Photos!

Hey guys! I'm having some problems uploading photos, but I have managed to put up a few. The first is Alfredo's 24th birthday party. The second is my host dad (left) and his brother, my uncle. I randomly found them sitting on my front lawn watching the football game occuring down the hill on the football field. They are 78 and 82! How cute. The next two are of Tyler, a fellow volunteer and fish specialist. I probably mentioned that a while back I noticed a lot of people in my site at fish ponds but no fish. I asked the municipality to donate money to buy 200 fish. Instead of doing that, they offered to bring 3000 fish from Brazil, enough for all ten neighborhoods of the town of Tebicuary-mi! So I got busy and asked Tyler to come all the way from the southern border of Paraguay, near Argentina, to educate the people on fish care. We spent the morning going around my community talking one on one with fish pond owners (1st photo), and then we went to town in the afternoon, where Tyler and a member of his community that came with him talked about fish care. It was awesome to have the paraguayan guy there too, it seemed as if my community members felt so much more at ease directing their questions at him than us. Even apart from the language barrier, I got the idea that the possibility of pulling off a project like this seemed much more real to them seeing that a fellow paraguayan had done it. Overall, a success!

But the best part of the whole thing was that Tyler is tremendously tall and has blue blue eyes and white-blonde hair. Here they were thinking I was an extreme, and he shows up! It was almost comical sometimes to see him alongside the Paraguayans.

I also recently attended an ecological farming workshop a few hours from here. Peace Corps sponsored my trip and that of one member of my community. I picked a young guy who aspires to work and study sustainable agriculture, and he was really inspired by the trip. I enjoyed it too!

My dad and brother are coming to visit in August, and I'm also trying to prepare everything for that, although it is really hard with such limited internet access to make reservations and investigate everything as thoroughly as I should. However, I am really hoping to take advantage of the balmy winter weather to visit the Amazon rainforest. How cool would that be?? Happy Father's Day Dad!

Otherwise, I've just been loving the cold and taking it a little bit easier. Now that the heat is long gone, we drink mate instead of terere. It's basically the same thing, except with hot water, Argentine style. It's remarkable how this beverage and the company can warm you right up on a frosty, windy evening. (We're hitting 0 degrees Celcius, by the way, and it is dark from 5.30pm to 5.30am). I love the cold though, because unlike the heat, it is entirely escapable! I made an amazing peanut pie recently, its a lot like my beloved pecan pie, and I ate it entirely too fast. :) Last week I took the time to finally visit Jeremy, a fellow beekeeper and good friend who lives only about an hour from me. Soon I'm hoping to visit Abby, another dear amiga. And of course we'll be celebrating 4th of July! But not without our winter longjohns...brrrr!

If you're thinking about sending a package, here's some things I'd like to have:

one of those Mexican taco kits, or more specifically, taco sauce. My family tried this thanks to the last volunteer and loved it!

cinnamon

Crest tooth whitening strips--way too much tea!

Face lotion with SPF

a small Nalgene bottle

a quick-dry travel towel. I bought one at Walmart and didn't try it before I left...turns out its basically a useless piece of felt! Ergh....

Annalese, those face cleansing pads that you sent me from Whole Foods. Its the only thing that wards off the acne!

Thanks for reading. Write back! And take care...think of me when you see all that green!