Back to School!

“¡Otra vez! Otra vez, seña,” several of my third graders eagerly yelled. Excited to see such enthusiasm, I quickly agreed and started to direct the students in singing their ABC’s again. The song turned out to be surprisingly popular among the kids, and it was a fun way for them to practice the pronunciation of the alphabet. While I went to my first day of English classes expecting a group of timid students, their readiness to participate and sing along really got me energized for the year ahead.

This school year we have some significant changes in store for our English program at La Primaria. We have expanded to include third grade, making this year the first ever that students in that grade level receive English lessons. This is a great opportunity to not only get to know more students at the school but also start preparing them at a younger age for the English courses they will have in years to come. In working with the three third grade classes, my goal is to help the students develop a strong foundation of basic English knowledge and to get them excited about learning the language.

In addition, our team has been hard at work creating a new overall strategy and structure to the English program. As mentioned in previous posts, the concept of sustainability has become a key element in the preparation and execution of our programs and projects. This year, we are making a considerable effort to work more closely along side the third through sixth grade teachers at La Primaria and involve them in both the planning and implementation of English classes. The teachers, who have each been given an English curriculum developed by Hudson, meet with one of us each week to discuss and prepare lessons for their students.

Though nearly all of the teachers at La Primaria have been very receptive to this idea of planning and leading English classes together, some are also understandably nervous and hesitant. In my first meeting with two of the third grade teachers, one of them described how she felt like she had nothing to contribute since she has never taught English and does not speak the language. I explained that we would teach as a team; she will use her extensive experience to help create engaging and successful classes, and I will use my knowledge of English to make sure the material is presented accurately and the words pronounced correctly.  Nonetheless, her hesitation is understandable. As Dana noted, it would be like someone asking us to start teaching German tomorrow. I know that I would be completely intimidated considering the only thing I can say (and probably not well, at that) is “guten tag.”

Despite the teachers’ concerns, I believe that this new partnership with them will be very constructive and that such collaboration really promotes sustainability of the English program. Our aim is to both equip the teachers with a curriculum and train them to teach English so that they will eventually be able to lead an English class without our assistance. And, once they are ready to do so, the teachers can then share their materials and know-how with other instructors, increasing the impact of our program. Clearly these are long-term goals, but I think that we are moving in the right direction. I am very excited to see this partnership with the teachers take root this year!

In all, we have many things to work towards and look forward to this year. Check back with us regularly to see how it’s going!

Karen

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

Why Expertise Isn't Enough

Last year at Vanderbilt I lived off-campus, in a house about seven blocks from school.  There was one slow stoplight between class and home, and over the months I came to know the duration and frequency of this light exactly.  That's why, every time there was traffic, I knew the cause and exactly how many cars would make it through each cycle.

But what if someone who had never been to Nashville was stuck in the same traffic?  They might reasonably assume there was an accident, a parade, or another impediment to normal traffic flow.  If they determined the problem was a slow light, even if they were a stoplight technician, they still couldn’t know as well as I could how long the traffic would last.  That's the thing; in that case, my familiarity trumped any level of broader expertise.  Take me off that route though, and I bring very little to a traffic light discussion.

That distinction between expertise and familiarity is an important one for us in Guatemala.  While not experts in development or education, we offer a skill-set and knowledge base not commonly available where we work.  That’s an asset we bring to the table, yet it does little to make up for our lack of familiarity.

That's why we concentrate in one area; we hope to amass a measure of familiarity and rapport over time.  With each year in Guatemala we build confidence with the community and understanding about where we work, making us more effective over time.

More importantly, that’s why we emphasize working alongside partner organizations.  Our effectiveness depends on working alongside locals familiar with the community.  No matter how important malnutrition or economic development are, if we can’t find a partner to help us implement our ideas, then our work is better spent in areas where we know local actors can direct and benefit from our cooperation.  For us, collaborative development is the best way we know to help expand opportunity.

Glad to be Back,
  Hud and the Manna Team

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

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

From Texas, Virginia, Nebraska, and New Jersey, we wish you a very Merry Christmas wherever you are...

So does Oliver, of course.

Thank you for all of your support over the past six months, here's to six more just like it.

If you're still feeling the Christmas spirit, help us make our upcoming programs a reality.

Merrily yours,

The MPI Guatemala team

Every End a New Beginning

This past Thursday we gave a presentation to conclude our six week summer camp themed Viaje Alrededor Del Mundo (Trip Around the World).  We invited all our campers' parents, prepared a video showing the camp's activities, and proudly displayed the students' artwork and past science experiments. The director of the school spoke, as did many parents, applauding the work we had accomplished thus far and looking forward to future programs in the community.  A survey completed by parents showed that 100% would send their child to camp again, 75% said it was worth more than what they paid (about US$1.50 for all 6 weeks), and 88% said that their children told them they had fun.  That was great to hear since 100% of us would run camp again.  Though sometimes stressful, we had an absolute blast.

As we close out our programs for this year, we can't help but be excited to get back to work when we return.  More good things to come!  We'll also post a shorter version of the video over the holidays when internet is lightening fast.

Help yourself to some visuals:

Stuffing bottles with trash in science class to use as cement blocks.

Proudly displaying all the kids' work in art class.

Showing our appreciation to all the campers and parents.

Happy Holiday Season!