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
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