One Amazing Woman Called Patí

Last week we went on a field trip with the "Environmental Specialists" from our training group to the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve. It covers one third of the area of the state of Queretaro, almost a million acres, although as with most preservation in Mexico, most of the land is still privately owned, just declared to be a park. We headed up into the mountains, on windy roads. Peace Corps always seems to worry about motion sickness (which thankfully never bothers me) so dramamine was available and seats were assigned based on sensitivity.

We passed through gorgeous scenery on route to our first site - Quatro Palos. This tiny town (142 people) clings to a mountain ridge with splendid views of mountains and a cool rock formation called Media Luna. As part of the Reserve's work, they are trying to make it an ecotourism destination, with a lunchroom, a trail to an overlook (with a fee), and a campsite. It really was beautiful, and our lunch was delicious, but the question always remains - will this bring some money to the town and will the introduction of tourism be good for the town? All in all, I think in this case the answer is yes. They already have earned enough to bring electric wires to the town, although there's no power yet. The school is benefiting, along with the teenagers who have been trained to give ecotours. 

Martha Isabel (Pati) Ruiz Corso, from the Rolex Awards website

Later after more windy roads we went to the headquarters of the Reserve, a complex of buildings with offices, labs and a small shop, and heard a presentation by Roberto Pedraza Ruiz, the son of the woman who founded this Reserve. It seems to me that it is often the case that one visionary person makes change happen. Martha Ruiz Corzo (called Pati, I don't know why) and her husband retired in the mid-90s from jobs in the city and went back to where his family was from. She realized that the land needed protection and spent a number of years working to build support for the idea. In a relatively short time (less than 10 years) she was able to have the are designated as a federal reserve, and to have the people of the area vote yes on the idea even though it meant restrictions on the way they could support themselves. She then engaged government and international support to buy key small parcels of land and to build her program, focusing on preservation, economic alternatives and empowering women. She sought out and won international prizes to get recognition for the Reserve, recognition that was followed by more donations and a strengthening of her ability to stand up to oposition interests, like the loggers who tried to attack her. She was a music teacher and she sings, making people cry at international gatherings. She's a board member of the World Economic Forum. She is very powerful, but at the same time an ordinary Mexican woman who has done great things.

It doesn't hurt the effort that the Reserve has lots of charismatic megafauna (I love that phrase) like jaguars and pumas, plus rare and exotic birds. Roberto explained some of their funding comes from "selling carbon credits." I put it in quotes because he isn't really. The staff of the Reserve has figured out a way to monetize (put a dollar value on) the conservation that they are doing. They charge $15 per acre for land that is preserved. However, it's not really an offset - all of their donations come from nonprofit groups. It's an excellent start on trying to quantify the value of a preserved acre using some kind of scientific analysis, but until governments begin requiring carbon offsets for impacts, there won't really be a market. 

The Reserve is made up of numerous different entities. The overall reserve is just a declaration by the government, which means that people can't collect wood anymore or run cattle freely through the forest. There's the Grupo Ecologica, which helps start sustainable projects to help people, does scientific research and more. There's Sierra Gorda Ecotours, which organized our trip. They train and employ local people to serve as tour guides.There are five or more other entities, each set up for a specific purpose like qualifying to implement a particular government program to help the local people. Bosque Sustenable, or Sustainable Forest, helps with forestry issues.

Some people evidently have mixed feelings about the Reserve. Some say it's like a family business. Pati and her group have enough international clout that they can negotiate with the government about funding and development, which of course isn't popular, particularly with those on the other side of issues! They successfully stopped a power line through the Reserve and are now fighting a proposal to put a road through one of the major natural areas. We visited a number of their projects during the trip (which I'll describe in a separate post) and it seems to me that they are doing a great job. They are succeeding at land preservation.

What does this mean for the rest of Mexico's natural areas and parks? Well, most of the parks are managed by or with SEMARNAT, the park service. In 2012 there will be a presidential election, and if, as is widely expected, the PRI regains power, every government job in the country can be reassigned. It makes it very difficult to do long-term planning when terms are just six years and when the new group does not want to continue the work of the previous group, but rather wants to start new initiatives. Hopefully the Sierra Gorda Reserve can serve as a positive model for other preservation efforts.

What are we doing here?

We are visiting a Peace Corps couple in this little town of Matehuala. This is our site visit, where we are supposed to get a chance to see what actual volunteers are making of their assignment.

This couple is assigned to a government office here, but have found it difficult to make their jobs work. It comes back to the question of our mission here - are we working to preserve land as part of the park system, or are we here to do community development. Of course it's not either/or but I feel as if Peace Corps has encouraged volunteers to do projects that are more like the general community development programs in most countries. This couple has found that their boss is the only parks official looking out for a very large area. She saw them as clerical help and tried to get them to do her job, including lots of paperwork and menial tasks. They had to set boundaries which they seem to have done pretty successfully.

Now they are working on a project to bring desalination distillers to a small town. They have applied for a grant for the equipment which will allow each family who participates to have a few gallons of clean water a day. This will be huge for them. It's a really good project. Their boss sees it as indulging them, which is interesting.

This couple also are both enrolled in one of the masters' programs in the US and need to come up with theses while they are here. She's been doing baseline documentation on the vegetative communities in the park, which will certainly be a valuable addition to the knowledge base for park management even if her boss thinks that's also not all that helpful.

This has been a good lesson to make sure our expectations of what we will accomplish are reasonable. However, I still have questions about whether we are here to do community development or to help preserve critical habitats.

In some ways the best option to preserve these critical habitats for posterity would be to relocate the villages somewhere where they would have more options for self-sufficiency. This area is pretty remote and with the water table falling it's hard to see that there are viable options for people to continue living in the parks. However, the government has nowhere near the resources that would be needed to relocated them successfully. 

So I still ask, what is our goal here? Maybe it is goals two and three of Peace Corps - increasing understanding of the US and increasing our understanding of another country. I certainly already feel that I have learned so much about Mexico. I want to keep thinking about goals as I continue along in this adventure.

Old stuff - Mexico, France and the US

One of the things that has surprised me the most about our trip is the heritage of Mexico. We have visited a number of places here that were built in the 1600's and 1700's, beautiful churches and haciendas, and even a few from the 1500s. The University of Mexico was founded in 1551, before my ancestors even thought about going to Massachusetts. 

When we visited France and Italy, one of our favorite things to do (in addition to hiking up mountains) was to visit historic sites. There were indeed many from the middle ages, but many of the buildings were more recent. There's often a mix of buildings from many ages.

Of course, in California, nothing is more than about 150 years old. We visited the Salem, Massachusetts area a few years ago, to connect with family history, and saw a few buildings from the late 1600s and from the 1700s. We lived in a village in Pennsylvania, "Historic" Fallsington, where the oldest building, a log cabin, was from the 1760's. The architecture in Mexico feels older and more ambitious than any of those places. 

It's not so much the number of buildings and the dates, but the scale of the buildings. Here in Mexico there are magnificent churches. We visited the Sanctuaro de Atotonilco, known as Mexico's Sistine Chapel. It's a world heritage site outside San Miguel de Allende, it was started in 1740 and took 35 years to complete. The most amazing part are the frescoes which were done by a local artist named Miguel Antonio Martinez de Pocasangre. 

The entire inside is covered with scenes from the life of Jesus. 

 

Of course Lupita and Tonio knew the nun who was keeping an eye on the place and she let us in to see one of the chapels that is usually closed to the public. The entire chapel was covered in silver. On one of the walls was a self portrait of the artist.

Back in the main church, there is a statue of Our Lord of the Column, Jesus on his way to the cross. It gets carried in a procession to the city during Holy Week and is credited with several miracles. As with much religious art in Mexico (and we noticed this as well in Peru) there is a lot of blood. In the back room we were able to see a wall of oil paintings showing the deaths of the Apostles - very gruesome. I think the worst was the guy who was flayed (skinned to death).

This church was on the list of the world's most endangered historic sites in 1996 but has had some restoration done in recent years. I think it's amazing that we'd never heard of this remarkable church so close to the US. A recurring theme for me so far is how little I knew about Mexico, a country so close to our own.

Sustainable Development
This post is partly tarea (homework) from the field trip, answers to questions posed by Peace Corps for us to think about, but I think the questions and thoughts might be interesting.

1.    What issues/activities/aspects caught your attention during this trip?

What caught my attention was the question of ecotourism. It was mentioned at several of the sites but how it would work to better the lives of the local people is really a question. There has to be a reason for tourists to visit. There’s a big difference between local and international tourists – they say that Mexican tourists are less interested in outdoor activities and hiking. With the downturn in tourism due to bad international publicity about the violence, does it make sense to focus on eco-tourism right now? The various places we visited all presented different aspects of this question.

At the first stop, the Parque de Gogorron, we visited a beautiful hacienda. It was privately owned and being converted to a hotel, but it was pretty run down. The two Zorro movies were filmed there, and they left many of the sets in place with the idea that this would make it a tourist destination, which it did for the locals for a while but it hasn’t lasted. The sets were not made to be permanent, of course, so they are disintegrating. Plus they are fake, which is such an irony – the attraction is the constructed old Mexico while the lovely hacienda is there behind the set. There are evidently ruined haciendas like this all over the country. Remembering our stay in Spain in the historic parador hotels run by the government, I wonder if a system like that could be developed here.

The second stop was at a town called Kilometer 58. Of course, the first thing they need to do is to get an attractive name, or a cool story as to why they are called that. We walked in the hills, which were lovely, but it’s unclear if there’s much more than pretty hills to attract visitors.

The third was the success story of the trip. Media Luna is a hot springs/stream/archeological site/tourist center that has been popular for decades. The members of the ehido (communal farm) who own it have developed it beautifully with help and some funding from the government. For many years the site was abused – scuba divers removed archeological items and fossils (mammoths, etc.) from the caves that are as much as 90 feet below the surface. Now they own the concessions and control uses. Evidently during Holy Week many thousands of Mexicans came to picnic and party there. Now they are charging admission (much higher during Holy Week) and restricting the number of visitors to a maximum of 3500 at any one time.

2.    What approaches or strategies seem to be producing positive results and why?

Media Luna is certainly the most successful of the places we visited. It has a unique attraction with a history of tourist activity.

3.    What challenges did you identify?

For Media Luna, the challenge is to make sure that the benefits of the development reach all of the members of the ehido. We asked how the revenues were divided and they said that some went to the poor and elderly if they needed help. They need to maintain the restrictions on overuse, but they seem to be doing a good job. I think this is part of an issue that affects anywhere that wants ecotourism and is owned by an ehido – how to manage change communally.

Another challenge is to make money from ecotourism. Media Luna has it solved, but the other two places are far from deriving any revenues from their locations. They need a lot of infrastructure, something to attract visitors, and marketing to bring them in, all major challenges.

4.    Why do these challenges exist?

 The challenge regarding management and who benefits from ecotourism exists because of the nature of ehidos. When land is communally owned and decisions must be made by a group, it is more difficult to make progress.

The challenge regarding how to benefit financially from ecotourism has two parts – how to attract tourists and then how to get them to spend money in the village. These are challenges of ecotourism everywhere.

5.    Are those challenges related? How?
They aren’t really related.

6&7. What would be an alternative approach? How would you start?

The problem of who benefits from ecotourism is really outside the scope of a Peace Corps volunteer, although it would be possible to encourage the involvement of women in any project with which you were involved, in a way that might result in benefits for them.

Bringing tourism to a remote town is a big challenge. I’d bring in someone with experience analyzing markets (if possible, perhaps another volunteer) who could look at whether there were people who could access the location. I’d consider the pros and cons of the site as an attraction – how good are the roads, are there other sites nearby that could also be visited, is there a rare bird for birdwatchers or an usual animal that might be seen, are there stories or legends that might attract people? I’d consider the infrastructure, roads, welcome center (which could be a one-room building with small exhibits), toilets, food, clean water.

8. Do you think the alternative approach you described above would be welcomed by the community leaders?

I think the ideas would be welcomed if there really were the potential to derive financial benefits from the development. I think it would be important not to raise expectations that would not be accomplished.

9. How could you promote your ideas to help get them adopted?

If we determined that there was potential for ecotourism, it would be important to engage the community in discussions about what was needed. I would talk to the town leaders, both men and women, to make sure they supported the ideas. It would be best if many of the specific ideas came from them. I would work with them to make plans and develop projects that could qualify for funding.

10. How do you think sustainable development is linked to daily activities within the communities, or how could they be linked?

Sustainable development is very much linked to daily life. If what is proposed is not consistent with what people are used to doing, it will be disruptive and less successful. Ideally the roles played by community members with development are improved, by training and experience, versions of what they have been accustomed to doing. It is important to consider the needs and wishes of the community when proposing development.

Ah, Peace Corps

I wrote this in word when I didn't have internet so it's out of chronological order.

Peace Corps has changed since we were in Ghana. In essence, there’s much more talking at the volunteers. It’s all bearable, and very earnest. In Washington we had a day with the other volunteers. We broke into teams and drew pictures of threats and expectations.  The artistic abilities of the group varied considerably and some were pretty silly. Under threats there were lots of guns (fear of violence), sick people (hard to draw) and stick people all alone (isolation, inability to learn the language). For opportunities, people drew mountains, happy people speaking Spanish. 
 
WE also had to do skits about situations that real volunteers have faced. One was a volunteer planning a trip to the beach, and inviting colleagues even though they had a deadline that wouldn’t be met. We all agreed that this was a problem. Another was a volunteer holding a party with lots of alcohol, with a female volunteer deciding to walk home in the dark. All agreed that there were lots of things wrong with this scenario. Our skit was about Bob, whose girlfriend wanted him to come home and who was feeling ill and not participating in class. Bob needed to be committed to the 27-month experience and after encouragement from the other volunteers he decided to stay.

 
We finished at six and then met sister Debbie and her husband Ray for a delicious dinner, then went back to the hotel to finish some internet stuff and repack. WE had to gather in the lobby at 1 am, yes, 1 am, for a six am flight. PC said that they wanted to be s,ure that there were not problems getting to the airport. We were all on the bus by 1:45 and at National Airport, the one right in DC about 2 am. Of course, the airport isn’t open at that hour. Nothing opens until 4 am so we all sat around talking in an exhausted way until  then, when we checked in. WE had priority boarding (very exciting), and some of us were able to sleep on that flight and the one from Dallas to Mexico City. When we arrived there, we got on another bus to Queretaro, where we’d be staying.
It was fun seeing the Mexican countryside during what was supposed to be a 45-minute trip. WE went through the city and out the other side, then headed down a smaller road through some villages. The streets got smaller and smaller. At one point the bus had to go backwards and forwards many times to make a turn. Finally we ended up at a dead end, much to the amusement of a number of small boys who watched us. After much discussion, the bus backed up and returned to a point where it could turn around.  More maneuvering resulted in our arrival at the hotel 2 hours after our arrival. A great introduction to Mexico!!
The hotel/conference center was lovely. It was a former hacienda with sections built in 1620, rock walls with slit windows,  crenellated roof, a church and a cloister where the rooms for the couples were located around a courtyard full of flowers. The grounds were immaculate, with green lawns, bougainvillea, and fruit trees. The meeting space was in the former mill, a round room with stone walls and floors. They had hung tarps behind the arched windows that flapped behind all the speakers. Our rooms were comfortable, small and a bit Spartan, but very nice. 

 
During the three days at the resort we did lots more role playing, breaking into groups, talking about our expectations. The program started in 2004 with ten volunteers and ten staff. Now there are about 35 volunteers working. Our group of 39 (or maybe 40; one guy hasn’t arrived yet) will more than double the size of the program. There are twenty plus staff members, plus eight contract language teachers who help with the program as well as teaching us.

 
The trip back into Queretaro was les eventful, and we met up with our host families. We took a tour of Peace Corps headquarters. Each day now we meet at a local university, Universidad Marista, a private Catholic college that teaches engineering, law, the sciences, marketing and educates novices for the convent. It’s very beautiful (a recurring theme in Mexico so far!), centered around a brick and stone building that was a textile factory.  There are many other buildings, with white walls and brown trim around the windows. There are tall trees, green lawns and decorative plantings everywhere.
 
We’ve had several lectures on learning styles, which could be useful for us as we try to work with our counterparts. However, it’s more about us. WE took a learning style inventory, about how we learn as individuals. After plotting our results, we ended up as an accommodator, diverger, converger or assimilator. Everyone could recognize their characteristics in all the categories, but many (not all!) were accurate within our category, for me, as a converger (who knew?). The learning part was really right on – I “perceive information abstractly and process it actively, learn by testing theories and applying common sense. … I have a limited tolerance for “fuzzy ideas”!! However, they then extrapolate the learning style to our leadership styles and say that convergers are rigid and domineering which I sure hope is not true. It’s all interesting in its way. I'll talk more about training later.

Lupita and Tonio

Our host family is great. The Mom is named Lupita, the Dad, Antonio (called Tonio) and there's a teen-age son called Juan Pablo. They also have three older children in their thirties, all married with children. One of the sons has traveled all over the world. She talks a lot, and is very good about being clear and slow. We've already discussed families, religion and politics. Her religion is very important to her and she wanted to know about our religions. We told her we didn't go to church and she asked if we were atheists. We said that we were respectful of religion and she was OK with that. She told me that she thinks all religions are good and that we should all live in harmony.

We talked and exchanged photos on the first Saturday night, and then settled into our room. Their house is very nice, in a residential area near the Peace Corps office and the Marista University where we have our classes. There's a big driveway, a backyard pretty much filled up with a trampoline, and a lawn in front. There's a gate to the street which is locked but they don't lock the house. More or less across the street there's a lovely small private park.

Our room is upstairs, across the hall from Juan Pablo. We have very hard twin beds (which they helped us push together). We have a private bathroom although we'd love to have a new shower head since it's just a big dribble. The parquet floor in the bedroom is coming up so it's a little disconcerting to walk and dislodge the tiles. There's a big closet with a lot of stuff stored in it where we can put our suitcases and warmer clothes. We feel very fortunate to be in such a nice place.

On Sunday morning they asked if we wanted to go to their town. Of course we said sure, and we got into the pickup truck (John sits in the front seat of course, with Tonio, while Lupita, Juan Pablo and I sat in the back). Juan Pablo would clearly have rather been home playing soccer with his friends but they said he needed to know his history and he was quite nice about it. He had an i-pod with a funny mix of American songs. Monday was his first day of school (Catholic school) and he was happy to be going back to see his friends.

We drove for about an hour to San Miguel Allende, a beautiful town in the hills. Their families each had haciendas there that were confiscated by the government in 1917. They are still bitter. Lupita said that she wouldn't mind so much if it were being used productively but now it's pretty much been abandoned. As we walked down the street, practically every person they met was a relative and they stopped and said hello. We went to the history museum to see the painting of her uncle that was on the wall and she knew the person taking tickets. In the church they met Tonio's uncle. We went to a convent and they met one of Juan Pablo's teachers and then Lupita's niece and some other relatives. They had a long conversation and fortunately John and I were able to try reading some of the exhibit captions out loud and try to translate them. The city is really gorgeous, with a lovely cathedral (when we went in we bumped into Tonio's uncle). It is full of Americans (she says that many of them are very involved in preserving the city), and immaculate.

When we returned to the truck it had a flat tire. Now, this was no ordinary truck. It had oversized 22" wheels and low profile tires with a fancy center and unusual lug nuts. He called a truck to come and pump up the tire. I went into some of the shops which had beautiful merchandise, much nicer than anything I've generally seen in shops that feature Mexican crafts in the U.S. There was a jewelry store that was like a museum, beautiful gems, silver work that was like small sculptures, children's spoons, and much more.

After the tire was inflated we drove outside the town to a vulcanizing shop, a storefront operation in an area of lots of shops much less fancy than those in the town center. It turned out that it wasn't his truck - he'd traded his car for the weekend with a friend of his brother's so we could travel in style (also to transport our four suitcases to the house - two years is a long time to pack for!). It also was the case that the tire had previously been patched in the same spot and the first attempt to fix it didn't work. Not only did he not want to buy an expensive new tire for the truck, even if he had wanted to buy one it probably was not available. After much discussion, they decided to try patching it again. John said that the first patch should never have been made because of the location of the problem. However, they decided to try again.

Meanwhile, we haven't had any food since breakfast and it's getting toward 3 pm. I was actually very patient (really, I was). Lupita finally walked down the street with us to a restaurant where they were grilling chicken outside. We went in and enjoyed some delicious chicken with tortillas, beans, rice and salsa, overlooked by a giant tv playing the Incredible Hulk very very loud.

Finally the tire was fixed and we thought we'd head back but they took us down more cobblestone roads (which made me worry about the patch on the tire) to another church. I'll describe it more later and post photos but it was one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen. After that we drove home, with one more stop - at their second house (they also have a rancho in the country that they rent out). It was two rooms, pretty basic. They may be starting a business (he recycles glass) there but it wasn't clear. They needed to water the fruit trees and roses they had started in the yard.

When we got back to the city he drove us by the aquaduct which had giant brightly-painted sculptures between the arches. Lupita asked me if I wanted to go home or see more. I knew she wanted to go to church so I said go home and she was quite relieved. During the day, every time we passed a church she crossed herself, once full scale, and then smaller on her forehead, nose and lips. We passed a lot of churches.

We are lucky with our hosts! It's pretty intimidating but it's clearly a good way to force us to learn to speak Spanish.

couldn't be better

We're at the Hacienda Castillo with the other 37 volunteers in our program. The temperature is perfect and there's a group sitting on the veranda typing away. We had lectures today (boring but I was well-behaved) and started our Spanish lessons. I'm in the intermediate group. I'm braver at trying to speak than I thought I would be. I think it's because I was speaking French last month. They really want us to be speaking fluently when we are done. John's been studying hard and is making great progress.

OUr group is really interesting. There are nine in the technology transfer program with John. There are about six in a new environmental education program, and the rest in various other environmental programs. There are some recent college graduates, some with advanced degrees, many with lots of interesting experience. Counting us, there are four or five who were volunteers before - one in Malawi and one in the Philippines.

We will hear where we are going on Saturday, which will be great. We think it will be Guadalajara but we aren't sure. We'll also meet our host families where we will stay for the next ten weeks.

This place is a hotel/conference center. The buildings are old and it's pretty basic in terms of amenities but it's beautiful, there's hot water from 8-10 in the evening and 6-8 in the morning, and there's internet access as you can see. What could be better?

Mexico here we come!

At the very last minute we were invited for Mexico. I'll be doing conservation work and John IT consulting. We are so excited. Today was my last day at my job. We can't wait!

Maybe Mexico?

We have an interview tomorrow morning at 7 am. Maybe maybe we'll get an invitation to Mexico. Here's hoping!

Calm down, Barbara

I know I shouldn't nag our placement officer. I know they are trying to find a spot for us in the Mexico program. I think we'd both do really well there.

If that doesn't work there's one more possibility for fall and after that it would be February. I'm leaving my job at the end of this month. I know Peace Corps says not to quit until you have your invitation but sometimes it's not ethical to do that. We could end up with no income and no health insurance until February.

Calm down, Barbara, I say to myself. Maybe Mexico will come through. It will be a lot of work to leave then but we can do it. We should hear soon. I'm sure they are working on our situation.

Mexico please!

We hope we'll get the call and the interview for Mexico tomorrow. It's very difficult dealing with the uncertainty. It would be much easier if we weren't going to Europe for the month of July but that was planned a long time ago. So we are getting our house ready for the house trade with the nice family from Albertville, and keeping in mind that we might be leaving for two years on August 17th, or not. If not, maybe no invitation until February of 2010.

If there's anyone who has been invited to Mexico who'd be willing to talk to us, that would be great. My e-mail is blkdye@cox.net and John's is john.dye@cox.net.

Mexico sounds better and better as we think about it. I hope it works out.

Beware the mammogram!

A warning to all of you in the application process. If you need a yearly mammogram, that knocks out a lot of countries, including possibly the one for which you have been nominated. We were happy to pass dental, medical and legal, but then found out that we were no longer able to go to the country in Sub-Saharan Africa in September (whatever it was) because of that requirement, and the psa test my husband needs once a year. We offered to fly somewhere to do the tests but that's not allowed. They call this passing with an acommodation. I wish we had realized this sooner so I'm passing on this warning.

Hopefully we'll get another placement, since I quit my job. I sympathize with Kyline and her job dilemma!

No Africa but maybe Mexico?

This process is complicated! We passed legal and thought we were just waiting for our invitation. Then yesterday we got a phone call asking if we would be interested in Mexico. Evidently our medical approval wasn't totally clear - we have to go to a country with extra medical support and the program we were nominated for doesn't qualify. We said yes to Mexico, but that's not certain either, plus it leaves on August 18th, which would be a huge amount of work to make.

I understand that they say not to quit your job (which I did) until you get your invitation, but when you are being asked to sign a one-year contract with a 90-day notice period and you care about the place you work and making sure they can find someone else, it's difficult. For older couples, six weeks is not much notice to pack up 35 years of stuff and arrange to rent our house.

I wish medical had told us that we were no longer qualified for the African program, whatever it was, that we were nominated for. Now I hope Mexico accepts us (it's a special program and that's not for sure) because we could be in big trouble if they don't. There may be some departure dates this fall, but we know it's difficult to find positions for both of us in a program. The next batch aren't until February. Aghhh!

Tanzania is up on the wiki!!

We are mid-September in Africa. Tanzania just posted on the wiki with invitations for the 20th. I think that's mid-September. And Cameroon is still a possibility. Hopefully we can get legal clearance and get our invitation before the end of the month when we go traveling. What happens if you are away when the envelope comes? Do we have to have someone overnight the package to wherever we are? How does that work?

We got our medical clearance! - what could go wrong now?

I wrote a beseeching e-mail to our medical nurse asking her how close we were to getting our status finalized. I told her that I had had a second interview for the Botanic Garden Executive Director job and that I really needed to know about our medical. She has been so great. She e-mailed that we both were officially cleared. So when I called the recruiter back I told her that I was doing the Peace Corps. It's too bad in some ways since that would be a great job and it was nice to be offered it after they did such a big search, but I guess life is full of choices. Now, how long will it take to get an invitation? What do we have to do for legal? What else could go wrong now?

John (my husband) wants me to wait until we get our invitation to tell them no officially. I don't think that's fair. I told the recruiter about where we were, and she actually agreed with John and told me to think about it. But they're a great group of board members who are excited about a new direction for the garden. I don't think I should string them along just in case Peace Corps doesn't work out. What else could go wrong now?

Nothing venture nothing gain

They want me back for another interview at the Botanic Garden. This would be such a great job. But I really want to do Peace Corps. Can I and should I do an interview for a job I really don't want? I wish Peace Corps would clear us and we'd get an invitation. It would make our lives so much easier to have a straightforward future. The lovely medical person said there are no more issues so why aren't we cleared? All this uncertainty makes me feel like such a whiner!

I don't think there's any way to pressure Peace Corps to make a decision. I thought about asking our recruiter but I don't think there's anything she can do. We are busy upending 35 years of settled lives to take a chance that we'll end up in Peace Corps. I remember that when, all those years ago, we were in Peace Corps Ghana, there were trotros (trucks) with painted slogans. One said on the front "nothing venture," and on the back, of course, "nothing gain."

Patience is her middle name

I love the Peace Corps wiki and seeing who's going when. I wish someone would post that they've been invited for Tanzania. I'd love to be thinking about that as a possibility for sub-Saharan Africa. Protected lands management there could be fabulous. Cameroon would be fine as well but Tanzania!

I hope we'll get our medical clearance this week. We'll find out more about the legal stuff and maybe get an invitation. I hope they send an invitation by e-mail as well since we'll be in Europe for the month of July. I know, patience. I need to be patient. My husband always said, "patience, Barbara, patience. We'll have to name our oldest daughter Patience." We actually did name her Katherine Patience. When someone says that to her, she can say "Patience is my middle name."

Will he rescue Guinevere?

We're busy organizing our house on the assumption that we are leaving in September. We have 35 years of stuff to go through. We must be crazy but we are redoing our kitchen and both bathrooms right now. I have to work full time until the end of June. It's even more complicated because we are going to Italy and France for the month of July, and doing a house trade. A very nice French family will be living in our house while we are gone. Will we get it all done? I feel sometimes like the end of the movie Camelot, where they are singing "Will he rescue ... Guinevere ...?" and the drums are pounding and the horses are galloping and it's very suspenseful.

I hope the medical approval will come through this week. And I wonder what they'll want in terms of legal. Has anyone dealt with mortgages and so forth?

I think I just have to take a deep breath and keep going. Back to sorting books.

Our daughter in Peace Corps Panama just posted photos. We're still not sure she'll be staying but her assignment sounds great - mountain views, running water and she can have a horse. What more could you want!

Go Huskies!

Life goes on while you are waiting. I had my second interview for the Executive Director job at the Botanic Garden. I sent in the minor administrative stuff on my Peace Corps Medical (I had my polio booster but they forgot to put it on the form, etc.). If I get my medical clearance, I'll probably tell the garden I'm not interested but it's tempting to keep that open as a possibility. They may not want me anyway. I wish the medical clearance were done.

At the school where I work the softball team (the Huskies) is in the state finals tomorrow. Should I go to the game or work on the house to get it ready to rent while we're gone? I think I'll go to the game because I care about the girls on the team. Only a few parents know I'm leaving. I wonder if others have a hard time sharing the news with people at work. It seems hard to tell people that you chose adventure over working at a place that's so important to them.

It's interesting how people react to the news that we are going to Africa in the Peace Corps. I like best the people who say "that's great! What an adventure!" with real enthusiasm. Others get a worried look and start asking questions, like "where in Africa? (we don't know yet) Where will you live? (we aren't sure). Many look really uncomfortable with the idea. Our friends and family are worried about having us so far away but are more-or-less supportive. Do others find this dichotomy of response?

What could go wrong?

The very helpful Peace Corps nurse called today to say that we were almost cleared! My doctor forgot to put the polio shot on the form (although I got it), and we didn't enclose the results on one of the tests even though she marked that I was clear. So I'll see her tomorrow and get that taken care of. I'm going to the second interview for the great job tomorrow even though it looks like Peace Corps is going to come through.

I don't see how legal could be a problem and we've cleared medical (almost) now. I guess we'll be off to sub-Saharan Africa. I keep refreshing the Peace Corps wiki to see if Tanzania posts. I can't help thinking they'll have a September departure as they did last year.

Another person at work found out today and her reaction was great: "that is so cool!" It's interesting how different people react. Some are shocked. Some are excited for us. Our friends want to visit us, and we've promised to come home at least once.

Our daughter who is just starting in Peace Corps Panama, on the other hand, is having doubts. She just got her post today and it sounds fabulous. She's going to be 10 miles out of a provincial capital, in a town with running water and great mountain views where she can have a horse. She will live with a family for three months and then build a house. She'll visit the site and then decide if she wants the adventure or to go back to her college town and teach riding and hang out with her friends. We'll see. Of course we think she should go for the adventure but we are really trying not to pressure her. If it's right for her, she'll do it.

Choices, choices

I am interviewing for a fabulous local job being the Executive Director of the local Botanic Garden. It's a job that I'd like much better than what I've been doing, that would pay even more and be more satisfying. I really want to do Peace Corps. What if we can't work out the medical and I have to decide whether or not to take the job without knowing if Peace Corps is going to happen? I'm confident that we are healthy enough but it seems as if there are often issues. What to do?

Cameroon, Togo or Tanzania? Using the wiki to figure out a destination

We just saw that Togo was posted for September, so that remains a possibility. It would be interesting to be next door to Ghana, where we know all the cool places to visit. However, they said there was no language requirement and Togo is French. But on the other hand, I speak French so who knows. Tanzania went in September last year but nothing's posted on the wiki yet. We were convinced it was Cameroon but now who knows!

Africa once again?

My husband and I are hoping to return for another turn in the Peace Corps. We served in Ghana from 1973-1976, in Kumasi on the campus of the University of Science and Technology. Now we've been nominated for September for sub-Saharan Africa. We are in the throes of medical clearance and trying to get our affairs in order. It is very difficult at this point in our lives to organize things so that we can leave for 27 months. We can't wait for the invitation - we just have to assume that it will happen. I gave notice at my job, and we are busy reorganizing our lives and thinking about packing our things away.