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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Marvelous Mexican Mountains – Malinche
If only that title was also a palindrome, that would be like infinity in word-nerd points. However, even without a perfect nerd score, it was wonderful to get back to the mountains with a little light mountaineering and an intense hiking day. We started a little after 9am and made it to the top in […]