she flies with her own wings...

After a teary-eyed, beautiful memorial service for Emily Balog, another peace corps Paraguay volunteer, I feel part of a close-knit family away from home. Emily was a community economic volunteer serving here in Paraguay. She tragically passed away on Sunday in a car accident. She was returning to her site from a Thanksgiving get-together with her boyfriend when a dip in the road caused him to lose control of the vehicle, crashing into a van full of musicians. Emily and the driver of the other car passed away. Her boyfriend is in critical condition in the hospital and has had 3 surgeries since Sunday morning.

I couldn’t be prouder to be a part of our Peace Corps group celebrating her amazing life. She’s touched my life so profoundly even though I had only run into her at the office a couple of times. It touches close to home knowing that a car accident can happen at any moment. It is an incomprehensible event that has caused pain for so many people especially her close family and friends, but it makes you realize that you need to appreciate each second you have on this earth. She lived each second of her life smiling, taking adventures, and being a great friend and family member to those who knew her. Thank you, Emily, for your service in Paraguay and for leading such an exemplary life. I admire you.

Keep Santiago, her boyfriend, in your prayers, as well as her loved ones. I can't begin to imagine how her family must feel right now.

wedding frenzy + workin hard

I had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning to return to my site after a visit to Joel’s sisters in San Juan (Paraguay offers terrible bus schedules). But, I had the opportunity to see the sun rise over the open fields and realized.. OH CRAP I only have 5 months left in this beautiful country.

5 MONTHS?! I have so much left to do in 5 months! Where did the other 22 months go? How did this all happen so fast? My time here has been filled with so many amazing experiences including meeting and getting engaged to Joel, teaching children to read, speak English, wash their hands, brush their teeth, eat vegetables, and be creative through arts and crafts! There have been so many up and down times during my service, but what I remember most are the endearing qualities about Paraguayans. They are so generous, happy, and care-free.
Wedding preparations are full blown. There’s less than 3 months until the big day… February 4th, 2012. It’s been unbelievably easy to plan a wedding here because there aren’t many options to choose from. Things are really coming together and I couldn’t be more excited. Joel just started working at the food store in order to be able to pay for his ticket to the states and trust me--- he’s working hard! 11.5 hours a day/7 days a week. The poor boy doesn’t have time to breath and they’re paying him basically nothing. He’ll think working in the states is a luxury in comparison to this. He’s working on his English and has mastered all of the slang phrases thanks to the “modern family” and “big bang theory”. He’s really excited to get to meet all you guys and is a natural born Phillies fan… already decked out in apparel!
My reading groups have become a huge passion these last few weeks. After doing diagnostic testing, 62% of my elementary school, grades 1-6, have low reading levels. There have been kids over the past 3 months who have improved their reading level by 3 grades. Some have found a passion for reading and are constantly asking me to borrow the books and others have broken their lack of self-esteem and aren’t afraid to read out loud anymore. Of course, there are still those kids who show no interest, but it has been by far one of the most rewarding experiences. We’re planning on doing summer book clubs/camps to continue the momentum.
We’re also starting exercise classes 3 days a week to compete in a department-wide peace corps represented fitness competition. Should be verrrrrrry interesting to see old senoras doing a push-up… If you got any Richard Simmons videos, send them my way! HA!
In a nice short summary, life is moving fast and has been a fabulous time in Paraguay.

.... 8 months later

Well I am an absolute failure at blog updating, but better 8 months late than never! What I have been up to in the last 8 months? Well I have been home and back for Christmas and my family has come to visit rural Paraguay and Buenos Aires in July. They were both interesting and special experiences. Being home over Christmas has made me realized that I have definitely changed and there are things about our American culture that are not so pleasant. There are also things that I truly missed… like my nephews, family members, friends, food with flavor, and washing machines! Having my family here was also quite the experience. I think my mom, dad, and mo really enjoyed the trip even under the tight living conditions in my house! They met all of my neighbors and the most important people in my community which was so weird for me. It felt funny having my life from home and life here be so connected during their stay. They got a brief glimpse into the Paraguayan life style and I am so grateful that I can now explain things better to them because they got to experience everything first hand. I hope they learned about the culture a bit and are relaxing while sipping some terere or mate back home!! I’ve also been on a trip to the amazon river in may with 6 other volunteers which was beauuutiful.

Aside from all these vacations, I HAVE also been working. Since the last time I wrote, my brick oven commission received the money to buy the materials from their government. I built 14 brick ovens while another brick layer build 5 others. Our brick oven project is completed and we have moved on to chicken coups! Never did I ever think I’d be working on chicken coups or building brick ovens… craziness. Anyway, my commission grew from 17 members to 36! This shows that they have a lot more “confianza”, or trust, in me because we had a successful first project. We’re currently fund-raising and handing in our paperwork to the government to write up our petition for more financial support.

In the melting summer months of January and February, 3 volunteers and I completed a successful summer health camp including themes such as dental health, parasite education, sports, art, and exercise, and environmental awareness . It was so fun being able to meet so many active children and teaching them how to play football Americano and make friendship bracelets!

I’ve started working in the schools again also. I’m collaborating with the doctor and nurse of my community to do sex education lessons in the high school and am working with a 20 year old friend named Luci to do trash and recycling lessons with the elementary school kids.

My garden is finally flourishing! I’ve been eating lots of lettuce…

I also recently started going to a neighboring community called Guayaki where things are quite different from my site. They don’t have running water, so they’re drinking out of dug holes in the ground. Wells don’t even exist. They also don’t have any form of bathroom, nor any kind of health professional working in the area. It’s quite a different scene there. I’m working on requesting a Peace Corps volunteer for this community in the future. Hoping all goes well.

Let’s see… I think I’ve hit all the major highlights. For all you nosy people, I do have a PY boyfriend and no, we do not know what will happen when I leave in April. Only 9 more months… I cannot believe how fast the time is passing here. I still have way too much I want to do before my time is up! I’ve grown quite attached to my people here and can’t imagine leaving them. Just recently my 9 year old friend laura wrote me a letter for friendship day in Paraguay. It’s adorable and way too nice. I’ll translate what it says:
Dear Daniela,
Daniela you are the best friend I have ever had in my life because you have taught me many things. I love you so much. You are so beautiful that when you arrived to Paraguay, you made the sun shine brighter.
Your friend, Laura

Haha I’m going to miss my San Pableros 
Anyway, this was just a brief update to let you know I am alive and doing well!