When this adventure started, there were three of us on the “seasoned” side.   We have lost one due to a bad fall that resulted im a broken nose .  Apparently he had had a couple earlier mishaps so it seems Peace Corps decided to medically separate him.  A week or so late, another one of us got Covid so je had to be quarantined for a week but he has recovered and is back at the trainings.  We have a young woman out now with covid but we think she’ll be back tomorrow.  I’m stills struggling getting photos from my phone to the laptop so I can add them to the blog but Im trying something different this time.  I’m writing the  blog post on my phone so hopefully I can access the photos more reliably.   We’ll see.   

Clearly, Im still struggling with photos.  The one at the top is a mural on one wall of the gym at my future university.   Their mascots is falcons…slight spelling difference.  This would be a perfect place for pickleball but the floor might be a problem….it seems to be some sort of padded surface….as if for gymnastics.

This is the mural at the other end of the gym.

This is the languages building where Ill be doing the bulk of my work beginning in early Nov.  We each spent three days at our eventual sites and mine is not too far from where I am now so I remained in my host home and traveled back in forth each day to the campus.   I had a great time and the teachers, all of whom speak English and are anxious to hear more, were very welcoming and accommodating.  It was great to experience the reception I got from the students which is what keeps me coming back to Peace Corps.  They broke into huge smiles when they saw me on campus during those three days and in class they paid rapt attention to my every word and their regular teachers, who stayed in the room, reported that the students seemed very interested in speaking English while I was there.,far more than usual.   That is the whole, or at least a major goal of this program...to get conversations going and give students and teachers alike opportunities to speak in English with a native speaker. I'll be serving in classrooms but I'll also try to get some conversation clubs etc going after school hours.

I have just gotten really frustrated trying to get photos from the cloud onto my laptop so I'm going to just write some news and work on the photos later.  It seems to work for a while and then when I try the same process again, it fails.  I know, I know...its me not this laptop.

Re: pickleball. I learned that the National Pickleball Assn or some sort of organization has reached out to Peace Corps headquarters in some fashion....I don't know any details.  But, when I was in a meeting with the country director the other day, he mentioned that he had called the home office to report that he had a  trainee who wanted to get pickleball going.  Amazing.   Apparently they have been talking about it at the DC office.

Anyhow, my plan now is to order a net and some paddles and balls from Amazon and once I get on campus, get permission from someone to set up the net and just start playing to see what kind of interest we can generate and it will, or will not, go from there.I did learn that the other PC vol. at my university has played pickleball and likes it a lot and also has a relationship with the PE dept. chair at the University...that all bodes well

 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341494728_Identification_guide_of_MEXICAN_PARROTS

There are not a lot of real exciting things to report  yet but a couple weeks ago I heard a lot of birds outside my window and when I looked, I marveled at a huge flock of parrots perched and squawking in a tree nearby.  It was amazing and I haven't seen one since but the website above confirms my sighting....it was great.

 I'll stop for now and use any free time to conquer the photo issue.

 Pat