Night At The Movies

soo.....to raise funds for the youth group we started, also just to do something fun in the community, we decided to do a night at the movies......
i had helped to do one in the city and thought the small town people would really like it, since most of them have never been to a theatre before...

pretty much organized the whole thing myself....but ill give the members credit for helping out the night of jeje

we got the highschool to lend us the project, a friend lent me her laptop and the cultural center lent me their sound system.....

the problem was the screen, what to do...........so literally the day of, i got permission from the cultural director to let me paint a huge white rectangle on the wall...i told her it would be very usefull and serve to use in the futur if they ever had meetings with a projector.....
and when i say big rectangle....i mean legit big jaja


we made fliers, talked on the radio, went to all the highschools to talk it up

finally the night came and it started off a disaster jaja we were not well prepared. the first movie didnt work, the stove to cook popcorn and hotdogs did work what more could go wrong.........


but once we got it all figured out, im not gonna lie, it as awesome!!!!!!!!!

we were sure if anybody was even going to come, but we ended up selling 70 tickets, sold out all the hotdogs, popcorn and pop.

showed 2 and a half movies before we decided to call it quits.....


and the actualy projection itself, amazing, beautiful, i am quite proud.
i feel like the country people really got a good taste of what a movie theatre is sort of like.....

we made a decent profit but really it was just an awesome feeling...seeing the kids faces when they saw the big picture show up....most of them will probably never make it to a movie theatre and we gave them the opportunity....

i would really love to do it once or twice a month and the people are already asking for it...and now that we have experience i feel like the next time will go a lot smoother

move 2 continued....

sorry that last blog got cut off.....

so i havent moved yet.....trying to saved up cash for a trip to brazil for my birthday....will let you know how it turns out!!

YESTERDAY:::::i went to meet KACHIKE. kachike is what they call the tribe leader of a native Guarani tribe.

went went on an hour ride into the country side. we met a farmer who decided he would be our guide and took us on an hour hike to find the natives.
it was a bueatiful place with rolling countryside hills and forests and flying spiderwebs jaja
we finally arrived and there were three straw houses spread pretty far apart. this particular community of natives consisted of only 9 people including the kids....there used to be 23 but a drunken man in the group who called himself the leader use to start fights with his machete and drove everybody away....that and the lack of tools and crops.

we met the true kachike and his two little girls and his wife....we did a sort of interview in guarani.
we are going back in a couple weeks to have a meeting with the whole group to see how we can help them. we want to try and gather tools, wire, and seeds.
the kachike told us that if we help them that the rest of the group will return to stay and work. that would be awesome!! so well see what happens...ill let you all know.

im starting a ajedrez class with a fellow paraguayan youth!!

last saturday yegros had its first farmers market...which was pretty much my idea, even though i dont get credit hmmmm but whatever at least i was on the commity...it turned out great. lots of people showed up and the mayor gave a big speech and the kids put on a little show. a great turn out. the plan is to do it every two weeks!! well see how it goes. im proud of them jaja didnt think they would make it happen but they came through!! felicidades a los yegrenias y a los yegrenios!!

mmm thats all for now

new post soon....

The Move 2.....

jaja wow so the last time i wrote one of these things was about.....4 months ago. sorry guys. and what a coincidence, the last time i wrote i had just recently moved and this time i am about to move again....my adventure in the country has officially come to an end. it was a great run but now that its going to start getting hott i just wont be able to do my job efficiently from out there, having to come into town on bici sometimes 3 times a day.
i have house searching for a while and think i have found my new bachelors pad....pictures soon to come

as for my projects....still pretty much the same

-i am in the process of forming a youth group in my town. weve had two meetings, not a huge show up but enough to at least get started. we are currently in the process of creating a comission to try and get recognized by the mayors office.

-a piggy back project is that we will be trying to get a secretaria de juventud municipal put in the mayors office so that the youth will have a political voice

-still working to try and get street signs put in

....THE MOVE

So its been months since my last post. sorry guys, the mayor stopped paying for internet service and i have to borrow my friends comp inorder to get on so i dont like to spend too much time on it......

but well dont now how to update you all on everything that has been going on.....but the truth is most of the same projects are probably still the same. hasnt been too much progress in the past couple months.

ill just give a list of things that stick out in my head....

-killed three chikens with my barehands then ate them. was pretty.....interesting haha wasnt sure if i was going to be able to do it.

-tomorow is the 200 anniversary of the independence of paraguay from spain. big deal. parades, parties, and bullfights across the country.

-asmost of you probably know i have recently moved myself out into the countryside. its a simple one room house of bricks and mud. no running water. TWO outdoor bathrooms, one is filled with wasps and the other is filled with...well.....shit
but there are millions of stars!!! it is crazy relaxing. i have one neighbor and the other is about 200 meters away.
there are any type of farm animal that you can imagine. my favorite is called the wei. i think in english it is an ox but not sure. they use it to pull carts. its pretty much a gigantic bull. but its one of the biggest animals i have ever touched.
i sit out at night, cook on my little coal run stove. very theraputic hahaha
evreymorning i get up, sweep, bring water from the neighbors well then go to my other neighbors house to eat breakfast and chitchat...
i eat lunch there too and then afterwords i get to do some farm work....how cool is this....
first we heard the sheep....then we go cut down sugar cane and mandioca and bring it in a wheelbarrow to feed the cows and the bulls. and the humans too and the dogs!!! haha we all just sit there eat sugar can together. the other day i started pushing the wheelbarrow and about 15 baby cows smelled it somehow and started chasing me ahaha i had to fight them all off with a piece of sugar cane.....mmmmmmm

what else

-CHECK OUT MY PICS ON FACEBOOK::::: my new foto album called CASA NUEVA. its has all the pics of my new house and neighborhood and can better explain it than i probably did.

well

all is well for now

miss you guys

happy mothersday mom!!!! they celebrate it one week later here. ahah dont know why.

love you guys

will post more again soon!!!

chau!!!chow!!!

STOP!!

so its been a while.........besides the recent installation of the muy lindo basketball court, there has not been too much happening the past month or so.

but i thought id give a little update...

so 1. the basketball court. we have been playing every night which is awesome. im thinking about starting a league and giving classes. the kids love playing. its something new and exciting for them.

2. i think i posted about taking a few kids to a leadership camp about a month ago. well after the camp each group of kids is required to do a community project in their own town. my kids and i have been meeting a couple times a week to brainstorm about possible projects and have finally landed on one that seems it will do just nicely.

the transit rules and regulations in this town are really lacking. kids ride like speed racers on their motorcycles and there is nothing to stop them, axcept for eachother. BOOM!CRASH!

so today we met with the guy who runs the transit department and who is the transit department of own town. we ran some ideas by him and he thought our project was a great idea and said that he had been wanting to do something about the situation for a while.

we talked about putting stop signs up, painting lines down the one paved road, putting up speed limit signs, and even going around the highschools giving charlas on traffic safety.

the will be a very awesome project if we stick with it and follow it through. very possible as well. the kids seem very psyched and enthusiastic so my hopes are high.

3. still growing and reproducing worms in my back yard in hopes of putting them in a big pile of fertilizer someday.

4. today my family just got a pump for their water tank which connects to the well in the backyard...........you know what that means mom!!!! when you come visit you dont have to shower with a bucket! que purete!

5. its getting to the point where i think i might finally move out. i still will have someone else do my laundry and cook my meals,,,,,, but at least i will have the oppotunity to do those things if i feel like it. and i will also have my own space finally. but just a thought right now still

6. mmmmmmmmmlanguage is still a pain in the ass but little by little.......

7. not sure ill let you guys know later

but i love you all and miss you

charlie

eho eke nde

The First Shot.....

The first basketball game this town HAS EVER seen....how cool is that!

does he know how to do it, or does he know how to do it.....

basketbal court update.....

and now we have something to put it into...

oooo.....

abd the camp is called

ñande hae tenonderá...


this means ´we are the future´ pretyt much in guarani

been a while....

so yes i know its been a while since my last post.......wellll december was a month filled with visiting other volunteers, other cities, but nothing dramatically exciting

this past week however was the youth leadership camp in Itaipu, resort Tati Yupi. (itaipu means the sound a rock makes, and tati yupi means rising smoke). Side note, itaipu is THE largest functioning hydro electric dam in the world....haha and located in such a tiny middle of nowhere place. crazy.

anways for four days 20 volunteers from all over the country brought 3 or 4 jovenes or youth ages 15 to 19, to this resort for a leadership camp. i brought jorge, hernan and jose. there were a variety of speaches and presentations from youth to the youth and also done by volunteers. we taught them a variety of things pertaining to what it takes to be a leader in their community. there was also a number of activities done.

there was a lot of down time too, to play futbol, volei, talk and walk around exploring the amazingly beautiful park, forest, lake. friday night we took a fieldtrip to the dam to watch them light it up at night. it was pretty intense. amazingly huge. one second there was just darkness and the next, BAM a huge lit up dam.

but anways, more importantly was that the kids loved it!!! they had such a good time, learned a lot, and made a ton of new friends! the goal is that they go back to their communities and do a community project within the next 6 months. then we have another camp where all the same jovenes meet up to present the projects they have complete. this is only the second time the camp has been done but from what it seems like, it will be around for a while. awesomeness!!

so this is how you know your in peace corps paraguay...

my mom sent me a basketball in the mail. but in my pueblo there is nowhere to play....so what do you have to do?

you have to build yourself a basketball court.


and thats wat i have recently started doing. i got the support of the mayor to place it next to the highschool. the carpenter made me the backboard which i am in the middle of painting and the father of the family who i am living with is going to make me the hoop out of iron.....

i will keep you updated on this and hopefully post pictures!!!