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 200th 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 4th 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 4th 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!
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Thursday, May 12, 2011
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!
