Week 25: Monday, February 12, 2024 – Sunday February 18, 2024

Well folks,

In just one week, I will have been living abroad in Mexico for exactly 6 months. Half a year. What a thought. That means I am just about 1/4 of the way through my service. Kind of incredible to think about.

This was a bit of a crazy week. What would have been a fairly normal week of activities ended up being one filled with a good bit of adventure and intrigue. So let's get started.

On Monday, Rayanne and I were invited to pick oranges in the orange grove of a man named Elodio. We had tried the oranges the day before and they were delicious, so he invited us to stop by his grove on Monday to pick more.

But what neither of us were prepared for were the treacherous conditions in which the orange grove is located. In order to get to the grove, we had to follow a narrow tree-lined path down a steep decline with incredibly slick dirt. Add to the equation the wrong choice of shoes, and maybe you can see where this is going.

If not, I'll spell it out for you. I took a nice little fall down this path and ended up colliding with Elodio and a nice coffee tree that broke my fall.

Now, not to worry, I wasn't physically hurt. However, my ego was certainly bruised. I think I played it off well, though. I got up, walked the rest of the way down and then redeemed myself by catching all but one of the oranges Elodio threw to me.

Honestly, the whole situation would have been fine if it hadn't been for the conversation I had had with Elodio but the day before about a woman's ability to hike through treacherous mountain paths. Well, point somewhat proved. But I'm not going to let that keep me down. I still hold firmly to my belief that with some practice and the right shoes, anyone can make it down those paths. It was just a funny coincidence, and I'm more than sure I will be made fun of for the next while to come. But I'm tough. I can take it.

Anyway, after that whole saga, Rayanne and I found out that the application for the biodiversity brigade was going to close that week on Thursday. So it was either Tuesday or Wednesday that we were going to have to make our way to Jalpan to submit our application.

We ended up going to Jalpan on Wednesday, leaving the community at 5:30am as usual and arriving surprisingly quickly in Jalpan, just before 8am. So after spending a few hours in a café, and then warming up in the sun, we headed to the CONANP office and applied for a spot in the program. We stayed in the CONANP office for a few extra hours to enjoy some Mexican pizza, which in my mind is not pizza, but if you think about it as a different food, it's not the worst. Nonetheless, it was still kind of the people at CONANP to invite us to stay and enjoy free food with them. We killed a few extra hours in the adorable coffee shop we always visit when we're in Jalpan and then made our way to the bus station.

BUT, plot twist: as we were waiting for our bus back to Neblinas, we were invited to a CONANP event taking place the next day, Thursday, in a town so much closer to Jalpan than Neblinas. Had we known 24 hours earlier, we could have brought extra clothes, planned to stay the night. But given we had no prior notice, Rayanne and I made our way all the way back to Neblinas that night and promptly left the community once again at 5:30am. Needless to say, we were pretty tired.

So on Thursday morning, we made our way to the town of Landa de Matamoros, and attended a 5-hour meeting of the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve Advisory Committee. The meeting, despite being 5 hours, was quite captivating and informative. The advisory committee in its current form was created last year as a way to give communities in the Sierra Gorda more power over the way they govern their land and make decisions about their future. The committee touched on the topics of water conservation, deforestation, sustainable economic activities, and much more — all topics quite relevant to the work we are doing as Peace Corps Volunteers in Neblinas. At the very end of the meeting, Lupita, the director of CONANP in the Sierra Gorda gave Rayanne and I the chance to introduce ourselves to the committee and talk a bit about the projects we are planning on pursuing during our service. I think the committee members enjoyed hearing about the work that we plan to do, and both they and we were pleased to hear how well our priorities and objectives align with each other.

After the meeting, Rayanne and I were so generously invited to stay the night with Henry and Carmen at their home in Tilaco, so that's what we did (I forgot to mention, but Henry is the president of the advisory committee). I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before, but Henry and Carmen have a beautiful, historic home in Tilaco, that is now fully modernized and equipped with the most sustainable of appliances and systems. And when I say sustainable, I mean they take everything into consideration, sustainability wise. Almost all water is recycled — the water they capture in their rainwater catchment system is filtered and used for drinking water, the water they use to wash clothes is used to water their garden — and on top of that, they use a baño seco, or a dry toilet, which while may sound strange, is surprisingly more sustainable and hygienic than the traditional toilets we are used to. They also grow most of their own produce and what they don't grow is incredibly fresh and locally grown. Their sustainability efforts are very impressive and they are incredibly hospitable. I am so grateful we live in such close proximity to them.

So that was the week. Friday afternoon, we returned to Neblinas and since then I've just been relaxing and trying to catch up on the sleep I lost with those early mornings this week.

I also finished writing my Community Site Assessment report — a diagnostic report required of all CCAA Peace Corps Volunteer volunteers to culminate their first three months of service. You all have already learned a lot about Neblinas and the work I'm doing through this newsletter, but if you are curious to learn more, I have attached the report below.

This is my last week in Neblinas for just about the next month. On Friday, I'll be heading to another part of the Sierra where my friend Sean is doing his service before heading to Querétaro on Sunday, and then it's vacation time for me!

I hope all of you are doing splendidly!

Love,

Ilana