I tried! I really did, but I lost. The bed bugs bit...and continue to bite! I just found out from the doctor that I have bedbugs. Yes, for those of you in the states thinking they were a made up thing, think again! I first thought I just got attacked by hungry mosquitos, but when the bites persisted for a couple days and continuted to get itchier I knew something was up! In fact, my entired body got covered in these small bites and the itchiness is unbearable. I woke up at 3am last night in a fit of scratching. The doctor gave me some meds to control the itching and dealing with the bugs is relatively straight forward. I have to put my mattress and sheets in the sun for a couple hours, but then I have to wash ALL my clothes. That is a lot of clothes to wash at one time by hand. Not fun.
So other than being eaten alive by bedfellows there is a lot going on!
The newest group of agriculture trainees have arrived and I am in Asuncion helping with training. It is really surreal to be on the other side this time; I still feel like I should be with the trainees hearing a volunteer talk about their experience. They seem to be a really interesting group of people and I am very excited to get to know them all.
One of them will be coming out to my site this weekend for his Volunteer Site Visit. We will spend a couple days together just doing common volunteer things like working in the field, hanging out with paraguayans, garden work, and so forth.
In other news, two weeks ago the American Ambassador came to my site! Yes.....she really did. It was so odd. The day it happened one of the ingenieros who is working with my womens committees came out and said "David, the Ambassador is coming to check out your community" at first I thought he was joking, then assumed he was lying but he was being serious. So I quickly rallied the committees and eventually the Ambassador did come into site. Of course she came rolling in in brandnew SUVs with security agents as well as a whole group of agricultural and NGO/social fundation bigwigs. She wanted to see what was happening in that area of the country, asking about problems and what the people needed, what their future plans were etc.
She came up to me and we chatted in spanish for a bit until I finally told her in English that I was a Peace Corps volunteer, it was rather funny since she thought I was Paraguayan (go figure!).
Needless to say, I made a lot of great connections with organizations who want to help the community and we have a lot of projects on the horizon now. It was probably the biggest event to ever happen in my site, it was like a circus!
One of the really exciting outcomes of her visit was that I made connections with a firm called Fundacion Paraguayan, which helps with smalltime projects for community development. I went to their office and asked if they were interested in an irrigation project with a farmers committee and they said they were very interested and will come out to talk to the committee. This is very exciting because the farmers committee has been wanting to do this project for years but have had such problems with finding help and people interested in the project, so we will see what comes out of all of this. I would like to take credit for it, but honestly it all just kind of fell in my lap. Besides, nothing has happened yet so I wont count my bedbugs before they bite.
So other than being eaten alive by bedfellows there is a lot going on!
The newest group of agriculture trainees have arrived and I am in Asuncion helping with training. It is really surreal to be on the other side this time; I still feel like I should be with the trainees hearing a volunteer talk about their experience. They seem to be a really interesting group of people and I am very excited to get to know them all.
One of them will be coming out to my site this weekend for his Volunteer Site Visit. We will spend a couple days together just doing common volunteer things like working in the field, hanging out with paraguayans, garden work, and so forth.
In other news, two weeks ago the American Ambassador came to my site! Yes.....she really did. It was so odd. The day it happened one of the ingenieros who is working with my womens committees came out and said "David, the Ambassador is coming to check out your community" at first I thought he was joking, then assumed he was lying but he was being serious. So I quickly rallied the committees and eventually the Ambassador did come into site. Of course she came rolling in in brandnew SUVs with security agents as well as a whole group of agricultural and NGO/social fundation bigwigs. She wanted to see what was happening in that area of the country, asking about problems and what the people needed, what their future plans were etc.
She came up to me and we chatted in spanish for a bit until I finally told her in English that I was a Peace Corps volunteer, it was rather funny since she thought I was Paraguayan (go figure!).
Needless to say, I made a lot of great connections with organizations who want to help the community and we have a lot of projects on the horizon now. It was probably the biggest event to ever happen in my site, it was like a circus!
One of the really exciting outcomes of her visit was that I made connections with a firm called Fundacion Paraguayan, which helps with smalltime projects for community development. I went to their office and asked if they were interested in an irrigation project with a farmers committee and they said they were very interested and will come out to talk to the committee. This is very exciting because the farmers committee has been wanting to do this project for years but have had such problems with finding help and people interested in the project, so we will see what comes out of all of this. I would like to take credit for it, but honestly it all just kind of fell in my lap. Besides, nothing has happened yet so I wont count my bedbugs before they bite.
U.S. Ambassador Liliana Ayalde with Silvina in Silvina's garden next to some great looking organic tomatoes. Silvina was beaming with pride from the attention she received from such a famous person. I was so proud of her!
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