Cuerpo de Paz

Mbá´eichapa. Iporante paraguaipe.
Hola como estas? Bien aca en paraguay.
Hello! How are you? Good here in Paraguay! As I write this post, I am laying in my bed listening to the rain pouring down outside. I was so happy to see the storm clouds coming to cool us off from this intense heat. It feels amazing!
It´s hard for me to believe that a little more than a week ago I was playing in the snow in North Carolina. In the past week, I have said goodbye to my family and friends in the United States and have moved to Paraguay. Now I am living with a family in the pueblo of Naranjaisy (nah-rahn-hi-see) and will be here for the next 3 months as I train for my job with the Peace Corps!
I wanted to write today to tell you a bit about the Peace Corps. What have you heard or learned about the Peace Corps? I´ll tell you what I know! In 1961, President Kennedy created the United States Peace Corps. It is a program that is paid for by the government to send American volunteers to work in developing countries for 2 years. The United States is a very fortunate country with lots of resources and a government that takes care of its people. Sadly it is not always that way in other countries. For this reason, the Peace Corps sends Americans to share what we know and can do to help people take care of themselves.
Its 3 main goals are:
1) to share knowledge and skills and to work with people of a country to meet their basic needs,
2) to help make a better image of Americans to people in other countries, and
3) to help make a better image of people of other countries to Americans.
Ultimately Peace Corps hopes to work towards world peace and friendship while helping people of other countries make their lives better. There are different ways that volunteers do this, working with people in agriculture, business, health, and many more. My project is in education. It is my job to help the teachers of Paraguay make school more fun and easier to learn for the students. Right now I am in training with 48 other volunteers where we are practicing our Spanish and Guarani, the other language spoken here, and learning how to live and work in Paraguay. At the end of April, we will finish training and spread out through Paraguay to work at our assigned sites.
Right now there are around 8,000 PC volunteers in 135 countries around the world. To date, there have been 190,000 in around 170 countries. Luckily, President Obama is very supportive of Peace Corps and wants to give more money and send more volunteers to more countries in the world. That makes for a huge impact!
When talking about Peace Corps in Spanish-speaking countries, we say ¨cuerpo de paz.¨ These words translate to ¨body of peace.¨ What does it mean to be a body of peace? How do you think PC Volunteers act as a body of peace? What can you do to be a body of peace in your home?

I wanted to let you all know that you might not hear from me for a couple weeks because I will be going out into the country of Paraguay and have limited access to the internet but I will write as soon as I can! Ciau!