Day of the Dead Slideshow

Photos on Flickr

This is my favorite holiday in Mexico.  Traditions vary across the country but generally they celebrate it sort of like a combination of Memorial Day Halloween in the US.  Family celebrations usually include visiting graves to clean them, place flowers, and socialize.  It’s a lot more jovial and festive than our treatment of Memorial Day back home.  Some places have a tradition of building altars to recently deceased family members.  In the cities there are artistic altars built for famous people:  revolutionaries like Pancho Villa, movie stars, wrestlers, … Michael Jackson.

Work Talk

This post won’t be light reading like most of the previous.  Sorry about that, but I’m not doing quite so much traveling and cultural discovery as during my first year here, so I’m going to change this blog a bit to include more work stuff.  I’ll try to keep it somewhat interesting, but I’m not making any promises.

My previous work here in Mexico has been a combination of general GIS work, IT tasks, and giving a series of classes on GPS usage in Spanish.  Now, my main project here in the Puebla SEMARNAT office is satellite image analysis for detecting forest change in the state of Puebla and I’ve really enjoyed it so far.  It’s definitely not my area of expertise, but satellite imaging has been an interest for a while.  I had a good course on remote sensing way back in college (taught by John Harrington, who coincidentally worked with my fellow volunteer, Dave, some years ago).  I spun up on the project in May with lots of help from another volunteer, Christian, just prior to he and his wife finishing their service and returning to the US.  Then I schooled myself with lots of research papers to understand better the details of the science:  atmospheric & radiometric corrections, image normalization, various vegetative indices, and classification methods.

I found it fascinating that an analysis of land changes (forest, urban sprawl, wetlands, coastlines, desertification, etc) based on satellite images can be done completely for free for many parts of the world.  Due to budget constraints in our office, Christian rightly focused on using Landsat data the archive of which has been freely accessible through the USGS since January, 2009.  We also backed away from pursuing a license for one of the costly image analysis programs (ERDIS, IDRISI, ENVI) in view of the availability of open source GIS tools capable of doing this analysis.  The main free tool I’ve been using is ILWIS but some others have come in handy too such as MultiSpec and OpenEV.

While Christian was still in the office, we collaborated on automating and simplifying the process using the scripting language built into ILWIS.  The important result of that is an automated process that’s not nearly as smooth as using the commercial analysis tools, but successfully automates almost everything that doesn’t require human judgment (e.g. interpretation of unsupervised classification results).  The other result is a list of ILWIS software bugs and limitations that I’ve accumulated.  Sometimes, that’s the cost of using free software.  I had hoped to make time to dig into the ILWIS source code myself and contribute to the tool for the benefit of all users … and it may still happen.

Since I’m not confident what will happen to this project after I leave the office or even what they’ll do with the results I produce while I’m here, I’d like to share the process information and tools with others who can apply this to their projects elsewhere.  Toward that end, I presented the work at a small conference on monitoring biodiversity in August and will be training a Peace Corps volunteer from a neighboring state on Monday.

One issue with using Landsat images is that some parts of the world don’t have a wide selection of dates available for images that are free of clouds and other issues (i.e. Landsat 7 SLC-off gaps).  The southern half of Mexico is one of those areas due to, I believe, a lapsed formal agreement between the Landsat program and the satellite collection station in Chetumal previously used for Landsat 5 coverage of Central America.  In showing results of my initial analysis of northern Puebla state to my team and seeking feedback on how to proceed given the limited choice of dates, they said that they’d prefer having more date choices and also using images with a spatial resolution better than Landsat’s 30×30m pixels.  So, I’ve changed image sources to SPOT (not normally free, but our office has access through the Mexican government) and have adjusted the analysis process accordingly.  Now, I’m just waiting on receiving the actual image data to proceed.

This post is already long, so I’ll write later about my new “secondary” project about which I’m even more excited.  Both the computer geeks and non-geeks will find it interesting, I think.

Summer 2009 Slideshow

To read notes about these photos or see more photos of these events go to my flickr page.

2 #&*! Pesos

Each person played their role properly, but the sum of their parts was an absurd machine that charged me 2 pesos (about 15 cents) and then wouldn’t accept any payment because the quantity was too small.

I canceled my mobile internet service with Telefonica Movistar within the first month because of poor signal strength at my house.  I received a final bill for a couple text messages I had sent totaling 1 peso & 96 centavos which they rounded up to 2 pesos.  4 centavos equates roughly to pocket lint.

The system for accepting cash payment in my neighborhood Movistar office was down … for over 2 weeks.  Could I just leave a few pesos for them to enter later?  No, they weren’t comfortable with that since they couldn’t print an official receipt.  I tried getting creative but it was clear that they were not going to let me give them money.

Despite Telefonica being a huge international telecom corporation, I couldn’t pay online.  Normally, a Movistar bill can be paid at various bank branches too.  However, the tellers that I teamed with to surmount this mini-Everest failed to get their payment system to send 2 pesos to Movistar.  “Cantidad Inválida“  Two clerks asked me after scanning the bar code on my bill, “how much do you want to pay?”  “ALL of it”, I said so that they’d read the $2.00 off the bill.  That understanding was important to me – they needed to share in the absurdity of the situation when the payment failed.

Finally I broke down and took a bus to the farther Movistar office … to find that my account doesn’t appear at all in their system for accepting cash payments and the card payment system doesn’t accept my bank’s debit card.   My choices seemed to be 1) use my US credit card and incur a fee much larger than the 15 cents charged, 2) wait for a late fee – a clerk assured me that after November 2nd my balance would be plenty big enough to clear the bank payment system, or 3) just not bother to pay at all.  As tempting as that last option was, it’s not the right thing to do … and karma might bite me hard in the ass during some future work visa renewal or customs processing.

With the deadline approaching, a Movistar manager sensibly paid the bill with his own card.  I handed him 2 pesos with zeal.  Time spent on this (excluding blog post) over the past 3 weeks:  about 5 hours.

Typical Activities Unrelated to My Projects

I’ll write about my work projects soon to shed more light on just what it is I’m doing down here.  But first, by giving some workday anecdotes peripheral to my real work, this post will give you some context … a framework, if you will … set the scene … ok, I’ll stop.

• Walking to work I pass a middle-eastern hookah bar, Porsche/Audi dealership, swank bistros, a chef school, and a cosmetic surgery clinic.  I deviate one block from the main drag and there is a litter everywhere and the streets are in disrepair.  I try to remember that an hour drive from here there are people living in shacks made of palm and hauling water and firewood by burro.
• I politely decline purchasing soda, chips, or a sandwich from the human vending machine who makes her way through the office every morning.   Ok, I’ve said yes a couple times.
• Attending the occasional office-wide meeting such as watching via teleconference the World Environment Day speeches by President Calderón, Carlos Slim, the head of our SEMARNAT agency, and others.  After a signal outage, it came back with President Calderón saying, “sequestración de carbono”.  Since sequestrar also means kidnapping, a coworker gasped, “even carbon’s getting kidnapped?!”
• Writing notes such as this list on my phone when my head can’t translate any more bureaucratic speeches in Spanish.
• Monitoring US news headlines – frequently suppressing groans so as not to annoy coworkers.
• Answering Garmin GPS usage and purchasing questions within our office or with Peace Corps volunteers at other sites.
• Using my trusty iGesture pad with my desktop.  I went without for over a year until our joyful reunion.
• Celebrating a coworker’s birthday with an awesome tres leches cake – seems to happen about twice a week.
• Dropping whatever I’m working on to leave my desk at the request of the custodial staff so they can clean my desk … on their schedule … every day.
• Waiting till 3pm for lunch.  Yep, that’s the comida schedule.  Granted, we don’t arrive until 9am, but the 6 hour stretch necessitates a snack vendor … or a birthday cake.
• Watching the sky for the afternoon downpour to roll in … and trying to avoid fording flooded streets on the way home.  That issue’s just about done for the season, though.

3 Months

Here’s to celebrating the 3 month anniversary since my last blog entry.  Sheesh.

The summer absolutely flew by and while I experienced a lot, I’m sorry that I haven’t written about them here … at least not yet.  In those 3 months, I’ve changed apartments twice rather than once, as expected.  In neither of those places did I have a good internet connection, but I’ve now got a mobile broadband connection that’s better … but still has issues.  At least with the mobile connection, I’ll be able to post pictures and write a bit from wherever I am.

I know I’m going to leave out something important on accident, but for me the highlights this summer have been:

• an intense World Cup qualifier match between US and Mexico in Mexico City,
• a great birthday weekend in beautiful Cuetzalan,
• Corey (fellow volunteer) & Lety’s wedding in Pachuca,
• the fair in Huamantla (especially, the fascinating  “night that nobody sleeps”, and a running of the bulls in the streets),
• mid-service conference with the Peace Corps staff and volunteers in my group,
• presenting my main project at a small conference (forest change detection via satellite images) on monitoring biodiversity in Mexico
• and attending Cony’s cousin’s wedding and dancing tango at the reception dinner.

The not-so-high points have been losing – all in separate events – a phone (left in a taxi), a camera (likely stolen), a debit card, an apartment (due to a contract issue), and a driver’s license which expired on my birthday despite my best efforts to renew it while I was back in Kansas in May.  Each of those is a mini saga in itself.  Fortunately, they’re all resolved except for the driver’s license and the deposit on my former apartment.

A couple of those highlights were during the dark time while I was camera-less, but I’ll post pictures that I can get from Cony and others.

In the meantime here are a few pictures from early in the summer.

View of the active volcano near Puebla from my roof.

El Chico National Park near Pachuca. Yes, this is Mexico in mid-June – we needed to wear a coats indoors.

Halfway down a muddy mineshaft by rope near Mineral de Pozos. (Yes, we paid to do this… but not much.)

New Assignment, New City

I moved from Querétaro to Puebla on May 10.  Here is a sunset picture from the balcony of my last house in Querétaro.

I got quickly settled in a temporary house here in Puebla and then took a 6 day trip back to Kansas City before starting my work here.  It was a quick trip and busy, but very good.  It was nice to catch up with everyone and see what has changed since I left over a year ago.  I also appreciated being in a clean, green city with orderly traffic and drinking fountains.  After a week of eating and drinking too much of my favorites, I rolled myself back into an airplane to start round 2 of my Peace Corps work.

My move to Puebla is related to the departure of 2 volunteers currently working in the SEMARNAT (Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources) office here.  Christian and Alysia will be returning to the US tomorrow and I am continuing Christian’s work on GIS and especially a project doing satellite image analysis to detect changes to various types of forest in the state of Puebla.  I first met Christian and Alysia when I visited in April 2008 as part of my Peace Corps training.  I recall from that visit being interested in Christian’s work and making note of the atmosphere and activities of the office.  The office has moved to a nicer and bigger building since then, but the people and activities are mostly the same.

My first impressions from that office visit in April 2008 were of an office that’s very hierarchical and formal including use of titles instead of first names (engineer, architect, doctor, etc) – I guess I’ll know I’m “in” if they start calling me “ingeniero” … or “informatico” (computer scientist).  Having been in the office a few weeks now, I do still see that formality sometimes but it’s much more relaxed and personable than that might indicate.  I also remember being told in my first visit about 2 protests at the office by groups that were unhappy with policy or program decisions.  In one case, the people entered the private part of the office and all workers were evacuated while the group protested a decision that blocked development of a road in protected land that would have connected their rural community.  I don’t know if I’ll see any run-ins like that over the next year, but perhaps.

Besides spinning up at the office (I’ll post more about that soon), I spent the first couple weeks here getting acquainted with the area and searching for a more permanent apartment.  In scouting the neighborhood of the office, I immediately noticed the great variety of pricey restaurants – Argentinean, Brazilian, Japanese, Uruguayan, Italian, Spanish, seafood, Mediterranean, Mexican (of course), and thankfully, an Irish pub.  But, they’re not daily dining kinds of places – not on my volunteer pay.  So, it will be a while before I try them all.

I felt my first earthquake about 2 weeks ago!   It was a 5.6 centered south of the city a ways. It felt subtle and kind of fun …  like someone was nudging my chair to distract me.  I thought it was vertigo until someone else said, “it’s quaking!” and we headed to the parking lot for a few minutes.  We didn’t feel anything more and there was no harm done.

So, about that temporary house I’ve been in for a month…  It fit the bill since I could rent a room cheap for 1 month while looking around for something better.  The room is basic but sufficient and conveniently only about 4 blocks from my office.  However, it has issues.  It’s not really in the house per se, it’s in an add-on block of rooms built specifically as dormitory-style rentals.   Besides the bad ventilation causing fumes to waft through from the garage once in a while, the biggest issue has been noise from neighboring rooms.  My neighbors are quiet, but you could hear a watch ticking through these walls under the right conditions.  So, I’ve been treated to hearing a really bad CD every day. Granted my neighbor plays it quietly, but once I heard these songs a couple times, they grated on my nerves so badly there was no way to ignore them.  It’s a short CD of only about 8 songs.  One is a Shakira song with a reggaeton beat (what?) … and that’s the least obnoxious song but still, enough is enough.  Then the Total Eclipse of the Heart kicks in and it’s not the raging Dan Band version.  There are a couple of overly dramatic Mexican ballads (that’s redundant, by the way).  Then the worst: 2 back-to-back instrumental versions of Simon & Garfunkel’s Sound of Silence.  I’m not a big fan of the original, so hearing a piano interpretation AND a pan flute version (no joke) 2-3 times daily is insufferable.  You’ve never seen me move faster to play my own music.  </rant>

I’m ready to move again and I’m doing it today.  By living in furnished places I haven’t accumulated much, so it’s easy.  I’ll post pictures of the great view (on a clear day) of the surrounding volcanoes from my new place.

“People are dying in Mexico … of boredom!”

Well, here it is – cinco de mayo.  This holiday makes me a little homesick for the US.  That’s crazy, right?  It’s because, remember, they don’t celebrate it here in Querétaro.  I’ll search out a margarita with coworkers tonight, anyway.

The quote from the title regarding the current flu scare is from fellow volunteer, Sonya.  It’s true – with schools shut down for 2 weeks, offices closed for a long weekend, ALL museums, churches, theaters, and other cultural activities canceled/closed, travel completely prohibited by Peace Corps, and many restaurants closed … there’s not much to do but stay home and be afraid, annoyed, or bored.

In my opinion, the media has sensationalized the flu story way too much.  Case in point: the number of H1N1-caused deaths in Mexico is not 159 as earlier reported.  The confirmed count reported in the past few days is really … drumroll please … 26 … or maybe even just 16, depending on which NYT reporters you trust more.  And some people are complaining here that the details of those deaths haven’t been released – so we don’t know their ages, locations, nor other health issues that might have contributed.  Bottom line: don’t believe the hype.

I think the media was given a strong nudge by the Mexican government’s sudden and dramatic response to the flu discovery.  In the span of 4 days, the government publicized the flu, closed down the capital, changed the face of fashion for the scarier, and then closed schools nationwide for the next 2 weeks.  Anecdotally, a lot of people I’ve talked to here are suspicious about this.  The government hasn’t reacted that fast to previous serious health threats.  Yes, it’s possible that the Mexican government was really on the ball with this one  and wanted to avoid the mistakes China made with SARS and avian flu.  But, I don’t think “Mexican government” and “on the ball” occur in same sentence very often.

The rumor mill is going wild down here with other possibilities, such as:  the Mexican government used the timing of the flu discovery to distract the media and scare people into staying home while they passed 2 new federal laws expanding the federal police power and permitting posession of small amounts of drugs, both of which could have caused protests in the capital … if it weren’t for the flu scare.  Some also think that the timing of the news break is interesting – 1 week after presidents Calderón and Obama met in Mexico City to talk about the drug war, among other things.  Of course, the tinfoil hatters speculate further that this strain of flu was brewed up in a lab somewhere and released in Mexico for who knows what reason.

In any case, the flu threat is real and especially so for those who don’t have access to good health care.  As for me, I’m safe and well cared for by the Peace Corps.  I even have a couple of those paper filter masks that were given to me at my office.  I don’t wear one unless I need to be in a crowd or just want to show off the mouth and goatee I sketched on one of them when I was bored.

“We spend more on the military marching bands…”

On Sunday, 2 days before President Obama signed the widely-supported Serve America Act, The Boston Globe printed 2 articles about the US Peace Corps.  The front page article is a good overview of the current status and possible future of the organization.

A second article focuses on the Peace Corps in Mexico.  Please read it if you want to understand better what this young US Peace Corps branch does and how it is different from PC programs in other countries. As a side note, the reporter said that I am “a specialist in geographic information systems, and went to Mexico to assist agencies in interpreting geographic data for zoning and municipal planning.”  For the record, it would be a little better to say that I came to Mexico to work as a GIS specialist (though, I’ve done less GIS work than I’d like so far) and my GIS work so far has involved assisting our state SEMARNAT office with map-making for solicited changes to land use.  It’s a subtle difference, but my point is that I didn’t come here planning to help with zoning paperwork.  I’ll be talking more about my work during my next assignment in Puebla where I’ll be doing some interesting data and imagery analysis for detecting forest loss.

The first article points out that due to the nature of the US Peace Corps and it’s small budget, the “mission is to provide people – not cash – so volunteers must raise money to pay for even the smallest expenditures.”  The way we can do that today is through the Peace Corps Partnership Program through which volunteers can post approved projects on the Peace Corps web site and receive donations from people back home in the US.  Here’s a great example from my office:  Sonya, a fellow volunteer, is demonstrating some really great solar ovens to poor rural communities and also seeking resources for supplying cheap solar reflectors and pots.  About the benefits here in sunny Mexico, Sonya noted in her newsletter, “Solar cooking makes so much sense here, especially when the women still cook over wood stoves, which means that they have to collect or cut wood from the surrounding, diminishing forests and continually breathe the unhealthy smoke.”

These things work well.  She has cooked various dishes (eggs, beans, chicken, nopales, rajas, potatoes…) at home and at our office and just today baked a tasty chocolate cake in about an hour in our parking lot.  (By the way, you too can buy or make one for camping or using in your back yard.)

Sonya’s solar cooking project has already received from friends and family the modest funding she was seeking.  But there are many more volunteers that need help for their projects.

The Peace Corps Mexico program has expert biologists, ecologists, environmental scientists, business consultants, an earthquake researcher, geo-informaticists, a coastal engineer and other engineering & science specialists – all volunteering their skills to work with local agencies as well as improve America’s image here.  Maybe Mexico is paving the way for a more technical future for the Peace Corps in other countries.

Or is it, as a commenter on the Boston Globe website suggested in response to the article, “time for this Kumbaya program to go away”?   You can decide.  You will decide, as the voting public since your representatives determine the Peace Corps budget and vote for relevant legislation such as the new Serve America Act.

FAQ, Part II

Ok, I have to fess up – nobody’s asking some of these questions.  But they should!

Do you get unwanted attention? I get blessed little extra attention in most places. In one odd case of an international festival where I was working the Peace Corps booth, two people asked to take a picture with me and a stars-and-stripes quilt hanging in the booth. And I do get called “güero” (white guy) fairly regularly.  But I feel like I’m treated the same as everyone else – maybe because people here are very polite and respectful in general.  Maybe too because in the cities there are the occasional Mexican white guys born and raised, so people reserve judgment of my foreign-ness until I speak. Even then, some have asked if I’m from Germany because of the number of German companies and blond European tourists here. By contrast, highly touristy areas such as beaches are less comfortable for me due to feeling being hounded.

Weather – is it horribly hot? Here in Querétaro it’s hottest right now – during April and May.  The midday sun is scorching since we’re at 6200 ft but the shade, mornings, and evenings are all nice since it’s so dry. Even at the worst here, I think it only reaches the low 90s, though.  The rains will start in late May and keep things cooler through the summer. The mild winter here reminded me of living in Austin, TX.  Even though the highs feel higher without A/C and the lows feel lower without heat, it’s still fantastic.  Yes, I’m a total “climate refugee”.

Are you always traveling and having fun? No.  Despite all the good-time pictures I’m posting, this isn’t a constant fiesta. I could post photos of the daily commute or of me working in the office to give a balanced representation, but … nah – I appreciate having visitors to my blog and don’t want to frighten them away.  Just know that I’ve been showing some of the best parts of living in Mexico, and there are many others.

How is living in Mexico different from the US? Ok, since someone actually asked this one, I’ll write a comprehensive list of all differences. Just kidding, obviously, but here are a bunch of miscellaneous observations:

• In terms of my daily life, I’m driving less (none), walking more, using public transportation and taxis, eating less, eating more fruit, carrying more coins (small shops don’t like breaking larger bills), going to the market more (not supermarket), spending much less, cooking a little more, reading more, dancing more, and eating more tacos.
• You need to tip more people – for instance, the bag boys at the supermarket work strictly for tips.
• Chivalry is still alive here … maybe one side affect of the gender equality lag as compared to the US?  It took me a month of dating Cony to realize there’s a very different way of thinking.  Example:  a lot of American women would be annoyed if guys constantly ask to help with whatever they’re carrying.  “I’m perfectly capable of carrying it, thank you very much.”  But Mexican women (some, at least) expect that and will be insulted if you don’t at least make a feigned offer.  Then again, I may just be misreading women (as I’m wont to do) in both cultures.
• There are drive-in bars.  Seriously.  I haven’t seen very many, but I had the best piña colada of my life at one in Monterrey.
• There are more VW bugs, but not as many as I expected considering VW manufactured them here up until 2003.
• Litter is the norm in most places.  Consider that many areas don’t have good trash collection, and environmental education campaigns are fairly new here compared to Woodsy the Owl.  Fortunately the city of Querétaro keeps the central part of the city very clean.
• Security guards carry big guns.  Sorry, no pictures – I don’t think they like pictures.
• Public grassy areas are rare, and any nice maintained green spaces have a small entrance fee – it’s a libertarian’s dream.  Of course, I’m in a semi-desert area, so big green lawns are a luxury and maybe an irresponsible use of water.
• Vendors sell snacks, flowers, toys, songs on guitar, etc, everywhere – on streets, buses, highways, in restaurants, and once in a while, even in the office.
• Baby girls often have pierced ears.
• Marketing “strategy” here is sometimes bewildering.  First of all, there are very specialized shops such as the perfume store, knife store, blender repair and sales, backpack store, etc. that would seem reasonable in a high-traffic area like a mall, but are common on side streets here.  A funny outgrowth of these is the entrepreneur who combines specialties.  My personal favorites include lingerie & tropical fish , health food & gorditas (that’s like a GNC-Denny’s), daycare & construction contractor <insert child labor quip here>, and the muffler & taco shop … so you can grab a quick muffler while waiting for them to fix your tacos.
• I marvel at some of the juxtapositions of culture such as having, within a 3 block radius, a casa de cultura featuring diversity events (edgy plays, drag theater, art films, etc.), a church that’s open and occupied 24-7-365, (I heard hymns at all hours of the night when living across the street), 2 nice public plazas with free wireless internet, and … a large Catholic church that every Tuesday morning has a line of people waiting supposedly for a visiting nun who performs exorcisms.

But, some surprises for me have been what’s the same – just like home:

• Alphabet soup has only the English letters – doesn’t have any funny ñ, ll or rr.
• Every Tuesday is taco Tuesday at the bar … and everywhere else… everyday.
• If I wear a Garmin shirt, some people recognize it.  A waiter at restaurant here asked me “is that the GPS company?”
• Almost all the apples for sale are big and shiny … and from Washington state.
• The cooks I see in the Chinese and Italian restaurants speak Spanish.
• I have wireless internet at home and use it to read the news, stay in touch, watch movies online, etc.
• People are people.  There are language and cultural differences, but my friends, coworkers and acquaintances here don’t seem very foreign to me.