Martin Burt featured on I Prize Peace

I don't know how many of you have checked out our other blog www.iprizepeace.blogspot.com.  Each Monday, we post a short spotlight of a social innovator.  It's a fun side project for us.  It helps us learn about social entrepreneurship, do graphic design, and write.

Anyway, this week's post is about Martin Burt, who created the self-sufficient school where we are right now.  We thought it was fitting to spotlight him before we left this school in Paraguay.  If you are interested to learn more about him, there's a short bio, website links, and a cool youtube video on our I Prize Peace blog.

Only one more week in Paraguay.  Crazy.

Graduation & Summer Begins

Graduation was one week ago.  Fifty students received their diplomas to thunderous applause from family, friends...and us.  After the ceremony, there was a fancy dinner, an awards ceremony, a promenade, and then a dance for everyone outside in the courtyard that lasted until 2 AM.  So, basically we ate, drank, and were merry.  Though some of us were only drinking Fanta.  We had never seen the school so busy and loud and festive.  It was a lot of fun. 

The next morning, the school was silent.  Summer had officially started here at La Escuela Agricola San Francisco.  Apparently the slow life here can get even slower.  But not just for us.  Now everyone seems to be moving at a snail's pace.  But that's probably a good thing because it's really hot.  Don't want to overexert ourselves and pass out in the sun.

But this past week has been a good one.  I finished the English curriculum, which is my biggest contribution in the past three weeks.  That and some English classes.  Tay and I are finishing up a website for the school's hotel.  Tay's also finishing some advertisements that they've asked him to do.  Honestly, his graphic design skills have made him very popular here.  He has created stickers, order forms, and posters.  He has good designing skills.  Kind-of like Napolean Dynamite.  And self-sufficient schools only want interns with good skills.

Anyway, one more week here.  Then we'll be back home for Christmas.  :)

Six Weeks Late...English Classes

Funny thing.  I originally came to Paraguay planning to spend most of my time working on an English curriculum and teaching English classes here at the school.  Once we got here, the school director informed us that the students would be taking exams for a month.  The school year was almost over, and it really wasn't a good time to begin a new English class.  So, I've focused on creating the English curriculum and working on other projects with Tay. 

Here's the funny part: six weeks later,  I have been asked to teach English classes.  Not sure why, but here we go.  Tay is my trusty assistant and fellow English expert.  We've taught two lessons so far.  It's quite a challenge, actually.  The students are on such different English levels, and English is a bizarre language compared to Spanish.  All the weird stuff like "ph" making an "f" sound etc.  How do you explain that?  Luckily the students are excited to learn, and it's been fun spending more time with them. 

One of Tay's Designs

This is an example of the type of stickers that Tay's been working on.  As part of their marketing campaign, we think it's important for them to let people know what makes their products unique.  One thing they want to start stressing is that their products are 100% organic.  Hence, the new label. 

By the way, you should check out this recent documentary on food in America.  Tay and I just watched it last week.  It was really well done--an Academy Aware nominee.  It talks about the corn industry, the meat industry, giant seed companies, organic farms, etc.  Pretty interesting stuff.  I wonder if any of the farmers in Goodland have had similar experiences with huge farming companies.  You can watch a trailer and learn more on their website @  http://www.foodincmovie.com/. 

La Queseria

Last week, Escuela Agricola San Francisco began selling their products in a high-end shop in Asuncion called La Queseria.  (FYI: "La Queseria" means "the cheese shop" in Spanish.)  Our new friend Julia, invited us to check out the new venue with her.  Armed with our camera, Taylor and I took the bus to Asuncion for the second time.  Unlike last time, which was a little confusing, we went with full details of how to get where we needed to go.  About two hours after leaving home, we arrived at the Marisca Lopez Shopping Mall.  Excellent.  We met Julia and Manuel, who drove us over to the new shop.  It was exciting to see Cerrito (the school's brand) products on display.

That trip to Cerrito has opened up a few more doors for things we can work on here at the school.  We are now working to create a marketing plan for the school, which will include some advertising work as well.  Stay tuned because Taylor has been working on some labels that are looking amazing.  We'll post a few in the next week.