More about my assignment

Hello!
It's Sunday in Queretaro and I have some free, and very welcome, time to write to you.

We visited our host sites this week and I couldn't be happier. I’ll be working at a beautiful tree-studded campus with its own small grocery store, cafeteria, medical doctor, ATM, swimming pool (unheated -- the "hardship" part of the assignment) and Wi-Fi. It's clean and modern and nicer than most of the places where I've worked.

My counterpart is in charge of Difusion de Cientifica, or Diffusion of Science, which is like communication and community outreach. She is a delightful woman in her early 50s and speaks fluent English (Praise the Lord).

Before I visited the center I thought, "They don't need me -- these are brilliant people from all over the world conducting advanced research." But I was wrong. Apart from the research, the business side of things needs help. For example, their web site (which needs a lot of work) includes a place for "distinguished guests," which is blank because there is zero internal communication and no one knows what's going on. My initial activity will be to develop an internal communication program. All the other centers are the same -- much research; not much business savvy. And therein lays the reason for describing Mexico as a developing country, and for the connection with the Peace Corps.

For the first month I'll live with a single woman and her doberman pincher, Omega, while I look for my own place. I will probably end up taking the bus to work each day since there is very little available housing in the small pueblo near the center.

Our last day of training is May 31st. We'll all be sworn in on June 1st, then depart for our new sites on June 2nd and report to work on June 6th. I'm eager to get started.

We're taking our last field trip this week to Mexico City to visit the U.S. Embassy and CONACYT, the Mexican government agency that oversees the research centers and has the arrangement with the Peace Corps to provide volunteers for the Technology Transfer program. We're driving in two vans through Mexico City traffic, which no one is looking forward to. The city is so big it can take 1-1/2 hours just to get from one end to the other.

A funny tidbit: My host family asked me if I knew the movie with John Travolta called "Vaseline." That's not a crude translation -- it's what they actually call the movie here. (The actual name in the U.S. is “Grease.”)

Adios for now. I'm off to help support the local economy.