Hangover Sunday

uggh.

remember how you always tell yourself when you're hung-over that you'll never drink again? (no, this does not apply to chris) well, some things just never change.

nevertheless, i am here at work and functioning.

chris and i went to a great party last night. it was an eighties party at this guy, tom's house. and man, what a house. the thing looks exactly like a bar, inside and out! complete with full service bar, pool table, seedy poker room, betting tables, an outside area and a great sound system, etc., etc. and yes, the alcohol was a-flowing. i guess this is the sort of thing that you can accomplish when you are not married and have no children. you can just spend your money on cool things you like.



anyway, it was really fun and we had a great last saturday night in flag before we leave for the road trip on friday.

Only Jill Knows..

I was just looking at the contents of my blog and started to realize that my best girlfirend, Jill, went through all of the same motions and emotions in order to get ready to move to Ireland last January to start a teaching job. Wow. That must have been scary to have done it all pretty much by yourself.

I understand all of what you were going through now, Jilly.

Sad Little Kitty

This really sucks.

So, we had to start finding homes for our cats and dog. We found a really good home for our boy, Marvin (kitty in a tuxedo). And apparently, he's adjusting really well, and we're very glad that he has a nice house with an owner whose going to love him and take care of him very well. But, it's not nice for our other kitty. She's practically inconsolable. She's needy and cries a lot and has been jumping up on the counter a lot, compared to before when she only did it when no one was looking. I know she misses her buddy, and I know she senses that something's up ( she'll be moving to a strange house too), but there's not really anything we can do except try to give her lot more love and petting. But I know we're not an adequate replacement for her feline friend. We both feel really bad for her :o(

On another note: I cannot believe it's already the 20th of August! Holy cow!! Chris and I made lots of progress on the moving yesterday, and the house is starting to look empty. But we still have a ways to go. I was sad yesterday because I know we're going to miss our little house so much. It was such a perfect little place for us to live. But, I'm sure we will feel that way about other places too. Chris and I were talking yesterday about how we're excited to get to our little place in Paraguay where we will finally live after training, and to paint it nice bright cheery colors and fix it up. I really hope we'll be able to do that.

Little brother will be here in about 4 days. Yay!!


Also, we'll be leaving for our road trip in about 12 days!!!!

"An Island Surrounded by Land"

Frequently, when you read about Parguay, you may find that the country is referred to as "An Island Surrounded by Land", which was a phrase written by Roa Bastos about his country, Paraguay. (Bastos was a novelist who often wrote about dictatorship). I am still mystified as to what exactly he meant. I will not attempt to provide further explanation, but will in my own way, be trying to interpret this statement the whole time I am in country. I may provide my own interpretation on a later blog. But, I digress...

I can't believe it's already the 13th of August! Exactly 15 days of work left for the both of us. At the beginning of the month, we were dreading almost five more weeks of work and now it's almost half-way done. Where does the time go?? Now it's lock and load time--more packing, cleaning, getting rid of junk and other arrangements. The details of our road trip are coming together, and I'm excited to do this, as I've never been on such a long road-trip before. And now, I think my brother, Hillary, will be joining us for the first ten days, which would rock.

Oh, and new information for all of you should you choose to send us (much loved) care packages or hand-written letters. Here it is:

PCT Christopher and/or Marisa Updike
Cuerpo de Paz
162 Chaco Boreal c/Mcal. Lopez
Asuncion 1580, Paraguay
South America

Please make sure that the green customs stickers ( available at the post office) are affixed to whatever you are sending, and it's also a good idea to make packages less than 4 lbs. If they are more than 4 lbs., we have to personally retrieve them from customs which can be costly and time-consuming. Also, a lot of times, packages are opened and items are stolen, so don't send anything expensive. A good thing to write on the package is "Productos Femeninos" (femenine products) or "Cosas Religiosas"( religious items), which are less likely to be tampered with for obvious reasons.

On another note: Lots of Paraguayan food is prepared with tasty items such as tongue, intestines, onions, and lard. Chris hates onions!! I think someone's going to have a hard time eating down there!

"I'm the Boss, Need the Info"

So, our packet has finally arrived! Actually it arrived yesterday, but we've just been so busy, that we haven't been able to update this until now.

Our assignments are as follows:
Chris' official job title is "Environmental Educator", which means he will be working a lot with children and teachers at schools, trying to educate them about how to better treat the environment so that they have resources for future generations to come, etc., etc. It's a pretty general assignment and he will also be doing some gardening (probably around a school) and maybe even helping out with managing a protected area such as a reserve or park. Then there's secondary projects which could be almost anything from cooking, nutrition, soap making, or recycling. That sort of stuff.

My job title is "Crop Extentionist". Basically agriculture. I will be working with farmers and their families to teach them better farming practices. This could be anything from working with green-manures, to crop rotation techniques so that not all the nutrients are depleted from the soil, thus ending with fallow soil which would produce nothing. The overall goal is enhanced crop production, not just for personal consumption, but also as a possible source of income. It sounds challening and exciting. People who are used to doing things one way, especially when their whole entire livelihood depends on it, are sometimes resistant to change. This is why we both need to become fairly proficient in the native language-Guarani, which will be the key to effective communication (obviously).

We are also in the midst of planning our 3-week road trip which should be a blast. Three weeks, 5 thousand miles, and lots of family to see and things to do. We will be e-mailing people shortly to let you know when we will be coming to your neck of the woods.

In the meantime, so many things to take care of! We already found a renter for the house and are finding homes for our kitties. It's really hard to leave all of the life you've known for the last couple of years behind. But we are totally ready for a BIG change.