Interview a PD: Jackie Weidman

Finalmente, I have finished the last of our "Interview a PD" series. Let me tell you, it is not very much fun listening to yourself say 'but um' during each question, but um, I got through it!

Please pardon the change of location and the screaming kids in the background (the reason why we changed locations). The neighbors below we're hosing down their buck-naked children to clean them for lice. Oh the joys...

Enjoy the interview; many thanks to everyone who sent questions for all of us PDs! You're all awesome, and we love you.

- Jackie

Interview a PD: Sonia Patel!

Welcome to the wonderful world of Sonia Patel! I love this girl to death and I can't even fathom that she will be gone in a week. But, enough sadness for now and onto her interview! Please enjoy, and excuse the rabid dog barking and small children yelling periodically in the background.

Cheers,
Jackie

Questions for Sarah!

7 interviews down, 2 to go... next up is Sarah Scott!

Sarah is leaving us in less than three weeks (tear) to start medical school at Vanderbilt. Please submit any and all questions about healthcare in Ecuador, how much fun it is to run cross-country around the valley, her many teaching talents (from cooking class to teaching the extremely eager beginner's English class), her deep love of reggaeton music, and beyond!

Either send questions by commenting on this blog post, or send them to me, jmw8387@gmail.com. Thanks!

Sarah beyond dominated by a bunch of kids

Have a great 4th of July! We'll be proudly sporting our red, white and blue down here.
- Jackie

Preguntas para Sonia

Next week I get to interview Sonia Patel! Although I'm not sure we can get her to sing "Milkshake" on the internet, I'm certain that you readers can come up with some (almost as) entertaining questions. And some thought-provoking ones too!

Bibi messing with Sonia on a retreat

Topics can include anything from:

• "what is your favorite color?" (a question she posed to all of the summer volunteers last weekend in Quilotoa)
• what she would do if any form of feces touched her
• what it's like to be a vegetarian in Ecuador
  
• how many episodes of Lost she's watched in the past week
• her inspirations for Art Class
• participating in the Alimentate nutrition classes
• all of the awesome things she's going to do in med school in DC next year
  

Please post question as a comment to this entry, or e-mail me (jmw8387@gmail.com) by next MONDAY June 28th!

thanks and happy summer!
- Jackie

Haley's Interview!

After lots of iMovie lessons, Haley's interview is finished! I would like to thank everyone who submitted questions; apologies to Mr. Booe for not being able to include our rendition of the "Shimmy Waltz" - the camera only captured our lower/less attractive halves. Also thank you so much to Haley for being an incredible sport; we shot the video in the new Preventative Health Center room through a hail storm and a couple of power outages. Overall, I think it turned out great!

Enjoy!

Look forward to Erik's interview for next week!

Cheers,
Jackie

Questions for Erik!

Next up for an interview is Erik Swanson. Erik, our co-summer coordinator is currently running around Quito picking up our second round of volunteers. He's best known in the house for his rap music, tasteful workout clothes, and lighthearted sense of humor.

A nod to the start of the world cup; sucks to Uruguay!

We'll be conducting his interview this TUESDAY, so please submit any and all questions by Tuesday morning. Topics can range from his deep love of sausage gravy, why he likes watching Gladiator on mute, or what his rugby uniform smells like on Sunday afternoon. Or you know, work-related questions....


Cheers,
Jackie

Questions for Haley! / Cotopaxi Pictures

It's time to submit questions for Haley Booe's interview! You might think we're jumping the gun a little bit since we haven't posted Chet's interview; with all of the excitement of summer programs, Sarah and I will now be tag-teaming the interviews. Hopefully I don't butcher it too badly as I attempt to learn imovie next week...

Please send any questions to me (jmw8387@gmail.com) or post them via comment right here on the blog BY MONDAY (como mid-morning). Questions can include anything and everything ranging from:

- how badly she wants to adopt Justin Bieber
- what it's like to teach women's exercise 4 times a week
- how exactly she has a choreographed dance memorized for every song
- how often she watches She's the Man in her bed
- what she's doing in this picture below

As per request, here are a couple of pictures from Mike and Chet's voyage up Cotopaxi from a few weekends back. They were so so close, making it just past the ridge you can see in the picture down below, but unfortunately they started late and had to turn around due to time constraints. Still, we are so proud of them and all of us stared in awe and how incredibly beautiful the view of Cotopaxi was from Quito that day.

Mike and Chet somewhere around 3a.m. while climbing Cotopaxi

View of Cotopaxi, taken by Mr. Chet Polson

- Jackie

PD Interviews: Shawn Fagan

Good news: Shawn's interview is done!

More good news: in her interview, Shawn answers multiple questions about food... she demonstrates her Tae-Bo moves... and she manages to succinctly answer her father's inquisition about her fondness for Ayn Rand. Impressive, no?

Enjoy!

Until next week (this weekend is our Easter ferriado!),

Sarah

PD Interview: Mike Gabrys

HOORAY FOR FRIDAY! And hooray for our first finished PD Interview with Mike! Thank you to everyone who submitted questions. They were ridiculous and thought-provoking. Hopefully Mike's answers will give you a better idea of what he's up to down here and the role he's playing within Manna Project Ecuador. And without further ado... Mr. Mike Gabrys.

Thanks again to everyone who submitted questions and to Mike for sitting through a marathon interview. The next interview will be with Shawwwnnnn... we'll keep you posted on when we'll need questions for interview. Stay tuned.

And now. Off to pick up the Vanderbilt Spring Break group for the airport! How is it Spring Break time already?!?!

Hasta,

Sarah

PD Introductions and Interview Updates

Well hello there. Long time, no blog (for me, at least). I guess that's what happens when the wireless decides to go out for the majority of Friday afternoon/evening, and when half of the blogging staff (not to mention half of the house) is semi-incapacitated due to a mysterious stomach/digestive issue. Thankfully the shifty internet connection has been resolved... and we're working on the stomach/digestive issues.

On a happier (and less disgusting) note, here is the first installment of PD Introductions! We are quite the eclectic (and sometimes ridiculous) bunch... I hope this conglomeration of interviews gives you a better look into our lives in Ecuador, our motivations for joining Manna Project, and our oftentimes absurd personalities.

The second (and final) installment of PD Introductions should be posted sometime next week. And stay on the lookout for Lori Scharffenberg's interview as well... whew. That's a lot of interviews in the next weeks for you (and a lot of iMovie for me). We have quite the busy week ahead of us (especially the health folks), so forgive me in advance if I don't get it posted until next Friday. I'll do my best! Until then, enjoy part 1 of our PD Introductions!



Until Wednesday,
Sarah

Interview the Executive Director: Questions for Lori!

Two blog posts in one day?! Pretty shocking, I know. ButI promise it's for an excellent cause.

As mentioned in previous posts, Lori Sharffenberg, Manna Project's Executive Director and co-founder, is currently visiting us in Ecuador and has agreed to let me interview her for the blog. (Or perhaps more accurately, the unbelievably humble Lori has decided to humor me with this interview because I decided mid-morning bus ride that an interview with someone who has seen MPI from the very beginning would be pretty sweet.)

So here's what I need YOU to do: send me questions for Lori's interview by noon THIS Friday. Some topic ideas include her involvement in Manna's founding, where she hopes to see MPI go in the future, and what it's been like to share a room with Haley and me. :) Please submit your questions via the comments section or by e-mailing me at sarah.e.scott.1@gmail.com. Muchimas gracias!

- Sarah

Lori and the MPIE girls pose for a rooftop photo shoot

Exciting Hellos and Reluctant Goodbyes

Right now transition is the name of the game in the Manna House. For the past 10 days roughly 15 PDs, both old and new, have been living under the same roof in order to facilitate the turnover process between the two teams. The nine of us newbies have divided up every household, organizational and programmatic task known to mankind - from who is responsible for taking out the garbage (thanks Chet!) to who will be running the Women's Exercise program. We have been closely following (think mama duck/baby duck style) the 2008-2009 PDs in order to learn bus routes, shopping lists, the ways of the house, as well as the ins and outs of running our programs.

But the time has come to say (reluctant) goodbyes to our old PD friends, as they begin to trickle back to their families and friends in the United States. The general sentiment has not been one of "out with the old and in with the new," but rather of somber thankfulness. Without the hard work of our 2008-2009 PDs, we would have been handed a very different Manna Project. And for that, we say thank you, and we hope that our mentors will pop in from time to time through guest blogs and (cross our fingers) maybe even a visit or two!

Now allow us to introduce ourselves. We are Jackie Weidman and Sarah Scott, the newest additions to the highly coveted administrator status on the MPIE Daily Life Blog. Our interests and programmatic involvement are extremely varied. With that in mind, we hope to offer you two different voices and perspectives on living and working in Ecuador by alternating blogs each day. Other than the addition of two voices to the blog, not a lot will be changed. We will still be including ample photos from the MannaCam, weekly guest blogs, and the occasional video.

Sarah and Jackie, the newest Daily Life bloggers

In the spirit of new beginnings, here is the first interview of the 2009-2010 MPI season with none other than our very own Country Director, Bibi Al-Ebrahim. We couldn't be happier to be working under Bibi and we're confident that her passion and leadership will shape our programs and us, as individuals, in incredible ways throughout the next year.

Here's to the next thirteen months of adventure, community service, and of course, daily blogging!

Sarah and Jackie

Interview a PD: Holly Ward

Hey all!

Here it is, the final installment of the Interview a PD series we started over 2 months ago. I was overwhelmed by how many questions we received this time around; poor Dana and Jos had to spend a long evening behind the camera as I blabbered my way through them all, imitating animal mating calls and discussing White Castle.

These have been so fun to do, mostly because I've gotten some hysterical questions catered perfectly to each interview-ee. Case in point: out of all the questions I was asked, 12 were about art and 10 about food... you all just know me so well :)

So here you have it: the Holly Ward interview. Thanks for watching!

Interview a PD: Seth Harlan

The Seth Harlan interview is up! This time around we received a wide variety of questions, from the hilarious to the serious, the wacky to the contemplative. Seth did an incredible job with his responses, so much so that I couldn't help but include more footage than usual.

In response to a question from Johanna, one of our dearest Ecuadorian friends (and Seth's girlfriend), Seth answers in both English and Spanish, so be sure to stick it through to the end if you want to brush up on your Spanish comprehension :)

And now, the Seth interview!

Interview a PD: Serena Zhou

And...a week later, Serena's interview is finally finished! Her responses were definitely worth the wait, though :)

The sound is a little funky, gets pretty quite in certain parts and slightly loud in others (although that's probably because I have zero volume control over my laugh), but it wasn't worth delaying it more for me to watch more tutorials on apple.com.

Happy Sunday!
Holly

Interview a PD: Dunc Fulton

Dunc definitely wins the award for most family members submitting questions: three aunts, an uncle, his grandma and his mom all submitted stellar questions this time around. Thank you, extended families!

Yes, I do realize that the video is a *bit crooked, ie. it looks like Dunc might slide off the couch at any moment. This is because, since there really was no other option but to film him on the couch in the kitchen, we had to construct something on the sink to hold the video camera at the right height. And apparently our dishtowel-bowl-cutting board contraption was, sadly, kind of crooked. Oops...

Without further ado, Dunc Fulton!

Interview a PD: Dana Conway

I'm sorry to have kept you all waiting; contrary to what Serena might have said in recent comments, I wasn't actually neglecting the editing to learn the High School Musical dances. But that is only because Dana hasn't picked out which dance we're all going to learn, otherwise yeah, that would probably have taken precedence :)

This time around I got a TON of questions, so many in fact, that I had to cut over half of them. The first cut of the interview was over half an hour long. Not only would that never load on our shifty wireless, but that's just far too long for any interview; poor Dana was such a good sport. If you don't see certain questions you submitted, know that they weren't bad questions (except for some of yours, Eliah), there just wasn't space for all of them!

Enjoy; I hope this makes your Monday that much better.

Holly

Interview a PD: Eliah McCalla

Sorry it's a little later than usual, but the Eliah interview is finally ready! Enjoy, I know everyone in the house will :)

Also, Eliah would like you to know that all of his clothes were in the laundry and he had no clean pants. "In the laundry"...right.

Interview a PD: Jocelyn Lancaster

It's here: the Jocelyn Lancaster interview! Exciting, I know. I'm pretty stoked.

Thank you for your creative questions, those of you who submitted them. If you've yet to submit a question, there's no better time than now! Especially since Eliah is my next interview victim.

Disclaimer: if you're confused by a certain question involving vampires, you're not alone. The girls (except Dana) have all succumbed to a slightly unhealthy obsession with the vampiric world of Twilight. Apologies (not really) that it made it's way into the interview.

Now, we're off to the beach! Horray!

Happy weekend,
Holly

Interview a PD: Mark Hand

Thanks to everyone who submitted questions via email for our first PD interview with country director Mark Hand!

The first half is filmed in the art studio; if you look through the window behind Mark you can see the back side of the library stacks! Apologies for any background noise, most of it is little kids reading and talking in the library (although some of it is the crazy bird who lives in the tree just outside the studio).

The second half is filmed in our living room in the Manna house, in front of our Spanish Brick Red wall (yum... I just love that color, although the video doesn't do it justice).

Thanks again and again to Bill Meier for donating the incredible video camera; we're SO excited to have it up and running! Stay tuned for a short film documenting the opening of the library, to be included in the monthly update.

And now, without further ado, the Mark Hand interview.



Happy Friday!
Holly