Long-Field Training in Altos!

My sister G (training group) arrived in June and as part of their training 5 of the trainees came to visit me and stay with families in Altos for 5 days. They helped me with my English and Photography classes and with the library and meetings that we had with the library committee. Then we ended the week with two days of activities about civic education with kids from Pirayu the first day and Altos the second day. They are a great group of trainees and I know they will make great volunteers and I hope to work with them on other projects in the future!

Here are some pictures from the week!





These were pictures that we took after the photography class we did a mini-excursion to practice the techniques that we talked about in the class.


This picture was taken during the english class, the trainees prepared a fun memory game that the kids seemed to enjoy where they had to match the picture with the word in English.



The icebreaker that we did before starting the library committee meeting. What would your ideal library be like?





From the old train station in Pirayu. I still don't understand why they shut it down, I would sooo prefer traveling on train than on bus.



The plan for the "history and culture corner" drawn by the trainees. Awesome!!



We did activities about civic education with kids in the library.


Day trip to Atyra! Some of the group climbed up to the clock tower.


Sundial. I think it was 11:30 but the only part I understand is that my hands are close to the number 11...hm....

The Library is Open!!

The library has been officially open for two weeks and we have over 1,000 books!

This past week the students were on winter break so the library committee and I organized a camp for kids ages 8-12 to give them something to do and by the last day we had over 60 kids! One day we had a youth theater group perform a sketch about acceptance and tolerance and had the kids reflect on what they thought about the different characters and their attitudes. Then we did a lot of games where they had to work together in teams to achieve a common goal. Another theme of the camp was civic responsibility and we talked about the different community institutions and their roles in the community. On the last day we had a very successful scavenger hunt where the kids had to go to the different community institutions and perform different tasks in each location and after completing all the tasks they would receive the final clue about the location of the treasure i.e. a bag of candy. It was a great way to end the camp and we had a lot of fun!



The orange team completing one of the challenges on the scavenger hunt.

How fast things change.

I think the typical story of a Peace Corps Volunteer is the following: Inconsistency. Some weeks and months there is not too much going on and you spend your extra time on hobbies or passing time with friends all the while trying to think of new work for yourself. Then, all of a sudden, you are overwhelmed with work all week and all weekend, without a moment to breath and when you are about to go crazy, BAM! you get sick. This has been my usual pattern ever since I arrived in Altos, so maybe that pattern is a sort of consistency.. ha.. But that is exactly what happened to me this past month. We got handed over the library local by the municipality at the same time I was getting the camera kits for Ahecha (photography workshop) and I was put in charge of planning the despedida (good-bye party for my training group) and preparing for a 5-day training of the new volunteers in my site. All of this was during the weekend and on the weekend I had two weekends doing a tourism workshop, a trip to buy goods for the library to one of the bigger cities about 5 hours from where I live, and then the actual despedida and the 4th of July celebration weekend in Asuncion. Along with my usual English classes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and a couple other promises I had made to help out here ad there, I was quite busy and overwhelmed. The day before I was scheduled to go to Guarambare to help with a training session, I got very sick (as expected) and I wasn't able to go to Guarambare and I had to cancel a trip I was going to take to the southern part of the country to a town called Ayolas, to attend a leadership camp with a youth from my town. It was unfortunate timing because, as I write this, they are probably having a wonderful experience on an island that was converted to an ecoreserve but I knew my body just could not handle the long trip and I desperately needed rest. It's weird when you are secretly relieved to be feeling horrible and unable to get out of bed because you know it is exactly what you need.

Today it has been raining non-stop so I have done all the work that I could and have now retired to reading and interneting to catch up with my blog and other things I have been severely neglecting these past couple weeks.

I have been teaching English since January, not because I had a burning desire to teach the language but because there was a obvious need and desire to have English classes that were accessible to people of all economic backgrounds. However, these last two weeks I have been teaching photography in an 8th grade classroom and I truly enjoy every aspect of these classes and that is good feeling!

My photography class is sooooo basic, but it's good. None of the students I am working with have a camera in their homes and literally the first day with the cameras was all about how to turn them on, using the wrist strap so that the camera doesn't fall... and very little about technique. Given, the cameras they are using are not professional by any means but we are going to focus mostly on composition of a photo more than anything else. This week I just told them I want them to get to know the cameras and try to take pictures using each setting- for portraits, landscape, motion and all that. Each week after this they are going to have an aspect of photography to focus on. One week will be lighting... taking a photo from the same place at different times of day, one will be portraits and so on... I think it should work out well!

I also got my new camera brought to me by Shavonda! BIG THANKS for bringing it all the way to Paraguay!! And I love it! It is a canon 780IS and it is perfect for my needs :) I hope to upload some new photos that I have taken very soon. There was a traditional fiesta for San Pablo and San Pedro on the outskirts of my town that was very interesting. I hope to post the pics soon and I will give more detail!

lots of love,
Julie

WoW.

I never knew how many SPECTACULAR places there are to see in this tiny country of Paraguay. Just got back from the first half of a tourism workshop just outside a small town called Piribebuy and four hours of this workshop was just showing pictures of the numerous beautiful tourist attractions there are in the country to see. WOW. After a total of 18 months in this country, I had NO idea that these places existed, and you know why? Probably because the Paraguayan people themselves have no idea that these places exist. If you ask a Paraguayan, where is a cool spot to see in this area, they usually say something like, there is nothing to see around here... And then they'll say something about a cool dance club or something to go to, but they don't usually refer you to a scenic spot with natural beauty. Another reason why you don't hear about these places? Because the infrastructure isn't there to get to these places easily if you don't have a vehicle and mot paraguayans don't have a vehicle.

Needless to say, there are a lot of places I want to go within Paraguay before I leave this country, and I am hoping to have enough time (and enough foot-strength) to make it happen!


Here is one of the few beautiful sites in Paraguay that I have actually been to! Hoping to see much more in the next couple months :)

On a separate note, a little more depressing:

I am starting to really focus on getting my foot better because a year and 3 months after my surgery, I cannot accept the daily amount of pain that I have, no matter what the doctors say, I know that is shouldn't be THIS bad. My new theory: I have an injury to my peroneal tendon when I fell last March 2009. Why do I think this? First: I was complaining about ankle pain and this is the tendon that goes around the ankle bone and up to the calf. Second: Where is all my pain now? It is along that exact tendon that I never knew was called the peroneal tendon, and if I push hard on my calf (the continuation of that tendon) I can feel the pain down to my ankle. The reason that the doctors might have not discovered this? because they always take xrays and once I had a catscan, but I never had an MRI to show my tendons. I know I'm not a doctor, but I know enough to say that my tendons have never been examined like my bones and I think it's time to take a look and see what the heck is going on. So I'm going to call the doctor and see if he agrees, although I'm think they won't want to do it because it is expensive, but I'm preparing my argument because I think I've tolerated enough pain and it's time to start taking care of this darn foot. If not, I will probably just cut it off and attach a wooden stump, because it would work just the same and it would be less painful.

I've got the travel bug.

Yes, I am technically abroad already, but things are just a little too habitual these days for me and I need a change. See a new place. I mean, I have had 2 trips cancelled recently, one that was to Brazil (because of that stupid little boy) and another to Salto, Argentina (because of my stupid foot), so I think it's time one of these trips actually works out for me.

The good thing is that things have been really coming together in site. The library is getting organized, I'm planning for Ahecha (photography workshop for 8th graders) to begin the end of this month, still teaching English in the women's center and the elementary school. On top of that, we are planning a week long training for 5 or 6 of the new volunteers that are arriving this week to come to Altos in July for what they call long-field.

Tentative travel plans:

June: visit Pooja on her banana island, other volunteers I can visit before they leave in August??
July: No time to travel :(
August: Where is a good place to go when it's freezing? ... not sure. Argentina maybe?
September: fit in some in-paraguay travel? Chaco? visit other volunteers?
October: Right before a big trip
November: the states and the dominican republic
December: Right after a big trip
January: dare I tempt fate and try Brazil once more?
February - April: no travel allowed the last three month of service

After service travel?

More Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia? Sounds good to me!

Back in time for Rachel's wedding! Congratulations to the newly engaged, Will and Rachel!!!!!

The real work begins...

So you might be thinking, what are you talking about, you only have 10 months left.... Yes, this is true, but today the municipality finally gave us the key to the library locale, so we are moving in and we are moving full force ahead! Tonight we will have our first library committee meeting in the library and there is much work to be done. Obviously, I have been keeping myself busy with various side projects but this is my biggest project and where my heart is so I can't wait to get started!

Main things to get done ASAP:
-Secure the locale with new locks and new electrical fixtures
-Paint the inside of the building
-Catalog books
-Turn in more donation solicitations
-Plan the inauguration of the library
-Talk to the candidates for mayor in this coming election to garner support :)

I can't believe I have so much to do with so little time left. We have big plans once the library is up and running to work hard to integrate the institution into the community and really make it an active part of Altos. Instead of having dusty books in a room, we want the library to be a place where there is movement, meetings and cultural events. We hope to do this by working together with the other organizations in the community, such as the women's center and the schools.

Overall, I really hope we can help nurture creativity, a love for reading, and learning in general. There are so many kids here with so much potential to be tapped :)

WORK UPDATE: I'm on a blogging kick!

I'm making up for 4 months of no blogging in three days, so get ready!

February and March were great months for me work-wise because I started to see the fruits of my labor and I would like to share them with you all today.

In February, three volunteers (Brenda, Laara and Andrew) and myself created a environmental workshop that we ended up doing with kids first in Brenda's Site, then Andrew's and then mine. In my site, we had arranged with the principal of a local public school to work with the kids for two mornings, from 7 to around 11am... The first day the focus was trees. We created trees out of things found in nature, sang songs, played a game to teach about photosynthesis, did a small theater about deforestation with the kids and ended with tree planting in front of the school. The second day the focus was trash and recycling. We did a timeline about decomposition of different kinds of trash, alternative uses for recyclables and then we made trash-cans out of old plastic bottles and grain sacks. It was very successful and the kids had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures!

One of the groups presenting their tree art, aren't they cute?!?


Theatre time to learn about deforestation!


Laara is in that group of kids somewhere explaining the timeline of trash.


First step in the trash-can- making: poke holes in the bottles and string them with wire.


second step: cut a rice/grain bag to fit the bottom and then attach it to the bottles with wire.


Even the principal was helping out with the trash-cans!


What did we learn with Andrew Porter, hehe.


As you all know, I taught the first part of an "Introduction to English" summer class in the local woman's center called "Kuna Kyre'y" or hard-working woman! There were two classes, one of students ages 8-12, and another of students 13-20, about 50 kids in total and we met twice a week for an hour each time and they learned a lot in a short amount of time! There were two exams and at least a homework assignment a week and if they passed they received a certificate! Summer here ends at the end of February so we had the culmination to our three-month English class the first week in March and it was really a beautiful event! The parents collaborated on food and drinks, each person brought something. We borrowed the stereo system from the school and the school librarian became our DJ! We had a "cultural moment" (Andrew singing a Beatle's song in English) and the younger kids sang the colors song to show what they were learning and two kids from the older class performed a dialogue in English. It was really great and I was super proud of them. At one point I almost cried because on of the moms of one of my students got up to speak on behalf of the parents and said some really sweet things about me. It's nice to feel appreciated :D We took a break until the end of March and started the class up again the beginning of April!

A lot of parents came out!


Small guys on the left and Big guys on the right.


Momma's working hard to prepare the plates of food for the guests.


Kids getting ready to show off their singing skills.


The director of the hard-working women, Josefina.


Giving out certificates.


The bossman Elisa, director of my sector of Peace Corps, saying a few words.


Cake made for the occasion.