I´m back on my Regina Spektor kick and have found the first verse of her song On The Radio to be very appropriate for my current situation

This is how it works
It feels a little worse
Moral is down a bit as I start to see some of the deeper problems of soil degradation and general health and sanitation in my community.
Than when we drove our hearse
Right through that screaming crowd
After living in Madison it is kind of a shock to walk here in Paraguay where right of way goes to the biggest thing moving across the street, sidewalk, or lawn.
While laughing up a storm
One thing that I actually can understand here is laughter and luckily the people in my community have great senses of humor!
Until we were just bone
Until it got so warm
That none of us could sleep
I´m feeling the heat induced insomnia this time of year. Luckily I have a fan in my room but I can´t open the window at night because that would indicate that I want the ¨jakare¨ (Guarani word for crocodile used to refer to men who visit women via open windows) to visit me.
And all the styrofoam
Began to melt away
Here styrofoam doesn´t have a chance to melt away before the chickens eat it.
We tried to find some worms
Actually I´m in search of some California reds myself right now ... I want to start using worms to make compost and encouraging Paraguayans to do the same.
To aid in the decay
Compost piles were the focus of the meeting I led this week and next week I´ll be visiting houses to start compost piles with each family that wants one. Luckily for those purposes, things rot amazingly quickly in the heat and humidity we have here.
But none of them were home
Inside their catacomb
A million ancient bees
Apiculture, another project I want to do some work on. There´s one farmer in my community who has a bee hive but he doesn´t have a smoker or mask and claims that the bees are really angry so I´ll hold off on that until I can find the appropriate equipment.
Began to sting our knees
Mosquitos are more the worry as far as stings go. Luckily, I´ve spent time in Manitoba and Alaska so the mosquitos that they have here seem like nothing (and don´t carry malaria, or West Nile for that matter)
While we were on our knees
Something called All Saints Week is coming up or has started, I really need to figure out what that is ...
Praying that disease
Would leave the ones we love
There are some pretty serious health problems in my community and their treatment ranges from medicinal weeds to curiously popular injections. Praying for diseases to leave is also very popular and I have been asked to pray for several sick children.
And never come again

I´m in Caacupe right now waiting for a meeting with the other volunteers in my area of the country. After the meeting I´m going to visit another volunteer´s site to get a feel for her work and community! Work is going well and I actually got out into a farm field yesterday and hoed with a Paraguayan farmer after building a fence with him for a garden!