writing meetings, and a fantastic visit from SETH! - Felicitaciones from the Manna house to him and his fiance, Johanna, who got engaged just a few weeks ago right here in Quito! I smell a reunion for your wedding (wink wink)?!

Here's a rundown through pictures of what we've been up to...

Erik turns 22, holler back youngin'!


Sarah and Bibi duke it out to see who gets to write the Gates Foundation grant (other match ups include: Mike vs. Chet, Haley vs. Krysta, more or less everyone else vs. Bibi)


Lucia, Marjorie, Johanna, Seth, and Shawn celebrating in Quito!


All of the art students hold up their masks in-progress

Emily and Mateo painting away


Wendy decorates with style

Stay tuned this week for notes from our first home stay, a rundown about a new 6th grade nutrition/class garden education program starting on Tuesday, updates from preventative health progress... and of course, spring break arrivals on Friday!

until next time,
Jackie

Nutrition, Art, and Everything in Between

This week's guest blog comes from Sonia Patel (or Soña as the library kids like to write), our token vegetarian. For a petite person, Sonia's laugh and/or screams can be heard all the way from the apartment. Sonia leads weekly inspirational nutrition charlas, helps run Art class, goes out of her way on a daily basis to make sure she does not step in animal feces, AND is in the process of applying for Med school. Not to mention, wrote us a guest blog during quarterly report week. For all of these reasons as more, I adore her and after reading this I know you will too!

Krysta, Sonia, Dunc and Shawn way back when in Mindo

"When I first came to Ecuador, I reveled in the beauty that surrounded me, from the geographical setting of the Andes Mountains to the colorful clothing of another culture. There was so much to observe and reflect upon that during my first couple of weeks, I found myself exhausted and ready for bed at 7:30p.m. much like a newborn baby. As time passed, I metaphorically grew up; my senses were no longer faced with a slew of new sounds, sights, and smells left time and energy for a more productive organ: my brain.

Deciding which major to pursue at the University of Virginia, was one of the most conflicting and confusing tasks I had to accomplish, precisely because there were too many options. In my biology classes, I felt as if a philosophical background would soften scientific thinking. While in the economics classes, I know that a sociological study would strengthen economic theories centered on human behavior.

I was finally absolved of the restrictive feelings and college mandate of specialization when I began working for Manna. Anything was possible and like a greedy child on Thanksgiving I piled a varied assortment on my plate: I'm working with Sarah on opening a preventative health clinic, co-teach Children's Art classes with Chet, giving nutrition presentations before Haley's yoga classes, occasionally acting as Jackie's gardening partner, shadowing the emergency room at the public Sangloqui hospital and supporting Krysta on the beginnings of a nutrition program at Aliñambi.

Such an agenda provides for constant knowledge and entertainment. For instance, I learned that doctors are required to work for a year in rural communities, most Ecuadorian meals are not balanced with enough vegetables, Jackie accidently killed (and mourned) the one worm we found for composting, and that in every art class one particular girl will cut out her drawings and hang them by a string of yarn.

However, using that productive brain doesn't completely suppress the inner child within. Whether it is indulging myself in the pleasures of a Magnum ice cream bar (America you are really missing out... a comparison to say Haagen-Dazs would only be 10% accurate) or hitting everyone's butt in the Manna house, sometimes my senses, missing that initial onrush, beg for more.

Sonia with some of her fellow health programmers

[ Side note: apologies for the list of activites. It's specifically meant for my family. It's funny how during our Skype conversations, they congratulate me more for learning how to cook (shh.. don't tell them about cooks.com) than for working on programs. ]

- Sonia"

Just a Typical Tuesday

Quarterly reports are due Thursday! Get your metrics to Chet! Doctor shadowing starts tomorrow! Wait, are we already talking about Spring Break groups? Shoot, I still have to write a blog post! And oh wait... and tomorrow's English/art lesson has to be planned... So much to do. So little time. Excuses, excuses - right? Things are kind of crazy around here this week... so here's a visual tour of our day. Just a typical Tuesday in the Manna world.

Rain three days in a row and a power outage at the house... looks like the rainy season has begun. The view from the balcony of the library. And yes, those are cows in the middle of the road.

La Wendi takes art class and her winter hat accessory very seriously

Selena gets creative during art class. Today was "Free Art Day" in class, which means the kids could make whatever they wanted.

Profes Chet and Dana get into the "Free Art Day" fun, too.

Profe Chet's final masterpiece...

I was expecting a unicorn, but was pleasantly surprised by the dragon motif.

Medium: old dried coffee beans. I think Picasso would be jealous.

The kids' final art projects... complete with colored cheesy poofs?

Haley (center) leads Women's Exercise class, with the help of Sarah and Jackie.

(Our job is to count to 8 in Spanish over and over... and over again.)

Twelve women (and one dog...) came to class tonight!

Haley, Jackie, Krysta and Sarah wrap up the day by being PHENOMENALLY (ha.) productive in the office... we love Quarterly Reports! :)

And that, my friends, is a small glimpse into a typical Tuesday in Manna Ecuador life. Thanks for checking in!

Hasta Jueves,

Sarah

Community Development with a Splash of Creativity

Here is our very first guest blog of the year, from Mr. Chester Polson! He would like you to know that the song of this blog is “Waterfalls,” by TLC.  I suppose that means you should either a) find it in your itunes library b) sing it aloud or c) change everything he says into waterfall analogies, or d) all of the above.  Enjoy!  

"Buenos días Friends, Family, Strangers, and most importantly donors!

 

I’m here to mix things up with a guest blog.  I don’t know if you read the daily life blog or check Manna Project International’s website more than I do but I feel like an introduction is probably necessary.  At the very least, it’s good to have a refresher so you don’t have to nod your head and pretend you know me like we're at a party.

 

I’m Chester Polson, but all of my American friends call me Chet. Everyone here either calls me Chester or Ché (I mostly get Chester). I recently graduated from Vanderbilt University with a double major in Economics and English. One day soon I hope to get a graduate degree in Economics focusing on Developmental or Environmental Economics. I went on two spring break trips with MPI in college, once to Nicaragua and once to Belize under the Manna umbrella. In addition to those Latin American travels, I spent three spring breaks in Tijuana, Mexico, building houses in high school and have spent a week in Havana, Cuba, at an international youth conference. All in all, it’s a pretty good amount of travel for not speaking or studying Spanish.

 Chet is the Guapo in Blue 

I’ll gloss over the “why I’m here” and stick to the “what I’m doing now that I’m here” (though I’ll give you a hint: the why involves wanting to be involved in community development before spending five years pursuing a degree in it). I am (co)in charge of the microfinance and small business classes, (co)in charge of adult English classes, and in charge of children’s art. I also take out the trash around the house and spend my time hunting for change machines in Quito in order to replenish the bus jar. Just Tuesday I spent 3.5 hours heading into Quito and back to get $80 in quarters. This was the first successful attempt in three tries, but I now know where two broken change machines are.

 

So how are my programs going? Pretty well, so far as I can tell. I’ll start with Microfinance. MPI is partnered with a local cooperative, Esperanza y Progreso del Valle, or EPV. One of Manna’s overall goals here is to strengthen local institutions and that is really the heart of what our microfinance program strives to do. EPV has two offices, one on the first floor of the building our library is in, and one in North Quito, which was recently opened. Sadly, the new office has been a real drain on the coop. It currently has a very high default rate on its loans which has put heavy financial strain on the whole operation. We come in with two major spheres to work in: capacitación and fundraising. We spend some of our time trying to find international organizations that are looking to either loan or gift funds to microfinance programs like EPV. As you can imagine, the current worldwide economic climate makes it difficult to secure this kind of funding, which just means there is always more for Erik and I to look into. However, if any of you readers have suggestions or contacts, please let us know.

 

Capacitación, or capacity, is the second and probably more important part of how we work with EPV. We work hand in hand with EPV to try and get them better trained (to strengthen their local institution). The old PDs in charge of microfinance spent a lot of last year trying to get them connected to a larger network of microfinance coops in Ecuador as a way to gain access to more working capital and training. Sadly, after much effort, it turned out that this was not a very feasible option. EPV is currently interested in undergoing courses through Swiss credit, which we fully support. Manna has actually agreed to match the cost of the classes up to $1000 dollars to encourage them to actually get the training. We will check back soon to see if they were serious enough about these classes to register.  While it is exciting to be partnered with a legitimate local microfinance coop in the community and I look forward to getting to observe EPV’s work, it is a delicate balance to find what could work and what they are willing to try. There should be a lot of research involved this year.

 

In addition to the microfinance, Erik and I are also going to try and run a small business class. This is a much more pressing matter, and much more exciting. There is a University, ESPE, Escuela Politecnica Ejercito, or the Military Polytechnic School, close by that has a business centered local outreach called CIDE. CIDE runs small business classes taught by professors free of charge. Dunc was able to organize a class through them with some success, and we are looking to build upon that. We are currently recruiting people who either have university degrees or are actively pursuing university degrees to undergo an intensive two week training (40 hour weeks) at the end of September. At the end of the course, we will be certified to train instructors for the small business classes, which will have huge benefits to us. Last year Dunc coordinated the class, and due the rigorous schedule they demand I hear it was tough to get students. Once Erik and I are trained as instructors, we will be able to offer the classes in the community at a time and pace which is more accessible to anyone who wants to take a small business class. We still need to find some more people who are willing to undergo the initial training, but this is still a really exciting opportunity to bring small business training to the communities we work in.

 

Haley and I will be running Adult English classes on Monday and Wednesday evenings starting in mid-September. We will start planning for these classes soon. This should be a new experience for me as well, but as teaching Adult English is one of many avenues for human capital development, which I came down here to do, I look forward to it.

 

My final program is children’s art. I didn’t originally plan on teaching this class, but now that I am, I'm really excited about it. The art program was one of MPI’s more popular and well attended programs last year, but initially none of us current PDs showed much interest in continuing it. Holly explained how art is not offered in schools, and the kids have a lot of problems expressing themselves creatively. During class, there is a lot of copying from neighbors and making projects look exactly like the example (one thing I have been told is to be sure not to leave the example out so they can copy it). But, the kids still love it and Holly said she saw a lot of improvement in expressing themselves creatively during “free art days” in just a few months. I think creativity is another important ingredient in human capital development, and am more than willing to spend some time each week making caterpillars out of egg crates and gluing dried coffee beans to cereal boxes. I also think that making art projects with kids each week will be a nice balance to what might be slower and more tedious work with EPV and Adult English, keeping my spirits high.   

 

So there’s the latest. A lot of this hasn’t really begun in earnest yet, because everyone in Ecuador is currently on vacation, but I have a lot of exciting opportunities in front of me to pursue in the next year. I’m learning more and more that grassroots community development is a day-by-day, fly by the seat of your pants (and with a diet high in fruits and vegetables and low in processed foods, mine get looser every day) kind of work, but hopefully my American “plan it and get it done” mentality will be an asset rather than a roadblock to the kind of problems I’m bound to encounter in all of these programs this year.

 

Tomorrow: probably more pictures of kids from camp!

 

Until next time, keep reading and supporting us in all the ways you do.

 

Chao,

Chet

 

PS: Like what you see? Follow my personal blog! It isn’t updated nearly as frequently as this one is, but you can find it at ecuadorchester.blogspot.com" 

On the Cusp

First things first, thank you to everyone who emailed me suggestions. Your encouragement meant so much, and all your ideas were things I needed to be reminded of. So thank you! If I haven't heard from you yet, please don't hesitate to send me an email.


That said, we in the Manna house are on the cusp of big change. Children's Art ended yesterday after a 6 month run, Summer Two heads home on Monday, next year's Program Directors arrive a week from today, new July programing starts next week, and in a few days we'll celebrate one year in South America. Don't worry, I'm stockpiling most of my nostalgic reminiscing for the monthly update and won't go into soggy details here (that's for you, Dunc. Don't want to freak you out with tears or anything). We've got plenty of time for THAT.


To mark the end of Children's Art, I attached a tiny note, art quote and drawing to a brand new box of crayons for each of my bubbly little students; little snapshots of some of the drawings color this post (These are for you, Alecia!). Gotta love the wonders of colored pencils and an Andean afternoon with an open schedule. Apologies for the color distortion, not sure what's up with the brightness of it all.


Children's English also breathed it's last July breath yesterday, celebrated by an afternoon showing of Kung Fu Panda in the teen center (a BIG treat for the little ones who are too young to enter normally), balloons, popcorn, oatmeal raisin cookies, and Fanta. I may have laughed more at the movie than the students, but really, who's surprised by that.

Hope you have fun plans for the weekend! Between trips to the rainforest, climbing Cotapaxi part 2, attending the Gay Pride parade in downtown Quito, and a few things in between, our weekend is set to be eclectically wonderful.
~Holly

Snail Mail Surprise

Making the trek out to our Postal Box in Sangolqui (a 45 minute bus ride-trek each way) is always slightly depressing. Since it's such an ordeal to head out there, we usually only check it once or twice every month. Therein lies the depressing part: even after a whole MONTH of not checking it, we usually have one measly little letter from one of our Universities asking for money (how'd they FIND US?!). Every time I head out there, I find myself talking down my expectations.

"Holly, Ecuador is notoriously bad with mail. 50 percent of things sent down here probably never even made it past customs. You just told your mom not to send anything because it would probably never make it. Emails are quicker and guaranteed to arrive. Don't get upset if there's nothing there. Don't take it out on the Postal Worker if there's nothing there."

Ok, so perhaps I'm giving over to my more dramatic tendencies. There was that amazing letter I got back in November from Ashley, and the homemade Valentine complete with a sparkling Wizard of Oz shoe-decal from Kaili. And don't get me started on the packages Dunc's mom has sent him; they're incredible. Actually, alright, now that I think about it we've gotten some great things from almost all our families during the past 10 months. Thanks Moms!

On Thursday, however, I got something incredible. I didn't even go to the Post Office so it was even more of a surprise when Dunc handed me a letter. Inside I found one of the paintings Marjorie had done on one of the many afternoons in Children's Art, beautifully rendered onto a stationary card. Minette Hand (younger sister of Country Director Mark Hand) had emailed me a few months back to see if I might be able to take pictures of some of my students' artwork and email them over to her so she could make cards as a fundraising tool. I did it and then quickly forgot about it, moving on to planning for Thanksgiving and trying in vain to learn Ecuadorian long division.

Melanie Hand (Mark's mom), it turns out, hadn't forgotten. She was kind enough to send a card down to me in Ecuador. I almost teared up in the kitchen (effectively freaking Dunc and Mark out) as I opened it. Marjorie will be so excited when I show it to her on Monday. What pride she will feel when she sees her artwork on a beautiful piece of stationary!

Thank you, Minette and Melanie, so so much.
Holly

Campbell's Soup

While editing Seth's interview, I came across some footage from art class a few weeks back that I had completely forgotten to upload. And since Seth's interview probably won't be ready for another week, here's something to tide you over. This was filmed in the art studio with half the students; the rest of them were in the kid's corner. Not having enough space for all our students is a good problem to have, I have to admit.

Check in tomorrow for a guest blog by a certain someone who likes to bake and has extremely long legs. If that didn't give it away I'm not sure what would :)

Holly

Sketching

Seth and I have been throwing around the idea of a teenage art class ever since, well, probably the first conversation we ever had back in July when I was still living in Quito and going to language school. Back then it was totally just a concept, a dream. One of those good ideas that gets thrown around at family dinner, along with 20 other good ideas and a couple of inappropriate stories. And then life in Ecuador officially kicked into gear, and the idea was pushed to the back of the closet and (almost) forgotten.

Once the teen center was up and running, however, we found ourselves returning to the idea of such a class. While we weren't quite sure how to organize it, once three teen-center teens expressed interest to Seth in an art class, we knew there was serious potential for something.

Now, every Wednesday morning from 10 to 11:30 the five of us meet at the big work table in the library. I come up with a rough idea to structure the class and provide some sort of technical instruction, Seth provides the comfortable atmosphere, and the students provide us with commentary on the never-ending supply of high school drama. We all have an hour and a half to sketch out what creativity is to us. I'm coming to love Wednesday mornings.



~Holly

Self Portraits

So here's the thing with my children's art class. While I try to incorporate some kind of artistic technique or artist study into each class, when 75% of your students are under 5 years old, it gets a little tricky. Take Jori, for example. He would rather sit under the table scraping off crayon shavings with his scissors than learn about Georgia O'Keefe's desert inspirations. Or Carlitos. He'd rather be kicking Jori, who's under the table, than trying to understand Kandinsky color palettes.

Imagine my surprise yesterday when, after discussing the composition and symmetry of the face and explaining the 'self-portrait' project for the day, each and every one of our tiny students were hunched over their papers, painstakingly drawing their "football-americano" shaped eyes half way down their oval-faces, making little heart lips, and trying to remember where their ears go (Kerley was absolutely positive that her ears are in fact above her eyebrows). Yes, Serena and I had to walk them through every step of the way, coaxing them to erase all pencil marks after going over their faces with pen (ALL of them, Jonathan), and help them cut out the difficult parts involving their drawn hair, but overall, I was incredibly proud of the finished products. They even kind of look like them :)

We're excited for Eliah's brother, Aravon, to arrive tomorrow night! We LOVE visitors!
Happy Friday,
Holly

Pollock

After a long anticipated arrival, our new Manna camera finally arrived last week!! (Along with a box of 36 Reese's peanut butter packs, thanks Chris!) I've forbidden myself from naming it/her (oh no...) so that I won't get too attached, since I do know that it's not mine for keeping. All that to say, the daily photographs will live on again!

Today's are actually from yesterday's art class where the students perfected different Jackson Pollock painting techniques up on the roof. Spoon dripping, brush thwacking, paint splattering...all in a day's work :)

Keeping you in suspense

I know that after failing to post anything yesterday, you would assume that I would make up for it by posting the much anticipated Dana Conway PD interview tonight. But, here's the thing. The video isn't done. There, I said it. And I feel bad about it.

I potentially could keep working on editing it tonight, but seeing as how 6 dinner guests are about to arrive at our house and I am in desperate need of a shower, I'm going to sacrifice getting it up tonight for having clean hair and eating dinner with our guests from the Ministry of Health.

Instead I leave you with these pictures from a recent Children's Art class. We were studying Andy Warhol, and after painting our own representations of the classic Campbell's Soup Can, we played around for a while with the pop art options on my macbook.

Expect the video sometime tomorrow; I really am sorry for the delay!