Join Our Team!

Well, that time is upon us. It's that time where you have to start thinking about summer and post-graduation plans. Or, in our case, post-Manna plans. It can be sad to think about moving on... but it doesn't have to be!

Come hang out in Guatemala, Nicaragua, or Ecuador for the summer or for a year! (Or, if you know someone who may be interested, please pass along this amazing opportunity.) Summer interns can stay either 4 or 8 weeks on-site, and PD's can serve 7 or 13 months on-site. You would have the amazing opportunity to learn some more Spanish, learn a new culture, and truly impact a community through education, health, women's empowerment, and economic development. 

But... you have to act fast! 

Summer Application Deadline: January 25th

Program Director Application Deadline: February 1st

Feel free to check out more information on our website, the MPI-Nicaragua blog, or the MPI-Ecuador blog. 

Thanks, and we hope to see you at one of our sites soon! :)

The New Year

Hello faithful readers!

I just wanted to let you know that we are all back safe and sound from our winter holidays in the States.  We returned Saturday night and spent the weekend orienting our new PD, Julie! (She will be posting soon to introduce herself.)

Then on Monday, we jumped right in with the unexpected. We learned that the principal of the Básico school we work in would no longer be working there, due to unexplained reasons. Sadly, there's been a lot of reshuffling in schools lately due to a large purge of teachers.

Since then, we have been re-visiting our program goals for this quarter. We were asked to continue one of our programs (Básico English classes) even though we have made it clear multiple times that we are unable to. After much discussion and thinking as a team, we have decided to stick to our previous decision. I think all of us are learning that sometimes what's best for the community and for our organization may not be what's easy. Sure, it would be immediately helpful and easy for the PD's who are fluent in English to teach these English classes. But that means there is turnover in the middle of the school year when we leave and new PD's arrive. Our students told us that this is hard on them and hinders their learning. Furthermore, we have decided to switch our focus on teaching English to the teachers. In this way, we are empowering the teachers to learn a new skill and be able to properly teach their students English. We look forward to potentially partnering with the Ministry of Education to create a more formalized program for all of our teachers' English programs. That way, our classes are more efficient, teachers are more motivated to attend, and they could become more marketable as teachers. While it may be tough at first, we truly believe this is the best way we can support the school.

This quarter is going to be a great one. All four of us are focusing on developing new programs. Today, we all picked particular programs to focus on first. We have a good variety of health, women's empowerment/business development, and environment. It is truly exciting to be able to build new programs from the ground-up in a so many different sectors. All of us look forward to reaching out to different populations of the community and building many new relationships along the way.

Here's to a new year, a new quarter, a new PD, and many new programs!

-Nicole

Far From Home

We are far, far from home, and we're so happy. Far from home, all alone, but we're so happy.

-"From Finner," Of Monsters and Men

This week marks the Guatemala 12-13 crew's first week on our own, since our summer vols, previous PD and CD have all departed. I felt this song lyric to be most appropriate in describing our experience up until now.

First of all, yes, we are QUITE far from home. We live in a place where Spanish is the dominant language and work in a place where women wear "traje tipico," or traditional Mayan clothing. Our house lacks water half the day, and we ride overly crowded public transport to get around. The streets are uneven, houses practically built on top of one another. So yeah, it's pretty different.

However, we are so happy. How many people can look out their window back in the states and see something as gorgeous as this?

Yes, that's real.

And how many people can say that they will have the opportunity to play with/teach some of the cutest kids on earth?

You can't argue with this.

Or build relationships within a truly indigenous community?

Check that traje tipico.

So there you have it. We are in a truly foreign place... but couldn't be happier to be here.

-Nicole

Sunday Snapshot: Bottle School Day!

This past Wednesday we hosted an "Environmental/Health Day" in Chaquijyá Central! We started off with a workshop about the importance of hand-washing, had a bottle stuffing competition, played some fun games, and ended the day making an example of a real bottle school wall! All in all, it was a great day!

MPI Volunteers giving our healthy hands lecture

Passing around a glitter pen to show how germs are spread! Look at all the glitter!

Washing off the glitter and germs before a snack!

Stuff! Stuff! Stuff! Bottle competition!

And finally, our bottle wall example! The kids loved it!

Sunday Snapshot

This is real life, folks. MPI Guatemala is in its THIRD YEAR as of today. That's right 2 years have come and gone and I frankly cannot believe it. Even more fitting, today is Lori Scharffenberg's birthday, MPI's Executive Director, and the person that's made those three years possible. Happy birthday, Lori, we all send you big hugs from Guatemala! Thank you for all you've done for us! And now without further ado, I transition our blog into year THREE. (I can't not write that in bold). Stay tuned for the new PD introductions coming next week!

Cinnamon roll in front of La Merced right before picking up the newbies. We love each other.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LORI!!

Why I Guate: The Force

Today's blog post is an excerpt taken from Nicole Altamura's personal blog. Nicole just returned from a Spring break service trip in Guatemala and will be returning this July as a Program Director with us in Guatemala!

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"Everyone that goes to Guatemala also goes back."

I was talking to my professor yesterday, telling her about my Spring break plans. I told her about how I went to Guatemala last year, too… which prompted her to say the above.

The thing is, it’s totally true. The whole reason I was blessed enough to go to Guatemala in the first place is because my college pastor went there a few years ago and has been looking for a way back. Our former college intern who went on that trip with us is currently spending a year down there now. About half of us on the trip last year are returning again. 

Somehow, Guatemala seems to put a spell on people. There’s some sort of magnetic force that draws us back. I’m not even sure exactly what it is. The people are great, the country is beautiful. Not to mention it is the poorest Latin American country. It’s about on par with some parts of Africa. So you just want to go and love on them. 

I’m so encouraged by that thought—that everyone who goes wants to come back.

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Come to Guatemala with Manna Project International!

Change your life. Change someone else's.

Apply now!

Figuring It Out

When my friends sometimes make remarks about how we are all getting older, I always respond that I’m really excited to age. Understandably this is not your typical response, but when you think about it, growing older is a beautiful thing. Aging comes along with new experiences, relationships, knowledge, wisdom, and personal growth. At age 24, estoy emocionada (now I can say my favorite English phrase in Spanish) about starting this new chapter of my life in Guatemala. As Dana previously mentioned, I am the newest addition to the MPI Guatemala team and I feel really lucky to work with such a wonderful and driven group of people. In my few days being here, I can clearly see how beneficial Dana, Emily and Cameron have been to the Sololá and Chaquijyá communities. They are well-respected by the students they teach and the people that they serve. More importantly, they have an understanding about the community they are serving, and work with their community partners to best address the issues at hand. Needless to say, I’m impressed. 

 Summer in Guatemala recently ended and the school year just began. I went with Cameron to his 6^th and 7^th grade English classes at La Escuela Central and enviously watched him engage with his students. “Facil, facil, facil!” he repeated, as he encouraged his class and gave them confidence about their English skills. Yesterday was the start of an after school English program in MPI’s other partner school, La Cooperativa. When we showed up for the first day of classes expecting no more than 40 students, we were surprised to see a giggling group of 80 small children flooding into the classroom. By the end of the day, the total headcount for both the Beginner and Intermediate level was 96 students. We are glad that the students are showing such a high interest for additional English classes, but we definitely need a new game plan about how three teachers (and only one fluent in Spanish) are going to handle 90+ students! Figuring it out is part of the fun though :)

I have a lot of “figuring it out” to do, but being challenged by a dynamic group of people, a new community, and a foreign language is quite invigorating. One of my favorite pieces of advice is “allow yourself to feel uncomfortable.” I believe this is where we learn the greatest lessons.  As I walk the bustling, unfamiliar streets of Sololá, I remind myself of this and subtly smile, knowing that there is a whole lot to look forward to in the months ahead.

paz y amor,

Lorena

Tell Your Friends

Manna is a very small organization. There are 6 full time staff members spread between four countries, nineteen Programs Directors, and in the 2010-2011 fiscal year, MPI operated on a budget of about $427,000. To give you some means of comparison of annual budgets in the non-profit sector:

Pencils of Promise: $1.1 million; WorldTeach: $3.15 million; Invisible Children: $8 million; Charity Water: $11.6 million; Falling Whistles: $104.7 million; Habitat for Humanity: $285 million.

The point is we're small in almost every way. We don't have the manpower or resources to publicize and market ourselves with the big guys. Even when it comes to recruitment, truth is, the majority of our volunteers hear about Manna from one of our current or past volunteers, and we rely on that. I personally found out about Manna from my high school friend, Jackie Weidman who was a PD in Ecuador before MPI Guatemala ever existed. I remember reading MPI's website and wondering why I had never heard about the experience before, and MPI isn't the only one. There are so many life-changing opportunities out there looking for candidates, but seldom do the interested candidates and opportunities meet.

In a few days MPI Guatemala will welcome a new PD named Lorena Zamarelli, who--you guessed it--is also a friend from high school, and Manna is currently recruiting summer and 13-month volunteers for 2012-2013.  Posting to Facebook and other social networking sites does help, but it's not enough. We need a grander advertisement, a broader PSA.

These are my best friends from high school. 75% of them have either volunteered themselves with MPI, visited an MPI international site, or donated to the cause.

So do me a favor, tell your friends. Share our story, and spread the word. To beef up your Manna knowledge, visit our "about us" page, or our volunteer page.

Gracias,

Dana

Post Grad Problems

I just returned from the US three days ago. Coming home to Kentucky took a little adjusting. I caught myself checking my dog for fleas, then I remembered that he didn’t have any. Driving down to Nashville for Vanderbilt’s Homecoming weekend I kept waiting for the chicken buses to come roaring by, but all I saw were plain yellow buses filled with children. Little do they know that in 20 years some of those buses will be flying through Guatemala, colorfully painted and stuffed to the brim with 150 Guatemalans and a handful of gringos.

Going to Vanderbilt’s Homecoming was definitely the highlight of my trip. I got to talk with our future Spring Break leaders and pretend I was back in college. I woke up on Sunday with the disturbing thought that I was leaving my beloved school and heading back to Guatemala. To be honest I didn’t want to go. I’d had about all the mudslides and rain I could take. However, as we stepped outside at the airport in Guatemala City the sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We hopped in a shuttle and settled in for the long ride back to Sololá. Driving through the Guatemalan countryside I had a realization. My depression didn’t stem from returning to Guatemala, but from the understanding that I was no longer a Vanderbilt student. The fact is I’m just now coming to terms with graduating. For the past five months I have taken comfort in the slightly delusional idea that I’m just studying abroad, taking a short break from school, but will be coming back soon. Leaving Vanderbilt after only a weekend, it finally clicked with me, I was just a visitor. I don’t belong there anymore and as I settle back into life in Guatemala I’m finally owning up to that fact.

Just to make myself feel even better I like to compare my life with the lives of my friends who are currently employed in the real world. The majority of them are sitting in their cubicles right now grinding away in jobs that they may or may not like. My friends had plenty of things to complain about during our weekend: long hours, terrible bosses, huge living expenses and small paychecks. Always game for a good whining fest, I joined in, lamenting the terrible rains that had been going on. Then one of my friends pointed out that all she had heard me talk about for the past few months was how much I loved my work in Guatemala. If the only thing I have to complain about is the weather, I guess I’m doing pretty well. 

 My post-grad problems stemmed from not accepting my graduation, but I have begun to recognize that most people are dealing with a lot bigger problems than that. So to all you soon-to-be graduates: I don’t want to alarm you but you can’t stay in college forever. Maybe you squeeze in a fifth year if you swing things right, but the 6^th one rarely happens. You need to have a plan and if you want to have an amazing experience while easing yourself into the real world and minimizing the post-grad problems apply to become a Program Director for Manna!

I love my life, Emily

And a New Chapter Begins...

Karen Baker here.  With the new crew of PDs now here and settled, we have initiated the process of transitioning our existing programs to them for the upcoming year. We began the week by giving Kelsey and Cameron a history and overview of all the English, health and environmental programs that we currently run and why we have the programs set up as they are. Throughout the past year, our team has had many discussions and debated about program structure, what “sustainability” means as it pertains to our work, and, more broadly, what we envision our site’s mission and vision to be. Over the next several months, however, the recently arrived Program Directors will have the opportunity to do the same, offering a fresh perspective on all of these topics.

Per this week’s opening transition discussion, MPI-G’s English program will likely be the focus of much talk in the weeks and months ahead. Last August, our group began teaching English during class at La Primaria Central at the request of Esteban, the school’s director. Earlier this year, we expanded our English program to include an accelerated after school class for motivated students at the primary school in the nearby neighborhood of Cooperativa. Six months later, we are taking a good look at how the differing program structures and teaching strategies affect the efficacy and impact of our classes.

Which of the two models has thus far been the most successful? At this point, I believe that we would all arguably say that the after school English class, which is led by Dana and Hudson, has been more effective than our in-school English classes. Students voluntarily come to class because they have a genuine interest in learning English and, as a result, make a stronger effort to master the material. These students score well on their English exams and the class can move at a faster pace than those taught in La Primaria Central. Thus, the disparities between the English classes in the two schools have led us to consider the possibility of implementing an after-school English program in Central which is similar to that in Cooperativa.

A bit overwhelming, though nonetheless exciting, the transition period raises various important questions about evaluating and perhaps modifying program structure so that the new MPI-G team will continue building and maintaining a solid relationship with people in Chaquijyá, and direct programs as best they can. Additionally, there are fewer PDs this year than there were last, so the way programs are structured may also be affected by this variable. The upcoming months will be an incredibly busy but exciting time for the MPI-G group, so be sure to check back for more updates on how our programs are growing and changing and all else new that we have going on!

Welcome Kelsey and Cameron!

One year ago yesterday Ginny, Jared, Hudson, Kat, Karen, and I landed in Guatemala. Wielding about 500 pounds of luggage collectively, we each moved in with our respective homestay families, unsure of what to do next. One year later we're almost ready to hand off our work to a whole new team. One year later we run 11 community development programs, teaching English, health, and environmental awareness. One year later we work with over 400 men, women, and children in Chaquijyá. One year ago Manna did not exist in Guatemala.

This past year our goals were to get our foot in the door--build significant and meaningful relationships, set a foundation based upon trust, and of course implement beneficial programs for community members. Transitioning into year two we will continue forging new and maintaining old relationships while shifting a large emphasis onto evaluating current programs, expanding programmatic offerings, and finally emphasizing sustainability.

Yesterday I watched as two of our new PD arrivals wheeled their suitcases into their homestays and it surprised me how overcome I was with emotion. I don't get much instant gratification in my line of work, but knowing that all our hard work will continue into year two in the hands of an equally motivated, enthusiastic team, means to me that we did something right.

Kat, Hudson, Karen, Ginny, and Jared--you are MPI Guatemala. Thank you for driving this year's success with your passion and enthusiasm. Finally, a HUGE welcome to Kelsey and Cameron (Emily, we saved a spot for you)!

Cheers to year two,

Mama D