Prayers for Chile

As many of you know I studied in Valparaíso, Chile in the spring of 2007. Being in Chile for 6 months studying and living with a host family changed my world and I didn't even know it until years later. It was the first time I had been outside the States (besides Mexico) and traveled and experienced an amazing country on my own. Most of the reason why I am here in Ecuador volunteering is due to the time I spent in Chile. It is an absolutely amazing country with so much diversity and warmth. I miss it everyday, especially with being back in South America and so close.

Valparaíso is a beautiful historical city with many calling it the heart of Chile. It is built on a hillside over-looking the ocean with old buildings and houses of every color scattered throughout. Due to it's history and current state of many of the old buildings, it suffered fair damage in this past earthquake. Luckily, after talking to many of my fellow study-abroaders, our host families seem to be ok and doing well despite the physical damage. Thank goodness. It is hard for me to write about this with being so close to Chile and not able to be there and helping. There are so many selfless people in Chile that offered their homes to us while we were studying and I forever will be grateful. My thankfulness extends beyond my host family and into the homes of many others. I am so happy to hear from a handful of people that everyone is safe. 

Please keep Chile in your thoughts and prayers as they get through this hard time. And if you ever have a chance to travel down here, make sure Chile is on your itinerary!

Enjoy this photo montage of my happy times in Chile!

The hills and colors of Valparaíso

My CRAZY host mamá!

And my even crazier host sister, Martina

One of the amazing paintings in the Open Air

Museum throughout the street walls in Valpo

besitos + prayers,

Krysta

Move over Rachel Rae!

For the past several months, we have been fundraising to build a kitchen in our 3rd floor space above the library with the hopes and dreams of starting a cooking class with women in our community. Ecuador's produce is something most people in the US would kill to have at their disposal. Many Ecuadorians don't stray from the typical meat, potato, rice, and legume of some sort dish. Very rarely are nutritious vegetables such as zucchini used in their daily diet. Many of the women in our Women's Exercise class have expressed their interest in cooking a more varied diet but that they simple do not know how to cook vegetables like zucchini. Well, Manna Cooking Class 101 to the rescue!!

Thanks to our amazing donors, including my family (thanks mom and pop!), we have raised all the money needed to build our kitchen!! After hours of shopping done by Sonia and hours of scrapping paint off windows and scrubbing down the area on my part, our 3rd floor kitchen is up and running and oh so beautiful!!
And now without further ado, may I present, the Manna Kitchen....

Before (though this picture was taken part way

through the cleaning process, so imagine it

with more paint on the windows and messier)

After...The gorgeous new Manna Kitchen!

(Thanks mom for the stylin' towels and pot holders!)

Brand-spankin' new!

An example of the amazing produce here! Yes, those

are zucchini and that is a normal-size fork! And

we have actually had larger ones since!

A-mazing!

Though our kitchen was first developed with the idea of holding cooking classes for the women in the community (this will still happen hopefully starting in April), the first meal cooked in the new kitchen will be done by my group of 20 rambunctious 6th graders from Aliñambi as part of their Nutrition Education Program! Each week Haley and I will bring a group of 6th graders down to the kitchen to teach them how to cook using a wide variety of nutrient rich vegetables and fruits and how to choose and prepare a well balanced meal. I am soooo excited about this program and teaching kids they have the ability to take control of their nutritional lives and take advantage of the amazing opportunities in food they have here!

Thank you again to all of those who contributed to the kitchen! It will definitely be getting its use this Spring and hopefully not too damaged from a crazy group of 6th graders. :)

peace, love, and nutrition
Krysta

Making a fool of ourselves....on the radio!

As you all know from older posts, the Ecuadorian Radio and I are becoming quite good friends. I have been through 2 great sessions so far since being here, adding a 3rd time this past week. Though, I can't say this one was as successful as the past ones. :/ Oops.

I have been working and coordinating with Oswaldo at SuperK Radio to start monthly charlas on the radio to reach a broader demographic about various important topics including health, agriculture and microfinance, as well as to spread the word about Manna. Being the amazing man and contact that he is, Oswaldo offered us 30 minutes every month to do a conversational segment about basically whatever we want. This past Thursday was our first go at it, and, well, humility sure keeps a girl grounded!

Haley and I arrived to the station cool and confident, though with a few butterflies in our stomachs. The set up was different than normal in that we would be conversing with Marcela, the morning DJ, rather than with Oswaldo. Well, Marcela was in a different room than us, though we could see her through a glass panel. We were instructed that we would be able to hear her through headphones we had put on and everything would go smoothly...or so we thought. As Marcela started the segment, she asked us to introduce ourselves and talk a little about Manna. Well, we couldn't hear anything from the headphones. As a result, she increased the volume in her room so that we could hear her through the panel. But what we actually heard was an echoed, muffled version of her offering up EXTREME difficulty in understanding the questions being thrown at us. So, after talking a little about Manna, we got into the topic of the day, Breast Cancer. Marcela asked us questions and we did our best to deduce what we thought she was asking and formulate some answers. At one point, she asked a question that neither Haley nor I caught a word of, so in a panicked state, I started to ramble on about how a woman's health is very important and we all have the power and opportunity to take control of our health and blah blah blah. Whether I answered her question even remotely, will never be known!

So all-in-all it was a successful segment in that we got across all the information we wanted to about Breast Cancer and though we may never know how ridiculous and spastic we sounded, we can just hope our listeners were thinking, "Man, these girls are hilarious and sound awesome, lets go check out this Centro de Manna in Rumiloma!"

Maybe? Well, a girl can dream right?! 

Haley and I behind the mics!

So, if you happen to get Ecuador Radio stations up there in the states, tune in to 1200AM on March 18th for our next charla!

Hope everyone is doing well and staying warm up there in the states! 

Krysta

Riobamba Retreat Attempt, Take 1

As a group we take 4 weekend retreats throughout our year here to spend some, more, time together away from the stresses of work and the city. This past weekend we headed to the city of Riobamba (about 4 hours south of Conocoto) that is famous for its amazing views of the gorgeous and huge volcano Chimborazo, as well as an icredible train ride through the Devil's Nose and surrounding mountainous landscape. We had high hopes and great plans but most of them were drowned due to rain, clouds, and the fact that the train was sold out for the following 3 weeks. So, instead the girls took shelter in coffee and ice cream shops and enjoyed some quality chit-chat in the comforts of our beds while the boys took in a leisurely 3+ hour nap and reading. So what were we to do now? Well luckily Ecuador is the land of volcanoes and one happened to be currently erupting just outside of Riobamba.

Tungurahua has been erupting since early January, though thankfully without any severe damage done, as the tourist hotspot city of Baños lays at it's base. We took advantage of our suddenly free Sunday to take a bus up to the volcano to get some amazing views of the action. Though I have climbed to the summit of an active volcano and seen the lava in the past, I have never seen an erupting volcano that up close and personal. It was an incredible sight (when the clouds decided to part). Ash was floating through the air and an occasional 'boom' rocked the sky and our ear drums. So even though our original planned weekend didn't turn out, we still were able to take in some of what makes Ecuador truly an awesome country.

Haley, me and Jackie taking in the views

along the way to Tungurahua!

The cows delayed our progress a bit....

The smoking Tungurahua!!

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

The group! With Tungurahua hiding

somewhere atrás...

This weekend is Carnaval and we all have already been subject to various water balloons and foam spray attacks by local and passing children. Wish us luck in survival this weekend as we head into the main celebratory days of Carnaval!!

amor + peace

Krysta

Love and Nutrition

As the month of February began this week, my life was filled with teaching English, Estudios Mundiales and Women's Exercise by day, and Nutrition Program research by night. As a result of a meeting this morning with the local school Aliñambi (where all my nutrition research with hopefully show itself in the form of improving kids malnourishment), starting March 1st, along with Haley and Jackie, I will be starting a Nutrition Education Program with the 7th graders.

Dra. Julia at Aliñambi wanted to start a project with the 7th graders that would instill some personal responsibility and empower them to take control of their lives. This is where we came up with the, as I like to call it, "You Are What You Eat" Nutrition Project. This project entails working with the 7th graders for 3 hours a week teaching them about nutrition and the process food takes from planting, to food processing, to consumption, to composting. We are aiming at showing these kids they have the power to take control of their lives and make life changing decisions.

Every Tuesday, I will be alternating weeks between giving charlas on various nutrition topics with hands-on projects in which the students will build a portfolio to be presented the final week. Every Wednesday and Friday the class will be divided into 2 groups in which one group will attend cooking classes with Haley and I, and the other half will work in the 7th grade garden with Jackie. Finally, the kids will be walking around to different 'tiendas' (local food stores that sell everything from cookies to fruit to diapers- a mini Ecuadorian 7-11 perhaps) and interview the owners about what type of food they sell, and what is most popular. They will tie this information to local kids by asking them what they buy at tiendas and why. We want to make kids more conscious of their nutritional surroundings and what is available to them in their community.

If I thought I was busy before, I life is about to get chaotic, but I couldn't be happier. After 6 months of working with health at Aliñambi it is so nice to finally have an amazing project developed and rolling. I love health, teaching, and our community and this project is bringing all those things together!

And even though my bedtime may be getting earlier in these next coming weeks, I vow to uphold my promise to keep you updated more often!

Nutrition!!

Aliñambi!!

Until next post!

Krysta

New Year....New Programs!

With the break for Christmas and starting a new "quarter", some of our programs have been revamped and some new programs have taken flight. I am busier than ever having taken on some new responsibilities as well as a few of my programs getting into their initiation stages. Here is how my time will be spent, most likely, for the next, and last (sniff) 6 months of my time with Manna.


-Adult English: I am no longer teaching Intermediate Adult's English but rather Haley and I have started a Beginner's Adult English course. Many of our community members expressed interest in English but needed the beginners course because though many of them come into contact with English speakers at their various jobs, they had no where they could turn to to get the basic level....until now! Our class is completely FULL (yay!) with 10 students. They are the greatest bunch of students I have ever worked with. They are so eager to learn and participate it is amazing. I love my class!


-Estudios Mundiales (World Studies): This is a new class based off Jackie and I's Natural Science class from the fall. We had great success in our Natty Sci class but we wanted to extend it's range of material. Many kids here do not know geography and even barely know what continent Ecuador is in or where on a map. So we ran with this enlightenment and decided to make a geography/natural science combined class. We came up with 'World Studies'! Each week we teach the kids about geography and various places and cultures around the world and incorporate in current science and environmental topics. So far it has had a rough start with attendance but we are hoping to change that this week so stayed tuned!


-Women's Exercise: I have now taken over teaching Tae Bo on Tuesday evenings for the Women's Exercise class. Haley, the leader of the program, has built a great foundation of women that regularly attend Yoga classes on Mondays, Tae Bo on Tuesdays, and Aerobics on Thursdays. My side kick/punch combo will be perfected in no time! Women's Exercise is a program aiming at getting normally domestic women out of the house and moving! We track their blood pressure, pulse and weight each week so they can see the progress of their health. It is a great program and we will be soon matching this class with cooking classes to teach these women how to cook healthy using the amazing local produce available to them here in Ecuador!


-Health: I have some sad news, one of my programs, the Aliñambi Primary Clinic Expansion project has lost its funding and has thus been put on hold for the time being. It was a decision out of my hands unfortunately but, it does however leave me time to focus on my Nutrition Program. We have measured and analyzed all the data of the children and about 33% of the children are malnourished. Our next steps are to develop a Nutrition Program to get these children healthy and to change the way they and their families see health and nutrition. We plan to use a combination of vitamins and supplements coupled with nutrition education so that eventually the artificial vitamins can be replaced with natural ingredients in the fruits, veggies and meats of Ecuador. This program has been a long time developing but I truly think we are at the stage where the actual implementation of the Nutrition Program is in sight! HURRAY! 


-Scholarships: I am going to be working with a local financial company in Quito that provides scholarships for students wanting to continue their education. Nothing like this is offered in our community so we want to work with this organization and our donors to bring this opportunity to our community members. For example we have one amazingly smart lady who wants to return to school to study nutrition, and this program will help her achieve that goal.


Aside from all of this, I will be working on starting a book club at our library for the kids as well as continuing my shadowing at one of the local hospitals near where we live. When I put this all in writing it seems like a lot, and well, it is, but when it comes down to it, I'm only here for a year so I would be crazy to not take advantage of all these great opportunities! 


Hope all is well with everyone in all your respective global cities!

A picture just for fun because my family was awesome enough

 to come down and visit me over Christmas!! :)

Me and the Fam in the Galapagos! Love you guys!

Con cariño,

Krysta

2010...the Year to Celebrate Families, Friends and Communities!

Starting off 2010 right by showing the communities in which we work our appreciation for them and their support was our top priority. With this in mind, yesterday we held a "Celebración Comunitaria" (Community Celebration) for all our community members to come relax, enjoy one another, and embark in the new year with confidence that Manna, and other local organizations are still present and at their sides. 

The Celebración was preceded by hours, and months for that matter, of organization, bringing back supplies such as water balloons and face paint from the US, and walking all over advertising for the big day. Our preparation even entailed recruiting visitors from the states to spend precious Ecuador vacation time making large banners to hang at local organizations...Thanks Laura! Despite the usual pre-event advertising and organization, I was responsible for coordinating with a local radio station, SuperK, with whom Manna has a very close relationship, to advertise our event on air. Since December, Oswaldo from SuperK has been making short 20 second advertisements on air with the promise that we would come into the station in January to be interviewed about the event. Since I have been to the station twice before, once with our teen camp this past summer and the other to promote our Health Clinic in August, I was the one heading to the station last Friday, on nerves, to be interviewed. Accompanied by Jackie, Oswaldo introduced me and said a little background info about the station's history with Manna and from there interview took off. He asked me about Manna, where we work, what we do, how the culture here is different and how we are liking it, how Manna gets its money and support to work down here, and of course about out upcoming Celebration. Amidst all the business talk, he of course didn't fail to ask if I had an Ecuadorian boyfriend and as I responded "no", he made the announcement that I will be handing out cards at the Celebration for those interested! ha. He also mentioned my personal blog and ask about the soccer team we were playing on and what position I played. I mentioned that Jackie also played and though she had bowed out of speaking on the radio, Oswaldo asked her what position she played and if she liked it and Jackie, thinking he asked what she would be doing at the Celebration, responded: "I'm doing musical chairs!" hahah. Needless to say that is the joke around the house right now, but I reassured Jackie that the listeners just got a glimpse of how fun and entertaining we are and would want to come to the Celebration even more! :) So, all-in-all the interview lasted about 25 minutes or so and we definitely got across to some of our community members as one lady mentioned her hearing us on the radio that morning! Success!
During the actual Celebration, we had a local DJ playing music, the Ministry of Health had a booth with current health issues, the local credit and earnings coop, as well as local venders selling food. We had games for kids including a water balloon toss, face paint (and let me tell you I'm pretty darn good a painting whiskers now), balloon animals, egg races, and soccer. For adults, we had a recipe/food sampling table (which I spent hours before the event preparing the food), soccer, a sample Women's Exercise class in which for that day only men were invited, and of course dancing and entertainment. I was the "ringmaster" of the event in that on numerous occasions I had to get on the loud speaker and made announcements about upcoming games and activities and library tours. Loud speaker talking in front of many people....yikes. But hey what's life without a little humility right?
All-in-all the event was a huge success with many new community members coming to see what Manna and the library have to offer and spend some time with neighbors and family. It was really awesome to take a step back yesterday and see the number of families and children that had come to enjoy the day with us. Amidst all the chaos and stress, it is very easy to forget why we are here doing what we do and that even though we may not be as successful in all aspects of what we do, it is the little things that are really making a difference to these people and communities. Many people overlook this and get wrapped up in the bigger picture and forget to appreciate what they have accomplished thus far. Our library has really grown in the past few months and we have so many upcoming new programs about to start...that is something we really need to be proud of. I have learned so much being around this culture and these communities. Who can resist faces likes these....

Me and the Future Champion Flosser of Ecuador! 

(See my first guest blog on the MPI blog!)

Whatever you do don't drop the egg!

Community members checking out what the 

Ministry of Health booth has to offer!

Passing along delicious and nutritious food and 

recipes, all using local Ecuadorian goods!

Thank you to all my family, friends, new and old, and to my supporters. I am now just about half way through my year here and can't believe how time is flying. I have so many goals still to achieve here and I can only hope 2010 proves to be as generous and prosperous for me as 2009!
May all your troubles last as long as your New Year Resolutions!


Un abrazo,
Krysta