my interview!

it's official - half of my fellow PDs have returned to the states, 9 chipper new PDs have arrived, and I too will soon leave this beautiful country. But for now, I'm enjoying getting to know all of the new arrivals, spend time with the people who have become my family over the past year, and of course impatiently awaiting the arrival of my 4 dear visitors from Westfield!

I have a lot to say about this past year, which I hope to post sometime before my flight home on the 17th; but for now, please enjoy my short interview, courtesy of the MPIE daily life blog!

http://openhandsdirtyfeet.blogspot.com/2010/07/interview-pd-jackie-weidman.html

Many thanks to everyone who submitted questions... they were great!

Besos,
Jackie

sunshine daydream

For the first time in weeks it actually feels like summer, or at least the warm temperate weather we've been used to for the past 11 months. Yes, you read correctly - today marks 11 months since I left Jersey for South America. Since I only have two short months left, lately I've been cramming as much travel in as possible to hit everything on my list. Although Ecuador is only roughly the size of Colorado, sometimes it feels bigger than all 50 states combined; especially during overnight buses that take 8 hours to travel a distance of 150 miles through the Andes.

This weekend Haley and I had planned to visit Puerto Quito, a small riverside village 3 hours west of Quito, but everything seemed to go wrong, from confusing bus times to an MIA hostel. I couldn't have been happier than our plans went awry; we enjoyed 2 extremely relaxing days reading on the roof, making dinner for 4 instead of 19, listening to Mike sing "Pretty Woman" at a karaoke bar in the valley, and hitting up some museums and sights in our home city of Quito. Although my pictures don't do it justice, Quito is by far the most beautiful city I have ever been to and it will be hard to finding a more beautiful rooftop to watch sunsets from when I return to the states.

View of Pasochoa and Cotopaxi from the roof


Shawn and Mike during a sunset on the roof


Me and Haley by the virgen del Panecillo

Here's to the next two months of this surreal life...
- Jackie

Guess who's here?!

None other than mi hermana who just turned 19 yesterday! Even though I am a hearty 3.5 years older than her, Christian couldn't believe that she is younger than me and also confessed that when I first got here he thought I was in my teens (awesome).

I realize that I haven't written in about oh, 2 months but a LOT has happened that has prevented me from being an avid blogger for both this and our daily mpie blog. Spring break was here, then I planned an awesome surprise visit to the states, planned for summer, and now session one is in full swing. I couldn't have asked for a better trip home - I got very surprised reactions from my mom and Sam, collaborating cooking dinner with my Dad, slept with my dog every night, ran around Westfield with Dana, and spent the weekend in NYC getting surprised by my best friend Toast (Jackie Burns to most of you), and seeing a fantastic show with Westfield, Delaware, and Maryland friends alike.

Dessssssmondddddd

Testing my new 'zoom panoramic' camera setting while playing Clue with Zahler, Megan, Max, and Dana

Last weekend we welcomed the new summer volunteers into our house, which meant moving out of the apartment and moving in full-time to Krysta's room - I had previously been going back and forth when the spring break volunteers were here. Lucky for me, Krysta is a fantastic new roommate and even made me a sign saying "bienvenidos jackie pants!" (my coveted nickname here in Ecuador).

I'm really excited to have fresh new, energetic minds filling the Manna house. For the better part of this year my work with Agriculture has been solo, with guest stars to help me run charlas and complete surveys. Now with three new volunteers we're able to plan many more charlas, promote them extensively, finish up surveying, and work more intensively with Fundacion Añamisi by working in their garden once a week and planning a charla series with them.

Me and Jen biking through Quito last weekend

Me and Jen celebrating her 19th birthday!

This weekend I'm headed north to some thermal hot springs with Sonia and Krysta to relax and see a part of the country that I'm not super familiar with, even though it's only a few hours away from Quito. Next Tuesday I'll be starting my community-based homestay with a family from Sangloqui and I'll make sure to write (sooner) about my experience with that!

until next time,
Jackie

El día de la Tierra

Happy Earth Day!

If you know me, you know how much I love this holiday; although it pains me to not be in the midst of the whirlwind of activism that is the University of Delaware campus this week, I am proud of what we're trying to do here in Ecuador to educate and raise awareness about climate change and other local environmental issues.

Proudly displaying our Greenfest banner from last year


Probably the coolest s4e officers of all time


Katie, Lauren and I protesting the bottled water industry in Wilmington


Protecting biodiversity through community-based tourism in Machalilla National Park


Climate Rally in Quito

For more information about what this holiday means here in Ecuador, see the entry I wrote for our daily life blog. And if you're in the the greater DC area, you should definitely check this out!

sustainably yours,
Jackie

Happenings

how come nobody ever comes to my happenings?? -(name that quote)

Lucky for me people usually do come to our happenings; specifically children who flock to both children's English and the monthly paseos that I plan. Last week we restarted children's English inscriptions for a new and improved 12 week course with recently purchased ESL books and a large group of old and new kids. Sarah, Shawn, and I have pushed ourselves to take upwards of 30 kids into our program to meet demands while also providing a course that actually improves the kids' abilities to speak and understand English.

We also went on our April paseo on Saturday to el parque la Carolina's dinosaur museum with about 15 kids in-tow. Since the museum itself is only open on weekends, when I went to investigate a few weeks ago I wasn't allowed to see the facilities. As it turns out, the museum is really more of a badly staged Jurassic Park set; the presentation included a 25 minute tour through different scenes, each one featuring a moving dinosaur or Mega-beast that scared the pants off of pretty much every kid we were with. Although it wasn't quite as educational as I had hoped, the kids seemed to enjoy the theatrics as well as running around Quito's biggest urban park afterward. I think in the future I will search for venues outside of Quito, as transport sucks up most our time, and I really want to start embarking on nature hikes in the valley.

Krysta and the kids anticipating the action


Me almost getting eaten

Twins Donny and Samantha on the dinosaur ride


Iori (in my sweatshirt post-puddle mishap) and Paola in the park


Kids and chaperones (thanks Krysta, Haley and Sarah!) at the museum entrance


A bunch of kids passed out on the bus = a successful trip

Other happenings in my work life:

• The Aliñambi nutrition/gardening program has been going strong; both groups' gardens are starting to sprout and the kids continue to learn more about taking control over their eating habits
• Erik has been helping me conduct agriculture surveys in the community to learn about effects of this season's drought and what projects we can help educate about during our charlas
• I've been working on a grant to help find finance security for our library and helping to organize projects for the summer volunteers to work on (including a reading club and literacy class)

Happy Earth Week!
- Jackie

on the road

Last weekend I voyaged solo into the northern stretch of the Andes to a little town called El Limonal. This quaint community northwest of Ibarra (about 4 hours from Quito) sits quietly in the middle of vibrant green mountains and a very important watershed for the greater region. What first drew me to the area was Bosque de Paz which hosts a growing agroforestry project run by Piet Sabbe. The humid subtropical climate boasts a wide range of fruiting trees, from papaya to guayabano and oranges. However, because of recent droughts, yields for farmers in this area haven't been as high and many have turned to different forms of agriculture = mass deforestation to make room for grazing patches.

Thanks to the Bosque de Paz, 15 hectares of land has been reforested and preserved in addition to many other local farms that have converted their traditional farmers into more sustainable fruit and forest gardens. Other projects include managing wild fires and man-made fires in the area and eco-tourism initiatives.

An impressive tree on the Bosque de Paz grounds


View of the surrounding mountains

After a mile walk from where the bus plopped me off in El Limonal I stumbled upon two German volunteers cutting bamboo columns for what I later learned would be their new living quarters come May. Both are volunteering for the farm for a year of civil service (aka the German gov't pays for them to do what I'm struggle to fund raise for - wouldn't that be nice?) and help with everything from construction to planting and harvesting. Lucky for me, they halted their work around lunch time and spent the rest of the weekend introducing me to friends, playing word games, and taking me on a 6 hour hike on Sunday morning. Although I would have been content reading in a hammock and wandering the grounds myself, they made the weekend much more enjoyable and exploratory, classifying each and every plant and picking me delicious fruit along the way.

Ron and Lukas pose on our hike

We found a friend, Angel, panning for gold in one of the waterfalls


Walking through the town of El Limonal


A plant nicknamed la lecheria oozes out a milky substance used to make glue

It was so refreshing being introduced to another type of volunteer work in a completely different environment than Manna and to share with them what we do in the Chillos Valley as well. And, as always, it was equally as nice to return to the house as everyone was just sitting down to dinner and to have the opportunity to skype my family in NJ afterward!

Me, Jen, Sam, and Mom most likely laughing at something ridiculous Sam (Jersey's newest driver) said

- Jackie

The future of conservation

I can certainly appreciate being in a country where it's infinitely easier to follow the food chain backwards from my plate to the ground it came from. Often times in the states, I find myself eating a packed lunch with an apple from Washington state, enriched bread products from Iowa, imported soft drinks, cheese from Wisconsin, deli meat from a CAFO in the Dakotas, and hundreds of other corn-based products hidden in the depths of each product's ingredient label. Here it's a bit simpler... although there are a myriad of processed foods, most imported from the US, 90% of what we eat comes from right here in Ecuador and can be traced back to the local farmers we interact with selling their products at the weekend market in Sangloqui.

That being said, Ecuador is a country of rapid development, from new hydroelectric energy to dozens of housing developments going up right here in the Chillos Valley. It's my fear that as Ecuador continues to develop, its children will move away from their love of the natural world and innate understanding of it's importance to their well-being.

As we began reassessing our progress from last year and re-evaluating our goals for the next 6 months, it became clear to me how important it is to focus on environmental education, along with my agriculture projects. I decided to delve into two bigger goals - exposing children to hands-on science and environmental education outside of the library and helping start a nutrition-based agriculture education program with a local school called Aliñambi. I've set to accomplish the first goal through monthly field trips to various science museums in Quito and nearby natural parks. To read about our first one, please see my entry for our MPI blog. The second goal involves colaborating with Haley and Krysta, two other health-focused PDs, to empower the 6th grade class that we work with to take control over their own nutrition and health. Research has shown that students who participate in class gardening projects tend to make better decisions about their daily diets because they feel connected to what they're growing and have a deeper understanding of where their food comes from.

Frank and I attempt to solve one of the interactive science museum's brain teasers

Vincio and Lesli follow the food cycle, from soil to dinner plate

Fellow PDs Krysta, Erik, Chet, Mike and Sarah helping clear the grass for our garden


Teaching our students at Aliñambi how much fun it is to make recycled paper

In a world where nature is disappearing and food ingredients are becoming unrecognizable, it is so important to foster an understand and appreciation for local and international ecology in our youth. As it is so well put in one of my favorite quotes, "in the end, we will conserve only what we love, we love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we're taught" (Baba Dioum, 1968).

Thanks for checking in!
- Jackie

travels, gardens, and agriculture galore

February... a month of homemade valentine's day decorations, well-aimed water balloons, and programmatic progress. This past month I've been fortunate enough to embark upon a Manna retreat to Riobamba and a 4-day Carnaval weekend to Tena, a quaint town on the edge of the rain forest. The first destination started with an earful of shaving cream (even though we were over a week away from the holidays) and ended with a picturesque drive close to Tungaragua, a currently active volcano in the area.

Our weekend in Tena had much more shaving cream / water balloons / random buckets of water from balconies in store for us as it was Carnaval weekend itself, the Latin American equivalent to Mardi Gras. The area of Tena has experienced a ton of development recently - one man told us the last time he visited the town inhabited 2,000 and now the population is up to 30,000. As we canoed down the Napo, our guide complained about the dump trucks that were extracting rocks for a local airport construction project. Despite this, Haley, Sarah, Krysta and I very much enjoyed venturing out to explore the infamous caves, frolic through the rivers, and hike (slash get lost) into the Amazon.

Ear full-a shaving cream :)


A glimpse of Tungaragua through the clouds

Canoes along the Rio Napo


An anti-oil drilling plea in Tena (Yasuni is about 4 hours east on the Rio Napo)

Programmatic-ly speaking, there has also been a lot of work-related excitement in the past few weeks. After a semi-embarrassing interview on public radio last month, the president of Fundacion Vision Agropecuaria introduced himself to me and we set up a meeting to get to know each other's organizations better. As it turns out, his foundation helps fund many cuy (guinea pig) relation projects, from large-scale commercial, to individual families. He was enthusiastic at the idea of giving monthly talks in our centro and after doing some surveying research in the community to see who would be interested, we plan to set these up.

We have also started work on a nutrition/agriculture education program for Aliñambi, a local school. Krysta, Haley and I will take the 6th graders out of class for 3 hours a week to teach them about nutrition, give them cooking classes, and run our own class garden (if you couldn't guess, that's the part I'll be responsible for!). The class will begin in March and run for 16 weeks through June. I'm really excited to apply what I've learned from managing 4 compost piles in our house and the garden that Sonia and I put together (although right now we're in a losing battle against weeds... don't worry, we'll prevail).

Sonia holding some produce from our garden - limes, potatoes, and chile peppers!

Until next time,
Jackie

Que sera sera

In an effort to keep up with my commitment to write 4 blogs per month, I'm going to attempt to write two more (including this one) before February rolls on in - is it really February already?!

Today is a pretty legitimate milestone for a few reasons: first, one of my very favorite friends, Dana Zichlin here is training with us for the week! She's heading to Guatemala on Thursday for her 7-week long feasibility study to determine whether Manna will start a brand new site there this summer! I'm so excited for her and who knows, maybe I'll be a PD there someday... (hey, a girl can dream of another $7,500 falling into her lap).

All of MPI Ecuador loves Dana!

And second, today marks the exact halfway point for my 13-month volunteer service here in Ecuador! The first 6.5 months have really flown and I can only imagine how much of a whirlwind the second half will be with spring break streaming in soon with summer trailing closely behind.

So, I figured I would take this time to let you know what I'll be up to for the next 6.5 months!

Agriculture: We'll be hosting monthly charlas in the library, all AG-focused, starting with a talk February 6th on raising pigs. I hope to incorporate organic farming methods into our monthly charla series, in collaboration with Fundacion Añamisi, an organization we work closely with. We also have recently purchased $200 worth of new agriculturally-focused books for adults to use in the library. I'm also planning two Saturday-morning workshops on composting and making rain barrels; composting helps families save money and use more organic methods, while rain barrels have become a popular topic because of the recent droughts.

Environment: In collaboration with the Mingas program, we have been working on installing public trash bins and promoting a cleaner, litter-free Rumiloma. We plan to kick-start the advertising campaign by working with local artists. We are also planning for one paseo (field trip) for kids in the library every month. Our Saturday destinations include local nature reserves, rivers, and organic farms all with the intention of exposing kids in our community to the great wonders of their natural world... because after all 'In the end, we will conserve only what we love, we love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we're taught'

Other projects: I'm continuing to help run the library, mainly by applying to grants that will hopefully give us financial security for this space in the future, and helping run a reading contest for kids starting in the spring. I also teach advanced children's English and Estudios Mundiales, a new class that combines Geography, hands-on science, and environmental awareness.

Needless to say, it's very good to have another 6 months here to see these projects unfold, explore the valley, wander around weekend markets, travel on weekends, and enjoy everyday life with my 8 other compañeros.

Back in Ecuador and Broadcasting...live!

We spent the better part of this week promoting and preparing for tomorrow's celebracion comunitaria. Some of these activities include collecting borrowed chairs and tents, picking up 80 brand new manna shirts, coordinating local restaurants to cook and sell food, buying raffle prizes, preparing composting workshops, and so on. Promotion involved jumping on buses heading into the valley, walking around surrounding communities with flyers and loud speaker in hand shouting 'celebracion comunitaria en la cancha cordovez mañana a las tres en la tarde!'

Additionally, today Krysta and I made a special trip to Super K, a radio station in Sangolqui that broadcasts all over the valley, to advertise during a 30-minute interview segment. Krysta had been there twice before, once with Seth's teen camp in July and again to promote our free health clinic from August, but it was my first time and I was terrified. Not only am I not big on public speaking, I tend to panic when I can't take my time to think about my Spanish and conjugate tenses before I blurt things out.

Oh the fear of live broadcasts!

Oswaldo, the incredibly friendly director of Super K asked me a few questions in the beginning that went well and then Krysta took over, fluidly discussing everything from our current programs to tomorrow's celebration. Thinking I was off the hook, I got a little distracted by one of Oswaldo's co-workers who was snapping pictures at us. Before I knew it, Oswaldo was directing a question at me that I only half heard and interpreted to be 'what other games will you be running tomorrow?' to which I enthusiastically answered 'sillas musicales!' (musical chairs - my specialty). In reality, he was asking me about our Rumiñahui soccer team and what position I played.. oops.

Later this afternoon, while advertising with Sonia and Bibi, a community member commented that she heard us on the radio and will be coming to the event tomorrow. Despite her little chuckle as I walked away, I think a little humiliation is a small price to pay for a well-attended event...

Stay tuned for a post-celebration update!

Besitos,
Jackie

Venice Sway La

My new year's resolution: to actually keep up with this blog on a weekly basis. That's one of like five, but it's a pretty important one so if there are any of you dedicated readers that actually still check this page, you won't be disappointed!

A couple of months ago I was blessed with the opportunity to venture around Venezuela with a dear housemate of mine, Krysta. We decided to 'wing' our trip, which meant that although we had a couple of destinations in mind, we made no hostel reservations and more or less played things by ear as we explored this lush caribean-bordered country. Our approach had its ups and downs; as nice as the flexibility was, we spent lots of time sleeping in the airport and sweating half of our body weight stranded at the beach. Here are a handful of observations from Venezuela, as well some priceless snapshots that show the landscape much better than I can explain in words:

Monies: The official exchange rate from Bolivars to USD is 2 to 1, however the black market rate is 5 to 1, clearly a much better deal. This process is not at all sketchy like we originally thought, you simply go into any local store and ask if they can exchange dollars for you. We learned that the reason the black market exists is because Venezuelans are only allowed to legally obtain $2,000 USD per year and since many travel to the states or send their kids there for school, US currency is in high demand. Every once in awhile Chavez floods the market with dollars to lower their value, but lucky for us the rate was still pretty high during our visit!

Transport: Overnight semi-cama buses were really easy to come by and very affordable as well (about $16 for a 14 hour bus). However, if you ever take one be sure to bring your snowsuit because these buses literally are kept at about 40 degrees Fahrenheit. We huddled for warmth on the first bus, but learned our lesson for the second and splurged on some wool souvenir blankets. Many bus drivers (specifically those en route to and from the beaches) are also inclined to turn their vehicles into night clubs. They're most likely distracting themselves from the pinpoint curves and jagged cliffs around every corner of the 2 hour drive. (see video below)

Other points of information:

• The official time of Venezuela is exactly 35 minutes ahead of eastern standard.. en serio!
  
• There is a Simon Bolivar plaza in pretty much every Venezuelan town
• Venezuelan pizza > (much, much, much) Ecuadorian pizza
• Aji flavored ice cream is in fact just as hot as aji itself
• Krysta and I played phase 10 a total of 8 times, only 2 of which I won
  

Playa Grande: turquoise water, towering peaks, and a whole lotta thongs

After only being able to stand the 90 degree heat, power outages, and intense humidity for less than 24 hours, we decided to venture off to Merida, the 'adventure capital' of the country. We spent of our time in Merida walking around the city, paroozing the markets, hiking through the historical town of jaji, paragliding, canyoning, and resting in our hostel's rooftop hammocks...

The 4-story local market; no your eyes don't deceive you, that is a giant bag of chocolate chips!

Looking like an amphibian in my parapente gear


Me and my guide (who was so professional he answered 2 phone calls during our flight) soaring into the canyon


Beautifully secluded jaji


Merida's Heladeria Coromoto, the Guinness recorder holder for the most ice cream flavors (900), including oh-so-appetizing cold duck, whisky, and tuna, among others. cheers!

We spent our last day of vacation canyoning, by far the coolest thing I have ever done in my life. Krysta, myself and two girls who teach English in Maracaibo, spent 6 hours hiking through the cloud forest, walking in and along the river, sliding down rapids, and rappelling/rock climbing down waterfalls. It was terrifying at times, I swallowed a ton of water almost lost a shoe, and came out with a dozen bruises in strange places, but it was totally worth it.

Me and krysta with our game faces on!

All of us in front of the waterfall called 'the washing machine.' gee, i wonder why?

Even though you can't see my face, i swear this is me!

And to prove that we actually did this/to give you a legitimate idea of what rappelling down a waterfall is like, check out this video!

I hope this detailed account of my South American thanksgiving quenches your thirst for now.. stay tuned for pictures from Miss Amy McGovern's visit from December!

Happy New Year,
Jackie