Celena McIntyre, the recipient of 2004’s Karen Sharkey Flaherty Memorial Plenty Volunteer Scholarship is in Mexico at the Huichol Center for Cultural Survival and Traditional Arts with Plenty soy technician, author and educator, Louise Hagler. They are taking part in phase two of the Huichol Soyfoods and Nutrition Project. Funding for Phase Two has been provided by Onaway Trust, AMB Foundation, and individual Plenty donors. Celena’s scholarship has been funded by Karen and Celena’s friends and family and Plenty.

Recently we got an email from Celena: “We have been here for about three days now, and I am slowly starting to adjust to this incredibly different atmosphere. I absolutely love it. It is magical and thriving, full of surprises and challenges. I am riding the roller coaster of being a white American in a very rural Mexican pueblo of about 7-8,000 people, with a transient population of the indigenous Huicholes. At times I feel very out of place, naturally, which I think is very healthy for me, as I have lived such a privileged life. It is very important to me to experience the reality of being a minority, and that I am certainly getting here. I feel strange that I can come home with three bags of fresh produce from the market and the kids who are my neighbors don’t have enough to eat. Every day I have opportunities to connect with someone new, and every day I feel more at home.”

Read the next article from Celena, Spring 2005