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