Archbishop, trash, and an old convent

So this weekend was a mix of various activities. One Friday night we had a going away party the 2 volunteers in my office that are done with their service and leaving. Lots of music, tequila, carne asada, and other good food like mole. Then on Saturday I went to mass. Well actually I went to see the confirmation of counterpart’s daughter, which was preformed by the new Archbishop of Puebla. Then after that we went back to her parent’s house for a big family party, which was fun up until the end when the 3 of us had to wash all the dishes.

The Archbishop....

The newly confirmed.....

On Sunday morning, we had a trash pick-up in one of the communities that in within the limits of the Valsequillo project. While the rest of the office (well those that came) were on the highway, we (Arqi and I) were in El Aguacate with about 11 community members picking up trash from the town and their small stream.

After the trash event, I convinced Arqi to drop me off in Cuautinchan, a near-by town with an old convent that I had been wanting to visit for a while. On top of being an interesting convent, it is also a kind of jungle gym for adults. You can climb up two different towers, which is pretty normal, but you can also walk around the entire convent on a small ledge that is at about the 2nd storey level (see picture below), as well as climb around on the lower part of the convent’s roof.

The rainy season has arrived.....

The steps up to the tower....

More steps (a little escher-like)

The ledge path....

San Antonio Juarez and Tepango de Rodriguez

On Tuesday, we visited San Antonio Juarez in the municipio of Tzicatlacoyan to check on a series of stone walls being built to trap eroding sediments. As you can see from the following pictures, soil is a major limiting resource in this area of Puebla.

After San Antonio Juarez, we headed to El Aguacata for a meeting with some members of the local ejido about a town clean-up dat scheduled for this coming Sunday. Trash pic-up within the town will be focused around the steam that runs through the town, but we also wanted to focus efforts on a large trash dump site just outside of town (see below). It turns out that this section of hte highway belongs to another ejido, so we headed to Los Angeles Tetela to find their ejido inspector and ask about the possibility of their participation on Sunday.

When we got to Los Angeles and asked for the inspector, we were lead to a large tent in the middle of town where we found the inspector in the middle of a party, complete with mariachis and a stage. We pulled the inspector away from the festivities, got permission and a promise of participation on Sunday, and were then informed that it was in fact his birthday party and he would like us to stay and eat. So after some seafood soup and tequila, we finally headed back to Puebla.

On Wednesday, we headed in the opposite direction, towards Tepango de Rodriguez in the Sierra Norte of Puebla (about a 3.5 hour drive) for the 4th (and final) workshop for the Ordenamiento of the Necaxa-Laxaxalpan watershed. This workshop is the most important of the series that are held during the ordenamineto process because it uses public participation to give opinions on how land-use is zoned and what types of uses are deemed appropriate. In an ordenamiento there are 4 general catagories that can be assigned: conservation, restoration, protection, and use. Within each of these catagories, there are various specific types of activies that can be lefted completly open, conditional, or closed. Some of these activites include agriculture, industry, eco-tourism, urban growth.....

Tepango is 90% indigenous and is a mix of Totnacan and Nauha communties.

This is the view from the back of the muicipal palace, you can see the town quickly gives way to a more rural setting.

We had representatives from 15 of the 26 municipalities in the ordenamiento, as well as various representatives from other government agencies that have a presence in the region. Not much going on in the workshop picts, but you get an idea what it looks like. Afterwards the municipal president invited everyone to eat and we had a type of chicken soup (caldo de pollo) before heading back on the curvy, speed bump filled road.

More Community Visits

Friday was another day in the field for PET projects (temporary employment projects). We started the morning with a trip to San Miguel Espejo to check on the construction of 30 cisterns. These cisterns are key to having a more reliable water source and in some cases mark the beginning of running water near/within certain houses. The side theme on all of these visits is always migration. Inevitably everyone wants to know where the towering foreigner is from, and this is usually followed by a list of all the relatives that are currently in the “otro lado” (other side). The fascinating (and sad) observation about many of the smaller Mexican towns is the lack of males, combined with on-going construction of large, slightly out of place houses. These houses are generally pretty easy to discern in any community.

My boss with the head of the PET committee, a finished cistern, and its owner

The "real" process for making tortillas.....

One example a house constructed with funds from the U.S. (though 100% made from concrete, notice the siding)

Our next stop was a small town called San Juan Amecac that received funds for a reforestation project. They are reforesting a section of their forest about 10 minutes outside of town. While we were in the forest, the ground started shaking underfoot for a good 20 seconds. Luckily it was an earthquake. I say luckily because we were within the eruption zone of an active volcano. Turns out there was a 5.7 earthquake centered in the southern part of the state. 2^nd earthquake in 3 weeks. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/pager/events/us/2009gyba/index.html

After georeferencing the forest plots, we headed back to the committee president’s house for some snacks. His story is another interesting, and fairly typical one. He has 9 children ranging in age from 1 to 22. The three oldest are all boys and are in the U.S. The 22 year old has been there for over 7 years. The youngest that crossed is now 17, working in a restaurant, and crossed when he was just 15. The sons in the U.S. don’t even know several of their brothers and sisters in Mexico. Sitting next to the parent’s house (where we were seated), is an enormous, 2 story house, that is being completed little by little has money is sent back to the family. That money arrives several times a year, in cash, brought by someone returning to the community. After having heard the same type of story from numerous families, I finally decided to ask the question that I always want to ask... How and where did they cross? I could never cross, I would be terrified, and with all the horror stories about crossings, I always wonder about the particular cases of the families we are talking with. The sons crossed from Sonora and were fortunate to spend no time in the desert. Just wanted to throw this anecdote in since it is something that is read about from a policy standpoint in the U.S., but I feel like often the issue is not connected with the actual Mexican families that are impacted. Yet, being down here it is an inescapable topic with direct connections to the people we work with. (less so in cities, like Puebla, but I have yet to visit a small town where someone doesn't have a close relative in the U.S.)

The last project was located in a town called El Aguacate (the avocado) that is actually within the limits of our other Valsequillo project. The town received funds to construct a jagüeye, or basically a retention pond that will be filled during the rainy season. From Puebla it is possible to get to El Aguacate solely using roads, but it is a much longer route. The fastest way is to cross the Valsequillo reservoir on a small car ferry, which is also a great way to see a little more of the reservoir.

The car ferry

La Presa (reservior) Valsequillo