When I first walked into my room, I was taken aback by the larger than life poster of an adolescent girl. At the time she was on a different wall, but no matter where I put her, she seems to keep a watchful eye on me. 

This is the turquoise place where I lay my head to rest each night. My house overlooks Avenida 5 de mayo, undoubtedly the busiest street in Tepoztlán, where I live. I get the pleasure of listening to the two traffic officers who pride themselves on blowing their whistles in as many different ways as possible, regardless of the fact they are only wasting their breath.

Although it may not sound like it, I do in fact love my house. Most would consider my house to be dead center Tepoz, with the Auditorium and Town Hall in the same block, making almost everything a short walk away. I consider myself lucky as well, because my house is relatively bug free and I have an amazing host brother.  

I hope you spot my Super Bowl XXXI packer hat and my wrestling mask hidden in the second picture. Stay tuned for our next riveting installment: A Day in the Life, Bathrooms 

Un sistema ecológico cuesta, incluyendo mano de obra, alrededor de US$1.200 (14 mil pesos mexicanos) y el convencional con WC puede costar unos US$3.000 porque se necesita construir el sanitario y además una fosa séptica con pozo de absorción.
Standing at a whomping 4-1, the Tepoz Soles (Suns) have been rising stars in the local basketball league. I have had the pleasure to join them on our ride through the season. When I was arriving to Tepoztlan I was looking for some activity to occupy my free time. I found this baseball community and have been playing almost every chance I get. If nothing else these guys have taught me say bad things about your mother and complain to refs.  Well, I started feeling like a hot shot because my little skinny legs had been taking me higher until I could handily grab onto the rim with two hands, something I could have never down in the U.S.  After our first and only loss, we were sitting around waiting for the semi-pro game to begin when lo and behold they start RAISING the hoops. Every inch of cockiness was smashed out of me that night.
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Standing at a whomping 4-1, the Tepoz Soles (Suns) have been rising stars in the local basketball league. I have had the pleasure to join them on our ride through the season.

When I was arriving to Tepoztlan I was looking for some activity to occupy my free time. I found this baseball community and have been playing almost every chance I get. If nothing else these guys have taught me say bad things about your mother and complain to refs. 

Well, I started feeling like a hot shot because my little skinny legs had been taking me higher until I could handily grab onto the rim with two hands, something I could have never down in the U.S. 

After our first and only loss, we were sitting around waiting for the semi-pro game to begin when lo and behold they start RAISING the hoops. Every inch of cockiness was smashed out of me that night.

The desert is a vulnerable place to be in. It took my country coordinator to make me repeat, “Its hot in the desert. It is also cold in the desert” multiple times to break down preconceived ideas and plan accordingly. Even so, I do not even think she had planned on seeing snow. Like passively watching a caged animal, the sense of danger is ever present in the Devil’s Highway, but you enter knowing you have shelter for the night and a Klean Kanteen full with drinking water. You feel the beauty but know that if stared at too long, it means peril. The sweeping mountain ranges turn to looming mazes, the sporadic vegetation to thorny-arms and the crystalline snow scarcely more than a mirage.

Picture credit to Andrea and Luke Roske-Metcalfe

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=201866615827698687936.0004d5d997a8098699dfa&msa=0&ll=31.907873%2C-109.907227&spn=1.419886%2C2.469177

I had the opportunity to travel to the border as part of the YAGM program. U.S.-Mexico border relations are of world significance. Immigration in itself is a polemic topic, but the border and the range of it´s implications are even more complex. For this reason I have resisted from doing any blog posts, although it is a theme that has been important to me for the last two months. 

I have created this map that shows almost all of the stops we made on our Border Immersion trip. I hope that it gives all of you an idea of what I experienced, but also gives you a sense of what work is being done on the border. As you know well, immigration reform is a important political topic that has been reborn recently. Don´t worry, it is just a map, not another polarized ad.

School sanitation projects are rolling in for me and my work. We have been busy traveling around doing visits of schools around the state to evaluate the need and viability of certain projects. They are still in their infancy, growing and changing, but at the very least we will make sure that all the students have adequate access to drinking water.

Pictures are critical to our diagnostics. Fabiola, my coworker took what we thought to be a normal picture of a shared handwashing station for boys and girls. Check out the second picture to see what is really hidden in the photo.

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