Gral. Morinigo

Bienvenidos a Gral. Morinigo

For the next two years I will be living in a little town called Gral. Morinigo, which is in the department of Caazapa. Here in Paraguay they have departments instead of states.  We found out on Wednesday afternoon.  Luckily we didn't have to sit through class all morning to find out. They took us on a cultural excursion.  We split into two groups and I as in the group that went to Asunción.  We went to the Plaza de Los Heroes.  There is a monument to honor soldiers from past wars.  We also went by the cathedral, but it wasn't open so we couldn't go in side.  We went to a museum about the independence of Paraguay as well.  While we were out on our excursion the staff back at the training center were busy decorating.  We were welcomed back with a lot of cheering.  They had marked all of the places we were going to go on a map and one by one we pulled names out of a hat and they told us where we were going.  I was one of the last five to find out my site so there was a lot of suspense.

Plaza de los Heroes

Cathedral

Friday morning Peace Corps took us all to CAFASA, which is the same place we spent our first night here in Paraguay, to meet our contacts and go visit our sites.  They didn't have a formal introduction to our contacts. Instead we all went out side and we had to mingle until we found our contacts.  We were all waiting out in the lawn for our contacts to get out of their meeting.  My contact was the first one to come outside.  Her name is Raquel and she is the president of a youth group in her community.  One of the main projects they  have been working on has been getting the library in the community back up and functioning so I will be helping with that.  Also, they want to do some classes in the schools about waste  management and other environmental topics.  In addition to working with them I will be looking for other projects throughout the community that aren't associated with the youth group. During my visit to Gral Morinigo Raquel showed me around the community as well as took me to the local swimming whole which will be nice when I get there in December and it is really hot.  Also, I went to the 15th birthday party for one of her family friends.

15th Birthday Party

The birthday cake

Park in Gral Morinigo

River to swim in near my site.

 The community is right on the highway so at first glance it seems like it is a pretty good sized town, but once you get off the highway it is pretty small and rural.  The house that I stayed in had running water for part of the day.  It was on until about 11am and then from about 5pm to 8pm.  I'm not sure what the situation is like in other houses in the community. I have three more weeks of training until I swear in and become an actual volunteer.  I can't wait!  I am really excited about working with the youth group and all the projects they want to do.  Also, the town it self is nice so I'm excited to get to know it better.

The day after we got back form out site visit was Thanksgiving.  Our training class was one of the few fortunate training classes to be invited to the ambassador's for Thanksgiving.  While I'm sure most of you back home were bundling up for cold weather I was lounging by one of two pools.  One for "public" use and one is the private pool for the ambassador but they let us swim in it as well.  This was the fanciest Thanksgiving I have ever had.  There was so much good food.  In addition the the classics turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, and stuffing, we were asked to bring a salad to share.  A lot of people brought fruit salads because there are is a lot of fruit in season including watermelon so that was a fun change to Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving feast at the Embassy

Embassy Pool

We have a few additions to the baby animal farm here in my house; three new kittens and a new puppy.  One of the kittens belongs to another trainee.  He rescued it from the street and his family is allergic to cats so it is living at my house until he goes to his site.  

Me with the puppy Luna

Three little kittens