Threads

I have a ton of t-shirts. This may not be the most interesting revelation to our readers, but it is something that I’ve had on my mind for the past few days. Sonia and I switched rooms Wednesday to get the PD living arrangements squared away for summer. As I had to take all my current possessions from my old room into the office before finally moving into Sonia’s old room (Erik and Chet’s “Fort” now) I had ample opportunity to look at exactly what is in my wardrobe.

I have 8 button-down long-sleeve shirts. One each is from Mark and Seth. I have 1 Rumiñahui soccer jersey that I play in on weekends. I have 4 jerseys from other teams (Ecuador, Argentina, LDU Quito, and a YMCA one that is good for hiking). I have a “kick it with Pi-Phi” tank top that I don’t believe I’ve worn since orientation. I have four undershirts and 3 collared polo shirts on top of that (again, two of those collared shirts are from Mark and Seth). All in all, I have 34 shirts here in Ecuador with me.

That is a ton of cotton (or polyester, as the case may be with some). And I have even more shirts sitting in my closet at home.

Sure, some of these shirts have very different uses. I can only play soccer in my Rumiñahui jersey, because it is the team uniform. Some of the t-shirts are so ratty I don’t like to wear them outside the house. I try to wear a button down shirt when I’m teaching and wear either a collared shirt or an MPI shirt when I am in the library. But I wear my shirts more than once before washing and do laundry every 7-10 days, so I really have way more than I need.

I’ve learned a lot in my time here in Ecuador with Manna, but something I’m only now starting to pick up on is how to do more with less. Manna already does a pretty good job doing more with less. Of our three children’s English classes, only 2 have boards. But we had enough demand for children’s English that the English profes felt the need to offer a full third class. We have gone from having every PD in the library every afternoon to only having three there to allow us to run more programs and plan for more classes. I hope I can get a clearer picture of how to do more with less in my remaining 76 days. I don’t want to come back with this skill just to be thriftier; I don’t just want to mop my kitchen floor with a little less cleaning solution to save money in the long run. I’m interested in conserving resources because, from what I’ve seen, if you pass your extras along to someone else some really incredible results can spring from relatively small gifts. The art class, which has around 15 kids ages 5-10 coming to the library each week, has had to buy almost nothing because out biggest needs (construction paper and markers) are always being donated. Our English classes couldn’t function without the dry erase markers that get sent down a box or two at a time with volunteers. Some of the clothes I wear most often I got out of the adoption corner.

So thank you donors, and not just my donors, for everything you have made possible this year so far, both in the PD’s lives and the lives in the communities we work with. When I leave Ecuador at the end of July, I want to leave 21 shirts behind. I might even leave more if I can. If another PD doesn’t feel the need to augment their wardrobe from the adoption corner like I did, they will be passed along to Ecuadorians in need. But more than just thanking you for what you’ve already done, I want to encourage you to keep passing along little extras: small monetary gifts, in-kind donations, and even clothing to us (or an organization closer to home) to continue producing incredible results.

And yes, this is a repost of a guest blog for the daily life blog. I hope it was even better rereading it.

Song of the blog: “Bigger than my Body” by John Mayer

New Year, New Blog

Hi avid donors. Sorry for not updating in a while. The biggest parts I have been not-blogging recently are my vacations, which may or may not actually merit lengthy description on a blog where I describe my work. I’ll summarize them quickly: For Thanksgiving, Mike, Erik and I split our time between Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Montevideo, Uruguay. I’m very glad I got to see both these places. Buenos Aires was way more “European” than I expected. I thought Uruguay had a lot more to offer, even though we spent less time there. Going to the currency museums in each country was one of my favorite parts; both Argentina and Uruguay have been racked by inflation in the past (as was most of South America). Seeing a million peso bill and learning that 1 new peso (Argentina’s current currency) is worth 10 trillion pesos from the first currency after they created a central bank in the 1920s were some pretty shocking facts.

I kicked off the New Year by hiking the Inca Trail in Peru. It was incredible, I highly recommend you all fly to Peru and do the same before the chance passes you by. Strictly speaking as a boy scout, I have never been so pampered camping. They woke us up with hot tea at our tent door, carried everything but our personal gear (and normally people pay a little extra and just hike with a little daypack), and served us two and three course meals on metal plates. The views in that part of the Andes are breathtaking; in my opinion it blows the socks off the Rockies. All the ruins are fascinating as well. The fact that a 12 million person empire carved their homes that high into such steep mountains is mind-blowing. It was also nice having a knowledgeable, English-speaking guide to explain exactly what we were looking at.

We have kicked off the New Year back here in Ecuador programmatically as well. The library has been open for 1.67 weeks now, and programs are starting this week. We spent all of last week advertising for the big “Celebración Comuniteria” we held last Saturday. It took a lot of work to bring together several partner organizations, find tents and chairs, hire a dj and speakers, set up information booths, plan games and activities for kids and adults, and bring in some local food vendors, but we did it. Several hours of advertising and hundreds of flyers later (I personally passed out flyers in three different communities, made announcements at two organization meetings, and Erik and I flyered 20 busses at La Marín and more in the community) we had a big fiesta on the cancha outside the library from 3-7 on Saturday. It seemed to be worthwhile for all the effort and we had a fairly productive debriefing session for how to do it more successfully next year. One of the biggest reasons we decided to do this was because of the problems we have seen with attendance after we close the library for holidays or vacation days. Well donors, we have not had that problem this time around. Advertising in Tena, Mike and I came upon a pack of 10 or so kids who we told about the library, and they have been there every day since. This puts our average daily library attendance at around 20 kids, which makes for a very lively space. Both children’s English classes are full at their 12 student cap, and Adult English has 7 of 10 with a promised two more coming next week. There is still space in Children’s Art and World Studies, though; tell your Ecuadorian friends.

One other big Manna announcement for the start of the New Year (really for the start of Quarter III) is we have switched management styles to “Management by Objective.” After a lot of research, Bibi decided that this management technique, where we set measurable, attainable objectives for each quarter and then plan steps to achieve them would help us accomplish more and have more of a record to look back on and say what we achieved. I will say this management style looks like it will be more effective for some programs than others, but overall I am really excited to try it out. For clarification, the goals are more long term, possibly less measurable goals that are in the direction we want our programs to go. Objectives are achievable, measurable, and should be completed by the end of the quarter.

Here are the objectives I am set to accomplish for Quarter III (by the end of March).

Adult English:
Goal 1: Teach a class for proficient conversational English
• Objective: Improve English by 1 point on the IRL Scale
• Devote 1hour (1/3 of the class) to conversational practice
• Teach the class 2/3/ in English
Goal 2: Strengthen ties in a new community
• Teach a 1 month pilot course in Barrio Ruminahui
• Assess our relationship with this community and hopefully continue

Art:
Goal 1: Increase art education and retention
• Collect a portfolio of all projects by quarter for a bigger display at the end
• Teach 8 classes on a different type of art from all around the world in different time periods
• Ask, at the beginning of class, what previous projects we have done this quarter.
Goal 2: Increase the legitimacy of the art class
• Make an announcement about the next inscription date every class
• Call parents if kids miss two classes in a row after inscribing
• Shadow 2 classes in schools to learn about teaching techniques (art classes preferred, but may not be possible)
Goal 3: Increase creativity
• Teach 4 classes without an example on the board

Microfinance:
Goal 1: Strengthen EPV and our relationship with them
• Be shadowing at EPV 1 day a week by the end of Q3
• Spend 2 hours a week researching the feasibility of EPV’s capacitación requests, and have one selected to pursue by the end of the quarter
• Spend 1 hour a week researching (and writing) grants or international funding
• Update the MIX market account for Q3
Goal 2: Strengthen individual businesses in the communities
• Finish, 100% in English and Spanish, the manual to teach a small business class
• Meet and form relationships with 20 business owners in the communities
Goal 3: Strengthen business networks in the communities
• Spend 10 hours researching and designing a survey to gauge current business practices and the feasibility of some sort of cooperative
• Administer the small business survey to 50 small businesses in the area
• Have all data aggregated for analysis by the end of Quarter III

So I have plenty to keep me busy until at least March, but this system should help me accomplish a lot more, especially in the realm of Microfinance. Mike and I are still playing soccer. Our team is tied for first place 6 games into a 10 game playoff system. We play Aurelas again this Saturday at 12, which will probably be our toughest game. I’ve been running more to try and be more of an asset on the field. Wish us luck!

Chao,

Chet