Week 33: Monday, April 8, 2024 – Sunday, April 14, 2024

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 Program Training Specialist, and Ines, one of the Peace Corps doctors. We were also visited by four members of the CONANP team who plan on being involved with us for the duration of our service.

During their time in the community, we had the chance to visit the primaria (elementary school) and talk to the teachers there about the work we are doing with the students and if/how we can change things to make things more accommodating and convenient for them. The CONANP team also had the chance to chat with Benita about the different grant projects Rayanne and I applied for on behalf of the community and explain that while Rayanne and I can be involved in the projects, we should not consider those grants (if funded) to be our main projects — CONANP will be mostly in charge of the administration and organization of them.

After a delicious lunch at Doña Flora's house (Rayanne's house), we headed down to the secundaria (middle school) to talk with the teachers there and show the Peace Corps and CONANP team what we have dedicated most of our time to during these first few months in the community. At the secundaria, we were able to show the team the compost we started with the ninth graders and also demonstrate the group projects we are having the students work on for our Earth Day event coming up next week.

By all accounts, the visit was a success. And at the end of the day, Rayanne and I made our way to Jalpan with Benita and Ines to continue the conversation with our counterparts at the CONANP office the next day. While we originally planned to stay in the hostel that we usually stay in, Lupita, the current (soon to be former) director of CONANP had arranged for us to stay in an Airbnb near her house, which was super cute and accommodating and had enough space for me, Rayanne, and our friend Cole to stay together comfortably.

The meeting didn't start until 12:30 PM, so Thursday morning, Rayanne and I woke up and made breakfast in our little Airbnb apartment and then made our way over to the CONANP office for our meeting with the team. While members of the CONANP team had visited us in our community the day before, there were still a number of things that needed to be sorted out organizationally, and I would say the meeting ended up being productive and beneficial to all of us — despite lasting for 6.5 hours. Of course we did have a lunch break, but the meeting in earnest started at 12:30 PM and ended close to 7 PM — something I don't think is quite allowed in a U.S. workplace, but I suppose Mexico operates a bit differently. But we were able to touch on a number of subjects: how we could better work together as Peace Corps Volunteers and CONANP staff; the projects in which Rayanne and I are going to focus our energy on; we had a chance to meet the woman who will be the new director of the Reserve when Lupita moves on to her next official appointment; and we also agreed on ways to better communicate and stay more coordinated on events and projects that both parties are working on.

I think in the end our strategy will be successful. And I sincerely appreciate the effort CONANP is making to try to make our work as collaborative and efficient as possible.

On Friday, Rayanne and I came back to Neblinas, and ever since, I have a new found motivation. Friday afternoon, I went around visiting different homes, conducting interviews and chatting about the environment and the work I'm doing in the community. Afterwards, I stopped by my friend Sonia's house and spent the evening with her. Her family invited me to stay for dinner, and afterwards, Sonia and I went to watch the basketball game, which is apparently a weekly occurrence in the community.

Saturday, Rayanne and I ran around the community looking for an HDMI cable of all things to connect my computer to the projector that we now have in our posession to be able to show a movie to the group of girls who dance at the casa de cultura. While we did eventually find someone with a cable, we ended up not having our movie night due to some technical difficulties. However, Rayanne and I invited a few kids from the community up to my house for a movie night, where we watched Disney movies and had a cute time.

We'll see how long my motivation lasts for. But I'm optimistic that now with tangible goals in mind — I'm working towards applying for a grant so I can build a cistern for water capture in the high school, I'm planning to work more with the high school than before, and I'm going to start a biodiversity monitoring group with students so more people can appreciate the incredible biodiversity that lives in Neblinas — I'll be able to stay focused and motivate myself to have a successful rest of my service.

Next week, I'm also hosting an event for Earth Day (El Día de la Tierra) which I'm super excited about! I've invited a number of volunteers from other sites who live (relatively) close by and we're going to lead the community in presentations, sustainable crafts, activities, and hopefully much more. Planning this event and executing it will keep me busy for the week, and I'm excited to share the results of that event with you next week.

Now, for some even more exciting news... MY SISTER IS ENGAGED!!!!! Please send your congratulations to Abbi and Joe for their engagement. I couldn't be happier for them. They are a perfect match and I'm so so happy for them.