Classes, Casitas, and Community

Welcome back! Already one month in 2026, wow. And officially 4 months into this journey.

This month started with a trip to Encarnación with my friends to ring in the New Year. Encarnación is one of Paraguay's biggest cities, right on the Paraná River across from the Argentinian city of Posadas. We spent 3 nights there and attended a super fun beach party on the 31st, complete with live music, fireworks, and floating lanterns a la Tangled. At midnight, we were given dry lentils to throw in the air, which was fun. We also swam in the (slightly sucio) river, tried Paraguayan sushi (not great, but better than expected), and shared stories of our first month apart. It was nice to hear that others were having the same struggles as me but also that each of our sites are so different and unique.

The most exciting news this month is that I have started teaching an English class for kids! From my first day in site, as soon as people learned that I am from the US, they asked if I could teach English, so I knew there would be decent interest. Sonia, my host mom, posted my enrollment flyer to her WhatsApp story, and I immediately knew my expected problem—that no one would come—would be quite the opposite. What I did not expect, however, was having to split the group into two classes because of how many students arrived on the first day. So now, twice a week I am teaching 6-9 year olds for an hour and another hour of 10-12 year olds; in total I have about 30 alumnos between both groups.

It has been a blast so far, and since the kids are still on summer vacation, there is no pressure to make it strict or rigid like school. I am free to try all sorts of methods, games, and activities to keep the students engaged. Teaching two different age groups has been a learning experience too—some activities are a hit for the 1st graders but fall flat for a 6th grader. I am grateful for the chance to try new classroom techniques in a low-pressure way, since it is the first time I have ever formally taught in a classroom. It also has been lovely to meet more children and families in my community, especially since the school where I host the classes is right around the corner from my future house, so I'm also meeting some future neighbors! My clases de inglés will continue until school begins at the end of February, at which point I'll transition to more environmentally focused topics, but I plan to keep an English club going and possibly a conversation club for adults as well!

I have also begun working with a university called UNVES (Universidad Nacional del Villarrica del Espíritu Santo) in Villarrica, the big city near me and the capital of my departamento. The school has an English-major-equivalent program, so about once a week I am also teaching English grammar and practicing conversation skills with college students. Owen, the volunteer before me, worked with the professors at UNVES, so they reached out to me asking if I could continue the work. These students have been taking English classes since high school, and many are very advanced.

So in addition to teaching extremely basic vocabulary to 1st-6th graders, I am also teaching complicated grammar rules to 18-year-olds (and sometimes learning alongside them). I'm sure most native English speakers can relate to the fact that we inherently use and understand grammar every day, but it's hard to explain the specific rules. For example, for my first class, I was asked to teach about possessive pronouns (my, yours, hers, etc.) and how they differ from subjective pronouns (I, you, she) and objective ones (me, him, us). But I also relate to these students because I had to learn and memorize so many grammar rules in Spanish throughout my life of Spanish classes. I have really enjoyed working with two varied groups—both in age and experience—and I'm excited to get to know the students and professors better, since this will hopefully be one of the projects I will continue for the duration of my service.

Another project that I am very excited about sort of just fell into my lap. A friend of my host mom named Jorgelina has a Little Free Library in front of her house that she and her husband made two years ago. It currently houses unused school workbooks and 2007 Microsoft Word manuals, so it is in need of an update and raised awareness. Jorgelina wants to reinaugurate the library to bring more visitors and to increase the types of books available—she is hoping that families and organizations might donate their used books. We are planning to start a once-a-month reading club for children and to clean up the park across from her house, including planting trees with the community to eventually create a beautiful place in nature to read. Jorgelina has experience with Peace Corps volunteers and is very excited and motivated to work on the project together.

With all these projects and work starting, I have still found plenty of time for leisure, including continuing to explore my town (it turns out a town of 6,000+ people is actually quite large), visiting Ziggy and receiving visitors, pool days, and seeing the progress of my little casita! I am very excited to move into my independent housing, not because I have any issues with my host family—quite the opposite actually—but just to have my own space, schedule, and food. Move-in will hopefully be in mid-February if everything is ready and approved by the PC.

Next week I am going to begin working with the other school in my town, called Digna E., which has about 350 students compared to the 100 at Senavitad (the school my host mom is the principal of and where I am holding my English classes). Digna E., among many other elementary schools in Paraguay, has a summer program called Escuela Abierto in which students are encouraged to get outside, put down technology, and engage in sports, art, and fun-focused learning. I will give a 20-minute talk to 3 groups of kids on the theme of environmental science. This will be my first official conservation-focused activity at site and I'm very excited. Then, 2 weeks before classes start, the teachers and principals of all the schools meet to plan and organize for the coming year. I will attend these planning sessions and propose the themes I want to teach as well as finalize what my weekly schedule will look like once school starts!

In summary, I have lots going on and to look forward to. There are, of course, harder days when I feel like I haven't integrated to the degree I expected to at this point, or that my effect on the community is negligible, but I know that will come with time and patience. Generally I am having a lovely time and am very excited to have so many projects and activities to plan for and look forward to.

I love and miss you all from Denver to Paraguay and back (that's more than 10,000 miles). 💚💚💚