Monday, October 31, 2011
Every meal an adventure
There comes a moment when you've been gnawing on a piece of grisly or fatty meat for several minutes that you just have to take a chance and swallow. You hope that the minutes you've spent grinding away at it have lubricated it with enough saliva to prevent you from choking in front of a table full of Paraguayans because that would just add to the list of embarrassing things you've done lately. The time has come. You decide to take the plunge. 3...2...1...gulp. Gulp again. Success! You look down at your plate. Crap. Another hunk of fat, and the adventure continues.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
October Update
I got kicked out of my house. It's a really long, ridiculous story that I have been telling to Paraguayans and Americans nonstop for the past week and I don't really want to go into it again but basically the landlady, who lives in Asuncion and hasn't even seen the house in over 5 years, was on a very different page as everyone else and frankly and little bit off her rocker.
The good news is I have found an excellent new house right next to where Elvio works and the lady who owns it said I could stay there for free until I leave. My neighbor came over yesterday and told me how sad she is to see me go. She said that I am like another daughter to her and it hurt her heart that someone could treat me that way. So that was nice to hear, even though I am only going to the next street over and will probably still see her everyday. I will put up pictures of the house when I have some more time; I'm going to start moving everything today!
Work-wise, I'm still as busy as ever. This past week I took toothbrushes and toothpaste to the school again. Last year I did the same but let the kids take them home and soon they were lost, or had fallen on the ground, or were used by all 12 members of the family. So this year I took a new approach and got the teachers more involved. We decided that each class would get a large tube of toothpaste and the students would leave their brushes at school. When the arrive, they'll brush their teeth and then again after snack/recess. So far it's worked out well; the only problem being that the 5th and 6th graders want to put their own toothpaste on and end up using way too much :).
My large project is slowly moving along too. At the last parent meeting I had 33 families sign up to participate in a sanitary latrine project. This means they either don't have a bathroom at all or their latrine now has a floor made of wood, leaves, or whatever else they could find. I've been working with the NGO PLAN International and the director thinks that he can get cement floors for all those families. He is going to contact the National Sanitation Service and let me know how that goes. So far I've been calling him everyday for a week and he hasn't done it yet but I'll keep being a thorn in his side until we get our latrines.
I'd like to end with a picture. Peace Corps is really frustrating sometimes and it seems like lately I've had more bad days than good but this makes it all worth it:
The good news is I have found an excellent new house right next to where Elvio works and the lady who owns it said I could stay there for free until I leave. My neighbor came over yesterday and told me how sad she is to see me go. She said that I am like another daughter to her and it hurt her heart that someone could treat me that way. So that was nice to hear, even though I am only going to the next street over and will probably still see her everyday. I will put up pictures of the house when I have some more time; I'm going to start moving everything today!
Work-wise, I'm still as busy as ever. This past week I took toothbrushes and toothpaste to the school again. Last year I did the same but let the kids take them home and soon they were lost, or had fallen on the ground, or were used by all 12 members of the family. So this year I took a new approach and got the teachers more involved. We decided that each class would get a large tube of toothpaste and the students would leave their brushes at school. When the arrive, they'll brush their teeth and then again after snack/recess. So far it's worked out well; the only problem being that the 5th and 6th graders want to put their own toothpaste on and end up using way too much :).
My large project is slowly moving along too. At the last parent meeting I had 33 families sign up to participate in a sanitary latrine project. This means they either don't have a bathroom at all or their latrine now has a floor made of wood, leaves, or whatever else they could find. I've been working with the NGO PLAN International and the director thinks that he can get cement floors for all those families. He is going to contact the National Sanitation Service and let me know how that goes. So far I've been calling him everyday for a week and he hasn't done it yet but I'll keep being a thorn in his side until we get our latrines.
I'd like to end with a picture. Peace Corps is really frustrating sometimes and it seems like lately I've had more bad days than good but this makes it all worth it:
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