Nov 9, 2007

Tonight I discovered that they have the card game Gin Rummy in Paraguay. There are also many other familiar things around , like Coke, Toyotas, rap songs and Nike shoes. The playing cards have different suits on them: swords, cups, coins and something that looks like potatoes but I have no idea what they are supposed to be. Within the familiar sights are an infinite amount of questions about what I see every day and why things are that way. For example: why doesn’t anyone drink water with their meal (or at all for that matter)...only tea during tea time (terrere time), why do people dress up in pants just to work outside or go on the bus, or what am I eating???

Tomorrow two trainees and I are giving a 30 min. presentation about compost piles to a few families in our community. We will have to talk in Guarani only, which is mostly for practice, but going to be hard. We are teaching about compost piles because trash management is a huge problem here. Most everyone either burns all of their trash in their back yard (including plastics and leaves), or they dump the trash on someone else's property. The chemicals from the burnt plastics get into the water supply, the vegetation, the soil, and case an incredible amount of health problems including cancer, and heart disease. Oh yeah, this is also incredibly bad for the air quality and the environment. One goal is to separate the trash into compostable, burnable, reusable, and buryable materials. Last weekend another three trainees organized a community trash pickup which about 30 kids participated in. They dug a huge hole, cleaned up the street and got certificates for completing the “peace corps” day program.

We are also learning about tree planting practices, teaching strategies, gardening, integration techniques, soil erosion prevention, nonprofit work, the government organizations which are not completely corrupt, community groups, etc., etc., etc. I am going to find out which site I will be staying at for the next two years two weeks from today. I am looking foreword to preparing for exactly what I will be working on, and have a break from the busy training routine.

Next week our Environmental Education group is traveling to a city called Carapegua, where we will be staying close to a volunteer there who does a lot of work with the school systems. There is a school which has a special education program there (one of the few in all of Paraguay), and I asked if I could sit in on a couple of classes to try to compare US Special Ed with Paraguay’s. Most children who have special needs simply stay home 24/7.

The other day I minority skinned up my leg playing soccer and when I got back, my host family instead on putting a “remedio” (home remedy) on it which the told me was cows blood...turns out they were just messing with me though. Heather sent me some chili powder and I am planning on cooking some spicy Mexican food for them soon (not sure what they will think).