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
Thursday, May 20, 2010
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
