Rainy Days

Rainy days exciting in Paraguay? Hardly. Seeing as a left my sombrilla (umbrella) at Jamiee's house almost 2 months ago venturing out into the unknown is a little difficult. (Yes, I realize that I should invest the $5 it takes to get a new umbrella, but if you were only paid $14 a day, you would think twice before purchases.)

So, what has been happening?

Did I fall off the face of the planet?

Yes and No.

Out with the winter and in with springtime in Paraguay! When you think of spring, what do you think about? Blooming flowers? Light rains? Mild climate? Here in PY we have the blooming flowers and rain (whether you can say "light rain" is up in the air), but the mild climate is something that is lacking...yes, in a matter of days we went from 50 degrees to pushing 100. I believe that PY's climate skips that in-between stage...

As for projects, I have just recently finished the mural project. No, the money did not come from the city hall like we had hoped, but the House of English (where environmental volunteer Jessica and I both teach) did fund the project. The kids enjoyed drawing and later painting the mural, but probably their favorite part was the fact the Directora (principal) let them work on it during school hours. Now I did not necessarily support the kids missing class to work on the project, but the good thing about school in Paraguay is missing a day just means copying exactly what your classmate wrote from that day. It is not exactly hard to make-up for lost time, which can be seen in both positive and negative lights. Positive: If you are sick, you do not have to stress-out about missing school! Negative: If you are completely healthy, you do not have to stress-out about missing school!

As for other news, there is a big possibility that I will be moving out of the downtown area. Do not get me wrong. I will still be working in the same organizations and school, but I may have the opportunity to live in a barrio (neighborhood) on the outside of Encarnación. After listening to countless Peace Corps volunteers talk about their neighbors and local canchas (soccer fields), I realized that there is a reason that for my loneliness. My site does not have the sense of community like other PC volunteer sites. Obviously I had already realized that, but I did not realize how much I wanted that too until I visited another PC volunteer's site. I would like to have neighbors who know me and who seek me out to talk or invite me to dinner. I would like to walk down the street and see children from my school playing at the cancha. I would like to have things to do...on rainy days. So that was that. I spoke to my boss and expressed my desire to live where the children of my school live... He agreed that moving outside of the city made a lot of sense. Do the majority of my students live in downtown Encarnación? No, they do not. I know that this is generalizing the city's population, but the majority of those who live in downtown Encarnación are "better-off". The students at my school are not a part of that demographic and even the teachers of my school live in other areas and commute to school each day! So, why did the PC put a volunteer downtown where she could only get to know people from a work perspective? I do not know, but now I may have the opportunity to have a more personal PC experience here in PY.

What now?

Over the next month, I will visit surrounding barrios with my students and teachers to get to know people in those communities in order to choose the safest and best place to live during the remainder of my service. This will obviously not be an easy task seeing as it will not be a PC developed site, but I plan to take my time and do a fair amount of research. I am really excited (those words do not do my emotions justice) about developing closer relationships and living around the people that I came to work with here in Paraguay. 

Hey, maybe now I can have summer camps! Eeeekkk!