Turning 25!

I am officially a quarter of a century old! I feel like I have passed into a new epoca of my life. When I was younger I always used to think that when I would be 25 I would really be a grown-up then. I am not so sure that I have transformed into a grown-up but I might be on my way! While, I do sit with the Senoras when ever there is a social gathering and not the teenage girls, I don’t think that I will probably ever graduate from the kid table at grandmas though!

I had a blast of a party on Tuesday night. It started by me telling my two closest PCV buddies that I wanted to do a little something; grill a little and maybe drink a few beers. It transformed into a neighborhood wide party with the guest list including my kids club, all surrounding volunteers, all of the senoras on my block and a 15+pound cake! I have never felt so loved in all of my time in Paraguay, and what better time to feel loved than on your birthday! It was wonderful!

Ña Silvera (the plaza gardener and beer vender as she is better known to PCVs) gifted me a 6+KILO cake! Cakes are expensive to make, and a big one even more so! She had told me weeks ago she wanted to make the cake, to which I had no arguments. She is by far the most admired cake baker on my street and a sure-fire crowd pleaser. When I went to talk to her about what she wanted me to bring her or how much I could pay her, she said we would settle the bill after she had made the cake. Birthday rolls around and she comes over with a cake that is bigger than most wedding cakes with green sprinkles on top! She wanted to gift it to me she told me. I insisted on paying for it, but there was no changing her mind! It was deeeee-licious!

We ate chorizo (spicy and non), veggie and beef shish kabobs and of course lots of cake! We played Corn Hole (Ohio-an Bean Bag Toss), Darts, Jill and Luke fire danced and then the rest of us got our grove on! It was an excellent way to celebrate ring in the next quarter century.


I also got AMAZING presents: please see the picture below to note all of the goodies!

Starting bottom left: new deep dish pan (it came with Mary Kennon’s home made lasagna!), watermelon/flower table covering (Na Rubia, next door neighbor), KOICA backpack from my Korean volunteer friend Kai! On the chair (L to R): Pink girl bank (next door neighbors), R-ring (Na Lucy, her husband is a jeweler), Metal/beaded braclet (Oscar, kids club), beaded braclet (Danielle, PCV), Dress watch (Christian), Cutie keychain (Jill my site mate!), Rubix cube and two decks of cards (Travis, PCV), Green embroidered towel (Na Selva, neighbor lady, borrowed us her grill too!)

Chair arms and background: White/black painted worm made from curved stick (Ariel, Kids club. because last week at kids club we made pudding cups with gummy worms!) Heart and vase (Tito, kids club – his present delivery was the first time I met him!) Magic Shell Chocolate (Travis, PCV), Yellow tshirt with Nanduti lace (Jill, site mate), White bowl (Na Rubia, neighbor infront of my house), Super ripe papaya (Maura, English student)

Chair back: Pink necklace (best friend Fany, the librarian), Thermos leash/holder (travis, PCV), Red lady painted towel (Na Nidia, Christians mom), Sexy undies (Na Belleza, neighbor on the corner) Not pictured: blow-up doll (Liam, PCV)

Guaiguî is the guarani word of the day, meaning old (for women).

A review of everything else!

Summer Camp: San Roque Rocks 7

Its summer, everyone knows: its hot. and there are kids everywhere! All the time! Its not hard to figure out that most kids get pretty bored during the summer and need some good organized fun! My site-mate, Jill Anderson is an Urban Youth Development Volunteer. Which means she is good at all things youth and kid related! It would be too much to say that the camp is a shared project, Jill plans everything and I just show up and do whatever she tells me to do! We held camp for two weeks/four days a week. We use the canch (soccer field) that is in front of Jill’s house and an open space in her host family’s house to host activities. We have 3-4 dedicated youth who help run things and kids under control. Jill’s barrio (neighborhood) is much poorer than the barrio that I live in and kids tend to be extra wild! The kids were divided up into six teams and stuck with their team to participate in various activities. Each day a charla (lesson/educational activity) was given (usually by a pcv), topics ranged from trash management (done by the secretary of environment from the muni and myself), to math games, to dental health. Tree planting was one of our activities and we were able to plant at least 40 trees around the cancha. (Jill and kids have continue to water them, to give them a chance to make it in PY summer)

girl scouts

One of the new great things in my life is Kids Club! In my heart its actually my secret Paraguayan girl scout troop! Its amazing! For the past 5 or 6 weeks, every Saturday a group of 8-13 kids has been getting together to play handball, soccer and cook. It started out as an all girls group, but for the past 3 weeks, we have had three 9-yearold boys come. The kids range in ages between 6 and 15. The 15 year olds are more like co-advisors, but they love playing and handball too! So far we have had two cooking days and made Sugar cookies (with cutters!) and banana bread and play dough (not mixed together). They are much more tranquilo (chill) than the kids in Jill’s barrio! They are good at taking turns and sharing the jobs of getting banana bread made! I am really surprised how much they like to make. This Saturday we are going to make fruit salad and dirt cups (which are actually a surprise!). Dirt cups: cup filled with layers of Oreo cookie crumbs (there are no Oreos in Paraguay…they will be some other sort of cookie) and chocolate pudding with gummy worms mixed in! And YES! I was able to find gummy worms in Concepcion, Py (miracles do happen!) Here are a few pictures of cookie/banana bread making and play dough playing!

Reading the recipie!

Cookie cuttering

banana bread maza!

MORE! Cookie cuttering

Enjoying our banana bread!

Successes with the Secretary of Children
I believe in my last post, I expressed my excitement for finally finding someone in my municipality who wanted to work with me! I am still thrilled about it! Her name is Liz and is 22 and a 4th year psychology student! She is super guapa (hard working) and totally on top of her game!
We had a very successfully uniform and school supply donation drive. We are in the process of doing a census to see where the most need is. In the last 3 weeks I have worked at my muni more than I had in the last 16months put together! Amazing!
The next steps include some serious job training, working on getting kids birth certificates and cedulas (identification cards, kind of like what we use a drivers license for– but without the right to drive). There are many, many children that are undocumented and without documentation they cant get grades in school. Which means that even if they end up going to school it wont end up counting “legally” because they do not have an ID number. So it is really important to get them their papers!


Ahecha, Ahendu, Cocumu
So a little something that I have been working on, quietly from my laptop and close by cyber is the management and manejo (driving) of a PCV organization called CoCuMu (Compartiendo Cultura Mundial – sharing world culture). I cant remember how much I have blogged about it – but I has consumed lots of my time and energy. It is considered a secondary project because it doesn’t necessary fit into the “Muni Vol” role.
Ahecha – “I see” in Guarani, Digital Photography Project
http://www.ahechaparaguay.blogspot.com/
I hosted camera workshops and did the project here in Horqueta about a year ago this time. But also have managed the checking in/out of kits and the volunteer maintenance that accompanies the project.
Ahendu – “I hear” in Guarani, Concert
The first of hopefully many concerts was hosted last December and was a collection of amazing Peace Corps Volunteer talent! Among the 170 volunteers that are in Paraguay a very high percentage of them are incredibly musically inclined! It was a blow out success and a great fundraiser to support Ahecha! The next concert will be for the COS of G-23 on April 23rd! Should you be in Paraguay, you should be there!

The biggest and best news that I could give anyone regarding CoCuMu, is that we just had a meeting (once every two months), and there were lots of new people and they were all interested in participating and taking on leadership roles! I don’t know how to truly express my excitement!??? What it means is that I can start to transition out as the knower and keeper of all important information and begin to pass it on to other people who are passionate about what I am passionate! Translation: sustainability!!!!


Library
My dependable source of rewarding work has become slightly less dependable these days! Fany, the librarian is still my favorite Paraguayan and just as guapa as always! But things with the muni and our location are a little shaky. The building we are located in now, is up for sale. The owner didn’t like that muni never paid their rent on time and thinks it could be more profitable to just sell it. With is a bummer for the library, because it is in a great location!
The good news, this is an opportunity for the muni to step-up, build a building and show the community (and me) that they really value the library. It has never been a very high priority because (like libraries everywhere) it isn’t a big money maker! However, don’t lose hope yet. We have plans drawn for a new building and a location that would be just about as great as where it is currently located, the only trouble is that the budget for the new building is 62,000,000Gs. (which translates to about $12,400) The muni is only able to put up about half, so we are left standing with a big unpaid bill! There is an option that from the federal government we might receive some funding, but that is shaky! The option of a Peace Corps SPA or Partnership grant is a possibility as well. But we were hoping to get the entire building paid for by the muni and the federal government so that we could use a SPA grant to buy just books! University level books are what are really needed in Horqueta and it is what is missing the most!
I will keep you posted on this dilemma, as it develops!

English Class
I am going to do the unmentionable. Teach English. My class starts next week and runs for two-weeks/every night, a crash course/English Survivor per say. I never wanted to teach English, but I am going to bite the bullet…and just do it! Ekk! I’m a little nervous!


I have pictures of all of these activities too, but the internet is super slow!

I had a visitor!

I have had the incredible luck or crazy ability to convince people should visit Paraguay. From December 29-Jan9, I had the great pleasure of hosting my cousin Maria; famed world traveler, ironman athlete, rocket scientist and future Girl Scout troop leader! Maria lives in L.A. but as she explained to traveling acquaintances, she is from Uuu-ston, TX.

We had an absolute ball together, Maria was a great travel companion and so tranquilia that I had to force her to make a few decisions. She understands loads of Spanish, so I didn’t have to do much translating at all! When she first arrived, we headed east to Ciudad del Este and then crossed the boarders (through Brazil) and into Argentina. We stayed in Puerto Iguazu (Port of big water!). The main goal of visiting AR was to see the falls, known for being the most amazing in the world! This was my second time visiting, and they were still shockingly phenomenal! If you have a list of amazing things to see before you die, you should add Iguazu Falls! However, if you have a list, we decided you should throw it away and go meet people! We stayed in a really cute hostel called Timbo Posada that had a great art store next-door, where Maria found a spectacular pair of sandals! (visit their website: http://www.timboiguazu.com.ar/timbo_arte_english.htm) For an extra “rest” day, on New Years Day we visited sitio de las tres fronteras (Three boarders). The Rio Alto Parana and Rio Iguazu run together to form the Rio Parana – is the connection point for Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. Each has staked out their territory with an extra large post/pyramid painted with their country’s flag colors. (Paraguay’s looks more like super huge piece of PVC piping) We made a point to eat ice cream as often as possible and I felt like I was on a mini-vacation too!

After our time in Argentina, we came back to Paraguay (without any boarder crossing troubles). We were able to get a direct bus back to Horqueta, it turned out to be not exactly direct. Because, it was the only direct bus north to Concepcion, everyone, their mother and their 5 children were on our bus. So the bus that was built to hold a maximum of about 60 people, probably at one point had close to 90+. We did make back to my house in a total of 14 from the time we left the hotel until we arrived at hotel watermelon. We spent the next four days seeing horqueta and meeting some of my people! We were able to make chipa, butterflies with my “girl scout troop”, work bees and talk on the radio! We were also to take a trip down the Ypane River! It was like a 6-hour vacation from my world! We floated down in tubes (with a cooler of cold beer and great food close by!) It was Amazing!

The only down fall of our entire trip, was an unsuccessful adventure to find leather bags for Maria to take home as her Recuerdo de Paraguay. But I think its safe to say that, on both of our parts, we had a wonderful time together!