Boss Lady

This post is well overdue. This is Julia our faithful volunteer coordinator. My intention was to write about her a month ago when I was introducing the whole crew. She was going back and forth between Miacatlan and Cuernavaca during our first two weeks, so I kept holding out to see if I could gather some dirt on her. The truth is that there's none to be had.

Julia is 23 and originally from Arizona. She arrived here in Mexico back in July and is committed to staying here until January 2011. As the volunteer coordinator she has to make sure we all know what we're supposed to be doing and that we do it. She's very good at communicating what's important. She makes colorful signs on a daily basis tapes them next to the door in the volunteer lounge. For example, "Saturday: wear your black polo, mass is at 5pm" or "Smash your trash!". She also has charts for chores and what day you're assigned to do your laundry. The first day I met her at the airport she whipped out her scheduler and started checking off a long list of things to do that day. It takes such a person to do her job...she's definitely management material. Not only that, but she is the liason between the Mexican staff and the volunteers. She is the proverbial messenger, but can hold her own (and her liquor) amongst machismo Mexican men and smart ass volunteers.