A Bittersweet 'Despedida'

          The time has come to say goodbye to the program directors of 2010-2011 and transition into the new group of volunteers for the upcoming year, which always makes for a difficult yet exciting change.  Two nights ago in El Farito we held our annual despedida party, formally presenting the new volunteers to the community and giving the old ones a chance to say goodbye.  This year was unique in that we had the opportunity to introduce the new program director, Katie Messick, to the community as well.  Even though this happens every year, it still was no easy task for the program directors to bid farewell to all of the people they had become so close with this past 10-13 months.
          So the evening began with a trivia game that required the community to investigate into the lives of the new program directors, trying to discover which of the volunteers paired up with the list of trivia facts given.  Then after Amira introduced Katie and the new program directors, a handful of girls from the community performed both folklore and reggaetown dances.  Along with the help of program directors Steph and Carly, the girls were all dressed up for the occasion, wearing traditional Nicaraguan skirts and tops with makeup and hair to along with it; they all looked beautiful and danced wonderfully.  It was then time for each of the program directors of 2010-2011 to say their own special goodbye, which lead into the final and probably most anticipated event, the photo slideshow.  The slideshow was a brief five minute video of pictures that captured just a handful of the many memories and experiences that took place this past year.  The rest of the night was then spent eating cake and hanging out with the community members.  There were tears and there was laughter and of course photos being snapped in every which direction, making the entire evening absolutely awesome but definitely bittersweet as well.

A snapshot of the community members present.

Dayana dressed up in her traditional Nicaraguan folklore outfit.

Cake!

The new program directors of 2011-12.

Steph and Carly dancing with some of the community members.

Final Retreat

The three week mark has come for us program directors of the year 2010-2011and so as one of our last little hoorahs before we leave we went on our final retreat this past week with Amira.  Throughout the year we go on about three of four retreats that give us an opportunity to catch up with each other and discuss how things are going.  So Wednesday morning everyone packed into the micro and headed out towards Granada.  After a yummy and pleasantly filling breakfast at Kathy’s waffle house, we then piled into a boat and headed out towards the isletas, which was where we were to stay.  The isla that was ours for the night was a quaint little house with a giant pool, lots a hammocks and sitting areas to read and rest, and lots of beautiful trees and flowers.  In between the rain we went canoeing, swam, read in the many hammocks spread around the property, played cards, and then just spent time resting and relaxing.

Then for dinner we shared a deliciously big Mexican potluck and talked about our past year here; what was good, what was most memorable and what we have learned.  Despite most of our resistance to talk initially, I think that we all appreciated the chance to reflect with each other.  I think it is safe to say that none of us are the exact same person we were when we arrived, and so to be able to share that with the people we are closest with here was great.  And it wasn't all sad talk either.  Some of our most memorable moments where actually pretty comical, such as stories about getting the car stuck or trying to deal with the crazy weather or traffic.  Overall it was a great trip, and now we are back in Managua to finish out our time.  We now also have the next few weeks to look forward to getting to know the new program directors, who arrive back from language school this Friday.  

In the boat heading out towards the isletas.

The guys enjoying their down time.

The house on the isleta where we stayed.

Will and Dane throwing the frisbee.

WHAT IS HOLISTIC COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT?

What is holistic community development? Well, that's a really good question. I feel like it's a lot like the phrase 'sustainable living': you hear it all the time and you use it in sentences, however you don't really know exactly what it means. Firstly, it can mean different things for different people and different organizations. For MPI, it is the base of which we do all of our work. We recognize that if we run an English class for children, if the children aren't healthy, how can they focus on learning? So, paired with our English and Art classes. We faciliate a teeth-brushing program and also help with a feeding program. We believe that by helping all aspects of a person's life (health, education, creative, happiness, social, etc...) that's when a person will really be able to grow.

Another aspect of holistic community development is how we nurture and utilize a Program Director's unique strengths and skills. For example, a current PD, Steph Barnett majored in Spanish and Developmental Education. She uses those skills to run a children's english class, and also volunteers at a pre-school in the community. On the other hand, Trent Draughon (another PD) who is more tech savvy than most of us, teaches the computer class.

I never knew much about holistic community development before I started working with Manna Project, but now that I do, it just makes sense.

Marcos taking some notes in Steph's english class

You can't tell by this photo

but this class is one of the hardest to teach.

The children are very rambunctious.

But, through Steph's masterly skill of working with children in Spanish

she is able to keep them focused.

the other night

at the Manna House

we had a

PAPER MACHE PARTY!!!

here are some pics

meet the new Program Directors

and

our lovely Country Director!

Amira Tahir: Country Director

likes: babies, lip gloss, jogging, spanglish, and hazelnut chocolate

dislikes: rude drivers, drying dishes (washing is ok though), and nancites

Steph Barnett: Program Director

likes: sunrises, chikys,

little kids (especially when they speak spanish),

big-colorful-plastic-sunglasses, hiking, and safari animals

dislikes: cold weather and huge spiders (the small ones are al'right though)

Luke Harris: Program Director

likes: Jesus, basketball, teaching, Nicaraguan pizza, ground beef, salami, and hats

dislikes: snakes

Katie Hathaway: Program Director

likes: books, rain (when she is indoors), chocolate,

Catchphrase, Chacos, and the Texas Longhorns

dislikes: too much danish filling in a danish and

when people put wet dishes on dry dishes

Will "Guillermo" Howard: Program Director

likes: The Beatles, baseball, making various funny faces,

New Orleans Saints, FIFA, and Halo 3, salami

dislikes: spiders, dislikes, squirrels (there's nothing cute about rabies)

Zac Gordon from Boston: Program Director

likes: the Red Sox

skiiing, dogs, Nicaragua, Cháman, salami, tulips, and

the philosophy of Ayn Rand

dislikes: copy machines, talking during movies,

blue-cheese, and people who answer the phone while at the dinner table

Megan Aberley: Program Director

likes: surfing, making art, and bicycles

dislikes: stepping in dog doo and food budgets

Ready, Set, Ometepe!

Last weekend, the PDs embarked for Ometepe Island, located in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. Ometepe is home to two volcanoes, Maderas (extinct) and Concepcion (active). The purpose of our weekend retreat? To reflect, refocus, and conquer Volcán Maderas!

The month of March ushered in spring breakers from 6 differed colleges and the start of Semana Santa, Holy Week. PDs were scattered among the different groups and later among different countries (USA, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama) as we took our Holy Week holiday along with the rest of Central America. After reuniting in April, we were ready for a weekend away to reconnect and reflect upon our last few weeks. We ferried from Rivas to Ometepe and took the bumpy road to Finca Magdalena, a pretty hippy hostal located at the base of Volcán Maderas.


After checking in and chilling out, enjoying the beautiful sunset views and local flora and fauna, we gathered to recapitulate the events of March. We discussed things we learned from our weeks with spring breakers and how we can use that to shape our summer volunteer sessions. We gathered ideas on summer volunteering opportunities and are getting so excited for the new groups we’ll be hosting in May and June. Amira also encouraged us to think about our goals for the rest of the year. With only a few weeks left of April, Summer Sessions, and then July’s arrival of new PDs, the rest of our year will be over in a flash!

Saturday morning, with a 6:00 am wake up call, we conquered Maderas. Below are some photos of the weekend.

Traffic jam on the way to Finca Magdalena

Emergency plan

Kickin' up dust with the volcano smoking in the back

Kelly helps Ian clean up at the top of Volcán Maderas

Eerie view from the top

View of active Volcán Concepcion from Volcán Maderas

Thanks to PD Ian for all the photos!

Best,

Jan Margaret

Returning to Nicaragua - Six Months In

After a three-week holiday break, MPI Nicaragua's Program Directors (PDs) have returned to the Manna house. Returning to a place that is at once foreign and familiar has been a surreal experience. By now, we are accustomed to dodging ox carts, potholes, and horses on the highway. Here, it is completely normal to be offered a duck for 20 córdobas ($1) while waiting at a red light. It is also accepted to ignore those lights when convenient.


Six months in, we know that no explanation is necessary when you don't feel a stoplight clown or windshield wash is deserving of a cookie or a few cents; a smile and a joke will do just fine. We know that no offense is meant by a public observation of weight gained or the shade of your skin, and that none is taken when the answer to a request is "no."


When your instinct is to feel you and your country are judged when you deny a dollar to someone who begs it, you may be called "pinche," or stingy, but follow with a high-five and a laugh and you will find it reciprocated. When a family appears intimidating, know that they would gladly welcome you into their home and offer you the national dish and drink of gallo pinto and pinolillo. If you are fortunate enough one day to find yourself in Nicaragua, save a bit a mental stress and trust in the frankness, the humor, the resilience, and the kindness of its people.

hellos and goodbyes

We often talk about how difficult it must be for this Nicaraguan community to watch Manna PDs come and go each year. With a new group of gringos entering their lives each season, hellos and goodbyes have become the norm. By now they know how the system works: we walk into their lives for 13 months and then return to the States. It’s a struggle on both sides as friendships form and hearts connect, only to be separated come summer. Not that these relationships aren’t valid; they are some of the dearest and most pure I’ve experienced. But last week we got a little taste of the hardship of goodbye when PD Kyle left us on May 5.

Kyle is carefree and fun, loud and enthusiastic. He brings a joyful energy to every room he enters. He was an asset to Manna and a dear friend to both Nica and gringo. We sent him off last week with a surprise piñata party in El Farito, complete with gooey cake and blasting regaetton. The question is inevitably, “When are you going to come back?”

But if the house felt empty afer Kyle’s departure (Let’s not lie – We definitely moped around for a few days!), it’s now busting at the seams. Three days ago we welcomed ten volunteers into our Manna world to spend the month with us. These college kids hale from all over and are beginning to make Managua their home. They’ve mastered the handwashing system at Feeding Program and survived an hour in Creative Arts. They’ve hiked through the trash in La Chureca with a smile on their faces and braved the cold showers for three(!) days in a row. We’ve put their Spanish (and patience) to the test many times… and we think that we like them :)

Emily

toy soldiers

If you’ve ever peeked through the slatted window of an elementary classroom in a Nicaraguan public school, you’ve witnessed chaos in its purest form. Full of packed desks and colorful wall decorations, the room is usually brimming with many, MANY (yelling and wiggling!) uniformed children and one very patient teacher.

In this education system, schools are often under-resourced and overcrowded. Though many teachers are enthusiastic and responsible, a lack of materials and space often causes children to be passed from grade to grade without ever completely learning the desired objectives. Basic math skills are missing; reading and writing are frequently far under par. For this reason, MPI offers afterschool literacy and math programs to supplement what is learned in school and to give attendees a heads-up in the classroom… and in life.




Though most PDs came here with no teaching experience (especially in a foreign language!), leading math and literacy has become a bright spot in my week. In math group A (I love the little ones!), we are learning to add and subtract… using anything and everything to enhance the learning: toy soldiers, legos, M&Ms. Cristian rocks with her numbers and dominates the games! Ulises counts on his fingers so well, touching each to his nose as he says its number! And though Armando is often the last to understand, he giggles at everything and loves to guess the answer!

These children that attend El Farito each Monday and Wednesday afternoon have demonstrated vast improvements in their reading and math skills. And more notably, we hope that they have gained a deeper understanding of the importance of numbers and the value of books. But far more significant than any skill learned or objective passed is the confidence we hope to instill in these children. Mastering long division promotes self-assurance. Reading challenging chapter books opens minds to faraway places and cultivates dreams beyond housewifes and farmers. We want to foster a deep ambition in these children, to encourage them to think outside their neighborhood, to let them know that they have the capabilty to do great things.

Perhaps it all starts with adding toy soldiers...

Emily

goodbye josh

So, it’s been a few weeks since we’ve written. Let’s blame it on Semana Santa, shall we…?!

The truth is that all of Nicaragua shuts down during this week leading up to Easter. In such a Catholic country, Holy Week is a reason to (a) pray and/or (b) party it up. Manna PDs chose to spend our “time off” in the Caribbean on Little Corn Island, one of two islands off the Atlantic coast. Combine Swiss Family Robinson with a tropical Bacardi ad and you’ve created the rustic paradise of Little Corn. We spent a much needed vacation exploring the tiny island (4-square kilometers, there are no cars!), fishing in the crystal waters, and soaking up the sun.

But after a week of R&R and a worshipful Easter, we’ve hauled our peeling bodies back to the heat of Managua for MPI programs as usual. Unfortunately, among the fun classes and sweet home visits of this past week, we had to say goodbye to PD Josh Abeln on Thursday. Josh has been here since January 2008, pouring his heart into the construction and maintenance of facilities in the sports complex in Chiquilistagua. Most recently, Josh and the guys have been pouring concrete beneath the roof of a new indoor basketball court!

This sports complex, owned by our partners Halle and Kathy August, has been Josh’s sweet spot in Nicaragua. Now open to neighborhood children every afternoon, this area is home to soccer fields, a baseball stadium, a volleyball court, swings, a library, a computer lab, and much more. Green and spacious, the site offers kids a safe place to come and play, to explore, to feel secure and clean and loved. And so to send Josh off in Manna style, we opened the gates to this special place on Tuesday afternoon… and hosted a huge water fight! Everyone was soaked. And Josh dominated!


We miss him.

Emily

cerro negro

Very few of us would jump into action at the offer to hike an “about to explode” volcano – but we were uncharacteristically brave this weekend! Or perhaps we were just characteristically unaware and uninformed. Regardless, on Saturday morning Mose, Nikki, Christina, Jed, Michael, and I hopped into the car – ready to roadtrip it to León and face the wrath of volcano Cerro Negro. After arriving to the (really sweet!) hostel and wandering the winding streets of this colonial town, we met up with Wilbur, our guide… and our soon-to-be new favorite Nicaraguan man.

Wilbur (self-described as “short and brown”) led our crew to the foot of Cerro Negro… and then essentially straight up it. The mountain is literally a black sand dune rising 2,400 feet into the air, rockier on the “climp up” side and finer on the “slide down” side. After an hour and a half of trekking uphill and exploring heat vents in the crater, breathing in sulfur, and sticking our hands in oozing hot nooks and crannies, we prepared ourselves for the slide/fall/run down to the base. And it was awesome! – (although it lasted less than five minutes). With the adrenaline pumping and shoes full of sand, we felt like we were flying…

In the car on the bumpy ride back to the hostel, while joking with Wilbur and trying unsuccessfully to clean the grime off all exposed skin, we spoke of what a matchless experience the Cerro Negro hike was. The whole place had felt wild, almost outer-space-like. There were no other humans around; no signs or ropes or railings. We hadn’t filled out a waiver or signed our lives away. It was just simple… call the random Nica guide and then explore. In such a straightforward and minimalistic procedure there shines forth an unpretentious simplicity, one that has ceased to exist in the United States. And we found that refreshing; yet it would have been nice to know that "the volcano will explode any day now."

Emily

maddie reports

In The Manna House-

Two new Program Directors arrived: Kyle and Josh (another Josh! Who would have thought). They're absolutely splendid and have fit into our Manna family perfectly. Both are intelligent, enthusiastic, patient, kind, and most of all…they're boys! Let me tell you, evening out the gender ratio in this house has definitely made everyone happier. Too many girls can get a little catty sometimes.

I kid you not, MILLIONS of fire ants attacked our house twice about a week and a half ago. We think the boys might have disturbed a colony while creating their "man cave" in our unused garage (don't ask, I have no idea), and as a result the ant army retaliated. If anyone is interested, you can kill them with the following: boiling water, water + bleach, or fire. I don't recommend the last option.

As I've mentioned, we have two rottweilers, mother and son. The son may or may not have gotten mumsy pregnant when she last went into heat. Another word of advice: it is pointless to try to keep rottweilers in heat apart, because they will inevitably find a way to be together. We're still waiting to find out if she's pregnant… if not, we're getting her spayed asap.


In Programs-

Microfinance: after reviewing our applications and conducting interviews, Mary Rose and I have decided to hand out five $150 loans and one $100 loan. They'll be making payments twice a month, and each date that a payment is due we will have a meeting with all the participants to discuss how their businesses are doing, offer encouragement, strengthen relationships and friendships, etc. I'm very excited about this program and hope everything will go well!

Creative Arts: Emily and I have decided to make the next 3-4 months "country" themed, and this time we are sticking to our themes! February is Nicaragua month, March is Costa Rica, and April is Ecuador (the location of our sister MPI site). Ecuador might leak into early May, but our summer volunteers are arriving May 12 and will be entrusted with planning from then on out. We're pretty excited about this date. Also, we've realized that the children behave better when doing arts and crafts as opposed to "rehearsing" skits.

Intermediate English: Kyle has come on board with me, which has been a great help. We now tend to divide the class into two groups and thus get more work done/offer more individual attention. My students are getting a little rowdy, and I might have to soon give them the "I do all this for you please respect me or don't come to class" speech… though I'll probably use nicer words. In any case, they're progressing well and have already learned 3 new vocabulary lists.

Child Sponsorship: I've decided to step down from this position, as I wasn't contributing much to the program and wanted more time to plan my other classes/catch up on other work. However, I still manage to make it to La Chureca once a week/every two weeks and maintain my relationships there. We also went to a presentation at Casa Ben Linder today, wherein several Churecan children talked about their new organization (they do radio bites) and passed around photos of their barrio. Needless to say, we MPI people new at least 70% of the people that appeared in the photos. Guess we're doing our job pretty well!

Community survey: Mary Rose and I are about to conduct a community survey on Manna and how community members view us as an organization. This is the first time that Manna has internally conducted a survey like this and we're very excited about conducting it and compiling the results.

Maddie

back where we belong

Manna PDs returned to Nicaragua earlier this week, eager to begin another six months of sudor and amor. We’ve been well-fed, well-cleaned (with hot water!), and well-Christmas-ed up – totally ready for Nica life to begin once again…

And it’s now going in full force! We’ve been joined by two new PDs, Kyle and Jed-Josh (see pic below) and the ten of us have been busy preparing for programs, cleaning the house, taking rides on our newly-fixed motorcycle (thank you, Kyle!), and trying to keep our psycho male dog from impregnanting his mother. (We think a litter of incest puppies is on the way…)

Two days after our own arrival, we received a group of occupational therapists from Worcester State University, two professors and four students. After a restful weekend at beautiful Laguna de Apoyo (a gorgeous crater lake just outside Managua), these visitors began work at a school for children with disabilities and a special needs orphanage. While these women spent the week pouring their hearts into therapy for numerous children with both physical and emotional delays, Manna PDs had the privilege of serving them through transportation and interpretation.

And it truly was a privilege. In driving around Managua and attempting to translate between gringo and Nica, my eyes were opened to a population that is often overlooked and mistreated. Because special needs children require such specialized attention and expensive care, many developing nations simply do not have the resources or knowledge necessary for proper growth.

Yet both the school and the orphanage handle these children with amazing love. Sitting in a cement “playpen” with five deaf, autistic, or downs toddlers, tears streaming down my cheeks, I couldn’t help thinking about how different their situations would be had they been born into the prosperity of the United States. It’s a sad truth indeed. But more importantly, I was blown away by the daily enthusiasm of these babies’ caregivers and the way that these Nicaraguan women exude such a deep gentleness and grace. While money and training are undeniably essential, a mother’s love (and the orphans do call these women “mamá”) is powerful.

Who knows what the next six months will hold?! But we’re thrilled to be back home where we belong.

Emily