My B-day

I have to confess, I didn’t realize that Wednesday was my birthday until my friend Monica (and spotted seal) wished me a happy birthday a day early.

This month is really busy, so I wasn’t able to do anything special in particular, but I figure I’d give you a rundown of what my days have been like.

A Day In the Life of Me- January Edition:

4:40am- Wake up

5am- Leave the house to walk to the ruta to meet up with the morning walking group

5:30am- Walking group arrives

6:40 Finished walking, go home

7am-Get home, feed small furry animals. Walk the carnivorous, non-litter box trained one.

8:20am-Walk across town to give out application to my business taller

9:30am- Get home and shower

10am-Go to Julia’s house to play Uno with her English class (learning colors and numbers)

11:30am-Start making norte style breakfast for lunch. We realize that 1) Julia’s stove is out of gas 2) cooking pancakes on a not non-stick surface is miserable. So we go to my house to finish the pancakes and scrambled eggs. I wash some laundry while Julia cooks.

[Julia’s perfect (no seriously) pancakes. They were wonderful ambassadors for Catalina, who has never has US style pancakes]

2:30pm-Finish lunch, I go back home for NAP TIME!

5:00pm-Wake up from nap, update roster for exercise class

5:30pm-Go to internet café to print roster

6:10pm-Arrive at the sports fields for the exercise class

6:30-7:30pm-Exercise class.

8:15pm-Get home, feed furry children, talk with Julia, start planning tomorrow’s health presentation

11:30pm-Go to bed

If today is any representation about how my 25th year is going to go, I'm going to be a very busy lady.

Happy New Year!

Meet Julia and Moab

About a month ago I was gifted by Peace Corps with a new site mate Julia,, at least for the time being. She will actually be living in a small neighborhood about 5 km north of me, but she is spending her first few months with her community contact who lives here in Campo 9.

I’ve really been enjoying having a site mate again; I’d forgotten how awesome it is. This might not be the same for all volunteers, but I definitely get more done with another Norte around. An added bonus is Julia just adopted a puppy. She knew she wanted a pet so I’d had my eye out for stray puppies or kitties. While we were inquiring about a goat for another volunteer, we noticed the family had a little puppy amongst their 5 or so other dogs. It was love at first site for Julia. She had to have her.

The only recommendation I gave her was that she should absolutely not pay for the dog. It is an adorable little thing, but a Paraguayan mestizo mutt through and through, and there are plenty of free strays that pop up all of the time. Also it would also encourage people to take advantage of Julia in the future, since paying for the dog would have meant she clearly didn’t have good money sense. Fortunately the family was fine with the adoption.

About a week later (yesterday), we went to the family to pick up the dog. As it turned out, there had been some confusion as to which dog Julia wanted to adopt. They thought she wanted one of the adult dogs for some reason. But we cleared it up and took the little bundle of joy to my house.

I told Julia she is welcome to leave the little girl at my house whenever she wanted since Julia is still living with a Paraguayan family, so the puppy last night with me.

After bringing her home, Julia decided to name her Moab (as in Utah), because the dirt there is the same as Moab’s fur. We call her ‘Mo’ for short. I’ve also been calling her Mojito, Mojo, and when she is being less than perfect…My Little MoFo.

This is Julia’s first dog, so I’ll be helping her train it up Norte style, in case Julia decides to take her the US.

I was the odd predicament of not knowing how old Mo is or what her eating habits are like. Turns out she can eat solid foods and drinks water, which makes things easier. I’ve actually recommended to Julia that she make Moab’s food, as opposed to giving her table scraps which is what most of the dogs eat, or the dry dog food, which is expensive and pretty useless nutritionally. Considering how small Mo is, Julia could probably make a week’s worth of food pretty cheaply and easily.

(Lila with Tia Julia, trying to steal her apples)

It has been a while since I’ve helped raise a puppy, and I forgot how much I enjoy it. As much as I love and adore Lila, I am a dog person at heart. Speaking of Lila, she and Moab are getting along quite tolerably. I have to watch them like a hawk to teach Moab not to chase or chew on Lila. Fortunately Lila is a good deal larger and much faster than Mo, so she can hold her own I walk out of the room for a second.

(Where is Waldo: Puppy Edition...Can you find her?)

(There she is! Taking morning siesta #3.)

What a wonderful way to spend New Year’s Eve. So much fun to be an Auntie again.

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. “