Putting my Journalism degree to use

I recently started a mini-magazine in my site, and so far it has been well received. It´s called Salud y Bienestar, Health and Wellbeing, and includes articles about the local events, history about the community, healthy living advice, new exercises, healthy recipes, entertainment stories, sports news stories, etc.
I did most of the writing myself for the first issue but I am hoping to get more involvement by the community members for future issues. Also, I hope to sell ad space so that we can the magazine an upgrade with color and more pages. I feel as though this magazine will get more voices heard, encourage communication, have people take pride in their work, and serve as a vehicle to reach those community members who don´t like to leave their houses and participate in community events.
Vamos a ver....I am open to any suggestions if people have advice to strengthening this project.

Ecuador pride

One of my favorite people, Kristen, just moved to Quito to serve her 3rd year in the city and I am missing her like crazy. Last Friday (day before the big Ecuador vs. Uraguay game) she called me standing outside of the soccer stadium with an extra ticket to the game trying to persuade me to make a impulsive trip to Quito.
A combination of having a disappointing work day, missing the compamy of a good friend and wanting to sport my Ecuadorian pride with other screaming Ecuadorian fans, convinced me to just that. I jumped on a night bus that same day with a few other Manabi queridos. We arrived in Quito a 4 a.m. after getting very little sleep on the bus and got a couple of hours of shut-eye at Kristen´s place before heading to the stadium at 10 a.m. (for a 5:00 o´clock game!!) Ecuador has come serious fans here, and we wanted to make sure after we had traveled all night long to get to the game, that we were going to get good seats. :)

We got our Ecua gear on the streets lining the stadium where there are hoards of vendors waiting to sell you any type of Ecuador sports gear you could ever imagine and waiting to paint your face YELLOW, BLUE and RED!

Getting to the stadium 7 hours before a game starts, is definitely a new record for me. The time, however, went by fast as we made friends with people in our stands and learned new cheers (and swear words :/) to yell when the game started.

Que viva la gente de Manabi!!!
Hiding from the sunThe entire stadium PURO AMARILLO!
¨Vamos, Ecuatorianos, esta tarde, tenemos que ganar!!¨

A giant oversized Ecuadorian flag kept getting passed over our section and the fans would go nuts cheering and hollering as the flag swayed over everyone´s heads.

Everything started looking a little yellow by the middle of the game......Jenn, Kristen and me under the flag

So, end result.....Ecuador lost, and is out of the World Cup :( but it was still an incredible time to be in the stadium with so many excited and die-hard fans.
We didn´t let the loss get us down though, we ended the night by going out dancing and crashing at Kristen´s place early the next morning, only to get on another night bus that day to head back to my site. It was a whirlwind of a trip but I am so glad Kristen convinced me to go!

Surprise visit from USAID

I woke up last last Wedensday planning to have the morning to set-up my lesson plan for my afternoon English and computer class but just as usual, my morning turned out to be nothing like I expected. My host mom, Cecilia, asked me to acompany her to what she called a ¨small meeting¨ at the lake to re-open a part of the road that had been under construction. I rolled up with Cecilia to the ¨small meeting¨in jeans and a t-shirt to find all the major authority figures from my province, including USAID director, preparing their speeches for an inaguration of a major project they were presenting to preserve the lake, Posa Honda, in my site. It was a very formal and well done presentation, and even if it was a random showing, I am glad that I ended up at the event.

I ended up iniviting some of the USAID head figures out for a tour of Posa Honda by canoe, which I think turned out to be a highlight of the day. It was also an oportune time for me to present my environmental health project ideas, and to see if I could get the support of USAID. Needless to say, I let community members know that those types of ¨small meetings¨are important to me, and it would be a good idea to inform me of them ahead of time. Sidenote for Mom: There are so many different types of birds that live around the lake.... get excited for some good bird watching for when you come to visit! :) I just wish I had more bird knowledge to be able to identify the different species.

Come see the whales

Ok, so these pix are a little out of date, but I wanted to post them anyways to give people more incentive to come and visit!!! :) June through September, good whale-sightings are pretty much guaranteed on the coast near my site! Puerto Lopez is known to be the epicenter of whalebreeding grounds.
Because I had never been whale-watching before, I was excited when my friends Kristin, Jess and Jess´s dad came up to Manabi to
to tour the coast with a mission to see whales and find good waves to surf.Los Frailes, so serene and definitely some of my favorite beaches in Ecuador. Standing on this ledge, we saw several whales from a distance.

On our whale watching tour...the weather was kind of crummy, which equals choppy waters....don´t forget your motion-sickness pills when you come to visit!

Whales are not the easiest animal to capture on camera :/ so my pix do not do justice but they impressive animals to see in real life

Later, we went surfing but couldn´t get the surfboard to fit inside the car so we had to travel between beaches clinging to the board that hung outside of the car.We had an fabulous Italian dinner at a little resturant tucked away outside of town with homemade noodles and sauces. A small mariachi band saranated us as we ate. Jess, we miss you! Hope you have adjusted back home and are doing well!