Workin Workin Workin!

So last week was my first full week of my dental charla series. I gave 13 dental talks to every class in the grade school (pre-school to 6^th grade) and 7-9^th grade in the high school. It was very successful, and I know the kids really enjoyed it. However, I was very tired. I never knew teaching was so draining. And I only worked for about an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon! However, I was teaching in my second language, so that was a little bit harder. So I started with the little kids, we sang songs, read stories and played simple games. Then I transitioned into the high school and for a moment I forgot what it was like to be in high school/middle school… but it quickly came flooding back to me. I don’t think I was sufficiently prepared for what I entered into. I came from little kids in classes no more than 10 to an 8^th grade class of 30 students! Not only did they laugh at me when I said words wrong, but it was tough. I felt very intimidated and also slightly embarrassed after they laughed at me. It is really different than teaching to the little kids. They don’t care or even notice when you say something wrong. But the big kids- they notice. So it was definitely a transition, but the 9^th and 7^th grade went tons better. I was more prepared and I knew more kids well in those other two grades. And I’m going to tell you a little secret to the success of my lessons. TAG! They loved tag. I didn’t know the word for it in Spanish so I just called it tag! They did not want to stop playing, such a simple game that I grew up playing at recess, but it was totally knew to these kids and they really had a great time playing- success! It feels good to be doing things though. And now all the kids call me Profesora Sara- I like it!

Other than that I worked out mon-fri last week. I went running/walking. Right when I get lots of motivation to get out there and start working out, getting back into shape of course something happens… I have mean shin splints. And they hurt, really bad. Boo! So not only is it weird that I’m running in the first place (because that is not a normal thing) but not I run even funnier because my shins hurt so bad! But you know, I’m pushing through it and doing as much as I can! But because of all the running I’ve been doing, I’ve had lots of women tell me they want to start exercising too and that we can start walking together in the later afternoon! So that’s pretty cool and I lost 1 kilo (2.2 pounds)!

Today I hung out and I think I was officially accepted into the cool girl circle! I have a group of young girls my age in my site. Ages 21-24 and there are about 5 of them. They all work in our local municipality and they invited me to play basketball and hang out with them today. We played for a few minutes and then sat around drinking terere and chatting all afternoon! It was really fun and had a great time hanging out with girls my own age! They said they would help me move in and arrange all my things when I finally get my own house. And we can have a move in party!! More than ever I’m really looking forward to getting my own place! Probably wont be till October, because the guy that owns the house is going to build the bathroom and he is currently working on a job in another town so he doesn’t have time right now. But I talked to his brother the other day who is like the liaison between him and I and I told him how I was really excited to have my own house and I was really ready to move and hopefully his brother will finish his job soon! We’ll see!

Lovin it!

So my leadership camp was a huge success! It was very fun and also very tiring. I'm not used to doing so much in my day! ha! I took two girls with me. Paty and Auralia, they are sisters and some of my closest friends! We talked about team work, communication, values, sexuality and HIV/AIDS! Most of the presentations were lead by students, so it was really neat to see how peers can influence each other. My girls really enjoyed themselves and we all had a really great time! So here comes a cool story: the week after I got back Paty and I were talking and I asked her how her boyfriend was. But she told me she didnt want to be with him any longer. I asked her why and she told me it was because he was pressuring her to have sex. But she said she wasn't physically or emotionally ready to have sex, just like we heard about at camp. And she was worth more than that and she wanted to wait until she was in love and ready. It was such a great feeling to know that what I did was directly influenced in someones life. It gave me a lot of motivation to continue what i'm doing and that I can make a difference!

Last week i've was playing a lot of basketball. I didnt even know we had hoops, but I found out a lot of kids really enjoy playing. So I showed up and showed all those kids my hoop skills! So now i'm going to start my own little team, and teach them how to play the way I learned! It should be awesome, and I get a little exercise in there too!

So i've spent the last week in Asuncion for more training. It was not really what I expected, I wanted to more sharing of projects, ideas, where to go with what we're doing. But it was mostly just more language training. Which was okay, I learned a lot more Guarani, but it was just too much. But i did get to hang out with my friends, which was awesome! Tuesday night in Guazu Cora (my training community) we had a festival. So we all went and danced, had a great time! Wednesday Eliza and Andy threw a surprise party for me. It was really fun, we didnt get to do it as fantastically as they wanted because it was late. but it meant a lot to me! Thursday I had planned a surprise party for Eliza (which is so funny that we were both planning the exact same surprise parties for each other!). Unfortunetly Eliza got sick and we couldn't do it to the extent I wanted, but we just did a little something, ate some cake, it was fun! I really enjoyed seeing my Paraguayan mom and Alexis! My mom is pregnant again two months along and already fat!! I'm excited to have a new little Paraguayan brother or sister. My parents really want a girl! Then this weekend we headed to Asuncion to hang out more and relax with friends. I got some stuff done in the office, fixed my computer a little (its slow and really sucks) then we went out on the town partied it up, danced it up! Saturday morning I was moving slow but we went to the Mercardo 4 which is this huge flea market type area! I bought some really cute cheap clothes and a fantastic little mermaid bag (thought of you Tishra!) Then we watched Inception which was fantastic! And fun to watch a movie in english. Sunday day we watched movies and just hung out and chilled! Look forward to getting back to site, getting into the schools doing some more work. Having some birthday parties... should be fun!