heyyyy

hey guys, been a while jaja

almost forgot that i had this thing....well i saw most of you last month so theres not tooo much to comment on seeing as i probably told all of you most of my stories...

but there are a couple new projects to update you all on....

so for the last month i have been a volunteer with a program that is called escuelas abiertas ooooor open schools. it is a youth activity based program designed to get kids out of their houses during the summer. we met in the highscool everyday for a month, 3 hours a day to do activities with the younger kids.....sports, dance, theatre, and art projects. then finally a couple days ago it all culminated with a nice show that they all did for the parents to show them what we had been working on.........
but what made the whole thing worth it, the last night, a young little girl, maybe 6 years old, came up to me and gave me a kiss on the cheek. i almost started crying. definitely teared up. its for those moments that we do what we do :)


hey guys, been a while jaja

also my friend and i have been organizing a workshop for street and traffic education. a couple reps from various organizations from the capital are coming in to town today to give a charla to a group of 20 people to capacitate them on the subject. it will take place tonight and all day tomorow. then these people will go around to the highschools giving charlas and hopefully doing similar workshops with the kids. moto accidents are the number one cause of death in this country and it is a huge issue which its seems people are just starting to take notice of.
we are also pulling to get street signs put in our town which has been a very long term project that i have already told you all about. these are all connected and hopefully will all come to realization very soon. we are hoping to install a drivers ed class as well because as of right now there is no prerequisite to get a drivers license.

ok so here is a list of terms which i realize i have been using and you all probably have no idea what they mean...


also recently we did another leadership camp for the jovenes. it was 4 day camp where 20 volunteers brought kids from all over the country to share and learn about leadership in their community and to become a part of the international red of jovenes that we are forming in paraguay. it was very fun and well organized. the last day everyone cried before parting ways jeje


municipalidad (muni) = mayors office (municipal??)
intendente = mayor
joven(es)= youth(s)
charla = speach or presentation or talk


that should cover it for now if there are other vocab words in question please let me know....

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!