About a month ago, I started volunteering with an organization in San Miguel called CASA. They have a variety of programs, but most everything they do is centered around helping people in some form or another: they run a midwifery college, have a maternity hospital, provide stellar need-based tuition daycare (you pay whatever you can afford, even if that's nothing), have tons of education programs related to sexual and reproductive health, nutrition, and domestic violence prevention, and there is even an acting troupe and a weekly radio production that help spread the word about all these things. Basically CASA is incredible. I was really lucky to find out about it and stoked when they said I could volunteer. As a volunteer I really just filled in wherever they needed help, which was great because I was able to work in a lot of different programs there. I would proofread PR materials, working in the daycare, visiting rural communities, etc. My last week working with CASA, I went along with a group of first-year medical students from Dallas (billed as "doctors from Houston!" at one of the places we went) who were in San Miguel for their spring break. The days I was with them, we went into rural communities and schools, where people lined up to receive health check-ups. CASA sent me along to help translate and take pictures, so I have TONS of pictures from my days with the med students. At the end of the students' week in SMA, CASA threw a party for them, complete with tequila shots, two pinatas, decorations, singing, and lots of food. I'm all for anything that involves tequila and pinatas.

The building CASA is in is BEAUTIFUL. It was designed by one of the co-founders. I'm no critic, but I think he did a great job. The first picture above is one of the courtyards after the party. The pinatas were hung from the tree in the background. The first was destroyed in just a few hits by a girl who probably missed her calling as a baseball player and decided to become a doctor instead. The second pinata's demise required the best efforts of every other person in the group.

Upon entrance to the courtyard everyone was given a necklace with a shot glass strung from it.


Some of the CASA women lined up watching impromptu war cry competitions and Shakira sing-offs (maybe a result of the tequila):



CASA rents out their property for weddings and other events on the weekend. If you're planning on getting married and just happen to want to do it in Mexico, I suggest calling them.

This is one of the boys at a school we visited. A lot of the students had developmental and physical disabilities, and being rushed into a room to have a bunch of kooky strangers inspect your body is pretty overwhelming. The playback mode of my camera worked as a great distraction, kids always like to see pictures of themselves and some of them will even stop crying to do so.

So timid!


Touring the sights of SMA.



Look at this tree! It has bougainvillea all over it. I'm sure the tree has seen better days, but the flowers are looking great. This is the group of med students. They apparently are really practiced at taking jumping pictures, because they're all pretty much spot-on the whole way through. Very impressive.





I'm not sure if it was a special occasion or what, but a lot of the kids in one of the communities we went to were wearing costumes. Darling.



This boy's mom brought him in because he had pain in his right leg whenever he ran a lot, something she said had started when he was really young and had persisted ever since. It was so sad to see cases like that, of people who would line up to talk to someone about a potentially serious or complicated medical condition, when there really is only so much that a group with limited resources can do in such a short period of time.

On the brighter side, I think he passed his eye exam with flying colors. The med students gave ear, eye, and throat exams, listened to breathing and heartbeats, and took blood pressure and glucose levels. They also were able to give a lot of advice on different questions that people would ask them.


This girl was pretty precious. She kept her hands like that for probably half of her check-up.


...well, when she didn't need to move them to stick out her tongue, that is.


One of the CASA workers holding a baby while her mama had an exam.

These are a little (little = 40-ish days) overdue. My apologies.

The botanical garden in San Miguel is great. I've heard that winter isn't really the time to go there because summer is the rainy season and that's when everything starts blooming. A lot of that is true. The garden looked a lot like Sacramento when it's not getting rain: dry grass and dead plants filled the landscape. No problem though, as a born and bred Sacramentan, I have a strong affinity for that look. Not that you need to be raised in a place with torched summers to enjoy the botanical garden here- even during the dry season here there are tons of bright, beautiful flowers and the different types of cactus are incredible. There are rarely other people so visitors get to mosey around and enjoy the place on their own schedule, which is really nice.





Apparently there is a woman who comes to the botanical garden and inch by inch twists the grass into long braided ropes that line the walking pathways. She has done an unbelievable amount of work so far. Usually the ropes line the pathways but occasionally she gets wild and weaves them in between trees along the pathway.




Sadly, my two-and-a-half-month stay in San Miguel is coming to an end of Tuesday. I was able to extend the trip a couple weeks, but now it's time for me to get back to the US and return to the life of jobs and rent payments. Although I'm sad to leave Mexico, I'm pretty excited about the transition. I'm really going to miss the house here. The rooftop patio has a bunch of plants on it and one of my favorite hobbies has become sitting out there in the sun with my camera, occasionally taking pictures, but mostly just taking in sun.