Michoacán, Mexico Briefing

June 30, 2008 (Click on photo for enlargement)

The Michoacán project is off to a great start.  The Volunteers arrived in Mexico City on Tuesday night and spent the night at the welcoming San Patricio Church close to the U.S. Embassy and the British-American Hospital.

Upon arriving in the project’s headquarter city of La Piedad, Volunteers received another warm welcome, or “Bienvenida,” at the Universidad del Valle de Atemajac (UNIVA) atop a hill overlooking the city.  Students from the university performed hula and salsa dances and a 9-member mariachi band got all the Volunteers up and dancing.  For the next day and a half, Volunteers learned about project specifics, met partner agency representatives and spent time getting to know their partners, Project Supervisor and other Volunteers in their municipality group.

On Friday, youth from many of the 25 communities where AMIGOS will be working came to La Piedad to participate in a day of technical training with the Volunteers.  The training featured presentations by nutrition and psychology students from UNIVA and a dynamic workshop on water conservation and use.  Volunteers and their Mexican youthcounterparts also learned the criteria for the 3^rd Annual Environmental Fair in which they will be competing at the end of July and began brainstorming ideas for a project they will carry out together.

Volunteers were picked up in the late afternoon by the their respective municipalities and headed for their new communities.  They will have a busy first week in community as they finalize their grant application for a community project, get to know their host family and other community members, and set up a class schedule for the summer.

On Saturday, Volunteers from eight AMIGOS communities traveled to the town of San José de Rábago for a special amaranth training led by Puente a la Salud Comunitaria, an NGO based in Oaxaca, Mexico.  Accompanied by women from their communities, the Volunteers learned about this indigenous grain’s high nutritional value and how to plant and cultivate it, and also prepared recipes that incorporate amaranth seeds and leaves into traditional dishes.

As Project Supervisors head out on their first week of community visits, we look forward to hearing about each Volunteer’s experiences and successes in the field so far!