Ilana in the Cloud Forest

Dearest family and friends, Happy Sunday and happy last day of 2023!! After a week of complete grayness, I awoke to a clear blue sky dotted with a few wispy clouds and the mountain outside of my window pink with the glow of the sun rising from the East. How beautiful for the last day of the year. Apologies for not writing to you last week. I decided to take the week off for the holiday festivities, and to be completely honest, there hasn’t been much note-worthy activity to write about. But I didn’t want to leave you out of the loop for another week, so here I am, writing to you again. So, what have I been up to in the last couple of weeks? Well, for starters, last Tuesday (December 19), Rayanne and I made our way to Jalpan again to celebrate the end of the year with our counterparts at CONANP. After arriving in Jalpan, we went to our favorite café (really the only café in Jalpan) to drink coffee and eat some good food, and spent the afternoon shoppi...

Dear beautiful friends and family, Apologies for sending this later than usual. Yesterday, I went for a beautiful hike down to the river just below the community of Neblinas, and between being out all day and being super tired when I got back and not having electricity all day, I couldn’t get around to sending my update, but here we are now. Hope you enjoy! The countdown to the end of the year has begun. And in my community, the countdown to Christmas has begun, with posadas every night and festivities to honor this special time of year. Last night, I went to a posada , which I thought was just a party, but turned out to be a lay-led service with songs and prayers. Not what I expected, but an interesting cultural experience, nonetheless. As I mentioned above, yesterday, I finally got the chance to go to the beautiful Rio Tancuilin! With a few of our ecochavo friends (members of the youth-led environmental group Neblinas Vivio), we hiked down to the river and spent ...

Dear friends and family, Another week has passed in the beautiful town of Neblinas, and I can officially say I have been in site for a whole month! One down, 23 to go. But, in all honesty, I’m just super excited to see what the next 23 months bring — adventure, creativity, new experiences, long-lasting change on the part of myself and on the part of the community. This is just the beginning, and I know there will be lots of chapters ahead, so thank you for continuing on with me while I am on this journey. This week brought with it a few exciting opportunities, mostly related to working with the schools in the community. On Tuesday, Rayanne and I went to the primaria (elementary school) and the secundaria (middle school) to speak with the teachers and get a sense of their interest and willingness to have us work with the kids come January. Well, I’m happy to report that starting in January after winter break, Rayanne and I will be full- fledged maestras de ciencias ...

Happy Sunday, everyone! I’m writing to you from my beautiful bedroom in Neblinas, where I am sitting and watching the clouds as they roll over the mountains, bringing with them an ever-changing climate. This week, I wasn’t actually in Neblinas for much of the time. I spent the majority of this week visiting my counterparts at CONANP in Jalpan de Serra — the closest “big town” about a 3-hour drive from Neblinas. In reality, Jalpan is not a big town. About 20,000 people live there. But compared to Neblinas, it feels like a giant metropolis with restaurants (a variety of cuisines, I might add), stores, and a bus station. When I first passed through Jalpan, I didn’t think much of it. But now that I’ve been in Neblinas for a short while, Jalpan feels like a giant city. It’s funny how perspective works. Anyhow, our (my and Rayanne’s) trip to Jalpan proved to be quite enjoyable. We left Neblinas at the literal crack of dawn (5:00am) on Monday morning and got to the Jalpan...

Hello my beautiful loved ones! I hope you are well and that you had a lovely holiday week surrounded by friends and family. Many of you might be wondering, what is it that I actually do in Neblinas? Well, I’ll start by being completely honest and telling you that there is a lot of downtime and a lot of sitting around, talking with family and community members. That might sound a bit confusing to you all. I’m supposed to be working on projects related to climate change and resilience, right? That is certainly the case. But as I keep reminding myself, and what I’ll tell you all, is that the first three months of service are crucial for getting to know the members of the community and getting to know what their interests are as far as projects go. So, while it may seem like nothing is getting done, we are laying the groundwork for what we hope will be a successful service, with great buy in from community members. So far, from conversations with community membe...

Dear friends and family, I bet you thought I forgot about you. Well, I certainly did not. I simply got carried away by the festivities of the day. But I’m here to write to you now. I’m writing to you after what has been my first full week in Neblinas. And let me just say, life here is awesome. I’m already feeling at home with my host family, I’m getting to know the members of the community, and I’m taking in the beauty of the incredible environment I have the privilege of living in. Not much has started yet, work wise. But for these first three months, my work really is getting to know the community and integrating into their pace and way of life. After arriving last Thursday and having beautiful, sunny weather the first day here, we were trapped in a raincloud (literally) from Saturday through Thursday, which meant hardly any “work” was done — our host families and community leaders thought it best we wait for a sunnier day to proceed walking around the community ...