Weeks 38 & 39: Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Weeks 38 & 39: Wednesday, May 15, 2024 – Sunday, May 26, 2024

May 27, 2024

Good morning, and happy long weekend!

I hope you are all doing well.

I've certainly had a busy last couple of weeks. But where to begin is the challenge.

Well, I suppose I'll start by telling you about the event I organized and hosted yesterday. That seems like a good place to start.

Around Tuesday of this past week, I was thinking to myself and doing a bit of investigating on the internet about what I could do to promote more awareness about the biodiversity of Neblinas. You all know that I am truly in awe of the biodiversity here, and biodiversity monitoring is something that I have dedicated my time to since moving to the community. Well, with the drought, there has not been as much to monitor, and I've become a bit lax about my efforts. For this reason, I was perusing the internet to see what such actions could be taken to promote more biodiversity conservation and awareness and one such action was celebrating International Day of Biodiversity, which happens to be celebrated on May 22nd! So I thought to myself, "Today is the 21st, tomorrow is the 22nd. Let's put on an event for this weekend!" And that's what I did.

With the help of two eager high schoolers whom I have befriended, we organized and advertised an event for this weekend including an art project using all natural found objects and a biodiversity walk to see how many species we could find using a scavenger-hunt type format.

I am very proud to say that 12 people showed up to the event! While this may not sound like a whole lot of people, it's a huge success considering the last two meetings we tried to organize had zero turnout. So I was very happy with the group that participated. We had a range of ages from 3 years old to 24 years old (my friend Sonia came to help with set up and to be another "adult" chaperone) but I think the activities ended up being age appropriate for everyone.

The art pieces turned out to be very beautiful and creative and the scavenger hunt — while we didn't find too many of the species on the list — drew people's attention to the way the drought we're having not only affects us humans, but all organisms and especially the already-fragile ecosystem of the cloud forest. All in all, I'm very happy with how the event turned out and I'm ready to host the next one.

What else can I tell you about the last couple of weeks?

Well, after getting back from my whirlwind trip that I wrote about last time, the community was in a very celebratory spirit, as they were celebrating their patron saint San Ysidro (yes, just like the border crossing from San Diego to Tijuana). San Ysidro is the patron saint of farmers and because Neblinas used to be reliant on subsistence agriculture, the people would pray to San Ysidro for rain. Sad to say, it still has not rained where we are, but the day of the festival, a few droplets fell.

The festival was 3-day party that featured a number of fun activities and events. Food vendors lined the streets (well, street), there were bouncy houses and trampolines for the kids, performances from different cultural groups, a huapango dance competition, and a song contest on the final evening, which I may or may not have participated in (hehe).

I believe that there are always festivals and parties going on in Mexico, but maybe even more so in the summer months, because just this past Friday (a week after the festival in Neblinas), I went to a festival in another community called Aguazarca, where I participated in a parade, dressed up in a traditional Mexican outfit. This was an even bigger feria as they call it, with carnival games and rides and a giant stage where performances and events were hosted. I even went on one of the rickety ferris wheels (not something I usually do), but it was one of those moments where I decided I wanted a bit of a thrill, and so I went on and had a fun but somewhat nerve wrecking time.

Earlier in the day on Friday, I also participated in an event hosted by the high school for Dia del Estudiante (Day of the Student), which the teachers invited me to to help set up and participate in the various activities. The teachers each ran three activities, including potato sack races, juice-drinking relays, an activity where you have to carry a lime (usually an egg but it was a lime) on a spoon without dropping it, musical chairs, and more. Despite the 100º weather, I had a great time and was grateful to the teachers for inviting me. It was truly the high school experience I never had.

Other than that, the last couple of weeks have been filled with a lot of reading, writing, researching, teaching, sitting inside to avoid heat exhaustion (did I mention the weather has been hovering around 100º the last few weeks?), going for walks and spending time with my friend Sonia, and catching up with different friends and family members on the phone to fill the time (shoutout to Abbi for always making time for me and for being able to chat on the phone for hours at a time without running out of things to talk about). I'm very grateful for the constant support I've received from my family and friends (you all) during this time.

So things are going well here in the cloud forest. I'm slowly but surely working on my grant project application, which I hope to get funded for and started on in August. With the water crisis we're having, the funding for the project can't come soon enough.

I'm sure I missed updating you on some things that have happened in the last few weeks, but those are the highlights.

I hope you are all enjoying your long weekend and looking forward to the summer which is right around the corner.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Love,

Ilana

More photos from the week