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i just went to visit my Papi's mission president and his wife. they are good family friends, but this was the first time i met them. it was a nice, quiet visit. i was extreamly happy i could sit down and speak with them. they told me stories about their family and some of their experiences. 

IT'S COMING  TO AN END Sir Caleb Cunningham is gone. he and Wess decided to book it to Buenos Aires before he leaves the continent on Friday. i wont be seeing Caleb until january. he will be attending Cambridge for two months, then will be in Jerusalem until december.   at the end of every internship, an intern gives a presentation to Fundación about their project, experience and suggestions. since Caleb and I were a rockin'/hoppin'/awesome team we decided to do it together (because we are both leaving around the same time). ... there was more info in the presentation, but that basically sums it up. we compleated 34/48 fichas. cool. now Anna, an intern from Seattle WA will be finishing it up. YAY. take luck Anna.  Mika, Caleb & Nancy (one of our superiors) after the presentation and we won! we have certificates to prove that we did. and this is us in the office, i spent hours in here making new friends.  aguije. ONE MORE DAY  IN PARAGUAY....

i'm so lucky. i get to celebrate 3 winter solstices in a row. HUZZAH. (fireworks) winter finally hit Paraguay, and no, there is no snow or santa clause, but it sure is cold.  Paraguay is a HOT country, so any time there is cloud cover or a little breeze during the "winter time" Paraguayans would walk around with huge jackets, scarves, gloves and hats even though it's warm.   but now it is FOR REAL. before i would make fun of my coworkers because they were all covered up when i thought it was hot. now i'm sitting in the office wearing a sweater and a jacket i found in a bin of free clothes in my last apartment complex. my fingers even have a hard time typing.  but i'm not complaining. i'll be in summer land in a week. 

i went to a magical place called Mbaracayu . it is an all girls school that is self sufficient. the girls come from places like brazil, paraguay and a few from bolivia.  i went with a handsome group of people, Juan, Ton, and Leah. we left on Wednesday at 11:00 am and arrived there at 7:00 pm. i love bus rides, but any ride that is more than 2 hours can be difficult on the heart and soul. a part of the trip was over an uneven dirt road. but people selling chipa and playing music on their portable radios made the sojourn more bearable.  we arrived in a little place called Villa Ygatimi and spent the night there. Leah, reading The News from Paraguay  6:30 am, a man picked us up and drove down a dirt road into the reserva. this is us at the entrance: Leah and a Mika after we were feed delicious rainforest breakfast, we went on a rainforest walk.  i can't remember the last time i was in a rainforest like this. Mexico most likely. i love the smells, the sounds, ...

the final stretch is always a little frantic. so a quick recap on why i came to paraguay for two months: working with Fundación Paraguaya. there has been a list composed of 48 business ideas taken from the lists of jobs the women do within the foundation. job: make a write up explanation for a business (containing information about the costs of the mercantile, how much money it costs to start the business, some of the advantages and disadvantages, and suggestions from women with experience). goal#1: (week 1-3) 5 fichas. interview at least four women for 1 business (interview 4 women for the empanada business) and make a "ficha" with the information. 7 fichas completed. goal #2: (week 3-7) 5 more fichas. 8 fichas completed. total of 15 fichas out of 48 goal #3: (week 7-9) finish fichas. we sent out our survey to the offices because we thought it would be quicker to get more fichas finished. and it was. within 3 days we have done 13 fichas and now are at 28/48 ...

AREGUA known for it's ceramics. ceramic chimes, ceramic frogs,  ceramic hello kitties, ceramic shreks, ceramic fionas, ceramic virgins, ceramic bears, ceramic etc. as one would walk down the little artisan market they could peek to the back of the shop and spy on the painters painting little piggy banks. i walked down the street 4 or 5 times just enjoying the array of colors.  and then these men serenaded me with songs of amor then we met up with Rodrigo. he works for Fundación in the Luque office. he gave us a tour of Aregua.  FIRST STOP was the police station. Rodrigo wanted to show us a little hill with a mysterious rock formation, but we had to be accompanied by the police. apparently really bad guy men hide in the brush and attack people on the hill with dangerous things. so the police picked us up on a pick up truck and drove up the hill. i felt safe.  perantly, this rock is extremely rare. only exists in three places on the entire planet.   1....

this is the face i woke up to a few weeks ago. it's hard to tell in this picture but my upper lip is all swollen. kinda reminds me of a turtle. i already wrote about it in a little visit to the hospital bautista if you would like to take a peek. picture kindly provided by new zealand skype crew. ps. i also did just wake up and was kind of out of it. and i am feeling much better. back to work today. my diet has changed from non salted crackers to oatmeal. i'll be chomping on fried food pretty soon.

don't you hate how a little tiny bacteria can get the best of you? especially when you have a million of cool things planned, they just think they can take over your body like some alien invasion and make you lame for a day. last night i had a blind date with the porcelain bowl. i had no idea that it was coming. but it came and ruined my night and my day. i was planning on going to mbaracayu. the all girls agriculture school. i was so excited too, something i've been wanting to do since my arrival. I HATE Mr. VIRUS. but i had a great weekend. i love the weekends. get to explore paraguay and talk to people i lub. haven't seen these girls in a long time: i love technology. and we talked and laughed. these girlies are going to samoa today with my papi. sounds miserable. i feel lucky that i can lay in bed at 2pm with an alien in my body, they're jealous of me. i'm sure of it. so the other day we went to ITA and caleb wanted to play crocodile hunter. there were crocodile...

CURRASQUERIA TIME! All you can eat brazilian BBQ. We all got fat, but we were happy. caleb won the competition: eat so much food at the chirrasqueria so you can get sick tomorrow. i'm sure he ate an entire cow, then a plate with things to dip the cow in, and then probably late 2 entire pineapples and needed some desserts. we just watched him chow it down in disgusted. i payed $18 for the entire meal. that's including the $2 water i bought to help my food go down. walking home was extremely painful. my legs had a hard time moving. and this is us (caleb couldn't wait for the picture, he had to keep eating) the next day we helped complete some surveys. we went some of the women's homes. this is my FAVORITE thing to do. i love traveling to their casitas in their pueblitos and see what they see everyday. walking to their house through the green fields full of venomous snakes arriving at her home. it is surrounded by orchards and big trees. her husband gave me a tour of all t...

THIS PAST WEEKEND WAS ONE OF CELEBRATION. It was Nisha's last weekend, and Caleb and my middle mark of staying in Paraguay, Anne was brand new so we decided to do something big. like.... entering into Brazil illegally and see the worlds largest waterfalls, Iguaçu. we left asuncion at 1:00 on a double decker sleeper bus. nice accomidations, misserable temperatures. we arrived in Ciudad del Este (the big contraband/sketch city around) around 5:15am and sat frozen for a while. 1:00 am. Nisha and me on the bus i was extremely nervous about entering BRAZIL. i've heard many things: - you need a visa - you don't need a visa unless you get caught (yeah, that didn't sound like fun) -i think you can walk through and nothing will happen - what's the worse that can happen? we found a big taxi, and they charged us 5 dollars to the falls, and five dollars back to Ciudad del Este. BOOM SHAKALAKA. it was a deal. crossing the boarder was no big deal. the taxi drove right through and...