Ilana in the Cloud Forest

Hello and Happy Earth Day! Well folks, we did it. Yesterday, after a solid month of planning, ideating, and coordinating, Rayanne and I executed our first community event to celebrate El Día de la Tierra (Earth Day).  And I can honestly say it went really well. Between Rayanne's creativity and my organizational skills, we pulled off an event that was engaging and interactive, with a little something for everyone.  Despite the (much-needed) rain, more than 70 members of the community attended our event. The majority of the participants were elementary- and middle-school age students, but that actually ended up being a great audience for the activities we had planned. The event was advertised to start at 3pm, but as we are in Mexico, people started to trickle in around 3:30/3:45pm as expected. As people showed up, they were directed to four tables in the back of the cancha (basketball court) to participate in different eco-crafts and environment-related activities. At the first...

Hello! Happy Sunday! It's a beautiful day here in Neblinas.  Today, I woke up nice and early, stretched, watched some SNL, ate yogurt with cereal, and ran to the store to buy veggies for the soup my host made. Then, I had a few hours while my host was out to clean, collect various items from around the house for my Earth Day event (more on that later), exercise and shower all before they got back.  Now, I'm sitting in the kitchen waiting to eat the soup that my host made earlier today. This week was a good week. Other than the fact that it was above 100º F on Monday and Tuesday, this week was productive and fulfilling and I finally feel like I have a direction for what I want to do in my service. On Wednesday this week, we had a visit from Peace Corps staff and our counterparts from CONANP. This was a planned visit, as Peace Corps staff have an obligation to visit volunteers at their sites within the first 6 months of service. So Rayanne and I were visited by Benita, our Progr...

Hello everyone, You may be wondering, what has Ilana been up to the last few weeks? Well, let me tell you.  Since getting back to Neblinas in mid March, many things have happened in my host family.  First, very sadly, a member of the family passed away of cancer at the age of 40.  While I did not get the chance to meet this member of the family, she seems to have been someone of great importance to many in the family I am living with. And seeing the family come together showed me just how much people in Mexico value family, no matter how distant the connection. From what I understand, the woman who passed away was the niece of my host by marriage — someone who lived in the community as a child but moved away to the city of Querétaro as an adult.  S o what surprised me is when after learning of her passing, the entire extended family — no matter how distantly related — came together and organized the customary funerary arrangements here in Neblinas before the arrival ...