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!