Tuesday June 19, 2012
It’s a quiet and cloudy day in Mineral del Chico. I’m
sitting waiting for Lindsay and our PC bosses for our annual Peace Corps visit.
Since I haven’t blogged in awhile and I have a few minutes on my hands and I’m
in reflecting mode because of the fact that my bosses are coming to interview
us on our current projects, I decided to write down a few thoughts.
Things are rapidly changing and coming to an end, though
nothing seems to be bringing closure quite yet. A little over a week ago, I
finished my spring quarter at Fuller. I was extremely excited to be done but
really the end of the quarter was anticlimactic. It wasn’t like walking out of my
last final of the spring semester at PSU. I just sent an email and I was done.
The work for my seminary classes has been overly challenging. My classes make
me question the world around me and make wonder about the faith I have grown up to
understand. I am glad to have this opportunity and the time of solitude to
reflect on these huge questions as I live in the middle of the mountains with a
few extra hours on my hands, but I am also glad to have a little break this
summer. I took these classes to answer questions that have plagued me over the
years and even more so here in Mexico, but I am left asking many more.
My English classes will also end next week, but I think
they’ve been done for a long time. I have several solid students that come
every week and will work until the end, but after Spring Break, as in any
school the lack of motivation is apparent. Right now, my students are reading
and translating Dr. Seuss books, which has been a really fun project for them.
They seem to enjoy putting to use some of the English they’ve learned over the
year.
My host family’s restaurant has come to a stand still. It
only needs a little more work, but they’re been preoccupied with new babies in
the family and keeping up their regular business of selling plants. I’m not
worried about it though. I know they’ll finish it in time, and I’m excited when
that day comes!
Any day now, we should be sending our guidebook of Mineral
del Chico and Parque Nacional el Chico to be printed. (and as I write I’m being
interrupted by our good friend Victor to talk about the upcoming federal
elections as he blows smokes in my face… I want to jump off a tall building…)
Anyway, the guidebook is Lindsay’s and my baby and the only thing we are
wishing these days is that that thing gets printed and distributed before we
leave – well even before that – like tomorrow if possible. We’ve put over a
year’s worth of work into it and are ready to see it in the hands of tourists
all over the park.
While all these things are starting to slowly wrap up, I’ve
gotten myself into another little project… actually it’s a huge project. I want
to build a high school in my community and we’ve just over the past month
opened discussion with the State Secretary of Education to find out exactly
what they require when building a high school. It’s a long and in-depth process
and we’re only at the beginning, so we’ll see what happens and how much or
little I can be involved before I go home.
On a personal level, things are good. We’ve been so busy
that Lindsay and I haven’t traveled in a long time, but we’re planning on
changing that soon. We’ll be going to Oaxaca again in July and possibly to Veracruz as well. In between all our little and big projects, I’m trying to take
advantage of all Mexico has to offer in these last few months. I know I’ll miss
this place like crazy and the people even more, so it’s time now to aprovechar
every minute I have left.
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| From our last trip in March to San Blas |
