PCVChrisSpahr's Xanga

6 weeks to go

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 18:51:20 GMT

Time is flying by as I approach my swearing out ceremony which will be held on August 17 in the Peace Corps office in Asuncion. I feel lucky to be taking the coordinator position and don´t have to be too stressed about leaving Peace Corps and Paraguay. Although the thought of leaving Horqueta has me somewhat stressed out and emotional at times. In the next six weeks, I need to manage a $5000 project at the public library as well as complete a series of presentations on waste management in the different neighborhoods of the city. This is not to mention the important moments that I need to spend with friends in my site.

Trip Home for Sister´s Wedding

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 17:58:11 GMT

I returned from the United States to Paraguay last Friday and had a wonderful if short trip to the United States. During my 11 days I went to my sister´s wedding on June 2, met my newest niece, Abigail Francis Spahr, who was born on June 1, visited my grandmother in Philadelphia, spent lots of time with my family including nieces and my nephew, spent lots of time with friends, and went to the 8th grade graduation at the Nativity School of Harrisburg where I used to teach. The wedding was spectacular. Outside and next to a beautiful creek in Perry County. The reception was full of dancing, good music, and camping next to the creek.

I´m hoping that I will be home for a month in December.

Close of Service Conference and New Job

Fri, 18 May 2007 19:39:53 GMT

The group that I staged with in Miami, trained with in Paraguay, and was friends with for two years just had our Close of Service Conference in San Bernadino, a resort town near Asuncion. I can´t believe we are talking about close of service. It has gone incredibly fast. During the conference we spent time talking about our service, evaluating our project, thinking about opportunities after service, and working on resumes. I also found out that I have been appointed as the Peace Corps Paraguay Municipal Services Development and Rural Economic Development Projects Volunteer Coordinator which is a job I applied for about a month ago. This will extend my service another 13 months in the Peace Corps Paraguay Office in Asuncion starting in August. With this job I will coordinate the volunteers, serve as an assistant to the Program Manager, and travel all over the country visiting volunteers. It will hopefully be an exciting experience.

Inauguration of the Public Library

Mon, 14 May 2007 19:10:17 GMT

The City of Horqueta inaugurated the Public Library last Monday, a project that I have worked on for almost 2 years now. It was really rewarding to see the turnout for the inauguration especially with the cold weather and rain. When it gets cold in Paraguay, Paraguayans don't really leave their house and I don't blame them. It gets cold, the roads turn to mud, and their is no way to dry clothes. It's almost like a snow day in the United States.

But on this particular night about 50 people made it out to the Public Library inauguration. So many people that we hardly had space in the library for everyone. The Director of Peace Corps Paraguay, Michael Eschleman, attended and he gave a really moving speach. The mayor and a youth from the group Juventud Que se Mueve(Youth that Move) also spoke. Juventud Que se Mueve was the group that founded the library two years ago and the pride in their faces made all of the work worth it. The Horqueta Public Library is officially open Monday through Friday from 1 PM until 5 PM and contains over 1000 books. I recently wrote a grant to receive $5,000 for the library in order to buy a photo copy machine, a computer with a printer, 84 university level books, a new bookshelf, 3 tables, 28 chairs and a desk with the hopes that it will create a sustainable public library. I will find out within the next couple of weeks if the grant is approved.

Why a Public Library? Well, to buy a book in Paraguay, one will have to pay the same price that we would pay in the United States. That is rather difficult to do in Horqueta when the average citizen makes $2 a day. And now we wonder why people in Paraguay are illiterate and can't advance themselves through education. They don't have books! Even the high schools and universities in Horqueta don't have books. So, the idea of the founders of the public library is to provide books that can be lent for free so that people can advance their education and their future by learning to read and having access to books, computers, and internet.

Cold Weather in Paraguay

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 19:20:58 GMT

It has been so long since it has gotten cold in Paraguay that I forgot that it does get cold. Northern Paraguay was hit with some major rain storms yesterday that caused the weather to cool off. I am walking around in a sweater and jeans today which was unheard of a week ago. I´ll give it about two days before it is hot as h--l again.

One of the major initiatives of the new mayor is to clean up the city. Part of my current work is assisting the Secretary of the Environment in the Municipality to organize a project of major city cleanup and environmental education. We invited another Peace Corps Volunteer, Shannon Smith, up to do two workshop on managing trash on Wednesday. The first workshop was for authorities of which many did not show up and the second one was for teachers and youth of which about 50 people showed up. It shows who are the ones who care about the public health disaster that is associated with the mess of trash that we have in the city.

Tryin to Catch Up

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 18:05:24 GMT

It is amazing how busy the last six months of Peace Corps Service in Paraguay can be. I currently have four months left of my service and each day is flying by. I have a lot of hopes for my last four months but as I have learned in the past two years, there are many factors that prevent our hopes and dreams from becoming reality in Paraguay. As Peace Corps Volunteers, we need to keep in perspective that we are here as supportive forces. Often times in the background. The wind behind sails. But first there needs to be sails for us to blow. Those things we cannot create. Am I making any sense at all? Excuse me if I´m not but it´s hot and the air conditioning doesn´t work in the internet cafe.

So I am working on two main projects that I would like to have realatively under control and sustainable by the time I leave Horqueta in August. The first being developing the plan for residual waste disposal in the city of Horqueta and developing a series of presentations concerning classifying trash, recycling, the dangers of burning, and using the trash collection system that is in place and hopefully will be improved pending funding.

The second project being the public library project which has recently taken off due to incredible support from the municipality. I am currently working on a grant with the librarian to receive $5,000 from USAID to buy furniture, air conditioning, a computer, printer, fotocopier and books. It is a lot of work and will be up until the moment I leave.

I am also busy doing reports for Peace Corps, applying for the position as volunteer coordinator which could begin in August, writing radio scripts in Guarani to be recorded in Asuncion and played on national radio stations promoting goals of Peace Corps, developing a Civic Education Curriculum for teachers, preparing to go home for two weeks for my sisters wedding and attending a close of service conference. What am I trying to say? I am having a blast and always find time to sit back and enjoy a cold beer with friends.

Waiting for Brother

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 14:49:42 GMT

My brother, Tom, was supposed to arrive for a week long trip in Paraguay today but due to an unfortunate snow storm, his flight from Columbus, Ohio was canceled. Luckily he was able to book another flight and will be arriving 24 hours behind schedule. It threw our plans off a bit but then again, I have to remember that I am in Paraguay and if I were to think that plans were going to work out perfectly, I would be an idiot. I have lived here for over a year and half and I have definitely improved my ability to be patient and go with the flow.

Sunday Afternoon Soccer

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 11:56:01 GMT

It´s soccer season in Paraguay (which is really year round with the exception of the month of December). The Horqueta soccer league started about 3 weeks ago. Games are on Sunday and it is the closest thing to a tailgait party I have found in Paraguay. Teams come from all over the district to play all day and much of the town goes out in their trucks, motorcycles, bikes and by foot to the stadium. The beer flows and the people (especially the men) get roudy. This week my neighborhood won 2 to 1. I am obviously not good enough to play but am one of the not so roudy bystanders. I think I would be roudier if I understood the roudy Guarani but my Guarani has not reached roudy soccer fan level.

Youth Trip

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 11:51:09 GMT

This past Saturday, the youth group with which Sarah and I work took a field trip to Cerro Cora National Park, which is the place where the President during the Triple Alliance War, Francisco Solano Lopez, was killed by Brazilian forces. The youth had planned this trip for about 9 months and had raised the money to make the trip. In Paraguay, all the planning in the world can´t make for a perfect trip. One of the youth had called ahead to reserve cabins to stay in the National Park. Unfortunately what we didn´t know is that the anti-drug force of the Paraguayan military had taken over the cabins on order of the President to run missions in this part of the country. The staff at the park also failed to inform us of this. When we arrived, the staff person in charge informed us that the cabins at the front of the park were occupied by the military but there were cabins by the river that we could use. What he failed to inform us was that they were occupied by bats and the roof was torn off by a recent storm. At about this time, it started to rain. We obviously did not end up sleeping in the park but made the best out of the day that we could. We visited the historic sites, played games, and swam in the river. The highlight of the day was seeing one of the military helicopters land right next to us. Everyone there including myself had never seen a helicopter land except for in the movies. We arrived back in Horqueta that night, wet and muddied but with smiles on our faces.

Birthday

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 19:36:57 GMT

Well, I am officially 28 years old and I had a great time celebrating my birthday. I first celebrated with my host dad on his birthday on February 16th in his house. We sat around with family, drank beer and ate a delcious meal. The next day, Saturday, I got up early and made the 7 hour trip to Asuncion to celebrate my birthday with Nayeli who had to be in Asuncion for work purposes. We had a good old U.S. style date. First we went shopping for my birthday present which was a nice shirt. We then went to see the movie Babel ( not really a date movie but we expected that and really enjoyed it. I highly reccomend it). We then went out to a Mexican restaurant and ate enchiladas and drank wine. It was really nice to spend this time with her and was a wonderful birthday present. On my actual birthday on Monday, Ruben and I invited some friends over and had a barbecue. Nayeli and Sarah were both there as were many Paraguayan friends. It was small and lots of fun. I was also treated to a call from my parents on this night.