ChANCHO!!!!!!!

so...i woke up this morning at 430 and went across the pueblo to a familys house which is a little bit more rural.
we started off the day milking cows...only watched haha i tried one time but the cow ran. i think i was squeezing to hard.
but what came next....???

WE KILLED A PIG!!!!!!!

nutz...they pulled the guy out and he was huge. they dragged him to a wooden plank, hog tied him, and i swear i have never heard anything make a noise so loud. i started off feeling really bad for him. they asked me if i wanted to kill him but i had to decline. next time for sure though. what hold him down and a quick jab through the neck and straight into its heart. its a good thing i just watched the first time because blood splattered all over the place and then just started flowing out of his neck. it was quick and painless though...i think. he died within 30 seconds. he was a big guy...lots of blood.
haha i had mixed emotions as this point...the feeling of pitty and remorse and sadness was disappearing. once it stopped moving i realized it was something they had to do to survive and it became easier to accept hahaha

next the took boiling water and poured it on his skin to soften it and with a huge knife they scraped the top layer of hair and skin off. after an hour it was a beautiful clean white pig haha i was able to help with this part. next we hung it up by its hind legs and i continued to scrape. finally they washed it down and it was perfectly clean and white. almost like a piece of art. next we cut off tis hooves and slicced its back open. we started to cut off the skin and grease like a huge coat. haha i got some good pics of us doing this.
next
we sawed it in half and its inards just fell out into a bucket. it was cool to see them save each part and they told us what they were going to cook with it.
haha then we cut off its head and took that guy apart too.
everything was then layed out on a table to be cleaned.

then we preceed back to the center to get some breakfast.
all this by id saya bout 830
haha quite the morning.


soo anyway i really like this pueblo. its pretty tiny and you can walk anywhere in about 15 mintues or so. only a couple main streets....if you would call them that....only one has paving which is new as of last year.

the people are really nice.

today is the current volunteers last day so people have been having despedidos...little going away parties for him. its been interesting and emotional to see him say good bye. its kind of wierd because i keep hearing how great he is and now i have to follow that....but im not too worried. im sure when the next volunteer comes to follow me up the same thing will happen.


but i have pretty much bet all the big players in the town and have made some friends.

i am excited to come back and stay for good.

i am staying with a family right now. mom dad and a kid my age. he is pretty smart and the dad is crazy. we will get along. i will be staying with them for a month or so when i first get back and then after move into the house of current volunteer. its pretty cool and im planning on fixing it up in my spair time and making a huge garden in the back.

he told me he had raised a pig there and then ended up eating it later haha but think ima stick with the garden. we will see.

still freezing here.....supposed to get warm by the end of the month and for this i am excited.

going back to ypane in the next day or two....excited to see my old friends and family again haha



hope all is well at home.....

love you guys

charley

YEGROS

YEGROS::::

so thats my sight....that i have been waiting pretty much 1.5 years to find out....


and actually, i am typing this from there, here right now.

wednesday night we had sight presentation where everybody found out there sights and then thursday morning already we were off.
thursday we had this thing called encuentro where we all met our contact from our new sight at this chuchi retreat. we did a bunch of activities to get to know eachother and the town.
then friday morning we headed out to our sight....it was a long 6 hours cramped bus ride through the country side but finally we made it.
me sight is pretty cool. its got about 1500 people. its pretty small and tranquilo but i like it alot.
i stayed last night with the volunteer that is currently there. but he is leaving tuesday for good, then i come back in three weeks to take his spot!
how crazy is that!!

the rest of the week i will be staying with a host family....hopefully getting to know the people and the town.

so looks like i will probably be teaching computer classes and english classes. helping out with civic education and maybe family financing but we will see....still a lot to do and get acustomed to before this happens.



well post again after the week and let you know how everything goes!!


love you guys,

carlo

LOtE....the CAMPO

hey guys
so this last week we split into groups of five and went to sites to visit a volunteer.

my group got sent to the campo.....which pretty much means youre out in the middle of nowhere...in the fields with the farmers.....

i had an incredible time....haha living conditions were rough but i loved it.
i stayed with a host family there.....dirt floors, only two rooms, latrines in the fields, freezing cold shower out of a pipe
lighiting a fire on the ground in order to cook....i loved it

so our volunteer has been working with a womans group and is helping them start a panaderia....a bread shop. they have the building now and some machines but are still learning how to run a business...they have no idea but its sooo great...

also he gives charlas to kids in the area because they dont go to highschool....teaching them about entrepeneurship and such...

it was a reallly realllly awesome experience....me and one of the other kids gave a presentation to the womans group about what goals they have for their business and how long to reach them....


just thinking like this is new for them...


also we got to chop down cana dulce....sugar canes in the fields with machetes

haha i even tried milking a cow but was doing something wrong and it ran away before any milk came out hahaha

i wanted to kill a chicken but never got the chane

mmmm i loved the camp....the only hard part would be that nobody speaks spanish like at alll

im told that when we get sent to our sites that we can move out to the campo if we find work to do out there which there always is....as long as we stay within the city limits of our site..



we find out WEDNESDAy our sitios and then thursday we actually go visit our sight for a week....

its moving really fast now and im super excited....


miss you alll
love you


charley

alumbrado publico

BUENO.....la segunda semana de entrenamiento, nuestros jefes nos dijeron que tenemos que hacer un proyecto en nuestro pueblo. andrea y yo decidimos que vamos a trabajar juntos para implementar el proyecto.
estabamos pensando y descubrimos que hay muchas calles en nuestro pueblo en donde falta luz y siempre esta oscuro durante la noche. decidimos que este problema va a ser la base de nuestro proyecto.
empezamos hablando con todas las personas que viven en lugares oscuros. despues de muchas entrevistas con familias, concluimos que el barrio de San Antonio va a ser el barrio donde trabajariamos.

tuvimos que crear un pedido y despues juntar todas las firmas y schedulas de las personas que viven en ese barrio.

ayer entregamos el pedido a la municipalidad para que el intendente lo pueda ver. la muni nos dijo que tenemos que volver dentro de ocho dias para saber si tenemos la firma del intendente.


que asombroso!

ps....

there are a couple pics of my up on facebook from other people...but only a few....but you get to see the people in my group and me dancing ifnront of the whole town in my ppara get up... enjoy!!!

Leadership Camp/Longfield Practice

Hey guys so it has been a couple weeks since my last post. Sorry bout that. it has been a long intense couple of weeks.

last weekend we went down south to one of the very large and incharge dams they have in paraguay that supply the country with a ton of energy. they actually have the largest working dam in the world here.

haha off the top of my head i can´t remember the name of the place but we were pretty much on the border with argetinia.

the camp was lead by a couple other active volunteers and had about 30 paraguayan jovenes. its was a three day camp and the main objective was to teach the kids about the values a leader would have.

we were there pretty much to participate and be spectators.

haha the vacilities we stayed in were the old dorms the workers on the dam had....it was pretty much like a concentration camp but we definitely made the best of it. we threw a party in the dorm room one of the nights and got yelled at for it later but was definitely worth it.


so we we got back i was engripado....had the flu or something like it and sort of finally getting over it. this week has been freezing. its not as cold as the winter at home....but the dificult part is that you never get a break from it. i literally walk into my house expecting to warm up but only to realize that i have to keep my hat and jacket on. i literally sleep in sweat pants and socks and two shirts with three blankets on top and my gorra....snowcap haha but its alright...all part of the experience. i can´t remember the last time i even took my clothes off!!!

what made it even rougher was that today i had to give my charla....hour long presentation on technology in paraguay and computers...was only infront of my own class tho so wasnt too bad. think it went well.


anyways....next week is long field practice.....this means we are splitting up into groups of 6 and going to live with a volunteer for a whole fricken week.

my groups is going to arroyos y cerros which is a town that is in the campo hahah meaning we will be living in shacks in the middle of nowhere. i am excited and nervous. we will be hanging out with the volunteer all week giving charlas and learning about his experience.


to make things crazier....the week i get back.... I FIND OUT MY FUTURE SITIO!!!! future cite

how nutz is that!!! so excited. dam and training is already half way over....insane.....you have no idea


ok well ima gooo

love you guys

hope youre keeping the chi rockin


nos vemos


carlo

FELIZ CUATRO DE JULIO

happy 4th of july guys haha not even but close.


today we had class in the morning but got a ride to the US embassy in Asuncion. they were having a pre 4th of july party. all the peace corps volunteers in the country showed up. pretty cool. lots of food, booze, futbol and volleyball. the embassy here is nutz. its a huge compound that is gorgeous inside and takes up about 4 city blocks.

haha i even accidentally met the embassador. was a little bit tipsy and almost did made a fool of myself before i knew who she was. thankfully someone alerted to the fact and i changed me course of action.


but it was really cool getting to meet a lot of active volunteers, some of which are the ones that we are going to be replacing.

think we are going back to asuncion tomorrow night to party once again with the volunteers for the 4th.

hope you guys are having a blast and seeing some fireworks for me.

love you


charley