Sea Turtles Are Delicious

It’s true what they say about ‘not knowing something until you have to teach it.’ I’ve been working with a group of fishermen’s wives doing workshops and activities, setting up a syllabus and session plans, and activities etc. Wearing the mantle of a teacher, ecologist (they were calling me ‘la ecologista’ for a while), and authority is fairly stressful. To compensate for the fact that I’m not really any of these titles, I organize, I create, I research, and I learn—and I evolve into a quasi- authority, a teacher, a facilitator, a student; I assert that having a Marine & Environmental Science degree does not make me a Marine Scientist nor an Environmental Scientist, rather I think it made me an environmentalist: I care.

I laugh at myself when I think that during Peace Corps training I freely admitted that I knew nothing about the Water Cycle. Now I proudly think to myself that I and 20 other women know about the Water Cycle, Watersheds, and how the impacts of pollution in one stage affects another…the world is interconnected. My dad would say that this world is a ‘zero sum game’, or in other words: benefits come at the expense of something else (plus one for you) + (minus one for them) = zero. I think these ladies are getting it! We made battery collection bins out of plastic jugs and delivered them to local stores/public places (because none of us would dare through a battery into the trash or a body of water, right?). Today, we talked about Sustainable Development and Community Development, and together picked a project/activity that would make their neighborhood a better place. We voted on renovating a basketball court for August! My fellow volunteer and I are going to request money from the Peace Corps’ 50th Anniversary Event Fund for this project which is meant to promote volunteerism in our communities. This is a great first event, and I think it’ll be a promising and positive event.

I must mention that of all the things I’ve had to learn in order to impart a workshop/enviro-chat, I’ve most enjoyed learning about sea turtles! The following should be required viewing:

1) Sea Turtle Puppet Show- an amazingly well done puppet show that is captivating even/especially for adults. LOVED IT!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm6OiNXVoSo

2) A Televisa Special Report (in Spanish) on Sea Turtles during the month of October in Ixtapilla, Jalisco MEX. MADE ME CRY, it was so heartwarming.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1Lb_dO9unI

Basically, sea turtles are a 150 million year old species that take 15 year to reach maturity to nest, always returning to the beaches they were born on. Only about 5 little turtles of the 100 eggs a mother turtle will lay will make it back to nest. Those 5 little turtles have a big bad ocean to navigate through-- from drowning in shrimp fishermen’s nets, being caught by bated hooks, eating plastic bags that they mistake for jellyfish, or ingesting pollution (think oil spills, or mercury). Should they make it back after 15 years, will the lights of a new hotel disorient them, or will their eggs be harvested for sale? The eggs sell for 6 MEX Pesos (60 cents), and people love turtle soup here…though no one admits it. When I asked the ladies what they knew about turtles, besides the fact ‘that they were delicious’, I was beside myself with how much they knew! They say that they know it’s illegal and would not intentionally kill one, but once it’s dead it would be wasteful to not eat it…

A ‘State of the Ocean’ report put out last month forecasts that the sea life will be endangered by the end of the century if the world’s oceans are not given a Protected Status now. It said that the ocean’s plankton naturally absorbs CO2 (and give off O2 acting as lungs of the earth on the scale of the Amazon), and that an increase of CO2 in the atmosphere is causing an increase in the acidity (pH level) of the ocean water. This is affecting the ability of organizisms to make shells CaCO2 (b/c acid dissolves calcium carbonate). A small change like this can have a large change in ecosystems and food chains; for example, increased ocean acidity affects tetrapods’ shell, so if their populations decrease, so will the herring that feed on them; increased acidity causes ‘coral bleaching’, when the coral expels its hosts and dies, which would then mean that the marine life that depend on the corals for feeding, breeding & protection would lose their habitat, not to mention the economic impacts.
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After a month and a half here in my new site, I’m so much further along than I was in my previous site in terms of work. In terms of personal relationships/friendships, I will say that it was easier to know people back in the ‘rancho’. People here are just as nice, but I can’t just waltz in to their home and expect them to know who I am...not yet anyway. I would say that my closest friendship is my host-mom, who is admirable in so many ways. Work hours: I didn’t really see myself having workhours in the Peace Corps, but I do. My goal is to make it out to the beach after work as much as possible (this week I only did it once)…diving into the waves and watching the sunset on the beach on a routine basis…nice. I haven’t been waking up for a morning run on the beach anymore…but to know that I can…nice too.

Call Me Lucky

I am so grateful to my friends for your kind words and support IRT my last blog...it was VERY MEANINGFUL to me. My last blog was part of the Mourning Process of leaving a place I called home and a people I called family. Viewing it as a process, it came to an end upon my arrival to my new Volunteer Site.

I did not feel the wind, or smell the salt air. I only stood there staring...* I remember having a big smile on my face as we descended a windy mountain road going down through mangrove forests, with palm trees jetting out of the hill sides and in the distance of the beaches...my new home. It's a fishing town that has seasonal tourism, and a lot of historical and natural beauty...and along with that, a lot of socio-environmental challenges. The humidity, the heat, and the mosquitoes abound, but you get used to it too.

I have a great new family-they are so funny and easy to talk to! They helped me scope out an apartment & I've already started working with a group of fisherman's wives doing a Participatory Analysis, with which to base further environmental education activities.

It seems I'm off to a good start here. It makes me smile to think that this is exactly where I am meant to be, by the mere fact that I physically can't be anywhere else...it serves as a reaffirmation that prayer is powerful!

Mission Incomplete: Removed from my volunteer site

I had grown comfortable in Gogorron. From where I stand, I look back on the last six months with great fondness to have lived and bonded with people there. At times it was challenging, other times awkward, uncomfortable, a waste of time, frustrating, daunting, and still most of the time it was fun, meaningful, emotionally charged, and fulfilling. I have regrets too though.

I was starting to become complacent. I had enough time on my hands to ask myself whether I wanted to be here in Mexico or not. I was starting to feel sad. Maybe it was because of my birthday. At the same time, everything was starting to come together and our projects were starting to take form. I used to joke around with my host mom that I hadn’t done anything meaningful yet because I hadn’t built any bridges (referring to something tangible).

On May 18th Christian and I were removed from our site temporarily after Christian reported two incidents that allegedly happened involving the Zetas (ruthless drug cartel) and a kidnapping in our community. On May 18th my SWATCH watch stopped working too, so maybe time was up. It was obvious by the next day that we wouldn’t be going back. The numbness, the shock and sadness started hitting. The sadness of leaving my friends behind makes my stomach hurt. Before leaving I told my host mom, that out of all the bridges that I could have built, the most meaningful bridges were the friendships and relationships I had already built, and I thanked her for being a friend.

Surprisingly, the one friendship that I thought would survive time, distance, and misunderstandings seems to have ended immediately: the friendship with my counter-part. She went out of her way in all instances, to help us adjust to our new life, and she made us a part of her life and family. I admire her, and fear that one anxiety I had of letting her down has come true. She had an evolution of feelings of her own since we were removed from our site, from ‘ni modo’ [Eng: oh well], to sadness and crying together, to anger. The tragedy of this situation is that our reaction to unsubstantiated report of a kidnapping (which did not take place at all) resulted is us being removed from our volunteer-site, leaving behind a community that was starting to organize and become empowered, and leaving our counterpart abruptly with pending projects & expectations , ultimately resulting in a nightmare for her. This being said, I understand her frustration, channelized as anger.

I packed my things, and said good-bye to my special and close friends, because I couldn’t have bared to to say good-bye to everyone. There was a special meeting held in the community for our bosses to explain how the decision to remove us from the community was taken etc, and I got to address them. I addressed them for approx 45 seconds, because that was all I could bare. I said that I was leaving with great pain in my heart, that I learned a lot from them and about myself, and I thanked them for being a part of my life.

A much more pleasant surprise was having some community leaders buy me a cake right before I left and we ate it in my host family’s home; the little kids in the family sang las mañanitas. It was the sweetest gesture, and what makes me believe they appreciated me as much as I appreciated them. When I left the community, I had cried so much for so long that my head hurt, and I felt nauseous…I was emotionally exhausted and literally sick.

As I said, I have regrets about some things I did or failed to do in the last six months, and now I have time to reflect, and to commit to doing things differently in the next place they send us.

A Legendary Earth Day Event

I’ve been told my blogposts are a little long, so I won’t go into too much depth about what’s been going on in the last couple of months. If I had to use a metaphor to describe my experience, it would be this: Like when I was learning to drive a stick-shift, and I finally get into first gear, but I’m so thrilled or scared that the car is moving, that I don’t know what to do next.

Yada, yada, yada, I finally shift into second!

Lately I’ve been busier than I care to be, but a sense of accomplishment does feel nice. Two weeks ago I had two positive events come to fruition:

1) My first Environmental Education session with students from the Secundaria (middle school). It was the first one that I actually organized and planned. It was really cool because I took it from the very beginning with a story that presented the kids with a moral dilemma. Yesterday I found this quote by Baba Dioum that says ¨in the end, we conserve what we love, we love what we understand, and we understand what we are taught.¨ Essentially, our values have a direct impact on how we act, and our actions have direct and indirect impacts on our environment-so that was my ´learning objective´. It was a simple yet important place to start I think.

I was backed up by my counter-part Gaby, who mostly has traits I admire, for example she is as sharp as whip and thinks on her toes and is a great public speaker. My friend Christian, who’s another PCV was there to help out, and his presence was very welcomed. We basically worked as one finely tuned machine.

2) On the 15th I organized an Earth Day Clean-up of the river-bank which is used as a dump. It basically involved an entire primary school (approx 240), where the 4th-6th grades went out to the river, while the 1st-3rd grades stayed indoors and where ran through a circuit of environmental activities. I invited 15 kids from the middle school, 30 employees from the nearby G.M. factory, the Ecology Department from the Municipality, and about 30 women from the community. They picked up the trash and separated it (plastic bottles, glass, aluminum, and paper etc). In Mexico, glass is not recycled because it has a low value…so we filled an entire trash bin (those really big ones) full of glass…like beer bottles & Nescafe bottles (much to my dismay, mostly everyone here drinks soluble coffee…like, I had to sow my own coffee filter out of cheese cloth so i could have brewed coffee). Anyway, after about an hour we retreated from the mid-day sun. We then invited everyone who participated into the Hacienda’s gardens to feast on sandwiches and Mole con Arroz (come to Mexico and you will find out what a special meal this is) under the grassy shade (which is very UNCOMMON in this town). I had arranged for the guy who owns a radio station to blast music while we all ate. Kids played and a good time was had by all. I was so blessed that it all turned out fine, and that no one got hurt. Honestly, it took a LOT of coordinating, and ‘riding herd’ on people. I did everything I could do to prepare, and despite a few hiccups, it was amazing by American standards. People were asking me when the next clean-up would be, and asking me about other projects like renovating the Basketball courts. It really inspired people in this dysfunctional little town where the film Zorro was shot…so even though I really don’t like organizing events, it was totally worth it!

And so, I simply could not have made this any shorter, even without parenthetical clauses.

New Frontiers

December flew by. I was still getting used to being in a new community, living with a new family, and experiencing ALL the Mexican traditions.

December 12th is the celebration of the Virgin Guadalupe. Everyone attends ‘velacciones,’ which is like a small prayer group and say the Rosary, for the previous 40 days, and on the 12th they eat tamales and ‘atole’ (a corn based drink of different flavors like peacan, cinnamon, vanilla, strawberry, chocolate etc). On the 18th the Posadas start; this entails more ‘velacciones’ except with different chants and the it’s where the people reenact Joseph & Mary trying to find lodging for the night when Jesus is born. At the end of every ‘velaccion’ cookies and candy is given out (I think tamales were given at some of them). They have a tradition where they build mangers full of little replicas of the Mary, Joseph & the three Kings. Before Christmas, they ‘acostar el nin~o Dios’/lay baby Jesus down to sleep; this is where they have little baby dolls and they through a big party with tamales, candies, cookies, rice, mole etc and they have people rock the multiple babes to sleep and cover in waddling clothes. They lay the babes down to sleep before Christmas. At an indeterminate time after Christmas, they ‘leventar el nin~o Dios’/raise baby Jesus. More of the same except in reverse order. My host family is religious so they hosted some pretty big parties, and they have a large extended family so it felt like we always had a party to go. Yada, Yada, Yada, I think I gained five pounds.

Christmas Eve we had one of these really big parties in the afternoon. In the evening, I was hornswoggled into participating in a parade dressed up as the Virgin Mary. This is a contentious subject for me, because I really didn’t want to do it. The people I work with at the municipality were in charge of putting together one of the floats, they asked me and my fellow volunteer if we wanted to participate. We agreed that we did not want to dress up and spend our Christmas Eve being paraded around town. They badgered me until I gave in (but in exchanged, I asked for 6 concert tickets to the dance—which they said they would give me). We were told it would take less than an hour, but it really ended up taking nearly four hours. I was really upset (them for lying to me & at myself for being dumb enough to give in), but then what really urked me was having discovered that the heavy Little Baby Jesus I was carrying on my lap for the last four hours had peed me!

Christmas morning was different in a sad sort of way. No other way to describe it. That night I went with one of my host-sisters and some friends to the Dance/concert. It was actually really cool; I learned how to dance the latest Mexican Dance: hy-fy. It’s mre complicated than it looks, but it’s a simple foot move in a circle, which can get complicated depending on how good of a dancer you are. It can also be danced in place, which looks more like jumping in a rave. It was a 3AM night. *I definately feel like I lost sight on the real meaning of Christmas this year.

New Years was fun. I stayed in my community and chilled with the host family. I ended up going to bed at 6AM (which was a first for me).
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The search for a house started after the new year. I’ve seen four or five, and I believe that I have the incredible fortune of finding a centrally located, fully furnished home that resembles a hacienda in style. It has four rooms not interconnected; one room is a kitchen with plumbing, full gas range, large fridge, china cabinet with all the kitchen utensils AND a chimney for cooking; bathroom includes a Washer/Dryer; bedrooms includes all the furnishings like TV, a large stereo, and a couch etc. The patio has a gigantic palm tree and lots of potted plants and vegetation—which is a premium considering I live in a dessert town. I have not gotten Peace Corps approval to move in, but I hope they approve it.
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After being in-site for approx two months, my fellow volunteer and I had our first community meeting. We explained the meaning of Sustainable Development, then went into a participatory analysis exercise where we split the crowd into three groups (men, women, and youth) and asked them to draw their ideal community, identifying three important community-level concerns. We were half-way through the prioritization when this very disruptive old lady hi-jacked my meeting. She disagreed with the priority of one of the issues, and was going back and forth with another gentleman. I saw that we weren’t going to get anywhere, so I was trying to end the meeting, and she kept on talking. I was trying to take control of my meeting while not being disrespectful to this old lady; it was very tough to manage. Afterwards, I was exhausted. The next day I found out that this lady is a ‘boat-rocker’ and the person she was bickering with in my meeting was from her opposing political party…basically they were using my meeting to debate and complain about broken political promises etc. In the end, no irreparable damage was sustained, and I think we can continue to work on community development. A victory from that meeting was that the community’s trash problem was identified and given first priority! This is great, so I can start on getting people organized.

Ideally, I will be able to get 5-7 committed community members to participate in a council to help solve the trash problem. I hope that we can get the municipality’s support to have trash bins placed in the community and have it scheduled for pick up one or twice a month. Also, promoting recycling and trash clean-ups.
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Last week I also started teaching English & it was challenging. On one day I had young kids (<9>

I look forward to reporting my challenges and successes.

p.s. I started this blog nearly a year ago & I reread my first posting, and it's amazing what a difference a year makes. Despite the lack of exclamation points (which I tend to overuse) in this entry, I must say I'm really happy to be here.

Life on 'el Rancho'

It's taking me a while to figure out where to begin. Like all new 'beginings' the last two weeks have gone by quickly. Fitting into a new host family, forming new working relationships & friendships, and trying to observe as much of people's routines and interactions as possible. I was sick for most of last week, but am doing much better now.

As if it could be any other way, I love my new host family and decided to stay with them through the holidays. They are the sweetest people; there are seven little kids in the extended family. They are such neat kids and very smart. I've started helping them with their homework, and have started teaching them how to work my computer (1-on-1). I'll start teaching them the English alphabet soon, but it's going to take some brainstorming as I don't have any teaching materials as yet. One thing that's pretty cool is that they chant my name sometimes when I come home, so they are like my own little fan club, lol. I have 3 host-sisters who are about my age. They were reserved at first, but they are starting to get used to me & we've started sharing pictures and stories about our life. I saw a pic of my host mom in custume when she was an extra for the Zorro film w/ Atonio & Katherine Zeta. One of my host sisters was on the cooking crew and had some fuzzy shots of Antonio; apparently she used to get flowers from some of the americans that were trying to woo her & one offered to take her back to the states (as a bride I suppose). My host-family has a very modest way of life & a humble home, but feel honored to be a part of it.

Challenges to life on in 'el Rancho' as they call the community is that it is underdeveloped (no jobs) and appears to have been forgotten by time. It's very dusty since there are no paved roads. The most interesting attraction is the Hacienda where they filmed el Zorro, but it's privately owned & is not counted on as a source of tourism for the community (yet?). There is one elementary school and a tele-middle school (lessons given on dvd/vhs), and few kids actually finish the middle school. There is a big trash problem in the community, along with a myriad of other environmental issues.

My community is part of a National Protected Area. There is a huge errosion problem caused by overgrazing (which is being addressed) & from the brick-making industry (which is not being addressed). The brick-makers actually take all the dirt leading up to and around the trees/cactae which causes them to die; each bricking-maker burns 200 tires a day in the kilns & there are 1500 brick makers in the municipality. There is llegal harvesting of trees to be used/sold for wood burning stoves, iillegal harvesting of rare cactae for sale, and the capturing of endangered bird species for sale. The presence of a thermo-electric plant, a paper mill, water intensive agriculture and exhaustive presense of Thermal Roman Bath houses all contribute to the lowering of the water table...the same thermal waters that have made this area of Mexico famous.

As an Environmental Educator, I have my work cut out for me. On the one hand, I've only been there two plus weeks, and the holiday season is upon us, so I really can't expect to get too much done. The American side of me is starting to feel ancy about needing to do something fruitful to announce my presense and inevetable positive impact on the community (lol, the PC calls this an Early Win). One nice thing is that I have a lot of discretion with how I want to approach formulation of an environmental education program.

On the other hand, I have no environmental education experience, so I'm going to be teaching myself & that will take time. I have'nt really thought about this because I've been busy assimilating other things...

It seems overwhelming, but considering that Environmental Education programs take years (5, 10, 15) to become part of the culture, I believe we have to start somewhere!

Other noteworthy news:
-I'm over halfway through The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo--what an awesome book!
-I'm invited to a quiceaniera this Friday! Should be fun
-I'm considering getting broadband for internet usage (if it's feasable, I'll likely get it)

A very special Veteran´s Day

I feel proud that my service to my country continues outside of Coast Guard. Yesterday I swore in as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

I wasn´t sure how to describe how I was feeling in the days/hours leading up to the Swearing-in Ceremony and departure from our training environment; everything from ready, numb, nervous, and sad. Sometimes i don´t understand the way i feel, but at this point, it could be said that I am in awe of what is happening in my life. Saying good-bye to my friends and host family between yesterday and today was sad, but I can´t help but feel it´s the natural progression of events. I´m happy everything has worked out, and I am proud to be part of a legacy of peace.

Today I will move into my new host family´s home, and my work as a developement professional (aka Environmental Educatation Volunteer).

Today I am living the fulfillment of my heart´s hopes and dreams. I am going to live it, knowing that this is my choice; in the words a mentor of mine, "you love what you choose, you can´t choose what you love."

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One quick note, I had the very distinct privilige to deliver a speach at our Swearing In Ceremony. It was short and from the heart, and among those with tearing eyes was the US Ambassador to Mexico! Maybe I´ll shape up to be a diplomat or president afterall.