Piñatas and Sushi

This weekend was fun and much needed after a long week of working on the assessment of social work at CODENI. Friday I was working on my thesis (much needed since I had to turn in my proposal for what I am going to write before they can register me for school this year). I also had a nice hour long talk with my parents on Skype and caught up on everything.

Then Saturday I met up with Susana and we went to the center to buy a stick to hit the pinanata with and a gift for her one year old neice- she has five brothers and Aylin is the only granddaughter. After a couple tecate lights and some cake we went out on the town on Chapultepec, a popular area near the center of GDL. Its so nice to be driven in cars here, the bus and taxi are not the same! So susana and ramon, one of her brothers, showed me the best bars and places to go!

Then sunday was great, Susana and I went to her friend Claudia's for sushi- handmade by Claudia! She has the cutest dog named Bruno, who reminds me of Bailey (size and same puppiness).

I also saw a parade of mariachis going down the street Alcalde by my house and horses and traditional mexican dress- it was great. Next time I will bring my camera.

Field work from 9-7

Almost every day we work from 9-7 (Fridays we get out at 3pm) and as this is my fourth week of work, things are going very well and I am feeling very settled. There are 11 full time employees here and a bunch of volunteers, but I am the only full time volunteer that is integrated into the team. Each week, as I wrote before I am spending with each of the six areas. Last week (August 19th) I was with Workshops with Maria Luisa and had a good integration with her since he speaks English, so what I didn't know how to communicate in Spanish, I did in English. It was a good transition because this week I am with Social Work with Mario and everything is in Spanish. With ML o Malu as they call her, I went to a meeting with a community partner called Ollin, they do sex education for street kids and families and it was great to see an actual community partnership that was successful. They are putting on a workshop with the adolescents collaborating together- CODENI (the Psychologist and the Workshop Coordinator) and Ollin.

Then this week, being with Mario the social worker we did a socioeconomic study of a family that is going to enter into CODENI's programs. We did a complete questionnaire of the family's status, relationships, and problems. It was really interesting talking to a 28 year old for almost two hours, who has five kids, the oldest 11. The Tuesday I went out into the street with Mario and Diego (the street outreach coordinator) and played with the kids for a couple hours. This is the first fase of being able to enter CODENI- where the kids have a safe place to play and be free from work in the Plaza Liberacion in the center of town. I live about a ten minute walk from here so it's great to be so close.

My coworkers are great and they see me yes as a Gringa but also as someone who is here to support them and an objective person who isn't picking sides or getting involved in internal politics at CODENI. I have somewhat the best of both worlds being an outsider but having relationships that are of an insider.

Camping en Los Volcanes

Friday I met a coworker of Susana (my good Mexican friend here) and she invited me to camp with her family where there are albercas (hot volcano water). I was thinking some sleeping bags, eating together, swimming and hiking up one of the mountains- only to find out that all of that would happen except for the sleeping bags. We definitely didn't sleep. The family- uncles, cousins, kids, grandparents and everyone didn't sleep the entire night, they were bathing in the water, eating, drinking, dancing, singing with loud loud music the entire time (I ended up passing out in the camioneta/little truck for a couple hours). It was nice and cool there, compared to GDL now. It was so much fun, we had refried bean sandwiches for dinner and corona and sandwiches in the morning- pretty typical. It was so much fun and I could definitely see my life here for a while leaving the city on the weekends, eating Posole and Gorditas and being with a huge Mexican family. Loved it! and now pictures...

Tlaquepaque, GDL

This weekend was great, I got out of work at 3pm on Friday and went grocery shopping (I am ashamed to admit because I am not a fan of large American corporations invading other countries and profiting immensely), but I went to Walmart and got everything I need to be comfortable in my new apt- from qtips to a mattress! Yes I am all set. It was an adventure getting there since I didn't have a tren ligero map or a city map- but I asked some nice people on the streets and walked a little ways and made it. Then on the way back with my 70 bags of new sheets, ranch dressing and chips, I sat in the front seat of this taxi with a very nice older man (or de tercer edad) who talked to me about all the wonders of Mexico and his paisanos as he called Mexicans. It was a great conversation and he said I speak very well and that I should make sure to go to the beach for sure while I am here. He said he doesn't like my country but I could tell he respected me. He also was talking about Mexico (or DF/ Mexico city as they call it) and said he will never go back- too much pollution and people and they think they are better than GDL. It reminds me of SF and NYC- a little rivalry. But we all know CA is better...:)

Then my nice neighbor, Pablo, who I met the day I moved in took me on a tour of the city in his 80s VW bug- there are of lot of them here. Its funny to see old beaten up cars here next to new ones that people in recent generations are buying from the US because they are more affordable now. So we saw Zapopan a neighborhood, Chapultepec where all the bars/cafes are, some of the Plazas and Galerias, and ended up at a fun bar called scratch where there was some bluesy jazz music playing. Very fun for my first Friday night in GDL!

Saturday was great, my new mattress arrived and then I met my friend Susana who is from GDL and we took the 275 bus (which is crazy, I was definitely holding on for my dear life with the way people drive here and with the pot holes- wow) to Tlaquepaque which is in the city and is known for being the artsy area. They have great hand made nechlaces, wall hanging, weaving, dolls and much more from all over Mexico. I will definitely be back. Susana doesn't speak english so it was great for me to continue speaking spanish all day. She cracks me up...we had a good time going from a Chela of Victoria (beer) to coffee to an ice Jamaica drink throughout the day while walking around. Here are some pics:

Happy International Youth Day!

UNESCO honors children today, August 12th, by recognizing youth's ability to foster change and be a good force in the world- something I entirely support.

Check out this article: http://bit.ly/qgh7gz

Finishing my first week in GDL working at CODENI. I created my assessment document of how to evaluate each program area for better integration with CODENI's theoretical basis and to increase efficiency and strengthen each area. I also created a manual template for each area to create to have a stronger basis of operation. I am excited to start with Workshops and Maria Luisa, the Coordinator next week. We will be preparing the workshops on participatory education of interaction and understanding of rights with the Media (based on what we learned in the conference last week) and will be giving two hour workshops for 15 kids twice a week until the end of September. I am really excited to get to know the coordinators and the org better (and next week the kids will be back since they were all camping this week).

After being in Mexico for 2 weeks everything is different about my life- food, people, apartment, friends and its all great so far. Here are some pics of my new life- all mixed up, some of CODENI offices and of my new apartment and of GDL!