Weeks 80 – 83: Monday, March 3, 2025 – Sunday, March 30, 2025
Good morning, everyone,
I hope you've all had a wonderful start to your week.
Apologies for not writing to you sooner. The month of March was a busy one. While it started out like any other month, activities soon ramped up as I had a site visit from my Peace Corps program manager and institutional counterparts, went on vacation to the U.S., celebrated my 25th birthday, presented about my work at two universities, went to New Orleans for 24 hours, and then returned back to Mexico and immediately jumped back into work and various other activities.
This week, with spring beginning and the month of March ending, we are entering the hot season, and almost everywhere in Mexico is experiencing a heat wave. Temperatures as high as 45ºC (113ºF) are going to be experienced in parts of the south of the country, and here in the center of the country, we'll be facing temperatures as high as 37ºC (98ºF). Not exactly something I'm looking forward to, but I'm hopeful that after this week, the heat will break and we will go back to lower temperatures (20–25ºC / 70–80ºF) that are more usual for this time of year (at least that's what's predicted in the weather forecast for next week).
The heat is especially hot to me after spending a little over a week on vacation in Boston earlier this month, where temps were still a bit wintery (in the 40s and low 50s F).
Speaking of my trip to Boston, I had an excellent time spending time with Abbi and seeing some of my close friends from university in a city that is so dear to me.
I arrived in Boston in the evening on March 14 and made my way to Abbi's beautiful apartment in Malden where she and her two kitties Birdie and Dandelion greeted me enthusiastically. After a delicious Trader Joe's-inspired dinner, we went to bed and prepared ourselves for the weekend birthday festivities to come.
On Saturday, March 15, Abbi and I woke up relatively early and got out the door to go to Trader Joe's to buy supplies for various birthday celebrations and collect some yummy treats for meals throughout the week together. That evening, Abbi and I went out to a delicious Mediterranean restaurant in Somerville, called Moona, where we filled up on the most colorful, delicious Mediterranean-inspired food and drank some tasty and equally as colorful cocktails. We talked about our futures and enjoyed yummy food in good company.
On the morning of March 16 (my 25th birthday), we again got an early start to our day, and headed out to a cat café where we were able to eat and drink tasty treats and play with 16 sweet and (mostly) well-behaved cats for an hour. Because it was my birthday, the cats received treats for the special occasion, which they (and we) were very excited about.
After thoroughly enjoying ourselves surrounded by 16 fluffy kitties, we made our way back to Abbi's apartment to two other fluffy kitties to set up for my birthday luncheon and prepare to receive our guests Josette and Lou who came over to help celebrate. Abbi and I made a zucchini loaf and little egg muffins and then completed the spread with some help from our friend Trader Joe's who provided the bagels and lox and cream cheese as well as some fruit. Everything was a big hit. And it was so wonderful to spend time with Josette and Lou after so much time apart.
That evening, my friends Izzy and Nicole met me for dinner at an adorable restaurant called Juliet in Union Square. We drank and ate and chatted and overall had an excellent time. What a wonderful way to spend my 25th birthday. I felt truly celebrated, and I'm grateful to everyone who made the day so special. Thank you to everyone who called, texted, and sent well wishes.
Once the weekend was over, Abbi and I spent the rest of the week chilling in her apartment in Malden as well as exploring other parts of the city. On Monday, we headed to my old neighborhood of Fenway, passing through Northeastern's campus and walking through the Fens, which I often walked through on my way to and from campus while living with Abbi in our first apartment in 2021 and 2022. On Tuesday, we took a trip to the South End for an aerial yoga class at my old yoga studio and dinner at Life Alive Café.
Wednesday and Thursday were particularly interesting days for me. On Wednesday afternoon, I went back to Northeastern to give a presentation on my work as a Peace Corps volunteer to a class of grad students in the same program that I got my masters in just 2 short years ago. In that class, I gave a 30-minute presentation about the Peace Corps in general as well as some of the specifics of the work I have done in my service over the last year and a half. The presentation was received well, and the professor even shared with me the notes that the students took during my presentation, which I got a real kick out of. (Link to the recording can be found here for those of you interested in the presentation).
After meeting with Daniela, I made my way over to the design lab (D-Lab) where I met Dorris, a visiting professor from the Netherlands who helped me get set up in her class for the other presentation I arranged before heading up to Boston. Shortly after arriving at the D-Lab building, I was made aware that I in fact had the entire hour and a half class time for my presentation and that I was the guest lecturer for the day. Luckily, I was well-prepared for this, and I ended up taking the entire 1.5 hour class time to share more indepthly about my work in water security, which fit perfectly, as the class is focused on water, sanitation, and hygiene. In the first part of the class, I shared details about the community of Neblinas and the difficult water situation that the community faces (not having access to a close-by water source as well as facing water shortages during times of drought). Then, in groups, I had the students spend 15 minutes or so thinking of solutions to the problem I presented them with, of which they had many interesting ideas. To end the class, I shared more about the actual solutions that we have implemented in the community and by the time I knew it, the class was over and the students were on their way out.
I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to share about my work while in the U.S. I believe it was a meaningful experience for the students, but it was an even more meaningful opportunity for me, as I had the chance to reflect on my service and really put my year+ of work into a narrative that I am proud of. While I wasn't sure if I was going to make the decision to go back to Boston during my service, I'm so glad I had the chance to visit during my time as a Peace Corps volunteer, to reconnect with friends and remember how much I love the city where I grew into the adult version of myself.
After spending a few more days gallivanting around the city with Abbi—who had the whole week off to spend time with me—and visiting with friends, on Sunday morning, Abbi and I took a 6am flight to New Orleans to reunite with our parents and our extended family to celebrate the life of our grandmother and say goodbye to the house that she lived in for over 50 years. It was a beautiful gathering of family and friends and a great way to say goodbye to a woman who had such a profound impact on her friends and on her community.
Since arriving back in Mexico a week ago, I've been busy, busy, busy, running around and barely having a moment to sit down and collect my thoughts about the past weeks.
Last Tuesday, six of the seven volunteers of the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve had a meeting at the offices of CONANP to share about our work and provide a status update to our counterparts about the state of projects and ideas for the future.
Then, on Friday, a subgroup of those volunteers came up to Neblinas for the weekend to help Rayanne and Sean with their youth exchange that took place in Neblinas this weekend. The three volunteers stayed at my host family house with me, and while it was a tiring weekend, it was nice to spend time with the other volunteers and partake in the activities planned by Rayanne and Sean for the students and other young people involved in the exchange.
On Friday afternoon, we took a tour of the community, visiting the middle school and high school to see the various projects that Rayanne and I have implemented in the community.
On Saturday, we took a trip down to the river, where we swam and enjoyed a nice few hours escaping the heat in the cold water of the river.
Sunday was the end of the activities, and I was thoroughly exhausted from hosting and running around helping Rayanne and Sean with their event.
So that brings us up to yesterday, the last day of March, and the start of my last 6(ish) months here in Mexico.
Thank you all for reading.
Wishing you all a wonderful rest of the week ahead.
Love,
Ilana
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