Dia de la Tierra

Earth Day!

April 22nd

While not largely celebrated in Paraguay, Earth Day was my first attempt at organizing and presenting a large scale activity in Ayolas. While there were moments that felt completely out of hand, over a thousand students from my communities largest school were able to celebrate Earth Day and get to see their first tree/man. (I got you hooked, now you want to read the rest of the blog, don’t you!)

El Arbol Generoso
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

The week before Earth Day when I was in Asuncion for an in-service language training session, I happened upon the book The Giving Tree, but in Spanish. I instantly grabbed it off the shelf and ran towards the librarian to check it out. I have always loved the story and had looked for it in the office before, but that day was my lucky day. I have had the opportunity to perform the book before during my summers at Camp Lutherwood, so I was very excited to give it a try down here in Paraguay.

Every school session, morning and afternoon, begins with the students lining up around the school’s court yard by classrooms to sing the national anthem and hear the day’s announcements over a loud stereo system. So I decided to take the opportunity of having all 1700 students gathered in one spot to announce that today is Earth Day and to celebrate we have a short theatrical performance to present. Only with the help of my two site mates, Liam and David, was I able to narrate the story while my two best men put on an amazing silent performance of a tree and a man. Giggles filled the school yard as Liam walked out wearing his over 6 foot tall tree costume that I have made him out of some old boxes I had found in my new house. And David played the part of a young boy aging into an old wobbly walking man right before the kids eyes.


After the skit, we invited all the kids to spend there recess hours with us in and around the library celebrating Earth Day with some fund activities. And what were those activities you ask:

Gracias

Inside the library I made two large banners, one for the morning and one for the afternoon, that said Gracias for the students to color or write some of the things they were thankful for in the environment. Everything from trees, elephants, and family members were drawn all over the banners with crayons and colored pencils.



Quiz Show

Liam put together a great 20 question photo quiz show for the students to enjoy. All the questions were interesting facts we found about some of the local wildlife of Paraguay. Such as in Paraguay there exists 45 different species of murciélagos or mbopi or BATS!

Bottle Toss

David was the master behind the bottle toss game. We created labels for three different buckets that said trash can, water, and soil. The kids were then given two plastic coke bottles to try to throw into the correct location (the trash can). If the kid accidently threw the bottle into the water or soil bucket David would explain why its important to throw our trash in trash cans and not other places.



We spent three morning and three afternoon recess sessions of 30 minutes each, rotating the students through the activities. While I would like to say that everything was completely organized to handle over a thousands students, we were literally swarmed with students! Especially because we were giving out small candies to kids who answered quiz show questions correctly, tossed their bottle in the trash can bucket, or drew an item on the banner. We were overwhelmed and tired by the end of the day.


Oh, I forgot to mention that during the afternoon session we also were requested to watch over 10 kindergarten and 15 4th grade students for an hour and a half while their teachers held a “meeting”. Unfortunately a large group of teachers try to find the easiest way to do as little as possible. Such is the education system in Paraguay. Thank you teacher Liam for your impromptu geography class and leaf tracing session!




However, overall the day was exciting, busy, and memorable. I definitely plan on organizing more celebration days like this one for the students. But I will be sure to ask for even more volunteer support!

Semana Santa

The chipa has risen!

The first week of April this year, known as Holy Week or Semana Santa, was filled with the smell of chipa. All across the country Paraguayans followed a traditional schedule of celebrating Easter or Pascua.

Wednesday or Chipa Day!
I know you all are asking yourselves, what is this CHIPA thing she keeps mentioning? Well let me tell you about the very traditional bread product that Paraguayans can’t live without.

Chipa
1 kilo of mandioca starch
2 cups of corn flour
1 cup of pig fat
2 eggs
1 cup of milk
3 tablespoons of salt
¼ cup of anis
½ kilo of Paraguayan cheese (and yes there is a huge difference between queso Paraguayo and
all the other cheese in the world)



Once all the ingredients are mixed together, the dough is kneaded together into almost a play dough like texture. Once the dough is kneaded, you are allowed to make the chipa into any design. I enjoyed writing my name in my chipa. The dough is then placed on top of banana leaves and baked in either an outdoor fire oven called a fagon or in my experience an indoor gas oven. It is then customary to exchange chipa with friends and neighbors for the next few days to enjoy throughout the day.






Thursday or the Last Supper or Did Someone Say Pork Chops?


I was invited to spend Eater weekend with my friend Lili and her family at her parent’s house about an hour north of Ayolas. Lili’s parents own a small store or despensa that they run out of their house in San Patricio, Paraguay. We arrived Thursday morning to help prepare the large lunch we would be sharing as a family in a few hours. The focus of the meal across Paraguay on Thursday is chancho or pork. My favorite! (It really is)

After a large lunch, we spent the rest of the day visiting her family members that live on the block. This means I spent most of the day explaining why I am here in Paraguay, how Lili and I are friends, and if I am happy here. We also went to church service that evening at the small Catholic church located in the towns small plaza.

Friday or Good Friday or the Day of Rest

Across the country families gathered together on Friday to share the day with each other. We headed out to Lili’s Grandmas house located about a 15 minute drive into the countryside outside of San Patricio. We gathered alongside a dozen other aunts, uncles, and cousins to spend the day relaxing in the shade of a large mango tree with drinking endless amounts of terere, beer, and eating leftovers from Thursday. The countryside was absolutely beautiful and the warm weather added to its splendor. I spent most of the day staring out into the countryside while the family gossiped in Guarani about family members, politics, and a hundred other things. I was usually brought back into reality when they would ask me random question about the United States.


Saturday or Fiesta Time!
While time was still spent with family and close friends, the fiesta spirit also hit Paraguay. Lots of volleyball and futbol games were played, while even more beers were drunk. Lili and I headed back to Ayolas in the early afternoon and spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening fishing along the Rio Parana. I caught the first fish! It was the size of a deck of cards, but I was proud of my work.

Sunday or Pascua or the day you are permitted to run around town hitting people
Sunday or Easter/Pascua is not celebrated the same as it is in the states. There was no Easter bunny hiding eggs for kids to find. And there were no Easter baskets full of candy and toys. I have no idea where these traditions came from that I have participated in for the past 23 years, and boy did I have a hard time trying to explain them to Paraguayans.
Instead on Sunday Paraguayans have the tradition of hitting each other on the backs, sometimes butts depending on the level of friendship, while shouting FELIZ PASCUA!
I found the Paraguayan traditions of Semana Santa to be very comforting. While many say that Paraguay’s homogeneity is one of the reasons they are so far back in terms of forward thinking and development, I wouldn’t say that all things homogeneous are bad. I mean everyone loves massive amounts of food, beer, and the opportunity to hit people without feeling bad!!

Dia Mundial del Agua

My first real work in Paraguay!

In celebration of World Water Day, I helped to organize and present three different half-day teacher workshops about the importance of teaching dynamic water activities in the classroom in Paraguay. These workshops were the concluding activities for the thesis work Mandi (the former EE volunteer from my community) did during her Peace Corps service about water education in Paraguay.

The Agenda:
Ice Breaker (o Rompi Hielo)- We played a fun game of what I like to call “pass the coin”. The object of any ice breaker is to get the group active and excited about spending time together. And I believe that this ice breaker does just that. The goal is to stand in a line and pass a coin from person to person in your team until the last person gets the coin. However the way you pass the coin is what makes this one of my favorite ice breakers. In order to pass the coin on to the next person in line, you must first pass the coin underneath all of your clothing until it reaches the floor. Almost everyone freaks out after hearing the rules, especially those in the group that happen to be wearing tight pants that day. However, once the game begins there are lots of laughs and the group is ready to see what is next.

Welcome- A short presentation of who we are, Peace Corps volunteers, and what we were going to do for the day, learn about water activities. We then presented the “how we learn pyramid” or the its really important that we teach students dynamically with hands-on activities.


Water- “Water, water all around and not a drop to drink!”
“The amount of water in the world, both fresh and salt can be represented by a bucket of water. Out of that bucket, only a ¼ of a cup is water that we can access, still both fresh and salt. Out of that ¼ cup of water, only a teaspoon of that is fresh water. From that teaspoon of fresh water only a drop is fresh water that we can drink.”
I presented this information to the teachers using all the materials listed above (bucket, ¼ cup, teaspoon) as visual aids to express the importance of water education in schools.


Sum of all the parts- Imagine that you just received a text message telling you that you have won a riverfront property and an unlimited amount of money to build whatever you like on the land. The riverfront property of your dreams! This was the opening to on of our activities for the day. Each person or group of 2 to 3 people, depending on the size of the group overall, was given a sheet of paper to represent their waterfront property. After 20 to 30 minutes of drawing and discussing with their group mates what their riverfront property dreams are, we gathered all the sheets and assembled them into a river. When all the parts were put together all the group members could observe how upstream development was causing downstream contamination. This activity demonstrated how easily we contaminate our rivers and how that contamination affects all parts of the river.





La tormenta- We then taught the group how to make the sounds of a tormenta (storm) by only using their bodies. While the groups quietly stood in a circle, I walked in front of each participant and began an action such as rubbing my hands together. Once I passed a person they then needed to begin copying my action until I passed in front of them again with a different action. The order of the storm is: rubbing hands together, snapping, clapping out of rhythm, slapping your thighs, stomping your feet, and finally slapping your thighs while stomping your feet. Once everyone is copying the last action, I then began to pass in front of the circle doing the actions in reserve, until my hands were open not making a sound.

Density and surface tension- Our final activity for the workshops was allowing the teachers to get the opportunity to practice teaching one another about a water science property such as density or surface tension. The idea was for them to understand the importance of using hands on activities in the classroom to teach. We divided into two groups and each was given information about their topic and some suggestions of activities they could teach to the other group. While it was a little uncomfortable for some to be teaching their peers, I believe that this final activity put them all to the test to be interactive with their teaching and for some of them this was new material.




Certificates- Probably the most important part of a workshop for teachers, students, community members, etc., is the receiving of the certificates. Every participant gained recognition for 4 hours of additional learning. These hours are accumulated my teachers through out the year by attending workshops and lectures to receive higher pay for the next school year. And you can’t forget the all important group photos.



These workshops were great opportunities to both practice my Spanish skills in front of a large group, and to visit two different cities in Paraguay, Valle Apu’a and Pilar.