Happy Golden Birthday Toni! I am sad that I cannot see my little sister on her 18th birthday! Talking on the static skype was the best I could do. I can´t believe how old she is. There are a lot of family and friends birthdays that we have missed this month. So happy birthday to all!
We can´t believe it is already the middle of March. This week we had site interviews on what we want from our site. Next week we will be on Long Field Practice from Monday until Friday. We will be visiting other volunteers....this is the longest time we will be apart from each other since being married. The week after that we will find out our site...April 1st. We can`t wait to find out. The time in training has been going fast and we are really enjoying learning the language and being with our host family.
We received a package from my mom this week. We were so thrilled to receive our favorite candy.....Skittles! We are rationing them out. We miss you all!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Encouraging Week
This week was a very encouraging week. We recieved a lot of positive words from people and it has really lifted our spirits. We had language interviews and we both are at the level you need to pass in order to be a volunteer, though we both want to keep getting better in our language. Over the past couple of weeks we have really adapted to the culture and picked up on the language. We are getting used to saying ¨adios¨to people as we pass each other instead of ¨hi¨. Joe and I have really enjoyed getting to know our host family and playing with the neighborhood kids.
Tuesday we went to the country and cooked with the people. We used a lot of soy and it was a lot work. We even make soy milk. Wednesday we learned tradition Paraguayan songs and dance. It was interesting to see. Friday I had to give a ¨charla¨ (a little 30 minute workshop) with another volunteer on using education games in the classroom. It was in Spanish and I was very nervous, but it went well. All in all we had a very busy week and are very tired.
It has been cooler here which is nice and we adjusted to the daylights savings time and it gets dark around 7 o´clock so we go to bed on time. Its nice we are only 1 hour away from home instead of 3.
We are anticipating packages from family members. It has been 3 weeks so far....we are hoping no one ate our candy or stole our High School Muscial 3 movie.
We miss you all!!!!
Tuesday we went to the country and cooked with the people. We used a lot of soy and it was a lot work. We even make soy milk. Wednesday we learned tradition Paraguayan songs and dance. It was interesting to see. Friday I had to give a ¨charla¨ (a little 30 minute workshop) with another volunteer on using education games in the classroom. It was in Spanish and I was very nervous, but it went well. All in all we had a very busy week and are very tired.
It has been cooler here which is nice and we adjusted to the daylights savings time and it gets dark around 7 o´clock so we go to bed on time. Its nice we are only 1 hour away from home instead of 3.
We are anticipating packages from family members. It has been 3 weeks so far....we are hoping no one ate our candy or stole our High School Muscial 3 movie.
We miss you all!!!!
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Pictures
A lot of family members have been asking for pictures so here they are. I am sorry it has taken so long. We are enjoying are time here but lately it has been tremendously hot...in the 100s every day. They say it will cool off soon and we will be cold but I don´t believe them yet! We are anticipating the time change because we will only be an hour different from home instead of 3 hours. We can´t believe we have been here for a month. April 1 we will find out where our site will be.....where we will be leaving and working for 2 years. We are hoping for running water and electricity but we will be rural.....aka in the countryside which is more lindo (pretty).
We spend a lot of our time here doing homework and playing cards with the kids. We also eat at the table behind Joe. This is the little patio between the house and our room.
This is our bedroom. We enjoy the bigger bed than what we had at home besides at Grandma Heit´s house.
This is our bathroom. The floor gets really wet because we don´t have a shower curtain. 
This is the beach in Villeta that we were so excited to go swimming at.Can you see why we didn`t want to swim here... I can´t get the question mark to work!
We can study outside at our training center.
Here is our host families´house. We live in the back.
Me with my friend Amanda. It was very bright butthe beach was nice and the river wasn´t too bad.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Melting in Paraguay!
It is very hot here. Probably around 90-100 degrees every day. I didn´t think I would be sweating this much in the month of March. They say it is suppose to cool down by April, which will be nice! We are still adjusting to the language, culture, and food. The meat here is nothing like Iowa meat. We eat a lot of chicken.
Lately we have been really busy with language classes, visiting other volunteers, and getting to know Paraguay. The past weekend we went to visit a volunteer couple. It was a great time talking and learning about being a volunteer. We played cards and learned how to play Paraguayan cards. Lately we have been playing lots of cards with our host sister and neighbor boy every night we have to play Uno, Go Fish, or Memory. It has been a great tool in learning spanish.
We have both been pretty health. Joe got over his sickness fast and have been feeling well. We sometimes stomach pains but it is just adjusting to the food.
This weekend we went to Asuncion and show the historic buildings. We went to the Governor´s palace, it kind of looked like the White House. There were guards but no fence. We could walk very close.....nothing like the US. It was great to see the historic part of Paraguay. On Sunday we had to go visit Joe´s ¨lunch mom¨. For training Joe needs to go to a different community and eats lunch with another family. They wanted to meet me so they could ¨know¨me. The campo (country) is a lot different than the town we live in. It is more tranquilo (calm and relaxing).
Lots of times we crave food from home, especially Pizza Ranch pizza, which would be difficult for people to send to us. We got to eat McDonalds but it was not the same as home. We will try to take some pictures and upload them on our blog. Sorry we have not had the opportunity yet. We miss you a lot.
Lately we have been really busy with language classes, visiting other volunteers, and getting to know Paraguay. The past weekend we went to visit a volunteer couple. It was a great time talking and learning about being a volunteer. We played cards and learned how to play Paraguayan cards. Lately we have been playing lots of cards with our host sister and neighbor boy every night we have to play Uno, Go Fish, or Memory. It has been a great tool in learning spanish.
We have both been pretty health. Joe got over his sickness fast and have been feeling well. We sometimes stomach pains but it is just adjusting to the food.
This weekend we went to Asuncion and show the historic buildings. We went to the Governor´s palace, it kind of looked like the White House. There were guards but no fence. We could walk very close.....nothing like the US. It was great to see the historic part of Paraguay. On Sunday we had to go visit Joe´s ¨lunch mom¨. For training Joe needs to go to a different community and eats lunch with another family. They wanted to meet me so they could ¨know¨me. The campo (country) is a lot different than the town we live in. It is more tranquilo (calm and relaxing).
Lots of times we crave food from home, especially Pizza Ranch pizza, which would be difficult for people to send to us. We got to eat McDonalds but it was not the same as home. We will try to take some pictures and upload them on our blog. Sorry we have not had the opportunity yet. We miss you a lot.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Lots of Language Training
I am trying to blog once a week right now since we have internet access. Currently in Paraguay it is very hot and has been raining about every day, which is nice to cool us down a little. On Sunday we went to a "beach" with other Peace Corps trainees, we were so excited for a day to relax and sit on the beach. Boy were we wrong. The beach was dirty and the only water was a river, which did not look too clean either. We still did enjoy the day out of our town by drinking some Coke and eating empanadas (kind of like a hot pocket).
This week we have a lot of language training (4 hours a day) and training in our jobs. Today I met with the teachers in the school my group will be working with during training. I will be with another volunteer in the kindergarten classroom, I am very excited!
On Saturday we will be heading south to visit a married couple that are current volunteers. They are both working in our specific jobs. We will be at their site from Saturday to Tuesday. It will be great to see where other volunteers are working.
I posted our address at the bottom of the blogsite too. I hope everyone is doing well!
This week we have a lot of language training (4 hours a day) and training in our jobs. Today I met with the teachers in the school my group will be working with during training. I will be with another volunteer in the kindergarten classroom, I am very excited!
On Saturday we will be heading south to visit a married couple that are current volunteers. They are both working in our specific jobs. We will be at their site from Saturday to Tuesday. It will be great to see where other volunteers are working.
I posted our address at the bottom of the blogsite too. I hope everyone is doing well!
Monday, February 9, 2009
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Hola de Paraguay!
We are finally in Paraguay and it is very hot. We are currently in a internet cafe trying to call home and update emails. I will give you the breakdown of the past couple of days. After sad goodbyes at the Omaha airport on Wednesday we boarded our plane and flew to Miami. There we met other volunteers...there are 31 people total. Most are in Joe´s group of Health and Sanitation. There are 8 volunteers in my group. We flew out late Thursday night and flew through the night. In the morning we landed in Sao Paulo, Brazil. There we quickly boarded our plane to Paraguay. Friday we went to the CHP...Peace Corps training center and started to ready for training. We met our host family that day. We have a mom...Zeneida, dad....Jose, a 16 year old sister..Maria and 6 year old sister Lorena. Lorena likes to watch us and laugh at my bad Spanish. Today is Saturday we had language training in the morning and took naps this afternoon.
We enjoy spending time with the other volunteers. It is very hot here but I do not miss the snow. It rained yesterday so that cooled us off. There are mosquitos. We live in town close to the Peace Corps training center. My training for education will be there but Joe will have to walk to the center and get a ride from the language teacher. Joe is not alone there is another married Peace Corps couple that are in the same jobs as us. The lady that is my teacher for education is from Southeast Iowa..it is great to have another Iowan here!
The hardest part so far is the communication. I cannot speak Spanish as well as Joe but we spend many hours a day studying language. Guarani is going to be interesting to learn.
We enjoy spending time with the other volunteers. It is very hot here but I do not miss the snow. It rained yesterday so that cooled us off. There are mosquitos. We live in town close to the Peace Corps training center. My training for education will be there but Joe will have to walk to the center and get a ride from the language teacher. Joe is not alone there is another married Peace Corps couple that are in the same jobs as us. The lady that is my teacher for education is from Southeast Iowa..it is great to have another Iowan here!
The hardest part so far is the communication. I cannot speak Spanish as well as Joe but we spend many hours a day studying language. Guarani is going to be interesting to learn.
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