volei, anyone?

So its time for my monthly update! I used to be able to update more often, but time just isn´t on my side right now. That is a MAJOR change, but it´s good to actually have things to do!

Mostly though, I´ve been playing a lot of volei! (a.k.a. volleyball) We put in a court in front of my house and try to play daily, but last week we put in a new court at my host mom´s family´s house and it is SWEET! Juan and I spent HOURS working on it and I have pictures to prove our lovely work, but those will be posted a later day. Juan cut down all of these trees and then we made the court outlines and took out all the grass to expose the soft turf underneath. It´s SO much better than my court, but they live about 20km from my house, so I def see a lot more of my own field. No matter where I´m play, it´s great exercise!

The women´s committee is coming along nicely. I´m meeting with the director of the Ministry of Agriculture today. We met two weeks ago too and he´s a really nice guy that has known a lot of volunteers of the years. There are a lot of funds out there to help with committees like mine because my community is so poor. This is great news and horrible news. My ladies think I´m just going to find a project completely free of work on their part. Not likely! The main reason they´re coming to meetings (p.s. I´m up to 37 ladies!) is because they want chicken coops. Why do they want chicken coops? Because another women´s committee down the street has them! This is pretty much how everyone operates here. They want to be exactly like their neighbors in every way possible! Well, this particular committee has been together for almost 7 years. Their president is an amazing woman who is very outgoing and busted ass for 6 years to get them where they are today. And my ladies think they´ll get the same type of project with zero effort. NOT HARDLY!

Another idea that will become a reality is ao´poi classes for women and jr. high/high school aged young ladies. Ao´poi is pretty awesome and a tradition only in PY. Its hand woven designs, that are woven into a fabric that is light and airy. MY idea though is to have them export to the US! I´m doing this apart from the women´s committee because the President is being difficult. She´s not interested in doing it herself, but I´d say a strong 50% (or more!) want to do it. On top of that, I got a professor to come for free and teach us (I said "us" because you can be sure I´m learning too!), so besides paying her gas to get here, it´s a great opportunity! If YOU are interested in having your very own ao´poi from MY community, or know of somewhere they could be sold, let me know! Here are some samples (just copy and paste)... And please remember that we will be making it ALL by hand, so we can make it to fit just you if you want to give your measurements!

more modern styles:
http://images.google.com.py/imgres?imgurl=http://www.catedral.com.py/img/productos/dama/BLUSA1227_pantalon_864_p.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.catedral.com.py/productos-damas.php&h=141&w=94&sz=7&hl=es&start=14&um=1&tbnid=Y8LMb9ZIhLX8UM:&tbnh=94&tbnw=63&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522ao%2Bpoi%2522%26um%3D1%26hl%3Des%26lr%3D%26sa%3DX

males:
http://images.google.com.py/imgres?imgurl=http://www.catedral.com.py/img/productos/dama/BLUSA1227_pantalon_864_p.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.catedral.com.py/productos-damas.php&h=141&w=94&sz=7&hl=es&start=14&um=1&tbnid=Y8LMb9ZIhLX8UM:&tbnh=94&tbnw=63&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522ao%2Bpoi%2522%26um%3D1%26hl%3Des%26lr%3D%26sa%3DX

Table clothes or other things like that can also be adapted. NOW EXCEPTING ORDERS!

What else? What else?

The coop is pretty much not a part of my life. Luckily, I have a two day Peace Corps sponsored meeting with my contact this week. I´m hoping that this will get my work finally started. I literally haven´t done a thing for my coop, and I´d really like it to be the bulk of my work! I have a lot of ideas, but no one to really talk it through with. That´s the job of my contact, but his bro is running for Gov right now so on top of all the regular work he has, he´s also campaigning a bit. The good news though is that if his bro wins, my coop and community could possibly transform into many great things. We´ll see what happens though. (Election Day here is April 20)

We did have an interesting meeting a few weeks ago though. We had people from all over South American come to our coop because some org claims ours is a model for all coops. NOT! But, that´s ok. The sponsoring organization is from the US, so there were Americans too. I found it a little difficult to talk about my work and life without using Spanish words, which gave me a little self entertainment. I got a few business cards and hope to keep up with this group. I didn´t really understand what they did before, but now that I realize their website is in English too, I´m golden!

Not much else to report. Its off to Asunción tomorrow for a few days then back by Friday (hopefully) for my women´s committee meeting. Please let me know what´s going on with all of you!!