Doing business...

I am writing this blog as I’m sitting next to my bestie Danielle, just dying laughing, telling funny stories on the bus ride to keep us entertained. Bus rides have become so much a part of my Paraguayan life the 5-6 hour bus rides just really don’t phase me anymore. I remember thinking that I would have to drive like 3 hours to get to Seattle and it was like soooo long. That air conditioned car ride has nothing on me! This ride has been somewhat of a somber one. One of my fellow Peace Corps volunteers, Emily Balog tragically died in a car accident on Sunday. Well all came together last night as a Peace Corps body to pay tribute to a beautiful friend that we lost. Most of us didn’t know her well, but then some of us were her best friends. You never really believe tragedies like that happen to people you know, it just hit really close to home and we all suffered her loss. However, we had a beautiful memorial service last night and gave justice to her short but beautiful life.

To go back in time a bit…

My interview. I think it went well. The only problem was everyone was pretty qualified and had something great to offer, and I only heard 9 people. They interviewed like 190 people. ugh. And there are only about 45 spots. So I think my answers were unique, but again unfortunately there was another applicant that just returned from Peace Corps Africa. So wasn't as unique as I thought I was going to be. But I did the best I can do and we'll just wait and see. They are meeting on the 9th of this month and will let us all know within a week from that. So by Nov 16th I will know their decision. SCARY!! But it was amazing to see Tishra, still in shock it all worked out! And I ate Ben & Jerrys for breakfast- it was amazing! Got a few treats to bring back with me. Except the mean man at airport security stole my frosting in a can. I was sad! Apparently frosting is a gel... stupid! ha!

After my terrible flight back to Paraguay (silly people at Continetal wouldnt let me get on the flight bc they said I needed a visa for my 2 hour layover in Brazil- idiots!). I finally met up with Bri and Monica in Asuncion. The next morning we traveled down to my site. We got there, unloaded our stuff and then met up with the boyfriend and went and hung out with his family! We had such a great time! We danced with the uncles, ate yummy bbq meat that were cooked on sticks around a fire. Ate delicious fish- that was huge! They liked the boyfriend, he was so cute with them and really making an effort to talk to Monica (bri doesnt do spanish!). even though he told me later he was so nervous talking to her! They thought he was super good looking- all though at first Bri told me she thought he was going to be ugly because I never posted a picture! haha. But then she said he was the best looking guy she saw her whole time in Paraguay! yes! After hangin with the family we went to a bull fight. It was a fun experience for the girls! Then we went to the fiesta and danced it up... well until the power went out! There was a power outage in the whole town! haha! Too big of a party! The next morning we headed to Iguazu Falls. It only took us 11 hours on a bus to get there, but we got there! We checked into our hostel and then ate some food and crashed. I was exhausted! The next day we went to the falls, it was beautiful and fun to be able to see it from the Argentina side too. When I did my amazon adventure I saw it from the Brazil side. We went in a boat and got soaked under the waterfall... and screamed a lot! Then we walked around the rest of the day with soaked jeans- awesome! The next day we got on a plane for Mendoza. We LOVED Mendoza. It was beautiful, hot and dry. We all had some kind of allergy going on! The first day we went horse back riding at the base of the Andes Mountains. So fun... I was one of the more experienced riders so I got to be in the front and actually run my horse not just walk it, so that was bomb! We stopped for a break and drank mate before returning back. It was really beautiful and fun to be outside! That night we went to a really sweet bar, really fun inside, except that the couple next to us prob smoked 15 cigarettes in about and hour. I was dying. My eyeballs hurt and it was just a lot of smoke in a small space. We left kinda early! In the morning we went out and rented bikes and went on a wine and choc tour. It turned out to be farther then we thought, the places were really far apart from each other, and some were closed, which sucks. But we had a good time, and it was really pretty. The wine was good, not fabulous. I would argue that some Columbia Valley (Tri-cities/yakima) wines are just as good! But then we got back to the bike rental place and it was free wine all we wanted. Yikes! We went back to the hostel and got ready for a Halloween party, I was a cat! I made ears out of paper and taped them to my headband- then dressed all black and painted a nose and whiskers on myself! ha. Free costume! We went to a nearby hostel where 4 diff hostels came together for the party, so it was just TONS of international travelers. I met people from all over the world that night. And strangely most of them all spoke English (but weren't from America). We danced, drank... and had a really fun evening! Next we headed to BA. Buenos Aires is such a beautiful city. I wanted to buy a downtown apartment so bad! The first night we ended up meeting up with my PC friend Danielle and her Paraguyan fiancee, who were in town for a 15 bday party for his cousin. We just went out to dinner and showed Joel some American-ness! We were all pretty tired, so it wasnt crazy! The next night we took a tango class at a Milongona. The class was fun, we learned a basic step. I did okay. But then after when people were just social dancing a dude asked me to dance, I told him I just learned that night, I sucked!!! He knew what he was doing and I felt like I was just tripping over my feet! haha. I think I almost fell too! But it was fun to watch the people that did know how! We spent the days in BA walking around EVERYWHERE! We walked soooo much, my knees hurt a lot. But we got to see a lot of things and do some shopping! The following two nights we went to diff clubs. One was an after office party, where it started early around 10pm and ended at 2pm. We definitely got our dance on all night! And the last night out we went to a transvestite show/club. It was called club 69, and there was a fun show with the lead person being a trany! And then other people dancing in tight revealing clothes. The men were hot with rockin bodies, pretty sure at least half of them were gay! And the girls wheeled themselves through the middle of the crowd on a moving stripper pole! It was fantastic! But the music sucked, house music, its fine for a bit, but then I get tired of it, I wanted some words in my music! AND... I felt embarrassed to be American. There was a large group of study abroad kids- jerks. And the stupid American Im better than you attitudes, it was ridiculous and really annoying. Because of that group we left early. But we ate well, had a great time being together. And all in all successful trip, great memories. All the photos are on facebook for your viewing pleasure!

But it was really nice to come home. As I was driving back into site, I got kinda sad. Realizing I have such a short time here left and there are so many things/people I’m going to miss so much. But that is why I surround myself with beautiful people. Lately, I’ve been working hard and drinking lots of tereré. I have started an exercise class that has had and extreme amount of success. We work out Monday – Saturday for an hour. We do aerobic exercises, squats, arms and abs. Not only has it been good to promote healthy and active lifestyles, but its been great for me. Forcing me to work out and keep myself healthy and in shape! Today was officially the last day of school, so in these last months I’ve done a lot of school wrap-up, trying to squeeze some last minute charlas and activities in. but I still spend every day I can with my pre-school class. Who have 100% stolen my heart. I love those kids so much and their presence in my service has been irreplaceable. We just had an end of the year party for them with hot dogs and games. We invited their mothers and handed in their notebooks with the activities they’ve done all year and a class photo that we took! It was really special.

Also special is my new boyfriend. His name is Euclides Galvez. He is 24 years old and treats me like the queen I am! He really is wonderful and I’ve had such an amazing time getting to know him and sharing with him and his family. We don’t spend too much time together, because I’ve been busy and he is a construction worker and spends a lot of time in other communities building houses or bridges and such!

But when I’m not with Euclides, I am with Blanca. I rarely spend much time in my own house. Which I’ve decided has many advantages:

1- I don’t have to sweep as much because I’m not there and I don’t track in that much dirt

2- I don’t have as many dirty dishes to wash, because I never cook anymore

3- I spend less money- I do help out and by food for Blanca, but still spend way less on food per month

4- I had the amazing experience of really becoming part of a family. I am so comfortable with them and feel right at home!

I cant believe that today is December. It sure doesn’t feel like it when it is 100 degrees plus humidity outside. But I’ve been trying to listen to some Christmas music to get me in the spirit! Without getting carried away on holidays, my Thanksgiving was really wonderful. I planned a Thanksgiving event for all interested Volunteers. It was at an absolutely beautiful hotel by Encarnacion- which is a city in the south east of Paraguay. I ended up going down a few days early with my friend Danielle to do some wedding shopping!! That’s right, she is marring her Paraguayan boyfriend. She is so brave and I’m so proud of her and Joel. So we went down to pick out fabric for the bridesmaid dresses, buy favors, find flowers and do a lot of random things. Then actual Thanksgiving Day, I met up with 9 other volunteers in the kitchen of the hotel to do the Thanksgiving dinner cooking. We cooked 8 delicious turkeys (that cost us 1,000,000 Guranies = 200 dollars!), mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, candied yams, mac n cheese, pumpkin and apple pie bars, and the Springer family tradition of Ice Cream Jello!! It was all so incredibly delicious (and everyone was raving about my ice cream jello! ha!) We had a wonderful weekend with friends, drinks in our floaties in the pool, water volleyball, pool flip cup… it was all amazing. If I couldn’t be at home, this was definitely my second best choice. Although, after looking at pictures of my family I guess I was at home. In the pictures anyway, with a cutout of my head on a popsicle stick- so silly mom!!

I wish everyone a happy holiday season. I’ll sweat it up for all y’all that are in the snow right now!

Story Time

I want to tell everyone about my favorite place…. To use the bathroom!! Now don’t judge me until you’ve read the story! First of all there are all types of bathroom’s that I’ve encountered here in Paraguay. They range from the really chuchi ones that are modern, like something you would find in the states. And there are always houses that don’t even have a bathroom… the bathroom is the great outdoors! But then you have all types in between from a real toilet to sit on but you have to flush it with a bucket full of water, to a very (I mean very) rustic wood latrine that I thought I was going to fall into. For reals, it was very unsteady and I was just imagining all the stories I could tell after I fell into a large hole of feces and larva. Awesome! But now on to my favorite place. It’s a latrine which means it is just a hole in the ground. It has three sides made out of wooden panels and one side is just completely open. There is a wooden stump with a hole in it that you sit on, which surprisingly is quite comfortable! But the best part is the view. I like to go to the bathroom just to sit on the stump and enjoy the view. You look out into the wide expansive landscape of the Paraguayan campo. There are lots of animals that just roam around right out in the field as you sit there. There is also a pig pen just in front of you with little pigs sticking there heads out and oinking at you! But this is the real campo, out where you have to walk a long ways to get to your nearest neighbor. Out where there is no electricity or running water. Out where I have spent some really wonderful moments and made memories with my best friend Blanca and her family. It is her parent’s house that we go out to celebrate all sorts of awesome occasions! It’s a really great treat to go out to the “real” campo!!

Hace mucho tiempo ya...

Well I have failed… it has been three months without a single blog update. June, July and August were all very good months. Lets take a look at what happened…

JUNE: I was fresh off an amazing adventure trekking through the Amazon jungle, and I was right back to site and back to work. There were birthday parties, like usual. There was a Fiesta Patronal (patron saint day) in my neighboring town, where I hung out with a new volunteer that recently moved there. I danced till the break of dawn… always a good time. But usually when something is too fun, its too good to be true. June was a hard month for me with gossip. I don’t know why people starting making things up, but apparently dancing with someone means you are involved with them. It’s really fair. But unfortunately it is something that comes with living in a small town. Everyone just kept telling me don’t pay attention to them, but its hard, because everything you do is reflected not only on your work, but on Americans as a whole and Peace Corps. I guess I’m just an easy target because I’m the foreigner! But I just kept on trucking, kept working and really figured out who my true friends are. I spent basically every single day with Blanca, my best friend that lives right in front of me. I would wake up in the morning and cross the street, climb under two fences, one of which is barbed wire and always snags some part of my clothes or hair, and spend all morning with Blanca drinking mate, talking and eventually I would just hang around and eat lunch with her! June also started the really cold weather. There were a few days that I didn’t really want to leave my bed. But I bought a nice new fluffy blanket that kept me warm at nights!

JULY: The first weekend of July I spent in Asuncion with my fellow volunteers celebrating our beloved independence! It was a really good event, good food, good friends and nice but chilly weather! And of course my hang picked champion volleyball team won the tournament again! It was a harder fight this time, but we stuck it out and pulled out a win in the end! Winter vacation for the school kids was the middle two weeks of the month and I really took advantage of the downtime and did a whole lot of… NOTHING! I spent basically all my time with Blanca and hanging out with her family! I did receive a visit from Freddy and that was fun, he really enjoyed getting to travel to other parts of Paraguay he had never been to. And he really liked my little town of Tacuaras :) The last weekend in July I headed back to Asuncion for a training session with the new health group. We held sessions and shared our wise wisdom with the new group! Ha! After training I got on a 6 hour bus and went to visit my girl Eliza! It was her birthday end of July and a few of us make the trip out to see her. And in real Paraguay fashion it was a few of the coldest days of the winter. And it rained, a lot. So instead of getting to enjoy her site and hang out with her community members we stayed in bed in sleeping bags and watched movies! But at least we were able to be together!

AUGUST: I spent the first weekend of August again in Asuncion, there was a Peace Corps wide meeting that I had to attend as well as the 10k I was running on the first Sunday. I really didn’t train as well as I should of. Training in the campo is really hard. And it was really cold. And just as I was getting in a nice rhythm it rained and totally messed with my groove for a couple of days! But the race went really well considering my lack of training. I ran it in 1 hour 6 minutes! I got a sweet bright green shirt and nice Nike hat! It was worth it just for the gear! But I felt really good about myself. I really do enjoy races and the whole atmosphere! I headed home after the race to prepare myself for my birthday week! It came with celebrations and loses. As some of you know my bestie Blanca was pregnant, but ended up having a miscarriage. And that just happened to occur on my birthday. She was very sad, but she is very strong and is such a wonderful friend. We still celebrated with tallarine (their version of spaghetti) and cake at her house that night for my birthday! Then two days later the 12^th was her birthday, so we all got together again and celebrated as a family! Because of the miscarriage I became the full time pre-school teacher. I taught for 2 weeks straight. But those little creatures do just fine with me (which is saying a lot, because they don’t behave well with just anyone!). August 16^th is kids day in Paraguay. We celebrate when Paraguay was at war and there were no more soldiers left to fight so the women and children had to. And there was a specific battle that was won because of a 12 year old child! So we spent the whole morning playing games with the entire school of 100+ kids and then I started a crazy dance party with all the kids. It was great fun! After they were all good and tired, we had hot dogs and cake! It was a wonderful day and I know the kids really enjoyed themselves! And I was thankful it was over, it was stressful dealing with all the parents trying to collaborate who is making what, who’s bringing what ingredients, and all the while organizing all the games and activities. But totally worth it! That pretty much brings me to today. There is always something going on, or something to drink some tereré with! The weather is turning and its getting warmer and warmer every day. I keep myself busy with working, hanging with the pre-schoolers basically every day, and my quality time spent with Blanca! All my other time has been spent working and finishing up my PA applications, I very close to finishing them all up. Its been a lot of work and its very hard doing it in another country with a terrible internet connection. But thank god for the blessing of my parents. They have been rock stars and correcting every essay, printing out and mailing necessary paperwork. Absolutely amazing! So hopefully I will be receiving good news in the next few months. Lets keep our fingers crossed!

I’ll try and be better about my blogging. Its not like I was so extremely busy and didn’t have time. I just got lazy. But I hope all of you are well and are enjoying life. Because it is really too short to not!

Our Fantastically Amazing Amazon Adventure & BA

We arrived in Manaus Wednesday May 18th after a long night of chillin, playing cards and trying to sleep on the tile floor. We met up with Jake and Christine who had been at the airport for LOTS of hours already. Henry and Sean (Andy’s best friends from the United States of America!) arrived a few hours later and our group was complete. We left the airport and headed to our hotel room which was in downtown Manaus. Manaus was a much bigger city than I imagined; it has 2 million people living there. We dropped off our bags then went out exploring. We walked around awhile, enjoying all the music being played on the streets and the many street stands selling remote controls! Ha! We made our way to the water and sat at a cute little outside bar and drank a few beer towers and shared a variety of food! On the way back to the hotel we found a few more beers, that we drank on the roof of our hotel and some desserts that were super delicious to share! After an enjoyable evening on the roof 5 of us decided to go out and look for a place to dance. We ended up at a bar that no one was dancing at so we just danced ourselves. I made friends with the DJ and kept changing the music to the songs we wanted to dance to, it was a fun night!

The following morning we were up early and got in a van that took us to a super chuchi hotel. In the parking lot we met up with Edwardo, our tree climbing guide! Who is also a very attractive man :) We then got into a boat and drove about an hour up the Rio Negro where we winded our way into a small canal to find the tree we were climbing! Once at the tree we unloaded our stuff and Edwardo and his helper started setting up the tree. They shot fishing line up around one of the branches then tied a small rope to that then finally put on the large rope we would be climbing! The first group up was Carden, Christine, Jake and Sean. It was really fun to watch them climb. What you do is you have two assensors one of each hand that you use to move up the rope. Once you push it up, it locks into place, and then you lift your body up with the straps on your feet. And repeat. It was actually a lot harder than I thought it would be. And once I got close to the top I had so much weight from the rope that I could barely raise my accensors. But the work was totally worth the view. We sat up on the branch of the largest species of tree in the Amazon for a while and just took in the view. It was absolutely beautiful! AND our sexy guide Edwardo told us that just last month Bill Gates and his family climbed the same tree! Crazy stuff! After we all climbed we went to a little beach and did some swimming and some serious chicken fighting. Since we were 4 guys and 4 girls the fighting worked out perfectly. We all had a lot of fun messing around and had to keep reminding ourselves not to pee in the water because there is a type of snake that will swim up your urethra if you urinate in the water! Haha! Once we got back to Manaus we were driven to Edwardos favorite restaurant that he recommended to us. It was absolutely delicious food. We ordered two fish meals and two meat dishes. We devoured them all and we were all completely satisfied! It was a nice last meal before we hit the jungle!

In the morning we met our guide for the trip, Coney and packed up all our stuff to head to the jungle. We drove out to the docks and hopped on a speed boat to see the meetings of the water. The meeting of the water is where the Rio Negro meets the Rio Amazona. The Rio Negro is much warmer and has a lower pH, it is also much darker in color and has significantly less animals and vegetation. From there we traveled to a small little water side village where we took a bus to a different part of the river. We were all very curious about what kind of boats we would be on for the next 9 days. Carden thought there’d be a bathroom, Danielle wanted more of a houseboat with a place to put our hammocks while we traveled. Well we were all very wrong in our assumptions. They were canoes! Two wooden canoes, one to carry our stuff and the other to carry us. And of course as soon as we got to the boats it started down pouring. So we spent our first moments on the river with pelting rain. I guess that’s why they call it the RAIN forest! We also constantly had to be bailing out water so the canoes wouldn’t sink! After a couple of hours on the water we stopped at a lodge for lunch, we met and chatted up some other travelers then we were on our way again! We went a couple hours more, and luckily the rain had stopped by now. We stopped at a local house where we would spend the night. The people were really nice even though we couldn’t really communicate with them and we all slept in a little hut where we put up all our hammocks. We played some cards that night then crashed early!

Day two in the jungle we were woken up early by Coney telling us to get all our stuff packed up. We headed out on the boats looking for sloths. We eventually found one chillin up in the tree. Our boat driver, Branco climbed up and got him. Well we didn’t know at the time but it was a momma sloth and her baby. But when Branco grabbed the sloth the baby fell from the momma and splashed into the water. Coney quickly grabbed the little guy out of the water and we all proceeded to take pictures with the both the momma and the baby! Such interesting creatures, they move so slow! On the trip we also saw some spider monkeys playing around in the trees! Afterwards we boated down the river again to the next local house, it was pretty late by the time we actually got there, the boating and all our weight went really slow. But Coney told us we were going to a party! So at the house we changed into the clothes that were the least dirtiest and smelled the most clean! We showed up at a local neighborhood fundraiser party. There was food, drinks, trampoline and TONS of dancing! We were the only white people there, but we had a blast! We all danced up a storm, however not well, because none of us knew how to dance foho! But I picked it up decently well! I was dripping with sweat but it was an amazing night! Brazilian people dancing is so much fun to watch!

The following morning we were allowed to sleep in because Coney thought we were all going to be hung over, but none of us were because we sweated it all out! After breakfast we went to a rubber factory which is run by the owner of the house we were staying at. We learned about how rubber is made and the importance it played in the history of Brazil. The rubber is from the milk of the rubber tree, you slice the tree and collect the liquid. From there you put it on a mold and place it over the smoke of the fire. It was really neat and we all got a chance to do a little. After lunch we went on a short 2 hour hike to get used to the jungle. On the way Coney painted our faces with a fruit that contained red dye! On the hike we saw monkeys, lots of bird species and some cool looking spiders. We also collected fishing rods for the afternoon activities. We got back form our hike and Coney told us we were going to get tattoos. He held up a fruit and proceeded to rub the pulp of the fruit on my arm. I thought he was crazy but after about 10 minutes it was getting dark. Well I got really excited about this tattoo fruit, we all painted A-Team tattoos. That was what we named ourselves, The A-Team! I think it also stood for Anaconda! Then I got a little crazy and painted a huge flower and tons of stars all up and down my right leg. Well its been 11 days and my tattoo is still there! Its faded but they’re all still there! After tattoo painting we went out piranha fishing. My team won, we caught 14 fish and the other team caught 7! I caught two and I was so excited by catching my first one that I flung it and it smacked me in the boob! Ha! And Sean broke his pole on a “river dolphin” aka branches! We got back to the house and ate the piranhas that we caught for dinner!

We woke up to down pouring rain. We boated for about an hour into the jungle and went on about a five hour hike with sloshy boots because there we were completely soaked! Well all of us except Danielle because she had her poncho on and later told us, “I love poncho”!! On the hike we saw a HUGE tarantula, the ones I’ve found in my house have nothing on this guy! We saw huge bullet ants, trees that smelled like vics vapor rub, squirrel monkeys and poisonous frogs! We met up with Branco and Unkie Jon (his name was tio juan- we changed it!) They had prepared lunch for us, and we got to relax a bit! From there we moved on to the next local house, where I discovered I had a rash all over my body! Sweet, it must have been a reaction to something in the jungle, or being damp all the time. But I put some powder on it and it made it feel a little better. That evening after dinner and quick naps in the hammock we went out caymen hunting. Caymens are a cross between an alligator and a crocodile. We boated around for bit, and found one! We all took turns holding it and taking pictures, it was super cool!

The next day we had a long boat ride to get really deep into the jungle where no people live and tourists don’t go. We were so deep we were boating through trees. Every 5 minutes we were telling each other, “branch” and we all had to duck! We pulled up at a spot that looked good for a camp. We built our own structure and started a fire for lunch. Andy went a little crazy on the macheting and clearing ground for our house! We all took naps in the afternoon but it was so hot I didn’t sleep! That night we went out looking for jaguars and snakes but Coney told us we smelled too clean so we didn’t see any!

The following morning we hiked for about 4 hours and were taught about survival. We learned how to make a fire without materials just the forest. We were taught how to make a house, get water and find food! It was a pretty chill afternoon, we rested up for our survival day the next day. And we drank a bit, and played some team bonding games. And we all decided we smelled REALLY bad, especially Sean! That night we were all snuggled up in the hammocks and our structure kinda broke and we all thought it was going to fall down on top of us. So we had to get out of our hammocks and try and fix the shelter a bit more and we all laughed about it.

Survival Day: We packed very very limited things, like water, some snacks and our hammocks. We boated for about 2 hours even deeper into the jungle! We only hiked for about 20 minutes then started to set up camp. Coney let us do everything, we had to make 2 different shelters, so the girls started making one and the boys the others! We got about an hour into it when it started raining. At this point Coney started assisting us. We quickly got the shelters put up and Henry and I tried to make fire. We kinda failed, but got close, then Coney gave us a tip. It was really difficult because everything was soooo wet. I got a few cuts from trying to grab a spiny branch, and Henry cut my thumb from the machete! We made some rice with salty meat and Henry carved us spoons out of palm stocks and used leaves as bowls! The boys were having guy time as the girls were preparing for Jungle Prom. Yes I said it, I organized a jungle prom! We found leaves and vines in the jungle and I made corsages for the boys and then we had jungle outfits. I made wings out of palm hearts and we wrapped vines all around us. It was pretty amazing!! Then the boys came and asked us to prom and gave us tokens made out of jungle materials! We had Sean the juggler performer at prom, we took cheesy prom photos, and then jukebox Carden sung songs that we danced too!! Fun survival day!

We woke up and went on a small hike to learn about trapping and tracking animals. We talked about wild pigs, tapiers and fish. We all ate larva (even Carden and Christine that needed much encouragement!) We drank from water vines and tried to climb trees! We then headed back to our other camp where we packed up everything and started heading back. We spent the entire day/some of the night on the boat. We did have a little alcohol to make the time pass faster! We boated for so long we got to a lodge late at night and just crashed.

Once back in Manaus we had a few hours before we had to leave to catch our flight. We went out to dinner and recapped the best moments on the trip. Heading back to our hotel we ran into some street dance troop. They were practicing for a dance completion the following weekend against the other neighborhood kids in the area. They were FANTASTIC dancers. We just sat there and watched in awe at how good they were, and how much fun they were having! The Brazilian spirit is so cool to me!

Then I just kept going. I went straight from the bus terminal in Paraguay to the airport to fly to Buenos Aires. I got to BA and then hooked up with my girlfriend who came to take the GRE’s as well. We did some studying together then went to bed early for a good nights rest. My test went successfully; I rocked the math section and did acceptable on the verbal. I just don’t talk English these days! Then I went shopping to celebrate because I felt so out of place in my smelly jeans and sweatshirt- Argentineans have such great style! Lauren and I met up later and walked around for a while then went to a bar for celebratory drinks where the two young bartenders hooked us up!

And those were my adventures, lots of traveling, plane rides and sleeping in airports. But absolutely worth it, definitely stories to tell the grandchildren :)

Absolute Mayhem in April and May

Well after the family left it was back to work, being guapa! I started out April with a near death experience. I was doing my laundry and as I was finishing and putting everything up on the line I was about to step on and only 2 inches away from one of the most deadly snakes in the world- a coral snake. I have had it confirmed from many different sources that it was the real one, the poisonous one. The one where you die within less than 20 min! Awesome right. Well not really if you were there. I was freaked out and it kinda shook me up mostly because it was right outside my door… and I was so close to it! But it was an experience. I started my English class first week of April and had 22 kids show up, I didn’t have any more room in my house so they all sat out front of my house on my grass! I’ve actually really enjoyed taking on this project, I have a pretty consistent 15 kids that show up and I’ve add another class on Saturday for the more advanced kids! And I think these kids are really interested in learning. We have fun and play a lot of games while learning- its my style! I also started my parasite charlas in the school, I only got to do a week and a half of them before things got insane around the school. On Saturday Paraguay is celebrating their 200^th year of independence. So the whole school is preparing for it, we have dances, decorations, poems to recite, theaters to present, parade practice- which includes drums and baton girls. Its been a crazy month of all the preparations. So I am waiting to start up again on my charlas until this business is over! But I still continued to do fluoride with the kids every week. The last week of April I was in Asuncion for mid service IST, which basically means go to the doctor because it’s the midway point and make sure you don’t have worms or nasty things growing! I was clean as a whistle!! We also had to get our visas renewed, which turned out to be quite a mess. There are six of us who are going on an extreme Amazon Adventure and we were really worried our passports weren’t going to be back in time to use for the trip, because everything is really backed up from the independence madness. But we begged and pleaded and ended up getting everything taken care of no worries. And we all got pretty new Brazilian visas that will last 10 years! Now we’re all set for our trip! We also celebrated our COS (close of service) date while in Asuncion. It was really crazy that we’re on the downhill side now! Back home I was practicing full time working with the kids to teach them Paraguayan dance. Of course I didn’t know it, but the teacher showed me one time and I caught on. So I was the little dance assistant for the kids! It was fun, but also really tiring. We worked hard! May 4^th I celebrated my 1 year in site. And I threw myself a party! I cooked hot dogs, funfetti cupcakes, brownies and no bake cookies. Needless to say, the food was a huge hit! We had a lot of fun, there were about 45 people there including kids, we danced, ate, drank and had a really good time. Nothing crazy, but just right with my closest people! That very next day I was in Pilar for a VAC meeting that I lead. I announced that I got permission to do a 4^th of July event (I am activities coordinator for the Peace Corps!) and I am doing a dance-a-thon. Its going to be pretty spectacular. Competitions, matching outfits, choreographed dance. I got it all. So me and my VAC discussed what we will be doing and everyone seemed pretty excited! Then to continue the party the next night we celebrated my friend Brian’s birthday in Pilar. We drank, ate and danced up a storm. It felt like a disco in his house!! Ohhh and we taught the Paraguayan beer pong. They loved it!! Oh but wait I’m not done with the parties. I returned to my site on Saturday and had a 2 year old party to go to that night. The crazy thing was this was the first birthday party I went to when I got to Tacuaras a year ago. It was a very weird feeling to be attending a repeat event! But only this time I knew everyone that was at the party… instead of everyone just staring at me! Haha! This week I’ve been in the school every day doing lots of random preparation and of course hanging with my pre-schoolers! I am going to be part of the parade on Saturday and walk with the pre-schoolers! I’m pretty excited, it should be a lot of fun. And let me tell you, I’m excited for it to be over, I’m exhausted. I’m gone all day, then have to clean my house, do my laundry, clean my dishes, cook… and I just don’t have enough time for everything! To add on to that 2 days ago Tutti got spayed, so she cant leave the house, and I have to watch her carefully so she doesn’t bite of her bandage. But shes doing pretty good, still sore and I can tell in pain, but she just started to eat again this afternoon. And I tied a ridiculous old shirt and duct taped it to her so she cant reach the bandage to bite the stitches out. But it was kinda cool to see the operation, and I got to help!! Oooh and I got to be a part of something really spectacular today and yesterday. Thank you to my wonderful Aunt Cathy and her dentist in Oregon! Her dentist donated 144 toothbrushes in really fun color. I have now given one toothbrush to every student and currently 120 kids have toothbrushes in their classrooms that will stay there! The look on these kids faces were absolutely precious. And they all said, now we can brush our teeth all the time!! And this second statement I don’t know if it makes me sad or greatful for gving him one, but he said, “This is my first toothbrush”. I kinda wanted to cry or smile… I don’t know! But it was a fun moment to be a part of! With many many thanks to my beautiful Aunt for thinking of me and the kids! Things just never stop here though, I have GRE studying to do, applications to prepare for and another party to go to tonight! Its nurses day… and my favorite people and closest contacts are all nurses! If its not one things its another! But loving life- For real. I enjoy keeping busy and doing good work. Then after this weekend a little Brazilian Amazon jungle to experience! It will be a welcoming break!

The family Visit

Okay so I have failed at updating my blog. But here it goes. In my last update I was about to go on family vacation. Well lets just say it was fabulous. It was a very memorable vacation that I think all of us will never forget. The beaches were fabulous, Laura and I hit the tanning nicely. We did a lot of exploring: we saw a very uniquely designed house, went over a roller coaster bridge, visited the delicious tea and waffle house (and of course ate our very own yummy waffle!), and hung out with the fingers on the beach! We ate well, played a card game most nights and had our own dance parties! We explored Montevideo one day while waiting for Laura to arrive at the airport then after she got in we got to experience a tango show and some typical dances from Uruguay! Uruguay is beautiful with very nice people and definitely a trip that’s worth taking. Only I was very exhausted from translating everything- I really didn’t know it was going to be that draining, and I got confused a lot! But I guess that’s probably normal!

The real fun began when we arrived in Paraguay. The countries are so close and both end with -guay… but they are really not very similar! Paraguay is such a less developed country and my family definitely got to catch a glimpse of that. We spent the first night with my training family in Guarambare. We played with Alexis, held my new baby sis Sofie, and ate tons of food and fresh grapefruit juice! Although they couldn’t communicate with my family we still had a really great time. Laura really enjoyed taking pictures and checkin out the family animals! The following morning after a delicious breakfast of cocido we started heading south. We drove over 300 kilometers to Tacuaras, since I’ve always traveled by bus it was also a really great experience for me. There is so much you don’t realize while you’re on a big bus! My dad did a great job of not hitting any animals and navigating the many potholes! And it was really beautiful… the way the landscape changes is really neat! And now my parents really believe me when I say I live in the swamps! We arrived early afternoon, and of course I didn’t have any food to eat! Ha! But we quickly got to finding beds for everyone, we were hauling around bed frames, mattresses and pillows from the neighbors! Then we headed over to Nancy’s house (the host family I lived with for the longest here!) we sat around drinking tereré, looking at Jimena’s birthday party pictures, and having every single person walk by us in a complete stare! My biggest comments from people were, WOW you’re parents look young, and your sister is really skinny and pretty! Then being the super hostess that Nancy is she made us hot dogs and sandwiches! We were having such a good time by the time we left it was basically dark and ready to get ready for the birthday party that night. So we didn’t get to visit many other families. The birthday party was for the 12 year old Mario who is the son of one of my best friends and neighbors, Blanca. Who is also the pre-school teacher and who I spend almost every afternoon from 2-4 in her class with her! At the party we ate 4 different kinds of meat: pork, beef, sheep and goat. It was pretty freakin good! People were very nice and used all the 2 words of English they knew. And I just sat around translating! The following morning I wanted to go visit more families and walk around, unfortunately in Paraguayan fashion it was raining- hard! And there was a power outage. So we left early. We drove back up to Asuncion, where we stopped at a artisan tent to buy some gifts then just rested and showered up in the hotel and went to dinner. My fellow PCV Stephanie ended up joining us for dinner which was very nice, she got to help translate too! And in the morning we got up way too early and returned the rental car and everyone headed to the airport and me to the bus terminal to head back to site! It was an absolutely wonderful vacation, and I feel so blessed that my family made the effort and spent the money to come down and see me. You can explain your life over and over, but until you’re there and see it in person, touch it, eat it, feel it. That’s when you understand. And I couldn’t not be more thankful to my family for taking the 24 hour journey and sharing in a part of my life that will be an extremely defining and life changing experience for me. So thank you Aunt Cathy and UK (Kentelton! Haha) for making the trip possible and to Mom, Dad and Laura for taking time out of your busy lives and for everyone’s continual support. This truly is the hardest job you’ll ever love!

March Madness

March 1^st we celebrated our 50^th Anniversary of Peace Corps existence, and 45 years here in Paraguay. It’s a pretty great accomplishment, and I feel very privileged to be a part of this anniversary! I could not say enough great things about my Peace Corps experience and feel so lucky every day that I choose to do this. It is such a unique experience that no study abroad, Americorps, mission trip could ever compare to (not that’s those are bad or unworthy things!). The fact that you are living in a developing country for 27 months allows you the time to actually do something. Most volunteers state that they don’t feel like they’ve really done anything until the 2^nd year. And now approaching my second year… I agree with that statement. Yeah I gave some dental charlas and sex ed charlas, but I think my work will be much more impactful this second year. I was talking to my close friend Kasey Vargo on the phone yesterday and we were discussing my experience thus-far. I told her about my trainee visit I had last week, and listening to a new trainee who has only been in Paraguay for 3 weeks, she really has no idea what is ahead of her. I realized I was just like that, that was me, I didn’t know anything… and while my Guarani is still horrible, I do understand a lot more than people think I do! And I finally do feel a part of my community. I have made great friends, friends that I can show up at their houses at any time of the day, for anything, or just to drink a little terere! The fact that I spent most all afternoons out of my house, when most people (outside of their jobs) never or barely leave their houses, is something very rare in the campo. But since I do live on my own, I enjoy getting out of the house, and I’m always pleasantly surprised by new things I get to experience, people I get to meet, parties I get invited to, food I get to eat- just by showing up! To Paraguayans it means so much more showing up and giving them your time than anything else! Which is mostly what I’ve been up to lately, hanging out with friends and families. However I have spent almost every day since school recently started in the pre-school class. One of my closest friends Blanca is the teacher… but mostly I just really love the kids in that class! They are a group of 11 and they are each so wonderful, playful, loving, and I know they enjoy having my around a lot! Every day when I come into the class they all scream, Sara!! They always put a big smile on my face :)

In other news, I am preparing to leave site soon. On the 8^th i’m headed to Asuncion for the SHAKIRA concert! So very excited, and there are going to be herds of Americans sharing in the awesome booty shakin music! Then I get to spend almost a whole week with my training family. My training mom just had a baby, March 2 she gave birth to Sofia Analia who weighed 4.5 kilos (that’s basically 10 pounds!!). I will get to spend lots of time with my new little (probably really chubby) Paraguayan sister. And some much needed quality time with the boyfriend!! After that its off to meet the family in Uruguay! Family vacation time, relaxing on the beach and hopefully some really yummy eatin! Then I have the wonderful opportunity of showing them Paraguay and where the real magic happens! So stayed tuned for an update on all my upcoming adventures!