Asuncion and rainy days

Thursday

So I survived my first trip to la capital! We all went on a little scavenger hunt of Asuncion and the surrounding areas today. Each pair was assigned a couple tasks to go see whilst navigating the jungle that is the Paraguayan bus system. We are all a little concerned going into it considering the tales of Tuesday when the Rural Health and Sanitation training group had the same assignment. A lot of people got really lost and were late arriving to the Peace Corps Office, two girls were detained at the embassy for an hour until the Marines finally believed they were Peace Corps Trainees (note to all travelers: don’t take pictures at an embassy) AND someone passed out on the way home. All in all: not the most successful of days.
None the less we all got up super early and caught buses out of Guarambare between 6 and 7 aka Paraguayan rush hour. Luckily for us Guarambare is at the beginning of the line so we got seats in the front near the driver so we could see and also tell the driver where we needed to get off, because obviously having pre-determined bus stops would make the world way too simple. So we were on our way, cell phone, ipod, and jewelry-less as to not make ourselves targets on the buses for theft. I was nursing my first Paraguayan illness so I can’t say I was looking forward to the bus but it turned out the definitely be one of the most culturally enriching things I have done thus far here. Businessman, young people, moms and children, vendors, beggars-you name it they got it on the Paraguayan buses. The roads are rocky and windy but there is for sure something really predictable about the morning commute-no matter how hectic and aroutine it may have seemed to us. And then the baby vomited. Like I said, the roads are rocky and bumpy and windy and it really is enough to give anyone bus sickness, especially a little kid who doesn’t even have his own two feet on the ground. Luckily for me I happened to just turn my head as the cute little boy I had noticed getting on the bus earlier because of his cute ringlets, let out a lovely milky substance in one big heave. Also luckily for me, while I don’t think my feet could’ve gotten any closer, he didn’t puke on my feet. And a third lucky thing is, this baby’s puke didn’t smell so bad so it didn’t turn my stomach or anything. Wow, I’m really becoming a glass half full person already here in Paraguay.
So we arrived at “Shopping del Sol”, a huge American style mall complete with McDonalds AND Burger King but considering the state of my health I decided to pass on both . Next time for sure. Ps. as far as my research has shown thus far, NO t bell in Paraguay. DOWNGRADE. We meandered about the mall looking for book stores which was what our assignment was. Books are freakin expensive here, its no wonder so few people read and write well. Then we headed to the national professional development office which was a big, impressive building but not that interesting otherwise. We collected some info from the secretary and went on our way.
We arrived pretty early at the Peace Corps Office so Gustavo the security man with the master plan let us go on the internet-fo free! Once everyone else arrived we sat in another series of lectures and things about mail (if you’re gonna send a package send it DHL or I won’t get it for like two months) internet, rules of the internet, registered with the state department so they know we’re in the country, learned about the resources the offices have at our disposal, and finally we found out where our Peace Corps Volunteers visits are going to be next week! I am headed to Department Caaguazu, about four hours to the east of Asuncion to observe and shadow an education volunteer in her day to day life. I am super excited to be doing something more hands on, and plus it’s always cool to meet current volunteers. The bus ride is about four hours from Asuncion but luckily for me she is going to be in Asuncion that day, so we are going to travel together.
After those exciting announcements we went to a really chuci and really rico ice cream place and then headed back to Guarambare just in time to get inside before the rain.



Friday

Today was our first “dia de practica” in the schools in Guarambare. We were split up into three different groups and assigned to teachers who were supposed to go and interview, in addition to interviewing the director of the school about the history of the institution. And we got to make a map! Although we had three sick soldiers who couldn’t make it, we still spent the afternoon out and about at the schools. My school was called The Defenders of The Chaco, the Chaco being the big desert that takes up the north of the country and the defenders being the soldiers who fought in The War of the Chaco against Bolivia, our neighbor to the north. It is a public school which ironically means it gets next to no funding from the national government, other than daily milk and bread for the students and “kits” which contain very nominal supplies to get them through the year. There are about 400 kids who attend my school, 200 in the morning “turno” and 200 in the afternoon, both lasting about 4 hours each. This was essentially an elementary school with grades preschool to 9th in it. My teachers name is Carmen and she has been teaching fourth grade in this school for 17 years. We talked a lot about the school system, where their funding comes from, literacy and gender issues, and what she would like to see changed. Ironically again although we had just spent a fair amount of time talking about literacy, she said she would most like the
recess area made bigger, so that the kids were not that crowded during their break. After this interview we all went to talk to the director who gave us the run-down of the history of the school, pictures and all. She also gave us a little tour so we could make our map and told us all about the recent renovations that had been made on the school-all paid for by the Paraguayan version of the PTA. There is a group like this in every school because they are responsible for the cleaning, maintenance, and anything else that the kids need other than milk and bread. So needless to say, parent involvement is pretty imperative in a functioning public school down here.
Afterwards we all came back to the training center and compared experiences. We all went to public schools so we all encountered a lot of the same issues of poverty, literacy, and the weird internal conflict between the Guarani that many of the children speak at home, the Spanish that they are taught in at school, the barrier to learning that this dynamic seems to create.


Saturday

So I had a lot of grand plans to teach some rugby to the kids in the neighborhood and also was super excited about going to my first quincinera. However, as soon as it started raining I soon found out that Paraguayans suffer from something similiar to Wicked Witch of the West syndrome and so the rain cancelled all existing plans for the rest of the day. It was all good though, we spent the night tranquilopa playing spanish scrabble with some other trainees and some of jovenes from the area. Monday we are all leaving on our first big excursion out of Guarambare which is very exciting.
Also, I posted pics to facebook and am going to try to upload them to Picassa as well for all the non facebookers out there. We'll see how the internet connection holds up.