Busy Month!

I am about to wrap up a 3-week summer camp with some of my best friends here in Paraguay! It has been a lot of work and a little stressful at times, but worked out amazingly in the end! We did 4 days of health related activities at each person’s site, focusing on dental health, nutrition, parasite prevention, and exercise. I was really impressed by how many people came to each site. It was also interesting/challenging to see the different dynamics of the kids. We would have to change our schedule and activities based on how the camps went on a daily basis, which kept us on our toes throughout the 3 weeks. My personal favorite moments of the camps were the partner brush, parasite skits, exercise day in general, and the epic water balloon fight! Here are some photos from the one that was led in my community:

Sandra after making her book

Arturo brushing my teeth

Water balloon fight!

Learning fun!

Celebrating the last day of camp!

Other January Happenings:
-Carnaval is happening right now! While most famous in Brazil, Encarnacion has the second largest celebration for it in the world. One of my volunteer friends, Yihana, actually danced in one of the troops! We went last weekend to support her and to have some fun, and it was a blast! Hilarious costumes, fun music, and dancing ‘til sunrise… Not much better!

-The first week of January was my best week of integrating yet. In 7 days I visited 8 different families’ houses, attended 3 birthday parties (including my first quice!), and had tons of kids come over to my house to play checkers and do puzzles. At the end of the week I was exhausted, but felt amazing.

Helping out with the asado prep

-I recently had my first experience with Paraguayan medical care. I rolled my ankle pretty bad one night, and so the next morning I went to make sure nothing was broken. Everything went fine, thankfully. Although I did find it interesting that I had to ring a doorbell and wait 5 minutes until someone answered at the ER door. Uh, what if it was an emergency??

-My friend, Karen, has a latrine at her house. One day, I shut the door a little TOO tightly and managed to lock myself in. As fate would have it, the lawnmowers were working, so my friends couldn't hear me call their name. Thankfully I finally got their attention, but not before this flashed before my eyes: Latrine Dive

-I PLANNED MY TRIP TO CHILE TO VISIT PETER, SANDRA AND MICHAEL!!!! The last time I saw them was 5 years ago for their wedding, so I am sooooo excited to hang out with them again! I’ll be buying the tickets this week, and will be hitting up Santiago May 23-26.

Holiday Vacation!

Hello! Well, I am back in hot hot Paraguay after an amazing 2-week vacation! The trip was great, but not gonna lie, I am happy to be back! Here is a summary of the trip:

Montevideo, Uruguay: Absolutely beautiful coastal city. Was only there for a couple of nights, but it was long enough to realize what a cool place it is. Highlight of that part of the trip was when Karen, Alex and I rented bikes and cruised along the coast for the afternoon. The weather was perfect, the water refreshing, and we stopped for an amazing lunch of fresh seafood!

Punta Del Diablo, Uruguay: Small, hippie beach town on the southeastern shore of Uruguay. I rented a house there with 3 of my best friends for the week, and there were 2 other houses of Peace Corps Paraguay Volunteers as well. Days were spent relaxing along the beach, while nights were passed with friends at the beach bars. Usually a week on the beach is too much relaxing for me, but this time it was exactly what the doctor ordered. We also had a huge Christmas dinner with the volunteers there, and that was the highlight of the trip for me!

Buenos Aires, Argentina: Not going to lie, going from tranquilo beach culture to huge city was a little rough for me. Is it possible to be exhausted from vacation? Because I think I was a little. I loved the city, but hopefully I make it back before I leave the continent to explore it more. The city is full of adorable little neighborhoods and nooks and crannies that I still have to see! Highlights include hitting up Boca (photo below) and watching a Tango show during lunch, the Buenos Aires Pub Crawl at night, and of course daily stops at Starbucks.

Overall an awesome trip with friends! Now that I am back in Paraguay, I am spending the month of January doing summer camps. With 3 other friends, we are doing a week at each person’s site. It will be health related (talking about hand washing, teeth brushing, parasite avoiding, and exercise), but will also have lots of fun games for the kids to play!

Hope everyone had a fabulous holiday season!