The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

To quote Andy Williams, December is "the most wonderful time of the the year." Starting backwards, you have New Years Eve, proceeded by Christmas, Christmas Eve, my birthday*, the last day of Hanukkah*, and the first day of Hanukkah, all days that lead to general good cheer (*generally in that order). Well this year, we must tack on to the end of that list Feria de Quito, the 9-day festival celebrating the (re)founding of Quito on December 6, 1534.

The Feria de Quito, among other things, celebrates Quito's Spanish heritage, complete with a compliment of parades; chivas parties, occurring on large trucks with live music; and bull fights (more about that later). It's also a time to celebrate Ecuadorian culture, with local artisans touting panama hats and leather goods, available for sale in the markets and near the Plaza de Toros.

Another highlight of December is our Secret Snowflake. Similar to Secret Santa but with more irony (snowflakes in this equatorial sun?), we have all drawn names and sworn secrecy until the exchange Sunday. While a limit of $5 would stifle any gift attempts in the States, it has only spurred creativity, due to a penchant we all share for baked goods and the still-coolness of Ecuadorian markets. Shawn, Chet, and I all picked up our gifts Friday, leading to the most difficult part of me as I have to wait 6 more days to give my gift to a certain MPI hermano.

While I am not joining the seven other PDs going home for the holidays (the joys of a one-way ticket), I will have to opportunity to celebrate Christmas with my family here in Ecuador. This will be only the second time I'm not in Michigan to celebrate with extended family, and while I'll miss the snow and cold, I'm looking forward to showing off my new city to my mom, dad, and sister.

I hope to wish you and your family a wonderful December filled with family, friends, and, perhaps, a little reflection; after all, New Years resolutions are only a few weeks away (followed shortly there after by my second favorite month- February, when we break our New Years resolutions).

Besitos,
Mike

Song of the Post: "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" by Andy Williams

A version of this post appears on Open Hands and Dirty Feet, the MPI Ecuador blog.

Feliz Dia del Escudo

While most of you celebrate Halloween on 31 October, we can't do that here. It's not for lack of desire to dress up like the Joker, Jack Sparrow, or some feline (in effort for full disclosure, we did not see Ms. Spears in Quito), as I saw a few of these characters last night. It is, however, illegal to celebrate the day of jack-o-lanterns, witches, and trick-or-treating. In 2007, President Rafeal Correa banned the holdiay, instead insisting that children, both young and old, celebrate the "shield," the insignia on Ecuador's flag that distinguishes it from that of Colombia and Venezuela. Today, kids are learning a now holiday, one filled with national pride (sorry for the Spanish).

So what, you may ask are the ever-intrepid MPI volunteers doing to celebrate Halloween, however illegal it may be? Krysta & Haley made orange cupcakes (sorry no picture, we ate them all), and all of us (falta Erik) are headed to Canoa, a beach about 8 hours away by bus. It helps that Halloween is quickly followed by El Dia de los Muertes and Cuenca's Independence Day, giving us a nice four-day weekend to use at our digression.

As I've mentioned before, I'm on an Ecuadorian soccer team, Rumiñhaui SC. Today, Chet and I played in our 2nd and 3rd games, respectively (there was a mix up with my number), and I scored the first goal of the game. It was not pretty, but it was not a day for pretty play, as the field, which is sand, was turned into a mud pit, making for super slow play. The ball went in off my thigh (thank God for my big thighs?) and we went up 1-0, which was all that mattered at the time. Overall, we ended up losing the game, bringing our record to 1-1 with Mike playing (we're 1-2 w/ Chet, but that does not reflect on Chet's football skills, as he his way better than me). I'm looking forward to our game next week, which could either be scalding hot, a muddy mess, or a cold and dusty day. All is fun with Rumiñhaui!

Happy Oktoberfest!

While Oktoberfest is not officially celebrated here, we are still enjoying a holiday by grilling out on the roof and celebrating Guayaquil's Independence Day. Since it's a 3-day weekend, the Manna house is a little lonely, as some have taken this as an opportunity to travel- Sonia and Ricky, her boyfriend, are in Tena exploring the rainforest, Bibi is in los Bancos, while Haley and Sarah are in Otovalo getting away from us. Most of the rest of us have tickets to the Ecuador-Uruguay World Cup qualifying game tomorrow. All in all, it should be a nice little vacation from everything Mannan

Happy holidays!

Weekend Update

Friday the Teen Center hosted its first movie night, screening I Am Legend, or Soy Leyenda in Spanish. We ended up with 7 kids, which was a little disappointing, but much of that was probably due to the early time and the rain that began as the kids were supposed to arrive at the library (which means they still had about 30 minutes to travel). Hopefully our next movie night, in two weeks on the 16th, will benefit from a later start time and more attendance.

Saturday Chet and I went to our first soccer (futból) game. We are now proud members of the Ruminhaui Sports Club (RSC) football team. The game was just up the road from out house, between Puentes 3 & 4 (all the bridges are numbered; we live close to Puente 7). After a slow start, RSC pulled out a 3-2 win over the blue and grey Hyundai (??) team. I know some of you are surprised to hear I'm on a soccer team, especially since I've only played on an intramural team in college (bet you didn't know that either), but rest assured I didn't play this past weekend, only watched, as the place that was supposed to make our uniforms ran out of material (white and blue, basic, no?). Instead, Chet and I cheered from the sides, thanking God that we got to see what we're getting ourselves into for the next 4 months. After watching the whole game, we feel good about our ability to hang in with the Ecuadorians.

In addition to Chet and me, Sarah, Krysta, Haley, and Jackie are joining the women's RSC team. They had a practice Sunday: it lasted 3 hours, complete with yelling from their coach to one of the new players to "just stand there be big!" and a visual uniform fitting that resulted in two of the women being told they should wear the same uniform sizes as Chet (just plain wrong). Luckily, the women's coach, Patricia, is the wife of Raul, our contact for the team, and always goes to our game, so I'm sure any advice will get passes on to us, in one form or another.

I fared much better Sunday, reading The Godfather (I've been trying for 4+ years) and meeting our neighbor one street up. Marcia has 4 kids in their 20s or early 30s, of which we got to meet 3; she also has a basset named Paco. After a hot fruit drink and bread (during which more and more people showed up), the all of us played Jenga, during which time we had lots of conversations in Spanglish and were invited to Byron's (a boyfriend) 25th birthday celebration in Quito Wednesday. Hooray for networking! (With Guayaquil's Independence Day Friday and Ecuador's World Cup qualifier game Saturday, this week looks to be a good one.) The evening ended with all of them (Marcia's 3 children and their 2 friends) walking us home, kissing cheeks, and giggling about our new friends.

I'm so cool, I'm featured on another blog!

That's right folks, my blogging is so HOT it's tough to contain it in a single blog. As a result, you can catch me on our

Actually, it's my turn to write a guest blog for MPI Ecuador's daily-life blog. The blog- at Open Hands and Dirty Feet- discusses my involvement with the Teen Center and where we (Shawn, Bibi, & I) hope it ends up by the end of the year.

Same Situation, New Concerns

Classes start tomorrow!

This phrase has always given me anxiety, a feeling that another semester's worth of work and reading was about to start. Not that I wasn't excited to start a new term- new things to learn, new ideas to pursue, friendships renewed- but deadlines never excited me, and knowing that all the great things came with a price caused me pause.

This year, I get to be in a different spot- supporting our teachers get underway teaching the kids in the library. We are running kids and adult English, kids art, and women's exercise classes out of the library starting tomorrow. I do not have the usual jitters- I won't have test, or papers, or have to figureout how to weave me pervious experience into something a professor will find academically worthy; instead, I've traded those doubts with others, namely, will we have people there at all?

There are always trade-offs, and going from a student to the "profe" as we're called, is one I am eagerly anticipating. Sure the doubts about the success of the endevour are there, but this time they are different. I am sure I don't know half of the things that should be worrying me, but I'm content in a break from the predictable cycle that school had become. The unknown is exciting; let's get started!

Blog 2.0

If you are my mother, you'd know I don't update my blog very often. Well, I am out to change that. Starting today, I'm going to post more often. Originally, I had planned to offer some insightful tidbits, something that was well written or witty; as that as not worked well (a single blog post in a month), I've decided to forgo my pride and just write.

With that said, I should let you (mother) know what's been going on the past few weeks. Ten days ago we rapped up our kids' summer camp. We had a pretty good turnout- 17 kids came of the two-week camp. We played games, made art, learned about the environment, and took trips to watch a movie and to the pool. My favorite part were snacks on the roof: it offered time for both kids and profes to catch a breath, enjoy the sun, and eat a couple of oranges. Overall it was a good way to get to know some of the kids we'll be working with in the coming year.

Last week we re-opened the library, which had been closed while the kids' camp was underway. Jackie and I are responsible for the administrative duties, while everybody uses the space as a base of operations within the community. We've been cleaning, organizing, and reworking policies and procedures in order to be reading for next week, when we begin our semester-long programs.

On a more personal note, I hiked Pichincha, the active volcano that forms the western border of Quito, on Saturday. After taking a few wrong turns (did you know you can actually climb a mountain the wrong way?), Sarah, Sonia, and I made it to the top, paused briefly in the cold wind for a few pictures, and then made our way down the rock and sand face. After making it down, we visited Erik's favorite Chinese restraunt and ate everything we could (it was 6, we hadn't had anything to eat since 9am). All in all, not a bad way to spend 5 hours on a Saturday.

Thanks to those who have donated, followed along on the blog, and who are sending encouragement over email. It means a lot to me to have such as great support group back in the states.

-m-