Pascua Celebration Pics

Pascua, Tormenta y una Falta de Agua

In honor of Easter I decided to share some of my favorite Easter activities with the girls at the orphanage yesterday (Thursday, April 5). Seeing as the school week consisted of only Monday and Tuesday, I had Wednesday to make all of the preparations. After my German class (yes, I am now taking a German class once a week on Wednesdays thanks to Pop and Mom), I went to the grocery store to buy food coloring and 30 eggs. While I boiled 22 of the eggs, I watched my favorite telanovelas (Spanish soap operas) and sorted through a huge bag of candy that Mom and Pop had brought to Paraguay in December.

With a full backpack I set out to the orphanage the next morning with Nicole. It was a tricky bus ride because Nicole was holding the bowl of 22 eggs, and I was trying to hold onto her because the bus was so full that there wasn’t anywhere to hold onto to brace ourselves for the evitable jolts and quick stops. When we got to the orphanage around 8 am everyone was up and running around while the tía was mopping the floors. We headed upstairs to do 45 minutes of creative writing (they are each writing their own story and drawing the illustrations), but of course everyone wanted to know why we had a mixing bowl full of eggs, so around 9 am I decided that it was time to change activities.

Ok, so I definitely checked for the recipe online, and I had everything that it required, but for some reason the dye would not take to the egg shells. I explained to them what the purpose of the water, vinegar and food coloring was supposed to be for, but that we would just have to try it some other time. Good news is that they really weren’t that disappointed because they loved cracking, peeling and eating the eggs. Go figure.

While they were eating, Nancy (one of the older girls) and I headed down stairs to hide the candy all over the back patio and in the vegetable garden. When we called everyone downstairs and explained the activity, they went crazy running around looking for the candy. It was more than a success.

Little did I know that the morning hours wouldn’t be the only exciting events of the day…

When Nicole and I were packing up my things, Nancy announces that “the storm” is coming, and she began to close all of the windows. “What storm?” I thought. I looked outside and to my surprise the sky to the south was dark red. Then I noticed that the red sky was coming towards us at an alarmingly fast speed. “Qué es eso?” I asked Nancy. “Polvo.” She replied. Dirt. Or dust. It was a dust storm. Within a minute of noticing its approach, it hit. We watched from the inside as wind blew clouds of red dust past the orphanage. After a few minutes I realized that even though the storm had not passed that Nicole and I had to go because we needed to go to the grocery store before the last buses left to go to our barrios (neighborhoods).

*Side note: During Semana Santa (Holy Week) everything shuts down on Thursday at about 12 pm until Saturday and just every other Paraguayan week, nothing and I mean nothing is open on Sunday.

We put our sunglasses on (not for the sun, seeing as there wasn’t any at this point, but so that the dust wouldn’t get in our eyes) and ventured up the street toward the grocery store. Within minutes of being inside, a downpour of rain started. After we purchased our food and supplies, we rain to the bus stop one block down from the store. Mine arrived first so I said good-bye to Nicole and got onto another very crowded colectivo (bus). Once I got home from walking the 7 blocks from the ruta, I was soaked. All I could think about was a hot shower. Naturally, the first thing that I noticed when I stepped inside my house was that all of the electricity had cut out. So, you know what that means. No electricity. No hot shower. I have an electric head on my shower that heats the water as it goes through it. No, you can’t touch it because yes, you can get an electric shock. “Ok, ok.” I told myself. “I will dry off and lay down in my bed for a little bit to warm-up, and then maybe the electricity will come back on so that I can make lunch.” Thirty minutes later I got a phone call. Nicole’s bus never came and seeing as she lives around 7 – 8 miles from the ruta, she could not walk home in the storm. So, I told her not to worry and that I would make us lunch because the electricity had just came on. The moment I hung up the phone the electricity went off again. I decided that I might as well go back out to the ruta to get her with an umbrella because I knew that she had to be just as soaked as I had been. When we got back to my house 20 minutes later, the electricity was back on. I was so relieved until I realized that now the water had gone out. And that is how it stayed for the next 8 hours (until around 9 pm).

Thankfully today the electricity and water stayed on all day. It was a Good Friday miracle.

Feliz Pascua! Happy Easter!

(Photos coming soon)

Programa de Apoyo

Every Tuesday and Thursday I work with small groups of 2^nd and 3^rd graders in order to help them with their reading and writing skills. We play games, do activities and read books. I began the apoyo (support) program at the beginning of March and plan to continue until the end of April. My hope is that I can help the students to catch up to the level of their classmates.

The morning students and the afternoon 3^rd graders are easier to work with because for the most part they behave well and know how to share. The afternoon students in the 2^nd grade though are another story. For example, when we play with the letters that I made on pieces of cardboard, they cannot share. When I say, “Who can spell “todo”? The child that has the “t” cannot share with the child that has the “d”. Also, they consistently hit each other and fight. I have tried everything. Giving praises. Awarding prizes. Separating rowdy children. Sending misbehavior-ers back to the classroom. Basically, nothing is working with this group. Seeing as the children only go to school for 4 ½ hours a day, I cannot take them out of their normal class time if they cannot work together, share, following instructions, etc.

Two things that I really appreciate now more than ever are rules and organization. Even if I set rules in my class, it will not work because no other classrooms have enforced rules, so children are not accustomed to having a concrete set of rules.  

So, I am going to try again next week, but I can’t turn miracles. I will help the students that I can!

Getting the Word Out About Didactic Materials and Non-Formal Education

An interesting opportunity arose a few weeks ago during one of the workshops that my co-volunteer (Nicole) and I put on with the Board of Education. One of the attendees (a teacher) is also a co-host of a Saturday evening cable program in Encarnación. She approached me at the end of the workshop to see if we would be interested in talking about didactic materials, life in Paraguay (as a foreigner) and what we do here in Paraguay in general. Needlesstosay, we knew it would be a great chance to reach other people about non-formal education styles.

At about 5 pm yesterday we entered into the studio and watched them as they taped the first part of the show, which was about the history of Encarnación (yesterday was Encarn’s foundation day). When our time came to go on air, we arranged the materials that I had brought with me on a table. It was truly a success because we were asked to go over how to make and use each of the materials and then the lady (Marisol) talked about the workshop and encouraged parents to make the materials out of recyclable items.

I would have to say that my favorite part was how she repeated something I said during the workshop. At the end of the workshop I had told the teachers that if copying from the board was not necessary that they should try to implement more hands-on learning activities in their classrooms. I brought to their attention that we (the teachers and the workshop instructors) knew that the “copy-everything-from-the-board method” was not longer working and that in order to seguir adelante (continue forward) it was the time to try new teaching techniques. I stated that in Paraguay playing games in school may not be seen as learning, but only because this would be a new technique, and that in fact, many countries use games and activities to teach new information and skills.

Over all it was a success. Although there is not a way to measure and evaluate the outcomes and impact of the show, it at least gave viewers a glimpse of what Nicole and I hope will be the future of elementary education learning here in Paraguay.

Lo que está pasando acá en Paraguay

I can tell fall is coming because the daily heat seems to be less and less extreme…and for that I am thankful. Today I started off the day by putting some dirty clothes into my washing machine that the house’s owner left behind when she went to Buenos Aires to work. After a couple of bangs on the old thing, it kicked to life and so began another slow weekend day in Paraguay.

Seeing as the school year began about three weeks ago, my week days are now full of running from one place to the other. After leading an extra-help program in the 2^nd and 3^rd grade at Escuela Basica Dr. Francia, holding “Present and Future” classes at a center of technology, doing model lessons at two other primary schools, workshops with the Board of Education and working at the orphanage, my Monday – Fridays are teeming with activities, yet my weekends seem to get the better of me because they are so uneventful.

After reading two books last weekend and one this weekend, I am desperately trying to think of new things to do to keep myself from getting bored. I think to myself that it is ok to not do anything…that working so much during the week merits a peaceful weekend, but alas it is not in my natural to sit still.

Topic Change:

For Christmas my Aunt Cindy sent me a very interesting present. She sent me a box of note cards that each holds a date. A card for each day of the year of 2012. According to her instructions, I am to write something every day. Whether it be a quote, passing thought or event, I have tried my best to write something to record this eventful year of my life. A Peace Corps year.

I would like to share some of the things that I have written.

January 3, 2012

-          Went to the Plaza de Mayo (Buenos Aires) and saw where the Madres of the disappeared from the 1970s still protest for justice. I thought I was going to start crying. Tears swelled up in my eyes. Inspiring area. May I always fight for what I believe in like these women.

January 4, 2012

-          More walking around Buenos Aires. Went to La Boca (a colorful neighborhood that was previously settled my Italian immigrants) and a Beatles’ museum. I think that was Pop’s favorite thing in B.A.

January 6, 2012

-          Went to the glacier. When the ice broke off it was so loud. Pop made an interesting observation…you could see the ice break off and hit the water before you could hear it (sound travelling slower than what you see, which I have not thought about in years)…the wonders of science and the atmosphere are so beyond me. Amazing day. I was glad Mom, Pop and Carrie were there to share it with me.

January 10, 2012

-          Did a kid seriously puke 20 minutes after we (Pop, Mom, Carrie and I) left Encarnación? Yes. Did the bus driver stop and clean it up? No. Went to the “Hippie Market”, swam at the Alpes Hotel and ate pizza.

January 13, 2012

-          Slept late…then read Trueblood all day. Lazy, I know. Talked to Katie Hunt for the first time since I’ve been here. I miss her. I miss my friends and the people that I trust. Sometimes I want to talk to someone, and I literally just come to the same conclusion…I have no one here I really want to talk to.

January 15, 2012

-          Today I felt the overwhelming relief that I did not have any obligations. Free. Peace, inside and out…for the 3^rd or 4^th day in a row actually. So, I was back to the Trueblood series. Seeing as I finished the last paper copy (4^th book) yesterday, I began to pick up on the PDF of the 5^th book that I started last night. I’m officially cross-eyed  from reading from the computer from 10 am – 6:30 pm. I cannot fathom that Eric and Sookie aren’t real people. I swear that I think I am Sookie. Is it because the books are staged in the South? When am I going to find my Eric?

January 17, 2012

-          Another day lacking activities and the outdoors…read the remainder of the 6^th Trueblood book and made myself rice and chorizo for lunch. It was a really hot day, so I thought about going to the river for about ½ of a second. Sadly, going alone isn’t fun, so I stayed indoors. I know that I am hiding from the world in this house. School will start again soon, and I’ll have to get back to being proactive and productive. At least that is what I am telling myself…

January 20, 2012

-          VAC meeting today. Ate at Hiroshima. Then went to Aldito to buy boy’s jeans to master the boyfriend jean look. Tonight Natalie, Nicole and I watched YouTube videos and had cheap box wine. My fan conveniently broke again, so looks like I’ll be taking to get it fixed tomorrow. Today is Carrie’s 22^nd birthday.

January 23, 2012

-          Went to Nicole’s community. She organized the kids in three groups, and we worked on literacy. It rained off and on. Nicole’s community is really pretty. It is about 45 minutes from where I live. It is about 30 minutes done a dirt road. No wonder Nicole’s feet are always red. From the red dirt. The dirt is different here. What is the mineral?

January 28, 2012

-          Went to Carnival in Encarnación. Encarnación is supposedly the host to the biggest and best celebration of Carnival. It consisted of a neat/sexy/colorful parade of barely dressed women and children/adults spraying foam in my face. And in two weeks, I am going back for more…haha

March 1, 2012

-          Today it rained!! Yeaaaaa! It hasn’t rained that much lately, and no rain really affects people here. Some people don’t have running water for days/weeks until the next rain comes. Natalie, Nicole and I had a great day of lying around watching telanovelas and playing Clue. Days like these are the ones that get me through.  

March 5, 2012

-          Nicole and I went to the Board of Education in Encarnación today to talk about doing didactic material workshops at schools outside of the centro. I thought the supervisor was resisting our idea, but Nicole said that she thinks that he’s thinking it over. Thanks to Nicole I made my first homemade pita bread tonight. It was really good and definitely health. I really want to start cooking new things and eating better…I also went by the gym to make sure the prices and times had not changed. We will see whether I can get the fuerza to go three times a week like I am planning to do.

March 6, 2012

-          Busy, Busy, Busy day. And it was 114.8 degrees! Good and bad things happened today. I did two classes with the young kids (12-30) at the University of Leonardo Di Vinci. The university has a center with specialized classes like computer skills, etc. In the 2^nd group the oldest student (around 30) broke down into tears when she was supposed to answer the 3 things that she was good at question from the activity we are doing and talked about how she was abused by her father as a child. I did my best to help calm her down. Then I went to the Formación Docente and despite the Ministry of Education’s ruling they are still training primary school teachers…Yay! We can teach our didactic materials course! Then to my school (Dr. Francia) were we cut out working with the 1^st grade in my extra-help program and added one day with Jardin (grade before kindergarten). Lastly, had a meeting with the PR teachers at UNAE (university).

March 7, 2012

-          I had my first German lesson today! The teacher went over the pronunciation of some of the letters and talked about some general rules. I am really excited and hope that I will work hard and not get too frustrated with German. I am going to look for index cards to start making flashcards tomorrow and poco a poco. Aprenderé más y más. There are so many things I want to learn and do in life. I am glad that I have this kind of want and drive. I am so busy this week. I have so much going on and it is so hot outside so that is adding to my exhaustion. It is a good tired though. I love the U.S. and want to go home, but it is hard to imagine my life one year from now

March 12, 2012

-          After a quick 40 minute lesson today at Escuela Basica Dolores Cuña, I came home and spent the day reading and reading. I finished the 2^nd book to the Hunger Games series. I feel guilty because I didn’t exercise again today. I am going to try to go to the gym on Wednesday and Thursday. Ideally I should go Friday, but I don’t have any commitments in the centro, so I know that I won’t go. It is just so hot outside. It is hard to get motivated to do anything, but sit and drink loads of water. Tomorrow I have a packed day. Sadly, I have to leave the house by 6:30 am…wahhh. I keep seeing where everyone is getting engaged and/or married on FB. I have always gone my own path.

March 13, 2012

-          Started the apoyo (extra-help) program today. The most I had in one group was 6 and the least was 2. The 2^nd graders in the afternoon are going to need a lot of help. I always wonder what happens to the children that don’t learn how to read…? Why do teachers here just give up so easily on children? I think about the U.S. and how I want to get involved with literacy in the schools in my community. As technology continues to grow, children become more and more disconnected with books. What a different world you can experience with books…I don’t want other children to lose out on this valuable part of their imaginations and educations. What a beautiful thing it is to read.   

March 14, 2012

-          Two 4-hour workshops with Nicole and the women in charge of the 1^st ciclo pedagogica (1, 2, 3 grades) in the Board of Education. The first had 8 teachers and 21 in the 2^nd. We talked about didactic materials (my favorite topic). After the taller, one of the teachers asked me and Nicole if we could come to talk on her TV show on Canal 15 in two weeks. She wants us to talk about what we work in and why we are in Paraguay. I am so tired. Getting up a 5:30 am, me cuesta mucho! Tomorrow is my second day of the apoyo program.

I will truly try to blog more and to keep everyone more up-to-date about lo que está pasando acá en Paraguay!

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!

Proyectos Lindos (Pretty Projects)

If there is one thing that all PC Paraguay volunteers can agree on it’s that all Paraguayans want to do a project that sounds “lindo” (pretty). Por ejemplo:

-          Reading books to the class = not so lindo

-          Painting murals in front of the school = Soooo lindo

So, what to do, what to do…? Obviously teaching the value of books is important, but if I ever want to get to the point of convincing my school to do a big project with books, I must do something lindo first.

For my first very lindo project, I have decided to collaborate with another Encarnación volunteer (Jessica) to paint murals in celebration of “El Día de la Juventud” (The Day of the Youth). My school (Dr. Francia) and another school, which I plan to begin working at in the near future, have both expressed interest in participating. We are also planning on asking another school in the area and perhaps the youth group of the Baptist Church (yes, there is a Baptist Church in Encarnación). I would have liked to have painted a mural with the girls at the orphanage, but the orphanage director insisted that they didn’t have a “lindo” place to paint one. I was and still am disappointed about that because the orphanage has the most space of all of the potentially interested organizations to paint a mural.

Where to begin??

 Jessica and I have met a few times in order to go over the details of the project. We have identified the whos, whats, whens, wheres and hows of the project. Check it out:

Who: Any school or organization in Encarnación that has youth from the ages of 13 – 18.

What: Each organization will choose a theme (friendship, environment, values, etc.) and then ask its jovenes (youth) to draw potential designs for a mural. The leaders of the organization will then choose a few of the drawings to use. In addition to painting murals, the project will also promote teamwork, creativity, civic service (making your community beautiful), responsibility, self-esteem and pride in one’s work, school, community and self.

When: Late August – September 2011

Where: Schools, organizations, youth groups

How: Schools and organizations will provide ladders, buckets, cloths, paint brushes and paint thinner. We are in the process of writing a “pedido” (request) to City Hall for the money to buy the paint, which is the most expensive supply.  After checking around on prices, I discovered that paint brushes and paint thinner are very inexpensive, and I am assuming that the majority of the organizations already have ladders and buckets.

I drew up the letter for the City Hall this week, and we plan to meet with the principals of the schools and whoever else late next week to get their signatures showing their involvement. Then the letter will be off to City Hall and hopefully, APPROVED! Fingers crossed!