Yet Another Holiday or Three

Paraguayans definitely like their holidays. This week we are celebrating three. On August 14th is Flag Day, August 15th the Founding of Asuncion and August 16th is Dia del Niño (Kid´s Day). For Dia del Niño all the schools and the community centers had cake, hot chocolate and music for the kids. For Flag Day there doesn´t seem to be much celebrating. They have been talking a little bit about the origin of the Paraguayan Flag, but it seems to have been kind of forgotten about. For the Foundation of Asuncion all the businesses are closed and everyone has the day off. In addition to being a major holiday the government will also change tomorrow. For the first time in 60 years the Liberal Party will take charge. The new president will be sworn in. In my Department we will also have a new governor. We hope to see positive change.

Dia de Amistad

Last Wednesday here in Paraguay we celebrated Friendship Day. Paraguayans take this holiday very seriously. They arrange parties and exchange gifts, it kinda felt like Christmas, only the gifts are super cheezy. At the Church my host family attends there was a white elephant party the weekend before Dia de Amistad. The weekend after my host family had their own gift exchange. I received a small diary that says ¨Wishing you Best Wishes¨in English on the front... kinda funny. I also received lots of little key chains and little card sized pieces of wood that describe me as a great friend. Everyone asked how we celebrate the day in the States... the unfortunate truth is that I don´t think I´d ever even heard of Friendship Day in the States. Does that make us unfriendly? Maybe we should pick up on this trend. At least make us look more friendly!

Last week also marked 3 months in site. I attended a three day training on language called the 3 month reconnect. All of the volunteers from my training group returned to our training community to learn a little bit more Guarani and Spanish and to hang out and compare experiences. Our sites are so different so it was good to hear about what everyone else is doing. I think it´s actually the last training that we´ll have all together as a training group.

In site I am continuously trying to become more involved. One of my friends is starting a theater group at one of the high schools so I plan on helping out with that. Our garden is starting to grow and this weekend my youth group is having a soccer tournament.

My First Paraguayan Wedding

Saturday nights I am usually at home watching a movie on my computer or trying to reading yet another book, but this past weekend I had the opportunity to attend my first Paraguayan wedding. My contact Julio got married on Saturday night. The wedding was probably not the ¨traditional¨ Paraguayan wedding due to the fact that it was held at a Baptist Church, but it gave me an idea of what they are like. First off the wedding was supposed to start at 7. I, being the typical American, arrived about 10 minutes early only to find that the Church doors where still closed and they were not quite done preparing everything inside. The wedding actually got underway at about 8 pm. It started with the civil proceedings and then the religious ceremony. For the civil ceremony both the bride and groom must have two witnesses each that can testify that they are single and can therefore marry. The religious ceremony seemed much like any non-Catholic ceremony in the States. After the wedding we proceeded to an outdoor reception hall which was like a really nice big pavillion. There the couple took pictures and there was a buffet dinner. The bride tossed her bouquet and there were cake pulls. After the cake was cut by the couple, they didn´t shove into each other´s faces, the party was over. It was kind of disappointing because I was looking forward to dancing. The wedding in its entirety lasted only about three hours. Can you imagine? That definitely wouldn´t fly with my family!

Geography Camp

So after one day of intensive planning and three days of chaos my geography camp has come to an end. I had about 70 kids come in all, 25-35 at a time. Even with the help of another volunteer it was rough. The kids were rowdy and didn´t really want to listen, but I am hoping that they got something out of it. We were unable to finish the World Map, but I am hoping to work on it over the next week and possibly finish it up. I am putting up pictures from the camp on the Flickr site. Next week I plan to take a break and relax a little bit. We´ll see if that actually happens!

Two Months In Site- What am I Doing?

So I have been in my site for two whole months now! Can you believe it? Only 22 months left... yes that means I am still counting. So what have I been up to? Tons of stuff! My main contact is the community center/after-before school program and I go there almost daily to do work. What type of work? Some days I am tutoring kids other days I am helping to serve snacks to the kids and others I am working on our new garden. Garden? With the youth group I formed at the community center we have cleaned an area and prepped it for a vegetable producing garden. Which we will hopefully be planting soon. We have youth group every Saturday morning at the community center and we have been doing some random fundraisers to start out with. I am also teaching computer classes at an elementary school two days a week. There are about twenty classes in all which is really overwhelming. We are on winter vacation for the next two weeks and I have planned, or am in the process of planning, a three-day day camp for the kids at the community center. They'll be learning about geography and some American culture. The theme came to me when one of the kids pointed to a map of Paraguay and asked me to show her where my county is located. I have another volunteer coming to help me with the camp and on the last day we will be painting a large World Map as a project. I can't wait! After winter break is over I will be teaching cooking classes to some of the mothers from the center. That should be interesting. We will be cooking without meat and Paraguayans are not exactly open to the idea. But it will help to reduce food costs and improve their health so I am going for it! So other than that I attend meetings for some other youth groups in the area and accompany my host mother on an hour walk nightly to sell sandwiches at a night school. I haven't been nearly as bored as I thought I might be. Living in a big city there's always something to do!

My Trip to the Campo

Last Saturday I had my first taste of Campo (rural) life in Paraguay. After a quick trip to visit another UYD volunteer for lunch and ice cream I was off to a San Juan celebration at the site of a rural health volunteer. I boarded the bus and gave them the name of the nearest town when asked where I was travelling. Then as we got closer I asked the driver if he could let me off at Km 110 or a little bit past the chicken factory. Luckily the driver knew the place because there is no sign to mark it or even a street light to let you know that there is a street off of the Ruta. And seeing as I arrived around 6 pm, it was already dark. My friend Truman was waiting on the side of the road to greet me and we walked the short kilometer to the compañia where he lives. His site is probably the closest rural site to the Ruta, there are some volunteers that have to travel 50 Km to get to the Ruta. In those sites there are often local buses that run, but not very frequently. During our walk from the Ruta to his site I glanced up at the sky and I could not believe my eyes. I had the most amazing view of the stars. I could even see the Milky Way with a clarity that I have never known before. It was wonderful. Already I knew I would love the Campo! When we arrived at the house I where I would stay for the night they had already prepared a dinner for me and had it waiting, talk about hospitality! Unfortunately it was empanadas filled with ground beef. I kindly ate one but passed on seconds. The site does not have running water or modern bathrooms. Latrines and wells. This was the life I was expecting in the Peace Corps.
The celebration of San Juan is celebrated all throughout the month of June. A lot of schools and groups host the celebration as a fundraiser. They sell typical Paraguayan foods such as Kavure, Mandioca Empanadas and Mbeju. They also have a dj with lots of music and dancing. There are games which the kids pay to play and then win prizes. The most interesting is the one in which they grease a pole with pig fat and then the kids try to climb it to reach a prize at the top. There is also a lot of playing with fire, which I found somewhat disturbing seeing as we are constantly telling kids not to do so! The party was great.
The community was small and only has about 40 houses or in the neighborhood of 200 people. Everyone knows the volunteer and the people are a lot more open and inviting than in the city where I am much more annonymous. It was a great experience to have, but I´m not so sure I would love it so much after more then a few days!

Winter in Paraguay

After four months of warmth with few ugly days, winter has finally descended on Paraguay. Last week was freezing! Well maybe not literally freezing but its as cold inside as it is outside. I spent much of Saturday in the warmth of my sleeping bag reading a book and trying to keep from freezing. All the cold and rain leaves the ground wet and muddy. My half hour plus walks to get everywhere and anywhere are now spent trying to dodge puddles and keep my pants out of the mud. And often when I finally arrive at my destination I discover that whatever activity I planned to attend has been cancelled due to cold, rain or the chance of rain. This is life in Paraguay. On a positive note my tutoring at Gotas de Leche, the school reinforcement program I am working with, has helped me get an in with the kids. They are much more likely to want to play and hang out with me now than they were a month ago. The more confidence and trust they have in me the more likely they will be to listen when I start giving talks and actually dong more of the work I am here to do. I also went to an elementary school where I will most likely be a gym teacher for the kindergarten through third graders. Although I have absolutely no experience teaching gym, I guess I’ll have to figure it out as I go. Teaching gym will not only allow me to promote gender equality, self-esteem, leadership slls and a more active lifestyle, it will help me get to now the teachers and might proved an opportunity to work with some of the older kids in other classes. Not sure when I will be starting but it is sure to be yet another adventure in Paraguay!