Week 2: Monday, September 4 – Sunday, September 10, 2023

¡Buenos días!

As I’m sitting here this morning, I’m thinking, how can this only be the second week I’ve been away? What happened this week? And can I remember any of it without corroborating the facts with my calendar and photo library? Let’s see how this goes...

Pre-service training (PST) kicked off in full this week. On Monday, we started the week off with sessions with our Pre-Service Training Manager Kevin and our Country Director Matt. Monday’s sessions continued to focus on the expectations Peace Corps Mexico has of us as volunteers and the policies we should abide by to remain in good standing. Monday was also Labor Day, so much of the staff was given the day off, and we went home a bit earlier than usual.

Tuesday and Wednesday were referred to as “Tianguis” days — Tianguis in the Aztec language of Nahuatl means open-air market. While we didn’t have an actual open-air market to partake in, these two days had a little sampling of everything and were structured around one-on-one meetings with different staff members, both for the staff to get to know us a bit better and for us to learn about our permanent site locations!

Now, for the big reveal: For the next 2 years, I will be living in a community called Neblinas in the municipality of Landa de Matamoros in the state of Querétaro. The town of Neblinas is in a cloud forest, high up in the mountains of the Sierra Gorda, an incredible biosphere reserve in the northeastern part of the state of Querétaro. I’m so excited to move to this community, to learn more about the ecological challenges faced there, and to see how I can best collaborate with the community and my organizational counterparts. In a few weeks, I will have the chance to go to Neblinas for a 3-day visit, after which I will have much more to share about the people, the environment, and the work I will be doing there.

I know I said Tuesday and Wednesday were “Tianguis” days, and they were. But for me and a handful of others, we had the *wonderful* opportunity to go to the immigration office on Wednesday to apply for our residency cards. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful to have gotten my card, but the process is one that I would rather not have to do again (though I’m certain I will have to do at least one more time while I am living in Mexico). We arrived at the office of immigration at 6:30am and proceeded to wait in line for almost 2 hours before being ushered into the preliminary screening area to receive appointments for later that day. Our group of five received appointments between 12pm and 1pm, and we were told to go back home (or in our case the Peace Corps office) and return later. We arrived on time as we were told, and after 3 and a half hours of being called up every so often to turn in our paperwork, sign various forms, and have our pictures taken, the five of us walked out of the office as temporary residents of Mexico. I’m so glad to have that process over with. I’ll likely have to do it again next year.

Thursday and Friday were routine training days. We had sessions with our language and culture facilitators, broke into our program areas to learn more about our specific work — for the climate change program that involved a presentation from Dr. Robert Wallace Jones, a professor of entomology at the University of Querétaro, about Mexico’s biomes and biodiversity and the effect climate change is having on different regions of the country — and had sessions with the Peace Corps medical staff about how to avoid food and waterborne illnesses. On Friday, we even had a fun session where we learned how to properly sanitize fresh fruits and vegetables before eating them, with small groups preparing guacamole, salad, and fruit to share with everyone. No one got sick from this food, so I count that as a success.

On Friday evening, I walked home with a few friends and grabbed a cerveza and guacamole at a local restaurant with a live mariachi band. A quick trip to the Mirador (lookout point) to take in the beauty of the city and admire the iconic aqueduct of Querétaro, and I was ready to head home for the night.

On Saturday morning, my new host mother Ophelia made a delicious breakfast consisting of chilaquiles, fried eggs, and a papaya smoothie. Around 12:30pm, I went out to the city center (El Centro) to meet up with some of my friends. We walked around the historic city center, wandering through beautiful courtyards and hidden pathways, and having a wonderful time. This was followed by drinks at a brewery called Almacén Hércules with a couple of Peace Corps volunteers (PCVs) who have been in service for the past year and a dozen or so Peace Corps trainees. It was wonderful to connect with the volunteers currently in service and spend a bit of time relaxing and enjoying ourselves.

But the night didn’t stop there. A local friend of one of the current PCVs, Luis, took about twelve of us out for street food and dancing. It was a great night of friendship and an authentic viewing of the local night life. I headed home around 11:30pm with a group of friends who live in my neighborhood and proceeded to go to sleep.

That was my second week. Thanks for reading. There will certainly be more to come. 

Ilana