COS Conference

A little later today, I will be attending my Close of Service Conference. This is something we do three months before we swear out and finish our service.

So it's been two years, minus a week, since I arrived to Paraguay and the Peace Corps. This one of those moments that prompts even more navel gazing than usual. This is a bit off the cuff, but a few thoughts:

It's obviously been a worthwhile experience. If I had to do it over again, I would. I've received this barrage of experiences that I never would have had I not left the states.

Some include
- butchering pigs and chickens
- living without running water
- living in the middle of NOWHERE
- surviving, and thriving, while often being totally confused
- growing my own food for real consumption
- learning to cope with very fractured and broken people
- learning to LOVE very fractured and broken people
- getting addicted to chipa
- loving the tranquility
- learning Spanish and Guarani

On another note, I remember a conversation I once had with a very wise friend of mine who urged me to get out into the world and go somewhere where my moral and ideological compass would receive totally different inputs than they do in the states. Paraguay has certainly done that too. I'll write more about that later, but suffice it to say for now, Paraguay has given me a much broader lens to look at the world.

Parents' visit, part two

Random bird

Some nature at the falls...

Monkey!

Tres Fronteras Ferry

This is the three frontiers ferry. From this point, you can stand in Paraguay and look out at Argentina and Brazil.

Parent's visit

For those of you who didn't know, my parents came down to visit. Again. Anyways, much fun was had. We visited several sites you guys have already seen, including the falls and the jesuit ruins, but also got to go to the Tres Fronteras (the border crossing between Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay) and Itaipu Dam (one of the largest hydroelectric dams in the world)

Here are a few pics...