Kiana, Gwyneth, and I out on the town
Helloooooo everyone! ≽^•⩊•^≼
It’s the third week in Mexico! I cannot believe it! Vibes are at an all time high, but money is at an all time low. I need to get souvenirs for my brother and dad, so that is going to be a journey! And also! I have to go out and explore San Cristobal more. Despite being here for three weeks total it feels like it isn’t enough time to get to know San Cris fully and there is always so much to learn about and explore in the city.
This week has been kind of a grind, since there is a lot of interesting work to get done, including some tedious work like answering emails and stuff. Despite my initial reluctance, learning about patents fairly interesting and one of the classes that I have the most notes on. On that note (haha comedy), researching the different methods of water filtration has been really fun. As I am writing this blogpost, we have the cacti cooking in the toaster oven so we can hopefully get a nice nopal powder for coagulation soon.
Team Lions Never Eat Jalapenos out on the field
Team Lions Never Bite Jalapenos had our field visit to Tseinan this week. We spoke to various people about the two products and listened to their feedback on the two in order to hopefully create a happy median! Despite Dr. Hunter telling us to come unbiased, I did come in with some preconceived notions and was surprised by some of the feedback from the staff members. The interview was incredibly insightful. It’s interesting to hear things like it should be a smaller design because if it’s larger than it was just going to be used as a backpack. Tidbits like that are so interesting to learn and genuinely help the making of the product to benefit each one of our goals! I’m looking forward to returning this Tuesday and hearing more insights of the actual community rather than just the staff.
As for water usage, I have never been so cautious of my hygiene and how I am using water. I’m trying to limit the amount of water I use since I did take note of our water calculation assignment. But another reason why I started taking note of how I am using water is because I got mildly sick! Tragic and the cause is still relatively unknown. But also when we went to El Encuentro park we learned about different treatments and how their UV sanitization lights work in different contexts (urban and rural). It was overall a super fun trip and they have impacted my way of thinking how the world works!
Coolest carne asada in Chiapas in Montebello (Stall #6)
Lastly, yesterday we took an excursion out to Montebello andla Cascada de Chiflon! Super fun trips with marvelous sights to see. Easily ate my best meal there for only 150 pesos, it tasted so fresh and amazing. Also got to visit my third country: Guatemala!!!! It’s was for three minutes total but I’m still adding it to the counter that I visited. Looking forward to one last productive week!
Thank you for reading! Signing off,
Nancy Martinez
Cascada Velo de Novia