Wait… We have been here for a month already?

Hola! This is Heather, as Noel mentioned in her last post I will be taking over the Blog for the 2011-2012 year along with Watkins, who will be arriving in Ecuador this coming Wednesday (Yay Watkins!). It is hard to believe that us new PDs have been in the country for almost a month already, but we are really starting to feel at home! After spending the first two weeks living with host families in Quito and brushing up on our Spanish, we were excited to move into the house and get to work. With the support and guidance of last year’s PDs we were able to get our feet wet at the library and start getting to know community members. It has taken us no time at all to adjust to life in the Valley. We have quickly discovered how to mount moving buses and fight back when they try to charge us an extra 2 cents for the ride to the Centro. We also have survived our first week of summer camp!

We were all a little nervous to see the herd of 5-10 year olds waiting impatiently in the library on the first day, but they quickly warmed our hearts and we have had a blast playing with them all week. From the youngest camper Miguel who always has a smile on his face to our oldest Dayana who is a wiz at U.S. geography, the kids have really made us Profe’s feel welcome. Today we took the kids on a paseo to the Museo del Agua in Quito. The museum trip reinforced what our partner org Añamisi had taught the kids about the importance of water, where it comes from, and how we can protect it. The niños enjoyed playing in a giant bubble room and getting splashed by the fountain after lunch. It was a long series of bus rides into the city, but most of us were able to catch a little siesta on the way home… and we will surely sleep well tonight!

Arts and Crafts time

Relay races with Profe Taylor

"Profe dice" also known as Simon Says

Chau, Ecuador! You are in good hands.

As I write this, I am sitting in my room listening to voices in the office downstairs: the 2011-2012 Program Director team is preparing to head off to the library, where they yesterday began our annual summer camp, and suddenly we 2010-2011 PDs are obsolete.  We have been tying up final duties over the past couple of weeks, and now Manna Project International, Ecuador, is in new hands. 

New PDs introducing themselves: Charlie, Taylor, Rachel, Emily, Nicole, and Heather! 

Two Saturdays ago we held a Bienvenida / Despedida at the library to introduce the new group of PDs and to say our goodbyes to the community that has welcomed us with open arms and has truly been there for us as both an organization as well as individuals over the past year.  Now in a surreal state of departure, I am finding it hard to believe that Rumiloma is soon to be a town and a community far, far away. 

But perhaps my denial at leaving is because in many ways it won’t be far away.  All of us PDs have spent this year working in both group and individual capacities, and we will have many shared as well as many entirely personal memories that we will carry with us for the rest of our lives.  We have each gotten close to different members of this community, be it via our classes or our partner organizations or from origins much more difficult to trace (how did we meet Nelson from the ferreteria, anyway?).  Though we will scatter and no longer use our mannaproject.org email addresses, we will carry bits and pieces of Rumiloma and our beloved Manna centro with us.  


With this final post, I turn the Open Hands, Dirty Feet blog over to Heather and Watkins for the next year.  Have fun with it, guys!  

Brock and Luke with Laura, their agriculture partner and friend.

Jack and kids who love to tease him.

Thank you to all of our readers and continued supporters over the last year!  We are deeply appreciative of you and hope you continue to support us through this blog in the year to come!  I know I will.