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 12th 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 16th 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!
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