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).