Ready to Be Called "Volunteers"

11-August-2019, Queretaro, QRO, 9:16 PM CDT

Bienvenidos, lectores, a un otra edición de Poco a Poco! 

You find me in the last week of Pre-Service Training! This time next week we will be in our homes of the next two years. Wednesday is the Swearing-In Ceremony, where we will officially graduate from being “trainees” to “volunteers.” This is a very exciting time for PCVs. All the long hours and hard work of PST have ended, and we can finally begin what we came here to do. On Friday I’ll leave Queretaro for Puebla City, where I’ll stay till Sunday; it’s about a four hour car ride. In Puebla, I’ll stay with another host family and explore that city a little before heading south to my future home of Tepexi de Rodriguez. I’ll also have a radio interview (in Spanish of course!) to inform Mexicans on how I plan to help their students (guess I better figure out how myself lol). Another exciting thing about Puebla City is Fes lives there. This upcoming weekend I’m going to see him for the first time in like ten years! We were ensured by our leaders that Peace Corps service will include high highs and low lows. Thankfully, I’m in the midst of an upswing right now.

A couple things happened this week that I’m going to share. The first is an instance of serendipity. Sitting in class on Tuesday, I noticed a 100 peso bill near my foot (about five bucks). I picked it up and put it in my pocket till after the session. When it was over, I asked the members of my cohort, “Did anyone lose a sum of money.” Of course, I got the obligatory “how much is it” joke among others but, ultimately, nobody claimed it, so I was 100 pesos richer--till after class.

I was walking home on the same route I take every day when I saw an unfamiliar face. This guy, no older than 25, was taking out a lady’s trash. I saw her hand him some change for the service, maybe ten or fifteen pesos. I greeted him as I walked by and was compelled to stop and talk for reasons unknown. His name was Juan, and he was from Belize, a small coastal nation south of Cancun and that. He had a kind face and a bright smile. A full pack was mounted on his shoulders. He appeared to be vagrant, and I like vagrants--if they work, and he was willing to work. Juan told me he had studied in NYC and named a few boroughs. He told me he was taking a train to the United States. At first I thought this a dubious claim, but then I found this news report from August 2018. Hopping trains is, apparently, a super efficient for migrants to traverse Mexico in hopes of finding a better life in the US. When he told me he was hungry, I remembered the 100 pesos I had found. “Cmon man, I’m going to Alta Fibra (a bakery) and I’ll buy ya some food (except in Spanish).” So I bought him 80 pesos worth of pan dulce and wished him well.

In other news, I took my language proficiency index exam on Tuesday to label just how much Spanish I’ve acquired in my 28 years. I was disappointed when I received my result of Intermediate Medium because I was really shooting for Intermediate High and was happy with my performance in the exam. I have the annoying tendency of comparing myself to others and being disappointed if they surpass me. It’s much better to “hike your own hike” (<-- a hint at my post-service adventure if you haven’t already heard). But I got over it and realized that the level I attained in two months of speaking the language isn’t bad at all. My goal is to be fluent and native-like by 2021, and I will achieve that goal, well, at least the fluent part. 

Ok, and now for this week’s random wrap-up. My buddy Rob and I are performing an original song called Mi Esposa (My Wife) for a “talent” show on Tuesday (report back for lyrics and video), my new favorite Mexican song--one that I find extremely relatable--is called Nunca es Suficiente (It’s Never Enough) by Natalia Lafourcade, went to another soccer game yesterday--an early red card, bicycle kick goal, two late goals by the home team, beers flew, it was awesome, we had a Spanish class on curses this week--of which I will share none in this post ;), I bought dolls and dinosaurs for my nephews and nieces in Tepexi, and I was lucky enough to see a team of ants carrying a dead pillbug up a wall.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in el estado de Puebla!

Me and my boy Juan-Miguel, a BA poet from AZ

A selfie with awesome friends: (from right to left) Greg, Rachel, Cheyenne, Anna, and Rebekah

¡Siempre Gallos!

Gueros at the game

Bek and me

Lizard on the verge of death :(

Ants are amazing creatures, cooperated to climb a wall with this giant meal

These dolls are common representations of Mexico's indigenous people