Rabbits Sneeze

Fun Fact: Rabbits sneeze when they get water up their nose (and its adorable)

I get to be an aunty again! Meet my VAC-mates new puppy Saraki (Sarah-Key)...

It means 'playful' in Guarani.

Ouch!

I think I broke my toe L

I was visiting a friend on the 17^th to help him do a map project with some other volunteers. I remember John telling Carly to watch out for the concrete lip because everyone trips on it. At the time I couldn’t figure out what concrete lip he was talking about.

Guess what? I found it.

I was walking to the bathroom, which was not connected to his house, around 3am. My foot located the mystery 'lip', a bit of concrete on the sidewalk an inch or two higher than the rest. I was doing a quick shuffle back to the house in my flip flops so my big toe hit the concrete full on.

I couldn’t put my shoes on for about 3 days. It still hurts, almost two weeks later, which leads me to assume that its broken not just badly jammed. Also, I have a tendency of ramming it against the legs of my table, which I don't think is going to help the healing process.

(My toe all bandaged up. I've finally gotten used to wearing my flip flops in between the wrong toes )

Granted there isn't really anything to be done about it, but still...no fun

..AND I think that John should find glow in the dark paint and mark the lip, just to help point it out in the future.

Looking for Some Reading Material?

Thus far in PC, I've had quite a bit of reading time. Following is a list of the first 50 books I read along with a rating.

The formatting isn't perfect, but if it looks really crazy try increasing (CNTL +) or decreasing (CNTL -) your view of the page and it all of the books, authors, and ratings should semi line up.

Lamb....................................................Christopher Moore.......A+ I am a Stranger Here Myself...........Bill Bryson.......................A+ The Handmaidens Tale.....................Mary Atwood..................A+ Couch...................................................Benjamin Parzybok.......A+ Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder....................Richard Louv................................A+

We Need to Talk About Kevin.........Lionel Shriver................A+ 2 Ears of Corn.....................................Roland Bunch....................A Namesake............................................Jhumpa Lahiri..................A In a Sunburned Country...................Bill Bryson........................A The Stories of Eva Luna....................Isabel Allende...................A

Daughter of Fortune..........................Isabel Allende..................A Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them..Al Franken.............A The Darwin Conspiracy.....................John Darnton...................A The Devil in the White City..............Erik Larson......................A Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows......J.K. Rowling...........A

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.....J.K. Rowling...........A Water for Elephants..........................Sara Gruen........................A Look Me in the Eye...........................John Elder Robison..........A Snow Flower and the Secret Fan....Lisa See..............................A The Alchemist....................................Paulo Coelho......................A

Labyrinth............................................Kate Mosse........................A The Shockwave Rider.......................John Brunner....................A The Places in Between......................Rory Stewart..................A- Into the Wild......................................Jon Krakauer..................A- The Worst Hard Time......................Timothy Egan..................A-

On Nature..........................................Editor: Lee Gutkind........A- Author and George...........................Julian Barnes....................A- The Mermaid Chair..........................Sue Monk Kidd................A- The Book of Useless Information...Noel Botham...................A- After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away.........................................Joyce Carol Oates............A-

Running with Scissors.....................Augusten Buroughs..........A- Gods Behaving Badly......................Marie Phillips...................A- The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy...Douglas Adams.....B+ The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.Douglas Adams.B+ Cesar's Way.....................................Cesar Milano......................B+

Life, the Universe and Everything...Douglas Adams...........B+ Marley and Me...................................John Grogan....................B Mango Elephants in the Sun............Susana Herrera.................B Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History..........................................Laurel Thatcher Ulrich........B Wherever You Go, There You Are......................................................Jon Kabat-Zinn................B

Hope, Human and Wild.....................Bill McKibben...................B Salt.......................................................Mark Kurlansky..............B Salt Dancers........................................Ursula Hegi......................B Old Mr. Flood.....................................Joseph Mitchell................B Hairstyles of the Damned................Joe Meno............................B

Mostly Harmless..............................Douglas Adams....................B The Loop...........................................Joe Coomer.......................B- The Island of Lost Maps.................Miles Harvey...................B- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius...Dave Eggers..B-The Bitch Posse................................Martha O'Connor.............C+

Blue Latitudes..................................Tony Horwitz....................C+ Beauty and Sadness........................Yasunari Kawabata............C Cruddy..............................................Lynda Barry......................C Strange as the Weather Has Been..Ann Pancake.....................D At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig...John Gimlette..................F

Dirty Old Man Ruins My Workday Mojo.

The last day or so has been quite productive. I’ve started working with the Education and Environmental funcionarios at the Muni to do an Environmental project with the schools. Today I got up early and wrote out a project plan for them at the office. Then I went to the grocery store.

On the way home from the grocery store there is a older man who is always sitting on his porch, sometimes chatting with a buddy, sometimes just hanging out by himself. I generally say hello to him as I pass down that street. He has never said anything rude to me and he is nice to the street dogs so I generally say hello to him as I pass down that street.

I was having a good day so when he started talking to me, more than just his usually hello, I decided to stop and chat when he waved me over.

The conversation was nice and normal at first. He speaks very clearly for a guy and knows a bit few words in several languages, which as entertaining. He didn’t act like a complete goob when I told him I’m a vegetarian, which was refreshing. All in all it was a nice little chat at first.

He did the standard calling my ‘Linda’ (which means pretty) instead of ‘Lyn’ which is annoying but harmless. After I mentioned I was a vegetarian he told me his refrigerator is full of good stuff and that I’m welcome to help myself at anytime. Not sketchy yet because Paraguayans are actually very hospitable.

Then he mentions multiple times how he lives there alone, and gives me a list of how pretty my eyes and hair, and lips, etc are. At this point we officially move out of normal highly complimentary conversation to icky icky ville. Then he starts mentioning how he likes me and could make me very happy. I tell him I have a boyfriend but he isn’t ruffled at all. He just how my boyfriend and I are a thing and he and I can be a seperate thing.

Great.

While we’re talking, I’m putting up roadblocks now that I realized what is going on. He jokes about he would ‘pegar’ me, it means hit literally but he was using it in a friendly ‘Oh I could just whack you for saying that’ kind of way. Fortunately he had been feeding a street dog some meat and hadn’t washed he hands so he only backhanded my leg once. And then he starts mentioning more and more about how he is alone in the house and inviting me in. At which point I say I need to put my vegetables from the grocery in the fridge so I need to go home. He ever the gentleman offers his fridge.

And I leave.

Ewy ewy ewy!!!

Ugg, he totally ruined my good day momentum from writing the project proposal that morning. And now I’m going to have to ignore him when I walk on that street because obviously giving him a polite hello is just too hot for him to handle. Thanks skeevy street man. Thanks a lot.

At least it didn’t rain today.

Post PC

I may have I just figured out what I am going to do after my 2-year service in-site is done in 1.5 years.

I’ve been a big fan of KIVA [kiva.org], an online microfinance organization, for a while. They have unpaid volunteers, Fellows, that do the in-country portion of the work. These individuals are the ones who directly interact with the lending institutions and the people receiving the loans.

Peace Corps allows volunteers, after their initial 2-years of service, to extend their service period. This time can be served in:
1) The volunteers’ original site doing their original job,
2) In the main PC office in Asuncion doing a variety of jobs from tech assistance for volunteers to preparing sites for new volunteers
3) In Paraguay, usually in Asuncion, working with an NGO or other organization
4) In another PC location outside of Paraguay, on a specific project that the PC office in that country is asking for.

When volunteers extend their service, even if they are working with and NGO, thyme still get paid like a normal volunteer.

KIVA is in Paraguay as well as other Latin American countries. So the ideal plan for me would be to become extend my PC service for a year and become a Fellow with KIVA.

I’m fairly certain they would let me do it if I asked to stay in Paraguay, but I’d really like to serve in a different country. That is where the snag is. Usually if you go another PC country, usually it is because that country has requested someone, not because the volunteer has a project idea. But it might work. PC is really pushing for extendees.

Lila’s Lawnmowing Services

In February, mom sent me a care package with some goodies, one of which was an adorable pink and green bunny harness and leash. I wanted the harness so I could let Lila outside to run around and eat grass without having to worry about her escape artist tendencies that have led her to always manage to find some way out of her cages.

However, Lila did not take to the harness right away. In fact she was downright incensed at the notion of having her range of motion restricted. Basically she freaked out and started tearing and chewing on it the minute I put it on her.

One memorable night she turned her pen into a hamster cage.

Strangely, once I moved into Carly’s house, she has pretty much stopped fighting it. She still gnaws on the leash occasionally. But for the most part, she is too distracted by all of the nice fresh green grass and the world outside of her cage to launch an all out attack on her new accessories.

An added benefit is that Carly and my days of macheteing the grass may be over. We don’t have a lawnmower, cow, or a goat, which are pretty much the only alternatives to macheteing the grass to keep it from jungle length. However Lila has been doing a damn fine of thus far of keeping the grass at a reasonable level. We can’t putt on it, but at least we aren’t those neighbors.

Moving on Up...

I've finally moved out of the host family's house and into Carly's house. Wooohoo.

Nati's Pets

Nati from my host family now has:

Living Pets:
1 poodle named Lady
1 rabbit
1 cat


Death Count:
1 rabbit
2 baby guinea pigs

She also had about 10 chicks which have now been integrated into the coop with the adult chickens and have slowing been making their way onto the family’s lunch menu.