Surfing the Internet by candlelight

This is the sixth consecutive day of clouds, rain, or the possibility of rain. Thanks to Tessa I have temporary wireless Internet :), albeit rather slow here. 

I recently made Paraguayan style tortillas with potato slices. We put ketchup on top and had some wine mixed with Simba soda. Simba is Guarana flavored, yummy! The tortillas are more or less like funnel cakes, but salty, not sweet. Sometimes when I see someone making tortillas or I'm making them with someone I'm reminded of making funnel cakes with the powdered sugar on top with my sister Amy as a kid. 

Tomorrow I will be getting up early and possibly catching the 6:40 am bus to go to a high school. I want to publicize a scholarship for students who have outstanding grades, community service and can demonstrate financial need. I will be going to my tokaya- a girl who is also named Karen. Tonight I went to another high school to publicize the scholarship. Even though the applications won't be available until November and won't be turned in until the beginning of December, it's important to alert the kids now to keep studying and to do more community service or to keep doing the service they are doing. 

Next week I'll be starting another English class; a lot of people have been asking me to. I feel like a jerk not accepting more requests for one-on-one tutoring, but I don't want to devote all my time to being an English teacher. The difficult part to swallow is that I know I'm better at teaching English than I am at doing anything else here. Since I have studied other foreign languages and I studied Spanish for so long I can explain it better than I think an average Joe off the street could. 

Tomorrow I complete ONE YEAR in Paraguay! It seems that I should stop, look around, scream, pray, yell, party, call all of the other volunteers in my G and go on a retreat all at once. I'm glad I have a year left, because that means I have more time to do work. On the other hand, in one year I'm sure that I will transform even more than I already have. It will interesting to go home in two months, because then the ways I have changed will be more evident to me than they are now. 

My sister G (aka, the other municipal services development group that is like our little sister) just arrived today, just like we did around a year ago. I will be meeting them next Thursday when I help with a training session in Guarambare about the organization of the municipality--what are the responsibilities of the mayor, secretary general and council members. 

My house is coming together more and more all the time: yesterday an unfinished wood table, 120 cm x 76 cm if I recall correctly. It's perfect for working; the other tables I had that my friend lent me are way too small; there is no room to spread out. 

I posted more photos on my Facebook tonight; you can see more there. XO XO