Tanto Tiempo!!

The good news is that you haven’t heard from me in a while because I’ve been busy with lots of good stuff :) Recently had our yearly 3 day leadership and gender awareness camp out at a biological reserve called Tati Yupi. It’s an absolutely gorgeous setting and well equipped - beds, running water, showers... It’s connected to and owned by Itaipu, the largest dam in the world and provider of 95% of Paraguay’s electricity. We got to visit the dam and watch the ¨illumination¨ Saturday night. Now, being a huge fan of Niagara Falls I’ve gone to watch their light show a few times. Imagine beautiful rainbow colors spread across rushing waterfalls, changing gently to the sounds of the music. THIS is more or less what I was anticipating from Itaipu. So imagine my, shall we just say surprise, when it was quite literally JUST an illumination. Quiero decir que they turned on the white fluorescent lights slowly until the dam was brightly lit. I must note - at least it was done to music ;) That being said, I was still quite impressed with the enormity of it all, and we only saw a fraction of that which makes up the complex system that is the dam. While environmentally I am torn on how I feel about dams, I was left in awe of this site. As I was ¨in charge¨ as camp coordinator I spent the majority of the weekend running around ensuring things went well. Fortunately I did still find some time to get to know the amazing youth participants (36 youth from across the country) and shake my booty on our make shift dance floor. Great times had by all! :)

Tuesday, we had the first of 2 workshops for the new beca (scholarship) winners. 50 young, bright Paraguayan women will benefit this year from the generosity of folks, like you Garry, who donated to the scholarship fund. 3 of them are MY girls. I could not be more proud and can’t tell you what a difference it makes for them. This was by far the best workshop and we are already looking toward the second, in October, to keep improving so that it is truly a meaningful and useful experience for the girls.

Carnival season has come to an end...there were a ton of celebrations; glitter, dancing, spuma (spray foam), half naked girls, lots of beer, and good times had by all. I found myself in Encarnacion this year with a few other volunteers. Last year was Villarica. Certainly a good time, but not something I need to take part in often ;) Our sister group has arrived, which means I’ve been in PY for a year! Crazy. This weekend one of the trainees will come visit me in Fernando to get a glimpse of what it’s like to be a volunteer. Should be a good time...I get excited about sharing my community with others :)

School is getting ready to start up again so I’ll be busy with classes again soon. The new community center at my contact’s house will be ready soon and we’re hoping to get computers donated so that we can start computer classes as well. Lots of good work to be done!

Scholarship winners...my girls are in the front row; 6,7,8 from the right (behind girl kneeling in front)

During the leadership camp at Tati Yupi

The Illumination of Itaipu

That´s all for now...hope you are all doing great!!!! May spring come quickly ;)

Love and more love,

Lor