This past week I had the pleasure of visiting our project in Oaxaca, Mexico. The beginning of my visit coincided with  a Youth Encuentro (Workshop) and the midterm break, giving me plenty of time to get to know all of the Volunteers and Project Staff and hear about the variety of experiences within this project.  

After midterm, I got to further explore the amazing region of Oaxaca by visiting two of our host communities. In Mazaltepec, which lies in the region of Valles Centrales, Project Director Joseph Frewer and I attended a “21 Days of Amaranth” kick-off event. This community is supported by Partner Agency Puente a la Salud Comunitaria, which is working to promote the incorporation of amaranth (a nutritious grain native to Oaxaca) into the local diet. The kick-off event involved several mothers and their children preparing an amaranth snack and making plans for cooking a new amaranth dish each day.

I spent my final day in Oaxaca in the beautiful community of Ixtlán, located high up in the Sierra Norte and supported by our partner, Servicios de Salud de Oaxaca. There, I was fed several plate fulls of traditional Oaxacan food, taught how to make arroz con leche, assisted in making palomitas (popcorn) for the Volunteers to sell at a movie night, and hiked up some steep mountains to see a breathtaking view of the community (see below). The Volunteers are extremely busy as they are the recipients of a Bevil Grant and are working towards equipping a Kung-Fu gym for the community!

I had a wonderful time in Oaxaca and was happy to see the project running so smoothly thanks to such a hard-working and fun staff team!