Skip to main content

Boxes of girl scout cookies, and a huge amount of hope

There are moments here in Paraguay where I become overwhelmed with hope. It is an emotion that hits hard and I start to tear. Today after receiving a notice in my mail box that i had to go to the post office to pick up a package (that means its big or they decided to keep it to make you charge $ for it), i found myself questioning What package could this be? After being lost and luckily finding yet another overly helpful paraguayan that basically WALKED me to the front door of the post office, I found a package waiting for me with many boxes of girl scout cookies. I thought to myself, why am i becoming emotional over cookies????? this is ridiculous! i could of done something better with the money, orrrrrrrr could i?? i thought what better way to show support for a brand new girls soccer team then to send them cookies ALL the way from the states. someone in the states, and in fact a whole group of girls, cares about a small team, still without their own soccerball in paraguay (we have started a fundraiser!! 30 cents a ticket and you could win a cake made by my sister! Right now we are using a borrowed soccerball). I talked to my boss today and she is also extremely happy for this project. i think it is wonderful to be apart of an organization that really only cares WHAT THE COMMUNITY WANTS.. this is the true essense of help, and of peace corps. i have never been apart of an organization or job that i truely respect like peace corps. i never felt like i wanted more to succeed in my job putting in 100, for results that sometimes i cant see. Mabel actually running after the soccer ball at the last practice was something.. could this be a new found self confidence or is that pushing it? what other organization can you think of that says with the hell with it, you were agroforestry, washington is paying for you to do a project but the community really wants their girls to have a comite and soccer team, so throw out that idea and go with empowering young women.

i wrote the girls leader in southern california a response:

I received your wonderful box of cookies and am soo happy. My girls this week have to clean a new bigger field for us to practice on. this is not fun for them because cleaning involves moving cow poop and bones, cutting the grass with machetes, etc and it will be wonderful to surprise them with a treat (two boxes, i am going to ration them!) I was thinking that maybe i could send you a photo of the girls and the cookies, wouldnt that be something nice for your girls to see? I also realized how special it is that the boxes themselves each display a different photo of girls in action. these photos, (i can not wait to give away the boxes!) each of them display a different example of how in america our young girls are empowered in many ways. Especially the box with the girls playing soccer, i might keep this one and add it to my wall.

Additionally i would like to give you access to my photos on snapfish because i took photos of the girls drawings that they sent and put them on my kitchen/ classroom walls.......................................

so i am happy, hopeful and feeling very optomistic. Tomorrow, i am going to be at the ministry department here in asuncion, for a social mixer with the other volunteers in paraguay. this includes JICA (japans peace corps) and Koika (koreas). We will be playing kickball. After that its AHENDU : I hear you in guarani, which is a night in which peace corps magical talent shines....

lots of hope, happiness and perhaps a professional developement worker in the making... signing off with peace

marianna

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reflecting 11 years later on my Peace Corps Experience

Peace Corps Memory Imagine walking into your host family's small dark, humid, dirt floor, home with two bags. All you can think of is how much stuff you have. How in these two bags you have so much stuff, worth more than anything in this home and all your host family's possessions put together. How come you have so much stuff? In the US two bags for two years isn't much, but here it seems ridiculous someone would even own this much. Why do i need so many clothes? I have an iPod! Wow I need to hide that!  You are shown to your room that you will be sharing with your host sister. she has a nice smile but is timid like yourself. Your language in either Spanish or Guarani is lacking, and so you sit. A few days later, you know its important to get out and see the community. They teach you this in training, so you decide to go for a walk. You come upon a home and you clap twice, the greeting that lets anyone know you are entering their property, and say Mbaechipa, the greeting yo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rabbit Project

Post a Comment
Read more

Its getting better, better alllllllll the time

So today is my first year mark in paraguay! Its been a year today that i arrived clueless. and i am proud to say, finally after a year i have gain the insight to know how to get through to paraguayans, and how to be a good volunteer.first year the idea of running around to everyones houses in my community to say hi, or allowing my time to be "robbed" by my neighbors, sitting in on meetings, with the womens comite, trying to form and give classes for the girls, was a painful experience. it was hard tiring and boring. honestly. and now i feel like this is all easier because, well they are all my friends and its become less like work and more like YAY i get to see my friends. my time isnt being robbed or being forced to be social or babysit, instead its a time to hear the lattest gossip, share stories, and find ways to get through the cultural barrriers. My secret, the profound secret that i just just just figured out in how i can get through to my super chicas and the comite, m...
2 comments
Read more