Things down here...

Well I suppose I should stop making promises about how I’m going to write more often because for some reason it always seems to slip my mind. Not that I don’t think of home and all my people there often, I guess its just that thanks to Skype and email and all that jazz I really haven’t felt too far away. Things have been well, loco. I almost don’t know where to start. I got back from Buenos Aires and Punta del Este and was feeling a bit lethargic, to say the least. Projects weren’t really moving along, summer break was still going on, and it was HOT (like hotter than I ever thought I´d be hot). Y despues, I started having some troubles around the Villa as well. Even now many months later I can´t tell you why I ended up in the situation I did and in an effort to not play the victim nor place blame I’ll just say this: it was time to get out of the Villa (don’t worry family I was never in any serious danger). After some talking with the jefes, I decided that I wouldn’t move my site all together but instead just move into the center of the city, so that I could continue the work that I was doing in the Municipality, and also utilize some of the connections that I had made at the high schools in the center. Then began the search for a house which was in short, a nightmare. Two weeks of drudging around what felt like every barrio in Limpio looking for an acceptable house had lead to nothing but finally I got in touch with my good friend Fulvia who had been out on maternity leave but, as it turns out had a mother in law with an apartment she was looking to rent. The upsides were: a big and lindo space with plenty of room for my things, a great location to be able to work in various places, air conditioning (!!) and it is VERY secure. The down side: because of its location she wanted an arm and a leg for it and since it’s a second floor apartment, running water is non existent. Although the down sides where significant, the two week searched had come up too dry for me to turn it down and so it was time for yet another move. Three hours, three men, and a very precarious pulley system (yes, pulley system) later, I was moved into my new house. At first, things were slow…and lonely….and I didn’t know what to do. BUT after some running around and networking and presenting of ideas to various people, the move has proved to be really great for me in a lot of ways. I am closer to a lot of resources and can more easily communicate with a lot of people who I had wanted to work with the past year, but had never gotten the chance to. My schedule in many ways has gone for 0 to 100 in just a month. I have been able to organize a lot more projects and a lot more variety of projects now that I am here and while the pace of life is for sure slower than it was for me in New York, I think I have found more or less my happy in place in terms of balance between work and play. Don’t get me wrong, there are still down moments (people saying they are going to do something and then not doing it seems to be a national epidemic; however, I´m learning to look at it through a more refined cultural lens and it has begun to bother me less and less) but at this point I can safely say that perseverance is a quality that I have acquired in this first year as a volunteer. Both mentally and physically I have been tested like I probably (hopefully) will never be again. I´ve had stomach problems, and headaches, and more mosquito bites than you´ll ever want to imagine-which ultimately resulted in Dengue Fever and a whole week in bed. I also apparently have psoriasis of the heel region. But on the upside I’ve lost almost forty pounds since the day I set foot in this country and when I’m not sick I feel great! This first year has been a loco one. The days are slow but the weeks are fast and I feel more and more at home each day. I´ve always been someone to put down roots and make connections wherever I happen to be but I think I doubted how real this Peace Corps experience would be for me. I suppose the mobs of stray dogs, the various annoying men, and the gallons of greasy food I encounter everyday will never seem completely normal to me but somehow all of that has more or less faded into the background and I have come to focus on, appreciate, and love the beautiful and friendly parts of Paraguay. And that’s that for now I think. Until next time che gentekuera, Jaimee

2012

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!


I know I know, its been too long again. The slow pace down here weirdly makes things go by really fast! December went by in a blink, broken up by a three day volunteerism conference that some of my fellow volunteers were helping run in Asuncion and a three day peace corps sponsored youth diversity camp in the religious center, Caacupe. It was nice to get out and get moving a bit and even nicer to be able to bring some teenagers with me. Diversity is basically a non-existent issue in Paraguay. I say non-existent not because there isn’t diversity but because it is not discussed, and there isn’t a whole lot of speaking out against the various types of discrimination that exist in the Paraguayan society. For this reason, this camp was particularly interesting and thought provoking for many of the youth. Kids from all over the country, from the bigger cities to the most rural of rural areas came together to talk about the different ethnic, religious, sexual orientation, and even socio-economic issues that exist in modern Paraguay. It was to-date, for sure one of the more interesting and fulfilling experiences I’ve had as a volunteer.


After all the work things were done in December, came the play things! Jaz arrived on the 21st just in time for the really extreme heat to kick in. We spent a couple days getting to know Villa Madrid and the surrounding areas and then headed to Buenos Aires and Punta del Este, Uruguay for a few days each. Traveling (even when you are living abroad, as I found out) always has a cleansing and motivating effect on me and as I approach the one year in country mark (!?) it was a good way to reorganize my perpetually unorganized brain. We danced tango, went to museums, ate sushi, and laid on the beach-all activities that rank very high on the therapeutic scale in my book. Despite the almost 24 hour bus ride back home to Villa Madrid, the trip really helped me move into 2012 in a solid mindset.


Work has been a bit slow to start up since coming back since summer vacation for Paraguayans lasts until February. I’ve been doing some work in the library with the kiddies and preparing for the English and small business money management class at the jail to start up in the next two weeks. Stemming from the camp, I am also hoping to do a diversity lecture series in the big catholic high school in Limpio, with Marian, one of the girls who came with me to the camp. I have some other ideas for an all recycled materials art camp and a professional development course that I’d like to run through the community center, now it’s all a matter of getting permission and hopefully a tad bit of funding to get things moving. Fortunately or unfortunately, I’ve learned by now to not get my hopes up too high about any given idea. It doesn’t matter whether I think it’s the best idea in the world, if there is no interest on the part of Paraguayans, exactly nada is going to happen. This used to be something that would make me mad and frustrate me but I’ve come to realize that a part of being a good volunteer is really truly embracing the mindset of the people I am working with, and understanding their reasoning for why, what and how they do things. This is, as you can imagine, more easily said than done. Especially when to my eye, there are so many things on a daily basis that I see and wish I could change. I have to constantly remind myself that my role here is to do what they want to do, not what I want to do.


While my work and “professional” experience in Peace Corps has been up and down thus far. I can say that it has been the personal experience and the relationships that I formed that I think have and will leave more of an affect (probably more on me than on them) when I’m done here. In the beginning, I felt a big pressure to go out and meet every single youth, child, and senora and sit and learn everything about them and let them ask me a million questions and constantly be in uncomfortable situations with people who I didn’t know and who didn’t know me. All of this effort and discomfort serves a very real and practical purpose for PCVs-cultural integration. It is a word we hear 20934839 times in training and even afterwards and in all reality, in Paraguay and I’m sure in other Peace Corps countries, it is nothing less than essential for PCVs work. All that being said, it’s awkward, and annoying, often involves less than appetizing food and is only sporadically gratifying until you really find the people who you enjoy spending time with. Thankfully, I can say that I’ve passed through that stage of Peace Corps service and now have formed relationships with not only people but entire families that make me feel so much more secure and happy on a daily basis than really any of my work does. Looking back, I guess all the awkward silences and weird q&a sessions were worth it. Life is very normal for me here now, the routines, the faces, etc. I still miss air conditioning, and my car. But the ways I’ve begun to embrace life here have surprised even me. Modern technology makes me feel very close to my friends and family in the United States and the comfort of knowing all of them are only a text message or a skype phone call away has also really been very essential in my adjustments this past year.


I suppose this was a bit of a rant but I guess that’s what I get for waiting too long to write again. In a nut shell: todo tranquilo here in Pguay.


Missing and loving you all,
Jaimee