long field practice

so this past week i visited itacuribi del rosario with kyle, mateo, kevin and my profesora sylvia. so we had this long field practice basically so we could experience what another volunteer is doing in their community and also to get a little bit away from las piedras...haha....

so we visited sandra´s site and overall i would say it was a good week.....there were ups and downs....but i definitely learned a lot....we got to visit quite a few farms and learn more about agriculture and crops....and of course crop rotation and abonos verdes....so that was good....

we also gave 2 charlas (presentations) the first one went a lot better than the 2nd one.....the unfortunate part is that without guarani, we are pretty much useless.....mis companeros and i explained in spanish and then sandra would translate everything in guarani....and for the first charla we made a couple of mistakes and its not like you realize that you are making a mistake in that instance, not until later when it hits you...are you like oh crap!!! that first charla was about productions costs....and our teacher sylvia and sandra said that we did an awesome job....

as for the 2nd one, it was a bit tougher because there was a lot of politics involve in the asociacion that they were not really paying attention to us....we had each person write down their idea on a piece of paper--1 thing that their organization did right in the last year and 1 thing that they think can improve....so yeah it was really hard to read their writing.....so lesson learned---dont have people write down their own ideas....or actually individually go to each one and you write down what they have to say....

so yeah we stayed for a bit longer after our presentation just to listen in on their meeting...and it was a bit heated...and not until after did we realize all the corruption and screwed up things taking place in the asociacion....very disheartening....and i also have to seriously think about how i am going to deal with machismo in the future....many men were talking about me and my body parts in guarani...saying really inappropriate things.....so its frustrating to think...how the fuck am i going to deal with that if it comes up in my site....so yeah...for now i dunno what to do.... :(

this friday we find out where we will be living for the next 2 yrs, im a bit nervous about that....but then again we pretty much have no choice as to where we will be sent....so kinda up to the higher powers....

the family that i stayed with for the past week was nice....well the mom was nice and quiet...we got along great...the dad on the other hand was a bit of a jerk....he said that peace corps volunteers dont come to help people, all they do is come learn about paraguay....because we have no experience with agriculture or guarani....so we dont really have anything to offer them....i tried to explain to him that we do offer other things, like a business background to help organize their coop/asociacion....and that many people want to help, but paraguayan culture is all about taking it slow...making friends first...being nice...and then slowly getting things done...so thats an obstacle in and of itself....i dont think he really understood my point because he didnt bother to talk to me the rest of the week....haha oh well his loss....

and finally before i take off...my sympathies to my buddy kyle for having the worst case of chivivi (diarrhea) and vomiting...poor thing felt awful for pretty much the whole trip and not until the end was he finally ok....so yup

i kinda thought that my buddies would drive me a bit crazy by the end of the trip, but on the contrary they definitely grew on me :) hehe

ok well i need to be off....sorry for not proofreading, no time

take cares
hugs and kisses :)