It's happened. 2015 is upon us, and I'm excited for what I believe will be an awesome year.

I got to Paraguay late January 2014, and it's weird to think that a year ago I knew so much less about so many things that I now take for granted. For example, when I got to the airport a few days ago, I wasn't lost, struggling to understand, or stressed about violating some cultural norm. I felt confident, I knew exactly where to go and could have directed the cab driver to the bus station in whatever language. I talked to the women next to me on the bus for an hour no problem. I know the jokes, I've learned the manners, I'm not scrambling anymore. While people can still peg me for a foreigner most days, I also fit in here.

While I am thrilled with how my projects have been going so far, there is always room for improvement. With this in mind I bring you.......

DANI'S PEACE CORPS RESOLUTIONS

1. Take more pictures
   I've been here for an entire year and have hardly any pictures, and it's entirely my own fault. This year I resolve to take my camera with me!
2. Spend less time online
   Obviously I am thankful to have the internet in my site, it's a useful tool and makes staying in touch with family and friends much easier. However, just like in the states it's easy to get stuck clicking around facebook for a half hour when I only got on to look up a recipe or something. I'll be making a conscious effort to set aside time in advance to check email, update my blog, skype, or do other things online and staying away the rest of the day.
3. Update my blog
   I'm going to try and do a better job this year recording my experiences, maybe with a few project spotlights or posts on events/culture.
4. Set boundaries
   Last year, I went to almost everything I was invited to. It didn't matter if I was tired or sick or didn't feel like going, I went. This year I feel that I have been in my community long enough that I can put myself first again- whether that means polity declining a food I really dislike, going home early when I'm tired, or speaking up if something is making me uncomfortable.

Here's to wishing everyone a healthy and happy 2015!!

Summer is coming in Paraguay.

And by summer is coming I mean with daytime temperatures in the 80s and 90s if not 100+, I'd say although December 21st is the first day of summer, nobody told Paraguay.

There's only one way to survive.

Enter: Tereré

I have been doing a horrible job blogging about culture in Paraguay so here's the most important tradition in a nutshell.  Tereré is yerba, a tea-like plant, with cold water poured over it and consumed through a metal straw (bombilla) out of a cup (guampa). It's just like its cousin mate in other parts of South America, except cold because as I've just explained, it's freaking hot here. Rules: Serve in a circle, don't drink if you're sick, don't touch the bombilla with your hands, and the guampa is not a microphone (aka shut up and pass it already). The sharing seems weird at first, but actually Paraguayans share most drinks. After a meal if we're going to have a drink, soda, wine mixed with coke, or beer, we use one glass and it goes around until it needs to be refilled. You're probably thinking "But Dani, germs! You're a health volunteer!" Be that as it may, I find I like the ritual of tereré and all of it's sharing glory, and there's no better way to spend the afternoon "integrating."

I'm a little behind so October highlights are as follows:

- Along with one of my Paraguayan girlfriends, I started a twice weekly Zumba class for women in my community and the project has had tremendous success. We asked the Municipality for permission to use the tinglado, which is a sort of outdoor gym and put up a few flyers, and has 70 people show up for our first day! We have worked our way up to dancing for 45 minutes and now have more than 140 registered participants ranging from 12 years of age up to 67.

-I celebrated my twenty-fourth birthday in my site and passed a very lovely day with friends and students. My Zumba class even sang me Happy Birthday and my contact showed up with fruit salad for everyone.

-I got to visit my site mate Vania for Halloween. It was great so see another site and another part of Paraguay.

November has been about wrapping up my classes as my students prepare for their final exams.  I'm also looking forward to Thanksgiving at Clara's site with some of my favorite humans. I even found a pumpkin to make Nana's cookies!

I'll try to do more updating soon!!

Project Updates!!

So now that I've been living in Paraguay for over half a year, I've been getting a lot of questions about how my day to day life has been changing. The biggest changes have been that I am now renting my own house and have several projects in the works. As with anything new some things I've tried have gone better than others, and I'm making changes to improve as we move forward. Here are a few of the things I'm doing:

Life Skills/Sex Ed- For the past month I have been teaching twice a week in my local high school. My students were definitely skeptical at first, but participation has been getting better and better and a few of my young women have even approached me to ask my opinion/support on a potential reforestation project. My classes are based off a really cool program called "Como Planear mi Vida" which has a ton of interactive activities. This week, our theme is Gender Roles and Stereotypes.

Hygiene and Parasite Charlas- With my first through sixth graders, we got back to the basics this month with "charlas" or short mini classes on hand-washing and how to avoid parasites. Intestinal parasites, including ascaris (round worm), hookworm, and giardia are extremely common in my community. The Ministry of Health provides medicine free of charge every year, but the pills only treat current infections. For this reason my charlas focused on avoiding new infections. I've used stories and games in my classes and the kids have responded really well. I love that they are always excited when I show up. We're planning to finish the Parasite lectures and get through Nutrition before summer starts in December, and to kick of the coming school year with a bigger dental health campaign.

English- Paraguay recently changed their national curriculum to include English as a foreign language at the high school level. The kids only have class once a week, but I've been going in to help out. It's been a good way to get to know the other grades that are not taking my class yet, and we have a good time.

Exercise Class- Last week I brought one of my friends from site to a training in project development, and she was inspired to work with me to teach a Zumba- type fitness class for women in our community. Young men play a LOT of soccer, but opportunities for women are harder to find. We are going to start with twice a week and judge community interest from there.

In the near future I hope to do a summer reading program with our cultural center/library as well as continue working with my health center to put together a sort of birth class for young mothers. My site has 21 companias which are even more rural communities that are served by our health center and we are seeing quite a lot of young women coming in. I've seen first hand how empowering giving birth can be, but there can also be a lot of fear where there is a lack of knowledge, especially for young first time moms. My friends Vania, Rachel, and I are also talking about doing a traveling camp this summer (December) using the Grassroots Soccer program which uses soccer practice to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS, reduce the stigma associated with HIV positive individuals, and do general education and prevention. The program started in Africa but has recently expanded to work with Peace Corps communities.

I'm very excited to be busier and I can't wait to update you all with how things are going!