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