My New Site

Friends,


I´ve been in my new site, Acuña de Figueroa, for about two weeks now. It´s a beautiful place located about two hours from Asunción. I´m living, for now, with a host family, and my host brother is also my principal work contact. His name´s Fernando, and he´s a beekeeper and a great guy.


The first few months of service are about getting to know one´s site, talking to people, making friends, getting a sense of what the community´s interests and needs are. Fernando´s been taking me around to meet neighbors, attending community group meetings (a young persons´ group and a farmer´s committee, for example); and I spent much of my time in the first week preparing and planting a vegetable garden. This week, though, it´s been raining cats and dogs (note: I said that in Spanish and Fernando thought it was a ridiculous phrase. When you think about it, it really is.) and I´m afraid my plants are drowning... luckily Paraguayan soil is really sandy and drains well.


The group of jovenes (young people, mostly high school age) and I are tentatively planning a big tree-planting project: Acuña is all dirt roads, but there is a big road construction project going on now, and in the process lots of trees were cut. We want to plant trees on both sides of the roads throughout the community. It would be a big project, but a worthy one, and the group really seems to be excited about it. I´ll keep you guys posted.


That´s all for now. There´s no internet in my site, so I will be checking e-mail and making updates probably with less frequency than in Bolivia, but I´ll do my best.


Finally, please note the disclaimer at the right column which affirms that my comments do not necessarily reflect the position of the Peace Corps, etc. etc.....


OBAMA!!!!!!! OBAMA!!!!!! OBAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!