Friday, December 15, 2006
Further correction: It is "creche."
OK.
Four months, here in Querétaro – much longer than I had expected, and an awfully long time to be apart from Myrna. But suddenly the time for the next adventure is here. I leave for Guatemala and Myrna in two days, on Sunday, to stay through Christmas and New Year’s. Before I leave, Christianne and Tom have invited a group of friends to a lunch tomorrow as a bon-voyage party.
Then on Jan 4th I will begin a 6-month project with the Crisis Corps. The goal is to help a Guatemalan village through the final stages of recovery from the effects of Hurricane Stan, and to help in formulating plans for prompt reaction whenever a new disaster occurs. Since Stan, a whole group of people have been moved from dangerous sites that are prone to landslides to homes at the top of the mountain. Unfortunately for me, the mountain is about 9,000 ft, so it is cold there. Frost in the mornings, I’m told. I’m not looking forward to that part of the project!
The plan is to complete this service and then return to Mexico, hopefully for a two-year stint with the Peace Corps here. Since the HQ of Peace Corps Mexico is right here in Querétaro, I attended the swearing-in ceremony for the latest group of volunteers last Wednesday. This certainly is a different kind of Peace Corps. The age profile is turned upside-down from Tanzania and other programs I know of. There appeared to be only about two volunteers under the age of 50. Lots of engineers, scientists, and strategic planning types. I’m not sure this is the kind of effort that JFK had in mind, but it seems to have a lot of support here, and for my own interests, sounds more in-line with my career than teaching high-school chemistry in Tanzania. Anyway, the food was great, the mariachi band was energetic, the speeches were relatively short, and I met a number of the Peace Corps staff and heard encouraging words from them. So, onward and upward.
OK.
Four months, here in Querétaro – much longer than I had expected, and an awfully long time to be apart from Myrna. But suddenly the time for the next adventure is here. I leave for Guatemala and Myrna in two days, on Sunday, to stay through Christmas and New Year’s. Before I leave, Christianne and Tom have invited a group of friends to a lunch tomorrow as a bon-voyage party.
Then on Jan 4th I will begin a 6-month project with the Crisis Corps. The goal is to help a Guatemalan village through the final stages of recovery from the effects of Hurricane Stan, and to help in formulating plans for prompt reaction whenever a new disaster occurs. Since Stan, a whole group of people have been moved from dangerous sites that are prone to landslides to homes at the top of the mountain. Unfortunately for me, the mountain is about 9,000 ft, so it is cold there. Frost in the mornings, I’m told. I’m not looking forward to that part of the project!
The plan is to complete this service and then return to Mexico, hopefully for a two-year stint with the Peace Corps here. Since the HQ of Peace Corps Mexico is right here in Querétaro, I attended the swearing-in ceremony for the latest group of volunteers last Wednesday. This certainly is a different kind of Peace Corps. The age profile is turned upside-down from Tanzania and other programs I know of. There appeared to be only about two volunteers under the age of 50. Lots of engineers, scientists, and strategic planning types. I’m not sure this is the kind of effort that JFK had in mind, but it seems to have a lot of support here, and for my own interests, sounds more in-line with my career than teaching high-school chemistry in Tanzania. Anyway, the food was great, the mariachi band was energetic, the speeches were relatively short, and I met a number of the Peace Corps staff and heard encouraging words from them. So, onward and upward.
