Wednesday, July 2, 2008

July UPDATE 2008



It’s summertime in Ecuador. Kids are finishing up school for summer vacation, days are becoming a little less rainy and MPI is in full gear. We are currently hosting our second group of month-long summer volunteers, who are doing fantastic jobs running various programs:

1. Summer day camp. Now that school is over for summer, our volunteers have started a two-week summer day camp for kids in San Francisco. Incorporating arts, science and sports, kids spend days doing activities that range from making baking soda volcanoes to cooking class, to playing fun games outside.

2. Intensive English course. MPI summer volunteers are in charge of planning and teaching a month-long, intensive English class for children in the sixth and seventh grades in a given community. The class, consisting of about 20 students, meets for three hours every day and is a great extracurricular opportunity for children to advance their English skills. Two weeks ago we finished the first English course in San Juan with great success and are now teaching class in Conocoto, about two blocks from where we live.

3. Surveys and Data Entry. This week we finish conducting the Community Asset Surveys that we’ve been working on for months. Summer volunteers have not only been helping conduct the surveys, they’ve also worked incredibly hard putting together a data base and entering surveys into the software to be analyzed this month.

4. Maternal-child health research in the community. Carmen Wolfe, first year Vanderbilt medical student, is conducting maternal-child health research in San Francisco for the Aliñambi clinic.

Meanwhile, I am enjoying my last seven days in Ecuador before I return to Denver to start medical school at the University of Colorado. The goodbye will be incredibly bittersweet, as I know I will miss so many things about this beautiful country. I have seven more days to wake up to the snow-covered tip of Cotopaxi standing proudly outside our window; seven more days to enjoy the freshly baked bread from the local panaderías; seven more days with the kids we work with in San Francisco and seven more days to cherish time with my roommates/ co-workers/ friends who have also become my family during the past 11 months.
Thanks to everyone who has supported and encouraged me throughout the year. It’s been amazing!

Hasta pronto,

Abbie


Also, we’re in need of community development books! Please check out our Manna Project Ecuador Wishlist if you’re interested in donating.



Registering for English Class.


Kids in English Class in San Juan.


Painting and cleaning the community house in San Juan.


Art project in San Francisco.


Diana surveying in Rumiloma.


Kayla and Kristen, summer volunteers, at Apoyo Escolar in San Francisco.


Annie and Seth with their paper plate awards from the first group of summer volunteers.