Finally Settling In

I finally feel like I’m getting into the groove, after five weeks here. I did my fourth community leader interview yesterday in another community, and it went really well. I’m learning SO much about the communities and their uses of agaves, their harvesting, etc., and it’s FASCINATING. At a very preliminary run-through of my interviews so far, it seems like the following things seem to be coming into play within some or all of the communities:

• Migration (mostly of younger people) out of the communities to look for work elsewhere;
• Tourism in some communities and the selling of land/homes to city-dwellers who come to the mountains to buy/use a second "vacation" home;
• The key role that the government seems to play in providing resources for programs/projects in the communities, including some agave planting programs for erosion control;
• The importance of other livelihood activities (like livestock or corn, beans, apples, etc.) and the implications this has for the continuation (or not) of agave use;
• The fact that even if the harvesting of agaves for products is decreasing, the desire to plant agaves for erosion control seems to be a common theme among communities

I sometimes catch myself getting so interested in the intricacies of agave use and harvest in these communities that I temporarily “forget” about my overall goal of tying this all into bat conservation somehow. My ultimate goal is for my work to have relevance for conservation efforts for the endangered Mexican long-nosed bat (and other bats that pollinate agaves), and I need to sit down and think through how all my community work relates back to the bats and benefiting them...

I’m also slowly getting better at the whole interviewing thing. Although part of how I feel about an interview afterwards has to do with the personality of the person I’m talking to, as some people have been more “open” and forward than others, and I’ve enjoyed those interviews the most. But of course not everyone is like that, so I’m starting to learn how best to talk with the people who aren’t quite so open. Every interview is different, and each one requires some slight adjusting of my project introduction, my overall demeanor, etc. It’s quite an exercise in people skills! But I think it went pretty well this time, and on our way home we treated ourselves to frozen yogurt and ice cream at a shop in the town down the mountain from the community we were visiting.

One thing I did notice myself doing during this interview was that I was not trying to translate his words in my own head as he talked and instead was relying more on Ana’s translations, since I figured I could go back to the recording later to fully listen to him and translate it myself. I figured if I spent less time/mental energy trying to translate as he talked I could spend more time listening to what he was saying and thinking about it. But later I realized this could be dangerous, because what if I lose the recording? It’s still a learning experience working with a translator, but I do think we are getting into a “rhythm” with each other the more we work together.

Another windy road amidst steep rocky cliffs to 

another community in the mountains.  

The ubiquitous Monterrey traffic, where going 10

miles takes over an hour...

 

Overall, I’m settling into things here better this year than last year for a couple reasons. First, I don’t have to take an over 45-minute commute on a jam-packed, hot, sweat-smelling train every morning and afternoon to get to the office. This year my house is only a 10-minute walk from ESHAC’s new office. Second, I feel like I have more of a “purpose” this year, and while I’m still relying heavily on the schedules and logistics of ESHAC to do my own research, I’m more in control of what I’m doing that last year and I have concrete things to achieve (e.g. conduct leader interviews, focus groups, some bat/agave monitoring, etc.). Last year I felt that I knew even less about what was going on and kind of felt like a tag-along without my own specific goals, and for someone who loves to plan everything that was really hard. But last year was also a GREAT introduction to the area, the people, the logistics of working here, etc. and I’m really glad I did my ICON internship through ESHAC my first summer instead of jumping right in and attempting my first field season. If I had done that, all the challenges I’m encountering now would have been amplified tenfold.

Tomorrow we’ll be heading back to Rayones in the mountains, where I will be doing my first focus group with the handful of community members who harvest and use agaves there. I’m a bit nervous to be doing my first focus group, especially with the language barrier, but I’m about as prepared as I can be. I’m also planning to do a night of bat/agave monitoring, but the forecast is looking awfully dicey with a high chance of rain/storms. Fingers crossed it holds off and I see some bats!