Anita Little Peace (Corps)

 Hello!!! I'm so late. I know. I'm sorry. Truthfully the end of the school year and the beginning of the holiday season has been so much more hectic than anticipated, so it's only now - halfway through December - I find myself holed up in a cafe with WiFi and able to recount my experiences. With the end of the year comes exams!! And also...the Olympics? There were two very notable events at my school to close out the semester, first of which being English exams. After a year of teaching my classes, I was able to finally put them to the test to see if they actually learned anything, or if they just liked playing games with me. Thankfully, the answer was both!! I administered exams for grades 4-9, and promised them a certificate if they scored higher than a 70%. Out of my 90 students, I printed about 70 certificates! It was very rewarding to see my work paying off, and to see the excitement on their faces.  Although there was one slight mishap. I try my best, but with so many...

 Hello!!! Welcome back!! And Happy Halloween :)  They don't celebrate down here (devil holiday in a Christian country and all that), and everyone who knows me knows that Halloween is one of my favorites days of the year. Definitely feeling a little sad but I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's costumes back home!! Send me lots of pictures please - I'm living vicariously through you all. October was such a fun month, and we started working on LOTS of fun new projects!! As the name of this post reveals, this month I did a lot of bottle cutting. Why? Because middle and high school kids love arts and crafts projects. After giving a presentation on the importance of recycling, and talking about all the wonderful products we can make from recycled materials, I led about five (5!!!!) different groups in an activity in which we cut up old empty wine bottles and turned them into water glasses.  This was not an easy process. Not only does it require someone to get a classroom ...

 HELLOOOO HAPPY THURSDAY! This post is especially special because as of about 4:25am this morning, I have officially lived in Paraguay for one whole year! It's crazy to think about how fast the time has passed, and how different I felt stepping off the plane a year ago.  I'm gonna get into a bit of reflection and reminiscing a bit later on, but for now let's talk about September!! We've had such a fun and packed month. To start it off with a bang, a couple friends and I (Shoutout Chris and Kate) were gifted tickets to see Kchiporros, one of the most famous musical groups in Paraguay at the moment. I'm dropping a link to my current favorite song by them (Ruta 1 y Ruta 2 - which talks about the two main highways that divide Paraguay [I live off of Ruta 2, the superior Ruta]). If you know anything about me, you know I'm my father's daughter and I LOVE live music, so this group was so much fun to experience.  Another amazing thing that happened this month was t...

 HELLO!! I'm on time for this month's blog post, and for that I am proud of myself. Let's yap about what's been going on. August was very exciting for one big reason; we have a new cohort! C9 - our newest group of 22 Community Health and Community Economic Development volunteers were sworn into service on August 7th. My area of the country was fortunate enough to receive 2 new volunteers in the city I live directly outside of (Shoutout Alexandria and Ethan), with many more close by.  It's definitely a little strange to not be the "youngest" group anymore - I'm officially a sophomore by Peace Corps standards. But if talking to the newer volunteers has revealed anything to me, it's how far I've come in the past year. Some days it feels like I just stepped foot off the plane, and other days it feels like I've been living here my whole life. However, when I'm conversing with the volunteers just settling into to their sites, new host familie...

 HELLO HELLO!! In case you haven't figured out yet, I totally forgot to post my June blog post. That's why it's late and I'm doing a double feature this month.  July is a very special month to me. It's not only the month I was born, but it's always the best time of the year. As a New England baby born and raised, there's nothing I look forward to more than the 4th of July, beach days in Connecticut and Rhode Island, getting to see my cousins and my family, and overall just living my best life in my favorite place in the world - Groton Long Point, Connecticut. That's why in all honesty, this was a very hard few weeks. I found myself more homesick than ever,  missing places and people and my family more than I had even around Christmas time. Thankfully, I have a wonderfully supportive and loving community and family (in TWO countries nonetheless- how lucky am I?) and I spent the month feeling so loved and supported. Let's get into it. July 1st marked a...