Dia de Salud!!! Kinda..

Yesterday was my Dia de Salud. However, it rained again the night before so some volunteers couldnt make it. No worries, two came out and we were able to do a dental charla and a nutrtion charla. The kids had vacation extended a week because there it is still really cold and everyone is worried about the swine flu. So, I walked door to door inviting the kids. I was actually surprised at the turn out, a lot of people came! It was great. The kids loved the charlas. We played games, sang songs, and got them really interested in eating well and brushing their teeth!
The teachers and students are all excited about the dental program I am starting at school. The kids will brush their teeth after recess everyday. I was able to get free toothbrushes and toothpaste so everyone is happy.

Dia de Salud 2009! Yayyyy.


King giving his charla on nutrtion.




Kids Practicing on big teeth. Dont worry, I wont bite!


Hannah and I getting ready to sing a song on dental hygene.

Pictures of work and stuff

Yum! Can not wait to eat this big guy. Ituichaeterei! (It´s big as !"·$% in Guarani)


My neighbor´s little field of Lupino (green manure) I convinced him to plant this and then corn inbetween the rows. We waited a couple weeks, hoed, and then planted the corn. It is still small and hard to see, but the corn is growing well next to these green manures.




This is my biggest success! It doesn´t look like much, but after going out and spending many, many long hours hacking away with machetes I convinced one of the farmers to leave the plant residue instead of burning it. Like most farmers, once they kill the weeds they burn them to clear the area. This burning is really, really bad for the soil. It gives it a boost in fertility for one season but after that its all downhill. All the microbial life is lost, all the organic matter burned away and the soil is left in ruin. He took my advice and left it, we will move this inbetween the plants of corn and beans we planted yesterday and do a semi no-till experiment. Im hoping that he will plant green manures as well.
This left over weeds creates a mulch which helps retain moisture in the soil, blocks weed growth, and eventually breaks down into nutrient rich soil. I am so excited that he decided to take my advice.



Another field where I convinced a farmer to plant avena negra, black oats. I planted this in my field and after he saw mine he decided he wanted the same! Check one for the demonstration plot. The oats recently sprouted. By the way, that tree is a mango tree...and it is LOADED with little baby fruits.


My demonstration plot in full swing. The oats are starting to go to seed and the Lupino is flowering. I cut down the Lupino when flowering so that it doesnt use the Nitrogen it fixed to create seeds. I will let the oats go to seed to replant next winter, or possibly use in chicken feed.

My neighbors just had piglets! I woke up from a nice little nap, came outside to see all of them in my front yard napping as well. So cute when young...so tender and juicy! Dinner time!!

Rain Check

So my Dia de Salud had to be postponed yesterday due to rain....lame. But, that is just how things go in Paraguay. Im not too bummed about it. We reschuled for the 22nd, lets hope the weather is nice. It has been cold and very, very rainy for the past week or so. Not fun. Things in my house have started to grow mold on them, like my nice suade shows and my bee keeping gear. There isn´t really anything I can do since they are hanging in my house. When it is cold and wet outside, it is cold and wet inside! It reminds me of One Hundred Years of Solitude, when it rains for years and the town gets covered in a green mold - that´s my house right now! Yuck! But, whatever, it is alright. Im not bummed about the weather, it is what it is and that is all it is! Though I must say I am running short on clean clothes! You can´t wash your clothes in this weather because they will never dry. So what do I do? Well, I drink a lot of maté, that is for sure, but I also read and just hangout with my community members and then we drink more maté. I finished Anna Karinina, though I have to admit I wasn´t too blown away by it.
In other news, I have some Americans living in my community! Two highschool volunteers from a program called Amigos de Las Americas are living their for a month. I went and trained the whole group of 60 some odd highschoolers on Guarani, paraguayan culture, gardening and tree planting last week. They will be in different communities doing garden work, tree planting and building of fogóns. A fogón is a brick and earth stove and oven. They are relatively simple to make but the added benefit is that it gets the women in my community from cooking on the floors which is both dangerous for little children who occasionally fall in and also bad for womens health since they are constantly breathing in smoke from their fires. The fogón has a chimney, so the smoke is taken outside. The Amigos volunteers should be making 5 fogóns. I am honestly a bit nervous. They had a little less than a day training on how to make them, and I question the goal of this NGO. To me, and to the other PC volunteers who helped train, the NGO seems more like a summer camp for highschoolers that is more aimed towards making the kids feel good about doing something rather than REALLY doing this for Paraguayans. I only say that because they spent little time on training for fogóns, which is their main goal. They were not emphasized enough to the kids. I dont think they realize how important these are to the Paraguayans that receive them. I mean, these are EXTREMELY important to Paraguayans. I have seen children scarred for life by falling into fires when young, and I hear the respiratory problems of the señoras in my community. And yet these volunteers come in and barely know how to make them. Basically, if they can´t do it I am going to step in and finish these fogóns myself if I have to. I know it might not be the best thing, but I am looking out for my community. These volunteers will leave in a couple weeks and that will be that, I am living with these people and I want them to have these fogóns.