Manna Resolutions

Fireworks are a daily treat in Solola.

Happy New Years!  We’re thrilled to be going back to Guatemala soon, and after a great break we wanted to share with you some of the resolutions we’ve made as we tackle the new year.  As always, we invite your feedback, questions, and requests in the comments below.

MPI Guatemala Resolutions:

• Increase our Sustainability: sustainability was a key topic of conversation in group meetings as we wrapped up the year.  We’re increasingly cognoscente of our program’s abilities to equip residents to continue what we start and we want this to be a central part of our program pre-audit.  In English, that means the teachers need to teach alongside us, and the curriculum needs to be one they can repeat.  In other programs, that means a renewed emphasis on partner orgs and community involvement.

• Get a community center: The week of Dec. 5 we had a promising meeting about a new room that could be converted for a meeting space and library.  We have another meeting coming up and hope to have this space ready to build out by the time Spring Break volunteers arrive.

Where our boss Dana is right now.  Jealous.

• Show our volunteers why we love our job: We’ll have three spring break trips and two rounds of summer volunteers.  One of Manna's pillars is volunteer development, and we hope to foster an interest in community service and international development.  We want the volunteers who come to have a fun and moving experience abroad, and that takes preparation on our part.

• See more of this beautiful country: We need to travel more.  Less weekends around the house, less holidays catching up on work.  The work will always be there, but if the next six months fly by anything like the first six, we won't have much time to fit everything in.  If you’re in the area, come along, there’s Semuc Champay, Rio Dulce, Tikal, and much more.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, here's to an even better 2011.  All the best.

        -Hudson and the MPI-G team