January 2012 - Beginning a year of two summers

When I started this blog I had no idea I would still be posting from Paraguay at this juncture. With this month I am experiencing my third Paraguayan summer in January. I am definitely more acclimated to the heat than I was back in 2009. In fact, I am doing my best to embrace it this round since it's likely to be my final hot January for a while. Every day I am grateful to be living a January free of ice and snow, savoring the difference from my native Midwest at this time of year. I'm walking and riding my bike every day, enjoying fresh air--albeit hot and humid!--as much as possible, both night and day! We're having a bit of a drought this year, which is unfortunate. The main upside though is that there aren't nearly as many mosquitoes. I sleep with my windows open, sans screens, and haven't even had to use bug spray most nights...increible!

This month I've had the CCPA pretty much to myself. It is closed for summer vacation. I still held some informal English conversation classes, and used the time to make some headway on the library physical reorganization, filling the tables with piles of books I'd removed from the shelves and figuring out how to realign them based on our space constraints. (No uniform classification system was in place before.) I also visited a new volunteer in a neighboring province, helping her launch her first foray into a children's camp. She is more of a campo volunteer, and it was fun to get out in the countryside, using the outhouse and trekking the three miles from the bus stop to her village on one of Paraguay's ubiquitous red dirt roads. The month wouldn't be complete without a visit or two to Troche, claro esta! Spent Three Kings Day with the family, and then joined them again for Nico's birthday number five.

Ah, lest I forget ;), I've also been trying to raise funds for another rendition of our national library workshop. We still need lots of help, so it's not too late to donate. This will be the final time I make this request, so if you haven't yet had a chance to contribute to this project, here's your opportunity:

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=526-232

Thanks in advance for your help, and please share this link with anyone else you think might be interested in contributing to our project. If you have any questions don't hesitate to e-mail me, dmdnebraska@yahoo.com