Week 51: August 5, 2024 – August 11, 2024

Good evening, everyone!


I’m writing to you from my house in Neblinas where I returned to today after a week in Querétaro. I’m currently writing to you in the dark because we lost power, so if I don’t get around to sending this email tonight, it will get to you all tomorrow once we get power back. 

On Monday morning, I left my house in Neblinas at 5am and took the seven-hour journey to Querétaro, arriving in the city around 1pm. After arriving at the bus station, I took an Uber to the Peace Corps office where I needed to go to sign some documents that needed to be sent to the lawyer for immigration the next day. 

While at the office, I saw staff members, learned that the grants committee approved my grant project (!!) and saw the volunteers from PCM22 (the group before mine) who were at the office for their close of service (COS) conference, which is the last time the entire cohort will be together before leaving the country. I can only imagine what emotions and thoughts are going through their heads and they think about what their lives will look like after having lived in Mexico for the past two years. For some, it means staying in country for another year and switching up their role a bit — one volunteer will become the new “volunteer leader” who works closely with staff, another volunteer will be heading to the Yucatan peninsula to work on saving endangered indigenous languages, and another will be heading to El Salvador to serve a third year in one of the programs there. But for the majority of volunteers, their time in Mexico has now come to an end and they will be reintegrating themselves back into U.S. society. 

Seeing the previous cohort leaving makes me think about what the future holds for me, but of course, I still have an entire year (plus) to get through and a lot of work ahead of me. Nevertheless, it is an interesting thought activity to think about what comes next and how relatively little time I have left in site. 

But enough existentialism for now.

After passing by the office Monday afternoon, I found myself checking into the hotel the Peace Corps reserved for me — not the typical Peace Corps hotel because all of the rooms were booked, but a hotel right down the street which is very similar. After spending a couple of hours relaxing, I proceeded to meet my friend Cooper for dinner at an Italian restaurant in the city center.

Tuesday was immigration day. Lucky for us, the Peace Corps found room in the budget to hire a lawyer to help with immigration appointments for PCVs located in the state of Querétaro, which is notorious for having extreme wait times and incredibly strict immigration officers. Instead of having to get there ourselves at four in the morning, the lawyer had his assistant get there for us and hold our places so we wouldn’t have to go through the trouble ourselves like we did in other times past. 

You might think, wow, 4am, the lawyer must have gotten an excellent time slot, perhaps even right when the office opens to appointments. But you would be wrong. While the assistant, Sandra, arrived at the office at crack of dawn, my appointment didn’t end up being until around 2pm. So I spent most of the day on standby in the case that I was to get to the office earlier, but until then, I was able to spend time with my friends and pass the time by sitting in a café and getting some work done for my grant project and for the El Maíz Más Pequeño Instagram page.

As scheduled, at around 1:30pm I was called to the immigration office, hair slicked back, all jewelry removed, and ready to take the photos necessary for my renewed residency card. (I don’t know if you remember back to my experience at the immigration office last year, but they are extremely specific about appearance — hair must be pulled back, ears must be showing, and you cannot keep any jewelry on, not even cartilage piercings, which are not the easiest to take in and out). 

Luckily, everything went well. Things were certainly more easily facilitated having the lawyers present and representing us. 

I say us because I wasn’t the only volunteer who went to the immigration office that day. A new response volunteer, Susan, joined me at the immigration office to get her residency card issued for the first time. She and I kept each other company and tried to distract each other from the inevitable anxiety that comes with sitting and waiting for the immigration officers to approve or deny our requests. Susan was a volunteer in the Dominican Republic just last year, but she terminated her service early after just four months for what sounds like crazy living conditions and slightly hostile community members. I am incredibly impressed by her for jumping directly back into Peace Corps after that experience. Initially when she told me she served in the Peace Corps DR program, I thought she meant decades ago (being slightly older), but when I heard it was just last year, I immediately gained immense respect for her and her dedication to the Peace Corps cause. 

Susan and I left the immigration office around the same time and decided to walk back to our respective lodgings — her to her host family home and me to my hotel which is only located a few blocks further than where Susan lives. Unfortunately, the immigration office only gave me a renewed residency for one year (we were promised two) but at least I won’t have to worry about going back there until at least next August. 

But anyway, Susan and I walked all the way back from the immigration office (not the most scenic walk I will say) and when we reached the street Susan lives on, she invited me in to meet her host “mom” who offered me lemon-cucumber water and jack fruit and was just a lovely and generous woman. We chatted for a few hours about life in the Sierra Gorda, insecurity and immigration in Mexico, and other subjects that had me captivated in conversation for over two hours before making my way back to the hotel.

Wednesday was my medical appointments day. I woke up early and joined my friends Sean and Ben at the lab for medical testing which was relatively easy and then we had breakfast at the hotel. I had my doctor's appointment and was given a clean bill of health (except for a parasite that I somehow acquired, but that's a different story). 

Thursday and Friday and I was at the Peace Corps office for a training that is required to be able to be a part of the Peer Support Network (PSN), which I and two other volunteers from my cohort were selected among a group of applicants to be a part of. The PSN is a volunteer-led support network that provides a way for volunteers to reach out to their peers in a more formalized manner than simply reaching out to their friends (we are trained and equipped to help in certain situations that other volunteers may not be) but in a less intimidating space than if they were to go to staff. The thinking is that sometimes volunteers may not want to reach out to staff members for fear of facing consequences or worrying that they may be separated from country (which often is not the case). Nevertheless, we are here to provide a safe space for the volunteers to talk about what they are struggling with and direct them to the appropriate resource or just be an empathetic ear for them to talk to. We are also asked to organize outreach events whether by region or online.

   

Last year, the PCM22 cohort elected to restart the PSN (it had been disbanded during the pandemic) but did not get off the ground until well after we (the new volunteers) arrived in Mexico. Because of that, the PSN had little visibility and many volunteers to this day still don't know what its main functions are. (Of course, this is not the fault of the volunteers but the fault of the bureaucracy of the Peace Corps office).

This year, the plan is to be fully integrated into the new cohort's training schedule (they arrive in less than 2 weeks!!). We are planning to be there for the first three days of their training so they can get to know us and start to feel that they are a part of the volunteer community from the moment they arrive in country. Now that the network has 6 members (soon to be 5), it will be easier to divide the labor and reach out to all volunteers and ensure that the PSN has the visibility that it deserves to have. Truly, the PSN is the link between volunteers and staff, volunteers and resources, and by reaching out to one of us, volunteers are more likely to be able to work through their challenges and approach staff with a more tangible request that will likely make them more successful in their service. 

Saturday morning, Rayanne and I (oh yeah, Rayanne was in Querétaro too, but I didn't see her but once the whole time we were there) took the bus back to Jalpan. We were greeted by the daughter of a community member of Neblinas who had invited us to stay the night with her and her family in Jalpan for the night. We ended up going kayaking on the beautiful artificial lake that provides fresh water to Jalpan — quite a nice surprise considering the last time I was there, there was shockingly little water due to the drought that persisted for two years. It was extremely tranquil, kayaking on the still water with the green trees surrounding us and the birds flying overhead. 

That's my update for last week. Stay tuned for another update for the week that just ended. 

Ilana