I didn't like Zumba in the states. I think I took one class at UNC and maybe the teacher wasn't great  but I was underwhelmed. Had you told me that Zumba would turn into my biggest project in Paraguay, that it would spin off a women's soccer team, that we would participate and lead community events, and that we're even getting uniforms I would have never believed it.

There are a ton of reasons that this project has been so successful. One of the biggest reasons is that I've worked closely with a super guapa (hardworking) community contact. She is a nutritionist and helps me give charlas and every month the participants that want to weigh in have that opportunity through her. She also has lived in my pueblo her entire life and knew right off the bat who would be interested in coming and made sure they knew about it. Even so, I remember the look on her face when we had our first class with more that 70 women!

That was in Ocober of last year. Now, 8 months later our group meets three times a week for an hour, owns their own sound system, and we are well known in the pueblo. We've formed a more stable group of 30-40 "regulars," and many of them have lost weight and tell me that they look forward to Zumba not only because of the health benefits/free class, but because of the community that we have created. We're also slowly changing the way my site looks at exercise. My class is not only for young women, or for people that are already "in shape," and that speaks volumes. It's also great that these women have a space to call their own.

When I started my Peace Corps service I had some expectations in the back of my mind about the kinds of things I would do in my site, and this project just goes to show that sometimes the things you never could have predicted end up meaning the most.

My community contact Luz Marina and I in our soccer jerseys.

The rest of the Zumba team before a game!

I don't have a picture of my class because that is one of the rules that the group came up with from the beginning to avoid people being to embarrassed to come. However we will hopefully be taking a group photo once we have our tshirts!

Next week I'll be in Peru (Lina, Cuzco, Machu Pichu) with my sister Ashley and my Nana, so I'll update about that trip at the end of the month!

As I mentioned in the last post, Peace Corps Paraguay is in the middle of a training cycle with a new group of community health and community economic development volunteers. The trainees have multiple excursions throughout their 10 weeks, including a field trip to my site!

I checked out a Grassroots Soccer kit from our office earlier this month which includes all of the materials to run the program. In preparation for their visit I handed out invites to my 50 some high school students and got 21 signed up. However, I was told the Thursday before the trainees were coming that many of the students would be participating in a mandatory Church Retreat in preparation for their confirmation in the following weeks. Flexibility! We went ahead and ran the program anyway and just had the trainees join in the games too and had a great time.

First I gave an introduction along with some basic information on HIV/AIDS. There is a lot of misinformation about the topic here, so we kept things pretty basic.

Our first game was called "Risk Field." Each cone represented a risk behavior- "Unprotected Sex" or "Multiple Partners" for example. It was a relay race through the cones and if you touched one, there was a penalty exercise (push ups/jumping jacks). In the first round, your actions only affected you (ie only the person dribbling had to do the exercise, in the second your entire team was affected, and in the third everyone present did the exercises. The trainees did a great job facilitating!

Our second game was called "Break Away from HIV." Participants were split into two teams, one team was the players and the other team was HIV. They raced to their "goals," with the player having a second or two head-start.

As the game progressed, the players had to dribble one, then two soccer balls as "HIV" pursued them. In the discussion afterwards we talked about how people who are HIV positives have to work much harder to achieve their goals.

After the games, we took some time to drink terere in the shade and just hang out. Even though we had a change in plans, it was a fun morning and my students are excited to continue the program in the coming weeks. Thanks to the trainees for helping and to Cristian for the pictures!