For eight ex-pats living in Ecuador, April was the pause, the deep breath, the cool breeze from the mountains. Nestled between three jam-packed weeks of March spring break trips and the onset of May summer sessions, April filled our South American lives with peace and normalcy. Ok fine, as much normalcy as could be expected from life in the Manna Ecuador house.
Programs in April carried on much in the same vein. Serena’s women’s exercise class continued, amazingly, to attract new members each day. Along with organizing all five of the Spring Break trips, Jocelyn managed to teach her advanced English class the lyrics to a new techno song (which we still hear them singing to themselves while reading at the library). Under Seth’s guidance, the kids in the teen center held elections to form their own “Board of Directors” in charge of organizing events and making sure the center runs smoothly, a notable result of which being an increase in Friday Movie Night events. Eliah and Dana hosted another successful agricultural charla (presentation) in the library space, this time focusing on pigs, and Dunc continued to accumulate more books for the library while taking care of it’s day to day functioning along with Mark. My children’s art students studied Diego Rivera and perfected their self portraits, while Seth and I began a new teenage art class in conjunction with the teen center.
We also began a new series on the Daily Life Blog, aptly named “Interview a Program Director”. Each week I sat down with one of the PDs and filmed their responses to questions submitted on the blog. They are definitely worth watching whenever you have a pause in your day!
Also in April: we traveled, we had family dinners on the roof, we read in the hammocks, we got caught in afternoon rainstorms. Life continued on.
(Iori show his excitement for May)And then came May. If April was the pause, May was the dive. On the 12th we welcomed nine college students into the apartment (or Manna Hostel as it’s now been renamed) for the start of Summer Session One. Between the nine of them they re-organized the entire layout of the library, built a ping-pong table for the teen center, taught an intensive three week English class for 30 students, shadowed at the Ministry of Health (and helped deliver a baby!), taught yoga at women’s exercise, led art classes, organized a health fair, baked some wickedly good desserts, and traveled to some of our favorite spots around Ecuador. We as PDs were really just along for the ride.
With the recent arrival of both Summer Session Two and our fantastic new Country Director Bibi Al-Ebrahim (more to come on that front, clearly) the craziness around here has only intensified. Today we look ahead at our remaining two months in Ecuador with bittersweet excitement and anticipation for the end of the rainy season!
If you're looking for more updates, you can always check out the Daily Life Blog, where posting is a little more consistent and on-schedule.
Sweet summer wishes from a house in the Andes,
Holly and Team Ecuador
(Eliah, Dunc, Holly and Dana on an oceanic cliff on Isla de la Plata, the "poor man's Galapagos")
(Blue Footed Boobies on Isla de la Plata!)
(Our fantastic sign advertising the Library and Teen Center)
(Dennis, Seth and Jonathan play 'traffic' donated by the McCalla family)
(Dunc and Tobin Fulton organize new additions to the library)
(Mark, Selena and Carlitos relax on the bean bags between books)
(The teens organize a BBQ on the roof)
(A good afternoon)
(Dana and Mark laugh at an undoubtedly inappropriate joke)
(Summer Volunteer Perry Dubin and I get ready to march in a parade)
(Which one of these is not like the other?Trying to blend in during the parade...with little luck)
(Serena answers questions at the health charla)
(Playing Blokus is our favorite library past time- after reading, of COURSE)
(Iori, Prisilla, Jocelyn and Selena discover the joys of the new I Spy: Adventure book)