My new future career path...radio!

So right now, and for the past 2 weeks, Manna has been running a teens camp through our library where we do all sorts of activities from basketball, to video games and hiking. This past Wednesday was my day (because all the PDs switch off between teen camp in the morning and the library in the afternoon) to help out with the teens. So Seth (one of the original Ecuador PDs), who knows a contact at the most popular radio station in the Chillos Valley, took the camp to this radio station for a tour. The Director showed all the kids around and they got to listen while the radio was on the air. It was really cool. Then he said who wants to say hi to all our listeners and of course all the kids were very shy and said no. So he ended up picking 2 randoms kids and they all went into a room and each sat at a respective microphone as the director proceeded to interview the 2. Then he made all the rest say something as well and then finally, since he was talking about Manna Project and the summer camp with the kids, he got Seth on the air to talk a little bit about Manna as well. All while this is happening, a fellow PD Sarah and I are quietly sitting in the corner encouraging the kids on trying to make them not so nervous as well as trying to blend in with the wall so the Director would forget about us and not make us talk on the air haha. Well, our conspicuousness needs some work. He called Sarah up to the microphone and she was so nervous she could barely get a word out. Damn public speaking! So then he calls me up and I actually wasn't that nervous because well, I couldn't actually see the people of the entire Valley listening to me speak my botched Spanish so it was alright. He asked me how I liked Ecuador so far and how I liked working with the summer camp. I responded saying Ecuador was awesome, naturally, and that working with the kids was awesome and that I was also going to work in community health. He also asked me how long we were going to be in Ecuador and past that I think my nervous got the best of me and I forgot everything that happened after haha. But, in the end, I can now say that I have been on the Ecuadorian radio!! My moms reaction was....."I have a celebrity for a daughter!" :)
So just thought I would fill you in on one of the more exciting parts of my week! Otherwise, my week has been full of doing HOURS of research on Positive Deviance (you should google it, its actually an amazing program that can be applied to needed things) in preparation for my meeting with Julia at Aliñambi this morning to talk about the Nutrition Program for the kids there and how we can start to go about improving and sustaining their health (and just to fill you the meeting went really well!...I think I am growing on her)! And for the next two weeks I will be preparing a charla (like a talk) about Nutrition that we will present at the 2 day Open Clinic we are putting on on August 28th and 29th! Super busy but I am really enjoying learning about health down here so it's great!
Until next post!
Hope you all are having a great summer! I am savoring every last "summer"/dry season day here before the wet season starts soon and doesn't stop for...oh about 7 months!

besos!
Krysta

Viva Ecuador!!

Hola a todos!
Soooo we finally moved into our house in Conocoto and have been living here for a week! And thus so begins my year of maybe warm, maybe not showers, cooking for 10+ people, shopping for 10+ people, a house that echos all voices so sleeping past 9 is out of the question, and internet connection that doesn't work if anyone is on Skype or watching videos on YouTube! Woohoo! It has been an absolute crazy week but a fun one. As the old PDs are slowly departing, we started with 16 people living in 9 rooms.....madness! I current have 2 roommates and will share a room until my actual room becomes vacant in a few weeks. So we are living in nice and cozy close quarters! It's been quite an adventure! I am going to go around the house with my camera perhaps tomorrow and take a video of everything so you can see our lovely Manna House!

The view of part of the Chillos Valley from our rooftop! Just imagine
San Diego sunsets over these mountains...BEAUTIFUL!

As we are starting to divide up programs and duties, I already have all my duties and am off to a very busy start. I was selected for various reasons, one being that my spanish is more advanced, to head the program working with a school called Aliñambi that houses orphaned kids as well as provides schooling for children in the surrounding communities. Last year measurements were taken of these kids because many of them are malnourished and the analysis of those were just done and the results were that just about 63% of these children are malnourished. So, I had my first meeting with Dr. Julia last week, who is the main physician at Aliñambi, to start figuring out why these kids are not getting the nourishment they need form home as well as devising plans to change their habits and get them healthy. We have decided to provide 3 months of vitamins to these kids and do home visits with each of their families to view how meals are being prepared and identify possible areas were changes can be made to improve these childrens' health. It is going to be difficult because we have to be careful not to offend the mothers whose primary job is taking care of the house and children. Should be an amazing experience and a challenging one! My rusty Spanish skills are really being put to the test already!!! Yikes!
Also, I am currently working on putting together a free Clinic that will happen August 28th & 29th at Aliñambi for all the surrounding communities. There will be a Dr. there to assess people and we will be interacting with the communities members and doing "triage" and trying to establish a relationship and trust with them. I am really excited about this clinic and getting a chance so quickly after getting here to really start making a difference!
So other than working on the Health programs, I am also in charge of establishing a new Scholarship Program for kids here in the Valley. We want to start out providing money for 2 students to go to college. It will be about $100 a month and schools here are 5 years and so for 2 students to go to college for 5 years would only be about $2400! Pretty crazy huh?! For just a little pocket fundraising change, we can provide individuals here with lifetime dreams that they never would have thought possible. The hopes for this program in the future is to be able to establish a strong fund where we can provide scholarships for all areas of study to numerous individuals. So I will be working with Manna on getting this money and selecting 2 students to receive these scholarships, as well as drafting up a contract that these students must abide by during their schooling. Pretty exciting!! We already have one potential candidate...she is 27 and really wants to go to school for Nutrition and start here own nutrition clinic. So we really have a chance to do something awesome with this program...we shall see!
So, one last little story and my novel of an entry will end. Today (August 10th) is Quito's Independence and so last night there were HUGE festivities in Quito, so we naturally went into the city to celebrate! We got to see the symphony play, were about 20 feet form Ecuador's President Correa, a few people got their bags/jackets sliced open by robbers, and some of us danced like fools all through the night! It was really awesome to see and experience. We were of course the obnoxious crazy gringo dancers but after a little, the Ecuadorians got jealous of our skills and decided to join in!! Needless to say it ended with a big dance train around the plaza with older ladies jumping in to join! :)
Viva Ecuador!
Oh, and my camera died in the first 5 min so this is about the only pic I got of the festivities!

Plaza Grande...Feliz Cumpleaños Quito!

Oh, and PS...it was my 23rd birthday this past Friday and my awesome Manna family had made me an awesome card and bought bagels for the occasion (bagels are a very special treat here in Ecuador) and put 23 (the #) candles in it as I woke for breakfast!! I love my Manna Family! :) Thanks guys!!

peace + amor

Christina (my Spanish name because Krysta is way too hard for them to pronounce haha)

The 'honeymoon' period is coming to an end....

Soo, as I start my last week of living in Quito with my host family, and taking spanish classes, and not having to think about, well, much of anything, many emotions are starting to flow!  I am extremely anxious to move into the Manna House in Conocoto to finally really get settled in and start to make a life here for the next year.  But at the same time I am nervous because moving into the house means we actually have to start taking over these programs from last years PDs and start working and making connections within the Ecuador communities! Nerves!  For the past week and for the following week, we have been meeting and will meet with each of last years PDs as they give us the run down on everything about the program each have been in charge of and their past successes and failures and where they would like to see the program go.  My main interest, the Health programs, seem absolutely amazing.  I was nervous to begin with because there is 5 of us that are interest in Health mainly and so I was worried about how much I was going to be able to contribute to the Health Programs.  But after the talk it seems awesome that we have 5 people because there is sooo much to do within Health field and so many projects going on at the same time that it will be awesome for each of us to focus on one part and really really advance our respective programs fast and also unitedly open a Prevention and Awareness Clinic in building space that we have above the Manna Library!  There is so much potential that is should be amazing. I am completely stoked!  The Health people are getting more details later this week so it should be really interesting.  

So as for learning spanish, learning the Manna Programs, and a little weekend traveling, my time here so far has been awesome! I can't believe I have already been here for 2 weeks, but at the same time it feels like it has been so long!  2 weeks down, 55 more to go! :)

Hope summer is treating ya'll well!

Peace + amor

Krysta

Life, Love, Community

Hey all!
Soo, I just wanted to put up a quick post of a picture of a chinese proverb that was written on the wall of the Guayasamin museum (Ecuadors most famous artist--we went yesterday :) ) that I thought was amazing and gave me goosepimples....yes I am nerd. But I just thought it was a great way to think about life, especially in times like right now...so enjoy and hope everyone is having an awesome start to their weekend!

"I cried because I had no shoes until I saw a boy who had no feet"

peace + amor

Krysta

oh and PS...

The awesome new Manna Ecuador group!

My first few days in Ecuador!! :)

Hola todos!

I just want to put this out there first thing: I have never written a blog before or know how it should be done so I am just going to ramble and be informal and dish about my life down here ok! So after much anticipation and preparation, I am finally in Ecuador!! I am soo excited! I am currently in the capital, Quito, staying with an Ecuadorian host family while we take language school for 3 weeks to either learn for some or improve our Spanish. Then we will move out to Conocoto and move into the MPI house and pick up where the current Program Directors (PDs) left off in helping the communities!!

It has been an adventure thus far I have only been there for two days! Our flight from Miami to Quito required us to where masks the entire 4 hours because of the swine flu. Many Ecuadorians believe that it is running ramped, like seriously everyone has it, in the United States. So after that, I finally reached my host family and they are the sweetest ever. I couldn’t ask for a nicer family. And no surprise to me they treat me like a true child of theirs. I just love the culture and warmth down here! US has so much to learn ;) On our first day we went out to the MPI house in Conocoto and had a BBQ with the current PDs (program directors) that will be leaving soon and got to know them and more about their life here for the past year and what to expect. The house is awesome and I can’t wait to move into it! The view of the Valley where the communities are from our house is amazing. Mountains surround Quito and Conocoto and they are beautiful grassy green knolls almost. Amazing. So anyways, then today we visited the HUGE market that we will be doing a lot of our shopping. I have never seen such an amazing market. The fruit and veggies down here are to die for and they have some of the craziest fruits and veggies you have ever seen. One of the other PDs bought some fruit (never got the name of it so I will get back to you on that one) that was red and spiky and you peeled off the outer layer to expose this oval, clearish, almost gummy eyeball textured fruit center. You just popped the whole thing in your mouth and gnawed on it. I am so glad I have grown out of my “it if looks weird I’m not eating it” phase. It is so fun to just sample anything and everything here (well to some extent, I think I will be leaving pigs skin and feet and cows skin off my list ;) ) In the market I tried some of these circular pancake looking things that they were frying up right there in front of you. I had no idea what they were but come to find out it was a mix of potato and onions and they were amazing. The meat market was insane. Any part of cows, pigs, chicken, its all there. I will spare you most of the details since I think you can imagine haha.

So yeah. That has pretty much been my first 2 days! I feel like I have been here weeks already. I am already starting to forget how to say words in English and my Spanish is coming back slowly but surely. I cannot wait to move into the MPI house and start working with these communities and start making a difference. Even though this site in Ecuador has only been here 2 years, they have made so much progress and it has sooo much potential I just can’t wait to see where it all goes and how I am going to play a role in it all!

I will write again soon and I will post a few pictures of my first few days (if I can figure out how)! And these were the only pics I have so far but I will post more when I get them from other people and take some more!! I will post one of me and my Ecuadorian family because well they are adorable. Thank you again so much for your support!! Finally being down here and seeing everything makes me so happy and grateful that we can provide for these communities and make a difference for those who truly appreciate it!

Hope all is well en Los Estados Unidos!! Until next post!

Besos!

Krysta

Welcome to my MPI blog!

Hey everyone!

So, this is where I will be updating ya'll on all our MPI work in Ecuador! I am so excited to have this opportunity and can't wait to leave and get started! :)

But first I must fundraise.  If you are reading this you must have received my letter and I just want to remind you that you can donate quickly and easily online at http://www.mannaproject.org/donatenow.asp.  Also, please visit www.mannaproject.org for more information about the Project and ways to donate and help other than financially.

Thank you again so much for your support and aiding me in this service opportunity!  Words can't begin to show my gratitude!

peace + amor

Krysta