Spreading a little peace and friendship

Niños Promoviendo Paz y Amistad

My PC friend Stacia worked with an organization in the States called E.R.A.S.E who´s missoin is to eradicate racisma and discrimination in the world. One way they work to promote their mission is by donating pencils to kids in underprivledged villages....in hopes of ¨erasing¨ rascism. So, basically, Stacia had box after box of pencils sent to her by this organization. AWESOME, but the boxes arrived at the end of her service and she passed out as many pencils as she could in her community but ran out of time to get them all passed out.
Lucky for me, I inherited all the pencils with the promise to keep the project going.
This got me thinking....because International Peace Day is in September, Kristen and I decided to put together a mini-program in the elementary and highschools where the students not only receive a pencil but learn a little bit about geography, what kids their age like to do in other countries and particpate in a drawing contest. The kids had to draw their interpretation of a world filled with peace and friendship.
The idea took off, and Kristen and I had fun working with the kids!

The elementary school kids in Kristen´s site...so adorable

Peace : Paz

The group of high school students who participated in the drawing contest from my siteWinners of the drawing contest

Teaching a little geography

Peace links with the students commitments on how they are going to promote peace and friendship in their communities.

Paz y amistad: Peace and friendship

One of the winning drawings

Elementary School in Emaus where I live

The little kiddos learning about the E.R.A.S.E. program and the group of students who donated the pencils.

Preciosa

Alvy...love this little kid

Thanks Stacia! Thanks E.R.A.S.E.!

One year into my service....

(I apoligize for taking a break in blogging. I feel as though I hit my year mark in my service, and all of a sudden my workload increased tenfold. Now, that I have had time to prove myself and have pulled off some small successful events, my communities are finally realizing that this random tall blonde girl livig in their town can put together projects and be something of value. So, needless to say, I have had very little free-time, and I really couldn´t be more excited. So here are some photos from August and September)

My community had a festival celebrating Manabi culture and oral tradition. Groups from all over Ecuador particpated in the event. We had indigenous groups from the Andes mtns, Afro-Ecuadorian groups from Esmeraldes and local groups from Manabi singing, dancing and telling stories all through the night. It was one of my favorite events that we have had so far!A night filled with history, stories, folktales and lots and lots of dancing.

Even when the electricity went out, people pulled out flashlights and the event continued. I love these women´s performance....¨Las Tres Marias.¨ They got the whole crowd up and dancing while they sang and made sounds through their pretend trombones that they formed from with their hands. I wish this event was more than once a year.

On to Kristen, good PC friend´s going away party...

All of were VERY sad to see Kris go. Kristen arrived 1 year earlier than me, so her 2-year service came to an end. Lucky for me though, she accepted a position in Quito and will be living in Ecuador another year! So, although she will not be my Manabi buddy, we will still get to visit and spend time together.Hopefully all I have to do to get her to come visit is mention bailes or mangos! haha
Like I have said before, no party is complete without La Hora Loca...masks, ties and a full hour of dancing. It was so sweet watching as Kristen´s community talked about all their favorite memories spent with her and having them share heart felt speeches expressing how much she means to the them. It definitely makes me reflect on how I have integrated into my community and inspires me to want to spend more time visiting people than completely focusing on work. Thanks Kristen for being such a good neighbor, co-worker, counselor, dance partner and all around good friend! TQM

On to my gatita linda...

Anali being her curious self climbing all over the mounds of oranges and grapefruits in my front yard

Hope this isn´t too graphic :/ I decided that with all the kittens that are left here in Ecuador without homes, I needed to get my little cat spayed. So, I asked the vet in my town, and he ended up turing my dining room table into an operating table.
Everything was done very professionally and with anetestics but I still found it hard to watch in the beginning.
In the end, the surgery was actually very fascinating, and I am happy to report, that at this point, she is completely healed, stiches removed and running around like her wild little self.

Women´s Empowerment

¨Mujeres Sanas, Mujeres Felices¨
I decided with all the PC trainees coming to my site, we had to take advantage and do something big for the community. Therefore, we planned a big Women´s Health Fair where we would focus on women´s empowerment. We decided to teach about breast cancer prevention, the Maternal Health Law, Heart Disease, give free pap smears,
vacinations, take blood pressure and calculate B.M.Is.
We had several different organizations particpate, and about 100 women from far away communities attended the grand event. A lot of plannning went into the project but I feel like everything went smoothly and everyone learned something new that day....to me, that equals success.

Here are some of the photos from the health fair and the celebration we had afterwards with the PC trainees...Congrats to all the newbies on a job well done!

We had an awesome inspirtational speaker who taught the women the importance of getting to know their own bodies and building their self-esteem.
At the breast cancer prevention table, we were teaching how to give monthly self-exams.
The women practicing self-breast exams.
A women´s group who has started a mini-business by selling homemade yogurt, cheese, cafe, dulce de leche and artesenia.

SOLCA is an instiution that works towards the prevention of cancer, and they came out to perform pap smears for free for the women in my communities.

Me, Katty and Kris in front of the mobil clinc.

Working the welcome table
The PC trainees did a great job giving mini-presentations on the Maternal Health Law and Breast cancer prevention. They were so clever with their interactive games.The health center was also present giving out various vacinations to the women.
Nurse Katty is a rock star.
She is the one who performed all 80 of the pap smears in under 4 hrs.
I am so proud of my Happy Heart group who had a table where they took blood pressure and calculated B.M.I for all the women at the fair. They are so professional, and I love watching them teach the other women all that they have learned.
All the lovely volunteers that contributed to the Women´s Health Fair.
After our successful day of health presentations, I made sure to serve the newbies some of Manabi´s delicous traditional food.
Plan International, my counterpart organization, came out to my site to give a presentation to the PC trainees.
When all our work was complete, we headed off to the waterfalls!
Our hike to the waterfalls.
Usually the there is more water but rainy season was over...still very pretty though
The brave ones who decided to climb up to the top to get in the waterfall...mind you some were wearing flipflops but that didn´t stop them. Later, after the hike, we went to my friends farm to eat mandrin oranges and other fresh fruit! Good times!
In the evening, we went back to ¨La Finca,¨ a touristy spot in my site, where the volunteers stayed the night in bamboo cabanas. We had a big BBQ dinner with grilled fish, chicken and garlic shrimp! Soooo tasty!
Then, the dancing began.....we had to introduce the newbies to ¨La Hora Loca¨
This is the group that lasted the full hour of dancing. Bravo chicos!
It was fun having all the PC trainees out to my site, and I feel like they got a lot out of the experience. I hope they enjoyed everything Manabi has to offer and will come back to visit very soon!
Many people were speaking highly about my site and saying how awesome it is, and I truly do feel lucky. I hope this will help convince YOU to come out and see its amazingness too!

Lots of Americans in Manabi

The new PC trainees came to visit Manabi for a tech trip. So, needless to say, 15-20 tall, white people walking around the towns drew a lot of attention.
The PC group started their trip at Kristen´s site where we all put on a health fair in the high school. We worked with over 900 students teaching them about nutrition, healthy life styles and HIV/Aids prevention. The kids were fun to work with but drained all of our energy by the end of the day.Health Fair team

Adorable Stacia...good PC buddy who is extending her service to stay another year! Yay!
¨Salta por tu corazon!¨
To promote exercise and healthy living, we had several intense jump rope contests.
The activity reminded me of my elementary school days with ¨Jump Rope for Heart.¨
Stacia was the lucky one to explain the activity.
Kristen encouraging the girls to join in on the jump rope contest. The fair was a hit and all our tireless hours of planning the fair paid off.

2nd group of Americans visit Emaus:

Right when I got back from the States, an American Christian ministry group came out and put on a medical brigade in my site. It was really rewarding for my community. Lets just say, I had lots of translating to do.
After the brigade, I took them out on the lake for a canoe ride so they could see they beauty of my incredible site. It was nice to have visitors...hint hint. :)
The Medical Brigade in the Elementary School. Some of the people even received new glasses!
Hanging out with Alvin and Maria Belin at the medical brigade...they are some of my favortie neighbor kids

Random photos:

Later in the week, we had a community baile and danced until 4a.m.
¨Don´t worry, Be happy!¨
My friends are taking an English course at the university where they had to learn an English song and perform it in front of the class. After they chose the song ¨Don´t worry, Be happy,¨ I had fun working with them teaching the lyrics and helping with pronounciation. They did such an amazing job. I loved how they decided to dress-up for the performance.

¨In every life we have some trouble
But when you worry you made it double
Don´t worry, be happy.
Don´t worry, be happy.¨