Camp Mariposas – Day 2

The girl’s made it through the first night without incident or injury in their dormitories. We owe the chaperones staying with the girls big time. Day 2 was packed full, starting with yoga at 8:00am and then with presentations about self-esteem, critical thinking, and body image. All the camp participants took a fairly intensive version […]

Camp Mariposas – Day 1

I’m going to repeat some Facebook information here because not everyone uses, or needs to use, that particular site (or be connected to me on that site). However, I can give more background and information here. For this whole week, I’m helping at a friend’s leadership and empowerment camp for young women here in Mexico. […]

That’s quite a TB test you have there…

At first, I was going to take a few shots because it was such an eye-catching circle that the lab drew on my arm, and why not? It’s surprisingly hard to take a good shot of the near-elbow region of your own arm, so the challenge was interesting. The other spot outside the circle is […]

Into the wild(er) slightly more northern parts

I had a spur-of-the-moment chance to make a quick visit to the lovely state of Aguascalientes recently. I’ve been meaning to visit the Volunteer living up there, but scheduling these trips is tricky, unless you can just go with the flow and take the last-minute opportunity. This is now the most northerly part of Mexico […]

Just hiding out for a few days

Quiet holidays and New Year’s, but now there are plenty of things in the works. So, I’m keeping my head down, finishing up a whole bunch of stuff, and doing some light cat-sitting in the meanwhile. More soon. Much more, very soon. Happy New Year and all that.

Holiday Time

Being with family for the holidays is always a special, largely food-filled time. I’ve finally found the appropriate clock for telling holiday time.

Let’s talk about tequila

I’m not one to pretend to have done any research. There are some interesting Mexican culture and culinary blogs out there, and you can google the story of tequila as well as I can. What I would like to present today is my experience in the tequila aisle at a slightly upscale liquor store here […]

This will never do

No, no, no. It is supposed to be a golden kraken on a black field. I don’t know who is giving House Greyjoy marketing advice, but this is just diluting the brand.

Lessons from the Ancients

I finally made it to the famous National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. It is an overwhelmingly impressive collection, so of course I’m going to have to make light of it. But really, it was great and a must see like everyone says. I probably should have paid for the audio guide, but I […]

To all my running shoes, thank you for your service

I was recently asked how I keep my sanity here. My automatic answer is that I run. A lot, by some measures. On my run last evening I realized that I’ve been running to some extent for the last 10 years. Nothing else helps me as much maintain emotional stability and handle stress. This has […]

Ingenuity at work, work, work

The corn has been harvested and dried on the patio, and now to remove the kernels from the cobs. One of the women we are working with on the stove project showed us how they go about this process. Such a simple but effective design, and still an incredible amount of work, all by hand. […]

Craft break

While killing some time during a day of surveys for the stove SPA project, we stopped outside a small shop in town. I was waiting in the car looking through the door at an array of sweaters and blankets on the walls while our counterpart when in to talk to someone. It was too intriguing […]