More photos

This is the group picture I uploaded before but didn't turn out for some reason. As I said before, this is when we went to Jesus's host family's house to learn how to make all natural cough syrup and soap in order to raise funds for the women's commission to pay for their children's surgeries and other needs. From left to right in the back row: Joann, Shola, me, Rebecca, Courtney, Julie, Erik, Liam, Tessa. In the front on the left is Laara, and the others are natives of Guarambare who are either in the commission or are family members of the commission members.

Misiones

Villa Florida, Misiones, Paraguay

Holler from mi sitio

St. John party in San Juan Bautista, Misiones during my first volunteer visit to a rural health volunteer.

My room in Guarambare.

This is our Guarani class. This is Marcos getting frustrated.

Three kids in the Peace of the Chaco parade on June 12th in Guarambare. The day commemorates the end of the Chaco War with Bolivia in 1937.

All of the kids are off of school and the parade lasts about four hours.

Me with chipa, made of mandioca flour with a bit of cheese in side. Delicious. This photo was taken in my kitchen in Guarambare.



Monday, August 18, 2008

Although I am a municipal services development volunteer, I do not feel called to work within the four walls of the municipality. I do not feel productive there. One reason for signing for Peace Corps was to experience another country at a realistic and face-to-face level, not to close myself off from the people outside of an organized office. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, I have the ability and lack of schedule to go where I want, when I want looking for work, unlike the civil servants at the muni. At the same time, I can’t go about my work alone. I need to find a good Paraguayan partner to work with when the majority are all in the municipality from 7 – 1 pm. I could hypothetically work with the muni folks on projects in the afternoon, but the majority has other jobs or they go to class in the evenings. One woman is the director of a school in the afternoon whereas another guy goes to law school in the evenings. This is not unusual for a Paraguayan municipality. How one can possibly go to law school and work at the same time, I don’t know. I assume that the school work is much less difficult than in the United States.

Long story short, I still don’t have defined work. After shooting the breeze in the muni while drinking large quantities of terere and mate, I went to another neighborhood which is apparently lower-income. The Christian Canadian Fund (?) funds one school and the other is a Catholic school funded by the Ministry of Education because the kids’ families can’t afford to pay regular tuition. Imagine the private school vouchers., I suppose. My guide to these schools and neighborhood where I had never been before was a 10-year-old girl who allowed me to ride her beat down bike with her hanging off the back. It was quite fun riding a bike on a dirt road for the first time. It felt like the quintessence of the Peace Corps experience. At one point I thought a group of 9 cows were going to run into us as I went through a watery ditch. They mooed at us, but fortunately were not aggressive.

In the Catholic school, the first young boys who saw me started speaking to me in English. I assumed at the first second that they were kids I had already met, but as with most people I meet; I forget their names or that I even met them at all. I asked one boy candidly, “Have I met you before?” He responded, “No.” Therefore I must have looked blatantly americana, norteamericana to these criaturas (kids) for them to start in English from the get-go. Next I chatted with the director of the school, telling her what I say what feels like 10 times a day: name, title, country of origin, organization, what the heck am I doing here, what’s your favorite color, etc. It’s really not fair that I have hundreds of people to remember and they have one person to remember.

Doing Peace Corps is like running a marathon: a lot of people think you’re crazy for doing it, it pushes you to limits you didn’t know you could surpass, and you are always better for doing it. Let’s hope I still use that same analogy by 2010, savvy?

** Guarani funny phrase of the day*** (My first, hopefully not the last)

Hesy kavaju resa [Hey-suh kah-vah-u rey-sah] (Horse with bright eyes) – Figuratively means you have no money.


Wednesday, August 20, 2008

“I like to think of the Bengals as a bowl of Cincinnati chili and Chad Johnson as the hot sauce. The chili is good in its own right, but when you add that hot sauce, it’s soooo much better.”
-Sports Illustrated (2005, I believe)

A married couple volunteering in some sector somewhere in Paraguay posted that quote on their mailbox in the Peace Corps office and I couldn’t help but post it because it made me think of my peeps back in the Nati or with roots in the Nati. Shout out!

Today was a shopping day in Asunción. I went with my host señora and her daughter Rosie. Luckily Rosie has a car, so we peaced out of town at about 6:35 and dropped off Rosie’s husband off at his work. Next we went to the Peace Corps office so I could get my gigantic red suitcase, sleeping bag and backpack out of long-term storage. I now have my Reds hat to shield me from the sun, although it doesn’t match a lot of my clothes. Besides, wearing a lot of red within a municipality can give people the idea that you are affiliated with the Colorado political party. The presidents of Paraguay were Colorado for 61 years until the most recent election on April 20th of this year electing Fernando Lugo of the Liberal Party. Lugo was previously a Catholic archbishop and rumor has it that the Catholic Church was not so happy about his leaving behind his clerical profession to take up Paraguayan politics. He seems to be good so far, and there is a lot of hope that he will lead Paraguay down a better path. I see tidbits on the news in the morning and at night.

I visited another school today on the edge of town. There are about six classrooms. One or two of the teachers and the director were not present, and there were no substitute teachers. The only class that seemed to be learning anything were the first graders, attentively writing down the number between 100 and 200.

The other classrooms were writing down questions and answers to study for their final exams taking place tomorrow. Some teachers just walk out of their classrooms and don’t supervise the kids. Consequently there are kids sitting in the windowsills, getting up in the middle of class or eating ice cream. Two of the teachers with whom I was talking didn’t even offer to step outside of the classroom with me to talk, so we were standing right in front of the kids, distracting them with our conversation, while many of them were trying to copy down their work. Teachers can try their hardest and kids are still uncooperative, but in this case there were apparently interested students but the teachers were the problem. I made a date to make a map of my town with two kids from three classes for a total of six this Monday. I will go in the morning at 9:30 am and again at 2:30 pm. I am going to get some huge sheets of paper (think Win Lose or Draw) and some colored markers, hopefully from my contact at another one of the schools in town. If I can’t get the paper I’ll have to go to Asunción tomorrow to bring it from the Peace Corps Office. In other words I’ll have to spend the majority of the day traveling to and from Asunción because the bus takes way longer than it should. It would only take about a half hour to travel the distance from Asunción to my site if I were in the United States. Here in Paraguay we compete with horse drawn carts, mopeds passing on your right and left simultaneously and riding on the dotted line, vehicles running red lights and/or sitting in the middle of oncoming traffic.

A ride on a Paraguayan is so exciting that I’m shocked that I haven’t mentioned it here yet. First off, they are all private companies originating in whatever the bus’s destination town is. For example, Guarambaré has its own bus. Each bus is painted different colors, and a lot of them have Jesus stickers on the windshield and back window. The drivers take your money, give you your receipt, give change, drink terere or talk on their cell phones while they are driving. Somehow, I haven’t seen any buses wreck yet! There are hardly any official bus stops, so the bus stops what feels like ever three minutes to pick up someone or drop them off. The twist on the Paraguayan bus system is that many bus companies have a deal with the municipality in which they reside to be the only bus company in town. No other bus companies are allowed to transport people to or from Nueva Italia, for example, even though the few buses that do run are perpetually packed. So much so that they are called salchicha (sausage) factories. I don’t know how most of the buses are still running because they are old enough to be antiques. All of them run on diesel, producing a lovely smog cloud above the city. Most other vehicles use diesel as well, so that smell is always lingering in the air in the center of the capital.

This is my Peace Corps training group when we were learning to make laundry detergent with a women's commission in Guarambaré. We also learned how to make a cough syrup from plants. Both the detergent and the cough syrup are sold to the community to raise money for their children. Most of the women in the commission are single and don't make enough money to pay for their children's surgeries or other medical needs. Two of the other trainees are not in this photo.

From left to right in the back row are Joan, Shola, me, rebecca, Courtney, Julie, Erik, Liam and Tessa. Laara is in front of Joan on the left. Missing are Jesus and Marcos.

If you would like to send me a package, you can enclose one or more of the following:

Cliff Bars, incense, Trader Joe's dry fruit mix, fiber anything, magazines such as The Economist, National Geographic, or even Us Weekly or People. I don't want to miss out on the lifestyles of the rich and famous, homemade CDs of the latest music, gum, mint, Japanese Cherry Blossom body spray from Bath and Body Works, Juniper Breeze from Bath and Body Works soap or any soap of that sort, St. Ives normal skin facial scrub, a red Ohio State T-shirt. And of course any other surprises you want to throw in would be fantastic.

Updates from the Chaco

August 10, 2008

I did not preconceive my Peace Corps experience as “hanging out” with people, but that is exactly what I’m doing.

My first full day in site has come and gone. I am officially cut loose from training, and now my time will be even more so what I make of it. I have been prepared well: when Paraguayans here me speak Spanish and some Guarani, they are often surprised. Some even ask me if I am from Paraguay before they hear me speak. Others ask if I’m from Germany. In a way, I guess I am--- three or four generations removed.

It is darn near impossible to be alone here in Paraguay. People are always trying to include me, and as soon as I am about ready to leave a party, they usually tell me when the next fiesta is so we can see each other again. Paraguayans love to party; they are ready for some asado (grilled steak) and Brahma cerveza anytime. The party today was a 40th birthday for the local owner of a bar and restaurant. He loves old school American rock like Billy Idol and Jethro Tull. He knows the words and music better than I do. If I thought I was going to miss the Columbus classic rock station, I was mistaken. Queen, Guns ‘N Roses and Bon Jovi are all popular here. At the party there was sopa paraguaya, Coke, grapefruit flavored soda, coleslaw salad, rice salad, asado, chicken and sausage. Julia, a girl about my age, introduced me to a lot of people. She is a lawyer in Asuncion; she just graduated from law school last year. Here it’s normal to start law school right after graduation from high school. You graduate from law in six years.

Last night there was a party in what I think was a walled-in, concrete soccer field. A retro band called the Bufalos was playing “Easy Like Sunday Morning”, “Hotel California”, “My Sharona”, CCR and “Can’t Buy Me Love” by the Beatles. The accompaniment was right on but the lyrics were lacking. No surprise, ha ha. Two guys running the event met me before the band was introduced, so when they were presenting they even mentioned my name, saying, “Karen from Washington” even though I’m not from Washington. It was a nice gesture nonetheless.

I am tired, so I’ll see if I get up with my alarm tomorrow or sleep in. Tomorrow I am visiting a colegio (school), Santa Rosa de Lima, where two girls I met today, Tania and Analia, will be showing me around and introducing me to people. The high school is only about two blocks away. My host nephew is one year younger than Tania and Analia and attends the same school; he’s 12 or 13. There is a possibility that I could work in the schools with environmental education, which I am motivated to do every time I see the smog over Asuncion and smell trash burning in the air. After I visit the school I’m going to make my first officially appearance as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the municipality.

So long, farewell, aufwiedersehn, good-night.

P.S. – I am so happy to have a cell phone . My number is 595.971.981.390.


August 12, 2008

It still catches me by surprise how natural it feels for me to be walking down the street here in my town. It does not feel like walking down the street in my neighborhood in Ohio or in Seattle or Cleveland, but it feels normal. In spite of deep ruts, cows, decomposing dog bodies and rushing creeks in the rain, these streets are quite familiar.

This morning I went to the city council meeting, which I should have expected to start late as everything in Paraguay does. There are 12 members of city council. There were about 9 that showed up; 8 for the beginning of the meeting. The secretary read the points of discussion so fast and without any inflection, so I did not retain more than 20 words of her 10-minute litany. There is a former senator, a teacher and some other people I had already heard of from other acquaintances in my town on the city council. One lady may take me to the steel foundry in the nearest big town next week. The teacher on the council has already asked me to go with him and some other members to turn in some paper at the US Embassy. I don’t know for what; I assume to request $ of some sort.

In the middle of the meeting the mayor and the secretary general (aka the mayor’s right hand man) came in. The mayor started to talk about his upcoming trip to Encarnación bordering Argentina to meet an engineer to discuss biodiesel fuel. I couldn’t gather if it were about using biodiesel or growing it in our municipality. When I attend meetings like this one I know that I have a ways to go to understand everything in Spanish.

The plan as of yesterday is to live with the woman I am with now until the beginning of September, at which time I will (hopefully) have found another family to live with until November. I would like to get to another family with children that hopefully speaks more Guarani before I move out on my own in November. There are many pieces that must be fit together to finish the housing puzzle. I first must find a second family and then find my own house or apartment or some sort of private space next to or in the back of someone’s house. I’m not worried about it, although I suppose I should be. I am busy meeting new people, shopping for food, organizing my thoughts, and just living.

Today it was lighting and thundering just as it does in Ohio. It was blustery even after the storm, and I wore my fleece almost all day. Orchids have started to bloom. There is a huge tree with what looks like poinsettias on it. After the city council meeting I had a meat and vegetable soup with mandioca and salad with cucumbers and tomato. I ate with my señora and with her grandson who is very cute and is very interested in the US. He is only 13 but definitely fun to shoot the breeze with about why Toddy hot chocolate is better than NesQuik and about everything from Paraguayan soccer players to music.

I have met other females my age but the majority are already married with kids or divorced with kids. Getting married when one is less than 20 and having kids before you’re married and/or when one is really young is normal here. It makes for a confusing family.

My room here is about 20 feet long and 15 feet wide. I have tow windows and a door that goes out into the backyard. The ceiling is wood and I have one fluorescent light. I have seem one incandescent lightbulb since I came to Paraguay. Everyone uses fluorescent. My walls are mint colored and the floor is brown tile. I also have a wooden table and three wooden chairs that was probably my señora’s mother’s kitchen table because the chairs are not in great shape. I keep most of my clothes in my suitcase because there is still no chest of drawers. Come to think of it I won’t be getting one until I move out on my own, most likely. In Peace Corps you’re always living out of your suitcase.

Today I also went shopping and bought a kilo of red beans that cost 6,000 guaranies ($1.50ish), a small box of laundry detergent ($2.00), wheat bread (8 dinner rolls for less than $1.00), yogurt for 2,000 Gs (guaranies). If you haven’t figured it out yet, $1.00 = approx. 4,000 guaranies. We volunteers are paid in guaranies, so we think in guaranies so we don’t think we’re richer than we really are by converting all of prices of our commodities into dollars.

Hasta luengo

In my site

August 10, 2008

I did not preconceive my Peace Corps experience as “hanging out” with people, but that is exactly what I’m doing.

My first full day in site has come and gone. I am officially cut loose from training, and now my time will be even more so what I make of it. I have been prepared well: when Paraguayans here me speak Spanish and some Guarani, they are often surprised. Some even ask me if I am from Paraguay before they hear me speak. Others ask if I’m from Germany. In a way, I guess I am--- three or four generations removed.

It is darn near impossible to be alone here in Paraguay. People are always trying to include me, and as soon as I am about ready to leave a party, they usually tell me when the next fiesta is so we can see each other again. Paraguayans love to party; they are ready for some asado (grilled steak) and Brahma cerveza anytime. The party today was a 40th birthday for the local owner of a bar and restaurant. He loves old school American rock like Billy Idol and Jethro Tull. He knows the words and music better than I do. If I thought I was going to miss the Columbus classic rock station, I was mistaken. Queen, Guns ‘N Roses and Bon Jovi are all popular here. At the party there was sopa paraguaya, Coke, grapefruit flavored soda, coleslaw salad, rice salad, asado, chicken and sausage. Julia, a girl about my age, introduced me to a lot of people. She is a lawyer in Asuncion; she just graduated from law school last year. Here it’s normal to start law school right after graduation from high school. You graduate from law in six years.

Last night there was a party in what I think was a walled-in, concrete soccer field. A retro band called the Bufalos was playing “Easy Like Sunday Morning”, “Hotel California”, “My Sharona”, CCR and “Can’t Buy Me Love” by the Beatles. The accompaniment was right on but the lyrics were lacking. No surprise, ha ha. Two guys running the event met me before the band was introduced, so when they were presenting they even mentioned my name, saying, “Karen from Washington” even though I’m not from Washington. It was a nice gesture nonetheless.

I am tired, so I’ll see if I get up with my alarm tomorrow or sleep in. Tomorrow I am visiting a colegio (school), Santa Rosa de Lima, where two girls I met today, Tania and Analia, will be showing me around and introducing me to people. The high school is only about two blocks away. My host nephew is one year younger than Tania and Analia and attends the same school; he’s 12 or 13. There is a possibility that I could work in the schools with environmental education, which I am motivated to do every time I see the smog over Asuncion and smell trash burning in the air. After I visit the school I’m going to make my first officially appearance as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the municipality.

So long, farewell, aufwiedersehn, good-night.


August 12, 2008

It still catches me by surprise how natural it feels for me to be walking down the street here in my town. It does not feel like walking down the street in my neighborhood in Ohio or in Seattle or Cleveland, but it feels normal. In spite of deep ruts, cows, decomposing dog bodies and rushing creeks in the rain, these streets are quite familiar.

This morning I went to the city council meeting, which I should have expected to start late as everything in Paraguay does. There are 12 members of city council. There were about 9 that showed up; 8 for the beginning of the meeting. The secretary read the points of discussion so fast and without any inflection, so I did not retain more than 20 words of her 10-minute litany. There is a former senator, a teacher and some other people I had already heard of from other acquaintances in my town on the city council. One lady may take me to the steel foundry in the nearest big town next week. The teacher on the council has already asked me to go with him and some other members to turn in some paper at the US Embassy. I don’t know for what; I assume to request $ of some sort.

In the middle of the meeting the mayor and the secretary general (aka the mayor’s right hand man) came in. The mayor started to talk about his upcoming trip to Encarnación bordering Argentina to meet an engineer to discuss biodiesel fuel. I couldn’t gather if it were about using biodiesel or growing it in our municipality. When I attend meetings like this one I know that I have a ways to go to understand everything in Spanish.

The plan as of yesterday is to live with the woman I am with now until the beginning of September, at which time I will (hopefully) have found another family to live with until November. I would like to get to another family with children that hopefully speaks more Guarani before I move out on my own in November. There are many pieces that must be fit together to finish the housing puzzle. I first must find a second family and then find my own house or apartment or some sort of private space next to or in the back of someone’s house. I’m not worried about it, although I suppose I should be. I am busy meeting new people, shopping for food, organizing my thoughts, and just living.

Today it was lighting and thundering just as it does in Ohio. It was blustery even after the storm, and I wore my fleece almost all day. Orchids have started to bloom. There is a huge tree with what looks like poinsettias on it. After the city council meeting I had a meat and vegetable soup with mandioca and salad with cucumbers and tomato. I ate with my señora and with her grandson who is very cute and is very interested in the US. He is only 13 but definitely fun to shoot the breeze with about why Toddy hot chocolate is better than NesQuik and about everything from Paraguayan soccer players to music.

I have met other females my age but the majority are already married with kids or divorced with kids. Getting married when one is less than 20 and having kids before you’re married and/or when one is really young is normal here. It makes for a confusing family.

My room here is about 20 feet long and 15 feet wide. I have tow windows and a door that goes out into the backyard. The ceiling is wood and I have one fluorescent light. I have seem one incandescent lightbulb since I came to Paraguay. Everyone uses fluorescent. My walls are mint colored and the floor is brown tile. I also have a wooden table and three wooden chairs that was probably my señora’s mother’s kitchen table because the chairs are not in great shape. I keep most of my clothes in my suitcase because there is still no chest of drawers. Come to think of it I won’t be getting one until I move out on my own, most likely. In Peace Corps you’re always living out of your suitcase.

Today I also went shopping and bought a kilo of red beans that cost 6,000 guaranies ($1.50ish), a small box of laundry detergent ($2.00), wheat bread (8 dinner rolls for less than $1.00), yogurt for 2,000 Gs (guaranies). If you haven’t figured it out yet, $1.00 = approx. 4,000 guaranies. We volunteers are paid in guaranies, so we think in guaranies so we don’t think we’re richer than we really are by converting all of prices of our commodities into dollars.

Hasta luengo

Last day of training

Tomorrow we officially will become volunteers! I wasn't sure if I would make it this far, in all honesty. But here I am, still in Paraguay 10 weeks after leaving the States. Yesterday we had our final language interviews to examine our language levels. I am advanced high in Spanish and intermediate high in Guarani. I'm not exactly sure what that means besides that below native born level of fluency is superior, and below that is advanced high. How I can reach the superior level in Spanish, I don't know.

I am shocked that I received such a high grade in Guarani considering that I was really sick yesterday during my language interview. On Sunday afternoon my stomach started to hurt and I felt like my insides were angry with me. Yesterday I was feeling terrible, with stomach cramps and the feeling that I was about to vomit. I talked to one of our tech trainers about it, and he said I probably have giardia, a parasite that according to the CDC is transmitted through contaminated water. Usually it is not manifested until 1-2 weeks after exposure. Even after you stop feeling sick, it can still stick around in your body. For others, they may have giardia but show no symptoms. I still don't feel 100% today because I'm pretty dehydrated from the fluids I lost, but at least my stomach doesn't feel like it's trying to get out of my body anymore.

Tomorrow we have to come to the training center at 7:30 am to go to the Peace Corps office early. We have to decide which bags of ours we're going to put in long-term storage and which ones we'll take us to our sites. We'll be reunited with the bags in long-term storage when our area director (Fernando) comes to our site presentations in September. After going through a security check we'll head over to the US Embassy for our official swear in ceremony at 10 am. Afterwards there will be a mini reception, at which there should be some cake! In the afternoon it's hours of meetings and "Bridge to Service" info: getting out cell phones, bank cards, signing up for bikes, etc. In the evening we'll be eating at a Mexican restaurant and hopefully finding a karaoke place.

Take care and I hope to talk to you on my new cell phone!