Aiko Pora!

My title means, “I live well” in Guarani. Life is good here in Paraguay. I had a very successful Sexual Education series in the middle school in October. It was really great because I ended up not doing too much of the talking. I was accompanied by at least one nurse every charla that knew more than me, especially in the vocabulary sense. But that is great on so many levels because that is our goal here in Peace Corps. To train sustainability, and I was more of just the motivation and organization part of the charlas. But we were able to barrow a projector from the local government and use the sweet technology of a powerpoint presentation! I’ve told some of my friends that I’ve been making powerpoints and they always ask me if I’m really living in Paraguay… its not very typical for people in the campo to have technology like that! So that has been a big success… and I know the kids are learning a lot. It is such an important subject for them, because it is a problem here. And so many times teenagers think they are invisible and that sexually transmitted disease wont happen to them, but the percentage of people that have HIV/AIDS in Paraguay is the same as in the United States. Other than that I’ve been working and already have permission to turn the lot next to my house into a volleyball court! Sweet! All I have to do is look for someone who has some wood we can use for poles, buy a net and make some lines! I’m very excited about it, its going to be my summer activities with the kids. My friends and I have also starting planning our travelling summer camps! We’ll have to save that until we all get back from our xmas vacations though!

Great news about my house… I now have ALL my doors! It is very exciting; my owner just finished installing all of them yesterday. Its really nice to have a door that locks to my bathroom. I just feel super safe now! And this afternoon I’m going to the store to buy a new light for the bathroom because it doesn’t work! Ha… there is always something right! But its progress, and the Safety and Security Coordinator for Peace Corps was at my house last week. Him and the director of all Paraguay dropped me off at home after a meeting we had in Pilar and at that point I didn’t have doors and he was very worried about it, but I just sent him and email and he is very happy that I now have them!

So I’ve been on vacation/traveling basically these last two weeks. First I had a birthday party for a fellow volunteer who is in my Vac group. We went to a town called Cerrito, its in the very south of my department right along the river. We spent one night in a hostel type place just hangin out drinking a few beers! Then in the morning we headed out on a boat to an island for a camping adventure. There were 8 of us and we sun tanned… which turned out to be a horrible idea. No matter how much sun tan lotion you put on the sun is so freakin hot here, I got super burned… especially on my back! Ha! Then it just got so hot we moved to the river, grabbed a drink and sat in the river just hanging out, it was a really really fun day! Then for dinner we made really delicious black bean burgers over a campfire and for dessert had smores! Real smores, like hersey’s chocolate, real marshmallows and state side graham crackers! It was heavenly! We all finally retired to bed either in tents of under mosquito nets… only to be woken up in the middle of the night with my friend Steven telling us its going to rain! And sure enough in about an hour it started down pouring. Well we only had two, two-person tents and only one had a rain flap! So we squeezed 6 people into a tiny tent… needless to say we didn’t sleep much that night! We all woke up tired and covered in sand, but thankfully our boat captain came and got us from the island that morning. My friend Brian (from Pilar) and I headed back to Pilar with a guy that offered us a ride in his truck. Four hours later we arrived just in time for me to hop on another bus towards Asuncion to hang with my friends. I finally made it to Asuncion 6 hours later, exhausted and all I wanted to do was go have dinner with my friends. As I was waiting for the bus it suddenly started down pouring… hard. So I ended up just having a bite to eat by myself across the street from my hotel. Well that down pour turned into extreme water ways flowing down the streets of Asuncion. There were cars stuck in the high water not able to drive, and the ones that could looked like boats the water was so high. So I sat it out in the restaurant by myself, sad, tired and lonely. Then we the weather let up a bit I ventured out and tried to get back home. Well I crossed half the street easily then looked to the other side and the water was at least high calf deep… so I walked up the street a bit to see if it would be less water… I just ended up walking more and getting more and more soaked. When I finally decided to cross the street my flip flop came off in the current and starting floating down the river in the street… so I chased after it all the while soaking my jeans thoroughly! I made it across the street/river and back home to my hotel room I crashed and hoped that the following day would be better. Well it was, I met up with the girls who were getting their hair done… then we went and hung out with Danielle at Don Clark’s house (the director of all Paraguay Peace Corps) until it was time for our Halloween Party! I was Father Time and looked pretty good, everyone knew exactly who I was! We hung out with our friends, drank some cheep red wine and danced all night!! The following day could have been one of the best days I’ve had in Paraguay. I was supposed to go to Guazu Cora to hang with my training family. But the later it got in the day the less we wanted to go. First Andy decided not to go, then Eliza and I thought about it more and decided it was pretty silly to go and come back to Asuncion when we could just wait another day and go tomorrow. It may have also been influenced by the movie Eat Pray Love that we wanted to see that night! So we hopped on the bus and headed to spend time with Danielle. While on the bus we were deciding what to write to our families to tell them we weren’t coming. Andy decided to read aloud what he wrote describing how hes sick and has really bad diarrhea… only he read it to us in Spanish, without realizing that everyone on the bus speaks that language. So he ended up telling the whole bus that he had really bad diarrhea! It was hilarious and we all starting laughing so hard we were crying. It was ridiculous and I’m sure the whole bus thought we were drunk or on some kind of drug! But later we all decided that was exactly what we needed, a really good hard laugh. It put us in such great spirits and made our souls smile  Once with Danielle we hung out with our feet in the pool drinking terere and sharing the stories of the night before. Then later that night we went and watched the movie which we all thought was really good- now I’ve heard different reviews. But when seeing a movie is such a rarity almost anything is good!

Monday Liza and I headed out to Guazu Cora and just hung out with our families. It was really great. We drank way too much terere and it was fabulous. My family had remodeled their house and it was absolutely gorgeous with beautiful railings all around the house and tile floor. And my ma was soooo fat and pregnant! Shes five months now and looking so great! And Alexis is big and walking around everywhere and kinda starting to want to talk! It was a wonderful couple of days catching up with all the families. Liza and I also found something to take home with us… we both got puppies!!! They are brother and sister, two month old. Liza’s mom did research and thinks they are a mix of something and Brazilian terrier. When we got them they were really skinny and covered in fleas! So we took them home and gave them a bath and I proceeded to pick out most all the fleas by hand while Liza sat next to me and freaked out. She thought it was a big mistake to get a puppie, she didn’t know how to care for one… she was so funny. But I calmed her down, took out all the fleas and made sure they had a nice comfy bed to sleep in that night. In the morning I took both puppies to the bus station in Asuncion where I met Liza (she had to run lots of errands that morning in Asuncion and couldn’t do it with a puppie!) well somewhere along the trip both puppies puked all over each other! It was great! So we cleaned them up a bit before we both got on our buses and headed towards home, although I went to Pilar because I had a meeting the next day with the director of PC. The next day I gave Tutti all her anti-parasite shots and got her some food, a collar and vitamins to grow big and strong. And just a week later she is much fatter and full of life and energy and loves sleeping. Shes really cute, I love her and its nice to have company! Although last night she stole my cougar squishy pillow… so now its hers! Shes a pretty good puppy, only problem is she likes to poop in the house in the early mornings… we’re still working on the potty training! But she got to go on vacation to Danielle’s home this last weekend. I met Danielle in her site on Saturday (6th) to help her get readjusted back home. I brought a bunch of groceries with me so she didn’t have to do any food shopping! Then I did dishes, cooked, cleaned, swept! I was really glad I was there, because Danielle was still pretty sick and weak from surgery, so it was great to help out! And we just had a great couple of days together, watching movies, Sex and the City… and just being together! I got back to site yesterday and was really exhausted. Traveling really takes it out of me… and I got home to find my doors on which made me happy but the owner had just stained them, so there was this terrible smell and that only compounded the horrible head ache I already had. But I went to bed extremely early and woke up naturally and cleaned my house and did some chores!

So that’s about what I’ve been doing this last month. Some work, some play and an overall good time. And I cant believe I’ll be home in the United States of America in just a month and a week!