Valentine's Day. The 18th of February. Duhhh (my life & constant internet don't coincide)

Unfortunately I am currently up at 2:36am not able to sleep because my mind is all over the place right now. In two days I turn 24 years old! Which will be my second birthday in Paraguay. Never thought I’d say that before. The crazy part is that I will have a third as well. In two days it will also mark a YEAR (and a week) that I’ve been in Paraguay, which is also absolutely blowing my mind right now. Time passes so fast and so slow at the same time. It’s hard to explain but that’s just life in the campo I guess. One of the reasons I may not be asleep ahora mismo (right now) is because I can’t figure out what I’m gonna do for my birthday. I kind of left all the planning…until honestly right now. I had plans to have a big party in site so that I could invite a lot of my friends here, but since I got robbed again in Asuncion, I’m a little low on cash, so I’m probably going to keep it very, very small. So far my mental plan is to make a bunch of pizzas and have drinks, while I think my neighbor will be making my cake J The best part is that my friend Kelley will be joining me and I’m very excited for her to finally see my site! Another reason I’m a little preoccupied is that I am still dealing with the worst part of Paraguay, which I’ve found is customer service. I made a contract with an Internet provider here in Paraguay and without saying and names I really really REALLY dislike them to make the understatement of the year. To make a long story short, I wasn’t getting the coverage that I was paying for and decided not to pay anymore, thinking I could get away with it. However, being naive as such, I am now paying the price, along with replacing my USB modem that connects me with the service, which was stolen with my wallet. Anyways, I am at a daily battle with this company and it is making my life difficult trying to get work done in site. Overall, I hope a lovely Valentine birthday will take my mind off of all of this.

On the work side of things, I just recently returned from our Camp GLOW, which stands for Girls Leading Our World and a global Peace Corps initiative. It is a weeklong girls camp filled with activities directed towards female leadership, self-esteem, feminine power, and sex education. Basically helping Paraguayan girls from age 13-18 discover what it is to be woman in the 21^st century and the problems/challenges we face together and individually. This will be the second year that Paraguay has put on a Camp GLOW and from what I observed, experienced, learned, and participated in, it was a real hit for just the second year in country. I personally took two girls to the camp with me from my site and they really enjoyed it, which was really rewarding. The best part is that they both want to be models in our community and start up a Club GLOW too. The club aspect brings these themes and topics into the communities. After going, I realized that this is a topic that I am very interested in and see myself expanding on in site, so I volunteered to coordinate the camp next year with a bunch of my G mates. Super excited!

Another work note is that I’m planning on applying for  a Peace Corps grant in order to fund the fogon project I’m conducting in site so everyone hope for me that I get it J because I’ve been waiting an absurdly amount of time, hoping the money would come from the local government institutions. One of the worst bumps that I have encountered as a Peace Corps Volunteer is that I am a woman in a very machismo culture. For example, most of the time I am not taken seriously and most of the time laughed at if I ever talk about how I can do “man’s work”, like build the fogons. I also have a hard time being taken professionally with men. If I don’t accept attempts from men in the local municipality for example I don’t get any financial help for my projects, which is also why I’ve chosen to apply through PC. Although looking back it was a lot of work I put into trying to make sure the funds for a Paraguayan project were coming self-sustainably from within the country, in the end I want to finish the project before I leave which means sometimes stepping in and taking quicker actions (even though it might impede on the sustainability of the project). In the end, people are in need and I have a possible solution, avoiding it due to previous concerns would be, to me, unethical.

Enough of the serious-ness because I want to say that I am currently wishing everyone a love-filled Valentine’s Day! As Birthday Cupid, I demand you to go hug and kiss everyone that you love! Although it’s not anyway close to the same, I wirelessly send you mine! You know who you are J

Chauuuuuu – BESOS Y ABRAZOS GRANDES! LES AMO!

Alejandra