The finish line is in sight!

As I Tortoise my way through the Peace Corps “race,” the finish line has become visible on the horizon. Its hard to imagine that it was actually two years ago yesterday that I arrived in Paraguay! I can still remember my first night at the Sanchez-Mendez household! Na Olga was waiting with the group of anxious senoras trying to guess which blond American would be their host-kid for the next three months. After an, “Hola, soy Raquel, encantada” and two Paraguayan cheek besos – we were set. They helped me pull my wheeled (ridiculous for Paraguay) suitcase down the cobble stone street, then to the dirt road to their amazingly adorable house at 163 I don’t knw the stree name. It was chilly and I was unprepared for a cold Paraguay. Everythin I had read had said, HOT, HOT, HOT!

Na Olga made pizza for dinner and they thought it was strange that I wanted to shower #1. post dinner and #2. at night? Was I crazy, showering happens in the morning! Over the next three months they put up with all of my weird quirks and loved me through and through. I talked to Na Olga yesterday, they have a new trainee living with them. She is vegetarian, not Na Olga’s preference, but asi es.

Time has flown by, Im almost done! I CANT believe it!

Cast of one of the Chicos Unidos Skits!

A review of the latest:

COS Conference (Close of Service): I was dreading my heals about COS, after being on vacation I was liking just hanging out with my neighbors and being in Horqueta. But the temptation of a fancy hotel and someone else’s cooking (and the obligation from PC), made resisting impossible. It turned out to be a wonderful 2+ day conference about all of the important papaerwork we have to fill out, how to readjust to the US, and how to measure the work we have done in the past two years. It was nice group bonding and amazing food! I started to get me thinking and adjusting my outlook to prepare me to go home. home-what a weird word. I feel like I have so many. How can one word mean so many places? Los Chicos Unidos: Parade, Community Clean-up and teatro-i s Horqueta celebrated its 216th birthday on May 10th. Los Chicos Unidos walked in the parade to prove it! We had a little neighborhood clean up…see pic. Two Saturdays ago we did some skits. It started with Barbara (my new sitemate) and I doing a “bad skit” and then a “good skit” about how to make desiciones and treating people with respect. We thought the kids would think it was kind of funny but then not be that into it. But! Then they all decided they wanted to do skits too! We used all of the “extra” clothing/gear from my house as props and let it rip! They took our lead and did bad/good skits, where in the first they would be mean or behave badly and the second be the good example! When it was finally dark we had to send them home, but I think they would have stayed acting and acting until they were sleeping standing up if we had let them! It was great!

This is us in the Parade-checkout those green sashes!

Los Chicos Unidos: Parade, Community Clean-up and teatro-i s
Horqueta celebrated its 216th birthday on May 10th. Los Chicos Unidos walked in the parade to prove it!
We had a little neighborhood clean up…see pic.
Two Saturdays ago we did some skits. It started with Barbara (my new sitemate) and I doing a “bad skit” and then a “good skit” about how to make desiciones and treating people with respect. We thought the kids would think it was kind of funny but then not be that into it. But! Then they all decided they wanted to do skits too! We used all of the “extra” clothing/gear from my house as props and let it rip! They took our lead and did bad/good skits, where in the first they would be mean or behave badly and the second be the good example! When it was finally dark we had to send them home, but I think they would have stayed acting and acting until they were sleeping standing up if we had let them! It was great!

Library Donations:
We received a very generous donation from the Bill Kelly Library Foundation (BKLF) through Peace Corps Paraguay. We were able to buy $840 in university level textbooks! They are beautiful and amazing. Even though Paraguay is a developing nation, books cost about what they would cost in the United States. So as you can imagine they are highly inaccessible to Paraguayans. Even most universities use photocopy handouts as their textbook materials. Thanks to the donation from the BKLF we were able to almost double the amount of university textbooks that the Horqueta Public Library has on the shelf! WoooWHOOO!!!

Ahecha Paraguay Opening at the CCPA!!

Friday May 22nd, 7pm - Centro Cultural Paraguayo Americano (CCPA)
The Ahecha Paraguay 2° annual National Tour kicked off on Friday night, with the presence of 8 youth photographers, their volunteer contacts, Peace Corps Paraguay Director-Don Clark and the presence of many hard working dedicated CoCuMu members and volunteers!

I had the honor of being the MC for the evening, giving the opening welcome, project description and introducing Sergio Galeano (youth speaker) and Director Don Clark (all in spanish-there will be youtube videos soon-if i ever get to faster internet). I was a little nervous but everything went smashingly well! The exhibit was beautiful and everyone was highly impressed!

Take a look...

Takuára-Bamboo, This year the Ahecha exhibit was designed to use the fast growing renewable resource...bamboo or Takuára in Guarani!

Sha-zam!! Amazing!

The reasons the Ahecha exhibit turned out so well: Sadiya and Courtney!!

Art

Youth from Emboscada, Cordillera with his photo

Dream Team = Sadiya and me!

Surprise!!

Paraguayans don’t really ever do – surprise parties. So when I found out that Bonnie “fabulous girlfriend” Arendt was going to throw a surprise party for her boyfriend, I was inspired! It took a little bit of planning and a lot of text messaging, but was all worth it on Monday night when Christian showed up at my house, confused why I was wearing a skirt and mad at me for leaving my backyard light off..again. His face almost fell off when 8 of his friends, bunches of Peace Corps volunteers, his brother and parents all came yelling into the backyard!!

He was shocked! I was convinced that his older brother would have spilled the beans and let the cat out of the bag. But he said he had no idea. He said it was the best surprise of his life and the thing he couldn’t believe the most was that his parents were in on the secret! Little does he know, not only were they in on the secret; they were LOVING being secret cohorts!

I think it is safe to say it was one of the best parties thrown at my house, which actually has some pretty tough competition. There were lots of college drinking games played (excellent cross-cultural exchange), dancing, eating and fun had by all!

let me review the surprise party – because it was just that fabulous! The numbers don’t tell it all – but they might give you a good idea.

Here are the datos:
# of Pyans present: 13
# of PCVs present: 14
# of heavy duty sound equipment: 1
# of Games of Beer pong played: 8
# of games of Flip cup played: 10
# of liters of beers drank: 40
# of liters of Caña drank to “pre-party”: 3
# of pans of Chipa Guazu: 2 – big ones!
# of kilos of chorizo: 3
# of Brownies ate: 30
# of balloon arches: 2
# of surprised Christian Ojedas: 1 – and oh, was he surprised!!!
# of parents who were scheming with me: 2

More pictures from Arrrr-gentina

No smoking - for the love of art!

This means vacation!!

Travel Buddies

Novel idea!....trash pick-up!

Vino!!!

My favorite combo - mozerella, basil and tomatoes

What is a pirate’s favorite South American country??

ARRRRR-gentina!

I went on vacation! If you count more than 70 hours spent on buses a vacation? I DO! I had the phenomenal opportunity to go to Cordoba, Mendoza and Salta, Argentina! Two fabulous travel companions and fellow Peace Corps Volunteers, Ms. Andrea Smith and Ms. Mary Kennon Walker, accompanied me. We decided that we needed a little break from the everyday-Paraguayan-excitement and figured the most famous vineyard land in south America wouldn’t be a half bad option – we packed our bags and headed south and west!

I always knew that Argentina was a fairly large country – compared to Paraguay at least. But it wasn’t until our 3rd over night bus did I really start to appreciate its enormity!

Asuncion, PY to Rosario, AR ~ 16.5 hours
Rosario, AR to Cordoba, AR ~ 6 hours
Cordoba, AR to Mendoza, AR ~ 10.5 hours
Mendoza, AR to Salta, AR ~ 19.5 hours
Salta, AR to Clorinda, AR ~ 17 hours
Clorinda, AR – through customs to Asuncion, PY – 1.5 hours
Just a little bus time…huh???

While the buses in AR are a bit fancier than the buses I usually ride – and to our pleasant surprise – they served food! Very similar to airline food – but still better than nothing…we thought…at first! Until we realized that they ALL served jam and cheese sandwiches. Which is good. I like ham and cheese. But it was weird because there was jam and cheese on a bun, ham and cheese on square white bread and ham and cheese in a spiral roll. All delicious…separately…at different meals. But when, on the same tray you receive 3 kinds of ham and cheese sandwiches, it seems a little repetitive-the first time. After 4 bus rides of 10hours or more – it becomes a little ridiculous! (sorry I don’t have a picture)

We had a great time! Saw lots of beautiful country! Drank great wine, ate delicious chocolate! Drank Submarinos (hot milk with a chocolate bar – best kind of hot chocolate EVER), ate out, walked through parks, people watched, mountain climbed, and most of all took deep breaths!

Here are some of the pictures of great things seen, done and eaten! (I will post more soon!)

Wine tasting!

Me with a REALLY big barrel of wine (They dont use this size any more - bummer!)

Old mule bridge...the Incas used it!

Me and the Chile sign...does this count for visiting the country? Some blue sky...huh?

This is CHILE!!!

Can you think of a better combination? Churros can be deep friend dough sticks - or in paraguay it can mean attractive men. Goodlooking fellas and chocolate? I cant think of anything better!!!

Look...its a puma. Or just a big yellow rock!

On our way back from the mountains!

Cathedral in Salta

Cathedral in Salta, AR - Looks likes Masons works to me!