Water Balloons, Silly String and Espuma: Carnaval 2k10

Last weekend all 9 PDs got out of Conocoto to celebrate the 4-day Carnaval weekend. Carnaval is a pretty big deal in Ecuador... especially to the kids who don't have school, and thus spend their time hitting innocent bystanders with water balloons, silly string, and espuma (essentially stinky spray foam in a can). Carnaval is related to Mardi Gras and is celebrated in the last 4 days leading up to Lent.

We spent our Carnavals spread throughout the country traveling, exploring, sleeping, tanning, playing rugby, and getting (semi) lost in the jungle. Here is a peek into the adventures of last weekend...

Sonia and her boyfriend, Ricky, spent their weekend in Cuenca - here they are hiking in Parque Nacional Cajas near Cuenca

Cuenca is known for its colonial architecture and heavy European influence. Sonia and Ricky will remember it mostly for the people who threw water balloons at them from roofs, balconies, and the back of pick-up trucks.

Shawn went to Casablanca, just outside of Esmeraldas with a crew of Ecuadorian friends - here they are maxing and relaxing in the sun

Shawn and friends walking along the beach in Casablanca

Erik went to a town outside of Montanita with some rugby teammates - here they are throwing the ball around on the beach

Erik's view of the sunset from the coast

Chet flew down to Coca and stayed at the Yachana lodge on the Rio Napo - he spent the weekend in the primary rainforest hiking and birdwatching

The sunset as seen from Chet's lodge on the Napo

Mike spent the weekend in Tena, a town on the edge of the rain forest with his best friend, Kyle - here is a view from their lodge

Krysta, Jackie, Haley and I also spent the weekend in Tena - here we are (slightly lost) in the forest in an attempt to find our jungle lodge

Our weekend highlights also include a particularly exciting camioneta ride over the Rio Napo...

Until next time,

Sarah

One Step Closer to Airing on the Food Network

It's official - the 3rd floor kitchen has finally been installed! After months of fundraising, budgeting, purchasing, and installing, the far side of the third floor finally looks like a kitchen (instead of a haphazard storage space - see below). Big shout outs to Sonia, who took the reins on this project from the first budget draft, and to Krysta who spent the better part of last week cleaning out the space and getting everything put in its place. Our task now is to spend the next month promoting and planning classes to be ready to begin in early April.

A gigantic thank you to all of our unbelievable donors:

• The Peterson Family
• The Booe Family
• Dana Conway
  
• The Zhou Family

Literally none of this picturesque spread below would be possible without you. We'll think of you every time we flip an egg or sauté fresh vegetables!

the sink/painted window/slight storage area before...


... and after! hey look, there are mountains back there!

beautiful spankin' new cookware

expertly matched cutlery (I bet you can guess who picked those out)

a spread of utensils, stove, knives, pots and pans, and so much more

Culinary-ly yours,
Jackie

We like to move it...

... it being 10 book shelves, 8 tables, a dozen chairs, and close to 2,000 library books.

After observing that many parents are intimidated by the hoards of small children running around for coloring pages and markers as they walk in the door, we decided that some changes needed to be made to the library layout. We did this with two of our goals in mind: increasing readership and catering to adults. Although this is just the first step of many to work towards these goals - we plan to organize a reading competition & book clubs for the spring - we're proud of the new layout and increased ability to control game playing and encourage reading.

Check it out for yourself!

photos courtesy of Miss Krysta Peterson


book shelves serve as a barrier between rowdy games and quieter reading


the new rincon de leer, complete with a rincon of bean bags and circled shelves

This 4-day weekend we're all headed to different parts of the country for none other than carnaval, the South American equivalent of Mardi Gras. Don't worry, we're fully equipped to defend ourselves with water balloons and shaving cream!

Saludos,
Jackie

Riobamba: SNAFU

Last weekend, the Ecuador Mannafolk learned a very important lesson: group retreats resemble two very important things - community development and Forest Gump chocolates. The former because the outcome is relatively uncertain and the latter because "you never know what you're going to get."

Shawn ("Chaaaawn" to most library children), our resident Social Chair, planned a wonderful 2-day group retreat in Riobamba, a small city nestled in the Andes about 4 hours south of Quito. We planned on leaving the house at 6:30am on Saturday (yes, this actually happened - shocking), arriving in Riobamba around lunchtime, taking a scenic hike to see the nearby Volcan Tungurahua and Chimborazo, and promptly going to bed. Sunday's plans included riding on the top of the famous train that traverses the Devil's Nose early in the morning, and heading back to Quito in time to catch the Super Bowl.

Now, remember, these were the plans... but alas, when we arrived in Riobamba it was raining. Take into consideration that Riobamba is fondly called "Friobamba" ("frio" = cold). Pues, all-day rain + cold does not equal a fun outdoor day. After a delicious lunch, the group walked around the market in the rain... then the boys went to take a quick nap (read: ~3 hours), while the girls continued to trudge around in the rain until we hit the jackpot: a gelato store in Riobamba. Of course, we indulged before heading to buy our train tickets for the next day. When we arrived at the train station, our savvy Spanish quickly allowed us to discover that the tickets were SOLD OUT until February 24th. Since we couldn't ditch work for 3 weeks to hang out in Riobamba until the train freed up, we had to sulk back to the hostel (still in the rain) and relay the news to the boys. None of us were thrilled, but we decided to make the best of it and planned for a hike the next morning before heading back to Conocoto.

Sunday morning, after a continental breakfast, we headed out to a small town called Pelileo by bus to start a hike to see the nearby (and currently smoking) Volcan Tungurahua. We found out that the walk was too long to actually hike, so we took a camioneta instead and got to take in the beautiful mountains from the bed of the truck. (Erik and Shawn also took in some water balloons, as Carnaval has officially started, which means any breathing human being is a target for being hit with various forms of water.) The views were beautiful, the group attitude was positive (despite the many changes in plans), and I think we all enjoyed getting out of Conocoto for the weekend.

And bonus points, we made it back in time to see the Super Bowl... 8 out of 10 of us were happy with the outcome. The New Orleans fans cried tears of joy, while the resident Hoosier just cried. But I guess you just can't argue with the underdog. :)

Here's to uncertainty, plan-changing, and annoying/funny Carnaval traditions (depending on who gets hit/does the hitting with water balloons/shaving cream),

Sarah

PS. Thanks to Erik for sharing his pictures!

Chet and Jackie show their varying degrees of enthusiasm after being hit with shaving cream through the open bus window. Happy Carnaval?

The group (damp and cold) at dinner on Saturday night

Bibi. Cows. Camioneta ride through the Andes. I'd say she's in her element?

Group in front of a cloud-obscured Tungurahua

The boys take a loving man photo

A smoking Tungurahua

What the Devil's Nose train might have looked like had tickets not been sold out...

(picture from my Devil's Nose train experience last summer)

Our In-House Shakespeare...

(Today's Guest Blog comes from the delightful, eccentric, and apparently poetic Haley Booe. Her many talents include: making the other female PDs exceptionally sore during Women's Exercise, whipping up a mad dish of pad thai with limited cooking resources, knowing every choreographed dance scene in every movie ever made, and putting up with me as a roommate. She also happens to be our fearless Spring Break Coordinator... which is now in its stressful planning phase, and thus, is - clearly - consuming most of her thoughts. Enjoy our very own Shakespeare, Miss Haley Booe.)

"Since Spring Break planning is in full swing, that's most of what I have been thinking about these days. So here's a little poem for my guest blog - a tribute to Spring Break, if you will. Please excuse the limited vocabulary... my diction is quite poor, since half of my day I spend speaking Spanish.

'Twas a month before Spring Break, and through the Manna House

Everything was hectic; planning was my spouse.

The schedules were posted, created with care

Every group's leaders made a great pair.

We counted to make sure there were enough beds,

We have to find towels, so they can shampoo their heads!

Through budgets and food and Quito maps,

We planned out our trips to buy Panama caps.

This week in the library there arose such a clatter,

When we have extra volunteers, a lack of bookshelves will not matter.

By February 19th, we must have all their cash,

For the groups will be here to build in a flash.

Building, painting, cleaning they'll do,

And community members won't know what to do.

We'll travel to Quito, and Mindo they'll see,

To show them the country we love; on this, we agree.

Culture, awareness, projects and Manna life,

Our volunteers will experience all without much strife.

And when it's all over, he hope we still will be,

Friends and coworkers with (most of) our sanity.

So stay tuned to see how it all turns out,

Spring Break season is here, there is no doubt!"

Haley poses for her official MPI website picture...

Chaochao,

Sarah

Different Strokes

Over the past month we have been filling out 'organizational matrices' to keep track of our goals throughout the next quarter for each of our programs. While we still have awesomely solid programs like children's Art and English classes in full swing, we also have many new initiatives and enhanced programs that are well worth pointing out...

Generally speaking: We've started calling our building space Centro de Manna to encompass everything that we offer, including the library, teen center, and third floor space used for Women's exercise, classes, and future preventative health center.

Library: We have $1,000 of new books !!! We're also in the process of reallocating the library space to focus on our goals of appealing to more adults and encouraging reading.

Education: We have a new adult English class in Barrio Rumiñahui, lead by Chet and Mike. We also added a world studies class, connecting South American-focused geography with natural science and environmental issues.

Teen Center: Shawn, Mike, and Erik are working on attracting more teens to bi-weekly movie nights and special monthly events, with a Valentine's day party coming up.

Women's Exercise: Haley/Jillian Michaels, with help from the other health constituents, added a new Wednesday morning class and is working on giving workshops to dedicated attendees who are interesting in helping lead exercise in the future.

Microfinance: Erik and Chet are designing a survey to get to know the small businesses in the community and assess the feasibility of creating a network between them.

Agriculture/Environment: Jackie is working on monthly AG charlas, composting and rain barrel workshops, and monthly field trips for kids to explore the great outdoors.

Nutrition: Krysta is working with local school Aliñambi on a project that includes community based nutrition education, cooking classes, and an agricultural aspect to connect participants to where their food comes from.

Preventative Health: We've been buying and setting up our Centro kitchen (expect pictures soon and a huge thank you to all of our donors!). Sarah, Sonia and Shawn have been working with the Conocoto Ministry of Health on planning the center and finding future staffing.

Mingas: Erik is working with local government officials on setting up public trash bins in Rumiloma, as well as other community projects such as potentially building a a local bridge.

Phew! - I know that's a lot of information, and you're probably feeling like you want to dip your toes deeper into our refreshing pool of community development. But don't you worry because we're about to embark on a new chapter of guest blogs. First up, Haley Booe tomorrow - this will be a special one, folks... I've heard already heard it rehearsed in the living room!

We also promise to go into more depth about these projects as they progress, and if there's anything you're dying to hear more of, holler at us!

Cheers,
Jackie

Un Montón of Books!

Thanks the work of last year's PDs, we won a grant for library books from Books for Life. The stipulation was that if we spent $2,000 on books, they would reimburse us for that $2,000 plus give us an addition $1,000 to be spent on books. Last year, they bought the first $1,000 worth of books and just last week we spent the second $1,000.

The PDs, along with help of Paola, a community member, broke up into teams to conquer the biggest bookstores we could find in Quito, with each group focusing on purchasing books to cater to a certain genre of library-goers. The book groups included children's, adult, teen, health/nutrition and agriculture.

Today, we moved the piles of books from the make-shift storage space underneath our stairs to the library. And since the library bosses (i.e. Mike, Jackie, Haley and Sonia) spent the majority of their afternoon entering all of the books into the electronic check-out system, the stacks of new books have made their way onto the shelves and are ready to be read! It is quite satisfying to see fully stocked library shelves!

Hasta,

Sarah

Un monton de libros nuevos!

Thoroughly organized Children's Books

Stocked shelves around the Children's Corner

Mike and Chet help keep the order (book-wise and broom-wise)

Sonia arguably made the most important purchase: Bibi and Spring

The little girl looks JUST like Bibi...