(Iowa medical students spring break group)
It is a little quiet around the Manna house these days. After getting used to having twenty college students falling all over each other, we’re back to seven, and back to our normal schedules. It’s a little sad – we got used to the action-packed schedule that hosting a spring break groups brings. Our Ecuadorian friends seem to miss our spring breakers too and still ask about them: “Ya se fueron? Que pena..” (They’ve all left? What a shame…)
Since our last update, we at MPIE have blown through three spring break groups, from Vanderbilt, Duke/UNC and Iowa Medical School. The Vanderbilt group spent their week completely transforming the neighborhood center and playground. They cleaned, scraped, painted, edged, dug and sod with alongside members of the San Francisco community. They called the renovations the minga, which stems from an ancient Andean tradition in which an entire community would come together to help one member harvest what he couldn’t harvest alone.
Thanks to the dogged efforts of Abbie, we were able to host two spring break groups from Iowa Medical School. Like the first Iowa group in February, they shadowed local doctors and physical therapists, getting a glimpse of developing-world medicine. Both Iowa and Duke/UNC spent time with the kids from our Apoyo Escolar homework-help program, planning and leading classes on nutrition and oral health.
The joint trip from Duke and UNC also gave us a jump-start on the project that will dominate much of our time for the next few months, a series of community assets/social capital surveys we will complete alongside a local school/children’s home called Aliñambi (for more about why we aren’t doing traditional needs assessments, check Mark’s blog [http://www.markhand.blogspot.com/]). If all goes well, the surveys will allow us not only to have a clearer picture of the area in which we operate, but also of the assets that we can help mobilize inside of those communities.
We won’t have long until our house is full of college students again – our summer volunteers begin to arrive mid-May. Between now and then our spring break groups have set a high bar for us to reach for as we go about taking advantage of the jump-starts they have provided for us.
Duke/UNC Spring Break Group
Duke/UNC teaching health class.
Part of the Iowa Spring Break Group shadowing at Tierra Nueva Hospital.
Iowa Group teaching a "Why Not to Smoke" health class.
Cara, 2nd year med student, letting Wendy and Marjorie listen to their hearts and lungs for the first time.
Iowa med students shadowing Physical Therapists.
Learning the food pyramid during nutrition class taught by Iowa.
Basketball court BEFORE Vanderbilt Spring Break group restored the playground.
AFTER restoration.
Vanderbilt working with San Francisco locals to restore the playground during the minga.
Seesaw BEFORE restoration
Seesaw AFTER restoration
Painting bathrooms of the Casa Barrial (where MPI will soon be teaching class).
Casa Barrial AFTER restoration.
