Benito's Grand Mexican Adventure
About
Peace Corps
México
All opinions expressed are mine alone and do not reflect on the Peace Corps or the United States
Peace Corps Overview
Peace Corps was founded in 1961 by John F Kennedy to promote world peace through community-based development and intercultural understanding. It emphasizes helping developing nations in meeting needs in skilled laborers, improve and promote understanding of the American people in other nations, and to help promote the understanding of other nations in the American people. Through this blog, I hope to uphold that last point by showing some of the Mexican culture by documenting my experience through my two years of service.
For more information, visit the Peace Corps website
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What will I be doing there?
The Peace Corps operates in countries where volunteers have been requested. Normally, this is the federal government requesting volunteers. Peace Corps México is unique in that its volunteers are requested by government agencies. There are two volunteer positions here, Climate Change Awareness and Action volunteers and Teaching English as a Foreign Language volunteers. I am a climate volunteer and will be working with La Secretaría del Medioambiente y Recursos Naturales, or SEMARNAT, which is essentially the Mexican Government's Environmental Protection Agency. I have been assigned to work with a representative of SEMARNAT to extend their outreach into a ranch El Carrizal in the north of Querétaro. I will help to teach about environmental topics, construct sustainability projects such as rainwater capture systems, and help the community of the ranch to develop sustainably. There are many options for projects for me to work on, much of what I will do will be self-led as I try to address the desires or SEMARNAT, the local community members, and my perspectives as an environmental scientist.
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