Weekly Bulletin 5-24-09

Greetings to you all (ya’ll)

1.  Work party tomorrow – Saturday – starting at 9 am.  Bring your garden tools, gloves, etc.  We have thistles to pull in the wetlands (great community service for the kids who need it for school).  I got new bark for spreading.  There are gardens to tidy.  Who ever is here at lunch, we’ll get some pizzas to eat.

2.  Pantry item:  cereal.

3.  Get those Annual Catholic Appeal envelopes in.  Every envelope turned in counts for participation, even those that only have a pledge of prayer.

4.  Michel Gallegos will be going into the Peace Corps.  We will have a card at both masses for those who want to give her a message and best wishes.  She will be at the second Mass and we will have a blessing for her and a special reception.

Gail

The schedules have been posted and are updated HERE.

Weekly Bulletin 5-17-09

Week 3:

Yesterday, we were put into pairs and given an assignment to find two or three places in Asuncion. This is actually the first time that we have been in the city (although we landed at the airport two weeks ago, we didn’t actually see any of the city that day). My partner was Adam, a very quiet person, who speaks very good Spanish (a whole lot better than I do). However, I think I’m a better navigator than he is.
We took the bus from in front of my house around 7 a.m. Our assignment was to visit the Credicoop, the Mercardo Abasto, and the Shopping Villa Maro. We were to compare the two markets. Well, Adam received the information that the Credicoop was just across the street from the Supermercado Guarani, so when we saw the Supermercado Guarani (after being on the bus for about an hour) we figured that this was the place to get off. Ha! It was definitely not the correct stop. We asked around and found that the Credicoop was still about 30 or 40 blocks away. Not being certain where we were (no maps), we stopped at an internet café and used mapquest to find where we were and where we should go. It turns out that we were about 5 Km away from our target.
Adam thought that we could walk it so walk it, we did. The streets here are very noisy and there are no sidewalks. However, since this was in the city, there were a lot of stores that we could pass in front of. This wasn’t exactly a rich section of town – just a little under middle-class so it was an interesting walk. Best of all, we passed right by our second target, El Mercado Abasto so stopped there and did our research first. It is a wholesale market for fruits and vegetables. Kind of like a giant Pike Place Market but a bit more on the wholesale side. We didn’t take long there (I did buy a pineapple for my family but it appears that I paid 2-3 times what I should for it – it was 5 mil or about a dollar – it is still sitting on the kitchen table so I’m not sure if they don’t like pineapple or if they are saving it). After further walking we did find the Credicoop. It took about 30 minutes to find out all about them (we are all going to be working with co-ops for it is important that we find out as much about them as we can). Our next stop was the Shopping Villa Maro. We did take the bus. Fortunately, a lady heard us ask the bus driver if this was the bus to the shopping center because she poked us when it was time for us to get off. This is a shopping center equivalent to Bellevue Square (though the stores are not that large). Everything was very expensive. I tried to find a wrist watch but the cheapest I could find was 180 Mil which is about $50. There are a lot of other places that sell watches cheaper so I’ll wait. Since it was only about 2-3 Km to the Peace Corps office, we decided to walk there. In this case, I agreed with him because we had no idea what bus to take. On our way we met some others from our group who were looking for places to eat so we all went together to have lunch. We spent the afternoon at the Peace Corps office in Asuncion learning all about what is there and how they are going to assign us our site. Best of all, I had a letter waiting for me from Monica! What a delight. She sent the letter on May 30th and it arrived at the Peace Corps office on June 8th so that isn’t too bad. Unfortunately, you don’t get your mail until you go to the Peace Corps office so that can be more than a week’s delay.

Best of all, we were driven back to our homes in Paso de Oro by van.
Our driver, Jonathan, is one of our trainers and he stopped at a very exclusive ice cream place (Italian gelado). The gelado was delicious and we had a lot of fun.
Tomorrow is a holiday here so we don’t have classes. However, on Saturday we will all be traveling separately to each visit another Peace Corps volunteer for 4 days. I’ll be going to Villaricca which is a small city that everyone says is “chuci” (that means it is very upscale and elegant). The volunteer there, Brennan, is working with a credit co-op and this is definitely not out in the country. Everyone teases him about his easy assignment. It is about a 3 hour trip. I’ll tell you all about it when I get back.

Another Bonita Story – Bonita and the Radio

Bonita loves to listen to the radio with Diana. One day, Eladia was in the kitchen when all of a sudden she heard the radio which was located in another room (somehow or other when the radio is turned on in one room, you can hear it in all the rooms and we usually spend all day Sunday listening to 80s music – in Spanish and in English).  All of a sudden, the music blared out. Eladia yelled at Diana to turn down the music but didn’t hear a response from her. In fact, the music became even louder and the station changed. She went into the room where the radio was to scold Diana only to find Bonita in front of the radio, turning both the volume and the station dial, dancing, dancing, to her heart’s content. She had turned on the radio all by herself and was busy finding a good station. Obviously, she loves her music loud!

Weekly Bulletin 5-10-09

Greetings to all,

1.  Annual Catholic Appeal:  please return your pledge envelope as soon as possible. Remember that no pledge is too small, and even just returning an envelope with a pledge of prayer saves the church the expense of time, materials, and postage of sending a reminder letter.  You can make a pledge on line by going online to www.seattlearch.org/aca to make your pledge if you wish.  You may pay your pledge over 10 months.  You may use Electronic Funds Transfer or Credit Card.

2.  This Sunday is Mother’s Day and the Knights of Columbus are getting ready to serve a Champagne Breakfast for the parish in honor of Mothers.  Plan to come and enjoy!  The drawing for the Mother’s Day basket raffle will be at the end of the breakfast. Tickets for the raffle are $5 each.

3.  Calling all Gardeners:  consider signing up to care for one of the church’s garden spaces or create a new one.  It’s great exercise, you get to play in the dirt, and have the pleasure of joining God in the creation of beauty.

Gail

Weekly Bulletin 5-3-09

Week 2:

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been here only a week. It seems so much longer. When I despair about ever speaking Spanish fluently, I have to remind myself that I’ve only been here a week and I have made a lot of progress (even if my accent is horrid).

It is very cold here. We don’t think of 50 degrees as being so cold outside. The problem is that it is 50 degrees (or 40) inside! I feel like one of those Russian dolls where you take layer after layer off and the dolls keep getting smaller. It is 7:30 a.m. and I am wearing two pairs of socks, a pair of long johns (thank you, Grace, for making me take those), a pair of jeans, the top to the long johns, a long sleeve tee shirt, a polar fleece jacket and my red fleece jacket. I also have on a pair of fingerless gloves and will put on my pair of polar fleece gloves after I finish here (kind of hard to type with gloves on your fingers). Oh, I also have my polar fleece hat that Susan Hedding gave me years ago when we used to walk in the cold mornings (the one with the flaps over the ears). And the polar fleece scarf that Grace insisted that I take (thank, God). Our biggest problem is that we have to sit in the classroom rather than move around. That makes you feel the cold more.

Most of our classes are in our areas (we are split into two groups and my area is Paso de Oro). However, yesterday we all had to be in the Peace Corps training center in Guarambare. To do this, we have to take two buses (or walk 3 km and take only one bus). It takes about the same amount of time to walk the 3 km as to take the bus that runs along the 3k route but since most of the other volunteers are so much younger and more energetic they walk and I take the bus. Coming back, most of the time we end up walking most of the way because the buses are either too full to get on or just don’t come in time.

Yesterday (Wednesday) after class at the PCTC we all went out for beer (or in my case, ice cream). It was nice to just sit there and talk with the other trainees.

Time to get to class. I’ll write more later. Hopefully, I get this e-mailed tonight. Last night I was so tired that I couldn’t even eat supper. I ate a few spoonfuls of soup and toddled off to bed.

Today, Thursday, it was actually warm outside during the day. It´s about 6 pm right now and I´m at the house in back of my house. It belongs to a cousin of my house mother. The house isn´t even finished adobe bricks ” it looks half finished but it has every electrical appliance known to man. I just have to laugh that you can´t tell by appearances! My house mother (Eladia) said that they would be happy for me to use the internet (for a small price). I´ve been here an hour just reading e’mails and I guess it is about time to give up my space.
We are going to the supermercado in another town on Saturday. I can hardly wait to go shopping. Who would think that a person would miss shopping.
That´s it for now! Everything is going great and we are learning so much about business, etc.
Michel

1.  This Sunday is Annual Appeal Commitment Sunday.  Remember to bring your commitment cards back to church.
We are aware that some of us are out of work or have reduced income.  So if you are able, consider pledging more this year to cover those who are unable to make a financial commitment.
Could you consider giving a dollar a day?
Remember, turning in your commitment card for whatever amount you can afford or an offering of prayer (and hopefully we ALL pray for the work of the Archdiocese), you are saving the office the expense (time, postage, and supplies) of sending you a reminder letter as well as acknowledging your responsibility as a Catholic in Western Washington.

2.  It looks like this Saturday is going to be good weather.  I plan to be on the church property weeding away.  Come join me!

Gail