Summertime

Summer always seems to fly by no matter where you are!  This summer that has held particularly true for me.  Summer is the busiest time of the year for my office.  Our office hosts weeklong courses where people from all around the country come to learn about ecotecnias (inexpensive eco-frindly technologies such as wood-saving stoves), the management of natural resources, and any other topic you could imagine regarding the environment...for example this week someone is coming to give a talk on birds.  Anyways, I guess summer is the best time for people to come to these events because it seems we squish them all in during the summer, sometimes having 3 courses going on simultaneously. After September, however, the office becomes calm and quiet again, well at least until next summer comes along. So I am happy to say that I have made it through my second, and final (GASP, I can't believe I've been here for over a year) summer at my office. 

In addition to it being high season at my office, it was also a busy time for me regarding my Peace Corps duties/obligations.  In June, my Peace Corps Group had its mid-service training, or MST.  This is a weeklong training where our group comes together after completing one year of service. This is an opportunity to catch up with members of my group I had not seen since September and also for us to plan for the year ahead which also happens to be our final year (again GASP).  It is always so fun to get back together as a group. There are not many volunteers that live close to my site (we are fairly isolated here in the Guz) so it is always great to have a chance to catch up with my amigos.  Also, a few weeks later I took part in another training that Peace Corps hosted.  They organized a workshop to teach about rainwater capture systems and any volunteer who had a counterpart interested in attending was able to come.  It was fun to meet other volunteers' counterparts, learn a little something about water capture systems, and explore more of México as the workshop was in a city I had not been to before.  So that was another week I was off traveling this summer!  

After MST, a few of the volunteers went to Guanajuato
for the weekend.  Love this group!

One of the main reasons summer is a busy time is we host 2 weeks of Cursos de Verano (summer courses) for kids supposedly ages 8-12, but in reality we ended up having kids come that were ages 3-14.  Talk about an age range! The kids learned about reforestation, biodiversity, forest fires, pollution, recycling, water conservation, and planted some trees too!  I had to plan a few activities for the kids, as well as be around to help corral the kids during all the other activities.  We hosted 2 courses (each 5 days long), the first was held at my office and consisted of 106 kids while the second course took place in a small community (population ~700) that is 45 minutes away and consisted of 50 kids.  This is a lot of kids to handle and it makes for a very busy and exhausting 2 weeks, but we made it through in one piece! 

Planting seeds during the Curso de Verano at my office

Decorating their notebooks made from recycled paper and boxes

Playing Lóteria while learning about biodiversity with kids in the small community.
Shoutout to Whitney and Cassie for helping out and bringing activities
such as this to entertain the kiddos.

Me with some new friends during a break in activities

I taught a 3 year old to take selfies! She was so excited and
entertained by my camera...adorable!

Aside from work and Peace Corps happenings I also joined a soccer team this summer.  It was by chance that I found this team and I am so glad that I did.  It is a brand new team, so I joined at the same time everyone else on the team did.  It was very refreshing to not be the 'new girl' for once. We were all new to each other and we all had to get to know each other and learn each others' names...it wasn't just me having to do this!  Whitney also plays soccer so I invited her to a game one day and she has been a part of the team ever since.  Let me tell you, we make quite a site in Ciudad Guzmán when walking to our games.  You could say we stand out a little with us both being gringas and wearing our BRIGHT lime green uniforms (see below).  It's great for if we ever need a self-esteem boost as we get a lot of cat-calls during our weekly pilgrimage to the soccer field.

The team, Spartans F.C.  Our uniforms are definitely brighter in person

So there you have it...an update on my happenings over the summer.  In a few days I am off to the U.S. for a 2 week visit!  I'm excited to see my family and also my best friends from college who I have not seen since before I arrived in México 18 months ago!  And of course, I can't wait to eat some Chick-fil-a.  That seems to be the only thing I crave from the U.S. these days after getting used to the culinary options afforded to me in Guzmán :)

From the last time my friends and I were together
...they wanted a shoutout, but didn't specify
what kind of shoutout so this is what they get!