Ready to Rock ‘n Roll

Apparently one way that development work can start is with a wad of cash. This is Micha and me making the transfer of funds for the efficient wood-burning cookstove project. Ah, nothing like getting a few thousand dollars in denominations of $5’s, $10’s and $50’s, or their peso equivalents. Pretty exciting and a bit scary, […]

Promises, Promises

I went out on this mostly grey election day to check out the voting sites and sights, but it is pretty quiet. I guess the real excitement could come later this evening as the preliminary results come in. I missed all the best photos of the campaign posters around town, but I did snap a […]

All the parties under one roof

Well, technically a couple are missing, but the Green Party candidate and the PRI candidate are one and the same a lot of the time (most of the time/all of the time? This is not a political blog), and the Nueva Alianza posters are much fewer and far between. These are all the major players. […]

Getting ready

Best watched on repeat. chalking-up2 from Karen M on Vimeo.

Almost under the microscope

Cañón del Sabino

No witty title, just pictures and more pictures from the canyon with the military macaw colony. I want to go back with a tripod and really get started at 5am to see the big movement of the birds first thing as they exit the canyon. And, yes, I know that a tripod won’t really help […]

Or, two birds at a time

I have to post one now, because the full set will take a few days to edit. Amazing weekend with the military macaws (guacamayas verdes/ara militaris). Ok, maybe 2 right now. Well, I’ve got 3 edited, so I might as well put them all up. Also, I’m afraid these are the best ones. I have […]

One bird at a time

After the fair in Puebla last Friday, I joined the local birders on a day trip to the La Malinche National Park. We had a nice walk through a wooded barranca. Wooded was the key word, and even with the big lens I didn’t end up with so many good pictures. The flowers and butterflies […]

Have solar oven, will travel

Although the climate in the state of Puebla is significantly cloudier and rainier than where I live, I packed up my solar oven and took it with me to a science fair this weekend in a small community there. The fair was organized by another Volunteer for the children and parents at the school where […]

Community Participation Tools

Taking a step back to the second-to-last day of Mid-Service Training and away from my oh-so-self-important reflections, I want to share some pictures from our group field trip to one of the communities in which we have been working for the solar stove project. But, before I do that, I will explain how this outing […]

Aspirations

For Part 2 of the MST essay series, we are going to take a look at one of the touchier-feelier activities we did on the last day of Mid-Service Training. This activity was rereading our original Aspiration Statements from the Peace Corps Application. I feel that it deserves capitalization and the be recognized as a […]

Underutilized and misplaced

First off, let me say, not me. Well, not me outside the office. The problem is that I don’t want to be utilized or placed in the office. More on this later in this post. I’m struggling a bit with tone in these essay posts. My voice is my voice, but it starts to feel […]