Pat’s Peace Corps Blog

2024-10-13T13:52:00.000-07:00

I was just looking at my last post and the picture of Katy and Spence, thinking about how beautiful they are. I realized I forgot to mention that Katy took a bunch of their friends from Middlebury on a mountain bike ride the morning of the wedding. If you look closely at the picture, you can see on Katy'sright arm, just below her elbow, she has a large bandage.......7 stitches !!!!!

We've been having our Friday PB sessions and last Friday 4 new players showed up. I happened to know them all from one of my conversation groups so it was great to see them. They came with Andres, who had come once before ( I described him as looking like a Calvin Klein model...he's tall and thin) and they had been in the weight room lifting weights. Andres had never played as he said he just wanted to come to practice English with me. Anyh ow, he came and brought 4 of his friends and we all played for a while. As it was winding up, we were standing in a little group and one of the guys said something like...can you recommend how to improve ? I assumed they were talking about pickleball so I said they should watch You Tube and study what the players were doing....they laughed....and said they were talking about improving their English, not pickleball. That tells you where my mind was.😊

School is on vacation this week so I'm looking for things to do. I did get us permission to come onto the campus to play pickleball so I think I'll be doing that some. I don't feel very safe going out by myself so I'll probably just play pickleball and walk around the Queretaro historic center which is nearby. There is plenty to see around there. A couple of cartel leaders ended up in US custody recently so some of my coworkers are expecting some violence related to that. Mexico is saying they did not have anything to do with it so I guess that means the US arranged it. Who knows ??!!

I am renewing my lease in my apartment for 6 months but I doubt that I'll stay here that much longer. Its very hard to find a place that will take Gringo and also that PC will approve so I decided to just stay put. If I leave earlier, they can just have the extra money....not worth the hassle and I really can't find anywhere else to live.

2024-07-17T17:03:00.000-07:00

Starting a new post as I didn't post anything for a while. My days have been pretty routine since the heat wave passed and the weather has returned to the weather that Queretaro is known for...cool nights and very decent days.

The biggest event is the wedding of Katy in Peoa, Utah...a close suburb of Park City. It was just wonderful and I'll add some photos right now.

Katy and Spence

One table. They had almost 200 guests at the wedding.

Many of their friends from Middlebury wanted to camp so they provided Glamping accommodations i
The mother and father of the bride....Amanda and Jon Eric

The theme of their wedding was "Tandem" as that was their transportation around campus for their courtship.

Rich and Wren provided music and played the song, " Follow Me" which Rich had played by himself at Amanda and Jon Eric's wedding in Honoluluu 32 years earlier

The sisters of both the bride and the groom provided some heartfelt and comic entertainment at the reception.

This is a view of the reception tent from the fire pit which was near the glamping area. A close look will reveal the dance floor still very crowded. They had another food truck come around midnight and apparently most of the campers were gone the next day by 10 am.

Other than the wedding, the only reportable event was a couple of the pickleball players registering themselves as intermediates in a tournament. They learned a lot and got to observe how such an event is handled.

2024-07-05T05:29:00.000-07:00

Its almost the end of May and we are currently in the middle oft the THIRD head wave this spring...incredible...ungodly. Its been close to 100 F. most days for the past three weeks., some days over 100. They use Centigrade here so high 30s seemed doable at first but....NOT> I don't have AC and really hardly anyone does....it wasn't needed before last year and this. CLIMATE CHANGE big time.

I bought an evaporative cooler, aka swamp cooler, portable so I can roll it between my two rooms and it has helped soooo much. The first week, I hardly slept even tho the nights were a lot cooler. This house, and apparently most of them here except for the really old structures, absorb the heat during the day and then hold on to it all night. The walls actually feel warm all night long. UGH !!!

I want to record here the progress with Pickleball. One student has stepped up to show a huge interest in PB and taking responsibility for getting more players. He has suggested a Whats App group to remind players, he wants to get PB on the website as a sport offered at UTEQ and he wants to do a lot of things to get it going which is exactly what PC wants, sustainability. Last Friday, I had asked him to take over since I was going to be on a visit to another site. Even tho my visit got cancelled, and I could have gone, I did not as he was so excited about being in charge. It seems all went well and his parents came to help him out and to play. When they went on a trip during the last school break, he apparently took them to play PB and they loved it and were anxious to come and play at UTEQ. Of course, I encouraged them to come and I hope they return when I am there. I also ordered another net system us so that we don't have to jerry rig the soccer net, although that has been helpful.

The new quarter started so I have been having conversation groups rather than going in to other teacher's classses and I believe it has been successful. I also have started a seminar with some admin staff and teachers to practice English but we've only met once and I hope it is successful too

I have a big problem with ants and a small problem with roaches so I'm having my place fumigated next Friday. A co-worker does it as a side job so he's doing it for me. I'll put Gringo in the vet for one night even tho they say you can return after 40 minutes..

This is election season so PC has required us to standfast in our communities until the election is over and for a few days afterwards. I have gotten permission to travel out to Juraquilla to look at the pb place out there There is a competition out there next weekend and apparently they are desperate for female players so I might.....might....play but I'll have to watch today to see how the play looks.

Things are really hopping around here in the PC office.....Our country director left about a month ago, our Asst. Country Director went home for a month and also has recently had a cancer removed from her face, a new Country Director has arrived and the Program Manager for TEFL either quit or resigned. Of Course we don't know. There's lots of action n What's App but I don't know what actually went down.

The new country director seems to be a good person but he has never served in the Peace Corps so his experience, or lack thereof, is limited and I fear it might affect his ability to really understand many of the situations the volunteers are encountering in their sites. We'll see. We don't get together again until next January for our Mid-service conference.

Pickleball stalled a while during a break at school and then we had some really hot weather and I had to cancel one Friday due to problems in my apt that I had to be present for but yesterday it got back on track .

. In fact we had some students from UTEQ come to play and there were 4 folks I had not seen before and come to find out, they are high school kids who live around the Uteq area. I don't know why they were on campus but they fit right in and were really nice kids. I hope they come back...we added them to the Whats' App Pickle ball list to remind them to come to play.

Another thing happened today that I wanted to make sure I didn't forget. I did an activity with the higher English groups called "Please, interrupt me." It turned into a huge success. Each student had to tell a little story, just describe a day or anything similar, and the other students had the obligation of interrupting to get more details from the story teller. One group was well behaved and did a fine job, all in English, of course. But , as the day went on, the stories seemed to get a little crazier until finally our last group was crazy. The first two kids told their story of working as waiters at a private event where everyone in the room was white and some were rude. The two kids told some hilarious stories and had us all in stitches. It was a huge success. Then the next kid, Roman, told how he went to a "off limits" club just for the experience and ended up getting "pepper sprayed." It too was hilarious. Finally, I spent the last hour with a kid named Oscar who told of how he was selected for a scholarship at the age of 12 and has been receiving it through high school and thru college. Its from a local bank. He is the kid who said the most interesting thing about the Mexican culture is how good Mexicans are to each other...long story but that is the jist of it.

I'm going to stop this and publish since its been quite a while since I updated. I'll start a new post.

Some vignettes and report on trip to CDMX..ciudad de Mexico

2024-05-12T14:43:00.000-07:00

Our cohort recently completed three days ( actually one day there and two days traveling) but they called it three days of a counterpart workshop in Mexico City I traveled with two of my colleagues from UTEQ who I like very much so I enjoyed the whole time. I'll include some photos of Chelo and Mayela and some of me in various places in CDMX Ciudad de Mexico)

This is an apartment complex we could see from the sidewalk near our hotel. Its very charming but that doesn't show up in this photo. The buildings are very old....colonial times.

In back is Arturo, Asst. Program Manager and a really bright charismatic fellow,, In white is Melissa, asst. Country Director. In blue is Chelo and with me is Mayela from UTEQ

Chelo and Mayela on a cool bench in downtown Mexico City.

A view of a main avenue in CDMX called La Reforma...its wide and beautiful with a green space between the lanes.

One night before the dinner at the hotel we indulged in some street food...Chilangas...yummmmm

Our team won Trivia game. The guy with the beard is Seth , a volunteer, who turned out to be a huge Star Trek fan. The Green jacket and red jacket women are with me....in green is a volunteer , Rachel, and Chelo. from UTEQ, The other two are Mexican English teachers at Rachel's school.

One of the really great teachers at UTEQ retired last week. She and her husband threw a party for her and some pictures follow.

Carrie, Bere, Esthela and Eduardo ( nickname Lalo) at one of the tables for guests.

Juan Luis, the retiree's husband is also an English teacher who plans to retire in 2 years. But meanwhile he plays in a rock band in his free time and they played for the party.

Esthela and Deyanira who is the retiring teacher. They have been long time friends and are both great teachers.

This is my table starting with Ricardo, Julio, me Fernanda and Chelo.

They provided some delicious food....tacos with some amazing fillings. The location is a party place that is available for rental for this type of event. The chef is standing to the side. She appeared to do it all by herself as I watched her closing down and carrying the containers to the car.

The group photo...Deya in front in the white blouse and other teachers and related staff. I am the glowing white one....I had not realized how very WHITE I am.

We also had a training on "inclusion." This was an activity we did to demonstrate the feeling of being blind. With me is Veronica and above us are Sergio and Ricardo. They are just now introducing the concept of inclusion and have several trainings planned for the entire campus. I am not sure whether the lower schools have been more aware of inclusion or not.

I also want to record the conversation I had with a bank customer service person today.. It was sort of amazing. She and her boyfriend moved fairly recently to Queretaro from Vera Cruz because it is safer here. Their parents and siblings are still in Vera Cruz even tho they don't feel safe but their businesses are there and they don't feel they can leave. She and her family all lived in North Carolina for 10 years but were not documented so came back to Mexico a few years ago and have been living in Vera Cruz where they don't feel safe but also feel unable to leave. She said they visit back and forth about twice a year. They also came back to Mexico because the grandparents in Vera Cruz were aging and wanted to be closer to them. Travel back and forth from the US was not possible since they were not documented in the US. She said all this so easily, just takes it for granted and did not show any remorse or fear over the safety differences between Vera Cruz and Querataro. Also, she speaks English very very well so I contacted the PC office and encouraged them to try to recruit her to work for PC...she is a very bright young lady....also speaks French, btw.

I am currently in the last few days of the current break between quatrimestres ( they have three terms of 4 months each) in an academic year. During the last 4 weeks of each term they administer a lot of tests so I am told that I don't need to be there as students don't come to campus unless they need to do make up tests so there is nothing for me to do....so I stay home with Gringo and find little projects to keep me busy. I hated it at first but now I kinda like it and I've actually gotten a lot done.

Today was Labor Day here so no school for anyone and many small shops were closed. The shopping malls were packed. I thought it would be a great day to go to the center and look for a wedding gift for Katy and Spence. The one Jardin where I was told the artesanal things were featured is Jardin Guerreo. When I got there....it was empty...all the artesans were celebrating Labor day....as well they should. Anyhow I got some other things done and saw a lot of new places in the historical center. I'll go back on a Saturday when they'll all be there.

Now its May 12 and I go back to school tomorrow. I am not sure what my schedule will be but I'll know more tomorrow. Earlier last week, I tripped over an uneven part of a sidewalk and ended up with a small scratch but a HUGE black eye and bruised side of my face. Looks awful..but three very lovely ladies helped me to my feet. I called PEace Corps and went there in a DiDi. The doc on duty took me to a very fancy hospital where they did an MRI of my head and an xray of my knee and both passed....no real injuries. When I go back to school, I'm sure the students will notice and hopefully question.

Photo from Ukraine

2024-04-11T09:19:00.000-07:00

This is Katy. Her mother is my on line English student from Ukraine. They fled to Poland a few months ago but kept their flat in Ukraine. She and Katy went back there early last week to visit family and pick up a few things. On Sunday when we had our class she was so happy to be back in her country even tho they have to run to the underground parking garage when they hear alarms. Her husband has kept his job and works remotely from Poland. My client did have a job on line but was let go and she is still looking for another. If you're interested is chatting with a person from Ukraine go to ENGin. com and sign up.

Pickleball and English classes

2024-04-05T19:27:00.000-07:00

I want to post an update on my activities here in Ole Mexico....or to use a term I just learned,..... Flexico.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we have gotten Pickleball started and last Friday was our 4th gathering and it was a big success. I had bought a whole net set up, not just the net, thru Amazon and it made a big difference. We also lined off a regulation sized court ( mas o menus....we used some basketball lines so our "kitchen" and service boxes are not quite exact but its a lot better than before. I also got 4 better paddles thru Amazon....such a love hate relationship I have with Amazon....and they have made a difference too. Anyhow, last week a young man, who I have described as looking like a Ralph Lauren model ( my son asked me to describe what that meant to me and I responded....tall, painfully thin and awful posture) came to stand next to me as I watched and shouted coaching tips from time to time. After a few minutes, I asked him if he wanted to play. He said, No, I just came to practice my English with you. Now that made my day because I got this whole pickleball venture approved by my program manager at Peace Corps by claiming that it is a vehicle to teach English and US culture.So anyhow, Andre asked for a couple flyers to put up in his building ( his major is Nanotechnology) which I gave him. So, earlier this week, I was in that building for a class and noticed one of our pickleball posters posted with something written on it. It is hard to see but in the bottom right corner, he has written," You now know friend, so come and improve your English.

This next picture is a couple helping assemble the real net we now have and based on last Friday's showing, I have ordered yet another and a couple more better paddles.

As to other efforts, we are working with a virtual English teacher, sort of a pilot project. Its been interesting, to say the least. My role, as I currently believe it to be , is to observe and make recommendations in the hopes of improving the process for similar situations in the future. He is an older ( 80) guy in Kansas with a lot of education and experience and his expectations of what he can do with our students is a bit unrealistic. Distance learning is hard in the best of situations and he is trying to teach them the finer points of phonics so they can be better teachers when they get into the classroom themselves. His efforts and goals are high...the students are not showing the level of interest he was hoping for.

As to what else I'm doing in the English classes. UTEQ is organized by quatrimestres....something we've not heard of. They are 4 month terms and they run continuously. There is no summer break, just a break of a week or so each term. I am definitely going to have a more settled schedule for the rest of my time here. I want to pull small groups out of a few classes and work with them on their oral communication. Many of them know a lot of words but there is no time to practice within their classes. So, I see this as something that could make a difference.

A class that I am coteaching with Deyanira is a beginner class for UTEQ employees. Its great fun. We've started with pronuncing the alphabet in English and short vowels and on and on. The other thing we are doing is Readers Theater. Its a very low difficulty play for young native English speakers but it is challenging for beginner English learners and we 've had a lot of fun with it. I am serving as director and I had never realized how physically exhausting that role could be...but, its great fun.

The other class/workshop I'm involved with is with the Drama teacher, Rodrigo. We haven't really done anything much but I hope to be able to contribute as time goes on. This quarter is almost over so hopefully I'll get involved earlier next quarter and be able to play a bigger role.

I've introduced myself to about 25 classes of students and I am sick to death of doing that but I have to continue thru the beginning of April when this term ends. There will a new one starting at the beginning of May. I'm going back to MD for 4 days at the end of March, during Semana Santa here and spring break, and hopefully will get to see John and Hanna ....Sue and I are planning to drive up to Juniata County and as of now, Hanna and John are planning to drive down and visit with us for a day or two. We are planning to spend the night so we'll have a little time together, for sure. We're hoping some Peacheys drive over for a visit and the Gilsons are in Florida still so there won't be many folks to see outside of our immediate family. We Hertzlers and Beavers have all but disappeared from Juniata County.

I also want to memorialize a comment of one of the students....there are several which are memorable but his was amazing. When I introduce myself, I often play a little game where a student guesses what my answer will be to a question posed by one of their classmates. The question was...what do you like most about the Mexican culture ? This student guessed that I would say, " that we are so kind to each other:, it shocked me...in other classes a student has said something like, the food, the music, the language, etc. This student went in such a different direction....I loved it and let him know.

Now some random photos:

This is a photo from our first pickleball attempt. We were using soccer nets that they had in the athletic department and lines that were put down for basketball. Not a good situation but it was a start and we have come a long way. Its a covered court that is usually used for volleyball and basketball so we have to compete for time and space.

The previous three show how the students rigged up the new regulation net that I ordered but we still did not have the right posts to hold it up....so they improvised using the posts from the soccer nets we had phased out. It kept blowing over so they figured that out too.

Birthday, pickleball, local places and street views

2024-03-09T11:45:00.000-08:00

This is Adelayda Sotello from Malpaisillo and her son Carlos Mario, in Nicaragua. Very very good people.

The lighter dog is the guards dog at UREQ and she decided to share her house with this new fellow and now they seem to be inseparable. I hate that big bowl of food which does not seem to get eaten, probably rancid, but I don't say anything. I just found out that the darker dog belongs to one of the teachers and she brings him to hang out on campus while she teaches.

We got pickleball started at UTEQ and the response has been very very good. It's hard to take good photos with my old phone but this will give you an idea. We had two meet ups using a net that the soccer coach had for soccer drills. But, then I ordered an official net on Amazon and that is what you see in these photos. We had to use the posts from the soccer nets and the students made it work and then they took a rest.

Two other January birthdays in the office. Esperanza and Bernice with me.

This is a pretty awful shot of our first pickleball effort at UTEQ. I have an old camera without a wide angle lens so this is the best I cold do.

Just a couple of charming streets near where I live....actually on the way to the lab where I was going to get my blood checked after having trouble shaking a bad cold.

I live near the bottom this street, 5 de Mayo,. It shows the mixture of vintage electric wiring and fancy condos just one hill away.

The local post office is in the white building next to the orangeish one. The first opening is where they park the motorcycles on which they deliver the mail and the second opening is the actual post office where you can mail things. It works.

A yummy breakfast at Veg Co, a local vegan restaurant owned and run by two sisters.

Some roof art, its steel mostly, which I noticed on my walk one day. Earlier I posted a painting of an automatic weapon which was on a wall of a house...I noticed recently that it had been painted over so someone objected...other than me.

Mostly about efforts to rescue cats

2024-01-06T05:33:00.000-08:00

Steve brought Gringo down to me right before Christmas, 2023. I was sooo glad to get him and to have the chance to show Steve some of the highlights of Queretaro.

One of the highlights in Queretaro is this pyramid that had fairly recently been unearthed. Apparently it had been covered with trees and other greenery over the years and local folks did not realize that there was a pyramid underneath. It's really quite amazing....two sides have been unearthed and the other two have been left covered with flora. There are guides who describe the astrological basis for the location of the pyramid, etc. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=pyramid+in+queretaro+mexico#cobssid=s&fpstate=ive&vld=cid:5ea7f933,vid:5nPoEjHo9Tk,st:0 This link might work...its a you tube video with some interesting commentary. I apologize for the proselytizing at the end.

Another highlight was eating and having an occasional dark beer. We had a discussion about alcoholic content...Modelo Negra is my favorite.

This is preparation for a posada. We did not stick around for it to be performed. We walked at least 6 miles a day and my back was not happy....so we left. Posadas are a phenomenon, in my opinion, that occur at Christmas and somehow combine brass bands and dancing with the celebrations of the birth of Jesus.....

This is the inside of a catholic church decorated for Christmas....interesting combination of religious icons and foil streamers. We sat for a few minutes and then as we were quietly leaving, my shoe string got caught on a nail in the kneeling bench and I tripped, hit the ground and on my way down grabbed the back of the pew in front of us which made a loud sound which reverberated in this huge quiet space. Embarrassed ? duh.

A street vendor of Lele dolls and other items.Notice the children that are often brought along with their parents to sell on the streets.

This is so cute. It's hanging on the door of a little shop indicating that it is ......yep closed.

I couldn't resist these next few photos.....dog walkers rule, apparently. Note the people who have given up the sidewalk to the dogs. These photos also give you an idea of the cute streets in the center of Queretaro.

This appears to be a rifle ( not sure of the model but think its one of those automatic military style) that is painted on the exterior wall of a house near me, actually it's on my walk to the PC office.

This is just an example as there are many similar storefronts showing this type of gown....this is what many girls wear to their quiceneras....celebrations of their 15th birthday. I met a young female student at UTEQ who told me that her family gave her an option to have a quincenera or take a trip to the US. She chose the trip for the whole family. She is a very impressive young lady.

This takes some careful reading, but the word "cajones" caught my eye...it must have several meanings...in this context it means "parking space."
HaHa

Now, as to the cats:

We have had a family of cats living in the Peace Corps patio for several months. The mom showed up and shortly thereafter she apparently moved her 4 kittens into the patio also. They began getting comfortable and growing , we were all enjoying watching them grow and thrive. We even had a naming activity and agreed on names for them. Somehow, mysteriously, someone on the staff of PC decided to take the mother to be sterilized. Apparently, they did not consider the effect on the kittens because While she was gone, her 4 kittens took off . To be sure, they were eating kitten food and were no longer nursing but .... At least one ended up living next door on the grounds of the Marista Prepatoria. That is what they call private high schools.....prepas. The grounds are very nice and many of the staff are also great. Somehow the nuns are involved but the teachers all looks like civilians so....?

So, there are a couple photos below of the mother cat and her 4 kittens. HOWEVER, there are also photos of the mother cat and 1 kitten. When they all took off, only one, the orange one, was recovered. We have no idea what happened to the other three....The mother did get sterilized and has a little notch in her ear and that is wonderful but 3 of the kittens are gone. When the mother was returned to the patio, after two weeks at the vet ( to recover from the surgery) she began looking for her kittens, meowing and hunting around, and we heard a meow from the other side of the wall. I went over to the school and they were very cooperative in letting me put little piles of food and water on the wall, near a hole that that went down into the hollow in the wall, and little by little the food disappeared and we occasionally sighted the orange kitten sneaking out to eat but when he became aware of us, he scampered back into the hole. THis went on for several days until I got a humane trap from Amazon, we caught him and returned him to the patio and his mother.....see the other photos. It was not handled well.....it is an example of cultural differences between the folks who took the mom leaving the kittens behind and how it would have been handled in my culture.

As I end this post, both cats are still there but every day when I go to feed them or give them water, I expect to see one or both missing. So far so good.

Christmas comes to UTEQ

2023-12-01T16:42:00.000-08:00

THis is a very clever tree made out of plastic bottles with strings of lights inside. I haven't seen it lit up but I bet its pretty. There is an occasional green bottle which I bet looks real nice.

This is the tree from a distance, with the school letters in front.

Across from the tree you'll find this nativity scene with pine cones hanging from the ceiling and colored balls decorating the bushes nearby.

Then you go a bit further and encounter this altar/ shrine to the Virgin Guadalupe. Candles, cactus, flowers and other things I can't make out.

This is not Christmas related, just another beautiful specimen on campus. My host in Costa Rica, long long time ago, before Peace Corps, talked about her "tuna" often. I don't recall what she said probably because I could not understand it but it never occurred to me that she was talking about a giant cactus. Well, she was. This cactus is call "tuna" and the fruit is pictured below in a closeup. The tuna fruit is delicious. Of course you peel it but its not unlike a kiwi...very sweet, soft, just real good.

The call the fish, "atuna."

This is one of our cohort, Aeden. A real nice guy and a good sport about everything. His host mother took him to a concert and when he got there he learned he was a judge of a Christmas show. He's a TEFL volunteer and is a great guy.

2023-12-01T16:08:00.001-08:00

I'm listening to a story n NPR ( my early morning tradition in addition to listening to WAMU) both on line, about the rise of regional Mexican music. I have to admit that I can't recognize the various regions but I also have to admit that I really like the music with the tubas, accordians and of course Mariachi...and I think those are from three different regions....according to NPR at least. Apparently, a young female singer won a Latin grammy recently. Have to learn more about that but I fear some grandmothers , especially me, would have trouble "blending in" at the clubs around here.

I must state here that I have been enthusiastically received by the students and faculty at UTEQ, University Technologico Queretaro. I've posted several photos of the campus in the past but I haven't said much, if anything , about the classes and students. So far, I've been attending various classes with various teachers to get to know the system, routine, and the students and teachers. At first, I felt really scattered but now can see the benefit of this. Classes are over for this term but there is a series of exams and tutorials between now and Christmas break so it will be confusing to me until Jan 10 when classes resume.

Yesterday was a somewhat typical day. I co-taught with another teacher in which she introduced the lesson which consisted of them getting into pairs or trios to write, in English of course, a conversation in which they used the particular grammatical structures they had studied in the preceding term. She explained the assignment, gave them a time limit, and told them to get into pairs or trios and to get started. I observed for a time; they followed directions and were settling in to get to work. I then was able to contribute by putting examples of the structures they were supposed to include on the white board ( as scaffolding) and quietly explained the technique to my co - teacher. She is an excellent teacher but had not heard the word and was very receptive and in fact, added something to my writing that further scaffolded the assignment. They worked away while she and I walked among the groups giving suggestions, examples, questioning, etc. All advice was welcomed by the students. Finally, time ran out and I met with each group in an empty classroom across the hall where the students read and recorded their conversations, I made a few ( very few in fact) adjustments in their dialogues ( mostly adding or deleting articles or prepositions, curiously)and then I read their conversations aloud and they recorded me. Plan is that they will listen to the two recordings, note the pronunciation and make adjustments. They will read their conversations to their teacher as part of their end of term evaluation of their "speaking " skill. Now here comes the good part for me.....the students were so excited after they read their work aloud and saw how few corrections I made...it was thrilling, to me for sure, and judging by their smiles and body language, to them as well. Felt good about my contribution, finally.

Some other good things have been happening.at school..I have to remember I've only been at the site for 2.5 weeks and now we go on a month long vacation. Actually the students have exams and the teachers have to do grades etc, but there are no classes again until Jan 10 and, due to PC policy, I can't go outside the country until after Feb 9, three months from swearing in.

Steve is bringing Gringo down for me on Dec. 15 so this will give us time to get used to the new apt ( and that is a story ) before I have to leave him there alone for most of the day. There are a lot of good windows so I'll get it set up so that he can look out at the activities most of the day. Also, there is a big fenced in area where I can walk him without the fear of loose dogs hounding us. Sadly, there is no grass, just cement, so he'll miss his grass ichewing. Maybe I can get a plot of sod for him. We'll see.

There was a kerfuffle at PC about my bringing Gringo down and about Steve bringing him. It got resolved but I won't go into it on the blog.

Our role here with PC is not only to teach English but also to share our culture and learn about their culture and as much Spanish as I can.So, in the culture vein, last week I gave a little presentation to about 8 classes about Thanksgiving, its origin, traditions, meaning. etc. The US state Dept. has a website called American English and on it they have some materials, including some for teaching about some of our holidays. I knew the Thanksgiving story we were taught as children had omitted a lot of truths but I didn't want to include all of them...I didn't want the whole thing. to be a downer. The piece on the State Dept. site is not too bad so I used it and added some explanations along the way....like where Squanto had learned English....he had been enslaved by British explorers years before the Pilgrims arrived, taken to England, escaped to get back home only to find that most of his tribe, the Wapanoag ( Patuxent) had been driven from their homes and many were slaughtered or killed by disease. The point I want to make here on this blog is how very interested the students were. I would read a paragraph, they would follow along with me, with the hard copy I had given them, then their teacher would translate into Spanish ( this being a cultural lesson, I wanted them to hear the story), I was very pleased at their interest level and how well they followed along and truly seemed to enjoy the lesson, did not get bored by all the reading and listening they had to do and their questions and comments showed their attentiveness. It was good.

The most interesting thing I get to do is interact with the students. I met one recently who is outstanding in a number of ways . Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak to him before the class he is running ( its an after school sort of extra class ) started their presentations. apparently some of the students with higher English skills work as “immersion” teachers with the very beginners. He is one of the teachers and he had his students doing their final projects about countries. He invited me to watch the presentations and one of the countries some of the students had selected was the US.

In very difficult English they reported various facts like, population, climate, the flag, the sports, etc and typical foods. I was mortified to learn that hot dogs and hamburgers are our "national typical" food according to some website these kids found. I'll put some photos on here to show...some other groups did Jamaica or Canada, and it was cute.

These girls somewhere determined that Flan was a "typical" dish served in Great Britan so we all had some very good flan.

This group did the U.S. and you can see their poster of a Hamburger with the various ingredients identified, including bacon.

This group did Canada and focused on the fact that it is cold there so that one kid had on a jacket and knit cap. I think they did say the most popular sport is hockey. Their pronunciation of Maple Leaf was so cute.

This is the young man who is their teacher and about whom I wrote a few words below. He is really an amazing young person.

This group did Jamaica and the boy is dressed in "typcial" dress and the fellow with the guitar is representing Bob Marley and Reggae

I offer this just to show you the four hot dogs on the table representing another "typical" food of the US. Also, the kid in the boxing gloves was showing that boxing is a popular sport.

The kid who invited me to observe ( he is pictured above ) is 20 and himself a student but is teaching one of these immersion classes after school and the countries were like a final project. This kid is amazing...he is very polished, uses very good English tho he does need more time to learn vocab etc. I got a chance to chat with him and learned that he is the youngest of 4, his older sibling are in their mid 30s, his father is a blacksmith and has a taco stand and his mother is a housewife. If you met this kid, you'd think he came from a family of college graduates who worked white collar jobs. He is so self confident and eager to learn. He is currently completing his application to work as a camp counselor at a summer camp in Houston next summer. I offered to help in any way but I am sure he has several teachers offering their help. They all recognize his talents and specialness.

Charming story about bus etiquette here.

2023-11-26T15:12:00.000-08:00

I ride the bus to and from work. Many times, I get one of those special seats up front reserved for old folks , but this particular day, I couldn't even get up the steps into the bus, it was sooo crowded. The kid in front of me, who also could not get in, turned and said...Atras... and we hustled to the back door and pushed in there. IN !!! My first thought was, we didn't pay or swipe our bus passes ( yes, I have my very own bus pass). No worries. Others had been here before. The kid in front of me simply took my card from my little hand and passed it with his to the guy in front of him, and he to the guy in front of him, and so on and so on until it got to the front, someone up there swiped our cards, and they traveled back to us, right down the line...like clockwork through probably 20 people standing in the aisle. I was thrilled. Not only do they do that with passes, they do it with cash. A few buses still take cash ( this being one of the few) so someone had a bill, probably 20 pesos, it got passed hand to hand, to the driver up front, and the change came back the same way. A bus ride is 11 pesos. Another wonderful thing you wouldn't get to experience if you were staying in a 5 star hotel. You would have hot water, of course, and a bed that did not squeak every time you moved, but you would not have this sweet bus experience. The end. 👊 Bam !

Random photos

2023-11-26T08:34:00.000-08:00

Jade plants have flowers....who knew ? Certainly I did not know that. These blooms are about all done but still pretty and surprising to me.

This is a visiting squirrel. This student was studying in a classroom ( the rest of the class was at some sort of conference) so we stopped to chat and this squirrel showed up. Clearly, the squirrel has visited here before. The student was very friendly and reluctantly agreed to chat with us. He tried hard to use his English; it was encouraging in many respects.

The campus is very well maintained...their gardeners do a great job. Following are some photos I took recently with my pitiful phone ( Iphone 7) Just imagine how pretty they would be if I had a newer phone /camera.

This is a tree that the Catholics revere, they say its the type of tree that Jesus's "thorny crown " was made from.....notice the thorns. Quien sabe....as they around here.

Just an example of various plants planted in the remains of a tree that had been trimmed or parts had broken off....so nice.

This is a photo of a festival they had on campus on the only rainy day in the past month....very dry here which is not the norm....people are concerned....finally. But the festival was to celebrate corn and nopal ( its a cactus whose parts are used in cooking) It was a fundraiser for one of the engineering colleges and there were lots of giggles in the English teacher's office/work area about the connection between engineering and corn....but, they've been doing it for years so I guess it works.

This is the big open space on campus I've been eyeing for pickleball courts in the not too distant future. Apparently very little gets done on campus from Dec. 1 to Jan 10 plus I don't have any of my PBall stuff, so I plan to get as much as I can from my sister's place in MD in March, the first school break during which I will be allowed ( according the PC) to travel out of Mexico. So, it will likely be April before I get the PB effort going. I did have a very encouraging meeting with the bosses of the Drama Dept about my interest in working on a play with them in English; they were very receptive so that may be my focus, in addition to co-teaching classes with the English staff, until Spring.

I don't think I already put this on the blog but I didn't want to forget it. I was walking along the sidewalk looking to my right into the stores ( when I wasn't staring right in front of myself to avoid tripping) and all of a sudden I looked to my left and there was that man, sitting on the tailgate of that pickup making Pico de gallo....omg.... and when I asked him if I could take a picture he was so agreeable, just smiled and got back to work. Oh btw, pico de gallo, the name , comes from the scraps of vegetables they used to throw to the chickens, and now make into great salsa.

Kind of a normal looking meat counter in the mercado...some are much more graphic....I'll get another photo.

We took that bus trip to Amealco and the bus station in Queretaro was so impressive...shiny and clean.

I took this photo in Amealco as the mom walked by us with that little guy in the hat strapped to her back.

Two our lovely young people. He took her to a quincera, her first ever and it was an amazing experience.

THis is the program from our swearing in ceremony on Nov. 9.. Ever since, I've been looking for a place to live that will accept Gringo....I need him to be here with me. I eventually found a place but I have to get it approved by Peace Corps. They have to accept it from a safety and security standpoint but they also have to approve it as being an "appropriate" place for a volunteer to live....not too fancy. I assure you, it is not but I have to convince them too. If it gets approved, I'll send a video or photos...its nice but not too nice.

These next two photos are included just because they are so curious..this "flea market/antique shop" popped up on a street where I walk daily. Just interesting.

And then there's this...another delicious and healthy option I found. Cost, about $6.00 for the two thick toasted slices of peanut butter toast with that lovely fruit arranged on top. The green juice shown in the background was about $3.00 ( 160 pesos for both) and it was my main meal of the day and sooo delicious. The place is VegCo...a little vegan restaurant near me. Before this late breakfast, I had gone to the PC office to feed the kittens and mom and also to a local mercado to buy fruit for lunches at work next week. I joined their coffee club so now I can have a cup of coffee at work without schlepping it from the cafeteria which is nearby. Little by little, things are getting normalized and predictable. I also discovered that my bus does not come to the bus stop where I have been waiting after work. Next week will be a lot better when I wait at the right stop. ( duh ) It will be nice to get into a place where I can actually cook and have a refrigerator and live like a regular person but in the meantime, this isn't too bad.:)The only bad part is not having Gringo with me.

More random photos.

2023-11-11T14:14:00.001-08:00

The mural is finished. What a beautiful legacy to leave at the Peace Corps Mexico office in Queretaro. The gal on the far left, Elinor, drew it, the one on the far right, Jordan, organized it and both did a huge portion of the actual painting. Several others contributed their efforts and all of us cheered them on.

A despidido picnic.

The same depidido picnic, just earlier..a really great group of young people. Queretaro has done well in the neighborhood park department...lots of them.

A despidido lunch with some good women. The gal to my right is Jordan who reminds me soooo much of Nicole and she was the chief organizer of the mural. The gal next to her is the artist.

These are called leles, indigenous women made them for their children and now they are sold to tourists. I got these for my granddaughters but shipping is soooo expensive from here to the US, I've decided to just take them with me when I go for Katy's wedding next June.....unless I get an earlier opportunity.

These are Catrinas. They are a caricature of the Spanish elite ladies dressed up for the Dios de Muertos. They have become iconic and there's a parade of Catrinas during the week before the actual dia. Posada was the original cartoonist in the 1800s who first drew and published the cartoon. I bought them but too expensive to ship them.

The young folks had a prom at the end of pre service training and gave out lots of awards. ...."Most likely to......." etc. Lindsay and Grace gave me this one. It says, " Most likely to make us smile." I loved it.

THis is our cohort, about 38 volunteer trainees and their counterparts from the communities, assembled the day before swearing in for a last minute workshop. I'm in the far right back

Some strange metal sculptures I happened to spy as I was walking thru the neighborhood. Ya just never know. See next photo.

This appears to be a "swiss chalet" built on three residential lots on one of the neighborhood streets. I did n't want to get too close to take a picture....just seemed wrong. But it was just so out of character with the block.....I guess there is no "style" zoning. The cafe curtains combined with bars on the windows seemed a little strange, too.

This is hard to see because of the gray car, but the fellow on the bike has a huge assortment of brooms and mops etc in a container in front of him over the front tire. He rides thru the neighborhoods selling which actually is a huge service as most or many people have to use public buses and its hard to carry mops and brooms on those buses.

These are the cats at the PC office, mom and her 4 kits. The whitish one is beautiful...white body with gray ears and tail and light blue eyes, the others are two black and one orange tiger. I feed them on the weekends and someone in the office feeds them during the week, hopefully. They are still pretty wild but we're hoping to somehow catch them, get them all vaccinated, and maybe all sterilized if the kits are old enough. Looking for homes for the kits. PC says they'll keep the mom, and hopefully feed her.

More photos

2023-11-05T08:13:00.001-08:00

Just had to show you this plate of food....so delicious and healthy. the round item on top is called a sope, its a thicker tortilla with frijoles, cheese salsa etc., the folded thing is a quesadilla with oxaca cheese, in front is guacamole with chunks of avocado and tomato,( not as mashed as I'm used to), white beans and another couple of things I can't recall the names of but all of it was soooo delicious.

These are the ladies who cooked the tortillias at the time and brought all those bowls with foil covers with so many delicious things to put on the tortillas. They were no slouches....they had a business card which they were happy to share.

We gathered for that meal with the Mexican English teachers we had been working with for the past few weeks. My co-teacher was the the guy in the hat. The two women standing work for the PC as language and culture facilitators....Ali and Sheri...lovely ladies.

This is a wedding procession one of my companeros viewed from his window right after we got to Queretaro.

One of the classes I taught at UNAQ ( the university specializing in training aeronautical workers..from flight attendants to pilots) had a little going away party for me. Their teacher is on the left and in the earlier photo with the hat. The gal in the costume wore that in recognition of Dio de Muertos which is coming soon and actually celebrated on Nov. 2 so much so that PC gave us the whole day off.

One example of their interest and use of peppers of all types.

This is a Dio de Muertos commemoration in a nearby restaurant.

A representative of the indigenous community, the Otomi I think, came to give us a little talk and show us how to make little do dads. She spoke briefly about the women's role in their community as part of our education re. the gender roles in the community. This was probably the weakest part of the whole training effort, in my humble opinion. I would have enjoyed knowing more about the other roles of the indigenous women of Mexico.

The local mercado....incredible. There are some meat aisles that will make a vegetarian out of everyone.

Choices....

THis is the entryway to one very unassuming restaurant and the food is very very good. A real find.

This is the mural crew...they're not quite finished but it's coming along. It's a collage of flora and fauna from the US and Mexico in very bright colors.

We swear in on Nov. 9 and then start with our universities the following week. Unfortunately, the students will be in the middle of exams and there are a lot of partial days until Christmas vacay so we don't really start a regular schedule until the first part of January but we can't really take leave until after Feb. 9. It will be good to get started. I have some ideas about teaching an english class in the department that does the sustainable/environmental projects on campus, getting pickleball started and exploring the possibilities of getting a state wide spelling bee competition going, along with co-teaching some English classes. I also hope to get connected to the professor who handles any drama efforts...hoping they'll have an interest in doing a play in English.

A couple of my companeros and I were judges at a costume contest at my University. I feel like the incredible shrinking woman and its made worse by standing behind that giant....he is also an English teacher at my U. and a very nice guy. The fellow behind me is also a PC volunteer at my University.

The mural is 99% finished in his shot. I'll send the final one soon.

This is a schedule of the activities that were planned for the week preceding Dia de Muertos this year. No trick or treating is involved.

Another mercado shot.

A bike shop in the Amealco mercado.

These are some shots from a little town, Almeaco, not far from Queretaro, an hour's bus trip.

I saw her running by in her dress but she got real shy when I approached for a photo.

This is a rendition of an altar prior to the Spanish conquest.

This is a post hispanic altar and is in the lobby of the main governmental building ....see the change from the pre hispanic one above.

An ad that's a bit comical. They use the word "smoking" to describe a formal tuxedo....ala smoking jacket.

I took this photo on a walk and thought the way they propped up a low limb, rather than cut it off. I still had to duck a bit, but appreciate their care for trees...remember an earlier photo that showed the way the sidewalk was carved out to allow the root to have exposure.

More Random photos....I'm posting these while I can....my history with pictures is so scary, I figured I should get these on her while the getting was good.

2023-10-28T17:19:00.003-07:00

These 4 sweet little kittens and their mother are residents of the Peace Corps office grounds. The bosses have agreed to feed, vaccinate and spay them so we are all very happy. There was one bold attempt to corral them but they all got away so the PC folks relented.

I tried to post this earlier but I don't think I was successful . It's pronounced Auto Zone but it translates loosely here to "we are autos."

I went with some companeros to a Pulque festival. It turned out to be an agricultural event, celebrating the Maguey cactus which is useful for a variety of purposes including Pulque ( a fermented Kombucha type drink,Mescal and many more.

Our little group....it was fun.....the taxi ride was a bit scary.

This is a giant Maguey Cactus aka Agave.

If you zoom in on this, you'll learn the many uses of the Maguey plant.

You can see the huge turnout and maybe the jackets....it was a cool , just right day.

Pulque testers

More pulque

This is some of the pulque that was available for taste testing. I went with the guyaba flavor with some agua miel mixed in....truly delicious

Folkloric dancing. There was also some good ole down home Mexican ranchero type music.

2023-10-14T17:30:00.000-07:00

This is hole in the wall. HaHa...but , it really is. During one of the Mexican Revolutions, an Austrian royal, Maxmillian, had been sent by Spain to be the Ruler of Mexico and the Mexicans decided enough was enough. He was being held as a prisoner in the convent that is behind this wall so the anti colonists attacked the convent to get him out. They did and the eventually killed him and 3 or 4 of his compatriots. His remains have been returned to Austria....happily. H His wife was Spanish royalty or something like that...you know those royals marry each other.

If you expand this photo you'll see that it's a pinata shop....lots of pinatas.

This is a description of the fountain below. This is one of the fountains in the city fed by water that was sent up to the convent by the acqueduct I've marveled over in earlier posts. On the photo of the fountain, you can see on the ledge on the front where people dragged their buckets out with fresh water. Its fenced in now but just to protect it.

I walk by this fellow's shop where I have seen him doing a lot of leather repair on saddles etc. but he was doing this in the street, saddle soaping. I asked him where I could get a chamois and we had a nice chat. He said my Spanish was good....I think he was sort of shocked.

This is a picture of the place where we have most of our lectures...classes. The man standing at back is one of our doctors, Mariano, who was also my doctor when I was in Nicaragua.

This is Paty....short for Patricia...she dressed for our festival day a few weeks ago...and is a lovely person and such a hard worker.

This is Lili, one of our language and culture facilitators. She is a riot..married to a Brit and full of energy.

These are some of the staff..Paty in the middle, Ana is Mexican and has served all over the world with various relief NGOs. She says it was so hard to do emotionally and is taking a break with PC. The guy is Kevin and is the training manager..former PC Volunteer in Guatamala, lives here now with his wife and child. He brings his daughter to a preschool near the PC office on an electric bike each morning.

Just a shot of 4 of us waiting at the Immigration office waiting for our Temporary Resident Card.....not Tourist Visa....a bit different. It was a long bureaucratic process as is opening a bank account. Very very careful that our signatures match our signatures on our Passports.

This is a display at the Aeronautical Univ. where we've been doing some teaching the past few days...they do it all there...training mechanics, pilots, flight attendants, etc. and have teams from a lot of countries coming and going. I'm not sure what all of them do but I know France has a big presence.

2023-10-11T19:36:00.000-07:00

The airplane photos are all taken at the Universidad National Aeronautical of Queretaro ( UNAC) Its an amazing place and its located right next to the airport so the students get real experiences.We are doing some practice teaching of English with some of their classes. Everyone in the school has to take and pass English classes to graduate.

These two photos are of the aqueduct I described earlier before I knew how to work the picture connection. Please go back and read about it.....its amazing and there are a lot of You tube videos about it.

There was a car show happening when I walked by so I took a couple pictures of Karman Ghias.

I just love this photo. Its sort of hard to decipher but the cement was cut away to expose the root of the tree. That just seems so thoughtful.

This is just a random photo of some of the kids in my cohort. The kid in the front on the left was born in the US to parents who came from Mexico so he is fluent in Spanish and has a lot of family not far from where we are. The kid next to him went to Kenyon College where Adam Gilson has worked for many many years. The kid with the blond hair is a surfer from Massachusets and is missing the water a lot and the young lady is just a nice gal but I don't know anything about her yet.

More photos, I hope

2023-10-10T19:34:00.000-07:00

Well, I may have figured something out. This will be a stream of consciousness ( photos) that I downloaded. This first is just a healthy looking meal I had recently...The lady I'm living with does not cook much so I've found some places I can buy some relatively healthy and inexpensive food. I'm looking forward to having a place where can cook for myself again and have my dear cat.

THis is located on the campus of the school where I'll be teaching soon.. UTEQ..Universidad Technologico de Queretaro.

This is a street name I saw recently....Of the sad Indian.....( sad)

This is an interior shot of La Casa de la Marqueza...a hotel/restaurant I mentioned in an earlier post. This was originally built as a home for the Marqueza whose husband financed the building of the acqueduct ( with her money ) to get clean water to his girlfriend...the nun at the top of the hill. Apparently, the Marqueza never lived in this place and it has only been used as a restaurant and hotel...not sure who owns it....its in the historic district of Queretaro.

Neighborhood watch in Mexico...underneath the sign is a place where they hang their garbage bag for pick up...safe from animals in the night.

This is a photo of the intersection in front of the house where I'm living ....just wanted you to see the overhead power and telephone wires. Also, notice the ficus trees...they stay green year round...very nice and many are pruned back and make nice shade over sidewalks and the street.

Another shot of the inside of La Casa de la Marqueza. This is the stairs up to the hotel part ( only 8 rooms) from the restaurant on the first floor.

This is also inside the La Casa de la Marqueza. This is the Virgin Guadalupe...we were told in one of the presentations about the history of Mexico. Apparently, this is a LatinX version of the Virgin Mary who was very light skinned in the Spanish renditions, so they darkened her skin and gave her a Spanish name to placate their recent converts in the conquered lands of the Aztecs, Mayans, and other darker skinned peoples.

This is a photo I tried to include earlier...it's the languages building where I'll spend most of my day...when I'm not playing pickleball. :)

An attempt with photos

2023-10-10T06:34:00.001-07:00

This is an aqueduct that was built in c. 1780s to get fresh water from an underground aquifer up to a convent built on a hill overlooking Queretaro. It's an absolute wonder to me and the government has preserved it well. It runs down the middle of a fairly large avenue and is a reference point for anyone looking for or giving directions. What's really amazing about it is that there is no more than a 2% change in grade in the whole expanse and it runs c.1200 meters. There is a lot on the internet about it if you're interested but the point is that they got the water up there and then they disbursed it to fountains throughout the city by a series of pipes or canals that ran downhill with the fresh water. There's a whole story about how the guy who organized the project was married to an ultra rich Spanish marqueza but was having an affair with a nun who lived up at the convent and the nun was always sick due to the bad water so he used the Marqueza's money to build the aqueduct and once it was finished the nun went back to her love of Jesus instead of the boyfriend. There is a fabulous hotel and restaurant in the historic part of Queretaro that he originially built for the Marqueza but the story goes she never lived there. Quien sabe. I'll try to post some pics of it. It's officially called La Casa de la Marqueza. The historic district is very interesting, of course most of the buildings were build during the Spanish occupation so there's that. I haven't gotten outside the city to any of the Aztec, Mayan or other indigenous sites but I plan to do that as soon as Peace Corps allows it. We're not allowed to go anywhere outside of the city until we get sworn in and then spend another 3 months at our sites. I think they fear people will jump ship once they see other parts of the country....quien sabe. ( I love that saying....of course it means, Who knows.

This is an example of how words get changed with languages. This is Auto Zone in English....It might translate to "Autos we are" in Spanish but the pronunciation would be very similar. It's a used car lot.

2023-10-09T06:34:00.000-07:00

When this adventure started, there were three of us on the “seasoned” side. We have lost one due to a bad fall that resulted im a broken nose . Apparently he had had a couple earlier mishaps so it seems Peace Corps decided to medically separate him. A week or so late, another one of us got Covid so je had to be quarantined for a week but he has recovered and is back at the trainings. We have a young woman out now with covid but we think she’ll be back tomorrow. I’m stills struggling getting photos from my phone to the laptop so I can add them to the blog but Im trying something different this time. I’m writing the blog post on my phone so hopefully I can access the photos more reliably. We’ll see.

Clearly, Im still struggling with photos. The one at the top is a mural on one wall of the gym at my future university. Their mascots is falcons…slight spelling difference. This would be a perfect place for pickleball but the floor might be a problem….it seems to be some sort of padded surface….as if for gymnastics.

This is the mural at the other end of the gym.

This is the languages building where Ill be doing the bulk of my work beginning in early Nov. We each spent three days at our eventual sites and mine is not too far from where I am now so I remained in my host home and traveled back in forth each day to the campus. I had a great time and the teachers, all of whom speak English and are anxious to hear more, were very welcoming and accommodating. It was great to experience the reception I got from the students which is what keeps me coming back to Peace Corps. They broke into huge smiles when they saw me on campus during those three days and in class they paid rapt attention to my every word and their regular teachers, who stayed in the room, reported that the students seemed very interested in speaking English while I was there.,far more than usual. That is the whole, or at least a major goal of this program...to get conversations going and give students and teachers alike opportunities to speak in English with a native speaker. I'll be serving in classrooms but I'll also try to get some conversation clubs etc going after school hours.

I have just gotten really frustrated trying to get photos from the cloud onto my laptop so I'm going to just write some news and work on the photos later. It seems to work for a while and then when I try the same process again, it fails. I know, I know...its me not this laptop.

Re: pickleball. I learned that the National Pickleball Assn or some sort of organization has reached out to Peace Corps headquarters in some fashion....I don't know any details. But, when I was in a meeting with the country director the other day, he mentioned that he had called the home office to report that he had a trainee who wanted to get pickleball going. Amazing. Apparently they have been talking about it at the DC office.

Anyhow, my plan now is to order a net and some paddles and balls from Amazon and once I get on campus, get permission from someone to set up the net and just start playing to see what kind of interest we can generate and it will, or will not, go from there.I did learn that the other PC vol. at my university has played pickleball and likes it a lot and also has a relationship with the PE dept. chair at the University...that all bodes well

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341494728_Identification_guide_of_MEXICAN_PARROTS

There are not a lot of real exciting things to report yet but a couple weeks ago I heard a lot of birds outside my window and when I looked, I marveled at a huge flock of parrots perched and squawking in a tree nearby. It was amazing and I haven't seen one since but the website above confirms my sighting....it was great.

I'll stop for now and use any free time to conquer the photo issue.

Pat

2023-09-23T19:16:00.002-07:00

OK., so now I have figured out how to post a video. The last one I posted was one of those Independence from Spain celebrations that lasted a whole week. And no more sideways ones. Sorry.

2023-09-22T05:25:00.000-07:00

After week three in Pre-Service Training

2023-09-21T07:26:00.005-07:00

To begin with, that video that was attached to my last post was a mistake. There is a much better one but I am still struggling with how to get them from the Cloud to this blog. Hopefull, I'll learn soon.

There was a week 0 in which we gathered in DC, got a acquainted a bit then traveled to Queretaro where we began training with some general sessions. Then Week 1 began with us moving into our host homes for the next 10 weeks and the real serious training sessions began. We've had sessions on Safety and Security, Medical Issues, lots of language and culture sessions and briefings on Peace Corps policies, mission, values and expectations. We've had several sessions on diversity and Mexican History which have all been useful despite my long history with Peace Corps. There is always something new and of course, this is my first time in Mexico with the opportunity to learn all about what it has to offer and how I will be useful. We have received our assignments and following Week 4, we will be going to our assigned schools for three days to meet our counter parts and get started with integrating into the various communities so we can get started once training is finally over in early November. This past week has been interesting, as all are. Sept 15 was the day of celebration of Mexico's independence from Spain in 1810. We have learned that their actual independence did not come until a few years later when they wrote their constitution but they celebrate 1810 as there was a huge battle that day and independence was declared. But, what is interesting now is that they celebrate for an entire week prior to the 15th....parades almost nightly, dancing by indigenous groups in parks all over Queretaro, fireworks, family gatherings and much more. I did not do much personally as we have class all day and I don't like walking on the very uneven sidewalks and streets at night. But, I'll catch it in the future, for sure. We had a little celebrationish at the school and I'll try to attach some photos. It ended with a street food, Esquitos, which is basically sweet corn cut from the cob, seasoned deliciously and served in a dixie cup with a variety of toppings. It was so delicious and the party was fun too.

The photo above was shown during a presentation on Mexico's history. The green section shows how much of the current US was originally held by Mexico prior to the Monroe Doctrine.

This photo shows the parts of Mexico in red to which we are not permitted to go. Our area is the green area in the center and of course the Yucatan Peninsula is green and Baja is yellow, which means we can go there with permission.

This is the corn dish, Esquitos, that I mentioned above. Yum

Our group in D.C. just after we picked up our Visas at the Mexican Consulate.

This is a mural on the wall in a restaurant we visited. Murals are very big here and there are many beautiful examples in government buildings and other places.

Yes, its me. This was taken in the Casa de la Marqueza which is currently a very fancy hotel in the Historical Center of Queretaro.

And, yes, thanks to Google search engine, I know how to download my photos from the Icloud to my laptop. Yep. Still working on the video portion.

Yesterday, Saturday, I took a walk around some parts of the city I had not seen and ended up at a huge shopping center which included a Costco which was packed and a lot of other stores, most seemingly local or at least Mexican. I got there about lunch time so I found a food court and a chinese place that looked popular. I got my food and was sitting there trying not to slurp the noodles too vigorsly, when a total stranger walked by my table on his way up to order and said, "buen provecho." I had heard this many times but for some reason it struck me as super funny that he, a total stranger, would say to me, " enjoy your lunch." They also say good morning and good afternoon to almost everyone they come into eye contact with. It's nice. I took a local ride share company, DiDi,home with the things I had purchased. The driver asked me where I was from so I have learned that they assume its the US, so now I say, Colorado. Well, this time he didn't assume the US so he asked me if that is in the US....duh... Anyhow, as we talked, I learned that his favorite song is Sacrifice by Elton John. And, he was very excited to hear the correct pronunciation of the word "mutual" as in mutual misunderstanding and the word "lyrics." We spent the rest of the ride listening to Elton ( I learned later that Sinead Oconnor actually wrote the lyrics and music,) and saying the words mutual and lyrics a million times.Seems I always have a good time with the taxi drivers.....non threatening, I guess.

THat's it for now...the Beastie continues to pass by and blow its sad whistle, the Morrocans and Libyans struggle....what next ?

Update on Mexico

2023-09-10T17:02:00.004-07:00

Well, to begin with...its really beautiful here and of course, the people are the highlight. I am not permitted by Peace Corps to give any specific information about where I am living or working but I've already said it is in Queretaro and apparently that is sufficiently vague.

We all gathered in DC for "staging" and then flew here to spend a few more days together for preliminary training and briefing. They kept stating that if anything they said made us unsure of our commitment to stay the full two years, we should let them know at that point. I don't recall that being emphasized in any of the other pc introductions I have heard. Once we arrived in Mexico, we stayed a couple nights in a very charming old Hacienda that has been converted into a hotel, that was really lovely. I think I have a few photos to add from there. The days were filled with trainings and briefings and there were a couple team building activities. We are two groups: c. 20 to do Climate Change Environment work in rural settings and 20 in my group, TEFL, i.e. Teaching English as a Foreign Language. No one really likes that acronym so it might change soon.

But, I can post some photos and tell some stories. I am living with a lovely lady about my age who is retired and has grown children who are all out on their own but still in the area. I haven't met any of them yet but I've seen photos and heard some stories. She is very patient with my Spanish and allows me to paraphrase back to her what I think she has just said to me corrects me or affirms me. At least, I think that is what we are doing but I'm never sure. For instance, yesterday evening, Saturday evening, I told her not to do anything about breakfast until right before we have to leave to Mass ( about 10:30) but this morning when I went downstairs to make coffee, there was my plate of papaya and I could smell the stove getting ready for her to make my scrambled egg, frijoles and tortilla. I did get there in time to restate my preference to wait until 10:30 and she seemed to understand. She has been great about making that breakfast for me on school days and I guess just either forgot or we didn't communicate about my wanting to wait to eat later on weekends. We'll see what happens next weekend but I do appreciate her making my breakfast and the fruit is really great.

I'll be here with her until early November at which time we each go to our assigned schools. I'll be staying nearby so I am pleased with my assignment and I'll get a new host home at least for a short time. I can't post here exactly where I'll be but if anyone is interested, send me an email and I'll fill you in. But, it will be a University where I'll be working with students and teachers and also can do something in the community if there's time. I'm still thinking about pickleball and several of my companeros have played and want to find places to play. I've looked at my future school's website and based on the photos there

are lots of open spaces where we could easily step off a pb court and go to it. We'll see. I hope to coordinate with their athletic dept. if they have one..not sure of that. Another idea I have at this point is to try to copy what Intercambio, an organization I volunteer with out of Longmont, CO, has done. That is to match an english language learner with a native english speaker volunteer to do nothing more than give the learners a place to practice their english. Apparently, that is a huge need and my program manager at Peace Corps seemed very interested in the possibility when I raised it with him. We'll see. I'll need to find the native speakers in the community so that will be one of the first things I'll do when I get started on the project. We could do it with zoom but I think it would be better to do it face to face, like in the old days, if that is possible and if there is somewhere to meet. I'm thinking at the school but I'll let the locals decide that. Apparently, it is the teachers who will be most interested in doing this and maybe an occasional highly motivated student but, we'll see.

Last night I met some of the other older volunteers in El Centro in the Plaza de Armas for dinner in a nice restaurant. The restaurant was very nice but the food was pretty inusual...which is a good Spanish word for "nothing special." Today I went to Mass with my host and now I'm doing laundry. She has a washer and dryer and clotheslines. This is what they call Posh Corps.....no bucket baths or scrounging in the mercado for food.

PC is in only 5 states in Mexico and I'll try to attach a photo of the areas that are totally off limits to us. There are others we can go to with special permission but the areas are pretty limited.

I walked 16,896 steps yesterday. Yes, I was exhausted but I got to use a lot of Spanish, met a lot of super nice people and enjoyed several children playing on some playground apparatus in a shopping center play area. Enjoyed that A LOT. Only bad thing I have to report is that the train, AKA La Bestia, that thousands of immigrants ride on from the south toward the border with the US, passes nearby the Peace Corps office and my host home. We can all hear the whistle when is passes....a reminder that all is not well. And today we're all crying for the Moroccans.....so much.

A lot of the staff at the PC office are animal lovers so I feel sure I'll be able to bring my sweet cat down

to live with me without too much trouble. One staff member suggested that if I say I need him as a "coping mechanism" that should make it even easier. I haven't seen any stray looking animals which was one of my main worries so that is good. In other places I have been, its been pretty bad and hard to handle. I'm in a city so it might be different in the more rural areas.

So far, I don't have much to report.....but its early.

Thank you for paying your taxes,

Love,

Pat

PS. My attempts at t photos has failed. I'll post this and try to figure out the photos tomorrow.

Getting ready for Mexico

2023-08-21T04:48:00.002-07:00

Hello all, On August 27 I begin my 5th and likely my last adventure with Peace Corps. I hace made some dear DEAR friends in MD these past few months and have had the opportunity to visit dear friends from long ago. Best of all, Ive spent time with my sister and brother and their families which is precious.

All I know at this point is that I’ll be at the training center in Querétaro for 10 weeks and after that I’ll be working with a counterpart in a university in a rural community where English instruction and enrichment is needed. I’ll be living with a host family for the first 6 months of my service. Lots to look forward to and lots to learn and share. Im hoping that in addition to teaching English, I can get pickleball going at the school or in the community or both. I’ve been given two nets and lots of pb related goodies to use and give as prizes. Even though my pb leaves much to be desired, I can refer them to You Tube where they can learn a lot.

More later….