Summer Wrap-Up

Well this summer has been a whirlwind.  Luckily the weather this year has been so much better than last year, don’t get me wrong we have had some hot days but nothing like it was last year.  I think it also helped though that I had my own house so I could take as many showers as I wanted, sit in front of the fan, or just do whatever I needed to cool down!  As I am sitting here on my porch writing this the kids are now back in session (they started today) and I can hear them all playing on the “playground” for recess.  My niece Rocio is in second grade this year which means her class is in the morning so she is trying to get used to having to be at school by 7am, it’s an adjustment for all of us.  My nephew Junior is also very anxious to be able to go to school with Rocio but his chance will come next year.  Luckily we are leaving before he wakes up so we don’t have a repeat of last year where he had a breakdown every time we left to take her to school. 

Otherwise I am staying busy, just got my summer school classes wrapped up which we had a wonderful time with.  Last week I went to a fellow PCV’s site to help build a biodigester, and on Saturday I submitted my grant proposal to help get some funding to build one in my own site.  Finally wrapping up the step by step biodigester guide I am helping co-write which I was able to edit a lot during the construction of the biodigester so that I another project just about done.   I am also getting ready to teach the new environmental volunteers about tree and nursery management during their reconnect in March, so I am working on getting a presentation and activities ready to go for that.  This Saturday will once again start up my class again for the students, I haven’t had much luck working in the school so I decided I can just work with the students outside of the school day which they requested so that should be fun! 

My garden is doing well, I ended up buying shade cloth to cover the garden since everything was just getting burnt up with all the hot Paraguayan sun but am starting to get in new peppers, tomatoes, and basil.  Also the big fun in my life right now is the 5 new bundles of joy (kittens) that were born when dad was here and are now 4 weeks old and providing lots of entertainment for all.  They have figured out how to escape their box so are now terrorizing the house but mainly stick to the shoe bin and spend the day nursing, playing, sleeping, and doing it all over again.  Below you should be able to see some pictures about what has been going on lately so enjoy!

This is one of the newborn colts in my community.

The finished eco-bench with so many different colors and handprints, complete with “Welcome to Yukyry Central”!

My students that helped us put the finishing touches on.

I have been doing a little bit of fishing lately with my friend and this was the bounty of the day complete with fresh water ell things, I am not really for sure.

Just a couple pictures of the beautiful kittens, four boys and one girl who is trying to hold her own.  

Last week I traveled to Juan O’Leary and a fellow PCV’s site to help install a new biodigester and teach a workshop to locals.  This is just a picture of us getting some of the site preparation done.  

The biodigester after it was fully installed.

The picture of all of us with the family we helped build the biodigester for.

All curled up one afternoon taking a nap.  They usually form one big pile but it was a little hotter that day so I guess they decided to separate a little bit.

My site mate Annie (who lives in San Roque) came over and helped with my class one day and we cut glass bottles and made glasses each of the students were able to take home.

Another picture of the kittens who are still trying to understand how to drink milk from a bowl.  One likes to practically swim in the bowl while the other just don’t quite understand the concept yet.  I am trying to supplement food for them right now because the mom herself is so small and even with all the food I give her is having a hard time “keeping up”.

On Friday my students and I invited over everyone’s family for a sort of graduation from summer camp.  My students did a fantastic job explaining to the families what activities we did over the past two months as well as we had hands on activities to demonstrate to the parents.  Here you can see one of the art projects that we worked on. 

When talking about what they learned in English they decided to try and play Simon Says with the body parts in English so it was fun to say the least!  The kids beat the parents of course.  

A picture of me with the 7 students that were in my class every week after they received their certificates.  

One of my ongoing projects is making another flower bed using glass bottles.  Every time I am walking around or visiting a family I try and grab a few so little by little I am getting my flower bed done and now working my way around the garden.  

Some pictures of my garden.  It might not look like a whole bunch of plants right now but I have a lot of transplants just about ready to go into the raised beds as well as many tomato and pepper plants that are just beginning to produce.  My basil just loves the hot weather and is thriving.  I had to kill off all of my beans that were growing up my garden fencing because my sisters goats thought it was food for them and are getting big enough to break my fence so after a couple of repairs I decided the green plants should go.  Otherwise the garden is doing well and have lettuce, spinach, onions, garlic, and cabbage coming up right now!

Well that’s all for now, I hope those of you back in the US are staying warm and not slipping around too much on the snow and ice!