Getting in the new grove of things

Now that we are about to embark on our 4th week of the Aliñambi Nutrition Program, and I have finally started working at the Selva Alegre Subcentro clinic, I am starting to get into a weekly grove of things. With things constantly changing and programs starting and finishing, a routine is something that is greatly valued down here, though doesn't happen too often for me. But with our nutrition program going strong and a great consistent English class, I can relax a little and get down to working on things I have put off these past few months.

I am currently working on a rather extensive grant from the Coca-Cola Foundation to fund the Aliñambi Nutrition Program for this year and future years (as we want it to be a yearly education program for the students at Aliñambi) as well as funding for our community cooking classes and nutrition charlas. All-in-all it will be taking up most of my free time, but fingers crossed it will all work out for the best as we really need funding for our Nutrition programs! Eek!

After 2 weeks of failed attempts at finding the subcentro (a small branch of the main Sangolqui Hospital in a small village), I finally found it and started working there last week. I am there for about 4 hours in the morning helping out the 1 nurse and 1 doctor in a small one room shack clinic giving vaccines, contraceptive shots, and other medical treatments to the people of Selva Alegre, a small barrio about 45 minutes away from my house. The people I am working with are awesome and so sweet and just plain excited to have the extra help. And in return I am stoked to be working so hands-on in a clinic and to be given opportunities to administer shots and other medical procedures that I wouldn't dream of doing in the states until after PA school. Slightly scary at times the amount of freedom I have in the clinic but the chances to learn are infinite.

So here is an example of my typical week:
Monday: Monday Morning Meeting, lunch, Adult English Class
Tuesday: Aliñambi, lunch, Women's Exercise
Wednesday: Working at the clinic, lunch, Library
Thursday: Working at the clinic, lunch, cooking dinner for the crew
Friday: Aliñambi, lunch, Library
*and throw in some grant writing and class preparation in there and you've got the daily life of Krysta!

Finally, starting tomorrow, Tuesday, I will be moving out of the Manna House for a week to live with family in our community. We are doing homestays with community members to take the opportunity to get to know them better outside the setting of our library and classes as well as to give them the chance to know us more intimately and understand who we are a little bit better as individuals rather than just part of a group of 9 gringos. So I will update you next week on how this adventure goes!

Until next post!
Krysta

Rumiñahui Women's Soccer Team lives on!

Though we finished our soccer league last year without a winning record, in fact, without winning a single game, we still will never regret playing. We had an amazing time and some of the funniest memories of our time here happened on that soccer field from Haley picking up the soccer ball in the middle of the game to our crazy coach Pati smoking as we are warming up to play. Our team has in fact decided to join another league, a harder league that doesn't restrict semi-professional women from playing (pray for us!).

We had our first game 2 weeks ago with our usual outcome of a tie, 1-1. To our benefit though, the team was really good and we were without some of our best players. As well as we played in our first game of this season, I can't say so much for our second in which we gravely lost 14-2. But, we had strangers in the stands rooting for us because the other team was well, nicely put very mean and unnecessarily rude....all because we were 'gringos'. Rough day to say the least. Usually sports is where we can find a common ground here in Ecuador and "fit in" but apparently not always. It was definitely a hard moment for all of us to really be discriminated against during a friendly sporting event, a place we have normally felt welcomed.

Well, now that I have loaded with you with not so happy stories, let me spill some more sad news. My Ecuadorian soccer career has sadly come to an end (well, maybe more like a little pause). During the first game 2 weeks ago, I kicked the ball apparently a little to aggressively and at an odd angel that I ended up hurting my knee. I found out this week that I have a partially torn ligament in my knee and have been banded from even walking places, let alone playing soccer. So I will forever be benched and the team cheerleader/heckler. It's upsetting news, yes, but against my mom's wishes, I will not be giving up physical sports. This is just a set back down here in Ecuador. Perhaps maybe I'll return for a league that is starting up in May, we shall see. But I won't be pushing it as being able to go hiking and explore Ecuador are more important to me than playing soccer. Vamos a ver!

Hope everything is going well with everyone and that no one has been sidelined like me!

And because blogs are boring without pictures, here is one of happier times in Tena exploring some sweet caves. Also because headlamps are the best thing since sliced bread....

Me, Haley and Sarah exploring some caves!

besitos!
Krysta

You Are What You Eat

Charlas! Portfolios! Cooking Classes! School Garden! Oh my! If you think those sound fun, just imagine the excitement and enthusiasm coming from our 6th graders each week as we walk in the gates at Aliñambi to do just those. After 7 months working with Aliñambi and nutrition with little physical evidence, I am thoroughly ecstatic to say the least about starting this Nutrition Program with the kids there.  I believe through these kids is where we will be able to really initiate a change towards healthy lifestyles for these communities.

Along with Profes Haley and Jackie we will be teaching nutrition through charlas (lectures), thought provoking portfolio work, and hands-on cooking classes and a class garden. Every Tuesday I will be leading the class through charlas and portfolio work based on topics from the food pyramid to macro and micronutrients to hygiene. And every Friday Chef Haley and Sous Chef Krysta will be leading the culinary trainees with watchful eyes as they learn to wash and cut vegetables and make healthy meals using all local goods. Farmer Jackie and Farmhand Bibi will be leading the apprentices in designing and building their own garden to include radishes, lettuce, broccoli, cilantro, and basil…can anyone else see delicious salads in our future?!  Yum!

            Today we finished our second full week of class and despite a few punishments after a dirt-throwing jaunt everything has gone great. I truly believe in these kids’ ability to succeed in this program and their capacity to realize they have control over their nutritional lives and can promote permanent change at home.

So we didn’t realize we were not allowed to take photos at the school, so these are a few and probably the only pictures we will have for evidence that this program actually took place. Enjoy them while they’re hot.

Me and a few of our students making 

recycled paper!

Hard at work flattening the newly made paper

Maria, Frida and Valeria

Digging up the plot for our future 6th

grade garden

  The garden starting to take shape

after 2 hours of work!

This coming week the students will be taking a field trip down the street to check out a local producers garden and get some tips for how to have a successful garden!

Until next post,

Krysta

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