Happy Manna-versary

It's been a year! We are in a season of a lot of goodbyes and one very exciting hello.

Yesterday was our last Adult English class. We had a party with our students, and Krysta and I stayed at the library with them until almost 9pm. We had a TON of food, music, a little English, and a lot of laughter. We have been with most of our students since January and a couple since last year. They have such excitement for learning English, and they have spoiled us with gifts for "Teacher Day", "Women's Day", "Easter", and any other holiday for that matter. They also taught me so much about Ecuador, Ecuadorian culture, and Spanish throughout the past year. We said our goodbyes and had quite the photo shoot. I hope these adults stop by the library to say hi throughout the next month. They are wonderful students and friends. Through this experience, I've learned how to be a teacher and how education is the key to development. Through education, these community members have so many more opportunities available to them and they are empowered to seek out the best for themselves and their familes.

Tomorrow will be the end of summer volunteers. We will say farewell to our 11 new friends, and step back to see how much they've helped us during the last 2 months. They worked to bring in new faces to the library... helping us reach record-breaking attendance! They encouraged kids to read through the Summer Reading Club and Literacy Class. They helped run classes and got to experience life in the realm of "Community Development". We've enjoyed their company, loud sing-a-longs, lesson-planning help, and shared love of ice cream.

With bittersweet farewells comes an exciting start of a journey. A year ago, we were all in Miami for new PD orientation. Now, the Ecuador 2010-2011 PDs are currently in Miami and will arrive in Quito on Saturday. Unfortunately, we will be in Colombia for the weekend (we have to leave the country to renew our visas), but we look forward to meeting the newbies when we return on Tuesday!