Homi's Farm

Last Saturday the Ag group of trainees took a trip to visit Homi’s parent’s farm.  Homi is one of our Paraguayan trainers and he is one of the smartest people I have ever met.  He can answer any question you have about farming in English, Spanish, or Guarani.  His parent’s farm is amazing.  We went to see it as an example of permaculture.  The farm was relatively small, only about two acres but every part of it was used efficiently.  They had worm cultures that were used to produce castings to be sold or used in the fields.  The fields grew food for the animals.  The cows were used for milk and me            at.  The dairy was used to make cheese, yogurt, and ice cream, which were all sold.  The pigs were sold for meat and their poop was collected and used in a biodigesture, which created methane gas that the family used for cooking in order to lower the amount of propane they purchased.  The waste that has to be collected from inside the biodigesture after a while was used to feed the fish they had in a man made pond.  They also had rabbits, which they sold for meat.  The rabbits were in cages above a trough and their poop was also used for fertilizer.  It was slightly overwhelming how efficient everything was.  It was also gorgeous and located right outside the capital.

Pictures from Homi's Farm:

            

 Homi's nephew playing with their dog

 Homi's nephew feeding the cows
 

The biodigesture

 

Rabbits hanging out in their cages

            

Homi's Mom making cheese!

Yesterday, which would also be Saturday, it rained for most of the day.  The thing about living off of a dirt road is that when it rains you can’t go anywhere.  So I woke up around 5 A.M to the sound of rain and slept until around 9, I ate breakfast and realized I was staying inside the house for the next few hours so I organized my room, played with a rubix cube, read, and slept.  Finally by 3 P.M I had cabin fever and I had to leave my room so I braved the mud.  I ran into another trainee Lydia and she and I wandered around our town for the next 3 hours, which was really fun.  Then last night we ended up going to a dance club, Tabasco, because they were having a party to help raise money for the local high school.  It was actually awesome!  The reason is that all of the trainees that went danced around like idiots not caring what the other people thought while all of the Paraguayans grinded their hearts out to weird Paraguayan Polka music.  I am fairly certain that this town will forever think that all Americans do the sprinkler and shopping cart in clubs, which I personally think is fantastic!

This coming week we have our Long Field Visit which means that me, Elijah, Lauralee and Brian are all going to spend 4 days with a volunteer. While we are there we are going to give presentations and work with different committees.  I am actually really excited.  We are staying with new families, which might be odd since 4 nights isn’t really enough time to form a good relationship with a new family, but I think it will still be really fun! I miss you guys and I hope everything is going well in the states!