One Big Happy Family

We are always together.  Six peas in a pod, a little family in our own right.  When one of us ventures out of the nest, outsiders question, “where’s the rest of Manna?”  Now, that is a beautiful thing.

We function as a well-oiled machine, where each cog pushes the next towards its goal, because being surrounded by co-workers at all hours drives performance.  Each of us is involved in every program and every decision, and it works.  We each hold stock in the minute details, and take genuine interest in the successes and failures of our day-to-day work.

But is that efficient?  Are six cogs really better than one?  Realizing this, we have decided to branch out.  Let’s see what happens when each of us flies out on our own—After all each is a highly capable, competent, and trustworthy team member.

So far it’s been a two-week experiment, and the results have been pretty astounding.  We have had eight meetings with new organizations.  To put that in prospective, we met with about ten new organizations in our first six months.  Now our new approach isn’t wholly to thank, but since returning from break I have been impressed with each member’s go-getter spirit, foresight, and certainly increased productivity. Within the next few weeks we will start teaching seven sections of third through sixth grade English in our local primary school, begin a teacher's English class as well as an after school program in the nearby high school, work alongside local health promoters to give educational workshops to our classes, and hold demonstrations on how to stuff discarded plastic bottles with trash to later use as bricks for an addition to our school.

In our first six months we focused on working together to forge relationships and lay the groundwork for future programs.  Slow and steady wins the race.  Now as we come upon our halfway mark, we aim to increase efficiency and visibility by using our individual passions to drive progress.

And that too is a beautiful thing.

Mamabear,

Dana