March 20, 2010

One of the great aspects of Peace Corps is working with other volunteers. Not only is it a nice excuse from the daily activities, but I always come away with more ideas. This past week I trekked out to John’s site to help him draw and paint a world map on a school in his site. I was joined by Carly and Lyn. While I was there we finished drawing the map and even got a number of countries painted. It was neat to see the kids point to Paraguay and really study the map. I hope to eventually organize the painting of the world map at the school in my site.
A few hours after I got home and unpacked Favie and Rorro biked up and presented me with a little puppy. The kids were all excited and tell me how 2 puppies had been found in the cruce or intersection. Carmen and Nora were smitten right away and asked me if I wanted her. I knew it was fortunate that she was even alive because normally the female puppies are killed outright. She looked fairly healthy too and I was pretty sure I knew who the parents where. I agreed to take her if their parents said it was alright by them because they would be the ones to care for her when I left. Caring for pets is a little different here anyway, but I still didn’t want to there to be a misunderstanding or frustration.
And that’s how I got Saraki (sar-ra-key) or juguetona or playful. It took forever for me to decide on her name, but by the evening of the second day I finally agreed to Saraki. I am guessing she is 4 or 5 weeks old. She’s been eating well. There is no dog food in site because people just give their pets scraps.
I was gifted a solar oven from a Crop Extensionist volunteer who just finished his service. Yesterday I set it up and baked biscuits. I would try it again today, but it’s been raining. It is just cardboard and one side had a reflective surface that concentrates the suns heat. The pot or pan is then placed in a plastic bag and placed in the center of the folded cardboard. Hopefully I can use it to make yogurt too, but I need the temperature to not get as hot.
This morning I biked to the school for my Paraguayan aerobic and dance class and noticed that the fence for the school garden was being constructed. I guess they really want me to work on building a school garden after all. This is excited although I must admit I am a little nervous. It’s great to see my community being proactive and hardworking. The garden is huge which is great because I should be able to turn part of it into a demo plot for abonos verdes (green manures).