Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley
After a month long journey through the mail Flat Stanley came to visit me in Paraguay. Paraguay, where is that? It is in South America. A small land locked country about the same size as California. Paraguay has a population of about seven million inhabitants. They speak two languages here, Guaraní and Spanish, so it was a Little bit tough at first, but Flat Stanley managed just fine!

Because Paraguay is in the Southern Hemisphere Flat Stanley arrived at the beginning of the fall, which is actually more like summer. There are still days where the temperature gets to be over 100 degrees and it is usually sunny. Soon the weather will change though. It will be much cooler and rainy, with gray skies like Cleveland, but here there is no snow!

During his trip here Flat Stanley was able to hang out with kids at the community center for their group activities. He got to visit my old host family and play Uno with the kids. He went to school and participated in computer classes. And most importantly he got to hang out at home and drink tereré. Flat Stanley definitely enjoyed his trip to Paraguay, he enjoyed it so much that he just might stay around a bit longer!

The Itsy bitsy spider…

Friday night I was in Asuncion, it had been just under a week since I ran “La Carrera de La Mujer” (Women’s Race) at Nu Guasu Park in 100 degree heat and I decided to remind myself how much I actually love to run in that park when I am not feeling the effects of heat exhaustion. I went around 6 pm just as it was starting to get dark. The park is well lit with police and lots of evening runners. From my Ipod blared my newest running playlist as I began the 6k loop at a nice brisk pace. I was feeling pretty good, losing myself in my run, forgetting about the stress of the previous few weeks, when I looked down and noticed a not so itsy bitsy spider hanging out in the middle of the path. The tartantula was just chillin on the asphalt. I quickly veered to the right to avoid stepping on it and continued with my run. Wow, I thought, good thing I saw that before it was too late, and before I could finish my thought I saw another and a few meters later another. Before Friday night I had never seen a taratantula outside of a glass aquarium, but that evening I spent my run trying to dodge them! It was pretty amazing to see so many in one place out in the open. I am constantly being exposed to new things in Paraguay!

Things here have been super busy over the past few weeks. School started at the end of February. I am teaching in two different schools this year. At the elementary school I teach computer classes to kids in preschool to ninth grade. At the high school I am working with the Community Project Class to teach about Self-esteem, Values and Decision Making to seventh, eighth and ninth graders. Last week I hosted Long Field Practicum in my site. Three of the new trainees came to my town to observe my work and also present some activities as an introduction to life as a volunteer. They stayed with different host families in my town and were able to get a break from the monotony of trainee life. I really enjoyed having them visit. We were super busy, but had a lot of fun too! Having them here reminded me where I was a year ago. Its hard to believe I am already almost halfway through my service! The time is flying by. The new group swears in at the end of April on the same day that the old group swears out. I will be really sad to see the old group go, but I am going to meet up with some of my friends from that group in Mendoza and Santiago during the first week of May. Yea vacation!!! I am definitely ready for it!