2/3 of my mealscome in slushy form. I force myself toeat 1 real meal per day, but some of it always ends up going to Tucker b/c hotfood makes me feel sick

I realize siestawas put in place as a safety measure. It keep you out of the sun during the most brutal parts ofthe day, which gives you a chance to hydrate, take a nap, and avoid exertingyourself.

However it also keepsindividuals from beating each other into a pulp from heat rage. Case and point, around 3pm today I wasupdating the attendance list for my exercise class. During the previous class, one lady pointedout that her name was spelled incorrectly, but told me she would write itagain. While looking at the sheet todayhowever, I realized she had written it in illegible cursive, the same way shehad written it initially. And naturallyI still couldn’t read it. This is a petpeeve of mine and I’ve told the class many times I can’t read their cursive andthey need to write in print, but alas some still write their names down likewanna be doctors. So I started shouting to no one in part “God Damn itNinfa! I still can’t read this shit! Whythe hell didn’t you write this shit in print when clearly I couldn’t read it thefirst damn time!” Or something to that effect. So yes, siesta isimportant to keep people still and quiet and not angry.

To keep cool I filla bucket with water to put my feet in. They will stay there for 2-3 hoursusually. If things get really bad, I putice in the bucket as well.

My favoritepossession, other than my fan, is a wet hand towel that currently resides inthe freezer or on my neck.

My air conditionerconsists of putting my fan in front of my window and blowing the cool night airinto my house before I go to bed.

I have becomepartially nocturnal. I make an effort tostay up until 2-3am so that I will sleep as late as possible, usually 10 or11am if I’m really lucky. After about10:30 it usually gets too hot to stay in bed and I have to get up and start taking more active cooling measures. At 6:30 am the sunstarts to shine through my windows, at which point I get up, let Tuckeroutside, and shut my front windows, locking in as much of the cool air aspossible. If necessary I go and do morning errands, come back to the house, liedown, and try to take a long nap. I amlike an ostrich sticking my head in the sand; maybe if I go to sleep I canpretend it isn’t blazing hot outside.

If the humidity ishigh the house never really cools down completely even at night. Its sticks around like old chewed gum. Thankfully the fan makes up for thedifference.

My house splitsperfectly into an east and west side. Inthe morning I close the east facing windows and let the cooler, west facingrooms take the edge off of the hot eastern walls. In the evening I close off the Westside roomsto lock the heat over there and let the eastside rooms. It’s a delicate dance, but I’ll do just aboutanything to keep the house a few degrees cooler.

It gets really hotand humid a few days before it rains. These days are almost unbearable. I confess I’ve almost cried from frustration a couple of times. But thankfully, when the rains come through,the temp drops into the low 90’s maybe even, joy of joys, the high 80’s. The humidity lowers again until the nextstorm comes through.

I have not hadrunning water inside of my house since December 29th. There is one faucet outside that comes onbetween 10:30 and 12:30 at night, which gives me a chance to fill the eight2-liter bottles, bucket, kettle, and a large jar I use to store water for thenext day.

Wearing pants and ashirt, at the same time, is sometimes asking too much.

I spilled half aglass of ice water on my shorts, after the initial cold shock I decided it wasactually an improvement on my previous condition and continued my work.

I got a call todayfrom a number I didn’t recognize the number and assumed it was one of myexercise ladies calling to tell me she wasn’t going to be able to make it toclass tomorrow, so I didn’t pick up. Igot a text a few seconds later, with a message from Don, our country director,asking me to call him.

“Shit, they're closing the office” was my immediate reaction.

While I copy Don onmany of my email messages, he and I don’t talk on the phone ever. So I knew getting a call from him probablywasn’t a good thing. It wasn’t; the Regional Office is closing.

When I first gotthis job I was amazed at how fast Dee called me back with the news. I told her “Good news travels fast, bad newsusually takes a while.” People lingerover bad news, hoping the situation will change, hoping the numbers willchange, not wanting to ruin someone’sday. For several months now the futureof the Regional Office has been in question. I knew Don and Dee really like the idea of aRegional office, and when we were set to expand, it made complete sense. But the economic situation in the US canceledthe planned influx of volunteers and cut our budget. I knew without seeing them then numbers weren’tpretty and weren’t working in our favor. I think we were all hoping for a Hail Mary budget turnaround, but itdidn’t happen. The hanging doubt overthe future of the office made it clear to me the office was closing, it wasonly a matter of when.

“If the office isopen in 6 months; it will be open in 5 years” and my hopes aren’t high, is whatI told a fellow volunteer. If they could find a way to make the office work inthe short term, with the current budget, I knew they would be able to make itlast in the long run. That was about 2months ago.

I don’t know whatthey are going to do with me or when the office is closing its doors. Don was tired and very apologetic on thephone, sorry that he couldn’t deliver the news in person. Hejust got back from the states after traveling to give Emily back to her family. It has been a tough few weeks in Peace Corpsand I hope he gets to deliver some good news soon.

Hopefully they’lllet me stay in San Ignacio until after the exercise competition is over. It would be unfortunate to lose the momentum I’vestarted building with the 150 women who have attended my class here. I also have become quite attached to thevolunteers down here. Misiones inparticular is a special place and Asuncion has never had any appeal for me. I don’t know what I would do with Tuckereither if I had to move again. There isalso a meeting I wanted to schedule between all of the volunteers in Misionesand the Governor and his staff, as well as some small workshops I wanted to puttogether. Maybe they’ll let me be aRegional Coordinator, just without the office. I’ll miss the air conditioning, but I can still get a considerableamount of work done on my own. Hell, myhouse is big enough. If they gave me thecopy and printer, I’d be almost as good as the existing office.

That said I’d alsolike to work more with Dee, who is an absolute rockstar in my eyes.

Who knows what is goingto happen. Don said we’d talk moretomorrow and start working out. I’m justglad to know one way or the other, officially. Limbo is no fun. No hard feelingsthough. I knew Don and Dee tried theirhardest to make it work. But they haveto do what is best for everyone not just little ole’ me. Fortunately this probably couldn’t havehappened to a better person. Working inambiguous situations is something I’m extremely good at. Hopefully they’ll realize and remember thatand will be able to write me a fabulous recommendation someday. J

I’ll let you knowmore when I do. Till then I’ve got someroasted cauliflower to eat, a p90x plyometrics workout to test out, and aworkout routine to tweak for tomorrow’s class.

Emily's Memorial Service at the Peace Corps Office

The event startedaround 7:30pm with a full house, more than attended the Peace Corps DirectorWilliams visit one speaker noted. Speeches began with Nikki Briggs, Emily best friend as Master ofCeremonies, speeches from Elisa, our sector director, Dee the assistant countrydirector, a letter from Aaron Williams, the global Peace Corps Director, and avideo tribute from Emily’s G. Briggs didan absolutely amazing job of keeping herself collected most of the time; I wasquite impressed. If it had been Bree,I’d be a puddle of the floor for the forseeable future. The video tribute wasn’t quite finished, butwhat we were see was so touching. G33 isa very close, very special G, and that comes out crystal clear in the video.

After the initial speeches, the rest of usattending the ceremony were allowed to share our own memories of Emily. The service started around 7:30 and endedafter 11pm I think, so you can only image how many people got up to speak. Some of her Gmates who we didn’t get to see in the video spoke, some added to their video comments, some of us who didn’t know her as closely shared the momentswe had with her too. Even people whodidn’t know Emily, but were still touched and detested by the loss of one ofour own spoke eloquently about the Peace Corps Paraguay family. Final words weregiving by Santiago’s family, Emily’s fiancé.

Some people made uscry (I’m looking at you Dee), some made us laugh, some gave us a greaterappreciation of our experience in this country and the people sitting next tous. It was a wonderful tribute to awonderful person.

At the end of theceremony a dove was released in Emily’s honor. The Peace Corps logo is a star coming off of an American flag andbecoming a dove; Emily also had a tattoo that read “She flys on her ownwings”. The dove, who had been sittingin a box in the air conditioned office most of the day, flew up… and over…andstraight into the glass wall of the hallway surrounding our medical office!

After the shockwore off, and quickly confirming the bird had not injured itself, everyoneburst into laughter. The bird flew awayof its own accord a little while later. Nowwhenever I start getting misty about the whole situation, I just think aboutthat damn bird and it makes me smile. Emily had a great sense of humor; I think she would have appreciated themoment.

That Personby James Shelley, November 3, 2011

Readability | Instapaper

That person. The one you keep running into and your conversation always goes like this: “We really should grab a coffee sometime and catch up.”That person. You know you share something in common with them, but you’re not exactly sure what that commonality is yet.That person. You have no agenda other than a stirring curiosity about the way they think and the way they look at the world.That person. Somehow you’ve both let iCal, Outlook, Blackberry, and Quo Vadis get in the way of actually being together.That person. This is just a little reminder that today you need to…☑ Contact that person.

On Sunday morning my fellow volunteer, Emily Balog, was driving home with her boyfriend after spending the weekendcelebrating Thanksgiving with her Training groupsmates. Their car somehow went out of control, hittinga minivan containing a music group headed towards the capital. Emily died instantly, several others arestill in the hospital in critical condition.

I didn’t know Emilywell, we chatted a couple of weeks ago when she asked me for material aboutnutrition and health classes she wanted to start in her community. I did know her well enough to know she was a talented, passionate, creative person. She will be greatly missed by the PeaceCorps family.

Even thosevolunteers who don’t know her have been profoundly affected by this loss. Peace Corps Paraguay is an great extendedfamily. Your g-mates and vac matesbecome your immediate family, RPCVs are like grandparents and great aunts anduncles, and everyone else in-country will back you up at the first word if the need arises.

It is astoundingthe amount of trust that instantly develops between volunteers. I like to joke that the only people on earthwho can actually understand what I’m saying at all times are other volunteers. During our darkest and most challenging timesduring our service, our volunteer network pulls us through. Whether it is having 2 hours conversations in10 minutes increments (we get the 1st 10 minutes free a call, so weset timers to cut the call just before then), dropping everything to go visit afriend in need, hosting a friend and binging on True Blood, ArrestedDevelopment…, we do whatever is needed to take care of one another. Losing part of that community is devastating.

Tomorrow is thememorial service at the Peace Corps office. The admin team is being very generous and offering to reimburse traveland hotel expenses for volunteers who would like to attend. I am really thankful to live at a post thattakes care of us so well.

Good bye Emily. You will be missed.

PS: I’m pretty surea considerable number of volunteers knew about the accident before it wasannounced to the family. Most volunteershave the sense of courtesy to transmit this information via phone, but someposted took to Facebook. Those postswere removed when volunteers realized the family hadn’t been informed, but theSpanish ones on her wall stayed posted. I can only hope the family didn’t see the messages before hearing fromPeace Corps.

Since onlineculture and etiquette is still being developed, I’d like to put it out therethat perhaps in the future people should avoid outing a story like this for atleast 24 hours. The family and closefriends are going to need at least that amount of time to be contacted andstart making their own calls. Personally, I waited to post until I saw there was a new story in one ofthe Paraguayan papers.

I will say I'm happy that people have been good about distributing the various news stories without linking them to her profile. It would be very irritating if the same story describing the accident was posted repeatedly on her wall. That or her privacy settings are keeping it from happening. Either way, puntos for everyone using facebook tagging respectfully.

Christmas scented airfresheners being advertised before Halloween! Black Friday starting on Thanksgiving evening! People rioting andgetting maced!

What the heck is goingon up there!?

And you wonder why Iavoid the holiday season. I wisheveryone could spend at least one holiday season not in the US or any placethat celebrates like the US so you could see how not miserably crazy andstressful things can be.

Julia and Casey stayedwith me for a few days for Thanksgiving. As generally happens when any number of volunteers get together, we madeamazing food and watch way too many movies.I made a cinnamon bunbread that was positively amazing. Wealso made hamburgers and French fries, success here as well. The hummus, potatoes, and apply pie, wereequally amazing.

Sadly the movingwatching did not turn out as well.

We watched BreakingDawn, Cowboys and Aliens, and Red Riding Hood. All of which were as bad as the critics have said. Breaking Dawn suffersfrom it usual bad acting in all Twilight films and the fact that I don’t completely understand whyall of the menfolk are so twitterpated with such a shell of a female character. There was no independent plot and its clearparts 1 and 2 should not have been separatedsince their isn’t enough substance in BD#1 to actually sustain an independentmovie.

Cowboys and Aliensdidn’t have to be bad. The acting wasgood, but the plot was completely predicable. You never got the sense the characters were actually in danger. I think it would have been salvageable withthe same basic plot if the movie had been funny, but as is, it too itself fartoo seriously.

I’m not sure what waswrong with Red Riding Hood. Again, theacting wasn’t bad, but the was just something not engaging about the plot. There is this whole mystery about who is thewolf, except they don’t do a good job procedurally of leading the viewerthrough the mystery. Again, anotherbust.

So total fail with ourmovie watching experience, but made better by the company of good friends... and a few glasses of wine.

PS: Also found out there was an animated 3D movie called "Mars Needs Moms" that totally failed. Reeeeally, never could have seen that coming

After going to thelocal casino in San Ignacio for their Thursday Karoke night, my friend Caseyand I decided it would be awesome to host a Thanksgiving dinner in San Ignacio. We could have a big early dinner at myhouse or the office and then go to the casino for some singing, dancingfun. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to getenough people to commit to coming, so I invited myself to my friend Melissa’sThanksgiving in her site in Villa Florida. Villa Florida is on a river and Melissa had already arranged to have herdinner at a hotel with a pool. River/Pool is a very fair exchange for Karoke.

Casey made garlicpotatoes, Julia made hummus, and I made apple pie that morning, caught one of theonly double decker buses (with ac!) that will actually stop in San Ignacio withoutcharging the full price all of the way to the capital, even if you want to getoff sooner. Amazingly they charged Caseyand me the normal price (it was such a nice bus they could have charged up to50% more), and they completely forgot to charge Julia at all.

(Pie and Potatoes on the Double Decker Bus)

We were all dressedup, so there was a lot of rubber necking going on while we waited at the busstop, including 5-6 of the local police officers piled into their truck cruisingaround, and a set of guys in a truck who let their vehicle roll back 4 car lengths so their car would be waitingin front of us instead of at the stoplight they were at.

We got to VillaFloriday around 3, having only picked at food around my house and finishing offthe hamburgers I made the night before so we were getting hungry. We found out dinner wasn’t going to happen until about 7pm, so after a quick dipin the pool we heated up some pita bread and broke open some Lays and went totown on the hummus. I have to say, it’sthe best batch I’ve helped make. I thinkI might just have to stop making it because I don’t think I’ll be able to topit.

In true HoraParaguaya fashion, the locals didn’t start arriving for dinner until 9-10pm,after Melissa messaged them tell them to get to the hotel because the turkeywas done and we were ready to eat. Potluck style dinners aren’t really the norm, the host usually provideseverything. But Melissa’s friends did agood job of bringing additional dishes and we had a nice assortment ofdifferent meat dishes, potato salad,empanadas, etc.

Julia, Casey and Ihad eaten so much hummus that we could hardly take advantage of the maincourse. But we did our best. Julia made a serious dent in the sausageplate in front of her, like there was an actual divot in the cut sausagepile. Admittedly it was really good.

Before we cut theturkey, we each went around the table saying what we were thankful for, a newtradition for the locals, who were very hesitant at first, especially the fewstragglers that came after the main group had gone and started eating. But Melissa held firm and told them theycouldn’t eat until they shared.

I was surprised howsome of the guests actually seemed ot like the hummus we made. It had a really strong flavor, which usually Paraguayansdon’t like. The potatoes didn’t go overreal well since we put a bunch of pepper and garlic. The apple pie, which was very tart and cinnamon,didn’t go over very well either, since they prefer their desserts very sweetand sugary. Not that Julia, Casey, and Iwere at all perturbed by this. Casey atethe last half piece for breakfast the next morning, most of it was polished offwhile waiting for the bus that evening.

We left around 11pmto catch a bus back to San Ignacio, got charged the correct price again!Amazing! Got back into San Ignacio a little after midnight and started walkingthe 15minutes back to my house. As wedid a carful of guys offered us a ride, we declined, and declined, and declinedagain. They even offered to get out of their car and walk with us. No thanks gents. They eventually got the messageand went away. Like I said ,we werelooking pretty fancy, even if we felt like whales.

I admit it, I'm hooked. I blazed through the 5 books in two weeks. Considering they are ~800-1000 pages long each, well, let’s just say the laundry is a little backed up and I should probably make a meal that doesn’t consist of squash stir-fry or I’m going to start turning orange. I also devoured the first season on HBO in a few days.

The sad part is that season two won’t be available until next year, and the next books, well, it took the author 6 years to go from book 4 to 5. Hopefully he won’t keep me waiting until I’m forty to finish the series. That would make my crush on Jon Snow, ~17 years old in the books, but played by a 24 year-old actor in the TV series, very inappropriate. Hopefully covering a book per season will help keep him on a reasonable timeline.

And speaking of Jon Snow, I’d like the record to reflect my prediction that Lyanna Stark is Jon’s mother and Rhaegar Targaryen is his father (not Ned Stark).

Lila: Lila is still gone. She disappeared almost exactly 2 years after I moved in with my host family in Campo 9. Lila had been living at the office, which has a huge grassy yard, surrounded on all sides by brick walls. I don’t know if she somehow escaped while the cleaning lady was raking the leaves off of the sidewalk in the front of the office. She may have also jumped through the iron gate at the entrance we use to lets cars into the yard. The first 2 feet of the fence are far too small for her to squeeze through, but she could have jumped through the bars above that because they are spaced farther apart. It is also possible that someone stole her. She was very friendly and would come up to the gate if people were on the other side. So someone could have pulled her out through the gate. Naturally I feel like shit about it because I could have put chicken wire on the portion of the gate with wider bars, but I didn’t because I didn’t think she’d try to jump out. The yard was so big, and there was so much noise, cars, dogs, etc on the other side, I didn’t think she’d feel the need to leave. She always did have a bit of a Harry Houdini complex. Even though she has been gone for over a month, I still have a habit of keeping an eye out for her when I walk around the neighborhood and the office. If she jumped out, she could jump back in right? But really I hope that she died a quick death. I’d hate to think she is out there in the bushes somewhere, scared, hungry, thirsty. I’d also know how miserable she would be if someone stole her and the put her in a tiny cage. Its better for her to be gone than to suffer. Dog sitting: Recently I was the proud babysitter of 3 other dogs, 4 including Tucker. All under the age of 11 months. Yep, that’s a lot of puppy. Fortunately they were all really well behaved. Mo went into heat a few days before I was going to get her spayed, so she and Tucker had to stay apart. But other than that, they all got along swimmingly well. The most irritating part was keeping them all fed. I live 25 minutes, walking, from the grocery store so hauling kilos of dog food, rice, potatoes, carrots, and eggs got old really fast. Then I had to prepare the food. Tucker and Moe eat rice, potatoes, carrots, and eggs, which meant tons of chopping and boiling. Zoe and Indy ate dog food, but I always added a little of oil and egg because Zoe was terribly skinny when she came to me and Indy is a bit picky. Evidently when Indy’s mom leaves him at the vet when she goes out of town, he doesn’t eat for the first few days. Thankfully I didn’t have that problem. I also had a hard time making sure the dogs didn’t eat each other’s food. But it all worked out in the end. All the dogs when home chubbier than they came, which is my measure of babysitting success. And Julia bought me some pretty earrings and a Peruvian had from her vacation, which was a nice bonus. End of Winter: Winter is coming to a close here. There is always that moment of hesitation when I start to do dishes at night, expecting the water to be so cold my fingers will be numb by the end. I can take a shower ever other day, or every day, joys! If I want to because I don’t start to become hypothermic the minute I turn the hot water off. I do have to start paying more attention to what I wear unfortunately. During the winter time I’ll often wear my pajama shirt to work because I never take my jacket off. Who cares what I’m wearing underneath if they’re never going to see it. J We should still have some cold fronts that come through the next month or so, but by this time in November, I’ll certainly be complaining about the heat. Thankfully the winter has been quite tolerable. Thanksgiving: For the past two years I’ve attended the big Peace Corps volunteer Thanksgiving bash at a hotel near Encarnacion. While it’s a lot of fun, it really isn’t worth the 380 mil price tag for the event, at least not more than once. So this year I will probably be hosting a small Thanksgiving at my house. I’m also looking into going to Brazil for Christmas and New Years. Home Leave: When I signed on for an extra year of Peace Corps, I also got 1 month of home leave. I’ve decided to take it during the month of February of next year. I’ll probably spend a couple of weeks in Texas, a couple in Georgia, and I’m thinking of maybe jumping up to Philly to see family there. Who knows. I’ll let you in on the specific dates when I know them.

I’ve been house hunting since the week of Easter, April 24th, when I moved from Campo 9 to San Ignacio Misiones to work at the Regional Office Coordinator. After weeks of searching, my new co-workers found a house for me in a neighborhood about a ~20 minute walk from the office.

The house is huge, probably 2-3 times the size of my previous house. There are 2 medium sized rooms, a master bedroom, a huge living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom (with a door that opens properly this time). The floor is good quality tile, and the ceiling and roof are also solid. It faces east, which means it will be cooler in the summertime, which is more important to me than being warm in the winter since summer here lasts longer.

It also has a huge yard for Tucker and Lila. Lila is staying at the office for a while longer because there are tons of holes in the chainlink fences that need to be closed up.

While I do like this house quite a lot, it’s a solid 20-25 minute walk to the office. Eventually I’d like to find something closer. There was a house about a block from the office that I looked into, but the owners couldn’t make a decision in time, this house was available now, and I really needed to move into my own place. There was a house a while back, notably closer to the office that I passed on because it was 500mil G per month and I was hoping to find something in the 300-400mil range. This house is 450mil, but I’d pay the extra 50mil to be closer to the office.

So I’m not going to settle too deeply into this house, since I’ll be keeping an eye on places closer by. But for the next 2 months or so, this will be home.

Yes, I am the new volunteer coordinator at the Peace Corps’ regional office in San Ignacio, Misiones. Unfortunately, the previous coordinator had to leave before his full term ended in December, so the position suddenly became vacant. I applied, was interviewed, offered, and accepted the position on Monday, April 11th.

I will be leaving my current and much loved home, Campo 9, on Monday, April 18th. Peace Corps will be sending a truck to help me move. We’ll stay in Asuncion for the night, and then make the trek to the new office the next morning. I’ll be moving in during Holy Week, so I’ll get to play house and set things up while most people are taking a holiday. That will help me get my sea legs before the big work starts.

I don’t have a house yet, but the lady I’ll be working with, Adrianna, is looking for one for me.

Yes, the animals are coming with me. I noticed the new office has a nice grassy yard, so Lila may live at the office as the mascot during the week, especially if my house doesn’t have good space for her. My little street bastard, Tucker, is also going to be coming. I intend to have plenty of Benadryl on hand to keep him calm during the trip, since he’ll be sitting in my lap. I have a travel crate for Lila, but not for Tucker.

The office consists of Adrianna, who will take care of the administrative responsibilities, Victor, the driver, security personnel, and me, the volunteer coordinator.

I’ll be in charge of about 50 volunteers.

I’ve been told I get my own office J

I get a raise!

San Ignacio is 4 hours south east of the capital.

My job will consist of supporting the volunteers in the area, especially during their first 3 months. I’ll visit volunteers, help with projects, plan joint projects, and build relationships with local organizations.

I’ll be working with volunteers in all of the sectors, Community Economic Development, Agriculture, Education, and Health. Basically my job is to run make our office into a miniature version of the main office in the capital. I don’t know much more than that because I’ve never been to the San Ignacio office.

Initially I’ll focus on getting to know the area and the volunteers and pick up and projects the previous coordinator was working on.

I told the women in my exercise class today that I was going to be working with them anymore. They seemed sad and a bit nervous about the future of the competition. I'm going to write up all of our exercises and script Friday's class and next week for them, so hopefully that will give them some confidence and they'll be willing to run things themselves after that.

Life is about to get very very busy

By popular demand, I’ve started up the exercise class again. We’ll have one more week of class, and then begin the competition on the 18th. Thus far we’ve had a pretty low turnout because we had to change the time from 6:30 to 6:00 because the sun sets around 7 and the field we use doesn’t have lights. Fortunately we were able to get permission to use the city government owned multi-purpose center, which does have lights. That means we’ll be able to change the time back to 6:30 on Monday.

I’ve made it to the interview portion for the Regional Coordinator position. I go in for it on Monday.

Tucker is officially bigger than Lila. She usually weighs between 10-12lb and he weighs about 16. There was a notable change between when I left on vacation and when I returned. His aunty Julia must have been feeding him well. I’d guess he is about 4 months old now. Having a dog again has been really nice. He needs two walks a day to keep his energy levels in check, otherwise he is unbearable. But it is good to have something to make sure I don’t lounge around in bed until noon. One of the reasons I wasn’t too keen on getting a dog was I was concerned about my little yard getting overwhelmed with poo. I grew up with 2 large dogs and 1 small one. They were quite an efficient little poo factory and I wasn’t looking forward to getting back into the business. But thankfully having one small dog is very manageable, especially since he usually poos when I take him for a walk. Considering there are cows, goats, stray dogs, chickens, etc using the streets as their latrines, I feel no need to clean up after him and it helps keep my yard clean.[Tucker! Lila is not a chair!]

Lila is doing well. She wasn’t happy about the addition to household, but they have learned live with each other. Lila doesn’t avoid Tucker and Tucker knows that he’s in deep trouble if he chases her. Still trying to get him to stop sitting on her. Oh well, no one is perfect.

For size comparison purposes:

[Tucker and Moe sharing 1/2 the bathroom mat. He is just a bit larger than one of the floor tiles][Tucker taking up most of the bathroom mat]

One of the best things about Argentina was how nice everyone was to the street dogs. In Cordoba in particular the dogs were huge and clearly well fed. In Iruya we were adopted by a dog that followed us around. In Humahuaca there was an adorable dog in the hostel we named Cooper because it we were watching Anderson Cooper report on the Japan Tsunami. In Cordoba we had the deaf dog in the hostel, Jorge’s dog Rulo. But everywhere we went the street dogs were nice, would come up to you if you encourage them. Actually as far a street dogs go, they were quite clean.

It was refreshing. That is one thing I will always hate about Paraguay. People there treat animals like shit.

And speaking of animals, you may wonder what I did with. Lila stayed at my house and my landlady came by to give her vegetables, oatmeal, and water. Other than that she just ate the grass in the lawn. She doesn’t use the bathroom in the garage ever, so there was no worry about clean up.

Tucker went to my neighbor’s house across the street for a couple of days, and then he went to stay with Aunty Julia at her house. Evidently he was a pain in the ass, poor Julia isn’t quite experienced enough with dogs yet to handle one like him yet. But I brought her Alfajores and a scarf to make up for it.

I missed both of the terribly, especially towards the end of the trip. I kept having nightmares about dogs attacking Lila.

Fortunately I came home and they were both safe and sound. The whole family is together again the house. Home sweet home.

After bumming around Purmamarca for a while, we caught the bus to Jujuy (pronounced: who who E ) wandered all over the downtown looking for our hostel, got some food, and settled in for the night.

We hoped to do a horseback riding excursion the next day, but they turned out to be too expensive. When we arrived in Jujuy I began to realize that Courtney was getting a bit road weary. When we left for Salta the next morning I realized it might be best just to catch the next bus to Paraguay, instead of staying in Salta for the night. We arrived around 2pm, the next bus was a 4:30pm. We bought our tickets and used the two hours to take the gondola ride to the top of a hill offering us lovely views of the city. We hoped the bus after that and were on our way home.

The bus ride back turned out to be a real pain in the ass actually. The road between Salta and Resistencia is surprisingly rough, which made it difficult to sleep. They also decided to play some of the worst movies ever made. One was called Yeti. I think a 14 year old boy wrote and directed it. It was terribly and nonsensically violent. I was listening to an audiobook instead of the movie, but it was so amazingly bad the Courtney got my attention and told me I absolutely had to watch it. So it did, and it was terrible.

To make things even worse the movie started to replay after we watched it the first time. I gave them a few minutes to notice, or for someone to inform them it was on again, but it continued to play. I went downstairs and told the bus attendant, who promptly changed it to Forest Warrior, a 1990’s Chuck Norris movie. Chuck Norris plays a forest sprit who help a group of kids save a mountain from a logging company. Basically FernGully in live action Chuck Norris style. It had Chuck in it, ergo it was awesome, or at the very least an improvement upon the previous film.

Around midday we stopped for almost three hours because some people were blocking the road doing some sort of protest. It took them that long to figure out it would be best to just back that bus up and take the 20 minute or so detour around the protesters. After we finally got moving we picked up a group of people from what I would guess was a bus that broke down. This meant I finally had to share the seat next to me. This was unfortunate because I realized there was something resembling vomit a little too closely under my seat. I discovered it after stepping in it with one shoe, putting the shoe up on the seat, resting my leg where my shoe had been, and feeling a wet spot. EWWWWWWWWWWWW. Thankfully it didn’t smell and I had plenty of tissues to cover it up. It was far enough back that I could avoid it when I wanted to, which was good because someone decided to sit in the seat next to me when we picked up the extra bus of people.

After a long while we got to Clorinda, the city on the other side of the river from Asuncion. There weren’t any buses that went from Salta all the way to Asuncion. We missed the stop at the bridge to go through customs and ended up at the normal bus terminal. So we, and two Swedish girls who were also going to Paraguay that we adopted, took a taxi back to the bridge. Finally we stamped out of Argentina, stamped back into Paraguay, and caught a van back to the capital.

I have to say, it was really nice to be back in the ‘guay. I missed the Guarani. I didn’t miss the dirtyness, but the familiarity of it was nice. I liked being some place I recognized again.

That evening Courtney and I went out with the Swedish girls, and the taxi driver tried to charge us 60mil instead of 40mil. Ahh yes, its good to be home.

We arrived in Purmamarca, when to the first hostel we came to, and went to bed. In the morning we took a van to the salt flats an hour outside of the town. We proceeded to take advantage of the very flat landscape and took dozens of silly photos.

[They cut holes in the salt so the water drains in to the holes and leaves the rest of the flat dry enough for us to be goofballs on. Proceeding with the goofballery]

Most people go to Bolivia to see salt flats, the largest in the world. However, after seeing the ones in Purmamarca, I think I can confidently check ‘visiting salt flats’ off my list of things to do in South America. There were very interesting, but the one hour that we spent there was sufficient.

[The boys horsing around in Iruya]

After a few days, our volunteer coordinator Courtney Wong joined us in Cordoba to form Team Jolley Good Wong Graber. Me, Kevin Good, Zach Graber, and Courtney Wong. And yes, the name was my idea. How sad would it have been if we had had someone with a normal name.

Team Good Graber when to the Salta region on Saturday, while team Jolley Wong stayed a bit longer in Cordoba, since Courtney arrived a little late.

After riding in the coldest bus on the planet, Courtney and I arrived in Salta and caught a bus to Humahuaca to meet up with the boys. Or so we thought. After receiving some of the most incomprehensible text speak messages from Kevin we finally realized they were in Iruya, a town 4 hours farther north of Humahuaca. Unfortunately by the time we arrived, there were no more buses to Iruya until the next morning. Fortunately Humahuaca is a lovely little town.

[Humahuaca]

I was struck by the fact I could amazingly understand people’s Spanish again! I was also amazing at how nice everyone way. People in Cordoba were not particularly friendly, but here everyone said hello to us on the street, locals and tourists alike. Everyone was so pleasant.

[Humahuaca]

Courtney and I caught the 8:30 am bus to Iruya the next morning. I realized as I got onto the bus I had left my travel blanket back at the hostel and asked the driver if I had enough time to go and get it. At first he said no, but a few minutes later he indicated I could go get it if I hurried. I heard a collective groan from the other passengers to which I gave them a mental ‘fuck all yall, I want my blanket’. I ran 2 blocks to the hostel, found the blanket, and was back in less than 5 minutes. The bus attendant hadn’t even started checking peoples’ tickets yet. So there.

[Iruya]

Through our deciphering of Kevin’s texts, we gathered that he and Zach though Iruya was one of the most beautiful places they had seen. At first I was skeptical; the geography strongly resembled Big Bend Park in. However slowly but surely I saw what they saw. As we came closer and closer to Iruya, an astoundingly beautiful, cloud covered valley. Honestly, that view alone was worth the 8 hours we traveled to get there.

[Jolley Good Wong Graber in Iruya]

We arrived in Iruya and Team Jolley Good Wong Graber was reunited. I got off the bus and immediately noticed the boys had gotten quite a bit of sun since we left them in Cordoba. Courtney noticed as well. It must have triggered our motherly side because we couldn’t help but asking if they had been wearing sunscreen, did they have sunscreen, did they want to borrow sunscreen. But goodness they were a little toasty. They didn’t seem to believe us that they had gotten quite so sun kissed, but I assure you the Paraguayans will surely comment when they go home.

[The gals horsing around Iruya]

We only spent a few hours with the boys before they caught a bus back to Salta to leave the next day. Courtney and I did some exploring, though not much hiking. The altitude was very difficult for me, and it doesn’t help I’m out of shape. That evening we cooked up some tasty stir-fry, chatted with the owners of the hostel, and marveled at the clouds rolling into the valley in the evening.

[Iruya]

The next morning we had resolved to get up early and go for a hike, but the valley was still enveloped in a snuggie of fog. We abandoned those plans and slept in. I did a bit more walking around the next day as we waited for bus back to Humahuaca and then Purmamarca for the night. As we left Iruya, a storm rolled in from the south and the bus with hit by a short hail storm. Thankfully things cleared up for the rest of the day.

[Zening it up at the art museum]Upon arriving in Cordoba, Kevin immediately pissed off a baggage handler by removing his pack by himself from the luggage area under the bus because it was blocking the rest of the luggage. I had done the same thing moments earlier but because my pack was a bit lighter and the handler’s back was turned, I accomplished the task without him noticing. The baggage handler yelled at Kevin while I quietly tiptoed behind another bus.

[Cordoba]We decided to find a hostel to drop off our stuff. I’ve hosted several couch surfers lately so I was hoping to be able to use the site myself during this trip, but the hosts never came through, which was very disappointing, so we stayed in a hostel the entire time. Fortunately the hostel was about USD$9 a night, so it is not like we were breaking the bank.

[Church]I noticed several things.

1) The city was incredible clean. The first day or two I would find myself looking at the sidewalks as we walked, memorized by the lack of trash.

2) Cordobian accents made me question my ability to speak Spanish. I kid you not; I had no idea what those people were saying half of the time.

3) Cordobians are not nearly as friendly as Paraguayans

4) People don’t try to cheat you at the bus terminals. Everyone pays the same price.

5) Cordobians, especially in the downtown area are very well dressed, and the women are very skinny.

6) I love smoothies. Almost every little café and restaurant served smoothies and they were delicious.

Highlights

• Artisan fair

• Being in a clean city were things work like they’re supposed to

• Meeting Kevin’s sister and hanging out with her host family, Jorge and company

• Finding a bank that would change guaranies into pesos

• Cooking jambalaya and risotto in the hostel

• Adorable deaf puppy at the hostel

• Awesome art museum• Zoo[Baby Hippo at the Zoo]

[Kevin Good, Me, Zach Graber (Gray-ber)]

Our trip to Argentina got off to a rough start. Kevin, Zach and I spent Sunday night with another volunteer about an hour outside of the capital. We got up Monday morning, ready to head to the bus terminal to go to Cordoba, only to find out there was a bus strike. We decided to take our chances and head to the road to see if the buses were indeed running. So with a final adios from our friends and a last bit of sage advice from Lindsay Fay ‘Have a good trip…No jail…or Herpes’ … we were off. Thankfully we were about to catch one of the few buses running and made it to the Asuncion terminal. Once we were there, we were told there were no buses available to Cordoba until Wednesday probably due to residual Carnival travel and Womens’ Day, a national holiday. Determined to leave the country, we caught a bus to Resistencia, a major bus hub along the way to Cordoba in hopes of catching a bus there. We arrived in Resistencia that evening and found there were no buses to Cordoba from there either. So we took a bus to Santa Fe, the next bus hub on the way to Cordoba. We arrived in Santa Fe and finally were able to catch a bus to Cordoba, where we arrived around 10am.

Part 1: My Shitty Knees

I’ve had knee issues for a long while. I remember being in gym class in high school and wondering if the other girls were in as much pain as I was. Freshman year of college I went to the doctor and found out I have a common issue where the cup my knee cap sits in is too shallow, so it is really easy for my knee cap to move around excessively. The doctor also mentioned the muscles around my knee weren’t holding the cap in place properly. The diagnosis, physical therapy and waiting until I ‘got older’. Yes, the doctor actually said I just had to wait until I got older so my muscles would naturally become less flexible. Thanks doc.

The physical therapy and a knee brace to use during exercise, took the edge off somewhat. Still waiting to see if ‘getting older’ helps, 6 years later no improvement thus far.

When I came to PC, I was completely unable to exercise, so the knee problems came back with a vengeance. Once I was out of training and living in my own house, I tried to get back on the exercise train, but it didn’t work this time. For over a year I’ve been taking 2-3 400mg ibuprofen and 2-3 500mg Tylenol a day, every day. On a bad day this might go up to 4-5 of each. If I’m traveling I would take one of each every 3-4 hours. It was the only thing that worked.

Evidently this is a lot of ibuprofen and Tylenol. After startling a few friends with the quantity of meds I was taking, I talked to the Peace Corps nurse. The nurse wasn’t worried about me taking 2 ibuprofenes a day, but evidently 3 is the tipping point where I need to take an additional medication, Ranitidina, to protect my stomach.

I never actually knew ibuprofen could be bad for your stomach lining causing a whole host of nasty side effects. Evidently I was the only one. Sucks for me.

Part 2: Gluten

I didn’t know much about celiac disease until one of the girls in my group in Peace Corps had it. Being the information junkie I am, I did quite a bit of googleing until I had familiarized myself with the topic. In people with celiac disease the immune system reacts abnormally to gluten (a protein in wheat, barley, and rye), causing small intestine inflammation and damage. According to a 2003 University of Maryland study, as many as 1 in 133 people have celiac, though it may be even more common since a large number of cases are undiagnosed. Don’t worry, I don’t have celiac.

Once I had gluten on my radar, I noticed it showing up from time to time in health and diet articles of varying reliability. Admittedly, going gluten-free is one of the newer fast weight loss fads, as can be seen with an increasing number of gluten-free products.

However I did notice that many of the health, not weight loss, focused articles mentioned another issue, wheat intolerance. It is basically a non-allergic, but still negative reaction gluten. People with celiac have very strong symptoms that can occur within hours of eating a small amount of gluten. Wheat sensitivity is a more difficult to detect because the symptoms take longer to manifest, sometimes 2-3 days.

What caught my attention was the aching joints, was one of the most frequently listed symptoms. In addition to knee pain, I’ve also had unexplainable aches in my hips and pain in my hands severe enough that I had become concerned I might have carpal tunnel.

I’ve also had inflammation problems. When I go for even a short walk my hands will swell painfully. Since coming to Paraguay I’ve also had such severe swelling in my legs that it felt like my calves were going to burst open. During my first summer in particular, I can’t tell you how many sietas I spent with my legs up in the air against a wall trying to get the inflammation to go down. When I googled causes of chronic inflammation, wheat and dairy issues always at the top of this list for dietary causes of inflammation.

Part 3: The Experiment

(Note: While there are scientific tests for celiac disease and wheat allergies, they are notoriously unreliable. Also they often don’t work for wheat intolerance because the effects are more subtle)

Here is what we know. I’ve been taking obscene amounts of ibuprofen to combat joint pain and inflammation. Ibuprofen causes digestive issues. Wheat intolerance causes joint pain and inflammation. Wheat intolerance stems from digestive problems. Did the Ibuprofen cause wheat intolerance? Hmm. So about a month and a half ago I decided to do an experiment called an elimination diet.

I couldn’t stop taking the ibuprofen cold turkey, but I could cut out wheat. So I did. After a week and a half I was down to 1-2 ibuprofen and Tylenol a day. I kept at it. Taking 2 of each became my new ‘bad day’ dose. Some days I didn’t take anything. I continued the experiment during my trip to Argentina. Twice I was in buses for 20-24 hours. I took meds twice during each trip, as opposed to my usual dose every 2-3 hours. Once we were in Argentina we had ice cream several days in a row. I was perplexed because the ache started to come back. Turns out most ice cream has gluten L. Very very sad news.

When I got back from Argentina phase 2 of the elimination diet started, reintroduction of wheat. From Monday to Thursday of last week I ate wheat. On Wednesday I started feeling occasional pain, but I chalked it up to walking Tucker twice a day. By Friday the pain was back. Today is Saturday and I’m fighting the urge to take ibuprofen. I stopped eating wheat again yesterday. I’m hoping that I don’t have to wait a week and a half again for the pain to subside.

Part 4: Conclusion

I currently have a wheat intolerance.

I don’t know if taking large quantities ibuprofen damaged my digestive system and caused the wheat intolerance. Maybe I’ve had a wheat intolerance all along and the hideous amounts of bread I had to eat with my host family during training pushed it to a new level and the ibuprofen exacerbated the effect. Maybe it’s a combination of the two.

The next step is to stop eating wheat again for a longer period of time, I’m shooting for 6 months. That should be long enough for any damage caused by the meds to heal. If the problems come back again when I introduce wheat again, then I probably really am wheat intolerant. We shall see.

Now why did you need to go through that huge TMI overshare? Because wheat intolerance often has a genetic component. If you’re related to me, which I assume most of my readership is, you may unknowingly be wheat intolerant as well. Even if you’re not related, many cases of wheat intolerance go undiagnosed.

For me it was worth the experiment to find out. I’m not at all happy I can’t eat bread, or cereal, or tragically, ice cream at least not for a little while. But I am happy to finally have a way to control my knee pain other that waiting to get older.

I need to write something a little more personal, but this will have to do for now. This is the write-up I did for my boss, country director, and a few people in between. Its very numbery, but that is what admin people like in a report, right?

[Superwoman!]

Primary Instructor: Lyndsay Jolley (Community Economic Development G30) Secondary Instructor: Julia Heitz (Environmental Education G34) Guest Presenter: Topic-Soy: Rachael Graham (Crop Extension G31) Guest Presenter: Awards Ceremony: Dr. Luis Valiente

The fitness program in Dr. J.E. Estigarribia began in November 2010, with an exercise class three times a week, attended by 5-8 women. I began by inviting a few teachers who had expressed interesting aerobics classes or those who I knew already walked on their own. Other than this, I didn’t need to do any publicity, the women promoted the class, and then the competition, completely on their own.

The fitness competition began on January 7th 2011 at lasted until February 7, 2011. We had 101 registered women participants; 51 completed the final weigh-in. It was free to attend the exercise class and nutrition presentations, but to officially enter the competition, and thus be eligible for prizes, women paid 5,000G and did an initial weigh-in. The participants with the most points would win. Points were distributed in the following manner:

Point Structure: 1pt- nutrition presentation/cooking class 2pts- exercise class or outside group exercise activity 4pts- per kilo lost

To encourage the women to be active outside of my classes, I created a captain system. A captain was a participant who had signed a contract with me to hold their own exercises activities, usually group walks, and honestly record the attendees and hours on a form I created. The captains were required to submit those forms to me at the end of each week.[Even the little ones get in on the action]

We had 5 total captains, 3 of whom were consistently active. They logged 61, 111, and 160 hours of exercise per group. In total, 337 hours of outside exercise were logged by the captains and their exercise groups.

On average, 41 registered participants attended each class of my 14 exercise classes. Also, we often had unregistered women attend the class just to see what it was like and about 5-10 children who regularly observed or partially participated in the classes. I would estimate there were 50-55 women and guests at each class on average. I would also estimate of the 101 registered women, 60-70 continued to actively participate in the fitness events. My fitness class logged 547 hours of exercise.

[Name tags]

On average, 28 women attended each of the 5 health presentations. The participants lost 85.9k (188lbs) total. The top 5 women lost 30.6k (67.2lbs) between them. At the end of the competition we held an awards ceremony with about 55 people to celebrate the accomplishments of all the women, hand out certificates of participation and final awards.

Challenges: · Finding a location. Most fields were not willing to ask the men to stop playing soccer for an hour so we could have class. Let me repeat that. The only woman's exercise class couldn't find space because the boys needed to play football, which they could have done in any number of different locations. Yes, I'm a little sore on that point.

· Keeping the exercises challenging but fun.

Successes: · Not having to do any publicity. Everything spread via word of mouth. · ~55 people attended the final awards ceremony even though it rained · Women seeing tangible results · Passing by the field on a non-exercise class day, and observing the women doing their own walks, stretches, and other exercises, without my guidance.

Changes for Competition #2 (beginning the end of March 2011) · Increase fee to join competition to buy nicer prizes and ensure the event covers all of its own expenses. · Transfer more of the responsibilities of the classes to the women, possibly through the creation of 2-3 concurrent exercise classes in different parts of the city. This would also increase the number of women who have access to the classes. · Recruit more guest presenters and instructors · Find ways other than weight loss, to measure participant progress and successes.

Health Topics Presented: · Diabetes · The importance of reading nutrition labels · The health benefits of soy · Cooking with soy · Cooking with fruits and vegetables · Portions · Calculating intake and expenditure · Health and weight-loss myths · Avoiding ‘snake oil’/ quick fix diets and medications · Food groups · What is a normal weight/Body Mass Index Calculation

Primary Exercises: · Yoga · Pilates · Zumba · Strength training (with old bottles filled with water) · Sprinting drills · Plyometrics · Group walks · Exercise games · Dances

It was raining, he was cute, with big brown eyes, crying, and he came right up to me. I let him in to get out of the rain, let him out again when it was done, but he came back, and hasn't tried to leave since. I'm not emotionally strong enough to say no to that. So I have a dog now... His name is Tucker.

About a week ago the refrigerator part of my refrigerator stopped working. The freezer part, which is not separated from the refrigerator section, was thus doing double duty. I was too busy at the time to do anything about it because of the exercise competition.

[Old Fridge]

I decided not to try and repair the old one, because it was absolutely ancient, never worked really well, was as loud as a freight train, and this was probably just the beginning of its slow death. I've also decided that I'll ask my follow-up to pitch in a bit so that will take the edge off farther down the road.

[Old Fridge. Note the compartment at the top, sans door or partition of any sort. That is the freezer]

Yesterday I was finally able price some new ones in the stores. I first looked around for used ones, but I wasn't able to find any and none of my friends knew of any for sale. I decided to buy one from a friend of mine because I knew that she would allow me to divide the payments of the fridge without charging me interest.

I got the cheapest fridge I could from there, but it still is going to set me back an entire month's salary ouch. Fortunately I've split it up into 3 payments, so that will make it a bit easier, but still.

That said, I'm amazed by how nice the new fridge is. Its so quiet I keep looking at it to make sure its still plugged in. I'm so happy to have an actual freezer, the old one had a freezer, but since it wasn't separated it couldn't even keep my ice cream from melting. Maybe I'll actually be able to have ice now! The door closes completely, I had to use a bike tire to close the other one, so less air escapes. So I'm also guessing it is far more energy efficient, so I won't be surprised if my electricity bill goes down.

[New Fridge. Note the closed freezer compartment on the top]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 :)

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. “

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.'

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.

Bree Got Married! And it was beautiful, and it had the BEST food of any formal event I've ever attended...seriously, ever.

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.

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?

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

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

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

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

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

“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

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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.