Asi es La Vida Paraguaya: September 2013

9/10/2013

Le Tour de VAC - San Pedro Style

This past Thursday and Friday finally marks the first Tour de VAC!! A little explanation necessary, I know. In Peace Corps Paraguay, according to where volunteers are placed designates what Volunteer Advisory Council they are part of. Most of the time the VACs are defined by the state departments, for example I am part of the San Pedro VAC because I live in the department (similar to a state) of San Pedro. All the volunteers who also live in San Pedro make up the San Pedro VAC. We meet at least four times a year to have meetings. In these meetings we are given a chance to express our concerns and opinions. From there, we elect representatives for the NVAC (National Volunteer Advisory Council) that meets with our Country Director, making sure all the voices of PC Paraguay are being heard. This committee is an opportunity to work with other geographically close volunteers on larger group projects that can touch a more people. It is also our way to get out of site briefly and blow off some steam.

Back in April, we decided to plan out four separate tallers (workshops) that would each be focused on promoting one of the four World Wide Peace Corps Initiatives: HIV/AIDS, ICT (Technology), WID/GAD (Women in Development & Gender and Diversity), and Youth. Along with every taller we also decided to host a bike tour, or what we like to refer to it as LE TOUR DE VAC. There are about four different general locations where San Pedro volunteers are clustered within a 25-kilometer radius. For example, three are located in a 22-kilometer radius from a small municipality. They helped to organize a sex education taller targeting HIV/AIDS with high school student from around their communities. The day before we arrived at the municipality to give the daylong workshop, we began at one of the volunteers who was at the 22 km marker point and biked all the way. It was a beautiful day and we all made it in good time! Through back roads we were able to catch a glimpse of another part of Paraguay. During this 22 km bike tour we stopped in one of the volunteers site to give a smaller version of the sex education workshop we gave in the municipality. The worshop was also very successful thanks to all our super-guapa (hard-working) volunteers! Next one is being scheduled for either late October or November! It will include my site and it will target the WID/GAD initiative! VERY EXCITED!

Photos of the TOUR:

Mini sex education charla at one of our fellow San Pedro VAC members school

Lovely TOUR DE VAC riders :)

Gettin' my bootayy up the last hill haha

TOUR = check. Sex Education Workshop = check! Ice cream break! I had avocado ice cream, so random but heavenly!

A year in the makin’

My contact/host mom Cristina & I foolin around while the bricklayers are learning the new model

So, as most of you who follow this blog know, I recently received the funding for my fogon (wood-burning brick ovens) project. Since May 2012 I have been working with a small neighborhood commission in order to teach about the fogons and find a way to fund their construction. As of the end of this month, I can proudly say that 14 of the 15 fogons are now built in my site! Thanks to some super helpful volunteers who came to my site to help me teach the brick layers how to build them! I would not have been able to do it without them! All the families in the commission have been incredibly thankful and appreciative of their LINDO new model fogons. Made all the tedious, and the “I-could-enjoy-pulling-out-all-of-my-hair-more-than-this”, work so worth it! But seriously…probably one of the most rollercoaster-like Peace Corps projects I will endure during my service. Thank goodness it’s done J #thetoughestjobyouwilleverlove

Below are some of the pictures I took during the weekend training session with the two volunteers who came to help. We built two fogons in two days J