Ilana in the Cloud Forest

Good afternoon everyone, Wow, how the time is flying. July is almost over, and I now have only 90 days left of my service as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I truly cannot believe how quickly things are coming to a close.  The last couple of weeks have been more business-as-usual. Since getting back from Mexico City, I've been in Neblinas, celebrating with all of the students who graduated from their current school and are moving onto the next step in their education journeys; I have witnessed the arrival and departure of hundreds of religious pilgrims who started their pilgrimage from Neblinas to Mexico City over a week ago; and I've been helping to run a summer course for the kids in the community, meanwhile, working on elements of the grant project that I received funding for just this week. Thank you to those who generously donated to my project—I am truly grateful.  As I mentioned in my previous newsletter, at the beginning of this month, I celebrated the graduations of three of...

Hey everyone, I hope you are all doing well and that you are enjoying the last day of this long weekend.  Since I last wrote, I've been to Mexico City and back, attended the school graduations of three of the four kids that I live with, and have been getting things ready to start implementing my new grant project in the next couple of weeks. Needless to say, June was a busy month. After getting back to Neblinas on Thursday, June 19th, I had about 5 days in the community before leaving again. But this time, I went all the way to Mexico City, for no other reason than to celebrate pride month with my friends and enjoy a festive weekend in the city.  On Thursday evening, m y friends Emma, Miryam, and I arrived in Mexico City and proceeded to make our way to our Airbnb where we met up with our friends Blake and Jaylee. We were the first to arrive—the rest of the crew was set to arrive on Friday evening—so we took advantage of having the first pick of beds and then made our way out ...