Hello again,
Over a month has passed since I wrote last time, it seems like it was 10 minutes ago-in a couple days my group will be completing their 10th month in country (8 months as volunteers). As you’ve all been reading here, up and down is a great way to describe the experience thus far but after a recent trip away from my site, I had a really great realization that I do, in fact, feel at home and comfortable here in Villa Madrid-despite my moments of frustration and medio-insanity.
The heat has been cranked up here in Pguay lately which has made everything slow down and bit and has demanded a thermo of terere on hand at basically any and all moments. Everyone keeps telling me that the summer hasn’t even arrived yet but I literally can’t imagine it getting any hotter than it has been the past couple days. I’ve been totally jealous of the little kids who have kiddie pools to play in but have maintained my pride enough so far to not ask to go in with them….dont worry, it’ll happen. I’ve also been sporting several hats, sun glasses and copious amounts of SPF in an attempt to not burn my delicate irish skin BUT igual no mas, I’m currently the resident yankee lobster in Villa Madrid.
My classes have all finished up for the summer, both my english class and the class at the jail will start up again in February when the school year begins again. Amy and I are going to be teaching a basic business course to the inmates since many of them make their own artisan goods in their free time there but many of them have little background in business. We are hoping to help them streamline their business plans and hopefully also market their products for them in the future. The municipality employees have told me a bunch of people have come in to ask about the english class so I’m anticipating a big turnout again next time. I feel like I’ve gotten a lot better at handling bigger groups so hopefully I’ll feel a bit less overwhelmed this time around! My two big summer endeavours are going to be working with the volunteer firefighters of Limpio to procure donations and equiptment and hopefully to start up a basketball club! I recently found out that the basketball court that is at the Mormon church in town is free to use and thanks to the generosity of another volunteer I’m getting gifted a basketball as well! A sports related project has been something I’d been looking for an opportunity to start for quite a while so I’m really hoping its successful-stay tuned!
For the rest of the summer I have a good mix of work and play lined up. I’ll be attending a national volunteerism conference in the capital, as well as a three day gender camp with three girls in the middle of the month. On the 8th, I’ll be making the yearly pilgrimage to Caacupe with Rodrigo and his friends and family. The walk is only about 15 kilometers from here so we’ll walk during the night to arrive in the morning for the mass. I’ve heard it’s a really interesting and uniquely Paraguayan experience so I’m looking forward to that for sure. Then, the very next day is the concert AHENDU that I’ve been co-organizing with a fellow volunteer. We have Peace Corps volunteers, Paraguayans, and Korean volunteers in the lineup so I’m excited to see how it all turns out. We are holding it in a cultural center that overlooks the Paraguayan equivalent of the white house and the Rio Paraguay, and we even have a discount at the bar! SO, all signs point to a great event.
Spending my first major holiday away from the United States was a weird and nostalgic experience. I couldn’t help but remember back on past holidays or think about what all my friends and family were doing at home without me. Luckily, I got to do a bit of traveling down to my friend Ellie’s house in the southern city of Encarnacion. Encarn is a really different Paraguay than I had been used to filled with nice restaurants, english speakers, and air conditioning (!). It’s truly a very international city and I feel like I’ve gotten to see now the full gamete of what Paraguay “is”. Ellie, myself, and another volunteer Katie spent a few days getting to know the city and then we headed to a fancy little hotel nestled in the forest about a half an hour from the city for some quality relaxation time. We lounged in the pool, had a DELICIOUS thanksgiving dinner and spent some time with some volunteers we hadn’t seen in a while. Sunday, however, we all got some really terrible news. A fellow volunteer who had been on her way home from another thanksgiving celebration had been killed in a car accident. Her boyfriend, a Paraguayan who had befriended many of the volunteers, was in critical condition. It was sobering moment for all of us and although I didn’t know the volunteer personally, it’s a tragedy that hit very close to home. There are about 250 volunteers in Paraguay currently, and although you don’t know everyone by name, there is certainly a sense of community among us and this girls death is a loss and heartache for all the Peace Corps Paraguay Volunteers. It was a quick and stinging reminder to us all to be mindful of what we are thankful for both in Paraguay and at home and also for the opportunity we have been given as Peace Corps Volunteers here.
Loving and missing you all very especially right now.
Jaimee
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Tanto Tiempo!
Hello once again friends and family…it has been A WHILE. The cold has passed (thank dios) and we are now in full-fledged spring (meaning about 90 degrees and humid most days). Luckily my shower has been functioning quite swimmingly and I’m averaging about three showers a day most days to keep cool/odor-less.
So I guess the biggest development in the past couple months has been that I moved! The house that I was in previously was quite literally falling apart at the seams (walls disintegrating around me, bathroom breaking every other day, etc.) SO with the help of my friend from the community center, I found a house right in front of the volleyball court. It’s nothing too chuchi but it’s bigger and well maintained and has a walled in yard which helps me feel a lot safer and happier. It also (drum roll please) has running hot water ALL the time! But probably the best thing about it is that every afternoon people come to play volleyball and listen to music right in my front yard which gives it have a very cozy feeling of community. We’ve also organized ourselves as a plaza commission for the maintenance and amplification of the plaza (we’re hoping for more lighting, benches, garbage cans etc.) which makes me feel like a real part of the neighborhood. Last weekend they had a tournament to raise money and let me tell you-these people know how to play. As someone who’s been involved in organized sports my whole life and has spent countless hours drilling and practicing and working on technique, it was pretty impressive to see how good these people had come to be without anything that Americans would consider “formal” training. Just goes to show, maybe we aren’t always right after all….
I’ve been feeling very Paraguayan lately. I’ve been drinking a lot of terere, eating a lot of white bread, playing a lot of volley, going to a lot of church, washing my own laundry, dancing a lot cumbia, and I’ve even began walking into the center of town (gasp!) instead of taking the bus like I was previously doing. I’ve become much less resistant to the lifestyle in general, a natural part of integration and adjustment I suppose. There are still things that bother the hell out of me and probably always will, but getting to know the little details of life around here has made me feel much more a part of the barrio.
So I have been in sight just a few days over six months thus far. They say that right around six months volunteers usually go into a periodic depression but luckily for me mine hit about month 4 and a half (hence the major absence in posting). At this point, the thrill and novelty of life here has all but worn off, and the new things to discover have become fewer and farther between. I’ve experienced my fair share of failures and disappointments in terms of work, and have still yet to discover what my “big” project is going to be in my time here. People know me, I know them but let’s face it-after only six months communicating with people in another language how well do you really know them? I’m learning pretty quickly who can be trusted and who can’t be, who genuinely wants to work and who doesn’t, and who is really running things around here. All of these things contributed to what I thought was a serious (now looking back not so serious) reevaluation of what the HELL I was doing here. There were quite a few tears and many phone calls and skype sessions, but luckily today I can say I survived my first Peace Corps depression-hooray!
Another occurrence in my life that I’m sure also contributed to the four and a half month nose dive was that I had to put down my puppy, Rugger. Having dogs here is difficult, there are a lot of diseases and going to a vet is expensive. Rugger had been sick for about a month or two and finally was beginning to suffer, jolting me out of my denial and making me realize I was doing the wrong thing by keeping him around. Having never had a dog before, it was a mildly traumatic experience and I was totally over dramatic about it (PS-my inner latina is alive and well down here, no one worry) but it’s all for the better now. Just yesterday, my friend Gerardo gifted me one of his puppies, a little golden nugget named Goofy. So, all is well in my patio once again.
In terms of work, my major endeavor at the moment is a personal development class at the local jail that I’m teaching with my fellow volunteer, Amy. Talk about things I never thought I’d do in my life, it has been a super interesting experience. The jail is small, only about 130 inmates. On the grounds they have a bread making factory, a garden, a beautiful church, huge soccer field, and a lot of recreational space as well. If I didn’t know it was a jail, I’d think it was a country club. There are about 15-20 students in the class depending on the day, and we have been working a lot with values, goals, self-esteem, and employment. They are WAY more participatory and interested than any of the school aged or high school aged kids I’ve worked with so each class is really interesting. Hopefully after this we are going to start with some basic vocational training and some more specific job skills since many of them are going to be getting out in early January.
My English class continues to be extremely crowded, which is a blessing and a curse. I now have two classes-one beginner and one intermediate. The interest levels vary greatly throughout the class and as I’ve said before, I don’t feel like teaching English to kids an hour a week is a very sustainable practice but, at the same time, I don’t want to deny them the chance to learn since there are kids who seem truly interested.
The library and the comedor have been uphill battles (yes, still) but I’ve been dealing with my frustration levels much better recently. I’m hoping to get a summer reading “camp” once or twice a week at the library and I’ve been taking some books down to the comedor and just reading with the kids, nothing too formal but they are happy to have the stimulation it seems and are always sad to see me go.
There have been a lot teacher strikes going on here in the past couple weeks, which has been pretty detrimental to their already weakened education system here. An article in the paper said almost two million kids missed class over more than a week because of the strike. Things remain unresolved as well and they are now threatening to strike indefinitely if they don’t get what they want. Stay tuned….
I’ve recently discovered the wonderful world of San Bernadino-the lake town that is about an hour and a half bus ride away from me to the east. During the summer it’s a rich tourist town for Asuncion’s richest people but it is also a great place to escape for the day with some terere and some comida. Since the heat has hit I’ve been there twice and it has been both a physical and mental treat to say the least. The lake reminds me of my grandparent’s lake in northern Maine, so it also has a bit of a nostalgic value for me as well. I recently found out you can rent boats and jet skis for super cheap also!
That seems to be all for now, I promise it won’t be this long before you hear from me again!
Loving and missing you all, as always
Jaim
So I guess the biggest development in the past couple months has been that I moved! The house that I was in previously was quite literally falling apart at the seams (walls disintegrating around me, bathroom breaking every other day, etc.) SO with the help of my friend from the community center, I found a house right in front of the volleyball court. It’s nothing too chuchi but it’s bigger and well maintained and has a walled in yard which helps me feel a lot safer and happier. It also (drum roll please) has running hot water ALL the time! But probably the best thing about it is that every afternoon people come to play volleyball and listen to music right in my front yard which gives it have a very cozy feeling of community. We’ve also organized ourselves as a plaza commission for the maintenance and amplification of the plaza (we’re hoping for more lighting, benches, garbage cans etc.) which makes me feel like a real part of the neighborhood. Last weekend they had a tournament to raise money and let me tell you-these people know how to play. As someone who’s been involved in organized sports my whole life and has spent countless hours drilling and practicing and working on technique, it was pretty impressive to see how good these people had come to be without anything that Americans would consider “formal” training. Just goes to show, maybe we aren’t always right after all….
I’ve been feeling very Paraguayan lately. I’ve been drinking a lot of terere, eating a lot of white bread, playing a lot of volley, going to a lot of church, washing my own laundry, dancing a lot cumbia, and I’ve even began walking into the center of town (gasp!) instead of taking the bus like I was previously doing. I’ve become much less resistant to the lifestyle in general, a natural part of integration and adjustment I suppose. There are still things that bother the hell out of me and probably always will, but getting to know the little details of life around here has made me feel much more a part of the barrio.
So I have been in sight just a few days over six months thus far. They say that right around six months volunteers usually go into a periodic depression but luckily for me mine hit about month 4 and a half (hence the major absence in posting). At this point, the thrill and novelty of life here has all but worn off, and the new things to discover have become fewer and farther between. I’ve experienced my fair share of failures and disappointments in terms of work, and have still yet to discover what my “big” project is going to be in my time here. People know me, I know them but let’s face it-after only six months communicating with people in another language how well do you really know them? I’m learning pretty quickly who can be trusted and who can’t be, who genuinely wants to work and who doesn’t, and who is really running things around here. All of these things contributed to what I thought was a serious (now looking back not so serious) reevaluation of what the HELL I was doing here. There were quite a few tears and many phone calls and skype sessions, but luckily today I can say I survived my first Peace Corps depression-hooray!
Another occurrence in my life that I’m sure also contributed to the four and a half month nose dive was that I had to put down my puppy, Rugger. Having dogs here is difficult, there are a lot of diseases and going to a vet is expensive. Rugger had been sick for about a month or two and finally was beginning to suffer, jolting me out of my denial and making me realize I was doing the wrong thing by keeping him around. Having never had a dog before, it was a mildly traumatic experience and I was totally over dramatic about it (PS-my inner latina is alive and well down here, no one worry) but it’s all for the better now. Just yesterday, my friend Gerardo gifted me one of his puppies, a little golden nugget named Goofy. So, all is well in my patio once again.
In terms of work, my major endeavor at the moment is a personal development class at the local jail that I’m teaching with my fellow volunteer, Amy. Talk about things I never thought I’d do in my life, it has been a super interesting experience. The jail is small, only about 130 inmates. On the grounds they have a bread making factory, a garden, a beautiful church, huge soccer field, and a lot of recreational space as well. If I didn’t know it was a jail, I’d think it was a country club. There are about 15-20 students in the class depending on the day, and we have been working a lot with values, goals, self-esteem, and employment. They are WAY more participatory and interested than any of the school aged or high school aged kids I’ve worked with so each class is really interesting. Hopefully after this we are going to start with some basic vocational training and some more specific job skills since many of them are going to be getting out in early January.
My English class continues to be extremely crowded, which is a blessing and a curse. I now have two classes-one beginner and one intermediate. The interest levels vary greatly throughout the class and as I’ve said before, I don’t feel like teaching English to kids an hour a week is a very sustainable practice but, at the same time, I don’t want to deny them the chance to learn since there are kids who seem truly interested.
The library and the comedor have been uphill battles (yes, still) but I’ve been dealing with my frustration levels much better recently. I’m hoping to get a summer reading “camp” once or twice a week at the library and I’ve been taking some books down to the comedor and just reading with the kids, nothing too formal but they are happy to have the stimulation it seems and are always sad to see me go.
There have been a lot teacher strikes going on here in the past couple weeks, which has been pretty detrimental to their already weakened education system here. An article in the paper said almost two million kids missed class over more than a week because of the strike. Things remain unresolved as well and they are now threatening to strike indefinitely if they don’t get what they want. Stay tuned….
I’ve recently discovered the wonderful world of San Bernadino-the lake town that is about an hour and a half bus ride away from me to the east. During the summer it’s a rich tourist town for Asuncion’s richest people but it is also a great place to escape for the day with some terere and some comida. Since the heat has hit I’ve been there twice and it has been both a physical and mental treat to say the least. The lake reminds me of my grandparent’s lake in northern Maine, so it also has a bit of a nostalgic value for me as well. I recently found out you can rent boats and jet skis for super cheap also!
That seems to be all for now, I promise it won’t be this long before you hear from me again!
Loving and missing you all, as always
Jaim
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Friends, Pioneers, and Music
So there has been a lot of celebrating going on in Villa Madrid this week (surprise, I know). Sunday was el dia de la Amistad “friendship day” which this year was declared by the UN as an international holiday, kinda cool. Friendship day is a day when everyone gives each other “felicidades” for being friends and they also sometimes give little trinket gifts and things to show their appreciation for their friends. Naturally, there was a festival in the church with singing and dancing, etc. Also, coincidentally, this festival coincided with the 19th anniversary of the founding the Villa. So, the older members of the community gathered their pictures of the founding of the Villa and made a nice exhibition for the community on the walls of the church. They sang the mass in guarani and even the priest who had originally founded the church came back from Spain to participate in the mass! It was quite an event. It was really interesting to see the progression of the building of the villa-how the school used to look, how the church used to be, the HUGE open space where the community center now stands, etc. It made me feel a little more attached to this place for sure, knowing how far it’s come in the past two decades.
I am currently (still) in the process of getting the library committee reorganized for the coming week. After a lot of back and forth with the current members about when and where would be best to have the meeting, we have finally agreed and have invited the teachers and the elementary and high schools to come participate as well but like with all things here, vamos a ver if they are going to end up showing up. The director of the community center has been really great and supportive and is going to try to rally some of the parents at the day care there to also join up with our cause. She has also this week put me in touch with a professor who teaches enrichment courses at the community center who wants to work on a professional development course (which he also said he wants to aim specifically at female youth-BONUS). He is currently teaching a waiter/waitress course there (a job skill that could potentially provide a very good life for someone here for their whole lives) and asked if I would help them with some gastronomical english lessons-talk about something I NEVER thought I would be asked to do. He seems like a pretty motivated guy and it is for sure meeting people like him that keep the wind in your sails when its FREEZING and people (including yourself at points) are more or less without motivation.
Additionally this week, my contact in the municipality asked me to come and work with a newly formed woman’s group in the community center that is trying to start a small seamstress business. A woman who already works as a seamstress in the neighborhood as offered her time to come and teach a week long course to the woman (that I also get to take!) and the municipality has donated some machines and fabric to start up with. My role is going to be working with them to form a business plan, another thing that I am less than qualified to do but I will hopefully be able to solicit some help from my community economic development folks to get them the type of plan they need. Needless to say, the workload has gotten a bit heavier this week!
Things remain shaky but generally ok in the comedor. They are having a fundraiser this weekend to raise some money for the extra that they need. The kitchen seems to be running much more smoothly than before and the nutritionist from the municipality is scheduling training in how to use soy in the menu for the next couple weeks. Stay tuned!
Friday night was AHENDU (I hear in guarani) a volunteer/Paraguayan concert in Asuncion that is meant as a way for the volunteers and the Paraguayans to sing together, share a little bit of culture, and usually a lot of beer. I had been convinced to sing after a LONG time of badgering and since I hadn’t sang in public in a long time, and hadn’t sang by myself in an even longer time I was quite nervous but everything went well and we all had a good time. A couple of my Paraguayan music enthusiast friends came to sing but due to some scheduling problems they didn’t get on. They enjoyed themselves the same and are already talking about what they are going to sing at the next concert in December (the concert that I have been nominated to be vice-coordinator for, yikes!) Then Saturday we all went out in Limpio to dance some cumbia! Sum up of the weekend: success.
The weather here has TRULY been unpredictable. As I sit here writing this I am in shorts and a tank top but just 48 short hours ago I was in several layers, scarves, gloves-the works. The climate here is bizarre to say the least and everything from my skin to my sinuses are suffering for it. It is rather impressive how Paraguayans transfer wardrobes so quickly, never seeming to be unprepared for the weather.
All for now mis amigos
Jaimee
I am currently (still) in the process of getting the library committee reorganized for the coming week. After a lot of back and forth with the current members about when and where would be best to have the meeting, we have finally agreed and have invited the teachers and the elementary and high schools to come participate as well but like with all things here, vamos a ver if they are going to end up showing up. The director of the community center has been really great and supportive and is going to try to rally some of the parents at the day care there to also join up with our cause. She has also this week put me in touch with a professor who teaches enrichment courses at the community center who wants to work on a professional development course (which he also said he wants to aim specifically at female youth-BONUS). He is currently teaching a waiter/waitress course there (a job skill that could potentially provide a very good life for someone here for their whole lives) and asked if I would help them with some gastronomical english lessons-talk about something I NEVER thought I would be asked to do. He seems like a pretty motivated guy and it is for sure meeting people like him that keep the wind in your sails when its FREEZING and people (including yourself at points) are more or less without motivation.
Additionally this week, my contact in the municipality asked me to come and work with a newly formed woman’s group in the community center that is trying to start a small seamstress business. A woman who already works as a seamstress in the neighborhood as offered her time to come and teach a week long course to the woman (that I also get to take!) and the municipality has donated some machines and fabric to start up with. My role is going to be working with them to form a business plan, another thing that I am less than qualified to do but I will hopefully be able to solicit some help from my community economic development folks to get them the type of plan they need. Needless to say, the workload has gotten a bit heavier this week!
Things remain shaky but generally ok in the comedor. They are having a fundraiser this weekend to raise some money for the extra that they need. The kitchen seems to be running much more smoothly than before and the nutritionist from the municipality is scheduling training in how to use soy in the menu for the next couple weeks. Stay tuned!
Friday night was AHENDU (I hear in guarani) a volunteer/Paraguayan concert in Asuncion that is meant as a way for the volunteers and the Paraguayans to sing together, share a little bit of culture, and usually a lot of beer. I had been convinced to sing after a LONG time of badgering and since I hadn’t sang in public in a long time, and hadn’t sang by myself in an even longer time I was quite nervous but everything went well and we all had a good time. A couple of my Paraguayan music enthusiast friends came to sing but due to some scheduling problems they didn’t get on. They enjoyed themselves the same and are already talking about what they are going to sing at the next concert in December (the concert that I have been nominated to be vice-coordinator for, yikes!) Then Saturday we all went out in Limpio to dance some cumbia! Sum up of the weekend: success.
The weather here has TRULY been unpredictable. As I sit here writing this I am in shorts and a tank top but just 48 short hours ago I was in several layers, scarves, gloves-the works. The climate here is bizarre to say the least and everything from my skin to my sinuses are suffering for it. It is rather impressive how Paraguayans transfer wardrobes so quickly, never seeming to be unprepared for the weather.
All for now mis amigos
Jaimee
Thursday, July 28, 2011
TEREVYAITEKE, TEREVYAITEKE KO NDE ARA MBOTYVO...TEREVYAITEKEEEE!!!!
So, I’m 23! Woohoo! Turning 23 in paraguay was a bit different than other birthdays I’ve had, but was for sure special in its own way. My birthday was on a Friday and by the time the mass came around at seven pm, more than a few people in Villa Madrid had heard and so, at the end of mass the priest made me come to the front of the church and be serenaded by the entire congregation in Spanish, guarani (terevyaiteke, terevyaiteke) AND english. It was quite a memorable moment and I’m pretty sure I was redder than I knew it was possible to turn. Saturday some of my amigas came over to have a bbq and some sangria and then we met up with some Paraguayan amigos to sing some karaoke and be merry in Limpio.
The next day was Sunday and so we all boarded the micro in an attempt to get to Guarambare (where we were headed for our three month in service training) by the time the Copa America final started. Unfortunately, a wrong bus decision didn’t get us there until half time but it was all well and good because there wasn’t much to see for the Paraguayan fans. 2-0 loss to Uruguay and Forlan. There is always next year!
Sunday through Wednesday was spent back with our host families in our training community of Guarambare. It was great to see everyone, American and Paraguayan alike. We had a lot of hardcore language class (I am REALLY going to make more effort to learn guarani) and some other more or less useless sessions about things we already knew and then we all headed back to sight. It was a whirlwind of a few days so I am glad my only real responsibility for the weekend is giving the final exam in my english class Saturday morning. The heat has been cranked up here the past couple days so im looking forward to a weekend filled with terere and guarani studying!
Missing you all more than ever, thank you so much for the well wishes from afar!!
Besitos!
Jaim
The next day was Sunday and so we all boarded the micro in an attempt to get to Guarambare (where we were headed for our three month in service training) by the time the Copa America final started. Unfortunately, a wrong bus decision didn’t get us there until half time but it was all well and good because there wasn’t much to see for the Paraguayan fans. 2-0 loss to Uruguay and Forlan. There is always next year!
Sunday through Wednesday was spent back with our host families in our training community of Guarambare. It was great to see everyone, American and Paraguayan alike. We had a lot of hardcore language class (I am REALLY going to make more effort to learn guarani) and some other more or less useless sessions about things we already knew and then we all headed back to sight. It was a whirlwind of a few days so I am glad my only real responsibility for the weekend is giving the final exam in my english class Saturday morning. The heat has been cranked up here the past couple days so im looking forward to a weekend filled with terere and guarani studying!
Missing you all more than ever, thank you so much for the well wishes from afar!!
Besitos!
Jaim
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Bureaucracy, Bars, and Birthdays!
This week has been BUSY-even by American standards. First some back ground: the comedor is a soup kitchen that serves lunch and breakfast, Monday through Friday, to about 60-70 kids a day. It is run totally by volunteers from the community (mothers mostly) and is headed by a commission that is elected by the people of the community but has been historically problematic and dysfunctional. There had been some stirrings of drama before I had left for Fourth of July but since there are kind of always problems I didn’t think it was anything worse than any other drama that I’d seen before. However, when I came back I found out that the entire commission had quit due to some conflicts between the community members and as a result of this, we had lost our funding from DIBEN- the government entity that supports these types of soup kitchens all over the country.
I had previously been talking to the municipality’s director of local development about working with the commission in order to help them work more effectively as a team, use their resources wisely etc, and we had been planning on meeting with them the in the coming weeks to do so. Now that there was no commission, our objective changed to forming not only a new commission, but also smaller sub groups to work on more specific tasks thus making the work load smaller and more stressful for everyone (and trust me, there is A LOT of work that goes into 10 meals a week for 60 niños). At this same point, por suerte, the neighborhood commission of the third phase (where the comedor is) contacted me about getting involved in the project as well. This is great news because 1) they are a well-known and well established commission in the barrio and people respect their authority and 2) quite frankly, the situation needed a little testosterone to create some equilibrium in the group dynamic. So I went to meet with them with Mari, a mother from the comedor who has been involved from the beginning and is very trustworthy (her son is also the leader of the youth group). We talked about the work plan and decided we would try and go get the funding back asap in order to keep the comedor running, commission or no commission.
However, the director at DIBEN was less than helpful and to be honest quite rude to both myself and my contact from the neighborhood commission who accompanied me. She was very unwilling to accommodate any suggestion we had and so we were forced to leave there without the funding once again. However, we still had the meeting planned for all the parents and were hoping to have a big turnout. I had additionally invited some of the people from the church as well, which is located in the first phase, in an attempt to bring awareness community wide to the comedor’s cause. Unfortunately Sunday, when I had made plans to meet with the group from the church, it POURED and on top of that the Paraguay Copa America game was on so that meant attendance=zero for my meeting. Additionally the group leader, Diego, flaked out on not one but TWO messages that I sent him. Not ok Diego!
So Tuesday came and the tensions were running a bit high. The municipality, DIBEN, and the neighborhood commission all wanted different things and I was a bit nervous about presenting the new work plan to the group. There was initially a bit of bickering but eventually we got everything ironed out and hopefully we are going to seguir adelante and make some changes. The turnout was actually half way decent despite the cold and imminent rain and we all decided that we would meet again tonight to continue organizing and smoothing over details. Stay tuned!!
In other news, Ahendu (“I hear” in Guarani), the tri annual volunteer/Paraguayan concert is coming up in a couple weeks. My closest PCV neighbor just happens to be the coordinator of it so I’ve offered to help her with some of the planning and I will also be singing a song with Rodrigo! It is my first time singing in public in QUITE some time but I’m hoping it will be fun and not too scary. I’ve also invited some other people I know from Villa Madrid to come perform which I am really excited about.
I was invited this week to go back to Guarambare to talk in a training session for the new group (G36) it was a nice day to be back there and Johanna was invited too so we had a good time. It was nice to meet some of the newbies as well. They are a smaller group and seem much closer than my training class was, they asked a lot of really good questions and they seem like they are all going to be super guap@.
My english class is coming to a close (thank dios!), just three more weeks left. The attendance was over all exceptional I think for a class like this which was nice but also a lot of work. I have told some people that I’ll be continuing giving classes but to be honest not only do I not really enjoy it, I see it as probably the least sustainable work that I have been doing. Studying a language takes a lot of time and effort as well as someone who has had real teacher training (not me) and while I’m sure learning english for these kids could potentially open doors, I just feel like that this isn’t really my role here in this community.
Mom and Dad’s trip is rapidly approaching and so I’m beginning to make some of the plans! We are going to be visiting Iguazu Falls via rental car, the Argentinian side. We are also planning on spending some time in Guarambare, Asuncion, and of course Villa Madrid. It is going to be a whirl wind but I think a great trip.
My birthday is Friday (23?!) and some of my lovely amigas are coming to visit me so we can eat some good food and drink some good drink before we all have to go back to Guarambare for a couple days of training. I got my patio cleaned and cut just for the occasion and I may even give my puppy (who is so not a puppy anymore by the by) a bath as well.
Saturday after my English class I noticed that the carpenter on the ruta was selling wooden chairs for just 23000 guaranies each! So, I went up there and hauled two of them home. I’m going to paint them orange, the same color as my house because I have SO much paint left that I don’t want to go to waste.
The Copa America has been all the talk these past couple days. Sunday night was the Paraguay vs. Brazil and the barrio was filled with fireworks, horns, pots and pans, screaming, drinking, and general debauchery. Luckily, the debauchery lives to play another day because Paraguay WON! In penalty kicks! Viva Paraguay!
This week I also got to head to Caacupe for the day with some other PCVs to have some delicious lunch and stroll through one of the more famous cities in Paraguay. Why famous, you ask? Well, this is the city where the virgin of Caacupe resides and every December 8th, many many MANY Paraguayans take the pilgrimage, on foot, overnight to the church there as a show of devotion to their faith and the virgin. Because of this, the town is a bit touristy but beautiful none the less. The café we ate at is run by a swiss man who was very funny and charming with his thickly accented english and nervous manerisms. Lunch was good but what was perhaps even more rico was the ice cream brownie sundae and various flavored muffins that we picked up at this little roadside place on the way home. I realize I tend to write a lot about my food consumption here, but the thing about it is because my day to day diet is so very very plain for the most part, any sort of excitement is quite literally, something to write home about. Anyway, the day was very pleasant- meeting some new PCVs and catching up with some old ones. Also I found out I am going to get a dresser (por fin) from another volunteer who lives close when she leaves in December-score!
Villa Madrid has been described as “relatively safe with the some petty theft and the occasional homicide”. Well, the past couple weeks have seen some of both of these crimes and so I made the decision to finally walk my lazy trasero around the corner to ask the herreria (iron workshop?) to come and put bars on my windows. I have five windows so it was going to be a bit expensive but por suerte Peace Corps reimburses things like this so I went ahead with it anyway. The senor told me he’d be coming to start the work on Monday since it would take more than one day but Monday came and went sin reyas. Tuesday as well came and went with nada. We’ll see what Wednesday has to bring but it’s raining AND there is a bus strike so it’s looking like I’m going to go another week bar-less.
Well, that seems to be all for now. I will be thinking of you all this weekend as I celebrate my birth!!
Love you and miss you all, como siempre
Jaim
I had previously been talking to the municipality’s director of local development about working with the commission in order to help them work more effectively as a team, use their resources wisely etc, and we had been planning on meeting with them the in the coming weeks to do so. Now that there was no commission, our objective changed to forming not only a new commission, but also smaller sub groups to work on more specific tasks thus making the work load smaller and more stressful for everyone (and trust me, there is A LOT of work that goes into 10 meals a week for 60 niños). At this same point, por suerte, the neighborhood commission of the third phase (where the comedor is) contacted me about getting involved in the project as well. This is great news because 1) they are a well-known and well established commission in the barrio and people respect their authority and 2) quite frankly, the situation needed a little testosterone to create some equilibrium in the group dynamic. So I went to meet with them with Mari, a mother from the comedor who has been involved from the beginning and is very trustworthy (her son is also the leader of the youth group). We talked about the work plan and decided we would try and go get the funding back asap in order to keep the comedor running, commission or no commission.
However, the director at DIBEN was less than helpful and to be honest quite rude to both myself and my contact from the neighborhood commission who accompanied me. She was very unwilling to accommodate any suggestion we had and so we were forced to leave there without the funding once again. However, we still had the meeting planned for all the parents and were hoping to have a big turnout. I had additionally invited some of the people from the church as well, which is located in the first phase, in an attempt to bring awareness community wide to the comedor’s cause. Unfortunately Sunday, when I had made plans to meet with the group from the church, it POURED and on top of that the Paraguay Copa America game was on so that meant attendance=zero for my meeting. Additionally the group leader, Diego, flaked out on not one but TWO messages that I sent him. Not ok Diego!
So Tuesday came and the tensions were running a bit high. The municipality, DIBEN, and the neighborhood commission all wanted different things and I was a bit nervous about presenting the new work plan to the group. There was initially a bit of bickering but eventually we got everything ironed out and hopefully we are going to seguir adelante and make some changes. The turnout was actually half way decent despite the cold and imminent rain and we all decided that we would meet again tonight to continue organizing and smoothing over details. Stay tuned!!
In other news, Ahendu (“I hear” in Guarani), the tri annual volunteer/Paraguayan concert is coming up in a couple weeks. My closest PCV neighbor just happens to be the coordinator of it so I’ve offered to help her with some of the planning and I will also be singing a song with Rodrigo! It is my first time singing in public in QUITE some time but I’m hoping it will be fun and not too scary. I’ve also invited some other people I know from Villa Madrid to come perform which I am really excited about.
I was invited this week to go back to Guarambare to talk in a training session for the new group (G36) it was a nice day to be back there and Johanna was invited too so we had a good time. It was nice to meet some of the newbies as well. They are a smaller group and seem much closer than my training class was, they asked a lot of really good questions and they seem like they are all going to be super guap@.
My english class is coming to a close (thank dios!), just three more weeks left. The attendance was over all exceptional I think for a class like this which was nice but also a lot of work. I have told some people that I’ll be continuing giving classes but to be honest not only do I not really enjoy it, I see it as probably the least sustainable work that I have been doing. Studying a language takes a lot of time and effort as well as someone who has had real teacher training (not me) and while I’m sure learning english for these kids could potentially open doors, I just feel like that this isn’t really my role here in this community.
Mom and Dad’s trip is rapidly approaching and so I’m beginning to make some of the plans! We are going to be visiting Iguazu Falls via rental car, the Argentinian side. We are also planning on spending some time in Guarambare, Asuncion, and of course Villa Madrid. It is going to be a whirl wind but I think a great trip.
My birthday is Friday (23?!) and some of my lovely amigas are coming to visit me so we can eat some good food and drink some good drink before we all have to go back to Guarambare for a couple days of training. I got my patio cleaned and cut just for the occasion and I may even give my puppy (who is so not a puppy anymore by the by) a bath as well.
Saturday after my English class I noticed that the carpenter on the ruta was selling wooden chairs for just 23000 guaranies each! So, I went up there and hauled two of them home. I’m going to paint them orange, the same color as my house because I have SO much paint left that I don’t want to go to waste.
The Copa America has been all the talk these past couple days. Sunday night was the Paraguay vs. Brazil and the barrio was filled with fireworks, horns, pots and pans, screaming, drinking, and general debauchery. Luckily, the debauchery lives to play another day because Paraguay WON! In penalty kicks! Viva Paraguay!
This week I also got to head to Caacupe for the day with some other PCVs to have some delicious lunch and stroll through one of the more famous cities in Paraguay. Why famous, you ask? Well, this is the city where the virgin of Caacupe resides and every December 8th, many many MANY Paraguayans take the pilgrimage, on foot, overnight to the church there as a show of devotion to their faith and the virgin. Because of this, the town is a bit touristy but beautiful none the less. The café we ate at is run by a swiss man who was very funny and charming with his thickly accented english and nervous manerisms. Lunch was good but what was perhaps even more rico was the ice cream brownie sundae and various flavored muffins that we picked up at this little roadside place on the way home. I realize I tend to write a lot about my food consumption here, but the thing about it is because my day to day diet is so very very plain for the most part, any sort of excitement is quite literally, something to write home about. Anyway, the day was very pleasant- meeting some new PCVs and catching up with some old ones. Also I found out I am going to get a dresser (por fin) from another volunteer who lives close when she leaves in December-score!
Villa Madrid has been described as “relatively safe with the some petty theft and the occasional homicide”. Well, the past couple weeks have seen some of both of these crimes and so I made the decision to finally walk my lazy trasero around the corner to ask the herreria (iron workshop?) to come and put bars on my windows. I have five windows so it was going to be a bit expensive but por suerte Peace Corps reimburses things like this so I went ahead with it anyway. The senor told me he’d be coming to start the work on Monday since it would take more than one day but Monday came and went sin reyas. Tuesday as well came and went with nada. We’ll see what Wednesday has to bring but it’s raining AND there is a bus strike so it’s looking like I’m going to go another week bar-less.
Well, that seems to be all for now. I will be thinking of you all this weekend as I celebrate my birth!!
Love you and miss you all, como siempre
Jaim
Monday, July 4, 2011
Fourth of July, P-Guay Style
Life in Villa Madrid is moving right along-up and down and fast and slow as usual but I have more or less adapted to the pace and taking a stroll with my puppy to pass some time doesn’t bother me like it did just a couple weeks ago. Have a particularly lindo puppy such as mine is a great way to meet children and adults alike. Also, the fact that I have him on a leash tends to puzzle people and provoke a lot of conversations I probably wouldn’t have ever had. The most common questions I get are what breed he is (couldn’t tell you, a seven year old boy gave him to me) and, what his name is. I had named him Rugger originally, but since that got more confused reactions from Paraguayans than anything else, and because I had recently finished the entire Rocky series that I had newly purchased, I decided Rocky would be more fitting name for him. This is a much easier name for people to say and some people even know the movie reference so consequently, I’m meeting more and more people and have more people to wave at on my route around the barrio which is a nice feeling. So, despite the slow and frustrating way work goes sometimes, I am feeling more and more at home here. Talk about ways you never thought you would appreciate Sylvester Stallone...
I survived my first pique attack! Pique is a notorious insect that lives in the sand and burrows into your hand and feet with the purpose of laying eggs and reproducing. Its super common among volunteers and Paraguayans alike (it’s shocking I’ve been here for five months (?!) and haven’t gotten one before) and in order to take it out you have to use a needle or tweezers to squeeeeeeze it out. But, you have to be really sure to get it all out or it will continue to hurt and be gross. Luckily, I had a Paraguayan at my disposal to help me take it out so, my pinky finger nail lives to fight another day.
It’s San Juan season here in Paraguay. The past couple weekends, all the local high schools and churches have been holding San Juan festivals which include a lot of food, traditional dancing and music, and of course the ever popular repertoire of San Juan games. Things like sack races, tire races, and other kids games are played all over the place. There is also a lot of fire involved. A hang man stuffed with mini bottle bombs is lit on fire hanging from a tree, and there is even a cow skull (that the kids in the community have to go searching for in the fields and bring back) that they attach to a bunch of sticks, light on fire, and run around and chase little kids with. All in all it’s a really fun and lively festival and a great distraction from the COLD COLD weather we’ve been having here.
To celebrate the fourth of July, a bunch of the volunteers came into Asuncion for some rest and relaxation and to try and remember what it’s like to be American and be warm during the month of July. We ate more food than we should have, took hot showers just because we could (sorry environmental volunteers) and slept late sin verguenza. There was a big picnic at the US embassy with a lot of good food and games and people and as usual we ended up at “Hollywood”-the epicenter of Asuncion’s gay scene. So, for the 6th (?) year in a row, my Fourth of July was filled with techno music and flamboyant friends/drag queens. However, that was about as fourth of july-ish as the weekend got considering it was still VERY cold and well, there weren’t a lot of Americans.
For all my Sayvillian friends/anyone with access to the Suffolk County News: I wrote an article! It should be in there in the next couple weeks- con photos tambien!
Lovin you all, Happy Fourth-Some one drink a blue points for me!!
I survived my first pique attack! Pique is a notorious insect that lives in the sand and burrows into your hand and feet with the purpose of laying eggs and reproducing. Its super common among volunteers and Paraguayans alike (it’s shocking I’ve been here for five months (?!) and haven’t gotten one before) and in order to take it out you have to use a needle or tweezers to squeeeeeeze it out. But, you have to be really sure to get it all out or it will continue to hurt and be gross. Luckily, I had a Paraguayan at my disposal to help me take it out so, my pinky finger nail lives to fight another day.
It’s San Juan season here in Paraguay. The past couple weekends, all the local high schools and churches have been holding San Juan festivals which include a lot of food, traditional dancing and music, and of course the ever popular repertoire of San Juan games. Things like sack races, tire races, and other kids games are played all over the place. There is also a lot of fire involved. A hang man stuffed with mini bottle bombs is lit on fire hanging from a tree, and there is even a cow skull (that the kids in the community have to go searching for in the fields and bring back) that they attach to a bunch of sticks, light on fire, and run around and chase little kids with. All in all it’s a really fun and lively festival and a great distraction from the COLD COLD weather we’ve been having here.
To celebrate the fourth of July, a bunch of the volunteers came into Asuncion for some rest and relaxation and to try and remember what it’s like to be American and be warm during the month of July. We ate more food than we should have, took hot showers just because we could (sorry environmental volunteers) and slept late sin verguenza. There was a big picnic at the US embassy with a lot of good food and games and people and as usual we ended up at “Hollywood”-the epicenter of Asuncion’s gay scene. So, for the 6th (?) year in a row, my Fourth of July was filled with techno music and flamboyant friends/drag queens. However, that was about as fourth of july-ish as the weekend got considering it was still VERY cold and well, there weren’t a lot of Americans.
For all my Sayvillian friends/anyone with access to the Suffolk County News: I wrote an article! It should be in there in the next couple weeks- con photos tambien!
Lovin you all, Happy Fourth-Some one drink a blue points for me!!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Day to Day in Paraguay
Time has been weird here these past couple weeks. It has been almost two months since I arrived in site and I’m still balancing the sometimes-busy-sometimes-not pace of my schedule. My agenda’s pages alternate between completely blank and chock full but I’m learning to make better use of the days that I do have free and also to not make the free time I have make me anxious. Most of my time has been spent at the soup kitchen, with the youth group, and in the library. Things are moving slowly but surely with each project and although I’ve encountered way more bureaucracy than I ever expected, I’m confident in the direction things are moving.
I’ve also been spending a fair amount of time at the church and with the catechism classes. While I have to limit my involvement there as to not appear as though I have a religious agenda (there are a lot of religiously affiliated white people running around Limpio so it is a mistake that could easily be made) its been a really great way to meet people of all ages and to experience something that is undeniably a part of Paraguayan culture. Interestingly, there are not the same ideas about separation of church and state that exists in the United States. In fact, one of the hymns they sing is called “God Bless Paraguay”. Religion and Catholicism are as much a part of being Paraguayan as drinking terere and eating mandioca. The masses are lively and filled with music which I also really love. The priest is Italian so it’s nice to have another foreign working in the community to relate to on those “oh, paraguay” types of things.
The weather has been COLD here as of late. And I mean really cold. Showering is the least favorite part of every (ok, every other) day. Leaving my sleeping bag in the morning is a miracle a lot of times. Who would’ve thought South America would make me jealous of NY weather.
Fourth of July is rapidly approaching and everyone is getting pumped. There is a big party at the embassy and although I’m sure it won’t be bathing suit weather, it will be a nice and relaxing weekend to speak some English and catch up with some folks. Hopefully there will be Budweiser and not Brahma so we can celebrate properly. After that July is going to fly by. I am helping another volunteer with a camp in her community the week following the fourth, and then my friends are coming to visit for my birthday and then a week of in service training back in good old Guarambare!
I really appreciate all the emails/real mails I’ve been getting from everyone and I promise I will figure out where the post office in Limpio is soon and respond to you all!!
Love always,
Jaimee
I’ve also been spending a fair amount of time at the church and with the catechism classes. While I have to limit my involvement there as to not appear as though I have a religious agenda (there are a lot of religiously affiliated white people running around Limpio so it is a mistake that could easily be made) its been a really great way to meet people of all ages and to experience something that is undeniably a part of Paraguayan culture. Interestingly, there are not the same ideas about separation of church and state that exists in the United States. In fact, one of the hymns they sing is called “God Bless Paraguay”. Religion and Catholicism are as much a part of being Paraguayan as drinking terere and eating mandioca. The masses are lively and filled with music which I also really love. The priest is Italian so it’s nice to have another foreign working in the community to relate to on those “oh, paraguay” types of things.
The weather has been COLD here as of late. And I mean really cold. Showering is the least favorite part of every (ok, every other) day. Leaving my sleeping bag in the morning is a miracle a lot of times. Who would’ve thought South America would make me jealous of NY weather.
Fourth of July is rapidly approaching and everyone is getting pumped. There is a big party at the embassy and although I’m sure it won’t be bathing suit weather, it will be a nice and relaxing weekend to speak some English and catch up with some folks. Hopefully there will be Budweiser and not Brahma so we can celebrate properly. After that July is going to fly by. I am helping another volunteer with a camp in her community the week following the fourth, and then my friends are coming to visit for my birthday and then a week of in service training back in good old Guarambare!
I really appreciate all the emails/real mails I’ve been getting from everyone and I promise I will figure out where the post office in Limpio is soon and respond to you all!!
Love always,
Jaimee
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Bicentenario or Bust!
So Saturday May 14th was the day-Paraguay’s big bicentennial celebration, 200 years free from the Spaniards. VERY big news. There were parades and dances and concerts and chipa being prepared all over the country but then….it rained. In fact, it POURED (at least in Limpio) for most of the morning. So all the parading and what not was cancelled
Luckily, it stopped raining in time for the Patron Saint Parade in Villa Madrid so I made my way down to the church, stopping at the hamburger sale to raise money so that all of Villa Madrid will have running water-a cause I FULLY support. The parade was to be followed by what was described to me as “a small festival”, which lasted about three hours, and I left early.
The rest of the week I continued to run around doing things in la villa. My english class is filling up so that should start en seguida. I brought “mobile libraries” to a couple of classes and read to the kids which they all seemed to enjoy. I had a meeting planned with the Director of the prison but we went out there and he wasn’t there-majorly Paraguayan but also a major bummer. To be continued….
At my house this week, my task was to puppy proof my yard. He is getting bigger, and more curious so I needed to find a way to not only keep him in, but keep the other variety of animals that wander around my barrio out. My first thought was to simply train him to stay inside the gate. I had little success with that and quickly got tired of chasing him into my neighbor’s store. So, I decided to stack some extra buckets I had laying around against the fence. This worked for a couple hours, until he realized he could knock over the buckets. The third time is proving to be the charm, I have no assembled a very sturdy structure made of buckets, boxes, and very heavy rocks I gathered from the yard. It’s worked for almost a whole twelve hours now-please stand by. And yes, he still pees on my floor.
Since they suspended the festivities last Saturday, they decided to re-do it all this Friday-cancelled school, the whole nine. The parade was really really really long and all the schools in Limpio were in it. After that, it was site presentation time for me. Your site presentation is when your coordinators from your sector (for me, education and youth development) come and tell the community a little bit about Peace Corps and what the volunteer is in the community to do, and not do (motos, drugs etc). There was a decent turn out to the meeting, mostly kids but I guess that more or less reflects the population of people I’ve been spending my time with thus far. I made some really rico guacamole and bought cookies and soda and all went pretty smoothly. Afterwards I went back into Limpio with Ruben and Juan, the guys who work at CAMUANI, to watch the dance festival which was really beautiful and probably one of the more cultural things I’ve done since I’ve gotten here. Also, por suerte, I happened to mention to Juan and Ruben that I wanted to paint the outside of my house and without skipping a beat they offered to come over the next day to paint for me. So, Saturday consisted of me feeding them terere while they painted my house a lovely orange color. Not a bad deal, terere for a free house painting.
Saturday night was my new german amiga, Tina’s, birthday. We had a really delicious asado and chatted a bit. The director of the school they work at is very involved in Habitat for Humanity Paraguay so hopefully we will do some work together once I get more involved with the youth groups around here.
Sunday I got my sorry self outta bed at 730 because I had been invited to the mass to get introduced to the Sunday school classes. It turns out there are a TON of kids involved in the church in this community so my tiredness proved well worth it and my Sundays became charla-filled for the next couple weekends. Also, they are having a volleyball tournament next weekend that I am VERY excited about.
Seems like all for now.
Missing and loving you all, as always.
Luckily, it stopped raining in time for the Patron Saint Parade in Villa Madrid so I made my way down to the church, stopping at the hamburger sale to raise money so that all of Villa Madrid will have running water-a cause I FULLY support. The parade was to be followed by what was described to me as “a small festival”, which lasted about three hours, and I left early.
The rest of the week I continued to run around doing things in la villa. My english class is filling up so that should start en seguida. I brought “mobile libraries” to a couple of classes and read to the kids which they all seemed to enjoy. I had a meeting planned with the Director of the prison but we went out there and he wasn’t there-majorly Paraguayan but also a major bummer. To be continued….
At my house this week, my task was to puppy proof my yard. He is getting bigger, and more curious so I needed to find a way to not only keep him in, but keep the other variety of animals that wander around my barrio out. My first thought was to simply train him to stay inside the gate. I had little success with that and quickly got tired of chasing him into my neighbor’s store. So, I decided to stack some extra buckets I had laying around against the fence. This worked for a couple hours, until he realized he could knock over the buckets. The third time is proving to be the charm, I have no assembled a very sturdy structure made of buckets, boxes, and very heavy rocks I gathered from the yard. It’s worked for almost a whole twelve hours now-please stand by. And yes, he still pees on my floor.
Since they suspended the festivities last Saturday, they decided to re-do it all this Friday-cancelled school, the whole nine. The parade was really really really long and all the schools in Limpio were in it. After that, it was site presentation time for me. Your site presentation is when your coordinators from your sector (for me, education and youth development) come and tell the community a little bit about Peace Corps and what the volunteer is in the community to do, and not do (motos, drugs etc). There was a decent turn out to the meeting, mostly kids but I guess that more or less reflects the population of people I’ve been spending my time with thus far. I made some really rico guacamole and bought cookies and soda and all went pretty smoothly. Afterwards I went back into Limpio with Ruben and Juan, the guys who work at CAMUANI, to watch the dance festival which was really beautiful and probably one of the more cultural things I’ve done since I’ve gotten here. Also, por suerte, I happened to mention to Juan and Ruben that I wanted to paint the outside of my house and without skipping a beat they offered to come over the next day to paint for me. So, Saturday consisted of me feeding them terere while they painted my house a lovely orange color. Not a bad deal, terere for a free house painting.
Saturday night was my new german amiga, Tina’s, birthday. We had a really delicious asado and chatted a bit. The director of the school they work at is very involved in Habitat for Humanity Paraguay so hopefully we will do some work together once I get more involved with the youth groups around here.
Sunday I got my sorry self outta bed at 730 because I had been invited to the mass to get introduced to the Sunday school classes. It turns out there are a TON of kids involved in the church in this community so my tiredness proved well worth it and my Sundays became charla-filled for the next couple weekends. Also, they are having a volleyball tournament next weekend that I am VERY excited about.
Seems like all for now.
Missing and loving you all, as always.
Friday, May 13, 2011
A Little Bit Of This....
So life has been a weird mix of slow and fast. I’m mostly settled into the house, although I haven’t gotten around to painting yet. I’ve been kind of meandering my way through the schools, the comedor, and the community center having meetings and seeing what type of work people want to do with me. The percentage of awkward interactions has gone down significantly, thank dios. I had a meeting with all the professors and they seemed interested enough in working with me so I went back and made a schedule with them to bring books from the library into each of their classes to read with the kids. The idea being that the kids would later come seek out the books at the library-vamos a ver. I had offered to teach an English class at the community center and when Fulvia, the director, went to the municipality to talk to the director of local development, she not only approved the class at the community center, but asked that I teach on at the municipality as well-so my days may end up being filled with a lot of teaching at least for the time being.
The time I don’t spend working has been very relaxing and tranquil. I usually go to the cantina at the school every day to spend time with Elvira, Nilsa, and whichever of the daughters has come to help that day. Yanina hasn’t been around this week though because she has dengue (yikess!) so she has been at her aunt’s house who lives closer to the hospital.
This weekend Johanna and Ian came to visit and we had a nice afternoon of wine, coke, and delicious avocado sandwiches. Sunday I went to Altos, where Sherita lives, to watch a soccer game that her brother was playing in. It’s a beautiful city and the ride from here to there is scenic and lovely and made me really fall a little bit in love with this country. It was one of the “holy shit this is where I am and this is what I’m doing” moments that I’ve had occasionally since I’ve been here. They’re really great to have and especially to reflect back on especially when for example, my water doesn’t turn on for a day or so and my dog pees all over my house and I want to eat cheese other than queso paraguay and I can’t, and my frustration approaches critical mass. The “this is where I am and this is what I’m doing” moments are really great, and keep it all in perspective.
The water has been super unreliable this week which originally was VERY annoying but I got over it and have more or less accepted bucket bathing as a way of life now-check that one off the life to do list.
I bought rice from the dispensa next door the other night and soon realized that I had never made rice without following the directions on the box but luckily with some Peace Corps flexibility and quick thinking, I made myself a nice rice, corn, and pea salad. And the puppy liked it too.
Meli, Claudia, Rugger, and I embarked on a journey to the vet this week to get Rugger vaccinated. We had to get on a public bus (the list of weird things I have traveled with on one of those is growing rapidly) which the puppy was less than thrilled with but after some writhing and crying we finally got there and got him all fixed up by a very nice Paraguayan vet. Luckily on the way home he was too tired to continue writhing so we made it home without any casualties. Now if I could just get him to pee outside!
So we got a lot of warning about “la hora paraguaya” and the “abiss of service” and things like that. Basically they were warning us to NOT expect an American standard 40 hour work week once we got into site. Despite these warnings, I still am finding myself with anxiety/guilt over the relatively small amount of work that I have been doing on a day to day basis. I (naturally) have been making a mini schedule for myself every day, most of the time involving one task in the morning and one task in the afternoon. While this does help me feel somewhat accomplished at the end of the day, each task doesn’t really ever take more than an hour or two. Going to the comedor- two hours max, meeting with the teachers at the school-solid 20 minutes no mas, going to the community center to get a phone number/check on the enrollment in my English class-about 7-12 minutes depending on how fast I walk/how much small talk I make with the guy at the front desk. These have been some of the tasks I’ve been doing on a fairly regular basis these past couple weeks so, as you can see- there is NO such thing as 9-5 around here. They waves of guilt come and go but I try and use my down time as productively as possible (which my internet modem does NOTHING to help). There are several dirt roads that run off the Ruta just north of my community that I hope to explore in the coming weeks, and I also have not made it down to the river yet.
Another volunteer who lives close to me, Amy, and I went to the jail a couple km up the road from my sight to see if the director was interested in working with us. We trekked the twenty minutes in from the ruta and handed our IDs to the guards at the front gate. The director greeted us and we sat and chatted for a while about the improvements he was interested in making in the prison and how we could possibly help. He is super friendly and open to us so hopefully we will be able to do some interesting things with the prisoners. Definitely add this to the list of things I thought I wouldn’t be doing in the Peace Corps.
I met some German people who are volunteering as English teachers in a high school in Limpio. We met them on a bus and of course their rubia-ness and short and t shirts immediately stood out to us. As soon as we figured out they weren’t Peace Corps volunteers we were VERY confused and decided to see what they were all about. There are five of them here, all working in the same school. We went and had dinner together and got to know each other a bit-it was so nice to have social interaction in English again!
Well, I think this is all for now. I will report on all the bicentennial activities after the weekend!!
The time I don’t spend working has been very relaxing and tranquil. I usually go to the cantina at the school every day to spend time with Elvira, Nilsa, and whichever of the daughters has come to help that day. Yanina hasn’t been around this week though because she has dengue (yikess!) so she has been at her aunt’s house who lives closer to the hospital.
This weekend Johanna and Ian came to visit and we had a nice afternoon of wine, coke, and delicious avocado sandwiches. Sunday I went to Altos, where Sherita lives, to watch a soccer game that her brother was playing in. It’s a beautiful city and the ride from here to there is scenic and lovely and made me really fall a little bit in love with this country. It was one of the “holy shit this is where I am and this is what I’m doing” moments that I’ve had occasionally since I’ve been here. They’re really great to have and especially to reflect back on especially when for example, my water doesn’t turn on for a day or so and my dog pees all over my house and I want to eat cheese other than queso paraguay and I can’t, and my frustration approaches critical mass. The “this is where I am and this is what I’m doing” moments are really great, and keep it all in perspective.
The water has been super unreliable this week which originally was VERY annoying but I got over it and have more or less accepted bucket bathing as a way of life now-check that one off the life to do list.
I bought rice from the dispensa next door the other night and soon realized that I had never made rice without following the directions on the box but luckily with some Peace Corps flexibility and quick thinking, I made myself a nice rice, corn, and pea salad. And the puppy liked it too.
Meli, Claudia, Rugger, and I embarked on a journey to the vet this week to get Rugger vaccinated. We had to get on a public bus (the list of weird things I have traveled with on one of those is growing rapidly) which the puppy was less than thrilled with but after some writhing and crying we finally got there and got him all fixed up by a very nice Paraguayan vet. Luckily on the way home he was too tired to continue writhing so we made it home without any casualties. Now if I could just get him to pee outside!
So we got a lot of warning about “la hora paraguaya” and the “abiss of service” and things like that. Basically they were warning us to NOT expect an American standard 40 hour work week once we got into site. Despite these warnings, I still am finding myself with anxiety/guilt over the relatively small amount of work that I have been doing on a day to day basis. I (naturally) have been making a mini schedule for myself every day, most of the time involving one task in the morning and one task in the afternoon. While this does help me feel somewhat accomplished at the end of the day, each task doesn’t really ever take more than an hour or two. Going to the comedor- two hours max, meeting with the teachers at the school-solid 20 minutes no mas, going to the community center to get a phone number/check on the enrollment in my English class-about 7-12 minutes depending on how fast I walk/how much small talk I make with the guy at the front desk. These have been some of the tasks I’ve been doing on a fairly regular basis these past couple weeks so, as you can see- there is NO such thing as 9-5 around here. They waves of guilt come and go but I try and use my down time as productively as possible (which my internet modem does NOTHING to help). There are several dirt roads that run off the Ruta just north of my community that I hope to explore in the coming weeks, and I also have not made it down to the river yet.
Another volunteer who lives close to me, Amy, and I went to the jail a couple km up the road from my sight to see if the director was interested in working with us. We trekked the twenty minutes in from the ruta and handed our IDs to the guards at the front gate. The director greeted us and we sat and chatted for a while about the improvements he was interested in making in the prison and how we could possibly help. He is super friendly and open to us so hopefully we will be able to do some interesting things with the prisoners. Definitely add this to the list of things I thought I wouldn’t be doing in the Peace Corps.
I met some German people who are volunteering as English teachers in a high school in Limpio. We met them on a bus and of course their rubia-ness and short and t shirts immediately stood out to us. As soon as we figured out they weren’t Peace Corps volunteers we were VERY confused and decided to see what they were all about. There are five of them here, all working in the same school. We went and had dinner together and got to know each other a bit-it was so nice to have social interaction in English again!
Well, I think this is all for now. I will report on all the bicentennial activities after the weekend!!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Home Improvement Paraguay
So this week was mostly dedicated to making my house into a place I am going to be happy to be for the next two year: no small feat around these parts. My major obstacles: a broken bed, many a broken window, a gate-less fence, and just general aesthetics. Por suerte, the bed wasn’t as complicated as a problem as I anticipated so after a quick stop at the muebleria (furniture store) I was ready to go in the sleeping department (and as most of you who know me well know, this is a VERY important department). The broken windows were a bit more complicated. I thought I was in the money because there was a big place that said “glass store” (in Spanish) right across the ruta from my barrio so I decided to support the locals and walked over there to talk to them-no one home. About three hours later I went back and again, no dice. So the next morning I called my landlord to get the name of his glass guy. I mustered all my Spanish speaking skills and gave them a call and after a couple perdons? And otra vezs? We finally decided that they would come the next morning at eight am to give me an estimate. I woke up early and got all dressed and ready to be a big responsible home improver and eight turned into nine turned into ten and I finally gave up on them coming. Only slightly annoyed at this point, I decided to call them back assuming that it was very possible that I hadn’t understood what they had said. So I called again and they said they would come by “en seguida” which in Paraguay means, well no one really knows what it means, which is the problem with it. About two pm (smack in the middle of my siesta) the glass man came a clappin’. He walked around and measured it all and gave the estimate-something a little less than a hundred American dollars for 25 (yes, that’s right 25) pieces of broken glass that needed replacing. A couple hours, several reminder phone calls, and A LOT of banging and dust later-I am the proud owner of new windows, with curtains and everything! Que suerte, I know.
Since my neighbor just happens to be a carpenter, I decided he would be the man to talk to about my gate. I went over to speak with him about it and he gave me another “en seguida” so hopefully I’ll have myself a gate before the end of the century. As for the walls, a quick trip to Mercado 4 in Asuncion fixed that right up with some fabric for wall hangings and even a pretty new table cloth! My host mom took me get curtains made, too. I was originally planning on being really guapa and making them myself but then my host mom told me they were only one dollar each to get made so that changed my mind right quick. I did some other things like get a nice fruit basket and make book ends out of candles and old wine bottles and before I knew it, the whole house was really coming together. My next obstacle is a place to hang my hammock. There are several trees in my yard but none of them seem to have the correct distance/branch height to hang up my hammock comfortably. Stay tuned….
On Paraguayan buses, I have often been amazed what people are able to carry while simultaneously paying the driver, feeding their child, texting, and eating chipa. So when I decided I needed to go to the hardware store to get paint I thought to myself-why not just bring it on the bus? Turns out, this hardware store only had paint in HUGE quantities that weighed A LOT. The woman checking me out was pretty surprised when she asked me where my car was and I told her no car, just the good old bus for me. This is when I realized I may have an issue. I managed to heave it on and off the bus myself and too many minutes and a lot of sweat later-I finally heaved it onto my porch. This experience was bad but weirdly gratifying so when I went back into town the next day to get chairs for my porch I again thought to myself-why not just bring it on the bus? The woman at this store responded with similar shock when I let her know that I’d be returning to my house “en collective no mas”. The problem this time; however, was not the weight but the width rather-the chairs were about a quarter inch skinnier than the door of the bus which meant it took an awkwardly long time getting both on and off the bus. BUT-I am now able to sit on my porch and read a book and drink terere SO-I am just going to hope I never see anyone who was on that bus ever again. Que verguenza!
I decided to start taking advantage of the very long straight Ruta right near my house for running purposes which was well, painful at first but I’ve finally ran far enough to get to a really beautiful bridge overlooking the river which gives me motivation to keep going.
I took my first trip to the Comedor this week with my contact, Victor, and his adorable siblings-Luz, Daisey, and Diosnel. I met a bunch of the kids and hung out and played this weird slap card game thing which the point of is to slap the cards on the table in such a way that they flip over and then you get to keep that card, person with the most cards at the end of the game wins. I know it sounds weird but its hours of entertainment I promise you.
The weekend consisted of house training my new puppy (!) that Victors little brothers and sisters gave me. I named him rugger and hopefully one day soon he will learn to not pee in my house. Also this weekend I went to my first VAC meeting. VAC stands for Volunteer Advisory Committee and each different region of the country has one so all the volunteers can keep in touch with each other, collaborate with one another and well, get together and eat and drink more or less.
hasta pronto mis amores
Jaim
Since my neighbor just happens to be a carpenter, I decided he would be the man to talk to about my gate. I went over to speak with him about it and he gave me another “en seguida” so hopefully I’ll have myself a gate before the end of the century. As for the walls, a quick trip to Mercado 4 in Asuncion fixed that right up with some fabric for wall hangings and even a pretty new table cloth! My host mom took me get curtains made, too. I was originally planning on being really guapa and making them myself but then my host mom told me they were only one dollar each to get made so that changed my mind right quick. I did some other things like get a nice fruit basket and make book ends out of candles and old wine bottles and before I knew it, the whole house was really coming together. My next obstacle is a place to hang my hammock. There are several trees in my yard but none of them seem to have the correct distance/branch height to hang up my hammock comfortably. Stay tuned….
On Paraguayan buses, I have often been amazed what people are able to carry while simultaneously paying the driver, feeding their child, texting, and eating chipa. So when I decided I needed to go to the hardware store to get paint I thought to myself-why not just bring it on the bus? Turns out, this hardware store only had paint in HUGE quantities that weighed A LOT. The woman checking me out was pretty surprised when she asked me where my car was and I told her no car, just the good old bus for me. This is when I realized I may have an issue. I managed to heave it on and off the bus myself and too many minutes and a lot of sweat later-I finally heaved it onto my porch. This experience was bad but weirdly gratifying so when I went back into town the next day to get chairs for my porch I again thought to myself-why not just bring it on the bus? The woman at this store responded with similar shock when I let her know that I’d be returning to my house “en collective no mas”. The problem this time; however, was not the weight but the width rather-the chairs were about a quarter inch skinnier than the door of the bus which meant it took an awkwardly long time getting both on and off the bus. BUT-I am now able to sit on my porch and read a book and drink terere SO-I am just going to hope I never see anyone who was on that bus ever again. Que verguenza!
I decided to start taking advantage of the very long straight Ruta right near my house for running purposes which was well, painful at first but I’ve finally ran far enough to get to a really beautiful bridge overlooking the river which gives me motivation to keep going.
I took my first trip to the Comedor this week with my contact, Victor, and his adorable siblings-Luz, Daisey, and Diosnel. I met a bunch of the kids and hung out and played this weird slap card game thing which the point of is to slap the cards on the table in such a way that they flip over and then you get to keep that card, person with the most cards at the end of the game wins. I know it sounds weird but its hours of entertainment I promise you.
The weekend consisted of house training my new puppy (!) that Victors little brothers and sisters gave me. I named him rugger and hopefully one day soon he will learn to not pee in my house. Also this weekend I went to my first VAC meeting. VAC stands for Volunteer Advisory Committee and each different region of the country has one so all the volunteers can keep in touch with each other, collaborate with one another and well, get together and eat and drink more or less.
hasta pronto mis amores
Jaim
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
One down, 103 to go
So I’m mostly all settled in here in Villa Madrid, and having arrived right smack in the middle of Semana Santa, my time has been spent cleaning/organizing/decorating my future home, making chipa, and spending a lot of time in what I can best describe as a Paraguayan sorority house. Myself, my host mother Elvira, my host sisters Meli, Yanina, Claudia, y Mariam, my cousins Nilsa and Johanna, and my poor poor host brother who somehow got stuck sharing a bathroom with us all, Aldo, all live in the same house at the top of the first hill in the first fase of Villa Madrid, Limpio. Villa Madrid is split into three “fases” which indicate the water systems they belong to. The first and third fase’s are biggest, and the third fase is widely considered the poorest of the fase’s, but other than that you would never be able to tell as you pass from one fase to the other.
The thing about training that is interesting is that you experience some form of culture/language shock but of course you still have the buffer of the 47 other Nortes you see on a daily basis. It has occurred to me the past couple days (mostly when I try to speak in Spanglish and no one understands me) that THIS is what cultural/linguistic immersion is all about- being all by yourself with English speakers por lo menos a phone call away, surviving one mildly awkward situation after another, all day long, every day. What makes this experience even more intense is that since school and work are out for the holy week, the house is super full all the time, with new people passing through at any given moment with any variety of Spanish, Guaraní, hugs, besos, and questions for me. In short: things are getting very real around here.
One night my sisters told me all about the seven myths in Paraguayan culture. The Seven mitos include stories about a monster that eats the dead, another one that comes at the siesta to steal and enchant kids who are left alone, and a drunk who you have to leave cana for in your chipa stove every night. These myths are all surviving from come ancient indigenous Guarani culture. They asked me what mitos the United States has but I really couldn’t think of any. I told them the headless horsemen story and how people think you’ll have bad luck if you walk under a ladder but that was all I could muster.
Thursday we did some Chipa making which was super labor intensive and I can’t believe they sell it for cheap on the buses now that I’ve seen how hard it is to make. Chipa is the corny, cheesy, bready goodness that Paraguayans eat at nauseum most days a year and since on Good Friday you aren’t supposed to eat meat, and meat makes up about 70% of the Paraguayan diet, Paraguayans are left to eat the only thing that makes up the other 30%-chipa. It was a fun thing to do with the family though, and the little girls made ducks and lizards out of their dough which was adorable.
Sunday was Pascua but it was a very un-Easter Easter, as Easters go. Everyone slept until eleven (mass is at 7am in Paraguay) and then we had some lunch and made our way over to their grandmother’s house (which was quite literally over the river and through the woods). We drank some terere and ate some more chipa and played some soccer and then made our way back before dark.
I have learned a lot this week, for example: how many grocery bags I am capable of carrying on a bus, how to light a gas stove without burning my hand/singing my eye lashes, how many nails it takes to successfully hang a clothes line, how to bucket bathe, how many different words Paraguayans have for “mattress”, how to order cheese in grams, and the list keeps on going.
Anyway, one week down, one hundred and three more to go-on to more learning and I will update soon!
Love and miss you all
Jaim
The thing about training that is interesting is that you experience some form of culture/language shock but of course you still have the buffer of the 47 other Nortes you see on a daily basis. It has occurred to me the past couple days (mostly when I try to speak in Spanglish and no one understands me) that THIS is what cultural/linguistic immersion is all about- being all by yourself with English speakers por lo menos a phone call away, surviving one mildly awkward situation after another, all day long, every day. What makes this experience even more intense is that since school and work are out for the holy week, the house is super full all the time, with new people passing through at any given moment with any variety of Spanish, Guaraní, hugs, besos, and questions for me. In short: things are getting very real around here.
One night my sisters told me all about the seven myths in Paraguayan culture. The Seven mitos include stories about a monster that eats the dead, another one that comes at the siesta to steal and enchant kids who are left alone, and a drunk who you have to leave cana for in your chipa stove every night. These myths are all surviving from come ancient indigenous Guarani culture. They asked me what mitos the United States has but I really couldn’t think of any. I told them the headless horsemen story and how people think you’ll have bad luck if you walk under a ladder but that was all I could muster.
Thursday we did some Chipa making which was super labor intensive and I can’t believe they sell it for cheap on the buses now that I’ve seen how hard it is to make. Chipa is the corny, cheesy, bready goodness that Paraguayans eat at nauseum most days a year and since on Good Friday you aren’t supposed to eat meat, and meat makes up about 70% of the Paraguayan diet, Paraguayans are left to eat the only thing that makes up the other 30%-chipa. It was a fun thing to do with the family though, and the little girls made ducks and lizards out of their dough which was adorable.
Sunday was Pascua but it was a very un-Easter Easter, as Easters go. Everyone slept until eleven (mass is at 7am in Paraguay) and then we had some lunch and made our way over to their grandmother’s house (which was quite literally over the river and through the woods). We drank some terere and ate some more chipa and played some soccer and then made our way back before dark.
I have learned a lot this week, for example: how many grocery bags I am capable of carrying on a bus, how to light a gas stove without burning my hand/singing my eye lashes, how many nails it takes to successfully hang a clothes line, how to bucket bathe, how many different words Paraguayans have for “mattress”, how to order cheese in grams, and the list keeps on going.
Anyway, one week down, one hundred and three more to go-on to more learning and I will update soon!
Love and miss you all
Jaim
Monday, April 18, 2011
Trainees No More
So its real deal time now people-no more training wheels, its go big or go home put up or shut up, time to make things happen time. We are officially Peace Corps Volunteers! Friday morning was our swearing in ceremony which took place at the American ambassador’s house which would have been really beautiful except it was freakin pouring like crazy, but we all survived anyway. After the ceremony we had some delicious cake and took pictures then made our way back to the Peace Corps Office to get our cell phones (yay!) internet modems (YAY!!) and bank cards before we all headed to the hotels for the weekend.
We spent the weekend relaxing, exploring, and enjoying before we all head out to our sites tomorrow morning. After all that applying, all that waiting, and all that training we are finally all going out to see what we can make of this all. My packpack is WAY too heavy so the bus ride should be fun/interesting but once I’m there it will be really nice to finally settle in and make my home in Villa Madrid.
This week is Semana Santa so not too much is going to be going on work wise until after Easter which gives us all a nice little buffer of time to adjust and assimilate before the real work begins.
Not too much else to report now, I will keep you all updated on the Semana Santa festivities this week.
Wish me luck!!
Jaim
We spent the weekend relaxing, exploring, and enjoying before we all head out to our sites tomorrow morning. After all that applying, all that waiting, and all that training we are finally all going out to see what we can make of this all. My packpack is WAY too heavy so the bus ride should be fun/interesting but once I’m there it will be really nice to finally settle in and make my home in Villa Madrid.
This week is Semana Santa so not too much is going to be going on work wise until after Easter which gives us all a nice little buffer of time to adjust and assimilate before the real work begins.
Not too much else to report now, I will keep you all updated on the Semana Santa festivities this week.
Wish me luck!!
Jaim
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Limpio Mokoi
Hello again! Sooo I’m back. I’ve spent the past week in Limpio and can now say that 1) I am OFFICIALLY mentally checked out of all things training and 2) It is going to be an intense two years.
Friday we went to this retreat center and met our community contacts in this weird kind of blind date format in which all the volunteers were in a room and all the contacts came in at the same time with nametags on with their name but our pictures and we had to awkwardly approach and greet each other and then have breakfast for an uncomfortably long period of time. Luckily for me my contact was a wonderful guy named Victor who is about 21 years old and about 75 pounds heavy but every single speck of him is sweet and wonderful. Victor and I spent the morning getting to know each other and then got on a bus back to Villa Madrid (the name of the barrio I’m specifically assigned to in Limpio). We made our way down Ruta 3 and he showed me all the notable landmarks and we made small talk and such until we finally arrived at the entrance to Villa Madrid. Villa Madrid has about 2,500 people living in it so as barrios go it’s fairly large, but the city of Limpio has 80,000 people living in it so it’s a pretty small part of the city as a whole, and is basically the northern most point of both Limpio and Departamento Central.
Our first stop was supposed to be to the current volunteer, Nancy’s, house but we had arrived early so Nancy wasn’t home yet so we stopped over at the neighbor’s house, a woman named Naoli (or something like that) an instantly likeable and friendly woman who asked me all kind of questions and drank terere with me and told me all about the new library and what not and then came with me to my new host family’s house around the corner as well. We walked up to the house where there were a bunch of women and children drinking t-ray and I sat down and introduced myself and chatted some more until Nancy came and fetched me and we went back to her house so she could start filling me in on the ins and outs of the community. Limpio is three long and skinny roads that run from Ruta 3 about 2 Km (I’m totally guessing but it was about a 25 min walk) to the edge of the barrio which turns quickly into the country/the asentamientos. It has a disconnected kind of campo feel in some ways but also a very urban feel in that buses pass on the regular, the center of Limpio is about 10 minutes away, and the center of Asuncion is less than an hour away. It is a great balance in a lot of ways and I think it will do well to serve my restless moods/need to be busy.
Villa Madrid is filled with a lot of youth and children, a lot of soccer fields, and a lot of motos and dogs like most places in Paraguay. While I was there, Nancy was doing a Peace Corps wide project called Ahecha (which means “I see” in Guarani). The project consists of giving five digital cameras to five children/youth in the community and having them capture their homes through their eyes as well as developing their artistic interests and abilities. At the end of two months, the volunteer prints out the five best photos from each kid and exhibits them somewhere in the community. In Villa Madrid’s case they are going to go in the new community library. We took the kids on a walk to the outskirts of town where Villa Madrid becomes campo. It was right around sunset and it served as a really amazing intro to the community and the landscape. The pictures the kids took came out really great and it was interesting to compare what they chose as the focal points of their communities in comparison with what I would’ve have picked.
Turns out, almost all of the women and children who were on the porch when I walked up were actually people living in that house-I will be the ninth member of the Flietas family in Villa Madrid, a family consisting of my host mom Elvira, my host brother Aldo, my four sisters whose names I mix up/forget so I’ll clarify next time, one of my host mom’s cousins, and her two year old daughter Johanna who is positively precious. In short, I’m living in some sort of Paraguayan sorority house that somehow this poor twenty one year old boy has ended up stuck in, for the time being at least. There are three bedrooms in the house, one of which they have given to me and only me; however, they don’t seem to think that fitting four people to a bedroom is the least bit of inconvenience so I guess I’ll just go with it for now. They are an extremely close family and as of late have gotten even closer because of their father’s sudden exit about two months ago. Despite the cramped-ness, I think I am going to enjoy my time with the Flietas clan.
Nancy and I spent the week visiting various places-the church, the elementary and high schools, the newly inaugurated library, the community center, the new non-profit day care, the soup kitchen that feeds 70 kids lunch and breakfast Monday through Friday (a source of considerable drama in the community despite its super lindo objective) the mayor’s office and city hall, the radio station, and even the river! (not quite the mighty Hudson but hey, what can you do) which was beautiful and tranquil and probably in biking distance from my site which is sweet. Most interestingly, we visited the newly re-opened jail in Emboscada, the next town north of me. We got a tour of the bread factory and new library by the Director, a super knowledgeable and on the ball man who welcomed us and our questions. We also got a personal tour of the visiting area and living area by one of the guards and we had the opportunity to talk to several of the prisoners for a while. There are a little over 100 prisoners there right now, and they are all required to work and go to school while inside. We met a man who made handmade terere thermos’s and other types of artisan crafts which were really beautiful and well done. He had a lot of interesting things to say about his jailtime and what it did for him as a person and it made me think about the other room for personal development work there could possibly be in this place. Hopefully I will get the chance to get back there again soon.
In addition to all the infrastructure, Nancy introduced me to a bunch of very warm and friendly family’s and individuals in the community that I’m for sure looking forward to getting to know a bit better in the coming months. I also got to talk to Nancy’s landlord who said I could most likely move into Nancy’s house after my time with a host family which is sweet and I am already looking forward to doing some painting and decorating. Oh yea, and I’m TOTALLY getting a puppy.
The trip back to Guarambare was uneventful and I ended up sleeping most of the afternoon until Charly and Ellie came to wake me up. Friday at the big centro was unusually fun and interesting; maybe because it had been a while since we’d seen everyone and also really hadn’t been asked to sit still in quite some time either. We got a lot of details about swear-in weekend (ah!!) and how to go about getting a bike and signed an oath which said something about defending America from all enemies foreign and domestic which I found a little weird considering basically everything else we’ve learned about Peace Corps mission but whatever. In the afternoon we had a little craft/art/generally useful Paraguayan information fair that included a Paraguayan “cribs” station, a laundry-by-hand station, a guitar station, and even a station where we learned how to make wine bottles into drinking glasses-which I obviously attended. I am going to be a recycling extraordinaire by the end of my service, it’s just inevitable.
Missing you all, como siempre
Friday we went to this retreat center and met our community contacts in this weird kind of blind date format in which all the volunteers were in a room and all the contacts came in at the same time with nametags on with their name but our pictures and we had to awkwardly approach and greet each other and then have breakfast for an uncomfortably long period of time. Luckily for me my contact was a wonderful guy named Victor who is about 21 years old and about 75 pounds heavy but every single speck of him is sweet and wonderful. Victor and I spent the morning getting to know each other and then got on a bus back to Villa Madrid (the name of the barrio I’m specifically assigned to in Limpio). We made our way down Ruta 3 and he showed me all the notable landmarks and we made small talk and such until we finally arrived at the entrance to Villa Madrid. Villa Madrid has about 2,500 people living in it so as barrios go it’s fairly large, but the city of Limpio has 80,000 people living in it so it’s a pretty small part of the city as a whole, and is basically the northern most point of both Limpio and Departamento Central.
Our first stop was supposed to be to the current volunteer, Nancy’s, house but we had arrived early so Nancy wasn’t home yet so we stopped over at the neighbor’s house, a woman named Naoli (or something like that) an instantly likeable and friendly woman who asked me all kind of questions and drank terere with me and told me all about the new library and what not and then came with me to my new host family’s house around the corner as well. We walked up to the house where there were a bunch of women and children drinking t-ray and I sat down and introduced myself and chatted some more until Nancy came and fetched me and we went back to her house so she could start filling me in on the ins and outs of the community. Limpio is three long and skinny roads that run from Ruta 3 about 2 Km (I’m totally guessing but it was about a 25 min walk) to the edge of the barrio which turns quickly into the country/the asentamientos. It has a disconnected kind of campo feel in some ways but also a very urban feel in that buses pass on the regular, the center of Limpio is about 10 minutes away, and the center of Asuncion is less than an hour away. It is a great balance in a lot of ways and I think it will do well to serve my restless moods/need to be busy.
Villa Madrid is filled with a lot of youth and children, a lot of soccer fields, and a lot of motos and dogs like most places in Paraguay. While I was there, Nancy was doing a Peace Corps wide project called Ahecha (which means “I see” in Guarani). The project consists of giving five digital cameras to five children/youth in the community and having them capture their homes through their eyes as well as developing their artistic interests and abilities. At the end of two months, the volunteer prints out the five best photos from each kid and exhibits them somewhere in the community. In Villa Madrid’s case they are going to go in the new community library. We took the kids on a walk to the outskirts of town where Villa Madrid becomes campo. It was right around sunset and it served as a really amazing intro to the community and the landscape. The pictures the kids took came out really great and it was interesting to compare what they chose as the focal points of their communities in comparison with what I would’ve have picked.
Turns out, almost all of the women and children who were on the porch when I walked up were actually people living in that house-I will be the ninth member of the Flietas family in Villa Madrid, a family consisting of my host mom Elvira, my host brother Aldo, my four sisters whose names I mix up/forget so I’ll clarify next time, one of my host mom’s cousins, and her two year old daughter Johanna who is positively precious. In short, I’m living in some sort of Paraguayan sorority house that somehow this poor twenty one year old boy has ended up stuck in, for the time being at least. There are three bedrooms in the house, one of which they have given to me and only me; however, they don’t seem to think that fitting four people to a bedroom is the least bit of inconvenience so I guess I’ll just go with it for now. They are an extremely close family and as of late have gotten even closer because of their father’s sudden exit about two months ago. Despite the cramped-ness, I think I am going to enjoy my time with the Flietas clan.
Nancy and I spent the week visiting various places-the church, the elementary and high schools, the newly inaugurated library, the community center, the new non-profit day care, the soup kitchen that feeds 70 kids lunch and breakfast Monday through Friday (a source of considerable drama in the community despite its super lindo objective) the mayor’s office and city hall, the radio station, and even the river! (not quite the mighty Hudson but hey, what can you do) which was beautiful and tranquil and probably in biking distance from my site which is sweet. Most interestingly, we visited the newly re-opened jail in Emboscada, the next town north of me. We got a tour of the bread factory and new library by the Director, a super knowledgeable and on the ball man who welcomed us and our questions. We also got a personal tour of the visiting area and living area by one of the guards and we had the opportunity to talk to several of the prisoners for a while. There are a little over 100 prisoners there right now, and they are all required to work and go to school while inside. We met a man who made handmade terere thermos’s and other types of artisan crafts which were really beautiful and well done. He had a lot of interesting things to say about his jailtime and what it did for him as a person and it made me think about the other room for personal development work there could possibly be in this place. Hopefully I will get the chance to get back there again soon.
In addition to all the infrastructure, Nancy introduced me to a bunch of very warm and friendly family’s and individuals in the community that I’m for sure looking forward to getting to know a bit better in the coming months. I also got to talk to Nancy’s landlord who said I could most likely move into Nancy’s house after my time with a host family which is sweet and I am already looking forward to doing some painting and decorating. Oh yea, and I’m TOTALLY getting a puppy.
The trip back to Guarambare was uneventful and I ended up sleeping most of the afternoon until Charly and Ellie came to wake me up. Friday at the big centro was unusually fun and interesting; maybe because it had been a while since we’d seen everyone and also really hadn’t been asked to sit still in quite some time either. We got a lot of details about swear-in weekend (ah!!) and how to go about getting a bike and signed an oath which said something about defending America from all enemies foreign and domestic which I found a little weird considering basically everything else we’ve learned about Peace Corps mission but whatever. In the afternoon we had a little craft/art/generally useful Paraguayan information fair that included a Paraguayan “cribs” station, a laundry-by-hand station, a guitar station, and even a station where we learned how to make wine bottles into drinking glasses-which I obviously attended. I am going to be a recycling extraordinaire by the end of my service, it’s just inevitable.
Missing you all, como siempre
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Limpio!
After a year plus of applications and now about nine weeks of training, i FINALLY know where i´m going to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer. The town is called Limpio, more specifically Barrio Villa Madrid. It is about an hour north of Asuncion and I will be the third volunteer to serve there. There seems like there is a whole lot going on-newly formed library, community center, soccer, youth groups etc so its seeming like bored i will NOT be. I am going to visit for the first time tomorrow to meet the family I´m going to be staying with for the first three months as well as check out the current volunteers house which i will hopefully be able to move right into after that. Top to bottom I am super excited, more to come next week when i get back!
Un beso guazu a todos!
jaim
Un beso guazu a todos!
jaim
Sunday, March 27, 2011
All Down Hill From Here
This week flew by for sure, and we all have the “it’s all downhill from here” feeling after getting back from long field. Everyone is pretty restless and language classes seem to get longer and longer but we are in the home stretch-site assignments in two days!!!
Monday we had our last model lesson in the schools, gracias a dios. The kids are really exhausting although totally adorable for the most part. It’s nice to see them outside of school because they get super excited and yell “JIMMIE!!” (They don’t quite grasp the “jai” sound in Spanish) from wherever they are. If being in the schools has taught me anything it’s that winning over the kids is the key to community integration.
The rest of the week went by pretty status quo. Thursday we learned a lot about nutrition and dental education which is for sure something I will be working on because if I see another meal cooked in an inch of oil I may vomit or scream. Friday was a technical field trip and we went to visit a couple really guapo (Paraguayans use guapo to mean hardworking, common source of confusion among Spanish speakers from other places) teachers who are doing awesome things in their schools and all I can say is I reallllllllllly hope there is someone like that in my school system. One woman came into the talk to us and she had twins two weeks ago. Super guapa for sure. It was a long day but luckily we stopped at a really delicious bakery and I had the loveliest peach tart to end my week.
Tuesday was Diedy’s sixteenth birthday so a bunch of her friends and her boyfriend came over after school to celebrate with her. We got mini empanadas and sandwiches and a big ol’ cake and blasted music to the whole neighborhood like any good Paraguayan does on their birthday. Compared to last year, for her quince, this was a very low key event but she was happy and her boyfriend gave her a really nice ring I’m totally jealous of.
We had our final interviews with the APCD (assistant Peace Corps director) about our site placements this week as well, but I got no indication as to where she is thinking about sending me so I’m still totally in the dark about the news I’m going to get Tuesday. I’m surprisingly pretty not anxious about it. They told us last week that all the sites have electricity and running water is a decent possibility and really after those two comforts it’s all pretty minor. After living in Guaramabare and doing both of my site visits to super rural sites, I feel like I’ll be able to find the beauty in whatever situation. Although I did make sure to mention that having a supermarket within reasonable distance would be sweet.
Some of the basketball players/fans in the group have a sweet 16 bracket going and I decided to join because well, 100 mil (20 bucks) is a lot of money to me right now. Also, I won the guess how many jelly beans in the jar game yesterday so I’ve been feeling lucky as of late. I really didn’t have a lot of intelligent choices because I haven’t watched any games this season but I picked the Butler/Wisconsin upset and I have UCONN winning it all, mostly just because I like the UCONN women but whatever.
In other sporting news, the day we find out our sites also is the day that the Paraguayan National Soccer Team and the United States National Soccer team are playing, in Nashville, Tennessee of all places. So, March 29th is turning out to be a very exciting day in the lives of the Peace Corps trainees of Guarambare.
Carly and Jeff discovered that there is in fact a basketball court in Guarambare so instead of taking the bus, we all played basketball right in town. We played some more 3 v 3 but eventually the sun got the better of us so we didn’t play for too long. The principal of the school was super excited we wanted to play though so we can go back whenever we want which is awesome.
We had our fourth week of rugby/UNO/whatever we feel like playing camp this week and it was SO hot but about 15 kids still showed up which was cool. Carly taught them memory which was confusing to them at first but eventually they started loving. They didn’t quite grasp the concept of “red light green light” but considering I’ve seen less than a handful of stoplights in this country I guess we can’t really blame them. Juancito, my favorite little rugger, couldn’t come because his aunt died yesterday morning. He walked past the field on his way to buy Coca-Cola and stopped to tell me about what had happened and was crying and it was easily the saddest moment I’ve had here. It was really great to see how kind and compassionate his friends were to him though, they all came over to give him a hug and ask how he was, something I for sure wasn’t expecting from a group in which the oldest member is about 13. The social dynamics of the group have been interesting to observe. On one hand, they can all be really brutal and don’t think twice about hauling off and smacking one another if they’re upset or even just playing around. However, there even seem to be some social norms that govern that type of thing. Last week an older kid cheap shotted a little kid and he fell and started to cry and Juancito first went to the younger kid to console him and rub his back and then yelled at the older kid and chased him to the other side of the field. Even in what seems to be a really lawless and careless social context, they really do have a lot of compassion for one another. My host father grew up in a neighborhood very similar to the one we go and play in and last week he was talking to me about it and kept saying how different it was then because “la gente se queria”-people loved one another. At the time I was thinking he was expressing a more or less typical generational discomfort with change that the older generation worldwide has in common, but observing and thinking about these kids have made me wonder. It’s a cliché to say that it comes down to the fact that materialism is empty and that money can’t buy happiness etc. etc. but I think it does have a lot to do with the fact that “la genter se queria” because la gente’s time is not consumed with a lot of the other things that people’s lives are consumed with, their time is spent with each other.
Last night we had a big celebration at Carly’s sister’s copetin for all the March birthdays since there have been so many but we’ve been so busy. The health kids trekked in from the campo and we made burgers the American way and had guacamole and cheese and crackers and Brahma and it was wonderful. Ellie, Charly, and I almost had to walk in the monsoon of the century with all the food in the total dark because all the lights in town had gone out but luckily Carly’s host sister and her pick-up truck saved the day. I got to wear the new dress I got made at the seamstress with was verrrry exciting, and Deidy even straightened my hair-it was top to bottom quite the event.
That’s all for now, stayed tuned for site assignment details in a few!!
Love always,
Jaim
Monday we had our last model lesson in the schools, gracias a dios. The kids are really exhausting although totally adorable for the most part. It’s nice to see them outside of school because they get super excited and yell “JIMMIE!!” (They don’t quite grasp the “jai” sound in Spanish) from wherever they are. If being in the schools has taught me anything it’s that winning over the kids is the key to community integration.
The rest of the week went by pretty status quo. Thursday we learned a lot about nutrition and dental education which is for sure something I will be working on because if I see another meal cooked in an inch of oil I may vomit or scream. Friday was a technical field trip and we went to visit a couple really guapo (Paraguayans use guapo to mean hardworking, common source of confusion among Spanish speakers from other places) teachers who are doing awesome things in their schools and all I can say is I reallllllllllly hope there is someone like that in my school system. One woman came into the talk to us and she had twins two weeks ago. Super guapa for sure. It was a long day but luckily we stopped at a really delicious bakery and I had the loveliest peach tart to end my week.
Tuesday was Diedy’s sixteenth birthday so a bunch of her friends and her boyfriend came over after school to celebrate with her. We got mini empanadas and sandwiches and a big ol’ cake and blasted music to the whole neighborhood like any good Paraguayan does on their birthday. Compared to last year, for her quince, this was a very low key event but she was happy and her boyfriend gave her a really nice ring I’m totally jealous of.
We had our final interviews with the APCD (assistant Peace Corps director) about our site placements this week as well, but I got no indication as to where she is thinking about sending me so I’m still totally in the dark about the news I’m going to get Tuesday. I’m surprisingly pretty not anxious about it. They told us last week that all the sites have electricity and running water is a decent possibility and really after those two comforts it’s all pretty minor. After living in Guaramabare and doing both of my site visits to super rural sites, I feel like I’ll be able to find the beauty in whatever situation. Although I did make sure to mention that having a supermarket within reasonable distance would be sweet.
Some of the basketball players/fans in the group have a sweet 16 bracket going and I decided to join because well, 100 mil (20 bucks) is a lot of money to me right now. Also, I won the guess how many jelly beans in the jar game yesterday so I’ve been feeling lucky as of late. I really didn’t have a lot of intelligent choices because I haven’t watched any games this season but I picked the Butler/Wisconsin upset and I have UCONN winning it all, mostly just because I like the UCONN women but whatever.
In other sporting news, the day we find out our sites also is the day that the Paraguayan National Soccer Team and the United States National Soccer team are playing, in Nashville, Tennessee of all places. So, March 29th is turning out to be a very exciting day in the lives of the Peace Corps trainees of Guarambare.
Carly and Jeff discovered that there is in fact a basketball court in Guarambare so instead of taking the bus, we all played basketball right in town. We played some more 3 v 3 but eventually the sun got the better of us so we didn’t play for too long. The principal of the school was super excited we wanted to play though so we can go back whenever we want which is awesome.
We had our fourth week of rugby/UNO/whatever we feel like playing camp this week and it was SO hot but about 15 kids still showed up which was cool. Carly taught them memory which was confusing to them at first but eventually they started loving. They didn’t quite grasp the concept of “red light green light” but considering I’ve seen less than a handful of stoplights in this country I guess we can’t really blame them. Juancito, my favorite little rugger, couldn’t come because his aunt died yesterday morning. He walked past the field on his way to buy Coca-Cola and stopped to tell me about what had happened and was crying and it was easily the saddest moment I’ve had here. It was really great to see how kind and compassionate his friends were to him though, they all came over to give him a hug and ask how he was, something I for sure wasn’t expecting from a group in which the oldest member is about 13. The social dynamics of the group have been interesting to observe. On one hand, they can all be really brutal and don’t think twice about hauling off and smacking one another if they’re upset or even just playing around. However, there even seem to be some social norms that govern that type of thing. Last week an older kid cheap shotted a little kid and he fell and started to cry and Juancito first went to the younger kid to console him and rub his back and then yelled at the older kid and chased him to the other side of the field. Even in what seems to be a really lawless and careless social context, they really do have a lot of compassion for one another. My host father grew up in a neighborhood very similar to the one we go and play in and last week he was talking to me about it and kept saying how different it was then because “la gente se queria”-people loved one another. At the time I was thinking he was expressing a more or less typical generational discomfort with change that the older generation worldwide has in common, but observing and thinking about these kids have made me wonder. It’s a cliché to say that it comes down to the fact that materialism is empty and that money can’t buy happiness etc. etc. but I think it does have a lot to do with the fact that “la genter se queria” because la gente’s time is not consumed with a lot of the other things that people’s lives are consumed with, their time is spent with each other.
Last night we had a big celebration at Carly’s sister’s copetin for all the March birthdays since there have been so many but we’ve been so busy. The health kids trekked in from the campo and we made burgers the American way and had guacamole and cheese and crackers and Brahma and it was wonderful. Ellie, Charly, and I almost had to walk in the monsoon of the century with all the food in the total dark because all the lights in town had gone out but luckily Carly’s host sister and her pick-up truck saved the day. I got to wear the new dress I got made at the seamstress with was verrrry exciting, and Deidy even straightened my hair-it was top to bottom quite the event.
That’s all for now, stayed tuned for site assignment details in a few!!
Love always,
Jaim
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Villa Oliva
This week we all went on what is called “Long Field Practice”, basically another chance to see the life of a PCV and to do some practice out in the real world. My language class and I went out to the campo to see Carolina in Villa Oliva, a small town on the river bordering Argentina which was sweet because I’ve now at least SEEN Argentina. Baby steps. The ride there was bumpy and dusty because the pavement weirdly stops about 45 minutes into the drive, but we all survived and thanked above that we didn’t have to get there in a public bus. Villa Oliva is super tiny, about 1000 year round residents, but it was very tranquil and beautiful and safe. The house I stayed at was more or less a fruit farm with about 50 fruit trees in the yard filled with grapefruits, limes, avocados, mangoes, etc. Also, there were THE most adorable baby bunnies that I spent almost all my time playing with while I was there. Back to the fruit trees: since the Paraguayan population has somehow missed the guacamole train the rest of us have been riding for a while now, I decided to make some guacamole one night while Carolina made some Mexican style tortillas. To say it was a hit would be stretching it, but Carolina and I chowed down that’s for sure. As we’ve been learning in training, behavior changes take time so I’m sure guacamole will make its mark sooner or later.
We spent our days working at the school and painting the world map that’s in progress at the high school and eating ice cream and we even got to play some volleyball with some kids. Somewhere along the way I either got attacked by ants or had an allergic reaction to some grass but either way my feet are a lovely shade of red and itchy-thank god for the Peace Corps Med kit is all I have to say. We arrived back in Guarambare exhausted on Thursday but somehow Nana and I mustered up enough strength to walk across town to the cheese lady. Muenster and garlic cheese with some salty salty crackers-excellent way to end a long week.
We are finding out our sites in less than 10 days from now so its mas o menos all we’re talking about. It’s on my calendar in my room in all caps with big stars around it just to make sure I’m not thinking about it too much. I’m hoping for medium sized and somewhere in the vicinity of a decent grocery store and that’s about it. Some sort of body of water would be amazing as well but I’m not gonna hold my breath. I’ve only seen really rural sites on my visits, both of which I liked but I also very much like the size and energy of a place like Guarambare so I more or less feel like I’ll figure it out wherever I end up. Still, being on the river would be SO money.
Yesterday morning we went to the next town over to play some basketball! We took the bus to the next town over where they had a sweet court (ok, it wasn’t really that sweet but half of it was usable so it was sweet). Some of the health kids ran in from their communities to play with us too and we balled for a while until it got hot again. Then I ran home and ate lunch and then went right back to meet Carly for day three of rugby/volleyball/uno camp. Ariel decided to come again this week which I was excited about, but first of course we had to stop for some ice cream. There were a few less kids this time because a lot of the older kids were cleaning up the soccer field for the big inauguration today but it was still fun. Juancito, my favorite new rugby prospect, was there and showing everyone up again and even some of the littler kids were getting rowdy this week during the game. It really been interesting to watch the social hierarchy that exists in this group of kids, its very lord of the flies. It’s also an interesting study in personality types since you can’t understand everything they’re saying because they speak in guarani most of the time, but their personalities are very clear and you can see the clearly defined roles they have in their basically parentless society/social circle in this barrio.
Until next time,
Jaim
We spent our days working at the school and painting the world map that’s in progress at the high school and eating ice cream and we even got to play some volleyball with some kids. Somewhere along the way I either got attacked by ants or had an allergic reaction to some grass but either way my feet are a lovely shade of red and itchy-thank god for the Peace Corps Med kit is all I have to say. We arrived back in Guarambare exhausted on Thursday but somehow Nana and I mustered up enough strength to walk across town to the cheese lady. Muenster and garlic cheese with some salty salty crackers-excellent way to end a long week.
We are finding out our sites in less than 10 days from now so its mas o menos all we’re talking about. It’s on my calendar in my room in all caps with big stars around it just to make sure I’m not thinking about it too much. I’m hoping for medium sized and somewhere in the vicinity of a decent grocery store and that’s about it. Some sort of body of water would be amazing as well but I’m not gonna hold my breath. I’ve only seen really rural sites on my visits, both of which I liked but I also very much like the size and energy of a place like Guarambare so I more or less feel like I’ll figure it out wherever I end up. Still, being on the river would be SO money.
Yesterday morning we went to the next town over to play some basketball! We took the bus to the next town over where they had a sweet court (ok, it wasn’t really that sweet but half of it was usable so it was sweet). Some of the health kids ran in from their communities to play with us too and we balled for a while until it got hot again. Then I ran home and ate lunch and then went right back to meet Carly for day three of rugby/volleyball/uno camp. Ariel decided to come again this week which I was excited about, but first of course we had to stop for some ice cream. There were a few less kids this time because a lot of the older kids were cleaning up the soccer field for the big inauguration today but it was still fun. Juancito, my favorite new rugby prospect, was there and showing everyone up again and even some of the littler kids were getting rowdy this week during the game. It really been interesting to watch the social hierarchy that exists in this group of kids, its very lord of the flies. It’s also an interesting study in personality types since you can’t understand everything they’re saying because they speak in guarani most of the time, but their personalities are very clear and you can see the clearly defined roles they have in their basically parentless society/social circle in this barrio.
Until next time,
Jaim
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Kitties and Kiddies
I got a kitty! Ellie, Charly, and I were taking a stroll on Tuesday evening and came across a group of four kittens playing in the street. Naturally, we stopped to play with them and then when we saw the man who was living in the house we were in front of we decided we were going to ask if we could buy one. The man was maybe the oldest man I’ve seen in my life and I could barely understand what he was saying but as soon as he figured out that we wanted kittens he quickly and abruptly picked one up and handed it to me, instructing me that it was two months old and it only drinks milk. And this is the story of how I got Paz, my adorable little pure white baby girl! Luckily, my family loved her right away and Ariel helped me bathe her and feed her milk and has started immediate construction on a house for her in the backyard. The first night I had to keep her in my room because the other dog and cat didn’t know her yet. I think I handled my first experience as a new mom pretty well. She cried for a while but then found a comfy spot in my armpit and went to sleep for a while but woke up and diahreahed everywhere (yum) sooooo I changed the sheets and tried to go back to sleep. Same thing happened about three hours later. So this time I decided to try and be creative and find a way of keeping off my bed but since I don’t really have anything in my room except my dresser (which I very seriously considered putting her in and closing the door at one point) I gave her my bed and slept on the couch. I was dragging the next day but Paz was chipper and exploring the house-oh the power of a mothers love. And it turned out to be better anyway that I slept in the living room because my host mom informed me the next day that you can’t sleep with cats in your bed because they’ll make you sterile. Hopefully not too many Paraguayans use this idea as their preferred method of birth control. Anyway she is perfect and I am totally taking her to sight with me to keep me company and kill any and all rats and spiders in the vicinity.
My host dad really got a kick out of Paz too and him and I had a little bonding moment over her so that was nice. Also this week he proudly showed me how good of a cook he was and told me the story about his mother teaching him how to cook when he was little and that’s why he’s such a good husband now.
This week my family started construction on a big building on the side of my house that is going to be a book store/dispensa/cvs ish type of place they said. Hopefully it opens before because it looks like its going to be awesome. It’s interesting because there is literally a dispensa on every corner so you would think that none of them made any money but apparently it’s a very successful means to make a living. However, in choosing a dispensa it’s important to first evaluate the quality of their empanadas. Next you have to see if they have a good cookie selection. And if they have yogurt or diet soda then you are really in the money.
I had my first model lesson this week in the fourth grade. I decided on having them do a personal flag to get a little self-esteem and a little bicentennial education all in one. They seemed to like the idea of getting to draw but they really didn’t understand the thinking creatively bit. For the “what is your favorite food question” it was a 50/50 split between empanadas and asado (bbq) and for the “what do you want to be when you grow up question” all the girls put hairdressers and all the boys put soccer players, except one who wants to be a robber. They were a little wild and crazy towards the end but all in all, I wasn’t completely discouraged.
This weekend we had our second rugby/uno/volleyball mini camp with the kids in the barrio across town. It was for sure one of the hottest days since we’ve been here but we had a pretty good turn out and they all were really attentive and interested in learning something new. I have a small but loyal following of boys who seem into rugby which I am suuuuper psyched about. Riso came in from the campo to help me so we did some passing and tackling and then introduced the idea of passing backwards which I was nervous about but they picked it up right away. There is one kid, Juan, who is so freaking good I swear he could play for MCWR already. (his grease helmet would give you guys a run for your money though) After rugby I came home and Luisito and my host dad and one of the cousins were getting ready to go over to their grandmother’s house to play some futbol so I tagged along figuring it would be mas o menos cultural. Their grandmother lives on a huge piece of land, part of which she made into a soccer field she rents out to a semi pro team in the area. A bunch of guys from the neighborhood came and played for a while. My 53 year old host dad even got in there and banged around with the 20 somethings which was pretty impressive. Afterwards grandma started up the music and brought out buckets of beer for everyone along with her leather whip that apparently is the price you have to pay for using her field. It was really funny to see all five foot nothing of her wobbling around trying to whip grown men. She also insisted on asking me when I was going to get married in Guarani about 12 times even though I told her I didn’t understand until Luisito finally translated for me. Thank dios or I think I would’ve been the whips next victim. All in all I think it’s safe to say grandma knows how to throw a party.
Speaking of dios, Lent started this week so there have been a lot of masses in the big church all week. My family hasn’t gone yet but hopefully they’ll go to watch the people throw money off the church at least. Let me explain: a while back a man had a daughter who was born really sick and the doctors thought she was going to die. So, this man prayed and prayed and his daughter got better so that year at a certain point during lent he went up on the roof of the church and threw off some money to show his gratitude. The idea caught on and now every year if you prayed for something and it happened you have to go hurl some guaranies off the roof.
I think that is all for now. Next week we venture to Villa Oliva for some more hands on practica so I am sure I will have much to report after that!
Como siempre, loving and missing you all!!
My host dad really got a kick out of Paz too and him and I had a little bonding moment over her so that was nice. Also this week he proudly showed me how good of a cook he was and told me the story about his mother teaching him how to cook when he was little and that’s why he’s such a good husband now.
This week my family started construction on a big building on the side of my house that is going to be a book store/dispensa/cvs ish type of place they said. Hopefully it opens before because it looks like its going to be awesome. It’s interesting because there is literally a dispensa on every corner so you would think that none of them made any money but apparently it’s a very successful means to make a living. However, in choosing a dispensa it’s important to first evaluate the quality of their empanadas. Next you have to see if they have a good cookie selection. And if they have yogurt or diet soda then you are really in the money.
I had my first model lesson this week in the fourth grade. I decided on having them do a personal flag to get a little self-esteem and a little bicentennial education all in one. They seemed to like the idea of getting to draw but they really didn’t understand the thinking creatively bit. For the “what is your favorite food question” it was a 50/50 split between empanadas and asado (bbq) and for the “what do you want to be when you grow up question” all the girls put hairdressers and all the boys put soccer players, except one who wants to be a robber. They were a little wild and crazy towards the end but all in all, I wasn’t completely discouraged.
This weekend we had our second rugby/uno/volleyball mini camp with the kids in the barrio across town. It was for sure one of the hottest days since we’ve been here but we had a pretty good turn out and they all were really attentive and interested in learning something new. I have a small but loyal following of boys who seem into rugby which I am suuuuper psyched about. Riso came in from the campo to help me so we did some passing and tackling and then introduced the idea of passing backwards which I was nervous about but they picked it up right away. There is one kid, Juan, who is so freaking good I swear he could play for MCWR already. (his grease helmet would give you guys a run for your money though) After rugby I came home and Luisito and my host dad and one of the cousins were getting ready to go over to their grandmother’s house to play some futbol so I tagged along figuring it would be mas o menos cultural. Their grandmother lives on a huge piece of land, part of which she made into a soccer field she rents out to a semi pro team in the area. A bunch of guys from the neighborhood came and played for a while. My 53 year old host dad even got in there and banged around with the 20 somethings which was pretty impressive. Afterwards grandma started up the music and brought out buckets of beer for everyone along with her leather whip that apparently is the price you have to pay for using her field. It was really funny to see all five foot nothing of her wobbling around trying to whip grown men. She also insisted on asking me when I was going to get married in Guarani about 12 times even though I told her I didn’t understand until Luisito finally translated for me. Thank dios or I think I would’ve been the whips next victim. All in all I think it’s safe to say grandma knows how to throw a party.
Speaking of dios, Lent started this week so there have been a lot of masses in the big church all week. My family hasn’t gone yet but hopefully they’ll go to watch the people throw money off the church at least. Let me explain: a while back a man had a daughter who was born really sick and the doctors thought she was going to die. So, this man prayed and prayed and his daughter got better so that year at a certain point during lent he went up on the roof of the church and threw off some money to show his gratitude. The idea caught on and now every year if you prayed for something and it happened you have to go hurl some guaranies off the roof.
I think that is all for now. Next week we venture to Villa Oliva for some more hands on practica so I am sure I will have much to report after that!
Como siempre, loving and missing you all!!
Kitties and Kiddies
I got a kitty! Ellie, Charly, and I were taking a stroll on Tuesday evening and came across a group of four kittens playing in the street. Naturally, we stopped to play with them and then when we saw the man who was living in the house we were in front of we decided we were going to ask if we could buy one. The man was maybe the oldest man I’ve seen in my life and I could barely understand what he was saying but as soon as he figured out that we wanted kittens he quickly and abruptly picked one up and handed it to me, instructing me that it was two months old and it only drinks milk. And this is the story of how I got Paz, my adorable little pure white baby girl! Luckily, my family loved her right away and Ariel helped me bathe her and feed her milk and has started immediate construction on a house for her in the backyard. The first night I had to keep her in my room because the other dog and cat didn’t know her yet. I think I handled my first experience as a new mom pretty well. She cried for a while but then found a comfy spot in my armpit and went to sleep for a while but woke up and diahreahed everywhere (yum) sooooo I changed the sheets and tried to go back to sleep. Same thing happened about three hours later. So this time I decided to try and be creative and find a way of keeping off my bed but since I don’t really have anything in my room except my dresser (which I very seriously considered putting her in and closing the door at one point) I gave her my bed and slept on the couch. I was dragging the next day but Paz was chipper and exploring the house-oh the power of a mothers love. And it turned out to be better anyway that I slept in the living room because my host mom informed me the next day that you can’t sleep with cats in your bed because they’ll make you sterile. Hopefully not too many Paraguayans use this idea as their preferred method of birth control. Anyway she is perfect and I am totally taking her to sight with me to keep me company and kill any and all rats and spiders in the vicinity.
My host dad really got a kick out of Paz too and him and I had a little bonding moment over her so that was nice. Also this week he proudly showed me how good of a cook he was and told me the story about his mother teaching him how to cook when he was little and that’s why he’s such a good husband now.
This week my family started construction on a big building on the side of my house that is going to be a book store/dispensa/cvs ish type of place they said. Hopefully it opens before because it looks like its going to be awesome. It’s interesting because there is literally a dispensa on every corner so you would think that none of them made any money but apparently it’s a very successful means to make a living. However, in choosing a dispensa it’s important to first evaluate the quality of their empanadas. Next you have to see if they have a good cookie selection. And if they have yogurt or diet soda then you are really in the money.
I had my first model lesson this week in the fourth grade. I decided on having them do a personal flag to get a little self-esteem and a little bicentennial education all in one. They seemed to like the idea of getting to draw but they really didn’t understand the thinking creatively bit. For the “what is your favorite food question” it was a 50/50 split between empanadas and asado (bbq) and for the “what do you want to be when you grow up question” all the girls put hairdressers and all the boys put soccer players, except one who wants to be a robber. They were a little wild and crazy towards the end but all in all, I wasn’t completely discouraged.
This weekend we had our second rugby/uno/volleyball mini camp with the kids in the barrio across town. It was for sure one of the hottest days since we’ve been here but we had a pretty good turn out and they all were really attentive and interested in learning something new. I have a small but loyal following of boys who seem into rugby which I am suuuuper psyched about. Riso came in from the campo to help me so we did some passing and tackling and then introduced the idea of passing backwards which I was nervous about but they picked it up right away. There is one kid, Juan, who is so freaking good I swear he could play for MCWR already. (his grease helmet would give you guys a run for your money though) After rugby I came home and Luisito and my host dad and one of the cousins were getting ready to go over to their grandmother’s house to play some futbol so I tagged along figuring it would be mas o menos cultural. Their grandmother lives on a huge piece of land, part of which she made into a soccer field she rents out to a semi pro team in the area. A bunch of guys from the neighborhood came and played for a while. My 53 year old host dad even got in there and banged around with the 20 somethings which was pretty impressive. Afterwards grandma started up the music and brought out buckets of beer for everyone along with her leather whip that apparently is the price you have to pay for using her field. It was really funny to see all five foot nothing of her wobbling around trying to whip grown men. She also insisted on asking me when I was going to get married in Guarani about 12 times even though I told her I didn’t understand until Luisito finally translated for me. Thank dios or I think I would’ve been the whips next victim. All in all I think it’s safe to say grandma knows how to throw a party.
Speaking of dios, Lent started this week so there have been a lot of masses in the big church all week. My family hasn’t gone yet but hopefully they’ll go to watch the people throw money off the church at least. Let me explain: a while back a man had a daughter who was born really sick and the doctors thought she was going to die. So, this man prayed and prayed and his daughter got better so that year at a certain point during lent he went up on the roof of the church and threw off some money to show his gratitude. The idea caught on and now every year if you prayed for something and it happened you have to go hurl some guaranies off the roof.
I think that is all for now. Next week we venture to Villa Oliva for some more hands on practica so I am sure I will have much to report after that!
Como siempre, loving and missing you all!!
My host dad really got a kick out of Paz too and him and I had a little bonding moment over her so that was nice. Also this week he proudly showed me how good of a cook he was and told me the story about his mother teaching him how to cook when he was little and that’s why he’s such a good husband now.
This week my family started construction on a big building on the side of my house that is going to be a book store/dispensa/cvs ish type of place they said. Hopefully it opens before because it looks like its going to be awesome. It’s interesting because there is literally a dispensa on every corner so you would think that none of them made any money but apparently it’s a very successful means to make a living. However, in choosing a dispensa it’s important to first evaluate the quality of their empanadas. Next you have to see if they have a good cookie selection. And if they have yogurt or diet soda then you are really in the money.
I had my first model lesson this week in the fourth grade. I decided on having them do a personal flag to get a little self-esteem and a little bicentennial education all in one. They seemed to like the idea of getting to draw but they really didn’t understand the thinking creatively bit. For the “what is your favorite food question” it was a 50/50 split between empanadas and asado (bbq) and for the “what do you want to be when you grow up question” all the girls put hairdressers and all the boys put soccer players, except one who wants to be a robber. They were a little wild and crazy towards the end but all in all, I wasn’t completely discouraged.
This weekend we had our second rugby/uno/volleyball mini camp with the kids in the barrio across town. It was for sure one of the hottest days since we’ve been here but we had a pretty good turn out and they all were really attentive and interested in learning something new. I have a small but loyal following of boys who seem into rugby which I am suuuuper psyched about. Riso came in from the campo to help me so we did some passing and tackling and then introduced the idea of passing backwards which I was nervous about but they picked it up right away. There is one kid, Juan, who is so freaking good I swear he could play for MCWR already. (his grease helmet would give you guys a run for your money though) After rugby I came home and Luisito and my host dad and one of the cousins were getting ready to go over to their grandmother’s house to play some futbol so I tagged along figuring it would be mas o menos cultural. Their grandmother lives on a huge piece of land, part of which she made into a soccer field she rents out to a semi pro team in the area. A bunch of guys from the neighborhood came and played for a while. My 53 year old host dad even got in there and banged around with the 20 somethings which was pretty impressive. Afterwards grandma started up the music and brought out buckets of beer for everyone along with her leather whip that apparently is the price you have to pay for using her field. It was really funny to see all five foot nothing of her wobbling around trying to whip grown men. She also insisted on asking me when I was going to get married in Guarani about 12 times even though I told her I didn’t understand until Luisito finally translated for me. Thank dios or I think I would’ve been the whips next victim. All in all I think it’s safe to say grandma knows how to throw a party.
Speaking of dios, Lent started this week so there have been a lot of masses in the big church all week. My family hasn’t gone yet but hopefully they’ll go to watch the people throw money off the church at least. Let me explain: a while back a man had a daughter who was born really sick and the doctors thought she was going to die. So, this man prayed and prayed and his daughter got better so that year at a certain point during lent he went up on the roof of the church and threw off some money to show his gratitude. The idea caught on and now every year if you prayed for something and it happened you have to go hurl some guaranies off the roof.
I think that is all for now. Next week we venture to Villa Oliva for some more hands on practica so I am sure I will have much to report after that!
Como siempre, loving and missing you all!!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
One Month?!
As of Wednesday I have been in Paraguay for exactly a month. Loco. The days have been long but the weeks have definitely flown by. 26 months left? Weird. Anyway, I thankfully have completed another full week of training bliss. Let me fill you in on the highlights
Saturday
Saturday was the big classic soccer game between Cerro and Olympia (which apparently happens like once a month-what good capitalists these Paraguayans are) and I, naturally, was rooting for Cerro. It was an action packed game, everyone was shouting and cheering and arguing every call and every time someone scored fireworks went off all over the neighborhood (fireworks that I later found out were actually guns people were shooting into the ground in their backyards, yikes?) so you could most definitely tell where your neighborhood allegiances lay. I watched the first half of the game with Ellie and her sisters and her sister’s friends at this reallllllly nice house a couple blocks away and then the second half with Ian and his host brother Alberto, my favorite neighbor of all time. So, I got the full range of futbol fanaticism here in Paraguay for sure.
Sunday
Sunday was for sleeping, a failed attempt at a run because Deide and Ariel decided they HAD to come with me even though they could only run three blocks at a time, and some more sleeping/reading/in my bed activities. Nothing loco.
Monday
Today we really got into the nitty gritty of Guarani in language class. No bueno. The basic grammar is pretty simple but the other stuff is a little more involved and I’m way out of my academic mode so studying is going to be rough. In the afternoon I went on my second school visit with Profesora Carmen, fourth grade teacher at Defensores del Chaco, Basic School #261. After being warned by our trainers of the huge differences between Paraguayan and American schools I was preparing for chaos but was pleasantly surprised to find that Carmen had a pretty strong hold on her classroom management skills for the most part. She was very nice and interested in talking with me about things and even chatted with me about her upcoming diet plans. The kids slowly warmed up to me and by the end of the day were swarmed around my desk asking my name and where I was from and if there are schools “alla” (there) which is how most Paraguayans refer to the US, in this very never never land kind of way which cracks me up sometimes. One of the boys didn’t believe I spoke English and another one of them was very curious as to whether I had children “alla” or not. Thanks fourth grader. I need to start up a “Kids Say the Darndest Things-Paraguayan Edition” I think. Also, I think I’m getting tan because one kid asked if I had Brazilian cousins and here they think all Brazilians are black. Or maybe he was calling me ugly because they don’t think Brazilians are pretty here. Oh well. Interestingly, in my class of 24 there were only seven girls, including a set of twins. They all sat in a row all the way over to the side and didn’t do much in the way of participation so I think I see where I am going to begin when we can start doing some activities with the kids. Friday we are going back to do a diagnostic reading test on our classes.
I’ve started up my yoga-ing finally. And by that I mean I put my yoga mat down in my room and stretch and listen to calming music but oh well, it’s the best I can do until the humidity drops below 85%. Anyone know of any sweet pod casts or something like that I can download for yoga? I’ve also been reading like a mad woman so you literary amigos of mine start sending me some suggestions!
We found out where we’re going in a couple weeks for our “Long Field Practice” this week-very exciting. I’m going with my language class to a community called Villa Oliva and I don’t know too much about it except it said on our schedule that we have a chance to go fishing. So, I’m pumped.
Friday
Friday was our third practice day in the classroom and we got to start getting our hands dirty a little bit. I did the clothing relay with the kids which was hilarious and then did the diagnostic reading test which was depressing to say the least but at least now I know where to start for my model lesson. There was such a huge range that I think I’m going to stick to something outside the literacy realm. My teacher showed me pictures of her new nephew told me about her family. Her husband studied English in Georgia, and worked for Peace Corps here for a short time so that’s cool and gives me a little more confidence that she actually understands what I am there to do because Ellie’s teacher still thinks she is there to play games I’m pretty sure so that’s encouraging. NOT. I have to do a model lesson next week. Yikes. However, I did get some more practice in front of the class because my teacher made me stand up and explain how all black people don’t come from Brazil and that there are black people in America and a lot of other places too. So I felt pretty good about that and I was feeling all teachable momenty and then my teacher told the kids that all black people used to be slaves. Clearly, this is going to be a process. The kids are adorable though and they are much less shy this time too but they totally chisme about me in Guarani when they don’t want me to understand. Not cool.
Saturday
Saturday we all dragged our sorry asses to the big centro for a Paraguayan history lesson by this Paraguayan lawyer/professor who spoke better English than I do. It was really interesting and got pretty political at a certain point which is always fun too. We talked a lot about human rights things and the psychology of Paraguayans in regards to progress and free thought which is actually really fascinating to think about and really has so much to do with us being successful in our jobs. It also made me really love my freedom of speech/thought/assembly. For all its faults, America got that one right for sure. Although Paraguayans have all those things now, under the various dictators they had, especially Stroessner, they didn’t and it’s very apparent to see that psychologically and sociologically they have not recovered from that type of oppression yet.
After some intenseness we all naturally needed ice cream so we all bummed around Guarambare and caught up with the Health kids. I got some really awesome fabric for sooooo cheap and my host mom is going to take me to a lady who makes clothes tomorrow to get measured so that’s exciting.
After some good old fashioned skype-ing in the cyber I hustled home and rounded up my brother and a couple other kids to come play rugby. We went to the other side of town with Carly and her nephew and there was a gaggle of little kids waiting to play so we did a couple water balloon games and I made up a very basic version of rugby which translated to mas o menos kill the man with the ball. They were surprisingly good and you could for sure see the kids who were athletic taking off with it. I couldn’t get any of them to admit it was more fun than soccer though, just wait until they find out they can throw people in the air-adios futbol.
Today I plan to sit in my bed and try to stop wishing I could go get a bacon egg and cheese because well, they don’t exist here which I find totally bizarre but asi es la vida. I finally received and got to send some letters this week so all y’all start looking out sometime around St Patrick’s Day for them hopefully. Also, I finally figured out where the post office is in town so I won’t have to wait for the post ladies to come to me to mail things now although it is ridiculously expensive to send letters so emails and blogs are going to have to suffice for the most part.
Lovin and missin you all!
Jaim.
Saturday
Saturday was the big classic soccer game between Cerro and Olympia (which apparently happens like once a month-what good capitalists these Paraguayans are) and I, naturally, was rooting for Cerro. It was an action packed game, everyone was shouting and cheering and arguing every call and every time someone scored fireworks went off all over the neighborhood (fireworks that I later found out were actually guns people were shooting into the ground in their backyards, yikes?) so you could most definitely tell where your neighborhood allegiances lay. I watched the first half of the game with Ellie and her sisters and her sister’s friends at this reallllllly nice house a couple blocks away and then the second half with Ian and his host brother Alberto, my favorite neighbor of all time. So, I got the full range of futbol fanaticism here in Paraguay for sure.
Sunday
Sunday was for sleeping, a failed attempt at a run because Deide and Ariel decided they HAD to come with me even though they could only run three blocks at a time, and some more sleeping/reading/in my bed activities. Nothing loco.
Monday
Today we really got into the nitty gritty of Guarani in language class. No bueno. The basic grammar is pretty simple but the other stuff is a little more involved and I’m way out of my academic mode so studying is going to be rough. In the afternoon I went on my second school visit with Profesora Carmen, fourth grade teacher at Defensores del Chaco, Basic School #261. After being warned by our trainers of the huge differences between Paraguayan and American schools I was preparing for chaos but was pleasantly surprised to find that Carmen had a pretty strong hold on her classroom management skills for the most part. She was very nice and interested in talking with me about things and even chatted with me about her upcoming diet plans. The kids slowly warmed up to me and by the end of the day were swarmed around my desk asking my name and where I was from and if there are schools “alla” (there) which is how most Paraguayans refer to the US, in this very never never land kind of way which cracks me up sometimes. One of the boys didn’t believe I spoke English and another one of them was very curious as to whether I had children “alla” or not. Thanks fourth grader. I need to start up a “Kids Say the Darndest Things-Paraguayan Edition” I think. Also, I think I’m getting tan because one kid asked if I had Brazilian cousins and here they think all Brazilians are black. Or maybe he was calling me ugly because they don’t think Brazilians are pretty here. Oh well. Interestingly, in my class of 24 there were only seven girls, including a set of twins. They all sat in a row all the way over to the side and didn’t do much in the way of participation so I think I see where I am going to begin when we can start doing some activities with the kids. Friday we are going back to do a diagnostic reading test on our classes.
I’ve started up my yoga-ing finally. And by that I mean I put my yoga mat down in my room and stretch and listen to calming music but oh well, it’s the best I can do until the humidity drops below 85%. Anyone know of any sweet pod casts or something like that I can download for yoga? I’ve also been reading like a mad woman so you literary amigos of mine start sending me some suggestions!
We found out where we’re going in a couple weeks for our “Long Field Practice” this week-very exciting. I’m going with my language class to a community called Villa Oliva and I don’t know too much about it except it said on our schedule that we have a chance to go fishing. So, I’m pumped.
Friday
Friday was our third practice day in the classroom and we got to start getting our hands dirty a little bit. I did the clothing relay with the kids which was hilarious and then did the diagnostic reading test which was depressing to say the least but at least now I know where to start for my model lesson. There was such a huge range that I think I’m going to stick to something outside the literacy realm. My teacher showed me pictures of her new nephew told me about her family. Her husband studied English in Georgia, and worked for Peace Corps here for a short time so that’s cool and gives me a little more confidence that she actually understands what I am there to do because Ellie’s teacher still thinks she is there to play games I’m pretty sure so that’s encouraging. NOT. I have to do a model lesson next week. Yikes. However, I did get some more practice in front of the class because my teacher made me stand up and explain how all black people don’t come from Brazil and that there are black people in America and a lot of other places too. So I felt pretty good about that and I was feeling all teachable momenty and then my teacher told the kids that all black people used to be slaves. Clearly, this is going to be a process. The kids are adorable though and they are much less shy this time too but they totally chisme about me in Guarani when they don’t want me to understand. Not cool.
Saturday
Saturday we all dragged our sorry asses to the big centro for a Paraguayan history lesson by this Paraguayan lawyer/professor who spoke better English than I do. It was really interesting and got pretty political at a certain point which is always fun too. We talked a lot about human rights things and the psychology of Paraguayans in regards to progress and free thought which is actually really fascinating to think about and really has so much to do with us being successful in our jobs. It also made me really love my freedom of speech/thought/assembly. For all its faults, America got that one right for sure. Although Paraguayans have all those things now, under the various dictators they had, especially Stroessner, they didn’t and it’s very apparent to see that psychologically and sociologically they have not recovered from that type of oppression yet.
After some intenseness we all naturally needed ice cream so we all bummed around Guarambare and caught up with the Health kids. I got some really awesome fabric for sooooo cheap and my host mom is going to take me to a lady who makes clothes tomorrow to get measured so that’s exciting.
After some good old fashioned skype-ing in the cyber I hustled home and rounded up my brother and a couple other kids to come play rugby. We went to the other side of town with Carly and her nephew and there was a gaggle of little kids waiting to play so we did a couple water balloon games and I made up a very basic version of rugby which translated to mas o menos kill the man with the ball. They were surprisingly good and you could for sure see the kids who were athletic taking off with it. I couldn’t get any of them to admit it was more fun than soccer though, just wait until they find out they can throw people in the air-adios futbol.
Today I plan to sit in my bed and try to stop wishing I could go get a bacon egg and cheese because well, they don’t exist here which I find totally bizarre but asi es la vida. I finally received and got to send some letters this week so all y’all start looking out sometime around St Patrick’s Day for them hopefully. Also, I finally figured out where the post office is in town so I won’t have to wait for the post ladies to come to me to mail things now although it is ridiculously expensive to send letters so emails and blogs are going to have to suffice for the most part.
Lovin and missin you all!
Jaim.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Campo Livin and Fiestas
Back in Guarambare! Ahhhh, home sweet home. I spent the last couple days in the Caaguazu region, shadowing PCV Vickie and learning a bit about life in the campo. I met Vickie and her BF Blake at the Asuncion Bus Station Monday morning.Blake lives in a community pretty close to Asuncion that is an afro-paraguayan community, one of the only ones. Interesting little tid bit of Paraguayan history-there are many Paraguayans that believe that there was never slavery in this country because it was more or less erased from the history books a long time ago. I’m not sure of all the details but I know it has a lot to do with the dictatorship and what not, but pretty interesting eh? Anyway, Vickie and Blake and great humans for a bunch of reasons, one of the being they know the value of getting a good meal in Paraguay. For lunch, we went to Asuncion’s China Town and had some lovely chicken and rice-and soy sauce to boot! After some travel, Vickie treated me to “lomitoarabe”, which is what they call doner kebabs here (yes Madrid Kids-they HAVE taken over the world, gracias adios!) which was easily the most delicious thing I had tasted in three weeks. Yes that’s right; I have been here three weeks as of Wednesday! Woa.So we got to her teeny tiny sight that consists of a mile long “main street” with several off shoots that house the majority of the residents. The main street has a smattering of little stores, one of which is a clothing store that is owned by her Argentinian neighbors. We stopped in there to meet the fam, have some terere, discuss local happenings etc. This family was really interesting because instead of moving away from Paraguay to Argentina as so many people do, they decided after nearly twenty years in Buenos Aires to come back to sleepy little Cecilio Baez. Needless to say their teenage daughters are not feeling it, and have been trying to move back since they got here. They were an exceedingly nice family , and there accents were a nice little change up too.
Vickie lives in a cute little green house with her own kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom-perfect size for one person. She doesn’t have a refrigerator which means she has to go grocery shopping A LOT. However, one new thing I learned this week is that eggs don’t actually have to go in the refrigerator right away. Who knew?
I’ve already talked about Paraguayans rain phobia but in this town it seemed a little more valid since nothing was paved and everything got muddy and squishy in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately the massive two day rain storm of yesterday and today inhibited my trip a little bit because there were not too many people around to talk to at the school and the municipality, and Vickie’s girls group cancelled on her which was a bummer but I picked her brain for ideas and things anyway. I got to speak with the director of the school, the mayor, and watch Vickie give several computer classes in the muni as well which was interesting and something I never really considered doing but I surely see the relevance of it now. At night since it was raining so bad I picked Vickie’s brain about various other PC things, and she gave me the latest addition of the Peace Corps Paraguay magazine which is put out every swear in/close of service and is HILARIOUS. It made me really excited to start meeting other PC Paraguayers and to really start getting into the thick of things during service. Also, I realized I totally need to get an external hard drive so I can join the movie and tv show swapping network taking over the nation around here. We watched a couple episodes of How I Met Your Mother and she had a whole bunch of other stuff too. I can definitely see how something like that can maintain your sanity on slow campo nights in the rain.
This morning I jumped on the last bus outta town at 7:15am (the first one leaving at 5am, just to give you a clue as to how isolated this place is) and after a pit stop in a beautiful little city called Oviedo (not quite Vicky Cristina Barcelona but very cute)I hopped on a bus to Asuncion. The rain was SO intense, the most intense it’s been since I’ve been here so thank god Vickie was nice enough to lend me her umbrella or else it could’ve gotten ugly. In Asuncion I took an empanada break and then set out looking for my chariot back to Guarambare. The thing about the Paraguayan bus system is that you’re really never 100% sure you’re on the right bus, going in the right direction, paid the right price etc. There is a fair amount of guess work in all of it which makes it interesting, and in the POURING rain even more interesting. Luckily I picked correctly and made it back to a casi flooded Guarambare just in time for lunch and a siesta! My host aunt or cousin or something, Ali was over for lunch and she is always very warm and funny so I love her company. Some kids in my group are working in her school so she was asking me how they thought the first day went and then I just had a piece of fried chicken and went to off to my glorious nap.Luckily, I woke up just in time to go get ice cream with Ariel, Deide, and Ian’s two host siblings Matias and Velem.Wonderful day, all in all.
Saturday
Yesterday we had a training day at the big center so it was nice to catch up with the health kids and see where and what they’ve been up to the past week or so since we saw them. Most of them went to reallllllly campo places and it was funny to compare experiences. Then we got another really gross and disturbing power point on scabies and worms and bot flies (a fly that bites you and then lays an egg in you and if you don’t get it out the larvae will grow and become a fly IN you!) and other really gross things that may or may not ail you whist in Paraguay. We were all sitting there itching and grossed out the whole time but luckily I got to escape to go get my yellow fever shot and have my interview with Dee, the kind of second in command around here. So I was put out of my misery. After that we all enjoyed a Brahma or two at the little place next to the training center and had a mini celebration for one of the health kid’s birthdays.
Today we had language class early in the morning but it was fun because instead of class we had a little fiesta to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps and also El Dia de La MujerParaguaya which was really awesome. We made guacamole with the avocados and limes from the back yard of the school and we bought a cake and made popcorn and invited our families and stuff. A couple people spoke about the history of Peace Corps, the history of the Paraguayan Women’s Day, and also about famous and important women in Peace Corps History. Ian wrote a song in guarani to celebrate the event as well. Then everyone ate and drank and what not and had a great time and we got out of guarani lessons for the day! Hallelujia!
We have the afternoon off so Ellie and I are going to show Luisito a thing or two about making papas fritas and then we’re going to watch the big important soccer game-Cerro vs. Olimpia. The whole country is at odds about this match because its between the two most popular teams in the country so it should be pretty exciting. I’ve become a Cerro fan because I’d probably get the locks changed on me if I wasn’t. So- yay Cerro!! The rest of the weekend I plan on spending verrrrrrrytranquilo and finally finishing my book! We’ve all begun a massive book trade so hopefully I’ll be able to trade mine for something new and interesting. Someone got a huge package yesterday from the Peace Corps office and we were all so jealous but her mom spent like a million dollars getting it here in a week so I’m not sure if it’ll be worth it to send things DHL. The post office ladies are coming this Wednesday so I can finally send out my letters! Apparently there is a post office in Guarambare but in typical Paraguayan fashion no one really seems to know exactly when its open and closed so I figure I’ll just wait until they come to us.
Miss and love you all, look for some letters in the next couple weeks!
Paz,
Himay
Vickie lives in a cute little green house with her own kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom-perfect size for one person. She doesn’t have a refrigerator which means she has to go grocery shopping A LOT. However, one new thing I learned this week is that eggs don’t actually have to go in the refrigerator right away. Who knew?
I’ve already talked about Paraguayans rain phobia but in this town it seemed a little more valid since nothing was paved and everything got muddy and squishy in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately the massive two day rain storm of yesterday and today inhibited my trip a little bit because there were not too many people around to talk to at the school and the municipality, and Vickie’s girls group cancelled on her which was a bummer but I picked her brain for ideas and things anyway. I got to speak with the director of the school, the mayor, and watch Vickie give several computer classes in the muni as well which was interesting and something I never really considered doing but I surely see the relevance of it now. At night since it was raining so bad I picked Vickie’s brain about various other PC things, and she gave me the latest addition of the Peace Corps Paraguay magazine which is put out every swear in/close of service and is HILARIOUS. It made me really excited to start meeting other PC Paraguayers and to really start getting into the thick of things during service. Also, I realized I totally need to get an external hard drive so I can join the movie and tv show swapping network taking over the nation around here. We watched a couple episodes of How I Met Your Mother and she had a whole bunch of other stuff too. I can definitely see how something like that can maintain your sanity on slow campo nights in the rain.
This morning I jumped on the last bus outta town at 7:15am (the first one leaving at 5am, just to give you a clue as to how isolated this place is) and after a pit stop in a beautiful little city called Oviedo (not quite Vicky Cristina Barcelona but very cute)I hopped on a bus to Asuncion. The rain was SO intense, the most intense it’s been since I’ve been here so thank god Vickie was nice enough to lend me her umbrella or else it could’ve gotten ugly. In Asuncion I took an empanada break and then set out looking for my chariot back to Guarambare. The thing about the Paraguayan bus system is that you’re really never 100% sure you’re on the right bus, going in the right direction, paid the right price etc. There is a fair amount of guess work in all of it which makes it interesting, and in the POURING rain even more interesting. Luckily I picked correctly and made it back to a casi flooded Guarambare just in time for lunch and a siesta! My host aunt or cousin or something, Ali was over for lunch and she is always very warm and funny so I love her company. Some kids in my group are working in her school so she was asking me how they thought the first day went and then I just had a piece of fried chicken and went to off to my glorious nap.Luckily, I woke up just in time to go get ice cream with Ariel, Deide, and Ian’s two host siblings Matias and Velem.Wonderful day, all in all.
Saturday
Yesterday we had a training day at the big center so it was nice to catch up with the health kids and see where and what they’ve been up to the past week or so since we saw them. Most of them went to reallllllly campo places and it was funny to compare experiences. Then we got another really gross and disturbing power point on scabies and worms and bot flies (a fly that bites you and then lays an egg in you and if you don’t get it out the larvae will grow and become a fly IN you!) and other really gross things that may or may not ail you whist in Paraguay. We were all sitting there itching and grossed out the whole time but luckily I got to escape to go get my yellow fever shot and have my interview with Dee, the kind of second in command around here. So I was put out of my misery. After that we all enjoyed a Brahma or two at the little place next to the training center and had a mini celebration for one of the health kid’s birthdays.
Today we had language class early in the morning but it was fun because instead of class we had a little fiesta to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps and also El Dia de La MujerParaguaya which was really awesome. We made guacamole with the avocados and limes from the back yard of the school and we bought a cake and made popcorn and invited our families and stuff. A couple people spoke about the history of Peace Corps, the history of the Paraguayan Women’s Day, and also about famous and important women in Peace Corps History. Ian wrote a song in guarani to celebrate the event as well. Then everyone ate and drank and what not and had a great time and we got out of guarani lessons for the day! Hallelujia!
We have the afternoon off so Ellie and I are going to show Luisito a thing or two about making papas fritas and then we’re going to watch the big important soccer game-Cerro vs. Olimpia. The whole country is at odds about this match because its between the two most popular teams in the country so it should be pretty exciting. I’ve become a Cerro fan because I’d probably get the locks changed on me if I wasn’t. So- yay Cerro!! The rest of the weekend I plan on spending verrrrrrrytranquilo and finally finishing my book! We’ve all begun a massive book trade so hopefully I’ll be able to trade mine for something new and interesting. Someone got a huge package yesterday from the Peace Corps office and we were all so jealous but her mom spent like a million dollars getting it here in a week so I’m not sure if it’ll be worth it to send things DHL. The post office ladies are coming this Wednesday so I can finally send out my letters! Apparently there is a post office in Guarambare but in typical Paraguayan fashion no one really seems to know exactly when its open and closed so I figure I’ll just wait until they come to us.
Miss and love you all, look for some letters in the next couple weeks!
Paz,
Himay
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