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

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 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

Mailing address

Completely forgot to post this in the last entry. While I created the blog to keep my family and friends back home updated about my life in Paraguay, I'm not entirely sure what my living situation will be or how often I will have internet access. As a result, the easiest and most efficient way to stay in contact will be good old fashioned snail mail! It might be good to number your letters to me, just so we can keep track of the letters in case one doesn't arrive (an estimated 80% of letters between the US and Paraguay arrive, which is very good for a developing country!) Also, airmail usually takes about 2-3 weeks, whereas surface mail can take months. My address during my first 3 months is:

Carden Ryder, PCT
Cuerpo de Paz
162 Chaco Boreal c/Mcal. López
Asunción 1580, Paraguay
South America

Just FYI - PCT stands for Peace Corps Trainee. This address is valid my
first 3 months (while I'm a trainee). Once I get my site, I will update the
address again. Once I'm sworn in as a volunteer, I become a PCV (Peace
Corps Volunteer).

For those of you who don't know much about Paraguay, I found a video on a
current PCV's blog. This shows a lot about the lifestyle in Paraguay.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZA78xUzwTA

Enjoy and please keep in touch!

I got my toes in the water, ass in the sand... well, almost.

So here I am, 5 nights away from leaving the northeast and have I started packing? 500 dollars if you get this answer right. If you said yes, you're wrong and don't get 500 dollars. If you said no, you're right. You also don't get 500 dollars. I lied.

It's not that I'm not ready to go. I'm DYING to get out of Newtown and have wanted this for so long. I guess it's more that I'm not even sure where to begin. It's hard to figure out what to bring for 27 months. Granted, I'm only allowed 2 checked bags with a maximum combined weight of 80 pounds, so already I'm somewhat limited. I've sort of already mentally decided some of the stuff I'm bringing, it's just a matter of actually getting it all together. To those of you that have been away from home for an extended period of time, and even those of you that haven't, can you think of anything you'd want to bring if you were in my shoes?

Anyways, the next few days will definitely be busy. I'm heading up to Boston tomorrow to see some friends before I go, back to CT on Tuesday to spend the day with my lovely Justyna and my niece Maddie, EHAC Wednesday, and then last minute scrambling things together on Thursday, then it's off to Florida early Friday morning! :0)

Okay, enough procrastinating. Time to start packing.

29 days and counting...

For those of you who don't know, I'm leaving for the Peace Corps in Paraguay on Feb. 9. I'll actually be heading down to Miami on the 5th to spend some time with my grandparents down there and then on the 8th I report for staging, which is my pre-departure orientation. Maybe I'll backtrack a bit more...

Summer after I graduated from High School I decided I wanted to join the Peace Corps. I went to BU, yet the entire time there, I was thinking about what my next move would be once I graduated and I always gravitated toward the idea of applying to join the Peace Corps. Finally during my junior year, I began the application process. I set it aside for some time and finally finished the application in Dec 2008. I interviewed on Feb. 13 and received my nomination that day. My original nomination was for North Africa/Middle East working as a health volunteer. On Dec. 16 I got my formal invitation to join. I'll be working as a health volunteer. I'm really excited about my project. I'll be educating the people in my village on dental health, nutrition, proper food handling and preparation, parasite prevention, reproductive health, STD's, STI's, HIV/AIDS, proper waste disposal methods, hygiene, and how to clean and protect water sources.

So until I leave, I'll be tying up loose ends, getting everything in order for my 27 months abroad, and saying goodbye to family and friends. I'm really looking forward to beginning this next step of my life. May the adventure begin!

Love,
Carden xoxo