What moving back looks like

3 weeks out and I can finally edit the packing pictures without the panicky feeling coming back. Everything fit and made it back. I would say with no problems, but packing day was stressful enough that it was a problem at the time. I made it down to Mexico for Peace Corps service with 2 […]

TB testing – round 2

At this point I have my FUTB shirt in-hand, and I have earned it. I spent a morning last week running around from the doctor to various labs to have blood taken for the QuantiFERON (Gold!) blood test and a chest x-ray. It was all pretty easy except the first lab I went to didn’t […]

Camp Mariposas – the weekend finale

It’s time to wrap up the camp posts. I have to keep checking the calendar to convince myself that it has only been one week (tomorrow) since the end of the camp. What a week it has been. I’m so confused by what day it is and what is going on. So, the final weekend of […]

Camp Mariposas – Day 5

I really need to finish posting about the camp, because it gets harder and harder to recall the details as the days go by. I guess that is because so much as been happening over the last week. Like finishing service and moving back to the US yesterday. Oh, but enough about that. Back to […]

Camp Mariposas – Day 4

Health Day was a lot of fun, excluding the important the presentation about sexual health and contraception. It was interesting, and I was very happy that the girls were asking a lot of questions, but I’m not sure that fun is the right word. Taekwondo class was a blast though. A teacher from a local […]

Camp Mariposas – the Graduation

The only group picture known to exist with your truly included. Ah, the perils of being the designated photographer, a position that I love, but I did have to round up the whole group at the end of the picture-taking session because I didn’t have a single group picture with myself included. I am so […]

Camp Mariposas – Day 3

Well, as expected, I’m falling farther and farther behind in my efforts to edit and upload photos each day. The days are getting longer as we slowly pull out of winter and as each day’s activities and the evening drama of the camp extends into my sleep time. I’m actually taking the weekend off to […]

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. […]

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. […]

The Some Birds

The title is in honor of my good friends and the great times visiting them, and even helping them with a work event. The tequila and movie-going were fantastic, but I also had a good time working at the city park where they were assigned and trying to wrangle group after group of teenagers to […]

Take the good with the smoky

And other lessons being learned in the stove project. We are in the monitoring and evaluation phase doing a final round of surveys to try to quantify fuel savings after a few months with the efficient wood-burning stoves. Since the families typically only buy wood once or twice a year, we switched to measuring wood […]