Ilana in the Cloud Forest

Good afternoon, everyone, Today, I'm writing to you with a very special edition of this newsletter. For those of you who don't know, my grandmother Phyllis Levinson passed away in her sleep a little over 2 weeks ago due to complications from cancer. Today would have been her 84th birthday. I wanted to write a tribute to her to commemorate her life as a mother, grandmother, wife, artist, friend, and so much more. While I was not particularly close with my grandmother growing up, I have fond memories of times spent with her, and it was always a comfort knowing that she was just a phone call away in New Orleans. As I got older, we formed a stronger bond, chatting periodically and sharing stories about our lives. She was a strong supporter of my Peace Corps service and always followed along with my weekly newsletters. I know I can't possibly capture all the nuance of the life that my grandmother lived in a short tribute, but I wanted to find a way to keep her memory alive. Than...

Hi everyone,  Happy Sunday!  I hope you are all doing well.  This has been a busy few weeks, and do I have some updates for you. First, I just want to give a shoutout to my dad for being awesome and making the trip all the way out to Neblinas to see where I live. The journey is not for the faint of heart and I am truly impressed by his adventurous spirit. More on the details of the trip a little later.  When I last updated you, I was getting ready to leave Neblinas to go to Querétaro for my mid-service training conference, which took place over the week of January 27. This conference was the first time in almost a year that our full cohort  (now 29 of the  original  39 volunteers that we started with)  was reunited . It was a chance for us to come together and hear about our fellow volunteers' experiences in their first year (and a bit) of service and an opportunity for us to start thinking about what comes next, both in our final 8ish months of s...