It’s all about integrating!

so these pictures are all from a fiesta we went to, lots of dancing (with my gpa in the green shirt) my grandma is the lady in the pink. and my host family is the one with the baby in it. our group is one of them and the other is my friend eliza holding a cake for my friend andy´s birthday! it was super fun!

This last week we got to go observe the local school. We were only there for about an hour, but it was really interesting. I was in a 9th grade class, basically in Paraguay you have a lot of rote memorization, its all about finding the answer in the limited number of books they have and writing it word for word. There is not a lot of creative thinking involved in the school systems. On Friday we had our first Dia de Practice (Practice day) where we were just sent off into the community to talk to people. My partner, Stephanie and I wanted to go to the Puesto de Salud (health post) but it wasn’t open because it was a holiday. So we just kept walking, we decided to be adventurous and just go up to a house and talk to someone, it turned out to be a very old lady that we visited, she was really nice though. We talked to her for about ½ hour it was fun! Then we kept walking, we finally found a house where there were a bunch of people outside that waved to us, so we went in to talk to them. We ended up staying at that house for over 2 hours! They were really cool. We sat and talked to them, drank terere and discussed the meaning of life. I’m not joking, this guy was asking us question after question, rapid fire! We talked about anything from the difference of a private and public university in the states, the reason of Peace Corps, our future dreams and goals to the most important aspects of our life! It was absolutely crazy, but it was really nice to talk about things I don’t normally talk about and use vocab with… so it was great practice! It was some good integrating time! That night we had a party at my friend Liza’s house. All our group and our families were invited to it. We all dressed up nice and hung out! We spent time with our families, we all brought a dish to share, it was really fun. Liza’s sisters boyfriend brought big speakers so we had sweet music to dance to, I danced with my grandpa… we’re always dancing partners! We drank some wine mixed with coke (don’t judge me Bri, I’m trying to integrate!!! Haha!) I don’t know why they drink wine with coke, its not terrible, but I would rather drink it plain. But mom you would like it cause they always keep their wine really cold and/or put ice in it! But its decent wine, it all comes from Argentina! We had a blast that night though, we danced a ton, spent time with all our families and ate great food! All the families left and us PC people kept dancing and hangin out… it was a fun bonding night! However, the next morning we all had to get up and go to language class at 7:45 AM! I wasn’t hung over cause I didn’t drink that much but I was just tired. However some of us were a little hung over- it was and interesting day of class. It was our friend Andy’s bday on sat also, so I had prepared a game for that day. During one of the breaks of class we played the game and it was super fun! I know Andy really appreciated it… and I have to maintain my reputation as party planner #1!! Saturday night we played another soccer game against the same girls as before. I did okay… I was tired and I didn’t work that hard! I was really close to making two goals, just a little off! But it was super fun! We all went home to have dinner with our families then we went to a one year old birthday party, the dad is a good friend of Jacob and mine that we see often and talk to when we walk past his house! So we hung out there for a while, integrated with the community then went to my friend Wes’s house to play some cards. We finally know how to play Escobo de quince… which is super fun! We played a couple games of that and drank some beer and wine. This time I had straight wine, much better! It was fun hangin out as a group but Jacob and I went home semi early cause we were all tired, but Sunday was our free day so I didn’t have to wake up early, I slept in till 10:30! It was fabulous! I used Sunday to catch up on my journaling and do some studying; I have a lot to learn with Guranai! Monday we switched language teachers and my new teacher is pretty darn cool! She really takes the time on the pronunciation of the words- which is really nice especially when we’re studying Guarani! That afternoon 3 of the 4 groups in our whole G32 (G32 is our entire class: health group (2), elementary education and urban youth development) G stands for Guarambare which is the city we train in and 32 is the class number we are. There are three times a year groups come to Paraguay, so the next health group to come to Paraguay in Feb 2011 will be G35… just some PC lingo! So almost our whole G was together for the afternoon activities where we talked about HIV/AIDS and reproductive health. Basically we talked about sex and condoms all day! It was very interesting, because it is a very touchy subject in Paraguay, we aren’t even allowed to talk about it until we’ve been in site for 6 months… serious stuff! We’re supposed to be integrated well before we broach sensitive issues like that! But we put condoms on mandioca, played HIV run around games and did interpretive dancing to female and male reproductive body parts! It was fun! Ha! Later that night we had our first dance practice, I told everyone I am in charge of choreographing a group dance, we have already got approval and a time slot to do it in front of everyone so now we just have to practice!! We all met at my house and I showed everyone the four songs and how I had spliced them together and organized them! Then that night I made up the moves to the first song, Michael Jackson’s “Closer”! And we practiced on Tuesday during our break between language sessions! The dance was slightly too hard for everyone in certain parts so I’m modifying it slightly, then after class on Tuesday Liza and I made up the moves to our second song, the girls are dancing to “Lets get Loud” by JLo! Pretty awesome, I’m very excited to see it all come together!