Excursion

On Friday afternoon, each group went on an excursion to get out of town and have a break from host family and training life. The Urban Youth Development group i think had the best excursion by far. We went to a camp that was founded by an Amercian named Jack Norment years ago and stayed the night. It was just like an american camp back home with cabins and bunk beds and everything.

We found a frozen yogurt place on the way and made our driver pull over and let us get our fix of American sweets. When we arrived at camp, we were led through a series of "challenges" by two Paraguayan camp leaders. We had to use teamwork to do things like cross over a "swamp" using only two pieces of wood, stand on a blance beam and figure out a way to organize ourselves according to birth date and not step off the beam, etc. It was a lot of fun, especially since i never really went away to camp when i was litte. After the activities we went swimming in the only swimming pool we have seen in Paraguay. All of us said we would never go swimming in a pool that dirty back home but we were so happy to get cooled off that we all jumped in at the same time.

We had pizza for dinner and were feeling on top of the world. After dinner we had a bonfire and I busted out my firedancing for everyone with my homemade equipment. Finally my group was able to see what my hidden talent was all about and they cheered me on as i danced around and twirled my fire poi. I was able to find some kerosene and was glad it worked just as well as lamp oil that i used back home. We had our Ipods out and we had a great time.

We stayed up late talking like we were having a slumber party and the next moring woke up early for a morning hike. We hiked two and half hours through a really poor, poor village, then up a mountain that gave us a view of the town below - Caacupé. The biggest church in all of Paraguay is in Caacupé and we could see it from the top of the mountain. A few people got attacked by these strange wasp-like insects that were obviously protecting their home or something. I was so glad i didn´t get stung. The surroundings were so incredibly beautiful on the hike, it felt like i was just back in California doing what I would normally do on a saturday in Chico. I had to remind myself that I was in Paraguay, hiking with people i didn´t even know a month ago and I thought "how cool is this?!"

We returned home that afternoon and I immediately changed my clothes and went a meeting with the abuelo club (grandparent club) I have been talking with the woman who runs it and I am going to be working with them for my project in training. We were given the mission-goal of finding someone in the community to network with and then develop some sort of work related activity to utilize what we have been learning in classes. I am supposed to be working with youth but i was so excited to find the older adult club that i went with that. I am going to help them get the ground ready for a garden next saturday and I am going to lead some sort of activity with them as well. They are so lively and fun so it will be easy. Yesterday they sang songs and did excercised and read poems by mother theresa!

I also observed a class last week and will be working with the director of the school to organize a volleyball game during recess on Friday.

It feels good to be getting involved in the community and feeling integrated. This week we will be in Guarambaré all week for a regual week of training and next Sunday we have our Practica larga. We will go spend a week with a volunteer in their site and work with them to get an even better feel for what we will be doing in the future.

This week we have an interview with our director to express to them what we want in a site, i-e small town, big town, another volunteer in site, more rural, more city, etc. In the end, we dont get to choose but we get to express our desires anyways. Keep your fingers crossed that i get what i want! I find out April 9th!