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!

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!!!

...btw

in the background of the photo on the blackboard is a crazy little story that i wrote in perfect Guaraní....how freakin awesome is that!!

Colación de mi primera Clase de Inglés

so yesterday was the last day of english class and this morning we had our little graduation party. only three of the five kids could make it but still everybody brought food and we had a good time. i handed out certificates and we took pictures. it was awesome. i feel like this picture pretty much expresses how everybody felt.

i am planning on starting class again in january after the holidays and all the kids showed interest in coming and entering my class again. I am excited to see their enthusiasm.

it was an awesome morning!!

......

this last weekend was the celebration of the foundation of my town of fulgencio yegros. it turned 119 years old. wow!!
haha the festival started thursday ngiht with a play and talent show in the amphiteatre. friday night there was a festival in the plaza along with bull fighting in the amphiteatre. afterwards there was a concert until about 5 or 6 in the morning.

sooo many people came from all over to be here and the town was hopping.

saturday night was the big night though. there was bulfighting followed by a dance party followed by a concert given by the most famous singer in paraguay right now.

her name i La Kchorra which means the puppy. but her songs are heard alll the time everywhere!!! so to have her come to our little town was a big deal. she didnt end up going on stage until about 5 am which meant that almost the entire town was up to see the sunrise together. kind fo cool

i think i ended up making it back to my bed around 1030 the next day.

then sunday night was one last night a bullfighting.


the bullfighting is pretty awesome. its not the one where they kill the bull but there are guys in nice outfits with the red capes and a clown and cowboys. like a bulfight slash rodeo almost. but was really neat to see.

cant really right too much more write now. but more to come soon!

love you all

charley

so the last couple weeks....

so havent been able to post in a while. ive been travelling a lot throughout paraguay...started with thanksgiving.

about 100 peacecorps volunteers met up in the southern city of incarnacion where we all stayed at this really nice hotel with a giant pool. there were a variety of activities and amazing food. we got to eat everything. turkey with gravey, potatoes, stuffing, and i even got a slice of canned cranberry sauce...

the culmination of the weekended was the dance party the last night of our stay. my friend had come to the dance floor and not realizing it had knocked over a wine bottle which broke and the glass had entered her foot. she finally realized that she was leaking blood all over the place and somebody carried her out of the room. when the lights went on we saw that there was blood all over the floor. i had never seen so much blood before in my life. haha they blocked off the area then every just moved over the the other side of the dance floor, the lights went off, and the majority kept dancing.

me and a few others went over to take care of her. we wrapped her foot up with our shirts. she was bleeding heavily and almost fainted. finally me and my friend carried her to the car where a driver took the three of us to the hostpital travelling at 100 miles per hour. the greatest part was that me and my friend were both shirtless and my friend didnt even have any pants on. dont ask why...another story for another time.

we arrived at the hospital and my friend who is in his boxers waits in the lobby and falls asleep so i enter into the emergency room shirtless to help hold my friends hand and watch them stitch her up.

she made it out alive. and i think its finally reached the point where we can retell the story and just laugh about how ridiculous it was.


soo after thanksgiving my group travels across the country to the capital asuncion to have a reunion and talk about our problems and also learn some new tools to help out us. we were also able to stay with our original host families in ypane. it was nice to get to see everyone again.

the following weekend i travelled to villa rica to celebrate my birthday and my best friends birthday. we danced the night away. i ended up getting stuck there for a few days due to rain....


and finally we reach my brithday which was last tuesday.....did i have a birthday!!!

i ended up buying 1000 40`s of cerveza and almost half a cow. we had a bbq at my house and half the town came. we partied all day and then at night there was the highschool graduation where we continued to celebrate my brithday until the sun came up at about 7 am.....finally it was time to call it quits haha

and finally this last weekend almost all the volunteers went to asuncion to celebrate the new group of volunteer´s graduation and also for a concert consisting of bands created by the volunteers themselves. it was a very lindo party and we celebrate to the utmost......


so that has been a recap of my past two weeks......sorry i kind of rushed through it all but estoy un poco apurado

te amo
ciao
karlo!!

f.y.i.

for those of you who arent a frequent facebook user.....just wanted to let you all know i posted a few pictures of my town and some people....there arent too many but its a start....oo and they are in the photo album at the bottom with the title

novmber 22nd 2010


enjoy...!!

just one of those days.....that you will never forget

soo yesterday was our departments(states) futbol championship. between my town and the town about an hour away. the championship is a best 2 out of 3 series since it was tied 1 to 1, they decided to have to third game at a neutral field in the next closest town which happens to be only 2 to 3 hours away.

the game started at 3 and about 25 of us decided we were going to take my friends bus and leave at about 9, get there early, grill some meat and drink some beers.

weather looked like it was going to rain, but it was game day and nobody thinks or cares much about it.

and for those of you who don´t remember. the roads leaving my town are all dirt and are almost impossible to drive through when it rains, especially in shitty old bus.

we get on the road and of course it starts raining the roads immediately turn to mud. we are taking it slow and are about 12 kilometros away when bam we hit a turn and the back end of the bus starts to drift and slide down into a ditch.

what is to be done...ill tell you.... all of the guys rip their shirts off, including me of course. IM NOT MISSING OUT ON THIS!!!! haha and we get out in the almost knee deep mud and start to push. we are at this for about an hour or two. and so many times we almost get the dam thing back up on the road. but there is just nothing happening.

there is a bus filled with people stopped about half a kilo back. but of course they are from the opposing town and none of them want to come out and get wet to help us. but also they can´t pass us because our bus is pretty much perpendicular to the road and is blocking it.

enetualy we decide we will have a better chance getting the bus out if we push it all the way into the ditch to straighten it out and then push from there.

SOOO CLOSEEE we come. someone brought out a rope that we tied to the front and there were people pushing and pulling and everyones chanting COME ON YEGROSSSS WE CAN DO THISSS!!!.

so of couse now that our bus is out of the way the other towns bus can pass. and we actually help push their bus...why i dont know because they didnt help us.

so we get back on the bus and there is nothing to do except huddle together for heat and wait for something to happen. we thought we were gong to have to sleep there. because sometimes it can rain for two days and the road is so bad nothing can move.

the girls all ended up leaving in trucks that were passing by. so the guys stayed behind, we busted out the drums and cow bells and started singing our towns theme song.
eventually we get a call letting us know the the indendente of the town has ordered that a tractor comes to pull us out.

so two hours later, we are soaked, muddy and freezing but still in high spirits, we see the tractor at the top of the hill. and within seconds we are guiding the bus out of the ditch and onto the road.!! we did it!!!!!!! and of course we stop at the next little road shop to buy as manny beers and hotdog buns as possible.

two or three more times we had to get out of the bus to keep if from sliding off the road. eventually we made it to the game.

its cold freezing and everyones in the stands shivering in shorts and sandals and muddddd. nobody thought we would make, but we did. and we had our own little section of mud covered funs in the stands.

after 3 hours, the game ends in a tie and it comes down to the penalty shots. it was very exciting but sadly, we lost....so we get out of there as quick as possible. but wouldnt you know it...

on the road we are behind the same bus that wouldnt help us before. and about five times we had to get out to help them push....and not once did our bus get stuck!!! of this we were very proud. we stocked up on boxes of wine and coca cola and were drinking, singing, and banging the drums for the entire ride home.


it sounds like an awful day.....but now that its over and i think back on it, i will never forget it. it was a very bonding experience, and how often can i say i was shirtless in the middle of south america, in the mud pushing a bus, shoulder to shoulder with my paraguayan friends, singing the whole time.

it was actually amazing and i wouldnt have changed anything!!!... accept maybe i would have brought a jacket....

angepyhare...(last night)

soo last night was just awesome.....it was a gorgeous day outside and i bought cow meat to grill and cerveza and finally had the unveiling of my cornhole set.....

i wish i had a camera but there will be other oppotunities....like always my friends were unsure about playing and trying something new but then after one game, like always, they loved it and there was a crowd of 20 kids coming off the street to stand and watch us play. i only got to play the first game haha which is alright with me and then afterwards they kind of took over...i just sat back, relaxed, sipped my cerveza, and watched.

it was pretty awesome. i think they played for like 3 or 4 hours. eventually the boards broke a little. they still work but i will have to get another set made out of woood that is a little bit stronger.

its kind of cool as i am typing this im not sure if it is coming to me first in castillano or english. i sort of have it stranlsated in my head at the same time...weird feeling.

man i had something awesome i wanted to write about. it as totally random and i knew i should have written it down. but its gone now.
o well....

so guarani is all about dirty jokes and bad words. so i learned a fairly lengthy joke in guarani. it takes me forever to tell it and it comes out terrible but they love it and die laughing. jaja i feel like this is how im going to learn guarani. i have a book filled with 300 pages of grose jokes. i dont understand any of them. but if i can get through one joke a day i feel like i will learn the gramar at the same time. little by little. but it costs me a lot to speak it. my mouth is always really tired after telling the joke. major tongue twist this language.

mmmm so if people have questions i think you guys can like post comments???? in the form of questions and then next time i post i can answer...!!!

so this morning i was talking with an agricultural guy and he tells me that yegros biggest problem is that the people dont know how to sell they products or where. they really only grow food for themselves and dont do anything with the rest. so next week we are going to plan out a schedule to go visit all the farming communities and talk to them and see what we can do. im pretty siked about this.

i will keep you all updated.....

all for now

love you all



haku hina ha ha`uma helado he`e pero aipotvema

its hot as hell and i already ate icecream but already i want some more....

....

but i am definitely loving every minutes of it

things that remind me of where i am......

..helping give a sheep a haircut
..the water getting shutoff everyday until 7pm
and not getting turned back on sometimes for two days because its too hott.
..having to shower with a bucket
..having dance parties in the middle of the countryside
..the stars all being upside down and backwards
..milking a cow and actually getting the milk to come out finally
..buying a pig for my birthday
..eating fruits i have never seen in my life before
..playing beer pong for the first time all over again
..being attacked and bitten by huge bugs i have never seen
..the whole town being without power whenever it rains. pitch black!
..having bird poop on my computer screen
..standing in a bus with my shirt off sweating fot two hours on my way to the fútbol championship


.....and many other things that i just cant post right now...

things that remind me of where i am......

..helping give a sheep a haircut
..the watering getting shutoff everyday until 7pm