Sorry for the lack of updates, everyone. I wish I could say that it was because I was super busy with health projects (that's sort of true... emphasis on the "sort of"), or learning Guarani (also only a little true), but it's actually my own laziness and neglecting it, so for that I apologize. I'll try to be a bit better about updating.
Anyways, has it really been 6 months since I arrived in Paraguay? Time has gone by crazy fast, I must say. So, I've realized that through my blogging I haven't really clued you in to the random, bizarre, and sometimes hilarious oddities that I've noticed here in Paraguay. Here I present the Random Facts list:
- Motos aka motorcycles. You generally don't just see one or two people on a moto. Often it will be a family of 5, the occasional chainsaw, or a pig. I've even witnessed a person in a wheelchair holding onto the back of a moto. Hardly anyone wears helmets. It is also common to see 10-year olds driving motorcycles.
- Chickens crow at dawn. They also crow at 8am. And 9am. And 10am. Just when you think they couldn't crow anymore, they crow at 10:01am. I'd imagine that they eventually tire and sleep, but those wonderful animals have dispoven this theory multiple times when I wake up at midnight to more crowing. They must work in shifts to ensure that they can be heard at all hours of the day. Another side note about chickens: despite having been here for 6 months, I still laugh when I see them run. They just look so silly.
- My least favorite word in the Spanish language is Enseguida. This is the entry in my Spanish-English dictionary:
enseguida adv at once, immediately, straight away.
To the average American, this would actually mean "immediately" or "straight away." However, in Paraguay, this is simply untrue. Many times I've gotten the "I'll be there enseguida" and have waited from anywhere between 30 minutes and 4 hours. Sometimes it means "never." Oh hora Paraguaya. I love enseguida-ing other people. Hate being enseguida-ed.
- In Asuncion, it's not uncommon to have motorcycles, buses, cars, trucks, and ox-drawn or horse-drawn carts sharing the same road.
- While we're still on the transportation topic, let's discuss the buses here. I've been on buses that look (and probably are) brand new. The have reclining seats that are big and comfy looking and nice TVs. Just beautiful. I have also been on buses that look like they may or will fall apart any second. Also, it is not uncommon to board a bus to find that all the seats are taken and you end up standing the majority of the way to your destination. The times that you do get a seat, be advised that you will probably at some point or another have the inevitable crotch-in-the-face moment(s) or hour(s). You will also probably drive down an unpaved road for a good portion of the trip, making it a very bumpy crotch-in-the-face ride.
- I have seen more boobs here in 6 months than I would have liked to see in my life. I'll be sitting and talking with someone when they all of a sudden decide to feed their kid. This can be in their house, on their porch, on the bus, someone else's house, a party. You name it, they probably would do it there. Additionally, children breastfeed for a LONG time. My 4-year old host sister here occasionally is breastfed by her aunt.
- Kids and personal space do not go together. At all. Not only are my belongings constantly touched, but I've grown accustomed to drinking or eating something and having a child literally 10 inches from my face just staring. This also happens when I'm working on anything from writing a letter to preparing charla materials.
- There is no concept of inside voices. You could be 5 houses away or in the same house and the volume level stays the same. Today I was sitting outside with a friend and couldn't even focus on what he was saying because one of the boys across the street was yelling at the top of his lungs for his sister to come home for lunch. She was in their front yard. Mom, I'm sorry for all those times you asked me to call Nick and Austin down for dinner and I just stood in the kitchen and shouted at them. I now understand.
- In talking with other volunteers, we've discovered where the American rejected clothes have gone. One friend's obese mother has a shirt that says "Gravity Sucks." It is important to note that she has huge boobs and does not wear a bra. Another friend has witnessed a young child wearing a shirt with a picture of a cat on it and "Happy pussy" written on it. My other friend saw a 2-year old with a shirt that has a picture of a milkshake on it and "Sex Shake." Almost everyone has a playboy shirt. This includes small children and old ladies.
- Medical beliefs here are... odd. I once had a stomach ache and when I told my host mom she said that it was because I had my fan on at night and the wind got trapped in my stomach. The cure? Put some tobacco leaves on your back. I've decided that if I ever pursue medicine as a career, I will most definitely use these responses.
- Vegetables are almost always added into meals, but you can never tell when you're eating them. They tend to be cut into indecipherable pieces so I can't tell if I'm eating a carrot or a green pepper. Also, for a pot of soup for a family of 5, generally only half of a pepper is used.
- 3-year olds drinking beer through a straw. I see something very wrong with this. Who drinks beer through a straw? Also the fact that it's a three-year old is slightly to moderately disturbing.
- Old dudes with young chicks. I still don't understand the appeal. 15 year old girls with 40 year old dudes. Really?
- School cancelations for anything. A few weeks ago the kids were on Winter break. Winter break was extended for another week because it was too cold for the kids to be in school. This would be a legitimate excuse, however, that entire week it was in the 80s. El Dia del Nino is coming up, so naturally school is cancelled. In fact, apparently they have clowns, games, cake, candy, and cookies for the kids. Perfect opportunity for a dental charla :o)
- Tons of holidays. We have a lot of them in the States too, but let's be honest, who really celebrates friendship day? Here, dia de la amistad is HUGE. I got tons of texts that day from Paraguayan friends thanking me for what I do here and for being a good friend. My favorite was a 10-year old girl who came over to my house to give me a hug and say happy friendship day. I think the world would be a better place if we all celebrated this.
- I've been called fat by my aunt and host mom, meanwhile, they're both overweight and my aunt has high blood pressure. However, fat here isn't like, "Oh man, you're HUGE!" Instead it's a term of endearment, more or less. Also, if you're fat, you must be happy. For the record, I'm not fat and I'm still happy. I've also heard that if you're skinny, you must be in love. Apparently you cannot be happy AND in love at the same time.
- Paraguay really does get cold! I didn't believe people when they said that it was the coldest they'd ever been. I always just thought, yeah well I'm from the Northeast. I know what cold is. Well, truthfully, I've been colder but I've never been this cold for such a prolonged period of time. Back in the good old USA, if I'm cold I just go inside and my problem is solved. Here if I'm cold, I go inside and it's just as cold! It's inescapable. Boo 40 degree weather.
I'm sure that as I spend more time here in this wonderful, quirky place I call home I'll have more fun, random facts for you all.
Love,
Carden xoxo
Friday, August 13, 2010
Friday, June 18, 2010
We're gonna learn cosas. What kind of cosas? Oh you know, cosas.
I moved yesterday! No, not to my own house, but I moved to a different host family. As much as love my other family, it's nice to have a bit more privacy, since the new family I'm living with is older and their kids are all grown up and out of the house. My previous family included a 4-year old daughter, so naturally there were about a dozen other kids around too who would all touch my things. I know they're just curious but it gets tiring telling them to not touch my things without asking. C'est la vie. Anyways, my new family is great. They have a gorgeous property and I love spending time outside here because it's so beautiful. Che aaprendehina guarani ko'ape avei (I'm learning Guarani here, too). I've learned useful phrases like "There is no pique in my foot." Pique is a worm that burrows into your foot and lays its eggs in your foot and you have to cut it out to get rid of it. Pleasant, I know.
Anyways, today an NGO that is based in the Santani area came to my house to do a charla. We started off singing some Jesus songs, read a few verses from the bible, then jumped right in to breast cancer, pelvic exams, "vagina seco," and KY jelly. I'm still trying to figure out the link between the bible readings and songs and the charla. Aside from my new host mom saying she'd buy some KY jelly to "make things better", it was a decent charla. My new host mom is probably the sweetest person I've ever met and kind of reminds me of my own grandma, Mimi, so hearing her say that was a bit weird, to say the least. Gross is actually probably the better word to describe it. My new host dad is funny and is helping me learn Guarani and said he could build my modern bathroom. He's really cool and somewhat resembles Ivan Ooze from the Power Rangers movie (Nicky, Austin, and Lindsey - I really hope you appreciate the Power Rangers reference). He's nicer though.
The NGO that came to do the charla has a few German people who give charlas, which is awesome. After the charla they said that there will be another activity on June 29 and asked if I'd like to attend, so I said sure. I asked them what we'd be doing at this event. "Oh, we're gonna learn cosas (things)." "Oh, what kind of cosas?" "Oh you know... cosas." Awesome. Maybe they don't know what cosas they're going to teach us yet, hence the vague response.
In other news, my house has electricity! I still have to bring in running water, install my bathroom, finish changing the locks, and put bars in the windows, but it's one step closer to being able to move in. As much as I love my host families, it'll be a relief to finally unpack my stuff, cook my own food, and have my own space. I also finally went down to the elementary school and got the OK to get started on the World Map Project. For those of you who don't know what this is, basically I will be painting a map of the world (who would have guessed) on the side of the school and then I will teach a few geography classes. Especially with the World Cup and how every Paraguayan LOVES soccer, I think this will be a cool way to tie in culture and geography. A lot of people here don't really know much about geography. When I say I'm from the United States, more specifically Connecticut, they ask if I'm close to California. "No, not close at all to California." "Oh, New York then?" "Yes, I'm close to New York." I've decided to just start telling people I'm from NY. It's just easier that way. Some people don't really even know where the US is. I was talking to someone yesterday about the World Cup and Africa and this individual said "Africa... is that close to you?" "No, Africa is not close to me." "That's where all those black people come from, right?" Yay for geography/culture class!
After 128 days in Paraguay, I'm beginning to understand some cultural norms and customs here, some I don't think I will ever understand, some things that frustrate me and will probably frustrate me during my time here, and things that I have already fallen in love with, but I can truthfully say I am finally really happy at site. It was tough to adjust, but I can now comfortably call this home. There will always be the good, the bad, and the ugly, but the good definitely outweighs the bad. I know my Tuyango adventure is just beginning.
Love,
Carden xoxo
Anyways, today an NGO that is based in the Santani area came to my house to do a charla. We started off singing some Jesus songs, read a few verses from the bible, then jumped right in to breast cancer, pelvic exams, "vagina seco," and KY jelly. I'm still trying to figure out the link between the bible readings and songs and the charla. Aside from my new host mom saying she'd buy some KY jelly to "make things better", it was a decent charla. My new host mom is probably the sweetest person I've ever met and kind of reminds me of my own grandma, Mimi, so hearing her say that was a bit weird, to say the least. Gross is actually probably the better word to describe it. My new host dad is funny and is helping me learn Guarani and said he could build my modern bathroom. He's really cool and somewhat resembles Ivan Ooze from the Power Rangers movie (Nicky, Austin, and Lindsey - I really hope you appreciate the Power Rangers reference). He's nicer though.
The NGO that came to do the charla has a few German people who give charlas, which is awesome. After the charla they said that there will be another activity on June 29 and asked if I'd like to attend, so I said sure. I asked them what we'd be doing at this event. "Oh, we're gonna learn cosas (things)." "Oh, what kind of cosas?" "Oh you know... cosas." Awesome. Maybe they don't know what cosas they're going to teach us yet, hence the vague response.
In other news, my house has electricity! I still have to bring in running water, install my bathroom, finish changing the locks, and put bars in the windows, but it's one step closer to being able to move in. As much as I love my host families, it'll be a relief to finally unpack my stuff, cook my own food, and have my own space. I also finally went down to the elementary school and got the OK to get started on the World Map Project. For those of you who don't know what this is, basically I will be painting a map of the world (who would have guessed) on the side of the school and then I will teach a few geography classes. Especially with the World Cup and how every Paraguayan LOVES soccer, I think this will be a cool way to tie in culture and geography. A lot of people here don't really know much about geography. When I say I'm from the United States, more specifically Connecticut, they ask if I'm close to California. "No, not close at all to California." "Oh, New York then?" "Yes, I'm close to New York." I've decided to just start telling people I'm from NY. It's just easier that way. Some people don't really even know where the US is. I was talking to someone yesterday about the World Cup and Africa and this individual said "Africa... is that close to you?" "No, Africa is not close to me." "That's where all those black people come from, right?" Yay for geography/culture class!
After 128 days in Paraguay, I'm beginning to understand some cultural norms and customs here, some I don't think I will ever understand, some things that frustrate me and will probably frustrate me during my time here, and things that I have already fallen in love with, but I can truthfully say I am finally really happy at site. It was tough to adjust, but I can now comfortably call this home. There will always be the good, the bad, and the ugly, but the good definitely outweighs the bad. I know my Tuyango adventure is just beginning.
Love,
Carden xoxo
Saturday, May 29, 2010
The days go by slowly, but the months go by fast.
I can’t believe I’ve already been at site for about a month. I remember my first ten days here feeling like an eternity, and now I can’t believe that I’ve been here for 26 days. So, what have I done in my 26 days here? I’ve worn plenty of socks with flip-flops (super fashionable, I know), successfully made an idiot of myself in Santani numerous times (and more to come! Sweet!), gotten into the habit of flossing daily, worked on my house a bit, and have terere-ed with a bunch of people. So, aside from working on my house, it doesn’t really seem like I’m doing a whole lot of work. I can assure you, I did not join the Peace Corps or come to Paraguay to just hang out and wear socks with flip-flops for two years, as fun as that may be. As a health volunteer, we promote sustainable development – that is, we teach individuals in the community the skills and tools needed to lead healthier lifestyles. We do not arrive, do a project in 3 months, and then leave. We teach so that once we leave our sites after completing service, the community members can continue to use the skills we’ve taught them. It might not seem like real work, but in order to build trust and confidence in the community, I need to take advantage of the first few months here to get to know individuals in my community. Part of this involves completing the community census with at least 50 households. The census is used to help identify the most pressing issues in the community that need to be addressed. Some of the questions in the census are a bit personal pertaining to health and hygiene, so getting to know people is very important before I dive into the task of completing the census. I will hopefully have all of this done by the end of July/beginning of August and can then figure out what projects I can do in my community. I already know there is an interest in getting a modern bathroom commission started, as well as another commission for a garden project. I have also spoken with the director of the escuela about English classes and the World Map project, which I am super excited about.
Anyways… like I said above, I’ve been working on my house a bit. I need your help with something and would really appreciate your responses. I need to paint my house as well as the rooms inside. What color should I paint the house? There is a rose bush in front that I want to leave. Keep that in mind. Here are pics of my house!
Yay! My house!
Bedroom 1
Kitchen looking out toward the side window from the front door
Kitchen looking out toward the front yard/front door from the back door
Bedroom 2
Comment please with your vote for house/room colors!
Love,
Carden xoxo
Anyways… like I said above, I’ve been working on my house a bit. I need your help with something and would really appreciate your responses. I need to paint my house as well as the rooms inside. What color should I paint the house? There is a rose bush in front that I want to leave. Keep that in mind. Here are pics of my house!
Yay! My house!
Bedroom 1
Kitchen looking out toward the side window from the front door
Kitchen looking out toward the front yard/front door from the back door
Bedroom 2
Comment please with your vote for house/room colors!
Love,
Carden xoxo
Thursday, May 20, 2010
New Address!
Hey everyone!
Just to let you all know, I have a new address at the post office in Santani (a town close to where I live). My address is:
Carden Ryder, PCV
Correo San Estanislao
Avenida Independencia Nacional, 727
Codigo Postal, 8210
Paraguay
Sud America
You can also use the old address, but this one I'll be able to check more frequently.
Love,
Carden xoxo
Just to let you all know, I have a new address at the post office in Santani (a town close to where I live). My address is:
Carden Ryder, PCV
Correo San Estanislao
Avenida Independencia Nacional, 727
Codigo Postal, 8210
Paraguay
Sud America
You can also use the old address, but this one I'll be able to check more frequently.
Love,
Carden xoxo
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Home Sweet Home... sorta.
First off, Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful moms I know! It’s weird being in Paraguay today. I know that if I were back in the States, I’d probably be having brunch with my family and my grandma and grandpa. Actually, in Paraguay, today isn’t any special day. Mother’s Day in Paraguay is actually next Saturday. It’ll be interesting to see how they celebrate it here.
Friday, April 30 was our swearing-in ceremony. It was at the Embassy in Asuncion and was really nice. After we had the ceremony, there was a reception with some food, drinks, and cake. Lots of pictures were taken, so I’ll try to post those on facebook soon. After swearing in, we went back to the Peace Corps to get our bank cards and cell phones. Finally, after everything was completed, we got to go to our hotel in downtown Asuncion. That night the Health Sector went out to dinner at a churasqueria, which was absolutely delicious. After that, we all went to a bar called Brit Pub for the night. It was a really good time and a bunch of the other Peace Corps Paraguay volunteers joined us. Saturday night there was a concert called Ahendu, which means to hear in Guarani. I performed 2 songs with a friend of mine, and it went pretty well. I was super nervous though! On Sunday, I ran a lot of errands with Lauren. We were all over Asuncion and had a great time. Monday, Amanda and I headed back to Santo Domingo to visit with our families one last time before leaving to site.
I arrived in Tuyango on Tuesday after a long and somewhat stressful day of traveling. Bauer, myself, my duffel bag, backpack, and 2 canvas bags left Santo Domingo around 9:30 am to catch a bus down to the bus terminal in Asuncion. Thank God I had Amanda and Jake there too! I don’t know how I would have been sane and gotten everything on and off the buses without them! Once I arrived in Santani, I was disappointed to find out that there were no buses going to my site that day. It rained Sunday night into Monday, and since the road I live off of isn’t paved yet, it was too muddy for buses to pass through. I ended up taking a taxi part of the way to site before the taxi driver decided it was also too muddy for him, and I ended up in the back of a pickup truck with some Paraguayans and all of my stuff. I arrived in Tuyango around 5:30 and couldn’t have been more relieved. It’s been a pretty relaxing time so far. As a health volunteer, we aren’t really supposed to start any projects in the first three months of being at site. During the first three months we are supposed to meet people, get to know the community, drink lots of tereré and mate, and complete the census. The census is what we use to determine the biggest and most pressing issues in the community that need to be addressed. Basically, I will complete the census with at least 50 families, and from there figure out what the community needs. I’ve met a few people in the community, been to the health post with my contact, traveled to Santani, and done a LOT of reading. It was fun because yesterday I walked around the community and tereré-ed with a few families. It was really nice meeting different people in the community, and I’m finally getting some names and faces memorized. I know it’ll take a while in a community that has about 150 houses, but I know that in a few months, I’ll know a bunch of the people here.
Yesterday I also got to check out my future house again. I am absolutely in love with it and can’t wait to move in. I have a lot of work to do on it before I move in, though. The entire inside needs to be repainted, I have to fix part of the roof, put in electricity and running water, install lights, put new locks on the doors, lots of yardwork, make a new fence, and start building my bathroom. This is a big enough project that I think it can definitely keep me busy over the next few months. Hopefully, I’ll be ready to move in at the end of July or beginning of August. It was cute because I have this little posse of kids that follow me around, so naturally they came with me to explore my housing situation.
Tomorrow I should be going into Santani to meet up with Amanda. We wanted to explore and buy a few things to bring back to our houses. I’m so fortunate that my best friend here in Paraguay only lives about an hour away from me. It’s been weird not being with my training group anymore. I know it’ll get easier as time goes by, but it’s still kind of a shock to go from being with these people every day for 3 months to being scattered all over Paraguay. I’m really looking forward to 4th of July and the reconnect with my training group in August. It’ll be nice to all be together again. Part of me feels like 4th of July will be here in no time, but at the same time I feel like this past week has gone by so slowly. Granted when I first got here, I felt like the first few weeks of training went by really slowly and then all of a sudden, it seemed like everything blew by. It will probably be the same here too. It’s just a bit tough at the beginning -- adjusting to all of the changes and meeting people. I know in a few weeks I will feel like a part of the community, part of the family here. For now, I keep reminding myself to take it a day at a time. Relax. Enjoy. Tranquilo.
Missing you all back in the States. Hope you are all well, and again, my door is always open to visitors. Mi casa es tu casa.
Love,
Carden xoxo
Friday, April 30 was our swearing-in ceremony. It was at the Embassy in Asuncion and was really nice. After we had the ceremony, there was a reception with some food, drinks, and cake. Lots of pictures were taken, so I’ll try to post those on facebook soon. After swearing in, we went back to the Peace Corps to get our bank cards and cell phones. Finally, after everything was completed, we got to go to our hotel in downtown Asuncion. That night the Health Sector went out to dinner at a churasqueria, which was absolutely delicious. After that, we all went to a bar called Brit Pub for the night. It was a really good time and a bunch of the other Peace Corps Paraguay volunteers joined us. Saturday night there was a concert called Ahendu, which means to hear in Guarani. I performed 2 songs with a friend of mine, and it went pretty well. I was super nervous though! On Sunday, I ran a lot of errands with Lauren. We were all over Asuncion and had a great time. Monday, Amanda and I headed back to Santo Domingo to visit with our families one last time before leaving to site.
I arrived in Tuyango on Tuesday after a long and somewhat stressful day of traveling. Bauer, myself, my duffel bag, backpack, and 2 canvas bags left Santo Domingo around 9:30 am to catch a bus down to the bus terminal in Asuncion. Thank God I had Amanda and Jake there too! I don’t know how I would have been sane and gotten everything on and off the buses without them! Once I arrived in Santani, I was disappointed to find out that there were no buses going to my site that day. It rained Sunday night into Monday, and since the road I live off of isn’t paved yet, it was too muddy for buses to pass through. I ended up taking a taxi part of the way to site before the taxi driver decided it was also too muddy for him, and I ended up in the back of a pickup truck with some Paraguayans and all of my stuff. I arrived in Tuyango around 5:30 and couldn’t have been more relieved. It’s been a pretty relaxing time so far. As a health volunteer, we aren’t really supposed to start any projects in the first three months of being at site. During the first three months we are supposed to meet people, get to know the community, drink lots of tereré and mate, and complete the census. The census is what we use to determine the biggest and most pressing issues in the community that need to be addressed. Basically, I will complete the census with at least 50 families, and from there figure out what the community needs. I’ve met a few people in the community, been to the health post with my contact, traveled to Santani, and done a LOT of reading. It was fun because yesterday I walked around the community and tereré-ed with a few families. It was really nice meeting different people in the community, and I’m finally getting some names and faces memorized. I know it’ll take a while in a community that has about 150 houses, but I know that in a few months, I’ll know a bunch of the people here.
Yesterday I also got to check out my future house again. I am absolutely in love with it and can’t wait to move in. I have a lot of work to do on it before I move in, though. The entire inside needs to be repainted, I have to fix part of the roof, put in electricity and running water, install lights, put new locks on the doors, lots of yardwork, make a new fence, and start building my bathroom. This is a big enough project that I think it can definitely keep me busy over the next few months. Hopefully, I’ll be ready to move in at the end of July or beginning of August. It was cute because I have this little posse of kids that follow me around, so naturally they came with me to explore my housing situation.
Tomorrow I should be going into Santani to meet up with Amanda. We wanted to explore and buy a few things to bring back to our houses. I’m so fortunate that my best friend here in Paraguay only lives about an hour away from me. It’s been weird not being with my training group anymore. I know it’ll get easier as time goes by, but it’s still kind of a shock to go from being with these people every day for 3 months to being scattered all over Paraguay. I’m really looking forward to 4th of July and the reconnect with my training group in August. It’ll be nice to all be together again. Part of me feels like 4th of July will be here in no time, but at the same time I feel like this past week has gone by so slowly. Granted when I first got here, I felt like the first few weeks of training went by really slowly and then all of a sudden, it seemed like everything blew by. It will probably be the same here too. It’s just a bit tough at the beginning -- adjusting to all of the changes and meeting people. I know in a few weeks I will feel like a part of the community, part of the family here. For now, I keep reminding myself to take it a day at a time. Relax. Enjoy. Tranquilo.
Missing you all back in the States. Hope you are all well, and again, my door is always open to visitors. Mi casa es tu casa.
Love,
Carden xoxo
Thursday, April 29, 2010
...AND THEN WE ALL GOT MACHETES!
Hi everyone!
So, this is my last post as a Peace Corps trainee – tomorrow is the swearing-in ceremony where me and my training class become official Peace Corps Volunteers. I can’t believe how quickly the past 11 weeks have gone by. It’s crazy to think that 11 weeks ago I was just starting training, barely knew anyone, and couldn’t speak any Guarani. It’s amazing how much things change after a mere 11 weeks. Some of the people that I’ve met have become such good friends of mine that I can’t even imagine not having them in my life at this point. Anyways, enough of that…
What have I done since I last blogged? Well, 2 weeks ago Sunday I killed a chicken! Yes, KILLED A CHICKEN WITH MY BARE HANDS! It was a… unique experience to say the least. Then my sister, my mom, and I cleaned, gutted, and cooked it for lunch. It was super tasty and gave me a new appreciation for food, or rather just chicken.
We spent 2 days last week in Asuncion for class. Tuesday we went to the botanical gardens in Asuncion. It was definitely not what I expected. In the afternoon, we were back at the Peace Corps office for a few sessions and then on Wednesday morning, we were back in Asuncion for a full day of sessions and lectures. We had another library visit and mailroom visit and the librarian told us some information about mail here in Paraguay. It takes a while for it to get here, especially packages. If a package arrives within a month from the time it was sent (by USPS) that’s amazing! If it arrives within 2 months, that’s good. Realistically, it takes about 3ish months for a package to arrive, so those of you that have sent me stuff, don’t worry that I haven’t gotten it yet! There’s still a good chance it’ll arrive in the next few months. Just give me a heads up, please, if you sent something.
Last Friday we had an “Auto Planeado” day where we got to design our own schedule for the day based on interests. A good number of us wanted to go to Luque to see the guitars and harps, so we were fortunate enough to get a driver and spend the morning there. In the afternoon, we were back in Guarambare for a session on plumbing and electricity. I figured this was a good session to attend, considering I have neither running water nor electricity in my future house. Overall, it was a pretty awesome day. I found a really nice guitar in Luque that I really want to go back and get. I hope that I can head back there in a few weeks and make my purchase.
This past week has been interesting, since it was our last full week at our training site. On Tuesday we had our last language interviews and our despedida with our families. All of our families came to the school with food and Diosnel (one of my language teachers here), Jotty (another language teacher here), one of the mom’s here at site, Franco, and Lauren all did speeches. I actually teared up when Diosnel and Jotty did theirs. They both talked about how we leave everything that is familiar to us in the states to come to a new country, a new language, a new culture, and new friends, and that our host families are so welcoming, despite not knowing who they’re going to get. They open their doors to us, help us acclimate, assist us with learning the language(s), and are an incredibly source of support during these few months of training. It makes me really sad that I have to leave this wonderful community and my amazing family. I feel so comfortable here and it sort of stinks that I have to go through the awkwardness all over again with meeting people, figuring out the community, and everything… only this time without other Americans. It’s been an interesting couple of weeks since site visit. It’s just been a weird mix of emotions. Part of me is pulling away from the group, since I’m not going to have them at site and need to fend for myself more and adjust to the “I feel alone” factor, but another part of me wants to live in the here-and-now and just enjoy the remaining time I have with them. Granted, tomorrow we swear-in, so there’s really not much time left to spend with them. I’m really excited for Asuncion this weekend after swearing-in. It’ll be nice to all be together for a few days in the city before branching off to the different parts of Paraguay.
Anyways, you’re probably wondering what any of this has to do with the title of this blog entry. Wednesday for language class, we took a trip to Itagua and Aregua. They make this really nice Paraguayan lace (called Ñanduti) and hammocks here. We also got to check out this museum for about 10 minutes before they closed, and then went to watch how people make ceramics. In the afternoon, we were back at our training site with Ricardo. We played some games, including the “Random Pieces of Shennanigans Opera” where you split off into 2 teams and each person on each team is given a random object. As a team you have to come up with a play using all of the props, everyone has to participate, and all of the dialogue has to be sung. It was absolutely hilarious what we all came up with. Then we played another game with Ricardo and at the end he gave us all presents – MACHETES!!! He wrote names on each of them. Mine is called The Red Rider (you’ll slice your eye out!) and I love it. We were all super excited to get them. Before leaving the school, we tried throwing limes up in the air and cutting them in half with our machetes. A few people succeeded. I was not one of the few. Apparently I have really bad hand-eye coordination? Regardless though, it was probably the coolest gift we could have gotten. THANKS RICARDO!
So, like I said, swear-in is tomorrow! Next time I post, I’ll be an official PCV! This also means that my address is going to change… sorta. The address I’ve already posted is accurate but instead of writing PCT next to my name, it’ll change to PCV. I may get a mailbox in Santani (a town really close to my site) so if I do, I will post that address on here too.
For now, it’s so long to Santo Domingo. You’ve been great these past 3 months! Tuyango – I’m so excited to call you my new home for the next 2 years. To all of my wonderful blog followers – next post from Tuyango!
Love,
Carden xoxo
So, this is my last post as a Peace Corps trainee – tomorrow is the swearing-in ceremony where me and my training class become official Peace Corps Volunteers. I can’t believe how quickly the past 11 weeks have gone by. It’s crazy to think that 11 weeks ago I was just starting training, barely knew anyone, and couldn’t speak any Guarani. It’s amazing how much things change after a mere 11 weeks. Some of the people that I’ve met have become such good friends of mine that I can’t even imagine not having them in my life at this point. Anyways, enough of that…
What have I done since I last blogged? Well, 2 weeks ago Sunday I killed a chicken! Yes, KILLED A CHICKEN WITH MY BARE HANDS! It was a… unique experience to say the least. Then my sister, my mom, and I cleaned, gutted, and cooked it for lunch. It was super tasty and gave me a new appreciation for food, or rather just chicken.
We spent 2 days last week in Asuncion for class. Tuesday we went to the botanical gardens in Asuncion. It was definitely not what I expected. In the afternoon, we were back at the Peace Corps office for a few sessions and then on Wednesday morning, we were back in Asuncion for a full day of sessions and lectures. We had another library visit and mailroom visit and the librarian told us some information about mail here in Paraguay. It takes a while for it to get here, especially packages. If a package arrives within a month from the time it was sent (by USPS) that’s amazing! If it arrives within 2 months, that’s good. Realistically, it takes about 3ish months for a package to arrive, so those of you that have sent me stuff, don’t worry that I haven’t gotten it yet! There’s still a good chance it’ll arrive in the next few months. Just give me a heads up, please, if you sent something.
Last Friday we had an “Auto Planeado” day where we got to design our own schedule for the day based on interests. A good number of us wanted to go to Luque to see the guitars and harps, so we were fortunate enough to get a driver and spend the morning there. In the afternoon, we were back in Guarambare for a session on plumbing and electricity. I figured this was a good session to attend, considering I have neither running water nor electricity in my future house. Overall, it was a pretty awesome day. I found a really nice guitar in Luque that I really want to go back and get. I hope that I can head back there in a few weeks and make my purchase.
This past week has been interesting, since it was our last full week at our training site. On Tuesday we had our last language interviews and our despedida with our families. All of our families came to the school with food and Diosnel (one of my language teachers here), Jotty (another language teacher here), one of the mom’s here at site, Franco, and Lauren all did speeches. I actually teared up when Diosnel and Jotty did theirs. They both talked about how we leave everything that is familiar to us in the states to come to a new country, a new language, a new culture, and new friends, and that our host families are so welcoming, despite not knowing who they’re going to get. They open their doors to us, help us acclimate, assist us with learning the language(s), and are an incredibly source of support during these few months of training. It makes me really sad that I have to leave this wonderful community and my amazing family. I feel so comfortable here and it sort of stinks that I have to go through the awkwardness all over again with meeting people, figuring out the community, and everything… only this time without other Americans. It’s been an interesting couple of weeks since site visit. It’s just been a weird mix of emotions. Part of me is pulling away from the group, since I’m not going to have them at site and need to fend for myself more and adjust to the “I feel alone” factor, but another part of me wants to live in the here-and-now and just enjoy the remaining time I have with them. Granted, tomorrow we swear-in, so there’s really not much time left to spend with them. I’m really excited for Asuncion this weekend after swearing-in. It’ll be nice to all be together for a few days in the city before branching off to the different parts of Paraguay.
Anyways, you’re probably wondering what any of this has to do with the title of this blog entry. Wednesday for language class, we took a trip to Itagua and Aregua. They make this really nice Paraguayan lace (called Ñanduti) and hammocks here. We also got to check out this museum for about 10 minutes before they closed, and then went to watch how people make ceramics. In the afternoon, we were back at our training site with Ricardo. We played some games, including the “Random Pieces of Shennanigans Opera” where you split off into 2 teams and each person on each team is given a random object. As a team you have to come up with a play using all of the props, everyone has to participate, and all of the dialogue has to be sung. It was absolutely hilarious what we all came up with. Then we played another game with Ricardo and at the end he gave us all presents – MACHETES!!! He wrote names on each of them. Mine is called The Red Rider (you’ll slice your eye out!) and I love it. We were all super excited to get them. Before leaving the school, we tried throwing limes up in the air and cutting them in half with our machetes. A few people succeeded. I was not one of the few. Apparently I have really bad hand-eye coordination? Regardless though, it was probably the coolest gift we could have gotten. THANKS RICARDO!
So, like I said, swear-in is tomorrow! Next time I post, I’ll be an official PCV! This also means that my address is going to change… sorta. The address I’ve already posted is accurate but instead of writing PCT next to my name, it’ll change to PCV. I may get a mailbox in Santani (a town really close to my site) so if I do, I will post that address on here too.
For now, it’s so long to Santo Domingo. You’ve been great these past 3 months! Tuyango – I’m so excited to call you my new home for the next 2 years. To all of my wonderful blog followers – next post from Tuyango!
Love,
Carden xoxo
Saturday, April 17, 2010
All I can say is mmmhmmmm...
Hola todos y mba’eichapa (how are you?) Before I actually get into the juicy part of the blog post I want to apologize to you all for slacking on updating my blog. I know many of you have been eagerly awaiting my next post so you can continue to follow my Paraguayan adventures, so again, sorry to keep you all waiting for so long…
The last time I posted, I had just returned from my PCV visit near San Juan Bautista in the department of Misiones (in the South of Paraguay). Since then we have had our Dias de Practica (days of practice) where we go out in our community and talk to individuals and families in our community to identify community needs. We had 5 dias de practica (DdP) over a period of 6 weeks. I worked with my good friend Amanda and for our first DdP we talked to and terere-ed with a 92 year old woman and her granddaughter. Although we didn’t touch upon any real issues within the community, I did notice a health problem having to do with the older woman’s son. Apparently, he lost his big toe while working (cut it off with a machete) and I noticed that his bandages were incredibly dirty. I found this to be really strange, considering this family lives 2 houses away from the Puesto de Salud (health post). I later asked another person in the community about the health post and whether or not it was staffed. Unfortunately, while we do have a medico that works there, he is hardly ever around. For the second DdP, Amanda and I went to the health post. Our second DdP happened to coincide with a day that the medico has a vaccine clinic at the Puesto de Salud, so he was there. He spoke to us and a few other trainees for a while and stated that he is ALWAYS at the health post, Monday thru Friday all morning. Well, the following week for our DdP we went by and he was not there, despite it being Friday morning. Amanda and I had the idea to try and talk to the medico about finding a way to get medical resources to the community in a more efficient manner. The medico at our health post is also responsible for other towns around us and will occasionally receive phone calls from patients that he will then drive to visit. If he gets a call from another person who needs medication or other health products, he has to drive and deliver them to that person. The idea was to try and minimize his driving time and help out the community by giving them more access to basic first aid materials. However, because he wasn’t there we weren’t able to discuss this with him and instead decided that a charla on first aid would be most beneficial to the community. The 4th DdP was spent making invitations and preparing for our final DdP. The 5th DdP we actually did the first aid charla. Santo (another trainee in my community) decided to join Amanda and I for our charla, so between the 3 of us we taught 7 different topics. I taught CPR, choking, and bleeding, Amanda taught about dehydration and heat exhaustion/heat stroke, and Santo taught about splinting and burns. We had about 20 people show up for our charla and it was really successful. We got great feedback from our tech trainer and one of the professors that stayed for the charla. This was such a great way to practice giving charlas for when we get to site, so I was really happy that it went smoothly and that it was so successful.
March 12 – 13 we had our Technical Excursion where we break up into groups, visit a volunteer, and assist with a project. I went with Ricardo (our tech trainer), Evan, Santo, and Danielle. While the other groups all built fogons (brick ovens), we got to build a brocal (a well). We arrived at site in the afternoon, met the volunteer, our host families, and the albañil (the brick layer dude), and began construction. The well we were building had originally been contained by a large tree trunk for about 10 or 15 years. We bailed out all the water and removed the tree trunk. We had to still dig down farther before we could start actually building the brocal. While we were working, the albañil stepped on a machete and cut his foot open. Despite this, he kept working… que guapo! (Side note: guapo/a here in Paraguay does not mean attractive. Instead, it means hard working.) We finally started brick laying and got a huge portion of the brocal done in the first afternoon there. After, we got to bathe in the arroyo (stream) since there isn’t running water in the community, which was AWESOME! The next morning we woke up early to finish up the brocal. There was a big storm coming in, so we had to work really fast that morning to finish it before the rain came. Good thing we’re such a guapo group and finished it quickly. AND the brocal was super lindo.
March 22 – 26 we had our Practica Larga (Long Field Practice) where we again break up into groups and visit a volunteer for the week. I got to go to Caazapa with an amazing group: Jacob, Eliza, Jordan, and Evan. We left early Monday morning and arrived at site around lunchtime. We all split up and met our host families, had lunch with them, and the regrouped to discuss the plans for the week. We went into Caazapa that afternoon to get groceries and materials for the fogon we were going to construct and went to the ykua (well) in Caazapa. There is a myth that if you drink the water from the spring/well that you won’t leave Caazapa. Well, I drank the water so if I never make it home, assume I’m in Caazapa. After we got back to site, we went to take bricks over to the house where we were going to be building the fogon. The next day it rained all morning, so we got to sleep in and spend time with our host families. My host family was so simpatico (nice). They have 6 kids, but 5 of them don’t live at home anymore. They had one daughter living at home who was 17 and so sweet. One of the grandsons lived there too. He was 7 and was so excited to have me there. When I first arrived, I asked to use their bathroom/latrine and before anyone could even answer, he literally shouted “I’LL SHOW HER!!!” So cute. Anyways, that afternoon we were finally able to go to the house and start building the fogon. Wednesday morning we went back to finish the fogon. However, we had a small problem getting there… our car got stuck in a ditch and it took about and hour and a half to get it out. Two Paraguayan men stopped to help us and we ended up getting wood to make a lever to help lift the back end of the car and get it out. Definitely an interesting start to the morning! We finally made it back to the fogon house and split up into language groups. Evan and Jacob worked on the fogon while Eliza, Jordan, and I had Guarani class. We had lunch with the family we were constructing the fogon for, and finally finished it up after lunch. I was really impressed with how it came out and the woman we built it for was so appreciative and happy with it. We went back to our host families, relaxed for a bit, and then regrouped to prepare for our Planificación Familiar (family planning) charla that we were doing on Thursday morning. The charla was really successful. We had a good number of people show up, mostly teenage-ish girls and a few boys. We taught them about the risks of having children too young, too old, to close together, how to properly use condoms, disproving common myths about condoms, and different birth control methods. After the charla, we were supposed to go prepare for our other charla on reforestación that we would be doing on Friday morning in the school. Well, turns out there wasn’t going to be school on Friday, so instead we quickly prepared for the charla and went to the school in the afternoon. Despite not having a lot of time to prepare, we did a really good job. At the end of the day, we planted trees with some of the students at the school. On Friday morning, we went to a rock quarry near the site and got to swim. It was such a beautiful day and fantastic to swim. For those of you who don’t know, Paraguay is completely landlocked and I wasn’t expecting to do much swimming here, so this was really special. The boys found a good spot where we could climb up the rocks on the side and jump off. Good times. We left right before lunchtime to start our trip back home.
It was so nice to get back to site after Practica Larga. Practica Larga was so fun and it was awesome getting to hear about everybody else’s experiences. While we were at Practica Larga, one of the girls in my group (Carroll) had a birthday, so on Saturday night she had a party at her house. Amanda and I, along with some help from Franko and Evan, baked Carroll a cake that afternoon. The party was a blast. Carroll and her family made a bunch of food, we brought over beer, caña (rum made from sugar cane), and cake, and other trainees brought over food and other alcohol. It was so fun to all be reunited again after a week apart. We ended up staying at Carroll’s until about 2am… I think. Overall, it was a pretty ridiculous night.
The following week was really short because it was Semana Santa (Holy Week), so we had a half day of class on Wednesday, and had Thursday and Friday off. The volunteer that lived here with my family last year came to visit, so it was really fun to have another American living here with me. He was absolutely hilarious and we agreed to both come back here for Semana Santa next year. On Wednesday, all the families make chipa (a traditional bread here in Paraguay). And not just a little bit of chipa. They make a TON of chipa. We had a huge bag full of chipa and were literally eating it for about a week straight. Thursday was awesome because they make a ton of food. We had chicken, chorizo (sausage), asada (BBQ beef), sopa Paraguaya (traditional Paraguayan corn bread), mandioca, and wine. It was probably the best meal I’ve had since I’ve been here. Thursday was just a big day of eating because on Friday, you’re not supposed to eat at all, even though my family did. Overall, Semana Santa was fantastic and really relaxing. It was nice to spend so much time with my family and other trainees and not have to worry about or deal with classes.
Wednesday, April 7 was a really exciting day for us all – Site Assignment! They had pretty good sessions all day, but it was hard to focus when we knew at the end of the day we would be getting our future sites/homes for the next 2 years. Right before we got our assignments, one of the guys in my group announced to us that he was going home. I was really sad because he became one of my closest friends here and I really did not want him to leave. I think one of the hardest things is that coming down with my training class of 49 people, I just always envisioned that we’d all make it through the 27 months here together. I figured that we’d all be here for each other and help each other through the rocky times and in the end, we’d all leave Paraguay together as a group of 49. I think by having people leave it reminds us that going home is always an option. Anyways, we got our site assignments and the place I’ll be calling “home” for the next 2 years is called Tuyango located in San Pedro (Northeast of Asuncion). I am about 4 hours away from Asuncion by bus and about an hour away from my good friend Amanda. There are another 3 volunteers from my training class that are also in San Pedro with me. On Thursday morning, we all left for the retreat center where we would be meeting our contacts who would then take us to site on Friday morning. It was fun being at the retreat center with everyone. It was absolutely gorgeous there. On Friday morning, another member of my group decided to go home as well. The combination of having two of my friends from my community leave was really tough and I spent most of the morning in tears. I felt so bad for my contact, but explained to her the situation and she was incredibly understanding. I will admit, I’ve been really homesick since they left, but I know in my heart that I want to be here and I know that I have a lot of work opportunities in my community. We spent 5 days at site, so I got to visit the escuela, colegio (High School), Puesto de Salud, and met a bunch of different people there. Everyone in Tuyango is so nice and I know it will be a great match for me. I was also fortunate to still have the other volunteer there that I will be following up. She showed me around the community, introduced me to people, and gave me ideas for different projects I can do within the community. There is a woman in the community who wants to get a commission started for a modern bathroom project. Most of Tuyango has running water and electricity, but most people do not have modern bathrooms, meaning they are using latrines. There are also a lot of work opportunities in both the escuela and colegio. One project I’m excited about is the World Map project where you paint a world map for the school. My main contact at site is the nurse at the Puesto de Salud and she also told me I can work there with her. I’m really excited because she said she would teach me pretty much anything I wanted to learn, including giving vaccines, pelvic exams for women, etc. We will also work together to give charlas on Planificación Familiar. While visiting site, I also found a potential house for me to live in! It needs a lot of work before I can move in, but it is 3 rooms and really cute. I’ll have to repaint the house, put electricity and running water in, build a latrine and shower, put in lighting, among other things. This will definitely keep me occupied during my first few months at site. Looking back and thinking about site visit, I’m getting much more excited about going back. I will admit that site visit was hard, considering the events leading up to it, but now that I’m reflecting on the visit and the work I can do there, I’m really excited to go back.
We have 2 weeks of training left and then we have our swearing in ceremony on April 30. The swearing in ceremony is where we become official Peace Corps Volunteers. We spend the weekend in Asuncion (if we want) and then have to be at site by May 4. It’s awesome because there is this concert called Ahendu (Guarani for “to listen”) on Saturday night and it’s a mix of music from different cultures (American and Paraguayan). I’ll actually be performing in it, so I’m pretty pumped about that. I’m playing guitar and singing a song, and then doing a duet with another friend. I’ll try to have someone tape it so I can post it here for you all! Anyways, I’ll be in Asuncion Friday night and Saturday night to spend time with my training class, and then on Sunday I’ll be coming back to Santo Domingo to spend some time with my family and pack up. I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone by already!
Well, that’s pretty much all for now! Again, sorry for slacking so much with the blog, but I hope this post can make it up to you all and that you all feel caught up with my life here in Paraguay. Please drop me a line sometime and let me know how you all are doing back home, too! I miss you all tremendously and remember, if you want to come visit, I have a nice 3 room home in Tuyango that would love to have some visitors pass though :0)
Love,
Carden xoxo
PS. Mom and Dad – I finally got my birthday card! It only took 2 months… hahahaha Love you both a lot!
The last time I posted, I had just returned from my PCV visit near San Juan Bautista in the department of Misiones (in the South of Paraguay). Since then we have had our Dias de Practica (days of practice) where we go out in our community and talk to individuals and families in our community to identify community needs. We had 5 dias de practica (DdP) over a period of 6 weeks. I worked with my good friend Amanda and for our first DdP we talked to and terere-ed with a 92 year old woman and her granddaughter. Although we didn’t touch upon any real issues within the community, I did notice a health problem having to do with the older woman’s son. Apparently, he lost his big toe while working (cut it off with a machete) and I noticed that his bandages were incredibly dirty. I found this to be really strange, considering this family lives 2 houses away from the Puesto de Salud (health post). I later asked another person in the community about the health post and whether or not it was staffed. Unfortunately, while we do have a medico that works there, he is hardly ever around. For the second DdP, Amanda and I went to the health post. Our second DdP happened to coincide with a day that the medico has a vaccine clinic at the Puesto de Salud, so he was there. He spoke to us and a few other trainees for a while and stated that he is ALWAYS at the health post, Monday thru Friday all morning. Well, the following week for our DdP we went by and he was not there, despite it being Friday morning. Amanda and I had the idea to try and talk to the medico about finding a way to get medical resources to the community in a more efficient manner. The medico at our health post is also responsible for other towns around us and will occasionally receive phone calls from patients that he will then drive to visit. If he gets a call from another person who needs medication or other health products, he has to drive and deliver them to that person. The idea was to try and minimize his driving time and help out the community by giving them more access to basic first aid materials. However, because he wasn’t there we weren’t able to discuss this with him and instead decided that a charla on first aid would be most beneficial to the community. The 4th DdP was spent making invitations and preparing for our final DdP. The 5th DdP we actually did the first aid charla. Santo (another trainee in my community) decided to join Amanda and I for our charla, so between the 3 of us we taught 7 different topics. I taught CPR, choking, and bleeding, Amanda taught about dehydration and heat exhaustion/heat stroke, and Santo taught about splinting and burns. We had about 20 people show up for our charla and it was really successful. We got great feedback from our tech trainer and one of the professors that stayed for the charla. This was such a great way to practice giving charlas for when we get to site, so I was really happy that it went smoothly and that it was so successful.
March 12 – 13 we had our Technical Excursion where we break up into groups, visit a volunteer, and assist with a project. I went with Ricardo (our tech trainer), Evan, Santo, and Danielle. While the other groups all built fogons (brick ovens), we got to build a brocal (a well). We arrived at site in the afternoon, met the volunteer, our host families, and the albañil (the brick layer dude), and began construction. The well we were building had originally been contained by a large tree trunk for about 10 or 15 years. We bailed out all the water and removed the tree trunk. We had to still dig down farther before we could start actually building the brocal. While we were working, the albañil stepped on a machete and cut his foot open. Despite this, he kept working… que guapo! (Side note: guapo/a here in Paraguay does not mean attractive. Instead, it means hard working.) We finally started brick laying and got a huge portion of the brocal done in the first afternoon there. After, we got to bathe in the arroyo (stream) since there isn’t running water in the community, which was AWESOME! The next morning we woke up early to finish up the brocal. There was a big storm coming in, so we had to work really fast that morning to finish it before the rain came. Good thing we’re such a guapo group and finished it quickly. AND the brocal was super lindo.
March 22 – 26 we had our Practica Larga (Long Field Practice) where we again break up into groups and visit a volunteer for the week. I got to go to Caazapa with an amazing group: Jacob, Eliza, Jordan, and Evan. We left early Monday morning and arrived at site around lunchtime. We all split up and met our host families, had lunch with them, and the regrouped to discuss the plans for the week. We went into Caazapa that afternoon to get groceries and materials for the fogon we were going to construct and went to the ykua (well) in Caazapa. There is a myth that if you drink the water from the spring/well that you won’t leave Caazapa. Well, I drank the water so if I never make it home, assume I’m in Caazapa. After we got back to site, we went to take bricks over to the house where we were going to be building the fogon. The next day it rained all morning, so we got to sleep in and spend time with our host families. My host family was so simpatico (nice). They have 6 kids, but 5 of them don’t live at home anymore. They had one daughter living at home who was 17 and so sweet. One of the grandsons lived there too. He was 7 and was so excited to have me there. When I first arrived, I asked to use their bathroom/latrine and before anyone could even answer, he literally shouted “I’LL SHOW HER!!!” So cute. Anyways, that afternoon we were finally able to go to the house and start building the fogon. Wednesday morning we went back to finish the fogon. However, we had a small problem getting there… our car got stuck in a ditch and it took about and hour and a half to get it out. Two Paraguayan men stopped to help us and we ended up getting wood to make a lever to help lift the back end of the car and get it out. Definitely an interesting start to the morning! We finally made it back to the fogon house and split up into language groups. Evan and Jacob worked on the fogon while Eliza, Jordan, and I had Guarani class. We had lunch with the family we were constructing the fogon for, and finally finished it up after lunch. I was really impressed with how it came out and the woman we built it for was so appreciative and happy with it. We went back to our host families, relaxed for a bit, and then regrouped to prepare for our Planificación Familiar (family planning) charla that we were doing on Thursday morning. The charla was really successful. We had a good number of people show up, mostly teenage-ish girls and a few boys. We taught them about the risks of having children too young, too old, to close together, how to properly use condoms, disproving common myths about condoms, and different birth control methods. After the charla, we were supposed to go prepare for our other charla on reforestación that we would be doing on Friday morning in the school. Well, turns out there wasn’t going to be school on Friday, so instead we quickly prepared for the charla and went to the school in the afternoon. Despite not having a lot of time to prepare, we did a really good job. At the end of the day, we planted trees with some of the students at the school. On Friday morning, we went to a rock quarry near the site and got to swim. It was such a beautiful day and fantastic to swim. For those of you who don’t know, Paraguay is completely landlocked and I wasn’t expecting to do much swimming here, so this was really special. The boys found a good spot where we could climb up the rocks on the side and jump off. Good times. We left right before lunchtime to start our trip back home.
It was so nice to get back to site after Practica Larga. Practica Larga was so fun and it was awesome getting to hear about everybody else’s experiences. While we were at Practica Larga, one of the girls in my group (Carroll) had a birthday, so on Saturday night she had a party at her house. Amanda and I, along with some help from Franko and Evan, baked Carroll a cake that afternoon. The party was a blast. Carroll and her family made a bunch of food, we brought over beer, caña (rum made from sugar cane), and cake, and other trainees brought over food and other alcohol. It was so fun to all be reunited again after a week apart. We ended up staying at Carroll’s until about 2am… I think. Overall, it was a pretty ridiculous night.
The following week was really short because it was Semana Santa (Holy Week), so we had a half day of class on Wednesday, and had Thursday and Friday off. The volunteer that lived here with my family last year came to visit, so it was really fun to have another American living here with me. He was absolutely hilarious and we agreed to both come back here for Semana Santa next year. On Wednesday, all the families make chipa (a traditional bread here in Paraguay). And not just a little bit of chipa. They make a TON of chipa. We had a huge bag full of chipa and were literally eating it for about a week straight. Thursday was awesome because they make a ton of food. We had chicken, chorizo (sausage), asada (BBQ beef), sopa Paraguaya (traditional Paraguayan corn bread), mandioca, and wine. It was probably the best meal I’ve had since I’ve been here. Thursday was just a big day of eating because on Friday, you’re not supposed to eat at all, even though my family did. Overall, Semana Santa was fantastic and really relaxing. It was nice to spend so much time with my family and other trainees and not have to worry about or deal with classes.
Wednesday, April 7 was a really exciting day for us all – Site Assignment! They had pretty good sessions all day, but it was hard to focus when we knew at the end of the day we would be getting our future sites/homes for the next 2 years. Right before we got our assignments, one of the guys in my group announced to us that he was going home. I was really sad because he became one of my closest friends here and I really did not want him to leave. I think one of the hardest things is that coming down with my training class of 49 people, I just always envisioned that we’d all make it through the 27 months here together. I figured that we’d all be here for each other and help each other through the rocky times and in the end, we’d all leave Paraguay together as a group of 49. I think by having people leave it reminds us that going home is always an option. Anyways, we got our site assignments and the place I’ll be calling “home” for the next 2 years is called Tuyango located in San Pedro (Northeast of Asuncion). I am about 4 hours away from Asuncion by bus and about an hour away from my good friend Amanda. There are another 3 volunteers from my training class that are also in San Pedro with me. On Thursday morning, we all left for the retreat center where we would be meeting our contacts who would then take us to site on Friday morning. It was fun being at the retreat center with everyone. It was absolutely gorgeous there. On Friday morning, another member of my group decided to go home as well. The combination of having two of my friends from my community leave was really tough and I spent most of the morning in tears. I felt so bad for my contact, but explained to her the situation and she was incredibly understanding. I will admit, I’ve been really homesick since they left, but I know in my heart that I want to be here and I know that I have a lot of work opportunities in my community. We spent 5 days at site, so I got to visit the escuela, colegio (High School), Puesto de Salud, and met a bunch of different people there. Everyone in Tuyango is so nice and I know it will be a great match for me. I was also fortunate to still have the other volunteer there that I will be following up. She showed me around the community, introduced me to people, and gave me ideas for different projects I can do within the community. There is a woman in the community who wants to get a commission started for a modern bathroom project. Most of Tuyango has running water and electricity, but most people do not have modern bathrooms, meaning they are using latrines. There are also a lot of work opportunities in both the escuela and colegio. One project I’m excited about is the World Map project where you paint a world map for the school. My main contact at site is the nurse at the Puesto de Salud and she also told me I can work there with her. I’m really excited because she said she would teach me pretty much anything I wanted to learn, including giving vaccines, pelvic exams for women, etc. We will also work together to give charlas on Planificación Familiar. While visiting site, I also found a potential house for me to live in! It needs a lot of work before I can move in, but it is 3 rooms and really cute. I’ll have to repaint the house, put electricity and running water in, build a latrine and shower, put in lighting, among other things. This will definitely keep me occupied during my first few months at site. Looking back and thinking about site visit, I’m getting much more excited about going back. I will admit that site visit was hard, considering the events leading up to it, but now that I’m reflecting on the visit and the work I can do there, I’m really excited to go back.
We have 2 weeks of training left and then we have our swearing in ceremony on April 30. The swearing in ceremony is where we become official Peace Corps Volunteers. We spend the weekend in Asuncion (if we want) and then have to be at site by May 4. It’s awesome because there is this concert called Ahendu (Guarani for “to listen”) on Saturday night and it’s a mix of music from different cultures (American and Paraguayan). I’ll actually be performing in it, so I’m pretty pumped about that. I’m playing guitar and singing a song, and then doing a duet with another friend. I’ll try to have someone tape it so I can post it here for you all! Anyways, I’ll be in Asuncion Friday night and Saturday night to spend time with my training class, and then on Sunday I’ll be coming back to Santo Domingo to spend some time with my family and pack up. I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone by already!
Well, that’s pretty much all for now! Again, sorry for slacking so much with the blog, but I hope this post can make it up to you all and that you all feel caught up with my life here in Paraguay. Please drop me a line sometime and let me know how you all are doing back home, too! I miss you all tremendously and remember, if you want to come visit, I have a nice 3 room home in Tuyango that would love to have some visitors pass though :0)
Love,
Carden xoxo
PS. Mom and Dad – I finally got my birthday card! It only took 2 months… hahahaha Love you both a lot!
Thursday, April 15, 2010
I don´t break promises.
So for those of you on facebook, you saw that yesterday I posted that I´d most definitely have a new blog entry for you today. Well, I got home late from my site visit and therefore didn´t write a good blog entry, but I don´t break promises so I figured I´d at least post a little somethin somethin for you all to let you know I´m alive and well. Training is almost done and things are settling down a little bit, so I will write up a long blog post this week and tell you all about Tech Overnight, Long Field Practice, and my future site and home for the next 2 years!
Love to you all!
xoxo Carden
Love to you all!
xoxo Carden
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Viaje!
Since I last blogged, I visited Asunción and visited a current health PCV at her site. On Wednesday, the health group went to Asuncion for class. During the morning, we were each assigned a partner and a “mission”. I was paired up with Jacob and we had to go to Fundación Paraguay (Paraguay Foundation) and Cruz Roja (Red Cross). Fundacion Paraguay was really cool. They have worked with the Peace Corps in the past and help with microfinancing and have a great program called Junior Achievement. Basically, the Junior Achievement program encourages kids in rural communities to stay in school. My understanding of part of the program was that students could pay half tuition to go and the other half would be paid by working for the school, but I could have misunderstood that. Additionally, in your last year at school, you have a day where you shadow a professional in a field you are considering pursuing. It’s a great idea because a lot of kids here don’t finish school. Many girls leave school early to help raise the kids at home and to help the mom with chores, while boys leave school early to help the dad work. The Red Cross was not as interesting. We were supposed to talk with a woman there about their HIV/AIDS programs, however, that person passed us off to a really cute, sweet old lady who told us about the history of the Red Cross. Definitely not what Jacob or I had in mind when going. By the time we left the Red Cross, it was noon and we had to be back at the Peace Corps office at 12:45 and we still hadn’t eaten. We decided to go grab lunch and were late getting back to the office. Oops. BUT I did have an AMAZING lunch – a Gus burger (hamburger with a fried egg on top… Yummm). We got back to the Peace Corps office around 1:30. The Peace Corps office is really nice. They have a big library there with computers for us to use and tons of books. Some of the books are from PCVs that left books behind and others are owned by the PC office. On our way back to Santo Domingo, we convinced our Technical Trainer to stop for ice cream. We stopped at this really chuchi place called sugar, and between 11 of us, we ate 2 kilos of ice cream. It was AMAZING.
On Friday we had tech training in the afternoon in Guasu Cora (the other site where RHS volunteers are posted – right across the main ruta from us). It was nice because it was the first time we’ve had tech training there. After class, I stayed for a bit to play guitar with Josh for a bit. It was nice to finally be able to play again. Josh walked me back to Santo Domingo that night and we ended up at Jordan’s (another guy in my community) house drinking beer and talking. Jordan’s mom here has a dispensa (store) so it’s really convenient to go to their house and grab some beers and hang out. Life is tough.
The next morning, we were all up early to visit our volunteers at their sites. It was nice because I was able to travel with a few other people almost all the way to site. Unfortunately, the bus was really crowded though and we had to stand a good hour and a half or 2 of a 3ish hour trip. When I got off the bus, I met up with my host volunteer, Anne. We grabbed lunch and then headed to the grocery store so we could cook for the weekend. It was so nice being able to cook all weekend. We made a veggie potpie type thing on Sat night, which was delicious, and chocolate cake. For the record, we ate the whole chocolate cake during the few days I was there. On Sunday, we traveled to Carapegua, which is about an hour and a half away from Anne’s site. We met up with a few other volunteers in Carapegua and grabbed lunch and beers. We sat around at this restaurant/bar and watched the soccer game. It was crazy because it was the 2 Paraguayan teams. Olimpia won (YAY!) and people went nuts. It was a lot of fun being in the middle of it all. Later that evening we were walking around trying to find a party or something to do, and we found a few Paraguayan guys drinking in front of a bank, so naturally we joined them. There were still motos and cars driving all over from the game and a number of the cars were blasting music, so we were standing in front of the bank with drinks and dancing. Probably one of the most unique experiences in my life. I can honestly say that I never imagined myself doing that. The dispensa across the street from the bank was also playing music, so eventually we moved the party there and had an epic dance party in the dispensa. So much fun. We met a bunch of Paraguayan guys and I may or may not have 8-12 Paraguayan boyfriends. We finally caught a bus home that night and got back to Anne’s around 3:30am. Monday was a holiday so we slept in. We just relaxed all day, took a walk in the afternoon, and had mac n cheese for the dinner. Hint hint – care packages with mac n cheese and other fantastic American foods would be wonderful! :0) Overall, it was a really good weekend. It was nice getting to talk to Anne about her experience as a volunteer and learning about her community and her work. I left yesterday morning to come back to Santo Domingo. As much fun as it was to be away from here, I really missed my family here and the other PCTs. I was so happy to get back and see the other volunteers. I can’t imagine what it’ll be like when we all leave for site and I’m not around these people constantly.
By the way, pictures are up on facebook and I’ll be setting up another page for people who don’t have facebook so they can see my pics too. As soon as I have it up, I’ll post the address on here.
Love,
Carden xoxo
On Friday we had tech training in the afternoon in Guasu Cora (the other site where RHS volunteers are posted – right across the main ruta from us). It was nice because it was the first time we’ve had tech training there. After class, I stayed for a bit to play guitar with Josh for a bit. It was nice to finally be able to play again. Josh walked me back to Santo Domingo that night and we ended up at Jordan’s (another guy in my community) house drinking beer and talking. Jordan’s mom here has a dispensa (store) so it’s really convenient to go to their house and grab some beers and hang out. Life is tough.
The next morning, we were all up early to visit our volunteers at their sites. It was nice because I was able to travel with a few other people almost all the way to site. Unfortunately, the bus was really crowded though and we had to stand a good hour and a half or 2 of a 3ish hour trip. When I got off the bus, I met up with my host volunteer, Anne. We grabbed lunch and then headed to the grocery store so we could cook for the weekend. It was so nice being able to cook all weekend. We made a veggie potpie type thing on Sat night, which was delicious, and chocolate cake. For the record, we ate the whole chocolate cake during the few days I was there. On Sunday, we traveled to Carapegua, which is about an hour and a half away from Anne’s site. We met up with a few other volunteers in Carapegua and grabbed lunch and beers. We sat around at this restaurant/bar and watched the soccer game. It was crazy because it was the 2 Paraguayan teams. Olimpia won (YAY!) and people went nuts. It was a lot of fun being in the middle of it all. Later that evening we were walking around trying to find a party or something to do, and we found a few Paraguayan guys drinking in front of a bank, so naturally we joined them. There were still motos and cars driving all over from the game and a number of the cars were blasting music, so we were standing in front of the bank with drinks and dancing. Probably one of the most unique experiences in my life. I can honestly say that I never imagined myself doing that. The dispensa across the street from the bank was also playing music, so eventually we moved the party there and had an epic dance party in the dispensa. So much fun. We met a bunch of Paraguayan guys and I may or may not have 8-12 Paraguayan boyfriends. We finally caught a bus home that night and got back to Anne’s around 3:30am. Monday was a holiday so we slept in. We just relaxed all day, took a walk in the afternoon, and had mac n cheese for the dinner. Hint hint – care packages with mac n cheese and other fantastic American foods would be wonderful! :0) Overall, it was a really good weekend. It was nice getting to talk to Anne about her experience as a volunteer and learning about her community and her work. I left yesterday morning to come back to Santo Domingo. As much fun as it was to be away from here, I really missed my family here and the other PCTs. I was so happy to get back and see the other volunteers. I can’t imagine what it’ll be like when we all leave for site and I’m not around these people constantly.
By the way, pictures are up on facebook and I’ll be setting up another page for people who don’t have facebook so they can see my pics too. As soon as I have it up, I’ll post the address on here.
Love,
Carden xoxo
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
PARAGUAY!!!
Hi all!
Sorry for the delay in blogging. I haven’t had much time to actually get out my computer and write one of these. I’m having a great time here in
Aside from classes, we’ve had a few days in Guarambaré with the rest of my G (training group). In my G, there are 49 people: 24 in rural health and sanitation (RHS), 12 in early elementary education (EEE), and 13 in urban youth development (UYD). It’s really nice when we’re all together in Guarambaré, since I really don’t see the EEE or UYD people otherwise. When we’re not in Guarambaré, we’re at our satellite community/training site (in my case
My birthday here was definitely different but really special. On my birthday, my family cooked a special dinner and bought me a gift. I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better family. Even my extended family here is amazing. My aunt and cousin here baked a cake and brought it over that night for my birthday celebration. During the day, the other 12 RHS volunteers came over for technical training and they sang happy birthday to me as soon as they got out of the van and brought me a cake. After class, the rest of my
This past Saturday in Villeta (another town near me) there was Carneval. I went with 2 other PCTs from my site and 7 from the other RHS community. We all piled into this taxi van thing with no seats. Instead of real seats it was plastic lawn chairs that were put in. We arrived a while before the parade started, so we grabbed some drinks and talked for a bit. At the parade people would buy cans of foam and spray it at each other. It was a blast, even though I got an ass ton of foam in my eyes. After that, we went to a club and danced for hours. Most of the music was in Spanish, but they did play some Black Eyed Peas. Naturally, we went crazy when “I Gotta Feeling” came on. We didn’t get home til close to 3:30.
Tomorrow we go to
Hope everyone is well back home! Miss and love you all!
Love,
Carden xoxo
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Mailing address
Completely forgot to post this in the last entry. While I created the blog to keep my family and friends back home updated about my life in Paraguay, I'm not entirely sure what my living situation will be or how often I will have internet access. As a result, the easiest and most efficient way to stay in contact will be good old fashioned snail mail! It might be good to number your letters to me, just so we can keep track of the letters in case one doesn't arrive (an estimated 80% of letters between the US and Paraguay arrive, which is very good for a developing country!) Also, airmail usually takes about 2-3 weeks, whereas surface mail can take months. My address during my first 3 months is:
Carden Ryder, PCT
Cuerpo de Paz
162 Chaco Boreal c/Mcal. López
Asunción 1580, Paraguay
South America
Just FYI - PCT stands for Peace Corps Trainee. This address is valid my
first 3 months (while I'm a trainee). Once I get my site, I will update the
address again. Once I'm sworn in as a volunteer, I become a PCV (Peace
Corps Volunteer).
For those of you who don't know much about Paraguay, I found a video on a
current PCV's blog. This shows a lot about the lifestyle in Paraguay.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZA78xUzwTA
Enjoy and please keep in touch!
Carden Ryder, PCT
Cuerpo de Paz
162 Chaco Boreal c/Mcal. López
Asunción 1580, Paraguay
South America
Just FYI - PCT stands for Peace Corps Trainee. This address is valid my
first 3 months (while I'm a trainee). Once I get my site, I will update the
address again. Once I'm sworn in as a volunteer, I become a PCV (Peace
Corps Volunteer).
For those of you who don't know much about Paraguay, I found a video on a
current PCV's blog. This shows a lot about the lifestyle in Paraguay.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Enjoy and please keep in touch!
I got my toes in the water, ass in the sand... well, almost.
So here I am, 5 nights away from leaving the northeast and have I started packing? 500 dollars if you get this answer right. If you said yes, you're wrong and don't get 500 dollars. If you said no, you're right. You also don't get 500 dollars. I lied.
It's not that I'm not ready to go. I'm DYING to get out of Newtown and have wanted this for so long. I guess it's more that I'm not even sure where to begin. It's hard to figure out what to bring for 27 months. Granted, I'm only allowed 2 checked bags with a maximum combined weight of 80 pounds, so already I'm somewhat limited. I've sort of already mentally decided some of the stuff I'm bringing, it's just a matter of actually getting it all together. To those of you that have been away from home for an extended period of time, and even those of you that haven't, can you think of anything you'd want to bring if you were in my shoes?
Anyways, the next few days will definitely be busy. I'm heading up to Boston tomorrow to see some friends before I go, back to CT on Tuesday to spend the day with my lovely Justyna and my niece Maddie, EHAC Wednesday, and then last minute scrambling things together on Thursday, then it's off to Florida early Friday morning! :0)
Okay, enough procrastinating. Time to start packing.
It's not that I'm not ready to go. I'm DYING to get out of Newtown and have wanted this for so long. I guess it's more that I'm not even sure where to begin. It's hard to figure out what to bring for 27 months. Granted, I'm only allowed 2 checked bags with a maximum combined weight of 80 pounds, so already I'm somewhat limited. I've sort of already mentally decided some of the stuff I'm bringing, it's just a matter of actually getting it all together. To those of you that have been away from home for an extended period of time, and even those of you that haven't, can you think of anything you'd want to bring if you were in my shoes?
Anyways, the next few days will definitely be busy. I'm heading up to Boston tomorrow to see some friends before I go, back to CT on Tuesday to spend the day with my lovely Justyna and my niece Maddie, EHAC Wednesday, and then last minute scrambling things together on Thursday, then it's off to Florida early Friday morning! :0)
Okay, enough procrastinating. Time to start packing.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
29 days and counting...
For those of you who don't know, I'm leaving for the Peace Corps in Paraguay on Feb. 9. I'll actually be heading down to Miami on the 5th to spend some time with my grandparents down there and then on the 8th I report for staging, which is my pre-departure orientation. Maybe I'll backtrack a bit more...
Summer after I graduated from High School I decided I wanted to join the Peace Corps. I went to BU, yet the entire time there, I was thinking about what my next move would be once I graduated and I always gravitated toward the idea of applying to join the Peace Corps. Finally during my junior year, I began the application process. I set it aside for some time and finally finished the application in Dec 2008. I interviewed on Feb. 13 and received my nomination that day. My original nomination was for North Africa/Middle East working as a health volunteer. On Dec. 16 I got my formal invitation to join. I'll be working as a health volunteer. I'm really excited about my project. I'll be educating the people in my village on dental health, nutrition, proper food handling and preparation, parasite prevention, reproductive health, STD's, STI's, HIV/AIDS, proper waste disposal methods, hygiene, and how to clean and protect water sources.
So until I leave, I'll be tying up loose ends, getting everything in order for my 27 months abroad, and saying goodbye to family and friends. I'm really looking forward to beginning this next step of my life. May the adventure begin!
Love,
Carden xoxo
Summer after I graduated from High School I decided I wanted to join the Peace Corps. I went to BU, yet the entire time there, I was thinking about what my next move would be once I graduated and I always gravitated toward the idea of applying to join the Peace Corps. Finally during my junior year, I began the application process. I set it aside for some time and finally finished the application in Dec 2008. I interviewed on Feb. 13 and received my nomination that day. My original nomination was for North Africa/Middle East working as a health volunteer. On Dec. 16 I got my formal invitation to join. I'll be working as a health volunteer. I'm really excited about my project. I'll be educating the people in my village on dental health, nutrition, proper food handling and preparation, parasite prevention, reproductive health, STD's, STI's, HIV/AIDS, proper waste disposal methods, hygiene, and how to clean and protect water sources.
So until I leave, I'll be tying up loose ends, getting everything in order for my 27 months abroad, and saying goodbye to family and friends. I'm really looking forward to beginning this next step of my life. May the adventure begin!
Love,
Carden xoxo
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