I've been pending this next blog trying to come up with a better strategy or style to make it a little bit more interesting. In the end, I think I failed. Again, I choose to go the usual path and let it just come out naturally. Really though, what is the point? I find that the more natural it is, the more it is interesting to me. I usually get turned off when it's not. I also just love that word and its meaning. Natural. Nothing more, nothing less. I had a previous skit that I had built up after a little encounter with some people in town who work in a special function in town. I'm glad that for not finding or feeling the right soul, that it didn't come out. I didn't publish it. For me, I just have to get in the right spirit. Sit right and hang on tight when the soul calls for it. I'm glad that I didn't publish my last masterpiece because honestly, I didn't think it's pretty. It's gone and been deleted in the world wide web and I'm glad that I have forgotten about it. Hunts the soul. It was ugly.

So what's been happening here and what's been happening to me? Words doesn't really do justice, but first of all, I'd like to say that I am in good spirit. I'm healthy, and I've never felt as happy and full-filled the way I have been these past days since...

Of course there are plenty of challenges. but to get stuck on them is not an option for me. It's just another day in life, another day here in the community. I keep thinking, did I really just start this blog because I'm in the Peace Corps? then I realize, No, I don't think I should limit myself to it. It's all connected here. What's happening now is the result of what I have been and where I've been. So, I decided to make some little changes and put a better mindset to it. I didn't come here or do this just to get a chop of time, I should be aware that this is a result of what has been and now is another beginning of what will become. Of what I will become.

This one I think will be more of a reflection for me. Letting me know I'm moving along, growing, being, being more. Site/community wise, everything is moving along and I am managing to thread along with the challenges and successes of everyday living.

Things are starting to pick up. Meeting new friends, maintaining the comparably old ones, and also the ever disappointing loss of some folks from when I first step foot here. You lose some, but you gain some more. That's just how it goes. So I guess, in another language, I'm doing a pretty good job to where I put my investments with my friendships.

I have my first official meeting tomorrow. The first one I call for. We're building a youth group in my community and hopefully with this, we can get things moving. I really don't know what's going to come out of it. The plan is to have a bit of an organized meeting then let the whole group, the participants who will be there do the talking and shaking. I've got some ideas for how it will go and what activities to do. I think that's as far as I will take it in the beginning. I want to know what everyone is all about and get a feeling of their point of views then take it from there. I'm excited and honestly a bit, what's the word? I can't think of it, but close to nervous, a little below of it... So wish me luck and we'll see.

About my last post that didn't get publish. It was about a conversation I had with this person who works with farmers or suppose to be working with farmers. I usually visit them every morning, but I cut it off when things got a bit sour. Peace Corps volunteers usually have this problem of Paraguayans having issues with us being spies. I didn't like where it was going and there was really no point of explaining it to the person. It wasn't going to be healthy so I decided to just lay-low or leave that part of the community for awhile. Cut my losses, right? This next week coming up, my Project Director is coming to town to do an official volunteer presentation of me. I'm planning on inviting the folks in the farming department so we hopefully can be in the same page and have this confusion or conviction get put out of the way and behind us.

Hugo and his family is holding strong, great as ever. Getting to know them more and more, each and everyday and new personalities comes into surface. His daughter went back to Ciudad del Este (China of South America) to continue her studies and Sir Hugo started teaching again in the local elementary. School started again this year so there's a bit more movement in town.

Speaking of the elementary school. I approached and introduced myself to the school director and some of the teachers who holds that important ground. Having spent some time and drank gallons of delicious tereré, I have come up with a couple of projects with the kids and some of the teachers. One project is doing a school garden with the kids. Going to clean up and dig up a plot in the school ground. Then going to plant and cultivate it. Also going to explain why we are going to do what we are doing. Somehow at some point, that part gets loss in the process around here. The teachers agrees to it. Kids do things that they don't know why they are doing it. Another project is drawing and painting a world map in the school. I didn't finish the one in my old community. Hopefully, if the embassy and the Peace Corps decides not to erase me out of my new site, I'll get to finish this one with all my enthusiasm and grace with the kids.

Hugo's birthday was this past Wednesday. He didn't want to do anything that day, but a small get together with us, his neighbors, for a little good old Paraguayan dinner. A chicken from the backyard, some rice, mandiocas, and bam, we're all happy as a clam. In addition, I was in Asuncion the beginning of the week and to show my appreciation for his and his families kindness, I decided to take back a little chocolate cake with a cherry on top, literally, to share for his birthday. That was a foreign concept. My old thoughts came back to me when I used to be tight about bringing foreign goodies to the Philippines. I use to not like the idea. The part where capitalism reeks out. Then someone great in my family told me something, and to describe it in my perspective as being -Why not? How many times will they get to taste this kind of things? Give them the chance to taste this as well. To realize it, it's really my way of saying thanks and showing my love for them. Well at this particular occasion, my love for Hugo and his family. Just have to be careful of overloading. You get or can get this kind of rumbled thoughts when you get a bit over-educated and torn between cultures at some point of your life. I'm thinking, and now that I can put this into words, that me being here, I must say, is one way of cleaning up, from the mind to the many inner levels of feelings.

Tonight though will be a different story. I expect a Brahma showdown. He's throwing a party for all his buddies to celebrate his 47th. So we can expect one glass going around a big circle always with hopefully a cold beer, a guitar, some people singing and clapping, followed by the big event of eating mounds of meat. That's just how it goes around here, and hopefully one day, you can also come down and experience this to show your love and experience a different side of your being.