Manna Project International

I'm moving to Nicaragua! Got a phone call on Thursday evening just before my finance exam that I've been accepted as one of MPI's Program Directors in Managua. (There are going to be ten of us, I think. Mostly Vanderbilt grads, one Brown, and one Colorado.) You can imagine how easy it was to work out seven-part time-value-money problems for three gruelling hours while visions of spider monkeys danced in my head!

Manna Project International is my dream non-profit. I read a book about economics and poverty by a Harvard professor last year. It changed my thinking about the crisis of extreme poverty and my ability to make a serious impact by, at the very least, understanding the issues and making the right personal political and financial decisions. I admit that I dared to dream that I would someday play a bigger role in the fight to empower the world's most underprivileged, but I resigned myself to the reality that it would probably just have to live there in my dreams. I dragged my feet toward the looming future of nine-to-five and taxes and high heels and car payments. But here I am, packing some white t-shirts and lots of mosquito repellent and buying a one-way ticket to Nicaragua to make some friends and teach and learn and live the way I had only dreamed was possible for my first year in the "real world."

The program's goal, in short, is sustainable community development. Manna wants to be able to one day pack up and leave behind a community of people who are empowered in all of the ways that have been proven to lift families and communities and nations out of the cycle of poverty. Sounds like a big task, but Manna has tried to focus on a few programs that will really make a big impact in two communites outside of Managua. After-school math and sports and creative arts programs provide all of the benefits that they do for kids in the developed world, but they are considered luxuries in a place where even private schools cannot afford a drama or music program. A women's health program teaches women about fitness and nutrition and young mothers about breast feeding and prenatal care. There are tons more. I hope to be involved with maintaining and developing lots of these programs, but my favorite-favorite-favorite is the microfinance idea. (Who ever thought I would get excited about anything involving the word finance?! Not my dad, I will tell you that much.)

I am tearing through about ten books about microfinance right now (okay, two). I am learning so much and will definitely blog at you about it later. I don't think I've been this excited about anything since Ben & Jerry's came out with a Dave Matthews Band flavor when I was in high school.

I have so much to think about. And learn. And do. I am just impatient to get down to my new jungle home and get down to business. But for now, all I can do is take this life change one step at a time:

Step 1: Get vaccinations. (hep A, hep B, typhoid, yellow fever, rabies, etc.)
Step 2: Learn Spanish. (Que?)
Step 3: Cancel magazine subscriptions.

I think that's enough for now. Watch out spider monkeys, here I come!

www.mannaproject.org

"Be the change you want to see in the world."
-Gandhi