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 Guarambaré, Paraguay. That being said though, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss home. I’ve definitely had my moments where I get homesick, but I know this is a great experience for me and I’m going to stick it out. It definitely helps that we’ve kept super busy here. I have class Monday thru Friday 7:45 til 11:45 and then 1-5. Saturday we have class in the morning. The mornings are language training and in the afternoons we have technical training. Language has definitely been tough. I’m in the Guarani class, which is the indigenous language of the Paraguayans and is spoken a lot in the campo. I’m not gonna lie, my head pretty much wants to explode by the time I’m done with the class. I love it, but it’s definitely intense sitting through 4 hours of language training every morning. The technical training has been really cool. Last week we started making a losa for a latrine and today we’re pouring the cement for it. We also made soy empanadas, soap, detergent, and dug trash pits last week. I really like the hands on learning with this stuff. It’s it tough though, considering it is in the 90s and humid every day here. It doesn’t rain much so the grass is really dry and the dirt is bright red and stains all my clothes. We have had a few big rainstorms, though. Last week I was walking back from the internet cafe with 3 other girls in my group and we got caught in the middle of a huge storm. We were running back home and crossing by this field when there was a huge bolt of lightning and a super loud clap of thunder incredibly close to where we were. We ended up running to the house of one of the guys in our group and hung out there for about an hour while it poured ass.
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 Santo Domingo) and we go to school here. I’m in SD with 11 other PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) and the 12 of us have classes together every day and hang out after class together to play futbol, etc. We all live with host families in our satellite communities. My family is absolutely amazing. My mom is named Mariana (like my mom!), I have a sister that is my age, and my little brother has the same birthday as my youngest brother back home. It definitely made me feel closer to them right from the get go just because of these things. My dad is really cool too. He taught me how to milk the cow this past weekend, which was awesome. The one thing I’ve definitely had a hard time adjusting to is the food. It’s a lot of meat and a lot of carbs (think of a huge plate of pasta and like 4 huge hunks of meat) and little to no veggies, and pretty repetitive. I made a comment about the veggies to my family one day because they think I don’t eat. I explained to them how back at home I eat a lot of veggies and I’m not accustomed to this quantity and type of food, so the next day at lunch they had a salad for me. Aside from the lack of veggies right now, there are a ton of fruits. Mango season just ended, but there are still some around. Outside of my house, we have a guayaba tree, so I can literally walk outside, pick one off the tree and eat it. The bananas are so good here. Apparently around Christmastime there are a ton of watermelons. Avocado season is coming up now too, so I’m pretty much going to be in heaven. Some PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) that I’ve talked to said that it definitely gets better, especially with the veggies. During training, we’re at the end of vegetable season for most things. It’s too hot to grow a lot of crops right now, but during other times of the year, it’s definitely better. They’ve also said that once you’re at site and living on your own, it’s so much easier to incorporate veggies into your diet since you’re cooking for yourself.
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 Santo Domingo group and I went to the house of one of the PCTs here since his mom owns a small dispensa (store) and sells beer. We sat around, drank beer, listened to music, and told lots of dirty/racist/inappropriate/Helen Keller jokes. I really love all of my friends here. It meant a lot to me that people made a big deal out of my birthday even though they had only known me for a little over a week at that point, so THANK YOU GUYS!!! :0) The day after my birthday I got a puppy. He’s probably about one month old and is the cutest thing ever! His name is Bauer because Jack Bauer from 24 is such a badass.
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 Asuncion (the capitol city) for class. We break up into groups of 2 and have a “mission”. I have to go to the Red Cross and Fundacion Paraguay. Then we meet back at the Peace Corps office in Asuncion for an office tour and paperwork. Saturday thru Tuesday we’re off visiting current PCVs at their sites. I’m really excited for it. I’ll post again next week to write about Asuncion and our site visits!
Hope everyone is well back home! Miss and love you all!
Love,
Carden xoxo
