Paraguay Verde- Part 2 (The Camp Itself)

This year Paraguay Verde was held down in Ayolas which is the southernmost part of Paraguay right on the border of Argentina.  The camp was held at the Yacyreta dam which is a huge hydroelectric dam on the Rio Parana which separates Paraguay and Argentina.  When they were building the dam they built a massive camp (very similar to a series of college dorms) for the workers.  So we were able to stay in those facilities for the duration of the camp so we had plenty of space for everyone.  The camp started on Thursday and went through Saturday morning.  I will just be going through the camp and tell about it through the pictures.

Once we arrived into camp on Thursday we had lunch and then had a welcome from PC, A Todo Pulmon, and the dam Entidad Binacional Yacyreta.  After the introductions we had an ice breaker activity for the campers to get to know each other.  We had campers ranging in age from 11-30 and then all of the volunteers as well with approximately 130 participants.  In the afternoon we had three different sessions the kids could choose from including worm composting, eco bench, and how to form a local environmental group.  I attended the work composting session which is where this picture was taken.  

Romina, the girl I took from Yukyry Central attended the session on an eco bench.  This eco bench involves stuffing two liter plastic bottles with a bunch of inorganic trash (basically anything plastic) which we all brought to the camp.  They use these plastic bottles filled with trash as eco bricks and are actually just as strong as bricks if they are done correctly.  So once they had all of the bottles collected they used them as well as regular bricks on the edges and concrete and made a bench out of them.  This is a very common project in just about every PCV’s community just because it is an easy project and a lot better than just burning the trash which is normally done here.  After they got it all together they added various scraps of tiles for the top and smoothed it out. I have a picture later of it actually all done and put together.

Can you see him?  This is a picture of a rather large lizard that was hanging out on the tree supervising the eco bench.  

The next two pictures involved a session where the kids were learning about thinking both locally and globally.  Ten campers were given an object such as fruit or something else and they had to arrange themselves by how far that item had to travel to get to them.  For example a banana just came out of the backyard of most houses where apples are all imported from Argentina and so on.  The point was just to get kids to realize both were some of their food comes from as well as the resources used and needed to get it to them.  Romina was always the first to volunteer for everything so here she is acting out being a house with the other objects at differing distances depending on how far they had to come.

On Thursday night we had a recycled art night using materials that can be found all across Paraguay and we had about ten different stations ranging from making glasses out of glass bottles to tire chairs, and even to a broom made with plastic bottles.  This picture is of one of the stations where the kids were making beads out of different magazines by rolling up slips of paper around a stick and then putting them on the jewelry they were making.

This station involved using two old tires (which can be found everywhere here along the road) and cutting the bottom tire a little while and putting the other tire in it making a very nice chair.  I have another picture later once it is painted and they look really nice and all the kids loved it!

This is a picture of Romina working with a PCV making a jewelry box out of bamboo.  I had not seen this project before but it is actually a very fun project for the kids using bamboo which can be found just about everywhere and a little wood glue and two small nails.  She made it for her mom to give it to her for mother’s day this month.  

On Friday morning we went and toured the Refugio Atinguy and the Yacyreta dam itself.  The next few pictures are of our group touring the beautiful sand dunes.  The last picture of the dunes is the group from my original training community.  

This is a picture from a distance of the dam itself that we got to have a mini tour of.  Unfortunately they were doing some maintenance the day we toured but we were at least able to tour some.  

These pictures are of the dam itself looking into the dams with the 20 turbines and they produce 19 thousand million kilowatt hours per year.  I actually don’t really understand how much that it but they made it sound like a lot!  Also just about all of Paraguay’s electricity comes from hydroelectric power between this one and another larger dam on the eastern side.  

This is a picture of where they fish come out of their special passage through the dam system.  They have a special lift that sends a signal encouraging the fish to come into the lift and then they move the fish then either up or down the dam and this picture is where they come out and if you look closely you should be able to see some big fish in the water.  They talked about the fact that it isn’t working as well as if the dam wasn’t there but between the fish lift and some more regulations the fish populations are on the mend.

This is a picture of the backside of the dam where the water is flowing out with all of the campers looking over the side.

This was another icebreaker game we played in the afternoon after lunch to get everyone moving.  It involved everyone getting into a big circle and holding hands and then winding all up together forming like a giant cinnamon roll or a giant hug.

In the afternoon we had two different sessions.  The first involved talking about water issues here in Paraguay and abroad as well as learning about different parameters that can be used to measure water quality for example pH, turbidity, temperature, etc.  Each of the campers then was able to assess the water they had brought from their community using a simple testing kit.  So although this might not measure more in depth water quality issues like contaminants it at least got the campers thinking about water quality in their community.  Also all of the test kids are free to volunteers down here so I have ordered some so they should be here soon so I can work with all of the kids in my community on this important issue

The next session was with A Todo Pulmon which is an organization that formed here in Paraguay with the intention of planting trees all over Paraguay and was also one of our major sponsors.  The campers learned about the deforestation here in Paraguay which is just astronomical and then learned what they can do in their communities to be a positive change.  After the short session and video the kids were then able to go outside and learn the proper way to plant a tree.  

This is just a picture of one of our amazing meals and I helped out getting set up for all the meals so when the campers arrived all the food was set out and ready to go.

On Friday night we had a talent show where campers and PCV alike could share different talents whether they are acting, singing, or whatever.  We also had a small bonfire which all of the kids enjoyed.

Our breakfast consisting of fresh fruit, bread, and dulce de leche (similar to caramel) and jam.

On Saturday morning before we left we had a wonderful session on leadership and how anyone can be a leader and what it means to be a leader.  We had an activity where we were taped together with masking tape and had to walk together with 5 people and walk all the way to the line without breaking the tape which was actually super hard but trying to teach about working together.  

We then had time to sit down with the PCV’s and their campers to talk about what they want to now go home and do in their communities with what they learned about at camp.  So this is us with my friend Aubrey who helped us come up with various ideas for our community.

This is a picture of Romina sitting on the finished tire chairs which were surprising comfortable.

This is the finished eco bench using the eco bricks that has a beautiful small mural painted on the side of a tree. 

Right before we all left, we had a closing ceremony where all of the campers and volunteers received nice certificates which are super popular here in Paraguay so Romina was so proud of hers!

This is a picture of everyone together at the sand dunes. My next blog post will cover our wonderful trip/ mini vacation getting home! 

Paraguay Verde- Part 1 (Getting There)

Each year Peace Corps Paraguay in corporation with A Todo Pulmon hosts an environmental camp which they call Paraguay Verde.  This year I took a girl from my community named Romina who is eleven years old and who grew up and goes to school here in Yukyry Central.  This year the camp was held down in Ayolas Paraguay which is the furthest south you can get here right on the border with Argentina.  In order for us to get there when the camp started on Thursday morning we had to leave here on our early morning (5 am) bus to begin our journey.  This blog post is just about the traveling down to the camp itself and I will just be showing the pictures of our journey and explaining as we went. 

We left our community a little after 5 am and traveled into Caaguazu where we caught another bus to Villarrica.  In Villarrica we had a couple of hours until our next bus so we went around and explored the town.  I had been here before when I had my PCV visit my third week in country so I knew my way around a little bit. 

Our first stop was a park in Villarrica was visiting Parque Manuel Ortiz Guerrero which is just a few blocks from the bus station and below you can see some pictures of the park itself.  Also we saw some carpinchos which are a type of animal that lives in both the water and on land.  The last time I was here I wasn’t able to see them but we were able to get up close to them and get some great pictures.  They are very interesting animals and were not afraid of us at all.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a picture of a huge cathedral that we saw in town.

 

This is the municipality building in Villarica.

 

Next we visited the Plaza de los Heroes which tells the story of the battles of the Chaco war and these seven pillars (which you can see in the picture) represents the seven moves of the city to where it has finally settled down here.

This is just a picture of Romina with one of the statues in the park.

 

 

This is a picture of us with our matching hats (in case you didn’t notice) on our long bus ride.

After we had our nice tour of the city (some of which was in a horse cart which Villarrica is known for) we met up with one of my friends who lives close to Villarrica so we got lunch and the boarded our bus to go to Paraguari.  Once we arrived there we had another couple hour wait so we just sat around at a taxi stand talking to locals and eating some wonderful chipa.  Our bus finally came at 4:30 and we got on the bus for our wonderful 4 hour journey down to Ayolas.  We finally arrived at our destination around 8:30 in the evening so we had a long but wonderful day of traveling. 

On Thursday morning we got up and went and visited a wonderful museum that was built in conjunction with the Yacyreta dam.  The museum has archaeological objects, minerals, and examples of the native fauna.  They also had a short video that told some of the history of the dam and area around.  After our short tour we finally met everyone there at the museum and were bussed out to Paraguay Verde which my next blog post will cover. 

First Day of School

Well on the 24^th of February was our first day of school here in Yukyry Central.  I have a very small school that has from first to ninth grade.  After ninth grade the kids have to go to a neighboring community to attend what they call coleigo (which is just our version of high school).  Our school day is split into morning and then afternoon classes with the majority of the classes occurring in the morning with just three grades going in the afternoon.  The first day of school I went with my niece who started school for the first time this year and one of the neighbor girls and Junior, my two year old nephew felt left out so we let him walk to school with us but wasn’t happy when he had to go home (hopefully he will feel the same way in a few years when its actually his turn!)  So the first day of school I just observed in different classes with different teachers to just see how different people run their classrooms and to get to know some of the children.  Over the next few weeks I will be interviewing different teachers and asking how I can help them and figure out the topics that I will be teaching in each classroom this year.  Also we will be starting to work on our school garden soon once it cools down a little bit more.  Below you should be able to see some pictures of the last few weeks.  Enjoy!

 

This is one of our two puppies named Rocky that loves to lay on my reusable shopping bag and loves to “guard” all of my new stuff for my house. 

 

The sunsets the past few weeks have just been beautiful with many storm systems moving around the area it is so cool to sit outside and watch the extreme electrical storms that we have here from a distance.

 

This is my nephew Junior who always has a huge smile on his face and is always running around barefoot and extremely dirty but always laughing. 

 

This is one of the two kittens that we have that for some reason loves to lay on my bed and to lay on my clean clothes.

 

This is a picture of the two girls and Junior walking to school on the first day.  Notice the cute uniforms and long socks!

 

A picture of all of us on the first day of school.  I also am wearing my new owl earrings!

 

 

A picture of Rosio in the morning before she heads to school.  She is always hanging out in the hammock with her two kittens (then they escape to my room and lay on my stuff).

Heart Healthy Food in Paraguay- Sopa Paraguya

Yesterday and today I have been in Caaguazú with my host family celebrating my host mother’s sister’s (so I guess like my aunt’s) 70^th birthday.  We came into town yesterday and cooked up a storm all day getting ready for the party.  The pictures below take you through how to make Sopa Paraguya which normally sopa in Spanish is a soup but here is a sort of corn bread.  This is not the first time that I have helped make sopa here but this is the largest scale that I have helped make it at.  Enjoy the pictures and recipe.

Step 1: Get a lot of pig fat like 2 kg and add it to a laundry wash bin, and mix very well.

Step 2: Add 2 dozen eggs.

 



 

Step 3: Add one slab of 2 kg of cheese, but make sure you have two more to add later!  This is the cheese that I help my family make every day and usually we are able to produce 2-3 kg per day so we have been saving up for this.

 

Step 4: Add 6 kg of corn that has been dried, boiled, cooled, and then ground into flour. This is corn that we had picked and then dried, and then taken off the cob.

 

Step 5: Add 4 liters of a liquid.  I’m not sure what the English name for it is but it is the milk substance that is left over in the container when we make the cheese that we usually feed to the pigs but saved this week.  Also later on she said we needed more liquid so we added about one more liter of fresh milk and ANOTHER liter of vegetable oil (in case we didn’t have enough with all the pig fat!)

 

 

Step 6: Stir like crazy, my mom said this is what makes it the best sopa is to stir a lot and she says it’s a good arm work out.

Step 7: Add about a cup of salt, my mom doesn’t use measuring cups or anything just keeps adding things, tests it and then says what it needs more of.

 

 

 

Step 8: The other 4 kg of cheese left from step 3.

 

 

Stir for about ten minutes, taste and then get your pans ready to go.  Every time we make sopa we have to visit a banana plant and cut off the leaves and put them in the pan to keep the sopa from sticking to the side.  You then pour the batter into the pan and then cut the banana leaves down because you don’t want them to burn too much in the outdoor oven. 

 

We had six large pans of sopa by the time we were done.  We had to walk it all over to the neighbor’s house because they don’t have an outdoor oven here. 

 

So after an hour getting that prepped (which we started before we started making the sopa, we had to get rid of all the hot coals and then put in the pans in.  We covered both entrances and let them cook for about 20-30 minutes and then pulled them out.   

 

 

The finished product!  I have no idea how many calories one piece of this has but with 2 kg pig fat + 1 L vegetable oil+ 6 kg cheese and everything else we probably don’t want to know.

Also before we left home in Yukyry Central we went on a little killing streak with our farm animals and here when someone has a birthday you give them gifts just like the states.  Here though you give people dead animals so we came with a small pig and chickens.  The meat my mom had worked on in the morning and just let sit in the salt and lemon juice all day.  After the sopa was done we restarted a fire in the oven and let that go for about an hour while we took the sopa out, cut it up, and then put meat in the pans.  So by the time it was all said and done we had one small pig, and about 9 chickens that went into the stove.  It doesn’t take meat very long to cook in the oven because it is so hot and cooking from all sides but it turns out wonderful. 

 

 

This is a picture of a very upset mother chicken because it was after dark when we were trying to cook the meat and she was trying to put her chicks to sleep but we kept interrupting them because she put them right next to the stove and we had to keep disturbing them to go back and forth but I was just amazed by how many chicks (9!) she could fit under her wing and around her.

 

 

 

This is a picture of my mom on the left followed by her sister and then me.  Also Paraguayans don’t smile very much but I love the picture because my mom isn’t smiling at all, the sister is a little bit, and then I have a huge smile on my face. 

We also had a wonderful mariachi band show up for a performance.

Overall it was a wonderful day full of working hard cooking and getting ready for the big party but all of the food turned out wonderful and everyone had a good time.