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.