See Any Potential Hazards?

Yup, almost happened.

Donate to My Taller

Hello all. Merry Christmas!

I know I'm far away serving humanity in the Peace Corps and have thus deprived many of you the opportunity to buy my a Christmas present. A tragedy indeed. But you can make up for it by donating to the National Business Workshop I'm heading up.

We will be inviting business people, and people who are starting businesses, from all over Paraguay to participate in a 3 day, 2 night workshop. They'll learn about creating sustainable businesses, how to increase their profit, being community leaders, dealing with the stigma of success, how to find and use credit properly, etc.

Your donation with help pay for food, transportation, and lodging. This will be the first opportunity that many, if not most, of the participants have had for any sort of business education.

Please help us open the taller to as many people as possible.

Just follow this little link and give what you can

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=526-220

You're donation is tax deductible. So be sure to get it in before the first of the year so you can take it off of your 2010 taxes.

Thanks again. Feliz Navidad.

The universe decided to kindly, though not subtly, remind me I’m a pasty white girl. I got a nasty sunburn on the back of my neck because, for the first time in probably months, I left the house (on a cloudy day) without my hat, umbrella, or sunscreen. Thanks.

Re-colored my hair. Amazingly I found the a very similar color in Loreal. I used Garnier HerbaShine the first time around, but they don’t carry that demi-permanent line here.

Verdict, I think I liked the GN color a little bit better, but Loreal left my hair much softer.

No Bubbles

Today I bought my second tank of gas for my stove. I purchased my last one December 24, 2009. Yes, Christmas eve, just before I needed to start cooking dinner for my volunteer friends coming over for Christmas lunch. My old tank ran out about 2 weeks ago, but I just now got around to getting a new one, because I was in the process of inviting people over, again, for Christmas lunch/dinner. At least I bought it two weeks in advance, not two hours.

The price went from 80,000 to 95,000 G, so I'm thankful that I only seem to buy them once a year.

I bought the tank from the lady on the corner, and the story lady’s daughter helped me lug it over to my house. I tried hooking it up myself, but I was freaked out because it sounded like it was leaking gas. I disconnected everything and went to my landlady to ask her to try it. She hooked it up and then had the most ingenious little trick to see if there was a leak. She took a sponge and some liquid soap and lathered up the connecting part of the tank. Bubbles = leak, being poisoned in my sleep, and/or my house exploding. No Bubbles = Popcorn time.

Time to go make popcorn :)

“It does not interest me what you do for a living...

The Invitation

Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Native Elder

“It does not interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your hearts longing.

It does not interest me how old you are, I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.

It does not interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals, or have become shriveled and closed from fear or further pain, yours or mine. I want to know if you can sit with pain - mine or your own. If you can dance with wildness, and let ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning me to be more careful, be realistic or to remember the limitations of being human.

It does not interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to see if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty every day. I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”

It does not interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after a night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for the children.

It does not interest me who you are or how you are here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back. It does not interest me what – or with whom – you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself, and if you truly like the company you keep in those empty moments. “

Vater

I had to replace my toilet seat today because the plastic nuts and bolts that held it to the ceramic throne were old and wasn't keeping the seat in place anymore.

I realized when I was thinking about going to the store, I don't know the word for 'toilet'. I can honestly say I've never had an indepth conversation about the bathroom, so I've never actually had to use it.

The same thing happened to me years ago when I realized I never really learned the word for scissors (tijeras btw).

We'll mystery solved, the word for toilet is ... water?

Okay, technically it is spelled and pronounced as 'váter', but still.

The word most of us would have learned in school is 'inodoro.'

Water Please

Something is up with the water here at the house. Since Friday I haven't been able to get water out of the shower or the bathroom sink. Fortunately at some point during each day I've been able to get some water out of a small faucet in the shower. But not today.

I talked to my landlords yesterday, they are having the same problem in their house, and they have contacted the water company. I hoped they would fix the problem today since its a weekday, but no such luck. My landlord's family hasn't been at home yesterday or today, so I'm guessing they've gone to hang out with family in some other part of the city until the water comes back.

Until it gets fixed I'm back to bucket baths. If the water from the little faucet doesn't come back soon I'm going to have to go to the neighbor's to fill up some buckets. It looks rainy, maybe I'll be able to collect enough water to do laundry.

Rainy Day Activity #2 Making Yogurt

Conversion to Hippy Complete...

Third time is the charm. I tried to make yogurt twice before, but I messed it up because I couldn't get the temperature right.

While I was back in the US for Bree's Wedding, I bought a thermometer and was successful in making my own yogurt. They do have yogurt here, but its the very liquidy drinkable kind and I'm a custard style girl myself. That and for some reason the yogurt here makes me horribly, bed-ridden sick about 50% of the time.

HOW TO MAKE YOGURT:

1) Heat Milk to 185F using the double boiler method
2) Cool Milk to 110F.
3) Mix in 1.5T Yogurt (with active cultures) for every 1L of milk (google the conversion rate you sissy)
4)Let milk mix sit in a warm place,maintaining the temp between 105-110F, for 5-8 hours. I like really thick yogurt, so I leave it for 8 hours. There are several ways to keep the milk mix warm. I put it into a thermos, then put the thermos into a cooler with a hot pad full of hot water. I reheat the water halfway through.
5)Take the milk mix and put it into yogurt portion cups (I use old peanut butter containers) and leave overnight in the refrigerator.
6)...And then you have yogurt!
YUUUUUUMMM

Rainy Day Activity #1 Hair Color

First time coloring my hair. They say just go a shade darker or lighter than your natural hair color the first time...well forget that, I want red hair.

So thank you Garnier HerbaShine#565 Medium Auburn Brown

The Next 50

Been doing a little reading. Here are the most recent 50 books I've read. Again, if the formatting looks a little off, zoom in or out.

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder............................................Richard Louv..........................A+
We Need to Talk About Kevin............Lionel Shriver..........................A+
Eat, Pray, Love.................................Elizabeth Gilbert....................A+
Three Cups of Tea............Greg Mortenson/David Oliver Relin............A+
The Hummingbird's Daughter.............Luis Alberto Urrea...................A+

What is the What................................Dave Eggars.......................A+
The Spinster Book..............................Myrtle Reed.......................A+
Vagabonding......................................Rolf Potts...........................A+
The Shockwave Rider......................... John Brunner..................... A
Oryx and Crake..................................Mary Atwood...................... A

The Blind Assassin.......................... Mary Atwood.......................... A
Most of All they Taught Me Happiness..... Robert Muller............... A
Ten Days in a Mad-house.................. Nellie Bly.............................. A
Interpreter of Maladies...................... Jhumpa Lahiri........................ A
Our Mutual Friend.............................. Charles Dickens................... A

The Satanic Verses.............................. Salman Rushdie................... A
Sexing the Cherry................................ Jeanette Winterson.............. A
Gods Behaving Badly......................... Marie Phillips......................... A-
This is Your Brain on Music................. Daniel Levitin........................ A-
It's Time.................................................... Jana Bluejay....................... A-

Prep........................................................ Curtis Sittenfeld..................... A-
For One More Day................................. Mitch Albom.......................... A-
Holidays on Ice........................................ David Sedaris...................... A-
Immortality............................................... Milan Kundera....................... A-
Geeks...................................................... Jon Katz................................. A-

The Little Prince........................................ Antoine de Saint Exupéry... A-
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.. John Berendt......................A-
A Memory Of Running............................... Ron McLarty....................... A-
The Brooklyn Follies................................ Paul Auster........................... B+
Dewey....................................................... Vicki Myron............................ B+

Dreams From My Father........................... Barack Obama................... B+
From the Bottom Up................................ Chad Pregracke.................... B+
Hound of the Baskervilles......................... Sir Arthur Conana Doyle..... B+
Four Hour Work Week.............................. Tim Ferriss............................ B+
Being Peace............................................. Thich Nhat Hanh.................... B+

I Was Amelia Earhart................................ Jane Mendelsohn.................. B+
Blue Angel................................................... Francine Prose..................... B
Great Expectations..................................... Charles Dickens................... B
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius... Dave Eggers................ B-
A Long Way Down..................................... Nick Hornby............................ B-

The Heart of the World............................... Ian Baker................................. B-
The Audacity of Hope................................ Barack Obrama....................... B-
Coming Up for Air....................................... George Orwell......................... C
The River King............................................ Alice Hoffman........................... C+
Have A Little Faith....................................... Mitch Albom............................ C+

Breath, Eyes, Memory................................... Edwidge Danticat............... C+
Conscious Evolution..................................... Barbara Marx Hubbard........ C
The Letters of Abelard and Helois................................................................ C
Soul Cravings................................................ Erwin Raphael McManus...... C
Desire ............................................................Hugo Claus.............................. F

Bree Is Married!

Bree and Webb got Married!!! Congratulations!!!

I could post a million pics, but I won't b/c then you'd never be able to load the page.



And here is a link to more amazing photos: http://www.kaylabarker.com/?p=3842

The pics were taken by Kayla Barker from Spink Studio. Seriously she does an amazing job and you should hire her if you need a photographer for anything.

Congrats to Bree and Webb. I was so honored to be a part of the wedding party, the Maid of Honor, not to toot my horn or anything. Everything was beautiful and amazing.

PS: Oh, and because it was so amazing, I think I'm just going to count it as my wedding too because I won't be able to do a better job of organizing it than Bree did so why try. I'll just pack up a few friends and go on a 3 week vacation. I'm glad I've got that settled, now where is that pesky little fiance?

Chaco Deforestation

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/05/chaco-paraguay-deforestation


Chaco deforestation by Christian sect puts Paraguayan land under threat

Wildlife and the world's last uncontacted tribe both at risk as Mennonites turn Chaco forest into prairie-style farmlands

Born in the USA!

Yes, folks, I'm back for about 2 weeks in order to go to my bestest friend's, Bree, wedding in Dallas on the 9th.

After taking 3 long flights from Asuncion, Paraguay, to Sao Paulo, Brazil, to Mexico City, Mexico to Dallas, Texas...I have finally arrived. I left Paraguay at 5pm Dallas time on Wednesday and arrived in Dallas at about 12:30 in the afternoon on Thursday. I got to my parents' house, ate the still-warm apply pie that Grammy left me on the table, chatted for a bit, feel asleep, work again for a few hours, feel asleep for the rest of the night. Yes I was a little tired; I don't sleep on planes.

Adjusting to being in the US actually isn't bad. The first time I was out of the US for an extended period of time was when I studied abroad in Santiago, Chile. Santiago is a large city, but for some reason, dealing with the English was much more difficult, and I had a short incident whereupon I froze up after entering a Target.

This time around it wasn't too big of a deal. I went to Target, didn't freeze, though admittedly I did have to leave a little early because my heart was pounding. Have you ever seen those scenes in a movie with a person who can read minds, and they get overwhelmed because they understand everything and can't stop it?....It was kind of like that. In Paraguay I can easily block out people's conversations in Spanish or Guarani. I can easily ignore advertisements, random stuff written on walls, packages of stuff I'm not looking to buy. When when I got into Target I could read everything, understand every snipit of every conversation, without trying. After that Friday I got my zoning out threshold up to its proper English settings, and I was fine.

Another thing I noticed, umm, you all have really heavy accents. No, really. All of you. People in the PC have pretty neutral accents because we've mostly traveled all over. I only know of one guy, from South Carolina, who has an in-you-face accent. I was bowled over by how heavy most peoples' accents were. People who I thought had pretty neutral accents, well either I was wrong, or you have been watching too many repeats of Cops:Dallas ;) JK.

It wasn't a bad thing, it was actually kind of fun to hear it again. But I never noticed it before.

Explore. Dream. Discover

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover - Mark Twain

From the Advice Section on My Bag of Lentils

“Es ideal para deportistas, ancianos, estudiantes, y obreros, para tonificar sus musculos”

Translation: It is ideal for athletes, seniors, students and workers, to tone your muscles.

Exercise? Eat better? Nope, I just eat lentils man and I'm as toned as a tiger.

Kindness

Kindness
by Naomi Shihab Nye

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,

feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and
purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.

Peace Ya'll

If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbors.
If there is to be peace between neighbors,
There must be peace in the home.
If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.

– Lao Tzu (570-490 B.C.)

Feelin' The Burn

According to the bimonthly newsletter I received from the Peace Corps this morning, there are about 800 fires burning across the country. I’m going to assume that many of these are agricultural fires where farmers are burning off the dead grass from this winter. However they could be range/wild fires, who knows.

The results has been at least two miserable weeks of haze. It reminds me of years ago when there were huge range fires in Mexico and all of the smoke chocked the southern states. It is absolutely terrible. The lack of rain means all the roads are extra dusty. People are doing their best to keep it in check by watering the roads, but when the temperatures are in the 90’s, that method only works for so long. The mix of clay dust and smoke makes the air smell like a dirty wet dog. The sun looks like its setting around 1:30.

Thankfully we are supposed to get rain next week which will clear the smoke out of the air and hopefully put a stop to the fires.

Pics from the dirt road behind the international highway

Operation Ankle Tan

The dirt is red, West Texas red. I wear sneakers all of the time, even in the summer, because I can’t walk on the stone streets in flip flops. This has produced a fabulously tan line which is a mixture of, well, a tan, and I swear the red dust embedding itself into my skin. The tan is most marked around my ankles, where my haven’t-seen-the-sun-in-over-a-year feet meet my clay colored calves.

Because of the Bree’s upcoming wedding, I’ve made a distinct effort to try to eliminate this tanline by wearing pants instead of shorts and wearing socks that go above my ankle at the same time for double protection. Unfortunately the rosy hue is proving to be quite stubborn and I haven’t made much progress. I have a little over a month left before I go back to the US (OMG one month!), but unfortunately the weather has become much warmer lately, making pants less comfortable. We'll see how it goes.

Thankfully Bree has promised I can still be in the wedding, even with my oompa loompa legs and vampire feet.

New Sister G

Congratulations G33 on Swearing-in as official volunteers on Friday!

Thank you, Thank you, I’ll Be Here All Week...Actually Another Year

One year ago today I arrived in Campo 9 with two suitcases, a pack, a head full of plans, and a heart of full of hope

*Cheers *Aplauso

Thank you, Thank you all.

Yes, it has been a challenging year to say the least. Not a productive as I would have liked, but I feel some real momentum coming up and I’m really excited.

Today was also the first day I met my future mascota to be, Lila, which means she probably had her one year birthday last month. Woops, sorry. Happy Belated Birthday Lila!

Today was actually a productive day. I went and visited my community contact, who informed me of a wide-spread prostitution and AIDS problem in C9, which I wasn’t aware of. Now I know that might sadden those of you with less proactive hearts, but my first thought was: ‘Oh Oh, I can do some HIV/AIDS workshops! Awesome.’

Cinthia also signed my vacation request form, so I can turn it into the PC office. I’m on my way and sooooo excited.

I finally got off my bo-hiny and emailed a volunteer about how to make homemade yogurt. The kind here is really liquidy because they like to drink it, but it has made me violently ill on more than one occasion.

I discovered the beautiful wine colored fabric I purchased to cover the white foam board I’m using as a bulletin board matches Bree’s shirt perfectly in her Save The Date wedding card

I also have two little memories, that actually happen quite frequently and make me so happy.

1) I see the neighborhood kids feeding/petting Lila through the fence. This is a huge change from their reaction, which was to scream, run to the gate, and shake the chain link fence.




2) The boy then door hollering “Lilar!, Lilar!, Lilar!, Lilar!” at Lila to get her to come over. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work and she just runs into the garage, but it is still cute to hear him out there.

And They’re Off

Our sector, renamed Community Economic Development (CED), now has two major events: A leadership camp and an amorphous entrepreneurship workshop/conference/case competition thing.

Angelic was selected for the leadership camp and I was selected for the as-yet-undefined business thing.

And by ‘selected’ I mean G30 basically did a subtle but collective ‘Not it!’ , which sifted Angelic and I into those positions. I was planning on trying to lead the business event anyway, but being selected by the group without having to actually step forward was certainly good for my ego.

Amusingly Angelic was originally assigned to the Rural Economic Development(RED) sector, and she is leading what was originally a Muni camp; I was originally assigned to the Municipal Services Development (Muni)sector, but now I’m leading a RED event.

Not surprisingly, since most of the remaining people are from the Muni sector, most of the people in G30 are interesting in the leadership camp. Fortunately the new group from our sector, G33, seems to be very interested in the Entrepreneurship camps, so most of my volunteer back-up will probably come from them.

The new G is attending a meeting on Friday to help them decide which event they want to help plan. They can attend both, but we decided for now that people will only be on the planning committee for one or the other. We'll see how things sift out then...I can't wait. I haven't been this excited since I went to Brazil for a vacation.

World Wide School Match!

WWS Description:
“The Correspondence Match program facilitates correspondence between an educator, his or her students, and a currently serving Peace Corps Volunteer. Participants exchange letters, stories, artifacts, photos, e-mail messages, and even phone calls.”

I’ve been assigned to a Spanish class in a small town in Maine. Looking forward to communicating with the teacher to see how she wants me to work with her class.

If you’d like for me to speak with your class as well, please let me know. I’ve got the time . I’ll also be back in the states during the first two weeks of October, so if you are in the Dallas or Austin area, I might be able to come by your class.

Visit this site for more information or to sign up: http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/correspond/about.cfm

Lila Might Need Swimming Lessons

My water comes from one of two municipal wells. The water goes into a large tank above the house. In order to fill the tank, my landlords have to got to the tank and flip a switch or turn a knob in order to let the water in. When the tank is full, they have to manually turn the water off again or the tank will over flow. This means sometimes the tank goes empty. If it is during the day, the family is usually quick to refill it, however if it happens at night or during a weekend, I may have to do without.

Recently the tank dried up around 10pm, so it was too late for me to call the landlady to ask her to fill the tank. I can’t do it myself because they let their German Shepard run around in the yard at night.

After a while I realized I didn’t know if my sink faucet was in the on or off position, since out of habit I would try to turn it on.I was also amazed at how easy it was for my brain to build memories for me of the far right or left being the off position.

Normally this would not have been a problem since I had already showered and there was a full 2 liter water bottle in the refrigerator. When the landlady filled the tank again in the morning I would hear the water running if it was open. Mystery solved.

However this particular night I needed to catch a 4am bus to Asuncion, which meant leaving the house around 3am, which meant I was not going to be in the house when the family turned the water back on, which meant I was not going to know if the water was on or not when I left the house.

Just swell

I made an educated guess based on the way the shower and another faucet in the house were and the fact that when I turned on the shower a small stream of residual water came out, which made the sink gurgle. This would not have happened had the sink been turned off.

I turned the sink in the position I hoped would be off, caught my 4am bus and hoped Lila didn’t need to learn to swim.

My backup plan was that if the sink was on, my landlady would notice the tank was emptying really quickly and assume there was a leak somewhere. I left my key to my front door under my front mat inside of the garage in case I needed to let her into the house. She already has a key to the garage.

My other back up plan was that since the next day was a Sunday, maybe the family would go out for the day, not be able to refill the tank, thus stopping the leak by default.

Thankfully when I got into the house the next evening the floor was still dry; I guessed correctly and Lila is still sans swimming lessons.

Lila Pics

I haven't posted pics of Lila in a while, so here you go...


Lila being a food whore with Lindsay, the trainee who came and visited me.



Lila continuing to be a food whore by rummaging through my dirty dish bucket.

What Are You Looking at? Mystery Solved

A while back I mentioned that there was a Mother Mary sighting in my community, but I couldn't figure out exactly what people were looking at. Well I finally figured it out because they put up a shrine of sorts around the area.






Water splotch on a water tank above a building


'Water from the tank' A water spigot outside of the building that comes from the water tank.

Quite charitably, the owners of the building and the water tank haven't charged people to use take the water.

Cough Be Gone

I don't know what dexalergin or bisolvon are, but they have finally succeeded in getting the cough I've had for about 5-6 weeks under control.

Thanks Medical Mary.

Red Cross Blog

While helping the trainees locate my facebook profile I stumbled upon the goodbye blog entry the Red Cross posted when I left for the Peace Corps

http://redcrossaustin.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html

Aww, thanks guys. I miss you

And It All Comes Full Circle

I just put two trainees from my sister group, G33, back on the bus to their training communities *sad. This weekend was their volunteer visit; and looky there I’m a volunteer, so they came to me. Usually the PC only sends one trainee to each volunteer, so I was curious why I was getting two, a guy and girl, other than being and exemplarily volunteer of course. On Thursday had the epiphany that they must be married couple. Nope. Good try though.

It turns out both of them are doing presentations on the Construye Tus Sueños class I’m teaching. It is a new program so the trainers don’t know anything about it other than what is written in the manual, and I think I’m the only volunteer teaching it, so both Lindsay and Brett had the good fortune of being sent to visit yours truly. It was also lucky for them that I teach my CTS class on Friday nights, so they actually got to see the class in action.

Actually I was a bit mean. The trainees have only been in the country for about 3 weeks, so their Spanish is still developing. I had them do a critical thinking word problem with the class and lead a short discussion about a story involving a boy who wants to sell caramelos. They did very very well. I was most impressed by the fact that they didn’t balk when I suddenly told them they were going to be doing part of the class, oh 2 hours beforehand. If they keep that attitude up, I think they’ll do just fine as volunteers in a few months.

During the weekend I took them to the 2 good restaurants in my town, we visited another volunteer who was about to finish up his service, visited the muni, etc. I was sad that I didn’t get a chance to take them out for a night on the town. Campo 9 is pretty conservative, so there isn’t really a good socialization scene for anyone not in high school. I had planned to take them out for the night to Coronel Oviedo with some other volunteers and their trainees, but a certain someone didn’t call me to tell me when they went to Oviedo. You know who you are. I did feel bad about that because I remember that one of the best parts of my own volunteer visit, behind making pierogies, was going to a birthday party. Oh well, they can party it up another time.

On the third night Rachael, a volunteer who lives near me, came to stay the night because the rain made it difficult to get back to her site. Fortunately I have my big bed, which can hold 2-3 people and a spare 1.5 twin mattress that can hold 2, so everyone got to sleep in a bed.

The last night in particular ended with me in stitches from laughter as we all surfed through awkwardfamilyphotos.com, scary easter bunnies, www.textsfromlastnight.com, failbook.com, and learnfrommyfail.com

This morning we continued the theme with shitmydadsays via twitter, http://crazythingsparentssay.com/, and the best of Katt Williams and Eddie Izzard on youtube. Note to self: remember to ask for a dvd of their performances in the next care package. Oh what a night and morning. There is nothing like laughing at the misfortunes of others to bond volunteers together.

Ah yes, all and all a good few days. I did my best to convey to them all of the wisdom I’ve accumulated over the last year including
1) 1 mil chipa is gross
2) All of the people who work at the terminals on this ruta are effing s%*& heads
3) No, I don’t know what he said either
4) Please don’t be like g29; don’t do anything that threatens our ability to go to the Chaco, Alps, or Palace hotels. You are also responsible for making sure the rest of your g follows this rule
5) Yes there is a lot of gossip in the PC, the frightening thing is a high percentage of it is true
6) I told the trainees some of the crazy stories I had heard. Lesson: If you do something stupid, it will be remembered For-Ev-Er.


Other highlights:
Brett is allergic to rabbits and does a great Australian accent. Lindsay is my new microfinance guru. Both did a slight impression of Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally in the café when they took a nice hot shower in my newly installed shower head.

Yea I’m lucky, I’m definitely got the cool trainees.  Hope to see them around soon.

Wait, I’ve been here for a year! No me digas!

As of May 28thish I have been in Paraguay for 1 year and in Campo 9 for 9 months

I didn’t believe volunteers when they said it passes quickly, but it did. Actually I’d have to say that sometimes the days crawl by, but the weeks and months fly. It feels like I’ve only been here for 4-6 months.

So far 1/3 of my original group has left. We lost another one a week or so, which brings our current group to 12.

Work: I have my microbusiness class, which I’m very happy with. Though I wish I could have accomplished more by no; thus far it is my only notable project.

Living Situation: I lived with host families for 3 months during training and for another 7 months in-site. That is a lot by the way. Most volunteers only spend about 1-3 months in their host family’s house in-site. I’m so happy now that I’m in my own home. It took a while for it to stop feeling like Carly’s house and start feeling like mine, but I’m finally there

I’ve lived through a Paraguayan summer and winter without central air-conditioning or heating. The winter was hard, but only because I was living with a host family and had to get up and go to training at 6:30am every day, rain or shine. The summer was hot, but survivable. I’ve learned to tolerate if not appreciate the Paraguayans aversion to leaving the house during the rain. Unless it is on my micro business day and then I’m pissed because I want to have class.

Extracurricular Activities:

I’ve started learning the guitar. It is something I’ve always wanted to do, but never got around to. But now I can sing and play my heart out, out of tune, all I want in my little house without worrying about disturbing the people in the apartments around me.

I don’t have a TV and I don’t miss it at all. I have been able to see most of the big movies because I make a point of going to the theater when I’m in Asuncion.

I’ve read an obscene amount of books so far. I’m around 75.

I’ve almost lost all of the weight I gained during training and while living with host families.

I’ve learned how to be a much better cook. I was not bad in the US, but now, yea I can whip up about 5 different tasty meals with just tomatoes, onions, and green peppers.

Language: My Spanish has gotten better and worse. I speak Paraguayan Spanish pretty well, but I think I’d probably sound like an uneducated idiot anywhere else.

Guarani? What is that? Yea, Guarani hasn’t really been happening. I can say little things here and there, but not much.

Pets: Lila is doing awesome. I have no idea what I’ll do with her when I finish my PC service. Sometimes I lean towards taking her back to the US with me; sometimes I think it would be best to leave her with a volunteer.

Post PC: I’m strongly considering extending with the PC for another year, but into a different country. Hopefully with KIVA.

Newbies!!!
Not only have I been in here for a year, but my sister g (the g that is the same sector, but 1 year apart) arrived earlier this month. Tomorrow I’ll be hosting 2 of the volunteers in training. I can’t wait to meet them!

Haven't Electrocuted Myself...Yet

My shower-head has been a bit wonky for, well since Carly moved in. Of course when Carly lived here it was summer, so having a cooler shower didn’t matter.

However, winter is beginning to set in which left me with the option of taking an off-and-on warm shower or bucket bathing. Lately bucket bathes have been winning.

However I decided to try changing the old electric shower head. I put it off for the longest time because I don’t like playing around with electricity. I was not the kind of kid that needed to stick scissors in a socket to see if I’d really get a shock. I also was hoping to pawn the task off on a visiting volunteer, but that didn’t happen.

A few weeks ago I bought the showerhead, I decided to finally put it in yesterday, but realized I didn’t have anything to cut and strip the wires. So I gave myself a one day reprieve, when to the store, bought some pliers and waited until midday today.



[Yes, the red tape is electrical tape that is holding the wires together. No that is not the safest way to do it, but that is how the old one was set up, so I copied.The green wire is the grounding wire, but I don’t know how to ground it so it is probably just going to stay like that.]

Thus far the shower has been installed and seems to be working. :)

However, I’m still considering taking my g-mate’s advice to shower with my clothes on the first time I tried out the new shower-head. That way if I accidently kill myself at least I wouldn’t be butt-naked when someone finally finds me.

How an Electric Shower Head Works:

The unheated water goes into the shower head through a normal water pipe. The water enters the showerhead where it is heated, almost instantly, by an electrical current.

I turn on the electricity to the shower with a switch on my wall.

I control how hot or cold the water is by how much water I let come through. More water = colder, less water = warmer.

It is pretty cost efficient because I don’t waste tons of money with a hot water heater that runs all day and night when I only need hot water for a few minutes.

Random

I cut my middle finger with scissors yesterday while reinforcing the bottom of my fence with chicken wire to reduce the number of Lila escapes.

This excuses the sudden increase in typos, but not the fact that I tried to use the word 'astonishedily' in the last post.

--

We have had a Mother Mary sighting in my town. It is on the second story of a building near my house. They’ve put up a spotlight so that people can see it at night.

I’d take a picture, but for the life of me I really have no idea what everyone is looking at.

Whenever new people come to my house they usually have two reactions.

1) Your house really does look like a shed (per my directions in which I say my garage/front door looks like a shed)

2) Your rabbit is huge! A Paraguayan friend saw Lila for the first time and just started laughing, astonished that my conejita, isn’t really that ‘ita’ at all.

This reaction has been shared by volunteer friends who have had the chance to meet Lila, even those who have had their own pet rabbits.

In my personal opinion, anything smaller than my parents 70ish lb boxer qualifies as a ‘small’ pet. But that’s just me evidently.

Gee Thanks Guys

What’s that you say? A new home security device? I’m going for a new nature themed look at my house?

Nope, just the huge pile of rocks the guys who are cobbling my road dropped right in front of my front gate.

At least my neighbor is a nice guy. He helped move some of the bigger ones so that I could have a small path.

I miss Bree.

Heath Care Debate, Just Put Your Fingers in Your Ears and Hum

The health care debate is something I am really glad I was not in the US to see. I think if I had been there I would have gone into the woods, put my fingers in my ears and hummed. It looked ugly, real ugly, and I still have yet to see a news article that tells me what the new health care bill means. Fortunately Peace Corps was kind enough to send us a summary to help put us out-of-towners back into the loop.

On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” Public Law 111‐148, a complex piece of legislation.

Of particular interest to employees with children is the requirement that health insurance carriers allow adult children to stay on their parents' health care plan until they turn 26, instead of removing them from the policy when they turn 22. The effective date of this provision is the first day of the plan year that is six months following enactment of the law.

Other Highlights
The law will extend health insurance coverage to approximately 32 million Americans who are currently uninsured, making insurance available to an estimated 95 percent of non‐elderly citizens by 2019.

Starting in 2014 and by 2016, citizens must purchase insurance or pay a penalty. The penalty will be $95 in 2014, $325 in 2015 and in 2016 the greater of $695 or 2.5 percent of income. Families will pay half the amount for children, up to a cap of $2,250 per family. After 2016, penalties are indexed to the Consumer Price Index. Subsidies to purchase insurance in the form of tax credits are provided to individuals making up to $43,000 and to families of four making up to $88,000, or 400 percent of the federal poverty level. There is a hardship exemption for poorer Americans.

Health insurance exchanges will be created to make it easier for the self‐employed, the unemployed and small businesses to purchase less expensive coverage. The law would establish 50 insurance marketplaces, administered by the states, with insurance coverage that meets new federal standards. Small businesses with 25 employees or less and average wages of less than $50,000 will qualify for tax credits of up to 50% of the costs of providing health insurance.

Employers are not required to provide health insurance coverage, but the law penalizes companies that do not provide coverage if they have 50 or more employees (full‐time equivalents). The penalty is a tax of $2,000 per employee. However, assistance is provided for mid‐size businesses by exempting the first 30 employees when calculating the tax. For example, a business with 51 employees would pay the $2,000 penalty on only 21 (51‐30) employees for a total of $42,000 instead of $102,000. Waiting periods before insurance takes effect will be limited to 90 days.

Insurance companies will be prevented from denying coverage for pre‐existing conditions, cancelling coverage for sick people, having unlimited out‐of‐pocket expenses and charging higher premiums based on a person’s medical history or gender.

Medicaid would be expanded to cover everyone with income less than 133 percent of the federal poverty level‐‐$29,327 for a family of four.

Medicare prescription drug coverage: Under current law, Medicare stops covering drug costs after more than $2,830 is spent, but starts paying again after an individual’s out‐of‐pocket expenses exceed $4,550. Under the new law, seniors who hit the gap (so‐called “donut hole”) this year would get $250 to help cover the costs of their medications. Starting in 2011, they would receive a 50‐percent discount on brand‐name drugs, with the cost borne by the drug industry. In subsequent years, the discounts would expand and begin covering generic drugs, with the expense picked up by the Government. By 2020, the discounts would reach 75 percent.

Over the next 10 years, the cost of the plan is projected to be $940 billion and to decrease the federal deficit by $143 billion. To pay for the plan, Medicare outlays will be reduced by eliminating waste, fraud and abuse. Starting in 2013, single taxpayers making $200,000 or more and couples earning $250,000 or more will see a 0.9‐percent increase in Medicare payroll taxes and a 3.8‐percent Medicare tax on unearned income. Starting in 2018, a 40‐percent tax will be imposed on insurance companies providing high‐level (so‐called “Cadillac”) plans valued at more than $10,200 for individuals and $27,500 for families. The thresholds are higher for retirees and employees in high‐risk professions ($11,850 for individuals and $30,950 for families).

Major Provisions With Effective Dates

Within 90 days of enactment
Provides access to high‐risk pools for individuals who have no insurance because of pre‐existing conditions.

Within six months
Prohibits insurers from rescinding policies to avoid paying medical bills when a person becomes ill.
Prohibits insurers from denying coverage to children (under the age of 19) who have pre‐existing conditions.
Prohibits insurers from imposing lifetime caps on coverage.

Within a year
Provides a $250 rebate to Medicare prescription drug plan participants whose initial benefits have been exhausted.
Requires new plans to provide coverage for preventive services without co‐pays. All plans must comply by 2018.

2011
Requires individual and small group market insurance plans to spend 80 percent of premium dollars on medical services. Large group plans will have to spend at least 85 percent.

2013
Imposes limits on contributions to flexible spending accounts to $2,500 per year, indexed by the Consumer Price Index in subsequent years.
Increases the Medicare payroll tax and extends the tax to dividends, interest and other unearned income for individuals earning more than $200,000 and joint filers making more than $250,000.
Requires health plans to implement uniform standards for electronic exchange of health information to reduce paperwork and administrative costs.
Eliminates the Employer Medicare Part D deduction for subsidizing prescription drug plans for eligible retirees.

2014
Requires most employers to provide coverage or face penalties.
Requires most people to obtain coverage or face penalties.
Provides subsidies for families earning up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level, or approximately $88,000 a year, to purchase health insurance.

2018
Imposes a 40‐percent tax on high‐end insurance policies.

2019
Expands health insurance coverage to 32 million Americans.