Last week PST! Moving to El Carrizal

Ben Schwartz
10 nov 2024
2 Min. de lectura

Monday was some final preparation for the swearing in ceremony.

Then there was the MexFactor, or our talent show. I did three activities:

Mariachi band, we performed a version of the song Volver Volver

2. A poem with every word in Spanish that has the word “Ben” in it. I also included “ven” because they sound similar as pronounced in Spanish. All in all it was pretty well!

How my poem starts:

Un día yo venía de la plaza Benito Juárez

Unos sensores me dijeron “ven”

Ellos vendían beneficios de Mercedes Benz

Les pregunté “como me ven”

Como es que sabe que mi nombre es Ben””

3. A rap (in Spanish) about the weeks we spent in training full of inside jokes. We are impossible to understand in the video but it was so much fun!! Also the credit goes to my friend Surya, he wrote the entire thing I just helped him perform it. (He was my ghost writer👻)

Counterpart Workshop - Tuesday and Wednesday

Counter parts, or our Mexican coworkers came from all the states we work with and were give rooms in a nice hotel. We met with them to go over cooperation and to plan the first couple of months.

Opening Ceremony

For our swearing in in which we would stop being trainees and begin our official service as a volunteer, they threw us a big party in a hacienda north of the city. It also served as the 20th anniversary of Peace Corps México so they went all out for the event. There were Important representatives from the embassy, the Mexican government, and the former head of Peace Corps who created the México program 20 years ago. The home stay families came and all the current PC volunteers actively serving in Mexico.

I gave the speech on behalf of the new volunteer group. I described the symbiotic relationship that exists in lichen, how it is actually two species collaborating that is capable of growing in, and leading to the restauration of damaged ecosystems. I compared that to our collaboration between the US and Mexico. I think it went really well, I had been practicing it for about a week and was one of few speakers to go all from memory.

Welcome Events in El Carrizal

Much of the family gathered at my new home stay house to welcome me

Friday was the birthday party on of the girls turned four! It was a great way to meet the family. Afterward we went to a soccer game at 9pm, super late! I didn’t play because the other team was super aggressive and they didn’t want me to have to deal with that

Pictured below:

Doña Kina cooking breakfast with the now four year old. Doña Kina is technically my host Mom, but she’s a great-grandma so calling here host grandmas feels more appropriate.

There’s also Rosemary tea which is delicious, I looked it up it seems to have energetic properties.

Finally my new jersey for soccer.