Story Hour and other news of July

July has been a month of joyous reunions, exciting beginnings, unexpected adventures, tearful farewells, and general self-reflection. That being said, it has also been one of the fastest 31 days I've experienced as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and that's saying a lot.

After spending the first few weeks of the month with my sister, I got to see Nicole's glowing face as she got off the bus last Thursday right here in Ybycui! She and her friend and coworker Tori stopped for a week here in Paraguay to see me and spend time out in my site.

It has been great getting to show them around my community and introducing them to lots of people, including...the kids!

One of the really exciting beginnings of this month is a "Story Hour" or Book Club that I've started for the elementary school-aged kids here. I checked out a mobile library from the Peace Corps Office, which is a set of 15 books in Spanish. There are a variety of books, including Where The Wild Things Are, Clifford, Curious George, and Madeline. So far we've met 3 times, and each time somewhere between 10 and 20 kids have come. We usually begin by me reading a story aloud for everyone, and then we have free time where everyone can read on their own. I usually ask one of the older girls to read aloud for the younger kids who are reading yet.

It was especially wonderful to have Nicole and Tori here for this week's Story Hour. Nicole is an elementary school teacher in Washington D.C. in a 1st grade Special Education classroom. Tori is one of her teaching assistants and is going back to school this fall for her Masters in Bilingual Education. At Story Hour, Tori, who speaks Spanish, read aloud for the younger crowd, who couldn't get enough and kept bringing her another and another book to read them. Nicole noticed right off that most of the kids reading on their own (ranging in age from 8 to 13) were semi-proficient readers, as they generally read aloud to themselves in order to understand what it is they're reading. She offered me some great strategies and advice to help these kids, in the limited capacity that I can, to get more practice and to improve their reading skills.

Still, the most important goal of Story Hour is just to get kids excited and interested in reading, whether they know their ABCs yet or are already in middle school. None of the families around here have books at home, nor are the kids exposed to anything except for textbooks at school, so they are thrilled each time I take my pile of books out of the bag. What a great feeling it is to be able to share one of my own personal joys with some little guys that I really care about. Yay!!

Story Hour with Nicole and Tori

Tori reading to the little ones.

Karina, age 10, and Isidora, age 13 enjoying their stories.

One major change of this month is that my friend Namho, a KOICA (Korea Overseas Volunteer) completed his own two years of service in Paraguay and left to go back to Korea. Namho has been a constant friend since I first got to my site (He lived in my town, Ybycui) and we especially worked closely the past few months because his organization offered my womens' comite the chance to learn how to plant and manage some new horticultural crops. The onion planting project, and winter green manures planting got us started off,

Namho and I on his last day in Ybycui

and now the cooperation is continuing with early tomato and watermelon seeds sprouting up in the greenhouse of the KOICA farm, giving farmers hope for an early and financially prosperous harvest. A lot of us here in Paraguay, and especially the Peace Corps Ybycui VAC, will miss Namho something fierce, especially for his great sense of humor and his overwhelmingly generous spirit. He's left his mark on us though, and I can't wait to see and share with him how his interest in the welfare of my own particular community will grow and fruit within the context of onions, tomatoes, watermelons, along with hopefully some increased confidence, initiative, and open thinking. Thank you Namho!

1440 watermelon plants, prepared by the womens' comite