"It's 9:35 am on Tuesday here in Ecuador. I'm sitting in the MPI Ecuador house at our new table in our dining room, right next to the wall we painted
'Spanish Brick' red about four days ago. It's drizzling rain outside- a nice variation from the bright, Andean sunshine that usually flows over Valle
de los Chillos, where we now live and work. Zak is making eggs in the kitchen, Seth is working on some Spanish homework and there's laundry drying in
our atrium (just like in Nica, we have a washing machine but no drier... instead, we get to line-dry our clothes on our huge roof-top terrace that
has
a 360 degree view of the Andes mountains- that is, when it's not raining).'
"Hilary, Craig and Annie left early this morning to volunteer at the market program run by UBECI (our Ecuadorian partner organization). Twice a week,
all morning, UBECI takes volunteers to los mercados, where children work long days with their parents. For a few hours in the morning, kids (ages
three and up) who normally spend all day in the hot sun selling produce, get to just be kids; they color, sing, play games and partake in educational
(but fun!) activities.'
"After a month of language school in Quito, (when in our free time we went house-searching, 15,000 ft mountain-hiking, market-shopping,
visa-registering, flamenco-dancing, furniture-shopping, waterfall-jumping, and attended lots of meetings with UBECI), we're all excited and ready to
start our programs. Monday we have our official 'kick-off' in San Francisco (the community we'll be focusing on), and then on Tuesday we start
teaching classes. Mark, Hilary and Zak are teaching English, Craig is teaching math, Annie is teaching creative arts, Seth is teaching values, John
is working with UBECI's social worker, and soon I'll be starting a women's exercise class- just like in Nicaragua.'
"So the rain just stopped and the sun's coming out- perfect timing to go to the panadería down the street and buy some fresh bread for
breakfast. Let us know if you want to be on the monthly update contact list (email me at abbie@mannaproject.org). Thanks for all the support, and as
they say in Ecuador, chao!"
- From MPI Ecuador Program Director Abbie Foust
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