winding down...I think

So, welcome back... The past couple weeks haven't been all that photographable (besides the fact that I kept leaving my memory card in my computer and so every time I wanted to snap a picture, I found an unusable camera!!). I jambed my left-hand pointer finger playing basketball and so was kind of deabilitated from typing...though I got pretty good using must 3 fingers on my left hand and turning my wrist to reach everything. I had no idea how to describe a jambed finger so it became a "twisted" finger and they all thought I was crazy for thinking to tape it up. So, I had to improvise that night with some string and a Bic pen attached to my finger until I go find a farmacy with medical tape. Talking with older people, later, though, they talked about how soldiers in the war would wrap themselves up like that using 3 sticks and twine they would spin from caraguata plants...they said that is how they would heal broken bones and the soldiers even with broken legs would just get wrapped up tight and sent back to the field because there was no such thing as being discharged--alive or dead, the only options. I don't have my finger wrapped any more though and can bend it pretty much like normal again. I just finished playing another game which included teaching the locals how to play 'lightning' --an old elementary school favorite. I am finding, though, that Paraguayans in general and Paraguayan guys in particular are EXTREMELY competitive! That's right, you heard me, Kristine saying that. I know that I'm competitive but there were some moments I was sure that a fight was going to break out just because someone had made a basket or the other guy had not. I had to be the mother and tell them to all play nice or else I was going to take my ball and go home. Ridiculous. In the end, though, it's good exercise and since things aren't as hot these days, it's actually possible to go out in the morning sunshine and shoot some hoops without worrying that I'm going to pass out.

This weekend was filled with volunteer time with the Employment Resource Service folks. I taught a training workshop for teachers on how we can be better teachers on Friday in Asuncion. I was really excited because, I thought, the teachers would be excited to be there and learn. Well, that was mostly true, except for one highly cynical, older woman that glared me down and challenged every question, every instruction, and every point that I tried to make. She argued that we weren't "teachers" but that we were "instructors" and I said that it didn't really matter what we were called but that we take on the calling to teach...after I read several quotes from the manual that cited being a "teacher" she resorted to just making snide side comments to her neighbors aoubt me. Afterwords, the manager congratulated me and said she was incredibly impresed with how I had handled them--that the lady was just pretentious and obviously too prideful to learn from a young foreigner brought in by the center. Ah...the drama.

I spent some time with Sarita, another Fulbrighter in Asuncion who just happens to now be housemate with 3 volunteers from BYU's Marriott School come down to check out the Fundacion Paraguaya. They said they were disillusioned about the group and that seeing it on the ground was not what they were pitched, but hopefully that they could help advise the group and bring out some positive changes. They left to go to Iguazu Falls and Sarita and I stayed up till late watching the BBC News.

On Saturday I taught the first session of one of the BEST workshops I've ever taught. It was really invigorating to have everyone' FULL attention, absolute participation, great progress, and really uplifting spirit. It was probably God's way of making up for the drama of the night before.
At the end of the workshop, Alba came down to meet me as I had invited her to go to her very first real movie in a movie theater. The choices were between 27 dresses (translated as 27 weddings) and Charlie Wilson's War (translated here as 'game of power'). She decided she didn't want a comedy so we ended up seeing Charlie Wilson's War. I think a lot of it went over her head, but I liked a lot of the political commentary and, even though my mom will kill me for thinking I'm a dirty liberal, I appreciated the ending comments. I hate to spoil this for anyone, but it talks about how Charlie Wilson led a covert operation against the Soviet Communists in Afghanistan. Well, after all the negotiations, arms dealings, etc. he secures a Billion (capital B) dollars of funding for the war and successfully drives the Afghans to victory against the Russians. But, as the furor of anti-communist sentiment dies down and the Cold War starts to unwind, he fails to be able to get the support for 1 million dollars to fund school construction in the country that they left ravaged by war. The story has been repeated so many times throughout history that it makes me sick and, while I hate to mention it, I'm glad that it made it to the screen. Throughout Central America, Southern Asia, and almost all satelite countries of the former USSR, the US has been 'eager' to jump in with military funding and fight the political bad guys, but then duck tail and leave without a cent left to help the survivors actually take hold of their country and make it run. Now, ironically enough, it's the democrats that are trying to bring about the same situation. Before the war has even ended and any sort of boundary, peace treaty, or solution can be brought about, they want to pack up and leave--the country war-torn, women violated by years of political represssion, rape, and assault, uneducated and insecure; men scarce and uneducated--the same thing they accuse the Republicans of doing after so many other skirmishes. Aren't we supposed to learn from history? It's not all about good-guys, bad-guys but actually lifting people up out of poverty and working with them to help them actively participate in the world of democracy that we are thrusting them into. We had more than 200 years of history to help us take ownership of our democracy and develop strategies to make it work within our culture...and all that in a NEW country determined to make it's own history. Yet we expect them to skip through all that and transform a centuries-old traditional hierarchy and generations of dictatorship, oppression, violence, and slaughter within a couple years! And, all the while refusing to admit that our very own country is very significantly responsible for putting them in the very position they are in. Ah, politics. It's amazing how blind we can become, looking at the 'political arena' as a cute little game of budgets, adendums, and meetings with 'important people.' How quickly we can forget that those decisions are making impacts on millions of individual lives throughout the world and not just today, but for the extended future.

Ok, to end on a good note, I went through the final draft of "the book." We made a bunch of minor revisions, tacked down the page sizing etc. and are now thumbs-up for the printing to begin. I met with Carol Pope--visiting once again and finding her beautiful Paraguayan getaway retirement home infested with termites!!--and she suggested that I just modify the book and sell it as an e-book under my name. Not a bad idea. Regardless, I'm very capable of putting somethign together in English and then I won't have to worry one little bit about my so-called 'co-authors' getting in the way. Pictures of final product forthcoming.

Hope everyone had a fantastic Mother's Day. Things don't jump into swing until Thursday here...and surprisingly more low-key than I had thought because most of Latin America celebrates Mother's Day more than it does Christmas. But, then again, in Paraguay...