Tag: working

Ready to Rock ‘n Roll

Apparently one way that development work can start is with a wad of cash. This is Micha and me making the transfer of funds for the efficient wood-burning cookstove project. Ah, nothing like getting a few thousand dollars in denominations of $5’s, $10’s and $50’s, or their peso equivalents. Pretty exciting and a bit scary, […]

Have solar oven, will travel

Although the climate in the state of Puebla is significantly cloudier and rainier than where I live, I packed up my solar oven and took it with me to a science fair this weekend in a small community there. The fair was organized by another Volunteer for the children and parents at the school where […]

Community Participation Tools

Taking a step back to the second-to-last day of Mid-Service Training and away from my oh-so-self-important reflections, I want to share some pictures from our group field trip to one of the communities in which we have been working for the solar stove project. But, before I do that, I will explain how this outing […]

Aspirations

For Part 2 of the MST essay series, we are going to take a look at one of the touchier-feelier activities we did on the last day of Mid-Service Training. This activity was rereading our original Aspiration Statements from the Peace Corps Application. I feel that it deserves capitalization and the be recognized as a […]

Underutilized and misplaced

First off, let me say, not me. Well, not me outside the office. The problem is that I don’t want to be utilized or placed in the office. More on this later in this post. I’m struggling a bit with tone in these essay posts. My voice is my voice, but it starts to feel […]

Not quite a project…

…but quite the eco-condo. The three of us from the solar oven project had the opportunity to go and look at an eco-condo and organic chicken farm that have been built near town. We met the designer, builder, entrepreneur-owner at the solar cooking festival. He has done some amazing work on his plot of land […]

Tranquilidad

It’s the beginning of Semana Santa here in Mexico. In general, it is a week of vacation, but I’m about to tackle a pile of UN development documents over the next day in preparation for a meeting on Wednesday. I need to find/remember/keep my tranquility, because I generally hate reading these types of documents which, […]

Sun Stripes = More Cake

I generally find it better when people correct my Spanish mistakes, but I understand why someone would choose to let a repeated mistake pass. I have done the same in English many, many times because I understood what the person was saying and for a host of other reasons. So these days, I try to […]

Solar Oven Workshop Goodness

It was my second time participating in the solar oven workshops, and the first workshop in round two of the series, but actually workshop number 4 so far in total. As long as we are all clear now… Where the first workshop was general information and data collection, this workshop was the hands-on session. The […]

The problem when it’s not your camera…

… is that you don’t have any of the pictures to work with after the trip is over. Instead, I’m at the whim of my guy to choose and send me some. Still, what is worse is arriving home at 11:30pm to an apartment where the power has been cut because the power bill did […]

Sustainable/Unsustainable

In what will hopefully become an ongoing gag. I had a great day working with Sarah and others on her solar oven project in a small community in the municipality of Huimilpan. More to come.