Camp GLOW

Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) is a worldwide Peace Corps initiative for the empowerment of young girls.  In Paraguay, this summer camp will give girls a chance to meet other young women from around their nation, hear from strong female Paraguayan leaders, and participate in fun group projects; but most importantly, learn to love and believe in themselves.  In a developing country like Paraguay, motivated and educated youth are an invaluable resource.  By helping fund this camp, you are giving young girls a beautiful gift and a chance to realize their full potential.

I have the amazing opportunity of being camp director this year and am super excited to take two girls from my community to enjoy the experience! 

We need your monetary help to make this camp happen! Please consider donating to this awesome cause :-) dollars go a long way down here and make a huge difference!

Follow this link: 
https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=15-526-004

Thanks so much for your help and giving 50 Paraguayan girls an opportunity of a lifetime!

Evening bliss

Evenings are mine.  All mine. Most of the time. They are time to reflect on the joys of the day and the frustrations.  Time to plan lessons, dream about projects, imagine my next vacation, catch up with friends in the states, count the stars, read a book, snuggle with mimosa, lay in bed with not even one thought.  It's me time.

And as a person that loves being around people, the more the merrier, it was a big jump for me to live on my own.  I thought I would get lonely, that it would give me to much time to think and miss people back home.  But it's really quite the opposite.

I sit here writing this, it's 7:34 and the sun is setting. My house is covered in balloons from my English class completion party, I'm full of way too much cake and soda (I'll be a health  volunteer tomorrow), Mimosa is trying desperately to tug my towel off the clothesline, it's cool enough so that I'm no longer dripping sweat, the ox carts are strolling by, the crickets are chirping and the neighbors Spanish music has my feet tapping to the beat.

And it's awesome. My flowers remind me how beautiful life is, I'm already starting to notice which clementine trees will have fruit this year, the setting sun is just another representation of the close of this day, the perfect breeze which is strong enough to cool me down and light enough that my freshly washed clothes stay hung on the line, and the gorgeous sky is giving way to the beautiful stars. 

And así es la vida. This is the life.  I love my me time. I love the time to be positive, not for anybody else but myself.   I love letting my brain wander in whatever language it wants to. And I love feeling so very good and happy with where I'm at.

So living alone has been the perfect decision and thanks to the neighbors cat that sneaks through my windows, the chickens that poop on my porch, the cows that use my house as a scratching post and the frogs that sit under my porch lamp all night long, and you guys for staying in touch, I may be alone but I'm definitely not lonely. 

Plain Truth

It's been a looooooong time to say the least but to be totally honest I enjoyed the blogging break.  My everyday life in Paraguay is getting less and less exciting and it's hard to remember what would be fun and interesting for you guys to hear about.  I'm approaching one year in Paraguay which in some ways has flown by and in other ways not so much but more on that later.  These days it's hot as hell down here and motivation is lacking to do anything but snuggle in my hammock with mimosa all hours of the day.  But a lot has happened since I last wrote so I'm gonna summarize the last 5 weeks with bullet points.  In no order whatsoever, just whatever comes to mind. 

- I just stood in a rainbow.  In a rainbow.  A real rainbow.

- My beautiful family came to visit! They brought me tons of goodies from the states, and was a fabulous change to not feel so lonely for a few weeks :-) more on this in the next post.

- my first time out of Paraguay we went to Iguassu falls in Argentina and also Buenos Aires!  Traveling gave me a confidence boost with my Spanish and public transport in south America and also was a nice hotel filled, hot water shower, tiled floors, mosquito, spider,  and frog free sleep break!

- I bought myself a fan.  The best decision I've made yet.  That being said I'm sure my electric bill will triple because I refuse to turn it off.  Ever. Okay maybe in winter.

- I love watching mimosa chase butterflies.  I also love saying that and meaning it.  I've always been told that life is about the little things but I never really actually felt it.  I guess one year in Paraguay is all it takes.

- I'm reading a book.  You can all pick your jaws up off the ground now.  It's called "plain truth" and I'm actually really enjoying it.  Craziness. 

- having my family here made me realize how much I really have changed.   That's a complex bullet point that can be best understood by reading my friends' blog post.

- I started an English class for the 4th-6th graders.  They are lunatics but I love them all the same.  

- I got a kit with 6 cameras to start my photography class this Thursday.  Hoping to inspire kids to be creative and look outside the box with photos and learn a thing or two myself.

- my first flowers that I have ever planted in my life have bloomed.  They are so pretty! My passion for good landscaping has quadrupled with having my own lawn to take care of.

- my women's group is in the transition of me buying everything and them paying me back to them getting the things.  Sustainability!  Except we haven't met in over a month because they haven't gotten  the ingredients.   A work in progress.
- but last time we met we made soap!  Homemade bars of soap! Super cool and easy.  And fast. 

- mangos are in season and I'm loving it!

- I'm going to Uruguay with 8 other girls for Christmas and new years!  So excited for some beach time!

- the grant for my GLOW  (girls leading our world) camp in February should be ready for donations any day now.  More info to come.

- I'm also in the works of planning a camp for the 5-11 year olds in my community with two other girls and then we will travel to their sites and do it with their kids too in January!  It will be an around the world theme :-)

- regular towels are sooooo much more comfy than quick dry

- mimosa has gotten stuck in a tree twice now.  All suggestions on preventing this are welcome.

- my best friend in my community, Brigida is just about as awesome of a person as you can get. Love her.

- my garden is a disaster.  I haven't worked in it in a month and I have to weed and replant before Christmas vacation.

- terere is the most refreshing thing and I am very nervous about not having access to it in the states.   Natural herbs do wonders for the body.

- the frogs here are bigger than  my  cat and I don't like it.  Not one bit.

- I went to my first ever bridal shower for a 19 year old pregnant girl who was less than thrilled to be getting married.  It was an experience.

- I would really like to study guaraní but just never do it. Tranquilo I guess.

- I did a 13 mile pilgrimage to the nearest city that a million people on average do from all around the country to see the Virgin Mary.  It's hot. And I'm sore.  But there were people giving out free juice, water, snacks, even foot massages to the walkers.  Police officers and nurses take shifts at stations and it was quite the event.

- I offered one of my kids in my English class a ride in my taxi and it was his first time in a car. Ever. Weird to think about.

- I'm very happy here.  But I miss home too.  Stay in touch my friends! It gets lonely down here sometimes.