Woo Leo!

Yesterday I went to an inauguration for a new tourism store in the pueblo that will sell local artisan's work. Of course my highly esteemed counterpart, Leo, had a huge presence in the store. He also teaches groups of women and youth how to make handicrafts and lamps out of henequin, a fiber stripped from maguey plants (aka agave) that is plentiful where I live. Actually, Osicala is the maguey capital of the country. Betcha didn't know that!

I'm very proud of Leo. He was a great counterpart during the art classes. I'm happy that the pueblo and more organizations are noticing him and including him in projects.

A bunch of different government and NGOs showed up for the inauguration. I mainly showed up to support Leo and Dana, another PCV who helped with the store. Oh, and I assumed there would be refrigerio.

They're still working out some details like who's going to work in the store, and how the artist will get paid. But as soon as that's figured out, I'm sure it'll be great for economic development. The store is beautiful, Leo's work is amazing, and it was a fun day.

Leo talking about his work. 

A slew of organizations.

Cutting the ribbon. 

Dana and Leo, def getting photobombed by Lucio.

Me and Mayra with our pieces of ribbon. How cool?

Art class

I'm so proud of the twenty kids who show up to Leo's art class on Thursdays. Right now the class is working on artesania while me, Leo and the ADESCO write a grant for painting supplies. I like being creative, but the delicate art of craft making is often lost on me. These kids definitely make better bracelets than I do! Leo's also a great teacher. He has all the patience in the world. I'll keep you all updated on the progress of the group in the following months!

Here's some photos of the class:

Before class everyone helps set up the tables and sweep the casa comunal.

Leo showing the girls how to do the thingy with the string.

Wendy lives down the road from me. She does a great job!

Busy days!

One thing I love about my community is that there is ALWAYS something to do. I'll look at my blank calendar on Sunday thinking, "Gee, I have a lot of free time." Then BOOM and now I have 15 meetings, intramurals, cooking, art, women's groups, ADESCOs, NGOs, this, that, and more! It's great and it's exhausting.

Today I ran around with the kids from my school for their annual intramural extravaganza. Of course, the boys play futbol and the girls either sit around or some play softball. They never mix and the girls never play futbol. Besides the gender divide, the kids really like having time out of class. And they're getting bastante time off! Three days this week are spent in the cancha playing sports and next week is Semana Santa, which is like spring break but with a lot more church.

Kenny and his friend. The mayor donated the uniforms for kindergarten. 

Two of my 9th grade englsih class students are in *love*

Finally got a pic of Kenny and David. So cute here, so loud when they're at home. 

Kids really wanted me to take a photo...

Me with my 9th graders. I asked the teacher next to me to take the photo, but he made a big deal about finishing his cortido and beans so he could be IN the photo. Guess I should work on my speaking skills some more.

Some girls playing softball. There were so many dust storms. Where's the RAIN!?!

Then I showered up and zoomed into town for a presentation from Asociacion PROESA. I'd like to think that my NGO b.s. meter is pretty accurate at this point, thanks to all the failed projects and false expectations previous NGOs have brought to my community. PROESA seems pretty OK to me. They work with the mayor's office to build capacity for production and local economic growth. I like their mission statement and their output goals are reasonable. They're going to start decentralized meetings across the municipality this month, focusing on the strengths of Osicala's producers (cafe, henequin, artesania, coopertivas, corte conffecion, etc) and how to improve their technical skills and organizational capacity.

I was feeling extra confident today and even read a paragraph of the powerpoint slide out loud when no one answered the presenter's plea for participation. I stumbled on a few words but everyone seemed impressed with the gringa's mad Spanish skills. I'm just here to make people smile :)

Arts and crafts

Wednesday September 18, 4pm

I've never been very crafty. I lack the spacial reasoning necessary for scrapbooking, dexterity for crocheting, and patience for everything else. I started a magazine mosaic of a sunset once. I think it's still half finished in my bedroom at home. I also did time in a creative art class in grade school, but that's about the extent of my artsy ways. 

This week was craft week. It's like shark week, except it's a lot less exciting and you can't make a drinking game out of it (Peace Corps' rules, not mine). 

I think I've done more crafts here than I ever did in the US. It was fun! 

Rachel teaching me how to make friendship bracelets. I've never made one in my life! With all the new friends I'm making I figured nows a good time to learn. 

Anil workshop. Anil (not sure I'm spelling that right) is natural indigo. They used in the Mayans times. 

Kai's host mom (left blue shirt) is a pro and she sells tshirts, jewelry, skirts and dress of tie dye in the town. 

Kai, Mario and Angelica squishing the dye. 

Me and Maria, squishing away. And I shall call him squishy! 

Angelica's awesome shirt 

I call it "When the planets align..."

We're so darn unique.

We also had a candle making workshop, but I decided not to go last minute for multiple reasons. Mainly because my stomach was recovering from being so explosive, and I didn't want to take the bus alone in the dark. The candles were beautiful though, I really regret not going! 

Instead I bought a bunch of candles from the local artisan group, NuCu. I'm going to write something cheesy about bringing light to the world and give them to my future community guides. 

Flowers IN the candles! I bet Pier 1 is hawking the same thing for $15 a pop.