I frame, you frame, we all frame with A-frames!

Last week I attended an Agroforestry training workshop put on by Peace Corps as a part of ongoing training. All of the agroforestry extension volunteers in Paraguay that I went through training with were in attendence along with a member of their community. We used participatory tools to encourage the Paraguayans in attendence to think about and plan their farms and visited an exemplary farm in which agroforestry systems were established eight years ago and are now old enough to understand well. We discussed and practiced citrus grafting, planting and managing green manures- plants used to fertalize fields by producing biomass and fixing Nitrogen, proper pruning of trees, and building contour lines in sloped fields to prevent erosion (as pictured above). The picture shows our Paraguayan guide to the agroforesty system farm demonstrating how to use an A-frame to make a contour line in a field. Every one in attendence got to practice doing so in order to better understand the process. Overall it was a wonderful experience for both volunteers and Paraguayans! Listening to a Paraguayan explain technical info in Guaraní gave me some of the vocabulary necessary to repeat the information and communicate better to the people in my site and the community contact I brought has promised to work to spread what he learned in my site, too!

The fourth and fifth

I´m in Asuncion after celebrating the fourth of July at the embassy and my birthday all over town.

On Friday it was a sunny, 85 degree day so it felt pretty normal for fourth of July! The US embassy puts on a yearly Independence Day celebration and as a Peace Corps Volunteer I was able to go. They grilled burgers and hot dogs and had baked beans, potato salad, mac and cheese, brownies and chocolate chip cookies! I got to meet a bunch of Peace Corps volunteers I didn´t know previously and see others I hadn´t seen in a while. Later that night there was an open mic night at a cafe here in Asuncion as a goodbye party for a group that is finishing their service here. There was a lot of good acoustic guitar playing as well as a great performance by the bluegrass band that is composed of PCVs.

My birthday was a blast and I spent the afternoon at Expo Paraguay which had sketchy carnival rides, fried food, and cows- pretty much the Wisconsin state fair! I went out with a buch of friends after that to go bowling and play pool and then to an ex-pat bar called Pub Brittania. Twenty three's starting out to be a pretty good year! Thanks to everyone back home for birthday wishes.

San Juan

The festivals of San Juan have been going on here in Paraguay since the beginning of the month but the actual day of Saint John is coming up on the 24th. Like usual, I haven´t really gotten the religious significance behind this celebration, but, in honor of San Juan pretty much every community organization (every school, church group, etc) puts on a party some time in the month of June. The parties usually include traditional Paraguayan dance, games, and food. I went to my first San Juan party last Friday at the grade school where I work every week in the school garden.

I went with a local family and when we got there there were a few games set up and a lot of traditional Paraguayan food- chipa (mandioca flour bread), grilled meat, empanadas, and cakes. The games included a greased bamboo pole with rum and chipa put on top to tempt people to climb it,and an effigy of a person stuffed with straw and fireworks and set on fire.

I have some pictures uploaded on Flickr but am having problems uploading them today to share, sorry.

Iguasu Falls

OK, I´ve been a bad blogger and I´m not going to make up for it today. My family just came for a week visit and in addition to going to my site and killing my pig we went to see Iguasu Falls in Brazil and Argentina. They are AMAZING. Pictures can not do them justice as there are over 100 different falls. OK, more later, I promise!

Cerro Kavaju (Horse Hill)

This excursion started with a text from a fellow volunteer asking me if I wanted to go rock climbing. Since I haven´t been into Asunción in a while I naturally thought I was hallucinating when I read her text and immediately fired back a bunch of questions in attempt to validate my sanity. Well, I read right and because of this text met several fellow volunteers in the Cordillera Gobernacion building last Friday. We set out for the hill with four young Paraguayan guides and six volunteers. We wanted to see what the trip was like before potentially bringing youth from nearby communities there as a form of nature appreciation and self-esteem building. We took a beautiful hike up through forest up the hill and wound around until we came to the 150 plus face we descended. Since there were quite a few of us we didn´t have time to all climb the face but everyone rappelled down it! The view was beautiful, the rock was great, and the Paraguayans accompanying us were super- overall an awesome experience! Now I just have to figure out how to get people from my community out there!

Independence Day

May 14 I went into San José for their Independence Day parade. After helping Masako put on her kimono, a really intersting and elaborate process, we made our way to the town plaza together. There we waited through about an hour of speeches the parade started. To start things off the national police band played a few songs and then came the schools. The parade included nearly every student from every school in the area, some guys who have pretty horses, and the local coop (with whom Masako walked). The whole thing lasted four and a half hours and the heat reminded me of Independence Day in the US. There has been a lot of discussion around my community about which high school´s uniforms were the prettiest and who marched best. There was an appropriately large number of fireworks (just little ones that bang and people use in their houses) set off that night, as well!

A Global Community

This being the 21st century, Serafini and my Peace Corps service do not exist in the cultural bubble that might have been the case 20 years ago. International influences abound, from Paraguayans going abroad (usually to Argentina, Spain or the US) in search of work to the veritable plethora of international development agencies trying to do work here in Paraguay. Pictured above is Masako, a volunteer with JICA Japan International Cooperation Agency or something like that. She lives here in San Jose (the town about 5 km from my site) and is teaching crochet and artisan classes with the local coop. We have become friends and she recently gave her first crochet class in my community. We had it right after my English class so she could learn English and all of my English students stayed for the crochet class. Another example of international influences is the American from Boston who passed through my community a few months before my arrival there talking about developing a sugar cane factory nearby. Of course images of Americans from movies and TV largely shape perceptions about the US and Americans, as well. There are large numbers of Japanese and German settlers here in Paraguay who have been living her for generations. The Mennonite colonies that dominate the Chaco (really dry, hot, inhospitable western region of Paraguay) lead many Paraguayans to initially think I´m German. It all leads for an interesting experience here.