Training, family, and Guarambare

Soo I’m here! After a grand total of fourteen hours of flying (NY-Miami-Montevideo-Asuncion) we have finally arrived in the town of Guarambare, a small city (really a large town) about an hour to the south west of the capital city of Asuncion. I’ve been sweating for several days straight now and my headache has not let up since I got here despite the gallons of water I’m drinking so that has become super annoying. I live in a small barrio of this town called Alegre which means happy in Spanish which is weird because in all honesty I have been sad. It’s a lot to process not only being away this long but also the really tremendous task that I’ve undertaken. I feel intimidated by what I’m being asked to do, and like I’ve been saying all along-we’ll see if I am as tough as I think I am. My friend Ian and I were talking on the way home about how long its been since we had applied to the Peace Corps and how we were both trying to reconnect with our more idealistic and stimulated selves now that we had finally arrived. It will take some time I think, but it will happen.

My saving grace has been my lovely host family. I already feel extremely comfortable with them and I know I am going to hate to leave. I have an older brother, Luis, who is 23 and has graduated college although I’m not sure what he does for work because every time I’ve seen him he’s been on his way in from futbol practice. He told me he wants to become and lawyer and go to NY, I told him not to come because lawyers are working in McDonalds right now. I don’t know if he understood my translated sarcasm. I’ve promised him English lessons while I am here so hopefully it will be some good practice with a motivated student before I get on site. Also I have a sister who is 15 and super smart and energetic. She helped me unpack, brought me to get ice cream and use the internet café, and helped me with my homework. She wants to paint my nails and do my hair and keeps telling me how happy she is to finally have a sister which is an amazing feeling. She recently won second place in the princess of guarambare contest and she now has a laptop, a sash, and soon coming wifi to boot! We looked at the mountains of pictures of her quincenera together as well as her introduction video, AND the video of the party. I knew quincineras were a big deal here, but this stuff put super sweet 16 to shame. She had 180 guests and two wardrobe changes for crying out loud. My youngest sibling is a little boy named Francisco and he has a nickname that I keep forgetting too. He is eleven and adorable and protective and walked me to school today and was outside waiting for me when I got home. (which was a little later than he expected and he made sure to tell me how worried he was getting). My parents are lovely and are very interested about the states and my life there which makes me feel very welcome. I also met little baby Luanna who is one of the cousins, she is a little scared of me but I’m sure she’ll come around. I also have two dogs, named Tim and Bravo, and a little orange kitty whose name is escaping me. My room is beautiful, I have a desk and big dresser and a nice night table next to my bed and there is running water and electricity. Needless to say, I am not too uncomfortable-yet.

Training has just been a lot of rules and regulations thus far, but tomorrow we start language classes. I will be in just two weeks of Spanish to refresh and then jump into guarani-which is going to be tough I can already tell. The phonetics are really different and they don’t like vowels very much. It does sound beautiful when someone speaks it well though. Getting back into Spanish has been easier than I thought which is great, although there are of course still moments of confusion in particular when people don’t realize I don’t speak a word of guarani. Many people here speak what they call “jopara” which literally means a mix and is a mix of both Spanish and guarani. My host family is very good about it and for the most part I understand them clearly.Today in our first day of language class we reviewed several pretty simple things, the teacher is more or less letting us tell her what we need to review since the four girls in our group all speak Spanish very well. After that we learned about the national tea, terere. It is a tasty herbal tea that is drank out of a metal straw in a friendship circle formation, each person drinking a small cup of tea and then passing it back to the server to refill for the next person. You can also add various herbal medicines of “yugos” to cure a stomach ache, headache, etc. I have a feeling that not only will I be drinking and enjoying a lot of this tea, but that it will prove very important in forming relationships in this country. Good thing I like it, ha. Some other great cultural things about this country are that they think sleeping and showering as much as you want is perfectly fine. Which is great because I am always tired and sweat doing basically everything but showering. Water is a flat rate here, so everyone showers whenever they feel necessary.

I am hoping to find someone to blow my rugby ball up with soon, and hopefully can start jogging at some point although I forgot running shorts somehow so I may have to go buy them (oh yea mom, if you see this can you send me some!?) My yoga mat is unpacked and I am going to try and start a push up and sit up regiment to wake me up in the mornings, which has been very hard up to now. Hopefully I will start getting used to the heat because it is very, very draining. Reading and writing are also going to be of paramount importance for me especially during this adjustment period. It rained here last night and most of the day today so I am hoping the humidity subsides after this, my joints will be elated.
Don’t worry friends and mom, I know I sound like I’m kind of down and I am, but I am trusting in the process, and am reminding myself that I didn’t do this for a vacation. I love and miss you all-expect letters soon. They tell me it takes about two weeks and I hope to send them out sometime next week when the post lady comes to the training center.

Paz,
Jaimee