New Site

So a couple weeks ago I moved to a new site, and I´ve been settling in. It´s definitely much easier the second time around...I understand the bus system, just not the local routes, and with an upgraded language ability I can communicate fairly well with the people.

This is the view from my small town. This is an active volcano, called Popo for short. You can hike near the volcano, but I´m not sure if you´re allowed to hike up this one. Some of the inactive volcanoes in the area you´re allowed to hike up with a permit and appropriate gear.



Also, I went to a local museum a couple weekends ago that has some really interesting pre-Hispanic artifacts. Skulls and death are important, as shown by Day of the Dead and the Katrina figurine that are popular all over México.

Fails

If any of you surf epicfail.com or failblog.org, you'll know a new fad is random pictures of things that don't make any sense. The pictures and videos are pretty funny, so I wanted to post some of the things that I've seen in México.

They were doing construction on my office...this guy is hooked up to a safety harness, which is good. But look closer at how long the harness cable is...



This is a kindergarten in Puebla...obviously the razor wire is only for the really bad kids...



A restaurant in Monterrey. No smoking, but they'll sell you the cigarettes anyways.

Busy two weeks

I had planned on coming back home last weekend between trips, but I had an unexpected opportunity to attend a course, so I jumped on it. So my last two weeks have been fairly busy:

I first went to a small community where a fellow volunteer had organized a two-day leadership conference. Both days about 30-40 people showed up, which was a great turn-out! There were probably less than 300 people living in the community, and it was great seeing how the "other half" of Peace Corps volunteers lives.



I then went down to Puebla, where a CONACYT center was hosting a four-day course called "Fundamentals of Business for Scientists". It was very interesting meeting the mix of people at the course and seeing a different center. I also had the chance to hang out with a volunteer stationed in Puebla. The big attraction there is a pyramid in the suburb of Cholula, where you used to be able to go into the tunnels under the pyramid. BUT, they had water damage in November, so they tunnels have been closed down...bummer!



Our group then had our mid-service training in Queretaro. One full year of service--done! One more year left! The time has flown by, and it was great seeing all the other volunteers and talking about our experiences.

Sierra Gorda Biosphere

This past week I again had the opportunity to visit the Sierra Gorda Biosphere in the north of Querétaro. I am helping some of the volunteers there on a project with remote wildlife cameras--basically sensors attached to a digital camera that takes pictures of critters in the wild. The hope is that they can get some good shots of the jaguars, etc., that populate the park. This is a rooftop shot of the main church where the volunteers life.



Also, we stumbled upon a barrio festival one night! There was a big band, two stages, and lots of people dancing huapango, the music of the region.



One day we also went swimming in a local river. I caught this ironically funny shot, though it is slightly unfair. These three kids were playing with an air mattress in the river, and of course the two girls are pushing it upstream while the guy is relaxing on top. I say unfair, because he jumped off about a minute later to help pull...but he still got a free ride for a while!

Summer heat

I had forgotten about how hot it gets here in the summer. Then summer came a couple of weeks ago. And it's not even really that hot yet (highs in the low 30's). It makes me not want to do anything at ALL during the day, except find somewhere indoors and preferably with air conditioning. Thus, I'm hiding today from the heat and have nothing of cultural value to share about México.

Okay, so I do have some little tidbits. Yesterday (Apr 30) was the "Day of the kids" in México, which means that at my office, they were handing out bags of candy for the employees who have kids. Now, I´ve never seen anything like this in the US (parents will probably tell you every day is "Kid´s day"), so it´s a pretty unique tradition. Also, today (May 1) is Labor Day, as in the rest of the world outside of the US. Unfortunately, it is a Saturday, so most people (like me) do not get an extra holiday. In fact, the holiday schedule is very random and not at all standardized. I have heard of some offices getting yesterday off (for Labor Day), other offices getting Monday off (for Labor Day), some offices getting May 5 off (Cinco de Mayo), and some places getting Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off to take care of both holidays. My office? We get Wednesday off for Cinco de Mayo, and nothing else.

Park cleanup for Earth Day

This morning I went to a cleanup event organized by the US Consulate, the other Peace Corps Volunteer, and a local school. We were celebrating Earth Day, so we cleaned up a stretch of road in a part of the park called La Huasteca. This was the hand-painted sign welcoming the cleanup-crew to the park.



About 100 people showed up, and we collected a ton of trash. Here is a picture of the final pile of Team 1 (my team!). Multiply the pile by three, and you get an idea of how much trash we picked up in total. Unfortunately it was a small percentage of the total trash in the park. We drove around afterwards and saw a lot more trash sitting by the side of the road.



During the morning, I also stumbled upon two scorpions when I turned over a rock. They were fairly small, but one of the park employees picked them up by their tails with his Leatherman.

Airplane crash in Monterrey

So this made the news today. A cargo plane crashed trying to land at the Monterrey airport. It so happens that it happened close to my office, and I saw the unfortunate aftermath when we were heading out to lunch (hence my version of the news fotos is below). The main road to the airport was closed, and traffic was being re-routed. Very sad indeed...