Its December?

Our neighbor boy's 5th birthday party. He is in front with the blue plaid shirt.

Some crazy grasshoppers

Joe with all his candles, there was so many we didn't need the lights and thought the house might catch on fire.

We can't believe it is December. We see Christmas lights and trees and cannot believe our eyes. It is too hot here to be Christmas time. We have been sweating pretty consistently and it doesn't look like its going to end soon. We celebrated Joe's birthday with some cake our neighbor made and some delicious Paraguayan dish that Joe enjoys....its similar to scalloped potatoes and ham. But with mandioca, a potato like food, and some sausage.

We had camp the past two weeks with the kids but were very disappointed. We invited more than 100 kids and only about 10 came. We were sad and tried not to take it personally. The kids are just on vacation and don't want to do much. We had fun with the kids that came: we colored, read books (Thank you family), and played some games. The kids here really love duck, duck, goose but always pick me so I got pretty tired in the heat. We had another camp this week but we ended it early, it was at a school further away and there was about 5 kids. We felt bad ending it too soon but our tolerance had lowered from the week before. We bought tons of water balloons and some were sent from home, those will have to wait. This coming week we are going to celebrate Christmas in our community and prepare for Chile. We are leaving December 27 and coming back January 11. We are very excited for a little break and cannot wait to be at a beach. We are going with 2 other volunteers and it is going to be a lot of fun. I promise to post pictures.

We love and miss you all. We wish we could be home for the holidays. Though the time sure has flown by, we have almost been here a year.

Thanksgiving Party

Joe and I foam hats at the Thanksgiving party. It was a lot of fun with good food.

Beautiful ruins

A statue at the Jesuit Ruins


Ruins

Amazing stone work

I'm a saint

We could go to the top of this building and look at the full view of the ruins.

We had a great time at Thanksgiving, though we would have loved to be at home eating delicious food with family. We went to party with most of the other Peace Corps volunteers in Paraguay. We got turkey, mashed potatoes, and Joe got pumpkin pie. It was a great time with volunteers. We did something I didn't think I would do on Thanksgiving, we swam a ton and got sunburnt. It is so cold at home you couldn't swim at Thanksgiving. The hotel was great, there was 3 swimming pools, one pool with a high diving board. While at the hotel we went to see Jesuit ruins. It was beautiful to see some of the history of Paraguay. Then we went to visit a friend who lives close to the ruins. We had fun but missed our families.

Now we are going to have some summer day camps with the kids and count down the days until Chile.

Thank you Aunt Barb and her women's group, we got all the school supplies and will be taking some pictures of the kids. Also thank you Aunt Nancy for the supplies and candy. We really appreciate all your packages, love, and support.

We miss you all and are very thankful for you all!

Not Much to Add But Photos

Joe and a giant ant hill. Luckily these are not close to our house.

A flooded field after it rained, the sky is beautiful in the water.

Enjoying yummy Iowa sweet corn and mashed potatoes. Thanks for the seeds Heits.

Joe, the naturally cowboy

Joe and I riding horse.

We are back in Asuncion and you know what that means....more pictures! We have been trying to take a lot of pictures. Its not too easy right now because there is not much going on. Time has gone by fast, it is almost December...we have been here for almost a year. We have learned and grown a lot, this experience has definately helped us grow and mature in our marriage. We are together all the time and we will never be together this much the rest of our life. We both really enjoy the time together.

We are om Asuncion and Friday we are going to leave to go south in Paraguay. There is a volunteer Thanksgiving party, there are a lot of activities planned, a pool, and some good food. We might go see the ancient ruins so maybe we will have more pictures later. The pool will especially be nice, it was about 100 degrees today. It will be crazy to be sweating buckets during Christmas when at home there will be snow.

I don't have much else to add in words but I will add some pictures.

Toni, We are proud of you!

I apologize for not blogging for a long time. Joe and I have not had much time for the Internet. When we come into town we have to print off photos for people in the community, buy food, and run other errands. Today we came in for a full day to relax while running errands and send home some Christmas gifts. We have been doing pretty well, trying to stay busy because it is a boring time now. The kids are having tests at school and then they go home so there is not much for us to do at the school. I was really sick with stomach pains this week and today I am starting to finally feel better. I wanted a nice fluffy couch, cable tv, and some ice cream. Luckily it was cooler this week and a lot of rain so I didn´t feel too bad laying around doing nothing.

Joe is getting a community group started and we are trying to get some money from the government to build brick ovens so they don´t have to cook on the ground. Soon summer vacation will start and we plan on having day camps, going to Chile, and opening the library to help kids with reading. There is not much else to blog. We will add pictures in a couple of weeks when we go to Asuncion.

I also wanted to say how proud we are of Toni, my little sister. She just graduated from Air Force boot camp in Texas. We wish we could be there but we are definately thinking and praying for her. We love you Toni and couldn´t be more prouder! You finished boot camp and have a great trek ahead of you.

Pictures and Video.....Double Viewing Pleasure

Every grade had a queen, this is Raquel the queen of 3rd grade.

Joe and our neighbor boy, Brian. He likes to come over and play soccer and we taught him frisbee.

Adorable Kindergarteners in the traditional Paraguayan dress.

Me with some 7th graders, aren't they so cute?

Kids dancing.

Here are some pictures of the kids at a school program that they called the Olympics. I took pictures, sold them for a little more, and am using the money to buy books for the school. We are really excited to get more books for the kids!

Its has been a while since blogged.We have been busy and haven't had much time to get to town to use the Internet, when there is time we are busy trying to email family and catch up on how the Twins were doing. Sadly their run for the World Series ended, Joe and I thought maybe we were bad luck at home since they were doing so well while we are gone. Speaking of while we are gone we have been away from home for almost 9 months. We have been in our community for 6 months, we are a fourth of the way done. Time is going fast but yet we have a lot of work to get done. The school year will be over at the end of November. We will be spending the summer having camps with the kids, going on vacation, opening the Support Room about twice a week for the kids to come read, maybe making a world map on a wall at the school, and probably drinking a lot of water in the shade. November-February are pretty hot months here so I am sure we will not be moving around too much in the afternoon. Joe is trying to get together a group of people in the community to form a commission and try to get some brick ovens built. A lot of people cook over a wood fire on the floor. We are going to try to build some of the brick oven/stoves in the summer time as well. Its sounds like we will be keeping busy, which is good because if you know me you know I don't like to sit around on my bum too long.

Here is a link to the the video of our school we work at. Those of you that know Spanish please excuse the bad spanish speaking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujEB_Ao_Wmk

We miss you all!

The Life of a Volunteer

Joe watering our garden, it looks pretty nice. Though the corn blows over when it is too windy.

Joe reading on the porch, it was cold and rainy that day.

Happily knitting.

When Joe and I are not busy working at the schools, visiting people in the community, washing clothes by hand, or working on the garden or our large yard we have a lot of down time. We have been doing pretty good on filling the down time without being bored. We don’t have a television or internet, most people have a television but we don’t want to buy one and all the programs would be in Spanish (A lot of times they play American movies with voice overs in Spanish). We brought our computer and looked into getting Internet but we would have to get a 20 foot tower on our lawn which includes a lot of wires, we decided it wasn’t worth it. I have taken up knitting, two teachers at the school taught me how to knit and I really enjoy it. I am working hard on Christmas presents right now. After that the teachers said I am going to learn to crochete. Besides knitting I have been reading or working on materials for our Support Room. Joe has been reading a lot, I think he has read about 20 books so far and shows no sign of stopping. There is a great Peace Corps library at the office. Besides reading Joe has mastered the card games on the computer….Solitaire, Spider Solitaire, and Free Cell….also he has become a professional at pinball. We are glad to have brought our computer, there is a big market of bootleg movies and we are lucky to find some in English with Spanish subtitles. Joe and I have begun running as well, we thought now would be a good time to start our healthy lifestyle, we need to get rid of that Pizza Ranch and post wedding weight. We have also enjoyed adapted to the Paraguayan lifestyle of sitting outside in the shade on the porch. We sit out there talking, watching people pass by, and many times Joe is reading and I am knitting. We sound pretty boring but it helps pass the time when there is not much else to do. We are very lucky to be together, there are many volunteers alone. I can’t imagine being here alone; I think I would go crazy. Joe and I spend a lot of time together which is great, I am sure we will never get this opportunity to spend so much time together again.

We have been doing well. The Support Room is helping many students improve their reading and giving them time to get their hands on a book. School is starting to wind down. In November the students will start testing and classes will end around Thanksgiving. It looks like we will be doing more reading and knitting in December, January, and February. During summer vacation we are going to try to have summer camps with the kids, open the Support Room two or three times a week, and go on vacation to Chile. We decided we wanted to go somewhere for our 2 year anniversary and New Years. We are planning a trip to Chile with two other volunteers and cannot wait to go. There are not many details right now, we are trying to book plane tickets and find lodging.

Thank you everyone for the updating emails! We really appreciate them. We miss you all and are praying that everyone is safe and doing well. We have been keeping Toni especially in our prayers as she is in training with the Air Force, we couldn’t be more proud. Also Happy early Birthday Lane! I can’t believe my favorite nephew is going to be 2 and I will miss out! Don’t worry I’ll be there for the 4^th birthday!

Thanks Heitritters for the Twins updates! Joe is was sitting on pins and needles last night (Tuesday) when they went into 12 innings with the Tigers.

Paraguay is going to the world cup!

6th graders

5th graders by our welcome sign

At the soccer game

Soccer game again

Go Paraguay!

We needed to come into the capital, Asuncion to get packages sent from my grandma and from Aunt Sandee and Uncle Doug. We loved the children's books, crayons, and Skittles (which only lasted 2 days). The kids love the books. We decided that we would come in to get the packages while Paraguay soccer team was playing Argentina. It was a great game. Paraguay won 1-0. This game was important because if they won they would go to the World Cup. The Paraguayans went crazy, there wasn't school the next day. That was last week Wednesday, Septemember 9.

Now we are in Asuncion again, we had meetings with our Peace Corps bosses. We have to come and talk with them every 3 months to talk about what we have done and what we plan to do. It went great and we got more ideas for projects.

Not too much else going on in site. We are working in the Support Room with reading. Joe is coming twice a week to help with the older kids. I am enjoying my time working one-on-one wit the kids and hoping to help improve their reading. We still have a lot of work to do but I am glad to have some work started.

I can't believe my little sister, Toni has started basic training with the Air Force. We are both so proud of her and praying for her.

We miss you all very much!

More Pictures

We finally figured out the problem with the memory card on our camera. It had a virus and we would lose all our pictures. We bought a new card and now have been taking lots of pictures. Here are some pictures of what we have been up to lately.

1st graders after washing their hands, these kids bring a smile to my heart!

Kindergarteners and Preschoolers showing their clean hands.

Joe showing the kids how to was their hands with the bottle washing station we made. They loved it!

Our very own garden that Joe worked very hard on. We even put up a fence to keep all the chickens out. We have Iowa sweet corn (Thank you Heits), watermelon, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, and carrots. We can´t wait to eat our veggies.

The school garden, a little bigger than ours and ready to enjoy!

It feels like summer here though it is still winter, we can´t imagine how hot we are going to be in the middle of summer here. We have been busy and hardly have much time to relax. We have even started waking up at 5:30 in the MORNING to get in a run before we are too tired and it is too hot. We enjoy getting in some exercise. I have been working almost every day in the Support Room. I have about 5 students in the morning and 25 in the afternoon. The kids range from 1st to 5th grade. It is amazing how little the children get read to and how many books are in the school library. Most don´t have books at their house, that amazes me....especially since the Heits have their own home library. There are so many kids in the afternoon that Joe comes in to help me. It is a great project for us to do together. The kids seems to enjoy working with us too. I work one-on-one with the kids, most of them just need practice reading. I will try to take some pictures or maybe a video of my classroom, but it is not ready yet...I am still making things for the walls.
Joe has been working on health issues in the schoools. Every Wednesday he comes with flouride for the kids to have healthier teeth. We are also going to the other school in the community and working with nutrition and hand washing.
We are going to have some volunteers visiting us this weekend. It is another married couple, he is in health and she is in education. They are from Indiana and we really enjoy spending time with them. It will be great showing people around our community.
Thanks for all the updates. We really enjoy them! We love you and miss you all!

Busy, Busy

I am sorry that is has been so long since we last blogged. It has been more difficult to get to the Internet. We have been busy on site. Joe has been working on his census again..after taking a month break. He needs to write a community study in Spanish by Novemeber. He is about half way done with the census. It is difficult because we need a member of the community to come with us and translate many questions into Guarani.
I have been super busy trying to get a support room started. The kindergarten room has just become vacant and I get my own classroom to work with the students that need help with reading. I am also going to go into the classrooms and do model lessons, showing the teachers how they can use reading in their rooms. I am trying to get a balanced schedule, I have 5 students in the morning and 19 in the afternoon. Wow! I have a lot of work ahead of me. I am really excited and can´t wait to start on Monday. I will be helping the students and also improving my Spanish.
The weather here has been off and on. Last week it was hot but this week it was cold. I can´t decide which one is better. It either takes 3 hours or 3 days to dry our clothes on the clothesline.
We have been bad at taking photos and we apologize. We went to the camera store and found that our memory card had a virus so we bought a new one and play to take more pictures....especially of the giant green school garden. We play to have our own garden soon. Laura sent us sweet corn seeds from Iowa and we hope they grow here. We gave a lot of the seeds to the teachers too.
We miss you all very much. Please call if you would like or keep the email updates coming....we really enjoy them. We love you all!

Home Video

We made a video tour of our house and put it on YouTube. Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82-F9zQ-JUk

Enjoy!

We miss you all!

Home Sweet Home for 2 years!

Joe and I now have a house in Paraguay. We have been enjoying our freedom and privacy. The house we are living in has 4 rooms and a new bathroom. We are happy with the bathroom; it even has warm water in the shower (though at times it blows the breaker). Our first night here while I was taking a shower I blew the breaker 5 times, we figured out that we have to unplug the fridge and not use the stove while trying to take a warm shower. Since we moved in the days have been cold and rainy which gives us a good reason to stay inside and be lazy. We are very lucky because we got most of the furniture for our house from my community contact; she is letting us borrow it for 2 years. She gave us a bed, 2 tables with chairs, and a fridge (though we paid for a new motor).

It is great cooking for ourselves; Joe has been making most of the food. So far we made pizza, spaghetti, grilled cheese, French fries, potato soup, pancakes, and tacos. A special thanks to my parents for sending us taco seasoning and cooking spices. We have been looking through recipe books for other things to cook, there is a Peace Corps Paraguay cookbook that we use a lot because it has ingredients that we can find here.

School vacation has been extended a week because of the swine flu. It is big news here and the people are really worried about it. So we are going to use the extra week off on visiting people in our community and perfect our cooking skills. School started but then we had to leave to go back to Guarambare for 2 1/2 days of training. Most of the training was in Spanish for me and Guarani for Joe. Guarani is so difficult to pronunciate.

We were sad to miss opening night of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince movie but we caught it in Asuncion at the only mall that had it in English with Spanish subtitles. We really enjoyed it, though the books are never as good as the books.

We can't believe we have been here for 6 months. There are many more months to go but we are ready to get some projects started. The first couple of months was spent getting to know the community and learn more Spanish but now is the time to get started. I am going to start working with reading because there are 5th graders that don't know how to ready. I really enjoy reading and think it is very important for kids to learn so hopefully I can get something started with the teachers and working individually with the students. There are not many books in the library and students don't have any in their homes so just getting books in their hands will be great. Joe is not sure what he will try to focus on, possibly educating parents and community members about health topics.

We would love to get updates on how everyone is doing at home. Please email us.

Michael Jackson Paraguayo videos

Here is Michael Jackson Paraguayo and his son at the 4th of July party.

Happy 4th of July! I can't believe it is already July, we have been in Paraguay for 5 months. We are celebrating Independence Day in Asuncion. On Friday there was a party at the Embassy during the day. We got to eat delicious hot dogs, burgers, potato chips, apple pie, and many other yummy desserts. Then at night most of the Peace Corps volunteers in Paraguay went to a park that we rented. We filled our stomachs with drinks, cotton candy, and popcorn. I think we ate about 6 bags of cotton candy. There was a bonfire with marshmellows, music, and a Paraguayan Michael Jackson. He was really good and he little son even danced. We took some video and will try to get it on the blog.
Since we last blogged we got our 3 packages—one from my mom, my dad, and Grandma Heits. We were excited to get Skittles which is our favorite candy. If you ever want to send us something we will always accept Skittles.
It has been off and on cold. Usually it is warm during the day. We got hit with the cold bug; we couldn’t stop blowing our noses for days. We ate lots of oranges off the trees and are feeling much better. We have been really busy working in the schools and we are starting to work on dental health. The garden at the school is going well, there are little green veggies coming up everywhere. We got broccoli and cauliflower seeds but they don’t eat much of those here so Joe and I will have to look for recipes that include broccoli and cauliflower to make for the students. Right now winter vacation is starting, the students will have 2 weeks off of school. We are going to be using our time getting the house ready and working on Joe’s census.
We were sad to hear Michael Jackson died. It was all over the Paraguayan news and all this week we have been hearing his songs on the radio. I can’t stop singing Billy Jean or Beat It. I can remember my sister and me dancing to Michael Jackson songs on the swing set on the farm or my countless failed attempts at doing the moon walk. I vote for Justin Timberlake to be the next King of Pop. We were lucky enough to see Michael Jackson Paraguayo.
Monday winter vacation will begin at the schools, there will be 2 weeks without classes. During vacation we plan to get our house ready and work in the school garden and plant our own garden. We will also try to visit a lot of people in site because everyone wants us to visit them, there is so many people and so little time.

BOOKS!

I almost forgot to add this on the blog until Joe mentioned it to me. I have been getting lots of emails about what I need for my classroom. I technically do not have my own classroom, I am helping the teachers and kids in the elementary school. I go classroom-to-classroom, but I mostly work with 1st-3rd graders. I will be presenting model lessons on mostly reading and math. I am trying to help the teachers form new ways or ideas of how to teach, my focus is specifically reading. Books here are expensive and so the school and the kids do not have many reading books. Many kids do not know how to read by 3rd grade and many kids older than that can read but do not comprehend what they are reading. So I think for 2 years I am going to try to share my love for reading with the kids. If you like to send us anything for the classrooms or for the kids please send books in Spanish. I am not sure how accessible they are at home. Any book in Spanish is great, even English books to teach kids Spanish because we can use them the opposite way...teaching English.
On a side note I am teaching English and during our site presentation on Friday my supervisor asked the kids to count in English, they counted perfectly to ten and said some colors. As a teacher I was so proud! The parents of some of the students have also told me how much their child enjoys English.

Busy Busy

We are currently in Asuncion. We have 3 packages waiting for us at the package center,I know one has skittles...thanks Mom! The packages are only there for 30 days, after people say they get rid of them. If we didn't come now we wouldn't be able to get them the next time we came for the 4th. It is a fast trip, we left today and are coming back tomorrow morning. We had quite the experience getting here. We decided today at 9 o'clock we should try to get our packages on Monday, since it is Sunday there is no bus going through our site. We asked the people we are staying with to take us to the next site 14 km away. We got there thinking the bus was leaving at noon but really it left at 2. So we decided to wait for 2 1/2 hours. Being Norteamericanos in Paraguay we attract a lot of stares and some crazy/kind people. Today an old man came and sat on the bench with us, maybe a little too close to me, and was offering us numerous times to come eat lunch at his house. We tried politely to explain that we were not scared to go we just wanted to wait for the bus. After many times of say "Gracias pero vamos a esperar para el colectivo" (Thank you but we are going to wait for the bus) he finally understood and left us. As the bus came it was raining and I happened to pick the seat where the window leaked but we were lucky enough to get a seat..many people had to stand for the 5 hour trip. It took quite a long time to get to Asuncion but we are finally here.
We have been busy this week. Tuesday nights we are going to teach PE at the night school. This Tuesday we tried kickball but between our not so well Spanish and their little understanding of baseball we ended the game and played soccer, which they know how to play very well. Wednesday I teach English all day at the school and we also taught English at the night school. Friday we had our site presentation---my supervisor, Josefina and Joe's supervisor, Don Pedro came to our site and talked with our community about what we are here to do and how we can help them. Joe and I both had to speak too, I talked a little in Guarani which really impressed the community. Below is a picture of us by the welcome sign I made, yes I made our own welcome sign. Saturday morning Joe started his census. He has to go around the community house-to-house and ask them a series of questions. The questions are about what they use to cook and what they use to go to the bathroom. Saturday night was a party at the school called San Juan. It is a big deal. There were sack races (which I won against the kids), theatrical skits, dancing, and lots of food. Joe and I were so full of typical Paraguay food we hardly ate anything today.
This blog is getting really long and so I am going to end it. I will probably not blog until the 4th of July. We are going to come to Asuncion, there is a party at the US Embassy and the Peace Corps Volunteers are going to rent a park and party all night.
We miss you all! Especially our fathers being today is Father's Day. Happy Father's Day Dads!

Green Thumbs

Hello Everyone. I am sorry that it has been a while since we have blogged. We have been busy and haven’t had much time to come to Villarrica and use the Internet. When we do use the Internet we are trying to call our families. It has been cold here lately, when we first came and were sweating all the time we didn’t believe it got cold here. Though it is not as cold as home during the winter we are still wearing layers. We didn’t enjoy freezing at night so we bought a heater, which helps. Lately we have been busy with the school garden, preparing our house, and I am teaching English every Wednesday. The school garden is huge and we are very excited to be growing lots of vegetables for the kids. This week we are going to start working with the night school students, PE on Tuesdays and English on Wednesday. I am trying to make sure that teaching English is not all I do for two years but it is a good way to start. Joe is going to start on his census, he has to go around the community and do 50 surveys—finding out what they have in their house and if there are any projects he could start working on.

We were sad to miss my cousin Travis’ wedding. We got the invitation in the mail and were really glad they still thought of us in Paraguay. The thought of wedding cake makes my mouth water! Joe and I have been craving food from home, I guess we took Snickers and Reece’s for granted. We have been eating a ton of oranges lately because almost everyone has orange trees and right now is the season for them. We were also sad to miss out on Aunt Dode´s wedding, I am sure it was a blast!

I wanted to add some pictures but our camera is not functioning properly right now. We are trying to figure out the problem.

We miss you all tons!

Many Pictures

Me with the 1st grade class and teacher.

Behind us around the chalkboard is the abcs we made.

Joe helping plow the school garden


After first day of building the bathroom

The outside just about finished

Our Future Home in July!

Carpinchos at the park in Villarrica

Joe's favorite animal....carpinchos (giant rodents)

Joe and his carpinchos

Feeding Time

Joe and I are in the Asuncion right now to go to meetings at the Peace Corps office. We have been in our site for one month now and have already began some work. I have made some abc cards for 1st and 2nd grade and also clocks in 3rd grade. We reused cardboard boxes for all of the materials. I think I will become pretty good at reusing items and might take that back to me the United States. Joe has also started some work...he has worked hard on our new bathroom and also getting the school garden ready. Our school is really excited to have a school garden and made it huge so we will have a lot of work to do. Along with the garden Joe and I will be giving nutrition talks in the classrooms.

We have actually had some colder weather. It has been rainy and chilly but people have promised us it still gets colder. It wouldn't be so cold if you could get warm inside your house but it is the same inside as outside. People in our community ask us why we are cold because it gets much colder where we are from, but we also have heaters inside our houses. June and July are the cold months here, I don't think we will be washing many of our clothes because we have to do it by hand, outside, with cold water. We can't believe it is summer vacation at home when we are cold here. Congratulations Toni on graduating from high school. I am very sad that we could not be there. I also was sad to miss Lane's baptism but I really loved the pictures.

Steve and Laura we got our package! Thank you so much! We are so excited to watch High School Musical 3 for the next 2 years!

We miss you all very much.

Just a Quick Note

Joe and I are in town to look for stuff to construct our new bathroom. Yesterday we worked on the yard and cleaning the inside of our future home. Joe was excited to use his machete to trim the trees. There is still more work to do but it was awesome to get started. My contact´s husband and Joe are going to be building the bathroom....lets hope they know what they are doing. We can´t get too excited about moving in the house because we have to live with host families until July. This week the teachers are on strike so there is not much for me to do. I am not sure the reason they are on strike, either they didn´t get their money or they want more. I have been studying my spanish and trying to get ideas of how to start at the school. Joe has also been trying to decide how to start, at least the bathroom will give him something to do. We do not have much other news. I just thought I would quick put something up since we had some time. We had a great time this weekend talking to family, it is always great to talk in English.

We miss you all very much!

First Week in Site!

Hello everyone! We are now official in our site and working as volunteers. We did enjoy staying in a hotel and having our independence. Right now we are living with a host family: a teacher, a librarian, a 13 year old boy, and a 9 year old boy. The 9 year old reminds us a lot of Thomas so it is fun to play with him. We enjoy living with them....we have our own room above the house with a bathroom. Houses here usually do not have 2 stories. We sit out on the balcony and looking at the stars while playing games on our new cell phones. We made our family pizza one night but they make it different here, you cook all the ingredients first and then put it in the oven for 2 minutes. The dough is already made.
The second day we were here we went to the school and they had a fiesta because the next day was Teacher´s Day. They should have that at home! :) The next two days the kids didn´t have school so we learned how to wash our laundry by hand and went to Villarrica. It takes about an hour by bus to get to Villarrica, which is where we are right now. We met up with other volunteers and explored the city. The rest of this week I plan to go to the school and Joe is going to visit the health post and find some work to do. I visited the school yesterday and observed 3rd and 5th grade. They teach a lot differently here, most of the time kids are copying off the board into their notebooks because they don´t have textbooks. But sometimes the teachers just sit there and make them copy without teaching them anything. It is going to difficult to try to get them to use a different method of teaching.
We have decided on living in the house that we need to build a bathroom. We saw some other houses but this one was the best. We will need to take some pictures of the bathroom in process.
I am not sure how often we will get to the internet but I will try to post as much as we can. We are looking into internet but we would have to put up an antenna and we don´t want the whole community to know we have a computer or internet.
I am excited to see pictures of Toni at prom so Mom and Dad send some soon!
Happy Mother´s Day on Sunday.....moms you can call us on Sunday if you want....that is reverse but if you use an international calling card it should work well.
We miss you all!

I, Kendra Heitritter solemly swear........

Asuncion sunset---view from the rooftop pool

view from the rooftop pool where we laid in the sun

Joe in his element doing karoke

At the US Embassy at the black and white party

The Rural Health Group

The best cake ever!

Some great friends!

We can really clean up.

Pretty waterfall.

We are now official volunteers. Friday in the morning we went to the US Embassy....the second largest US Embassy, it is beautiful. The US Ambassador gave a speech and we took the Peace Corps oath (which is the same at the US vice president). After the ceremony we ate some snacks and got the most delicious cake I have ever had. We took many pictures and then left for the Peace Corps office. We signed a lot of papers, recieved a bank card, and cell phones. We got some very nice cell phones, nicer than the one I had at home. We relaxed that day and at night we went a pub and then to a black and white party at the US embassy with the Marines. After we went to karoke, which is one of Joe's favorite things. We were very tired at the end of the night. Today, Saturday we had some yummy breakfast of super fruit and we sat/swam at the rooftop pool. I am pretty burnt right now. Tonight we are planning on going out for Mexician food. The rest of the weekend we are not sure what we are doing. Relaxing. It is great to be in air conditioning with internet and tv. After living with a family it is great to be on our own. Tuesday we are going out to our site sometime in the afternoon. We will try to keep you posted while we are at our site but it might be more difficult unless we get internet at our house.

Emma Heitritter you looked so beautiful at prom, we hope you had fun.

We miss you all!