Tanto tiempo...It has been so long....

Three months in site have passed unquestionably fast with many things to keep me busy other than blogging. Sorry guys, I am going to get back on it and keep you all up to date with all the greatness of Paraguay!

First of all one of my main distractions has been my lovely guitar. Which is almost taking me away to play it at this very moment, but I have made myself sit here and write. Haha. But yes I have been picking up the guitar quite a lot since I have moved into my own place. Oh yeah by the way I am living on my own in my community now, and it is WONDERFUL! Privacy is something that we all mostly get growing up in the states, but Paraguay is completely different in that aspect. Most children live with their parents well into their late 20’s, and a good percentage also do when they are married too.  So privacy is out the window pretty much, but hey they are used to it and many times it is because of economical reasons. Yes, privacy was one of the challenges I faced and did not know what to do with it once I had it because I kind of forgot what it was like to have it here in Paraguay. 

Anyways back to music, since I am really learning how to play the guitar here in Paraguay having a private space to play in has been key for me. I can get my practice in on new songs I am learning then go out to a neighbor’s house to have a little jam session. Paraguayans love music, and I have been blessed with a very musically talented community. Just the other day I went over to have lunch with a family and the grand-daughter recorded a CD in Guarani and Spanish, and she is 8 years old. So we sat down, jammed and sang a bit because the girl (Paola) is learning how to play the guitar too. Although I am working in health in my community it is nice to be able to have these kinds of experiences that connect people on such a different level. 

16km in and loving it (che avy'ahina)

Picture yourself driving out to my site and seeing nothing but a few houses occasionally placed amongst the campo (farm land) and all of the sudden without warning your 16 kilometers off the main route and arrive in Union. When I was given my site I was told that it was on the big side compared to other PCVs sites. I saw pictures before arriving and thought this is different than I expected. I was thinking I would be very rural because that is what I wanted in a site when I first applied for the Peace Corps. After interviews with my coordinators who help in matching volunteers with communities, they thought I would thrive in a community who are already super guapo (hard-working). So in the end I gave in a agreed with my coordinators because they are the experts at placements. Thus, Union and I now have each other for two years. I now can say that it is a great match, I am the type of person who is used to being super busy so I might have gone crazy without such a guapo community. Although this is nothing in comparison to the busy life I lead before, it is exactly what I want to be doing. I have the balance of having things to do as in radio shows, heading to the health center, teaching English classes, giving charlas (talks), or simply just hanging out drinking terere enjoying the day chatting with my newly found community.

Union is a tranquil place with dramatic differences from barrio to barrio. My community is fortunate enough to bare the gifts of having a Municipalidad, 2 primary schools, 2 secondary schools, a health center with two doctors and a dentist, many small despensas (small stores inside people’s houses), two churches, and two plazas. With about 550 people per barrio I have been keeping busy trying to visit them all. It has been hard to catch everyone because some people work all day on farms and people typically do not hang out after dark (which right now gets dark after 5:30pm). So as I mentioned previously there are 4 barrios, 2 of them I would say are better off than the others with the exceptions of those who live at the center of the town. On the outside of Union everyone is pretty much in the same boat, a small wooden house with a latrine, where they are most likely cook on the ground outside with lenia (wood). Luckily I have had lots of luck with people wanting to get commissions or groups started up because there are no currently standing commissions or groups in Union.

Overall, with almost 2 months in site I am super satisfied with how things are going. I am picking up on Guarani (the native language of Paraguay), which is getting easier day by day. The people are inviting and extremely generous. I could not be more pleased with where I am at in this moment.

My view from my host families house of the primary and secondary school. 

End of training…Beginning of Service!

It was truly sad to leave my training community with the amazing relationships I had formed with the community. I just told myself that I will be back to see them and soon I will be forming new relationships within my official site, my new community.

Our swear-in ceremony was short but sweet, with a few tears between Peace Corps Volunteers and families. This would be the last time in 3 months that we would see each other unless there were surprise visits in between then. I think that we were all feeling pretty torn how we felt leaving our training host families (THF) because they are our first host family. Most are pretty seasoned THF, where they understand our weird USA ways and are sensitive to our needs in the beginning of our time in country. So you have to give it to them, they do such a great job, how can you not miss them?

I got to speak at the swear-in ceremony which was pretty awesome. Hopefully I inspired the PCTs (now PCVs) to go ahead with no worries because they will make a difference in the world, in their communities.

Now I have been in site for 3 weeks and love it. Life here is way different from training. There is no structure here what so ever, while in training we had a pretty defined schedule, here I make my own. Although I have had no defined things to do I set goals for myself to keep me busy enough. My day changes from day to day but usually involves integrating into my community by meeting people, visiting the schools, going to the health center, attending church, dancing with the youth, and just saying yes to anything I am invited to.

My community is quite large in comparison to most PCVs in Community Health (CH) just about 3600 people or 650 families, while other PCVs have around 50-200 family CH sites. I will be focusing working with the youth on STD/HIV prevention, values and self-esteem.

Other areas of CH work:

Nutrition

Physical Education/Activity

Hygiene

Parasites prevention

Dental Health

Dengue Prevention

Sexual Health and Prevention

Recycling

Diabetes

High Cholesterol

Hyper Tension

Gardens

I hope to cover most of these areas by talking within the schools, after church, commissions, clubs, radio shows, by hosting workshops, and by having summer and winter camps. I kick off my work here by integrating to gain the communities trust, by getting to know their priorities/concerns, along with a community wide health survey, this will be my main project for the next 3-4 months.

I am living with a host family for the first 3 months in site then after that I will be renting a house from one of my host family’s brothers. I love living with my host family but all privacy is out the window, so I am looking forward to getting that back at least within my home. Before I move in I hope to have my garden all planted and ready to go. I have to fully furnish the house myself with the budget that Peace Corps gives me, but I am hoping to inherit some stuff from other PCVs that are heading home around the time I move into my place. 

Sites!!!!!! In the know now!

I finally got my site and am super excited to start!

Beautiful Views and Art

Amazing just done pieces of art that an artist did within seconds on a foot push ceramics wheel.

 Cute Elephant!

 Gorgeous church in Aregua. 

 A wonderful hike with a interesting rocks

 Full view of the hike in Aregua

 Bees doing there thing.

 The green water beach in Aregua

Madame Lynch's castle in Aregua. 

Sharing Soccer

The "mita'ikuera" (children) adding their names to the ball we gifted them this past weekend.

PCT's and the Mita'ikuera

Week three: “A friendly week”

The Monday of this week I shipped out bright and early to my PCV visit in Caazapa. This was truly my first time traveling alone in country and it was not so bad at all. When I arrive to Caazapa Zoe (my PCV visit) and Trevor (another PCV from G40 apart of the Agriculture Sector) were waiting for me at the stop. It had rained pretty hard in Trevor’s site and the buses had stopped running just after he was done running his errands in Caazapa (extremely common here), thus while walking around Zoe over heard Trevor on the phone struggling in Guarani while trying to explain to his host brother that he was going to have to stay in town until the buses started running again. Thus, Zoe approached him and asked him if he was a PCV and the rest is history, so that night he stayed with us at Zoe’s place. This experience gave me a glimpse into how connected we all are as PCV’s and how we are always willing to help one another out because rain is another Paraguay problem. (but ill blog more about the rain later) All in all it was 2 for the price of one the first day of my PCV visit because I had the experience of Zoe, who is a G35er, which means she is about to be done with her service AKA “COS”. Then I had Trevor who is a G40er that has been in Paraguay for a total of 5 or so months. Trevor left early the next morning thus Zoe and I walked around her community while she introduced me to the various families she stayed with over the first 3 months on site. I attended my first “reso final” and last prayer for a member of her community.  It was a great time seeing what the life of a volunteer is like, the “tranquillo” life. I am looking forward to it soon!

Other things I did while on my visit:

Helped paint a world map at a school.

Took a crazy taxi ride into site.

Played volleyball with the local kids.

Went to my first VAC meeting.

Stayed the night in Caazapa at yet another wonderful PCV in the community economic development.

Hung out and had lunch in Villarica with some other PCT’s and PCV’s who are from around that area.

Long Field Family: week 5

This is my host family of 4 days in Quindy, PY.

They are wonderful!! 

Beautiful walk home

Me and my host mom at the beach

Night sky in Paraguay

My Beautiful View

The nitty gritty details of training and more…

My training group is called G41 which stands for Guarambare (our training site) and we are the 41^st group to train in Guarambare. In total we have 23 trainees including me. I would have to say that we have a pretty good representation of the USA in our G.

Training is 10 weeksish, day 1 we got some $, met and moved in with our host site parents for the 10 weeks of training. Unfortunately, our G is split into two host communities because of availability of willing host families; this split is very commonly done. I am in a wonderful host community with 11 other Peace Corps Trainees (PCTs) and our other half is in another community 2 bus rides or 1 hour away from us. As a whole we usually have training together and hang out some weekends.

Week one: The trainers teach you as much culturally as they can, along with safety, and medical information. We got placed in our language classes based off of a Spanish interview with a language professor. I got placed in Guarani, which is the native language in Paraguay. *FYI Paraguay has two official languages: Spanish and Guarani, pretty awesome! So that means that I tested out of Spanish and went straight into Guarani with 4 other PCTs from my host community. So far the language has been hard but I am really picking up on it quickly. When I listen to conversations between Paraguayans I can understand about half of what they are saying.

Week two: The main thing during week two was that we started having language classes consistently throughout the week. Oh, by the way we have class Monday through Saturday. Which is okay, but I am always super tired by the end of Saturday. During this week we found out where we would be visiting for our “Tape’apovo.” This is where the trainers partner you up with another PCT and you have to find your own way to Asuncion (the capital). I had a great partner with a good sense of direction so we arrived to all our assigned places safe and sound. During this adventure we met with the director of the SNPP, (Social National Promotion Professional) she told us all about the great things they do in providing professional development and certifications for free through their offices. They have over 15 different offices around the country that they work out of along with offering classes in requesting communities. Our second visit was to the Parque de Salud, this is a park that is sponsored by hospitals. In the park there are messages promoting ways to be healthy about every 100 meters. After our visit to the park we walked around and then made it to the Peace Corps office in Asuncion. Overall I had a great time in Asuncion and am loving Paragauy!

Paraguay Problems: Frogs…everywhere!

Yes, they are literally everywhere. Just 30 minutes ago I found one in my bed!!! Ewwww. I mean I don’t mind the guys, but not in my bed! There is this one frog that always just scares the crap out of me in my bathroom. It appears in a different place every time I walk into my bathroom. Yesterday I found it in several places: when I was about to shower it was sitting on top of the towel rack, and sat there the whole time just looking at me while I showered! Then, later that night when I walked in to the bathroom it was chilling in the toilet (I decided I would go to the bathroom outside at that point).

Other places I have found/seen/been scared by the frog:

On the inside of the bathroom door

On top of 50 razors in my bathroom

In my bed L

On various places of the wall

On the broom in the bathroom

And my favorite: Jumping at me as I flush the latrine

It is apparently not uncommon to have frogs everywhere in and outside your house. My training boss has told us that many times she has sat down to go to the bathroom and the frog jumps up at her butt!!! Hence why I decided to go outside last night, and why now I always check the toilet before I sit down! 

Paraguay Problems: Cows, Dogs, and Geese

So far most of us PCTs in a month have been chased by geese, cows, and dogs. For two PCT they were chased by all three in one day. Don’t you worry about telling the local people you were chased by some animal because they probably already know, news travels super quickly.  Like today while two other PCTs and I were walking to play our weekly soccer game against the towns kids. We decided to take the short cut and came across a very aggressive cow that chased us three times before the local kids showed up with tree branches and distracted the cow for us to pass. We all felt so good being saved by a 4 foot 7 year old kid with tree branches. But hey you have to just laugh it off when it comes down to it. Anyways, by the time we got to the soccer field everyone was laughing at us for being chased by a cow. See, news travels so fast! 

Yummy Food!

That is rice and mandioka (the typical side to every meal)

2 weeks in Paraguay!

These past two weeks have gone by so quickly yet it feels like I have been here for much longer. I believe this is because of how wonderfully supportive my training group (G41) is and how beautiful this country is and how kind its people are towards all of us “Nortes”.

 Immediately after arriving in Paraguay we had a brief welcome speech, interviews for host family placements, medical reviews, and then we were off to meet our host families. As we rode over to our new host town we all shared the little info that we received about our host family placement. I’ll admit I was kind of sad at first that I was placed with a family of two older parents and no children. But now I would have to say that I was perfectly placed and I love my host parents! It was interesting arriving to our little town and standing in front of the awaiting families trying to guess who we would be spending the next 3 months with. One by one they called a volunteers name and then the family’s name, then we met in the middle with a hug and two kisses (that how they do it here!). My sy (mom in Guarani) is a very creative cook and is a queen of all trades. My tua (dad) is a talented carpenter as well as a tranquil person to be around. Although they are older they are some of the hardest working people I have ever met who also love to learn from the volunteers they host. This is the 13^th year that they have hosted volunteers, so they are pros! They do have a son (my brother) but he lives in a different town with his wife and two sons who are 22 and 18. Occasionally they will stop by to have dinner with us and one time so far we have gone to their house to hang out and have dinner.

The first weekend that I was here in Paraguay my host family and my neighbors (who are also hosting volunteers) threw together a party to fund raise money for a woman who has cancer. 500 people showed up throughout the day to support, eat, drink, dance, and listen to music. It was a fun day meeting the whole town and other host families while dancing and drinking terrere.

Did I mention that my sy is an amazing cook? She is keeping me fed too well! I can see why some people gain weight while they start volunteering here. Although most of the Paraguayan main dishes consist of carbohydrates or meat most are delicious when my sy cooks them. The nice thing is my family is accommodating my vegetarian diet, my mom even told me that they ask for vegetarians because they feel healthier eating like one. So lucky me!

I would have to say the only down I have had was because my external hard drive doesn't work anymore =( So I am music less and picture less (besides the printed pictures  I brought). 

Some Photos of My First Few Days in Paraguay

Made it to Paraguay and its Beautiful!

Made it to Paraguay and its beautiful!

I have to keep this brief because I do not have broadband yet nor a charger converter. It is going so well! The first few days have flown by! My host family is wonderful. I just have a 64 year old Mama (Romi) and a 69 year old Papa (Tor)  =) But everyone who lives in Guasu Cora (the little town I live in) are relatives pretty much. My Mama y Papa have 1 son Carlos who has two grandsons Luis 21 years old and Marco 18 years old. Both of the grandsons are in a university in Asuncion one Luis is studying medicine and Marco is studying technology.

I am adjusting very well and I love it here! Everyone is super nice and I stay hydrated with drinking lots of Terrer! Which is yerba mate =)

I’ll update you all more soon! Thanks for reading!

I have a couple pictures to share with you all. 

Some Informative Videos on Paraguay!

The following are Youtube videos that are a great introduction to Paraguay:

 

The Great Adventure of Saving the Forest in Paraguay (For the United States of America) (ingles – WWF-Paraguay) -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uhUCMSEwzw

 

Paraguay Tourism – PARAGUAY, You have to feel it! (ingles – SENATUR) -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqHlMiHDKkk

 

Saving San Rafael (ingles) -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azRDkIJolQg

 

Brief introduction to the Volunteer experience in Paraguay-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgbSuk15B3o

 

45 Years of Peace Corps Paraguay-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ3AduLAZzI

 

Sites and Sounds of Paraguay -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZA78xUzwTA

 

Guarani Language – (Let’s Learn Guarani) –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL3HWRHPoDE&context=C4c87121ADvjVQa1PpcFONz0yq1m2yPXMl9FMY_E8BfC-2F4B7rjM=