Blogs from Paraguay, South America - page 8

I cannot believe that it is August already! There is still so much I want to do before I return home. This week at work, I wrote more about the water boards, and I am just about complete with that project. I also worked more on the budget for the Water Conference by adding columns for each sponsor, adding how much money we have raised, and adding how much we have yet to raise. I looked up business contacts to send letters to for supporting/donating to the Conference. Friday was another day of working late, but well worth it, as we made much progress for the Conference. I went salsa dancing again this week. It was really fun to have a place that I am familiar with to go to, and I always have a good ... read more

Thursday morning, we had a meeting with MassPublicidad to discuss the progress they have made for the publicity for the Water Conference and to confirm the cost of their work. The rest of the day I wrote and sent out more invitations for the Conference to senators and diplomats. That night, I went salsa dancing at a place called Café Bohemia. Every Thursday night, they have a live salsa band for dancing. It was a blast! Friday I continued working on writing about the juntas and I translated two documents for a conference that will be held in Cusco, Peru in September of this year. Also, our entire office went out to lunch at Ese Lugar to celebrate el Dia de la Amistad (Friendship day). The official day is on July 30, and it’s somewhat a ... read more

Due to the delayed departure of our flight from Bolivia to Asuncion, capital city of Paraguay, we arrived in the city after dark. Thankfully I had pre booked a hotel and after a quick tour of the central city area our taxi took us to the Palace Hotel, an historic hotel in the old city. It proved to be a good choice, comfortable modernised rooms and wide corridors full of interesting old furniture and art pieces. After settling in we headed out to look for something to eat. The streets were surprisingly deserted - only a few footpath stall holders packing up for the night - but we were eventually able to find a chain style café and a bowl of soup. Later we slowly walked back to the hotel admiring the rather decrepit architecture we ... read more

Week 3: July 6 - July 13 Three weeks in. I cannot BELIEVE how fast time is going, but at the same time, I feel more comfortable here and as if I have been here for over a month! The professor leaves this Saturday, so as a final night out we walked around Las Carmelitas and went to dinner at Un Toro y Siete Vacas (One Bull and Seven Cows). This was by far the most DELICIOUS meal and BEST service I have had so far in Paraguay. It is a fancy restaurant with an atmosphere between western (like being on a ranch) and classy (strange, I know!). It is in a chuchy (upscale) area; the neighborhood is called Villa Morra. The waiters treated us like king and queen, and we had wine, bread, yucca, soup, ... read more

Week 1: June 22-June 29 Hola! I received an Ambassador Corps scholarship from the University of the Pacific's Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship to travel to Asuncion, Paraguay, where I am working with AVINA. As a requirement for receiving the scholarship, I must keep a blog entry at least once a week. That blog is located at another site, but I wanted to keep a more personal, less formal blog, too! Some entries might sound a bit "clean and formal", but that may very well be that I just used my same entry from my "formal" blog. Haha! Enjoy! AVINA is a Latin American organization, whose mission is to contribute to sustainable development, encouraging the building of ties of trust and fruitful partnerships between business and social leaders, and articulating agendas for action. (Refer to their ... read more