Week 7: Monday, October 9 – Sunday, October 15, 2023

Beautiful friends and family,

How are you? What’s on your mind?

As I write these newsletters, of course, they are for you to keep up with what I am doing in my life, but I’d also love to hear from you! What have I missed in San Diego, Boston, wherever else you are in the world? What exciting new endeavors have you undertaken? Please, do not hesitate to let me know about your lives too — I want to keep up as best as I can.

And don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions about what I write about in one of my newsletters — I’m more than happy to provide more detail or context.

Okay, so here’s what happened this week:

Monday started off the week with a fun task: each of the volunteers in the climate change awareness and action cohort (henceforth CCAA) took turns facilitating fun activities for our group of volunteers. We each had seven minutes to facilitate an activity of our choosing to prepare for one of our many roles as Peace Corps volunteers: the facilitator/co-facilitator. We were led through various activities such as how to propagate an avocado plant, how to make a paper airplane, how to properly kick a soccer ball, and so much more. I taught my class on how to do a proper pirouette — an activity that, while enjoyable, may not have been the best workshop for me to facilitate, but in the end, we were only meant to practice our facilitation skills.

Tuesday was an interesting day as well. In the morning, CCAA volunteers had a session where we learned more formally about the ejido system — the way in which land is distributed among the Mexican people in many rural areas of the country. Ejidos are communal lands that were given to the people in an informal and somewhat disorganized fashion before and after the Mexican revolution. The point of the ejidos was to give more land rights to the peasant people who were previously only allowed to work the land owned by wealthy hacienda owners.

Ejidos are very important to communities throughout Mexico. Currently, the government of Mexico is going through the process of certifying the ejido land that was informally given to the people back in the day. Communities on ejido land must produce documentation — even informal documentation — proving that the land was given to them. Many communities simply have a piece of paper from the 1800s or 1900s with a written statement saying the land belongs to them. But having that piece of paper and not having it can make a world of difference.

In the afternoon on Tuesday, we heard from a returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV), Michelle Danielson, who served her time in Peace Corps Mexico as a Natural Resource Conservation (NRC) volunteer (*during this session we also learned that before our current CCAA program, there used to be NRC volunteers and environmental education volunteers). At the end of her service, Michelle published and printed 1,000 copies of a very professionally designed guide identifying medicinal plants local to her community/region. Michelle’s presentation was yet another great example of a Peace Corps Volunteer pursuing a meaningful project in their community — more inspiration for my future service.

On Wednesday, our group returned to the community Charape de La Joya (which I wrote about back in my week 4 recap). But as a refresher, the Charape community is located about a 45- minute drive away from the city of Querétaro. There are about 100 people (give or take) who make up the Charape community. The community was small to begin with, but many people have left, either to find work, or simply because it has become too hard to live in the community (please reference my week 4 newsletter for more information on the hardships faced by the community).

We started the day off by taking another hike around the lands of the community (which, as it happens, is situated on ejido land). Unlike the last time we visited the community, the weather on Wednesday was cold and stormy, with rain and wind whipping around us — remnants of the hurricane off the coast of Baja California. It was a rare site, seeing everyone in our group wearing raincoats, winter hats, and boots. We were bundled up like it was the middle of winter!

Nonetheless, our visit to Charape was wonderful. After about a 2-hour hike, we returned to the community and made our way to the homes that we had been invited to during our previous visit to have lunch and continue building relationships with various members of the community. In the house I ate lunch in, we were served mole with chicken and rice and consommé. If I had to choose one thing I love about the Mexican society, it’s the people’s love of food — both the preparation and the eating — which is so apparent in the food they make and serve.

In two weeks, the CCAA team will return to Charape de La Joya to facilitate activities related to various environmental topics, cook with our assigned families, and celebrate the wonderful time that we have spent with the people of this community during these ten weeks of training.

Much more happened this week during training, both on Thursday and Friday, but I think the information above gives you a good enough idea of what went down this week. Now, we are really counting down the days until we are sworn is as volunteers and move to our sites!

Now for the weekend:

Friday night, my friends Grace, Luis, and I went to the Eras Tour movie! If you haven’t had the chance to see it, or if you’re not sure you want to, I highly recommend. Whether or not you’re a fan, Taylor Swift songs hold such a special nostalgia in our lives, and the three hours of singing and dancing can certainly serve as a great distraction from the craziness of the world these days.

Saturday was a pretty calm day. I spent some time in a coffee shop, working, writing, and enjoying a latte. For those of you who may not know, I’m a huge fan of the coffee shop environment. You could often find me sitting in a coffee shop on any given day during my time in Boston, working, listening to music, spending time with friends. Therefore, I must spend as much time as I can in coffee shops, drinking a good latte, before I head to my site where I won’t necessarily have the same kind of coffee shop experience...

As of right now, I’m writing to you after going to a pulque festival! What is pulque, you may ask? Pulque is the oldest known alcoholic beverage in Mexico. It is made from the maguey (agave) plant, and through a fermentation process, the agave nectar is turned into a delicious drink that tastes somewhat like kombucha, but stronger. The base drink is then mixed with different fruits and flavors — guava, pineapple, strawberry, chocolate, coffee, celery (I know, weird). You name it, it was probably there.

The festival took place in a town about a 30-minute drive from the city. And it was a real slice of life. Music, dancing, traditional food, farm animals, and lots of pulque to drink. It was quite an enjoyable event, and it was a much-needed outing after having spent many of my weekends in Querétaro. While I may or may not be regretting my choice of day drinking, I am content. And I have plenty of time to recover before training tomorrow.

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend (at least what is left of it)!

Much love, 

Ilana