¡Viva Mexico!

So this post will be short because we've talked about Dia de Independencia en español until we were all blue in the face, but for any of you at home that are actually reading this blog, I'm sure you'd like to know about the festivities. In addition to the fact that it was their independence day, it's also their 200 year anniversary, so we were here to celebrate El Bicentenario!

the countdown

Monday, September 13th: Saw the Parade of Los Concheros

This was an amazing parade and dance. It's a tribute to all of the native people that were living in the area during and before the time of the Independence from Spain. It was incredible! I'm sorry I'm not that great of a photographer because some of the outfits were fantastic and all the dances were great; very colorful and lively. 

Wednesday, September 15th: El Grito

At 11pm the gobernador comes out and gives a little tiny speech and says a few phrases, such as "¡viva Miguel Hidalgo!, ¡viva la revolucion!, ¡viva Mexico!" and after every phrase the crowd shouts "¡¡VIVA!!" and right after the vivas, fireworks shoot out right over the crowd, so close that the ash falls into your eyes as you look up in amazement like you've never seen fireworks before. It was much freaking fun. We were all laughing and screaming and so incredibly excited to be in Mexico. 

September 16th: Dia de Independencia

A day to sit around in our pajamas and watch TV all day!

And that was it. I had a great weekend too. We went to Pueblito to see a local Pyramid from the Toltecs and also got to go on a walking tour of Legends and Myths of Queretaro where they take you through old houses in el centro and tell you all ghost stories and fun facts about who died there and how it happened. 

We changed classes in Spanish so we're all adjusting all over again, but it's a good challenge and I've decided I need to make some Mexican friends so I can practice my español. 

Love you all. Here are some more pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/rebeccajoyb/TimeInQueretaro# 

My PCV Visit Homework

I decided to kill 2 birds with one stone by blogging my Peace Corps Volunteer Visit Homework.

John and I travelled to Tlaxcala to visit volunteer Debbie Reid from PCM 08. (I'm in group 9) and had the opportunity to see what life as a volunteer is "really" like.

1. Tlaxcala is the capital of Mexico's smallest state, Tlaxcala and is a very important historical site. Pre- conquistadores, it was home to the Olmecas. Because they were in opposition of the Aztecs, Hernan Cortes used them as an alliance to defeat the Aztecs and thus Tlaxcala became a staging ground for Spanish advancement. Today, the colonial architecture remains.

And the Huarache is a typical food in Tlaxcala: tortilla on the bottom, covered with beans, then your choice of meat (or not), cheese, and nopales (cactus).

2. New Spanish expressions (not necessarily in the workplace or volunteer context, but we did learn these from Debbie)

• ¿Quien sabe? - who knows?
• microcuencas - micro water basins, Debbie's new project
• ¿Hay una posibilidad a...? - Is there a possibility... (this way you can get out of conjugating verbs)
• No ya - not yet (Angel says this is not correct but apparently is used in the communities)
• Cuerpos de Paz introduccion - Peace Corps introduction. VERY important. Learn it. 

3. Recommendations about integrating:

• Attend community events (ex: on Friday night, we went to a dance in the Zocalo, where Debbie goes semi often and has met some friends and dance partners)
• Say Yes to invites when you can (ex: we attended a fiesta that the ex-senator of Tlaxcala invited us to)
• Make yourself a "regular" (ex: Debbie frequents the same panaderia, restaurants, carpenteria, and many other shops where people now know her and she knows them)

4. Job Challenges

• Commitment and interest from the community might not be what you hope or expect
• It may be difficult to be on the same page as your boss and/or counterpart regarding funding and planning on community projects
• Not having a lot of man power; so having to start a lot of research from scratch.

5. Culturally appropriate behaviors in the workplace

• Saludos: pay attention to each person, because they are all different in the way the greet you - be prepared to shake everyones hand and give a few besos
• Get to know your coworkers. Debbie has taken the time to get to know everyone in the office and knows at least something about their personal life. It seems common to spend a few minutes chatting with each person in the office even if not work related. 
• Stay professional

6. Strategies for collaboration 

• Collaboration between SEMARNAT, CONAFOR, CONAGUA (government agencies). Debbie has really pressed to be able to have meetings with people from these different agencies to be able to work together. We had the opportunity to attend one of these collaboration meetings

• Attend conferences and meetings in your field to gain more knowledge and meet the experts
• Working 24-7. Networking with everyone you meet, because you never know who they'll know or what their professional background is. (ex: while hiking La Malinche on Saturday, we met 2 grad students from Yucatan who study exactly what Debbie is researching)

7. Collaborative / participatory planning process

1. Meet with the office about project ideas and get feedback
2. Meet with the community to find out their needs and get feedback about project
3. Start project and constantly reevaluate

8. Secondary project ideas for Debbie

• Earth Day in April
• Microcuencas

9. Gender roles

• Varies by community - some women are more involved than others
• Did not seem to be a problem in the workplace

10. Other

We had a really great time and this trip probably made me more excited about my PC service than I've been yet. We got to see Debbie's cute apartment, enjoy some culture and outdoors, and got to venture out to see all the projects she is currently working on. She was a great host and a very inspirational volunteer. As she said, she's had her challenges and probably had higher expectations than she should have but she's a "raging optimist" and her positive outlook has really helped her to be successful in all her Peace Corps goals. 

Here are some more pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/rebeccajoyb/TlaxcalaTrip

Trip to San Luis Potosi - an Intro to our lives for the next 2 years...

Dia 1: Gogorron - On Monday, we started in Gogorron where we were given a tour of a beautiful Hacienda where the movie Zorro 2 was filmed and had our first introduction to an ejido. There are what seems like hundreds of ejidos in Mexico which are basically plots of land given to communities all over the country with the responsibility to take care of the land. The government will pay them to take care of the land and is slowly but surely teaching the people how to do this. This particular ejido is in charge of desert land. Cattle run free through this desert and eat fruit right off the cacti. There is a mountain within the bounds of the ejido as well and the ejido owners take a trip up the mountain a few times a week just to make sure everything is in tact.

Dia 2: Comunidad km 58 - Tuesday we had the pleasure of visiting this mountain ejido, community kilometer 58. It has it's name from an old train passage; it was 58 kilometers from San Luis Potosi (the capital of the state) on the old train at the beginning of the 1900s. The train eventually stopped running but because there was a train station in this area, the people remained; except now without any transportation to their jobs and without a station to maintain. So what to do? It seems as if they've been trying to figure that out for the past 50+ years and just in 2000 decided to start reforestation with help from the federal government and start some other farm projects. This picture is of our guide Don Antonio who was very passionate about his land and the people of the ejido. He is worried because many people leave to go to the city or the US for jobs and he wants to create jobs in the area so people will stay. 2 volunteers from our group will be working with this small mountain community.

Dia 3: Medialuna & Agenda 21 workshop
At the beginning of the day, we had a chance to swim and have some fun for a minute. The ejido in Medialuna has the luxury of having this natural spring right on their land, so over the past 7 years, they have been developing tourist wonderland and people come from all over the world just to visit this little spot.

Later in the day, we got to go to a workshop in a town called Progreso (another ejido with a lot less to offer in terms of tourism) where current volunteers gave a presentation on sustainable development. The idea of sustainability is foreign so they started with the simplest and most direct questions: what would be the ideal community for you? What are the top 3 problems you face as a community? The following workshop will be a followup and will ask the community what they can do about it? It was really good for us trainees to hear what is important to the community and what moves them, not to mention the volunteers did a phenomenal job and are something to aspire to.

Dia 4: Desert in the middle of nowhere - La Montonera. This day was a change of pace. Instead of having a bunch of head honchos from an ejido tell us everything great about themselves and their ejido, we met one humble man and his family who live in a community of about 70 people. They have little resources and a hard time even getting water. Their biggest project is the cultivation and reforestation of an agave plant which has many uses which they hope to be able to commercialize in some way. The picture above is the elementary school.

Also on this day we were surprised to be treated to a feast by a neighboring community. Goat meat with mole. Delicious. We then heard about their project, a fish pond in the middle of the desert. They've been trying to get this thing going for the past 10 or so years and have run into quite a few stumbling blocks. The man in charge made it clear that they need the proper training to make this thing successful. They were very kind people and unfortunately we do not have any volunteers assigned to this site, so hopefully soon they will get the training they need. 

Dia 5: A Cactus Cooperative near Matehuala. Friday, we got to meet these wonderful women who nurture these beautiful cacti. They have tons of varieties in different colors and sizes. They expressed their need for business help and appreciated all the gringos buying tons of cactus. They said a part of them was going home with us. They were so sweet and like the fish guy, I hope they get the help they need. 

In conclusion, it was a fantastic trip. I did not mention this but we also got to see a couple SEMARNAT offices which is the branch of the federal government in charge of all these projects. So we got to see small communities like most of us will be working in as well as the offices to which we will most likely refer. If I had to sum it up (which is challenging to do) I would say that the people in these areas are more than grateful for our help and even for our visits. They love their land and the work they do and just want to learn how to do it better. 

dios mio, I might never come home.

Somethings of course get lost in translation, and I'm glad they do, because there are more surprises this way. I got a knock on my bedroom door a little before 9 and my little sisters asked me if I wanted to go somewhere. Whatever they said, I just said si and changed into jeans and grabbed my purse. I had no idea I was in for the best freaking open mic night in the world. That's not really what it was, but I don't know how else to describe it. There's this great little multipurpose cultural center right on my street se llama la casa de faldon and earlier today we went to a little magic show for kids that was pretty cute. The concert / open mic night was picnic style like the hollywood bowl - bring your own wine and cheese (we brought popcorn), except way way way smaller and more intimate than the hollywood bowl. Performers from the community played guitars & santoors, sang, and recited poetry. The audience danced in space left between tables, sang along, and clapped. The space was what you might imagine architecture in Mexico to look like, the old Spanish style with yellow and orange paint. It was an outdoor room with shade covering from wall to wall. There was one man that might have been like 150 years old who sang beautifully acapella and recited poetry and I was so moved by how well loved he was by the audience.  They also of course sold delicious food and this whole night cost me 20 pesos which is less than 2 dollars. Because of my lack of a cellphone I pretty much bailed on the other trainees in order to hang out with my familia but I hope they forgive me because I had a much more culturally enriching evening than tomando cerveza until wee hours of the morning. It was absolutely lovely.

Last night the language school, Ole had a welcome party for us which was actually really fun. Our familias provided food potluck style and we were able to meet everyones new moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas, and siblings. There were traditional mexican dances as well as salsa lessons. I took my little twin sisters and we had a great time. I went out afterward with some friends and it was really hard to wake up this saturday morning for another round of Spanish classes.

This week has been as they say here in mexico, pesado (or heavy). It's been full of classes and trying to figure our way around the city. We have class everyday from 8-6 which leaves little time to get a few chores done because we're also supposed to be home for dinner with our families at around 8, plus I am so beat at the end of the day that even though I may be running low on toothpaste, I'd rather wait until I'm desperate than to go to the store right after school. We already leave for our first field trip on Monday and we'll be gone all week to San Luis Potosi, a state very close to here, to see national parks, rural life, and the capital city. I'll write next week when I get back to tell you all about it.

I drank the water...

... and I'm still alive. That must be a good sign. The water was filtered but from the tap nonetheless, and of course the family washes their dishes and fruits and veggies in the regular water. At some point you just have to throw your hands up and say what the heck! I'm not going to die from the water just may have been a little sick and I really haven't even been sick. But I do feel like that will become a common saying or thought in my life here, to just say the hell with it and go for it; whatever "it" is.

Aside from the water (which I know you all feared for me), everything is good. Since the hacienda, we arrived in Queretaro city on Saturday to meet our host families. We also found out our job assignments on Saturday, so the past few days have been exciting and exhausting.

We'll start with the job assignment. I'll be working in el Parque Nacional el Chico helping to administer a "mountaineering hut" program. Everything is still a little vague (as I beginning to become accustomed to in this Peace Corps life) but it sounds like I'll be living and working in the mountains helping to maintain and create trails and huts for backpackers with the hope that this will create a sustainable livelihood for the people in the surrounding area. I couldn't be more excited. It's like this job was made for me. As one volunteer said, it's hospitality at the most basic level - helping to provide shelter. I start this job mid-November.

My host family is awesome: mom, her BF, 16 year old daughter, and 9 year old twin girls. I went to a boy's first communion on Saturday which was just like all the birthday parties I attended from friends at Il Fornaio, bounce house and all. On Sunday, I went to a Baptist church with the family and the service was almost 3 hours long! We ate some delicious chicken for lunch (which does not happen until like 3pm) and then mom and daughters took me on a tour of el centro. Queretaro is the safest and cleanest city in Mexico and the people are very proud of this. The city has a colonial influence and most of the architecture from the 1800s still stands.

Today was our first official day of training which consisted of 3 hours of Spanish, a big lunch, training in our sector (mine being the environment sector, the other technology), and a lesson on culture shock that I probably could have taught. Tomorrow we have 5 hours of Spanish and some other stuff. It seems like this might be a long 12 weeks of training, but I do appreciate how well the Peace Corps is taking care of us and at the end of the training we will be way better prepared to serve Mexico for the next 2 years.

Pictures will come slowly but surely. Love you all.

La Hacienda del Castillo

We arrived on Wednesday and in the past 2 days we have had lessons in safety and security, emergencies, allowances, and a lot of Spanish. We've also eaten way too much and had the luxury of staying in this gorgeous hacienda on an organic rancho. Today we had a little tour of the ranch.


Traveling was long and exhausting but I'm sure it would be far worse if we were going pretty much anywhere farther than Mexico so I can't complain too much. BUT, we had to meet in the hotel lobby at 1am to finally arrive at our hotel at around 6pm. Lots of hurrying up and waiting. But here we are. Aqui estamos.

I'm really excited about meeting our host families tomorrow and starting real school on Monday. Tonight we have salsa lessons and a bonfire!

I tried to put pics online but there are 38 other PCTs (I'm practicing the Peace Corps acronyms - Peace Corps Trainees) online so internet connection is not the best. Will update pics later.

Here are the pics I promised http://picasaweb.google.com/rebeccajoyb/LaHaciendaCastillo?feat=directlink

It's always better to write on no sleep

All packed with 80 lbs plus carryon luggage and ready to go. I'll get to DC sometime this evening, spend Tuesday at Peace Corps orientation and fly on Wednesday to Mexico. From Wednesday to Saturday, we'll be staying in a hotel and we'll get to meet our host families on Saturday. 


This summer has been a crazy but great summer. It's been a bit of an emotional roller coaster getting ready to leave and say goodbye, but right now I am ready. I packed in every bit of goodbye parties I possibly could and if you are reading this and I did not get a chance to personally say bye bye to you, I'm so sorry and I will see you soon (...in 2 years). It was the perfect summer of camping, visiting friends in PA, partying, hanging out with my family and friends, and of course some wonderful dates. 


So family and friends, as the Von Trapp family would say, "So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye," and come visit me soon. I'll keep you updated as often as I can. 


Hasta la vista!

The Peace Corps Invitation

Hello Family and Friends, 

Thank you for your prayers and support. I'm writing this email to let you know that I have just accepted my invitation to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer. 

Here are the details:

• I'll be in Mexico, somewhere around the city of Querataro
• I leave August 17th, 2010 and can accept visitors 6 months after that. 
• Training is from August 18-November 10 and after training I will move to my volunteer site (where I do not know yet)
• My job title is "Small Business and Community / Group Organizing Volunteer" and I will be working with the National Park Service or in an Environment and Natural Resources state office. 

I will be keeping a blog (the same travel blog I've been keeping since my semester in Argentina)www.beccaviaja.blogspot.com so you can refer to this page for more updated information as I get closer to leaving and when I arrive. 

Thank you all and please look for more info on a Party in the beginning of August!! Love you all

Appalachian Trail planning

So of course it's been a few months since I've posted which means I'm getting the itch to travel again. I really have the urge for a great adventure though (no more cruises for me). You may have heard me talk about my dreams of hiking the Appalachian Trail. The trail is over 2100 miles long and goes from Georgia to Maine. Eventually, I would like to thru hike the AT, but this summer, I think about 150-200 miles will be good enough. So I'll be hiking the portion that runs through Shenandoah National Park.

http://www.nps.gov/shen/ Click on view map to see what I'm thinking about hiking.

Potential dates: July 21-Aug 2

Still looking for hiking buddies...

... let me know if you're interested.

Spring Break 2008 Videos

These are just some funny video clips from our Spring Break trip to the Bahamas. You can see more pics at webshots

We took a cruise to the Bahamas and had a great time lounging and forgetting about life for a week. Now I'm in my last 7 weeks of college and just trying to take it as it comes.