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!
