Two pretty big things today. First, today marks the end of my first year as a volunteer...one left to go! The time has really gone by relatively quickly and I have a feeling that it is only going to go faster. Though, the summer months are going to be tough but I will survive. After one year do I feel different? Mas or menos. The challenges I had one year ago are gone, but of course there are new ones. There will ALWAYS be new challenges, but if there weren´t I dont think this whole experience would be as fruitful.
The second big thing is that today is my birthday! Yay! I turn 25, a quarter century. I don´t really have any plans, I will probably kill a chicken and pop it into the tatakua(brick oven) and call it a night. So exciting, right? I don´t really want anything big, and there isn´t a whole lot to do in the campo. I will have a nice dinner with my neighbors, and that will be that.
Thanksgiving was a blast. We went down to this amazing hotel in an ecoreserve...lots of birds and beautiful forest as well as three pools! And AC! The food was unbelievable, it was all there except for the cranberry sauce. But we had Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatos, sweetpotato casserole, apple pie, pumpkin pie etc. Needless to say I ate WAY too much, but isn´t that what Thanksgiving is all about?
As far as work is going, Im working on a microfinancing project with one of the women´s committees and a credit agency called Fundación Paraguaya. Each woman is taking out 300,000 Guaranies in credit with 20% interest. They have to pay it back within 6 months. 300,000 Guaranies amounts to about 60 dollars. That is a lot of money in the campo. The women decided first to use the money for individual purposes, but afterwards, if all is paid back they want to take more out and use it towards a group project. This will be a pilot program, if all goes well they will be able to take out more. It will be interesting to see how it all goes, they all know that they cannot default on their debt. Im glad that I dont have to be the bad guy if they do default. But I am working with each of them to find the best way to use the money in a way that they can quickly start making money in order to pay off the loan and continue to make money after the loan is payed off. Some women want to buy chickens, some want to buy help in the field, etc.
Alright, Im going to buy some ingredients for a cake. Turns out in Paraguay if it´s your birthday, you have to make everything for everyone else to celebrate. It´s like in elementary school when you had your birthday you were the one who brought everyone else cupcakes...sigh
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