Fun times at Colegio Jose L. Cardenas

Beautiful spring weather we have been having here in Paraguay. Perfect for this country's second favorite sport, volleyball!! I can't tell you how excited I was to find out that they play volleyball or (volei as they say here) in Paraguay! And it just so happens that my host family has the best volleyball court in our community so I always have an excuse to hang out with my host sisters and play. Its a little frustrating sometimes because when the guys play volei, they get serious and almost always have a bet going. When they play like that, they usually won't let me or my host sisters play even though we are all pretty decent (I've gotten a lot better since I got here). The machismo culture here definitely takes some getting used to...I try really hard not to let it bother me because if I make a stink, they REALLY won't want to let me play. 

But anyways that's definitely not the most exciting thing I did this week. Two really great things went down this Thursday which turned my week from kind of boring to stellar. 

The first thing is that I finally got the mayor to bring us cement to finish our modern bathrooms in the high school. This is something I have been helping them out with for a month or so, but its been in the works for much longer than that. The bathrooms were about half done when the school opened in 2010. Over the course of the year this year, they have raised enough money to finish the actual structure (its semi-separate from the school building), put on a roof, install the plumbing and buy doors. The only thing they were missing was to revoque the outside (stucco over bricks) to make it nice and pretty and finish the cement floors to make it nice and clean (instead of dirt floors which breed germs). And thats where I came in.

When me and my neighboring volunteers went to visit the mayor for the first time, he had said that he was interested in funding small projects in our communities if they were properly written up and well designed. I mentioned it to him then, and had been working with the director of the high school to write a pedido (formal request). She and I had very different schedules but one day I was talking about it when I was there to teach my english class, and she was like “why don't we just do it right now?” and of course I was thrilled. She and the secretary wrote out a note, I typed it up, we signed it and I brought it to “Estimado Abogoado Señor Intendente” (but everyone calls him Pipo) the next week. The system of asking government support here (even for something as simple and essential as bathrooms) is tedious and favors those with boundless patience and good nagging skills. Just bringing it to him involved going to Caazapa and waiting in his office for two hours. Then I got to listen to him talk for about half an hour about how he doesn't have much money right now, but he finally agreed to bring us about half of what we originally wanted. I wasn't really too upset that we didn't get everything, after all, we were asking for something for nothing from a man with a tight budget. 

 

After I got the ok, here's where my newfound patience really came in handy. It was one of those things where he would tell me to call on one day, then he wouldn't answer, or he would be out of his office, or it would rain, or what have you. After two weeks and about 20 phone calls/txt messages exchanged, he showed up personally with the cement right after my second success of the week, my first sex ed charla!

My nurses at my health post wanted to start off by doing a basic sexual health charla with an emphasis on family planning options that are offered at the health post. I was happy to help, especially since I had experience from my friend's HIV/AIDS camp a few months ago. It was a little bit short notice, so I wasn't able to prepare a theme to talk about, but really it was fine with me since I was interested in watching them and learning how they approached these topics the first time around before I tackle it myself (I'm planning a taller similar to the one I helped with in a few months). BUT they said they would be thrilled if I could do the condom demonstration! 

 

The charla went really well, they did all of the basics which gives me somewhere to start from when I do my taller. There are definitely areas that I would spend more time on, such as more in depth information about STIs and HIV/AIDS but it was really good for them to explain all of the family planning options available. I was really impressed with how well the nurses related to the kids. Sure there were a few awkward moments, but that's the nature of the beast. I also liked how they really emphasized that their privacy would be protected if they came to the health center for free condoms or birth control. I feel like a lot of youth don't come because they are embarrassed, and after this talk, maybe they will feel more comfortable using the resources they have available. 

SOOO after all of that, I got to stand up with Ana and do the condom demo! Ana helped me a lot, but I did a lot of the explaining myself, using a very cooperative rake handle. Hugo, the other nurse is a great (and prolific) photographer, so I'll let his step-by-step pictures take you through the awkwardest five minutes of my service so far. 

Step one: open the package

This picture is my favorite...Hugo perfectly captured my concentration face

 

AHATA KOKUEPE

    I feel like I am finally starting to understand a good bit of Guarani. I have been forcing myself to use it more and ask people more how to say things instead of just switching to spanish when I get stuck. So now I know such useful phrases as “Añoty mandyju kokuepe” which means “I plant cotton in the field” which is exactly what I've been doing in my spare time lately.

     When I'm not in the health post entering seemingly endless census data, or at the school giving charlas about sanitation (did my first one on Friday for World Handwashing Day! It went really well, even though I was super nervous), I've been helping my host family plant cotton. I went with them the first time to their field which is about 3k from their house. The road to get there is INSANE because it is basically a rain channel through rocks. The first part is a minor hike through the woods, then you have to cross a palm trunk over a creek, then the second half is all uphill and is the really rocky part. Whats even crazier is that my host dad does it on a horse (all except the ravine crossing part...he just goes through the water). His horse is ivale (real smart) as one would say in Guarani.

      There were seven of us, me, my host parents, two host sisters and the boyfriend and brother of one of my host sisters. And two horses. They used the horse to make little furrows in the ground and all the rest of us got cut off two liter bottles with blue seeds in them to plant into the furrows (the seeds were blue to resist pesticides I think but it left your hands really blue if you didnt wear gloves). Upeicha, tres o cuatro cada uno, my host dad told me while holding his hands about a foot apart. My host dad speaks mostly guarani but upeicha is a word he knows I get because we use it alot when he is gesticulating to me frantically to try to get some point across that I am not understanding. It means “like this.”

      So we were off, each one of us in our separate furrow. I watched as Julio my host dad studied my technique and then demonstrated (no upeicha, UPEICHA! He emphasized, pointing at his feet as he pushed the dirt over his seeds). Once you get into a rythm the time flies by, furrow after furrow, and before I knew it it was 10:30 and we were done...four hours, seven people, not too bad.

     The second time I went out my camera batteries were NOT dead, so I got to take some pictures. It was different since we were going in the afternoon, and this time to my host sister's boyfriend's field. He and his brother borrowed an oxcart from my neighbor and we went in that instead of walking like the last time. Having never ridden in an oxcart before I was pretty excited about it. As you can see from the pictures its a nice view. 

The road wasn't as crazy as the other path we went on but there was one part where our driver said that my host sister and I had to get on the other side of the cart. We did, and I saw why in a few minutes...the left side of the road was at least a foot taller than the right. We were being used as a coutnerbalance so the cart didnt fall over. Slightly scary. 

 

      But other than that it went smoothly. I do have to say though, that horses look quite a bit easier to manage than oxen. I can still hear the boys yelling manso! Oro! In my head after hearing it ALL day as they tried to get these thousand pound beasts to do work. I can't say I really blame them though. Hours and hours in the hot sun had me pretty tired too. Slept really good that night :)

Check out the Picasa link on the right for more photos! Love you all!

Feeling like a rock star

I am exhausted, but in a good way. I was invited last week to go to Caaguazu to help another girl in my group start her fogon project. Like me, her previous volunteer had been working on getting a project through and left her follow up to build the fogones. Her committee received their grant money a few weeks ago and they were really anxious to get started. She asked me at training if I wanted to help her and I was really excited to help. I get to build fogones AND go travel to a different part of PY I havent seen before, definitely a win-win.

But as the day got closer for me to leave I admit I was getting less excited. I had had a really good week and I was worried that it just wasn't a good time to leave. I had just helped my health center put in two requests, one for computers and another for an eye doctor to visit. The last time I went to the health center they actually gave me legitimate WORK to do (I helped them write up their monthly reports for the Ministerio de Salud... basically I just counted and reported procedures that they conducted this month). Its hard to leave when things are going well and you feel like you are on a roll.

But I did leave, and I'm really glad I did. After some slight confusion, I got to my friend's site on Tuesday around noon. Although its technically spring here, the temperature had to be at least 90 degrees, so the 4k walk to her site from the paved road was no fun. But we did finally get to the house and start our fogon. Building it went really smoothly and we finished the base of it really quickly. Part of the reason it went so quickly was that we had really great mezcla (the mud used as mortar for the bricks). For mezcla, the redder the dirt the better, and the dirt they had was super dark red. Also I got to try out a new technique...adding miel negra (molasses!) to the mix. Might sound a little crazy, but molasses is dirt cheap here in a lot of places because of all the sugar cane processing, and it makes the mezcla much more sticky and also spreadable. I had no idea such an unlikely addition would work so well! Incidently, it also makes the mezcla smell lovely (a little like brown sugar), definitely adding to the appeal.

We decided to get though as much as we could and then come back the next day and finish. That night, we spent at her old host family's house. They were SO nice and clearly really enjoy meeting new volunteers. It was like going back to when I was new in site again, everyone wants to talk to you, ask questions, tell stories, what have you. They also liked to inflate my ego by calling me a fogon expert and telling me how good my guarani is. And I dont care who you are, everyone likes a little ego boost every once and a while.

The next morning we finished up early and went to meet some of her contacts. Her Peruvian/Paraguayan neighbors invited us over for lunch and I got to talk about my favorite subject, food, with the senora. Their family (along with many others in her community) grow strawberries so I got to try strawberry jam, strawberry juice, even strawberry liquor.

And as I set off with my strawberry jam in hand, I was very happy I'd gone after all. When you have a hard time seeing your own progress (like in guarani), its really nice to see that someone is paying attention and appreciating it. It was also really satisfying to be able to teach someone else how to do fogones. There are so many things I wish I had done on my project and its nice to be able to help someone make a project even better. In the end, surely a win-win after all.

Gettin excited, doin work

Today I went to the Puesto de Salud to talk to the head nurse and my main contact, Petronila. My intention wasto talk to her about PC related stuff like my upcoming training but like many things here, it didnt go as planned. Today was a consult day, like any other Monday Wednesday or Friday, she had lots of patients. Or non-patients, aka friends who just came in to gossip. But between the patients and gossip, Hugo, my other contact and assistant nurse at the Puesto came in along with Nestor the guy who runs the pharmacy and gave me some pretty awesome news...the doctor that we have been waiting to come to work in our Puesto for months is due to arrive in the next two weeks! This is a huge deal for my community and for the surrounding communitites that my Puesto serves. It is part of a new program run by the Ministerio de Salud that is bringing not only a doctor but another nurse and also more money to my tiny health center which is all sorely needed. The program is also supposed to mandate more community-based health projects like doing charlas in schools which is exactly what I'm supposed to be doing so I am stoked that they will be given more incentive to work with me on projects.

So with this new program coming I am thinking that the majority of my time is going to be spent helping them out at the Puesto, which I am really excited about. The previous volunteer had really utilized the Puesto to hold tallers (two or three day long courses) about reproductive health and other topics and the nurses in it had been partners in promoting good health practices in the community. Up to this point I had been looking for a way to “get in” at the Puesto and hopefully this is it.

I really want to help them get more organized and maybe even get them a computer. They serve my community but also five communities surrounding it as of now, and when the doctor comes, the nurses say they might start serving more. Since they serve so many people, there is incredible amounts of paperwork and from what I can tell their filing system is pretty archaic. Petronila is also very interested in adding another room to the Puesto. Its a really great idea, but is surely going to be a bit of a headache. I don't even know where to begin to help her with funding!

The slightly frustrating part for me is that even though I know they need a good dose of organization and theoretically I could go in one day and say “I'm going to reorganize everything and make it more efficient and easier for you to work” and I could do it all myself and make it perfect. BUT they would probably a) never understand it and b) revert to the old way as soon as possible since they were no part of it. Learning how to encourage people to do things that are good for them but still allowing them to own it and do it all (mostly) themselves is definitely the biggest challenge I face as a volunteer. 

Diggin Deep: Trash Pit

I am going to be so sore in the morning. I dug a 1m deep 1m diameter HOLE IN THE GROUND today. Why? Ever think, I mean REALLY think, about where your trash goes? Well here in PY we dont have the luxury of being disconnected from our basura by curb-side pickup. Every piece of trash I make sticks around unless I do something about it. What usually happens to it here in PY? Option one is "tirar no mas" meaning it just gets thrown out back. Obviously if 6 million people are just going to throw stuff anywhere, you run out of space pretty quickly. Second favorite way of getting rid of stuff? Burn it. Specifically, put it in your front yard, pour kerosene on it and let it go. Although some people can tell you that burning is bad, many people are completely ignorant of the health and environmental consequences of burning things like plastic, chemical containers, and aerosol cans. Because of these problmes, environmental education is a BIG part of what we are up to here in PY.

And for anyone to take me seriously down the line when I start trying to tackle these issues in my community, I need to be a model of responsible trash disposal. So that hole I was talking about will be my trash pit. I also am making a compost pile. The crazy part is that I've been told that a 1m diameter 2m deep hole will last me my whole service (a little less than two years now). SOOO does that mean that in the last 23 years I have generated something like 11 square meters of garbage? Hard to wrap your mind around!

Today I also planted my garden! Many people in my community have beautiful gardens but they all pretty much grow the same veggies--tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, onions and scallions. I decided to try and grow some "weird" veggies like eggplant, swiss chard, and spinach to get some PYans to try new stuff when they are ready. I've never really had my own vegetable garden before so I'm pretty excited.

Here are some pictures of my PY garden process. Here everybody gardens in raised beds called tablones (helps a lot to keep things together when it rains), so that's why it looks like I've buried three bodies in my garden. The fence in the pictures is my favorite part...my neighbor made it for me and its the only way I can keep her chickens from eating everything!

The sticks are marking off all the different stuff I planted...spinach, eggplant, basil, cilantro, parsley, squash and swiss chard. And that grassy thing in the corner is Cedron Kapi'i, delicious terere yuyo

Look how big Chipa is getting! Shes going to have to learn to chase the chickens away from my garden!

The Paraguayan attitude, embodied in my internet stick

So the internet here is touch and go. As volunteers, we can sign up for a USB modem from the cell phone company, which I have. In my house, the signal seems to have a mind of its own. One minute, I've got full signal and can Skype, the next minute I have nothing. In order to get reliable good signal, I have to go out back to the banana forest.

But if its raining, like today, I'm stuck taking my chances inside. Mostly I've got nothing, but if I sit on my bed with my computer JUST right, I get awesome signal that tends to stay for about 10 minutes at a time.

Surprisingly, this totally random internet doesn't really bother me. I think I have started to get the hang of this tranquilo attitude here in Paraguay. If I have enough internet to put up an occasional blog entry and check email, I'm stoked. Getting to watch the Daily Show is purely a bonus.

In the US I feel like we are completely the opposite. I can remember being on the phone with my internet company whining that the speed was slow and I wasn't getting what I paid for. Not here, you just go with the flow. If you had a meeting planned and it rains, vamos a dejar por otra dia no mas (we'll do it another day). Why would you want to go out in the rain when you can just wait for a dry day and do it then? It makes sense really. Call me a convert. Next time you set up a date with me in the US, I might be late.  

Che Roga Pora, HIV/AIDS camp

Hello all! Sorry its been a while since I last put up an entry but here goes with the update!

I have a house! I originally wanted to live in the house that the volunteer before me left behind but it didnt work out...they were asking too much and I would have had to use a latrine and no hot water. Even just for WATER I would have to go about 30 feet from my house even to wash dishes since there is only one spigot in the middle of the house and the neighbor's house. So I went looking around in my community and I found the perfect place. Its very close to the Puesto de Salud (health center) and the school. And its NOT a mud hut!!

My house is brick and has 3 bedrooms but I am only using one (the others store all the landlord's crap) and a big kitchen. The kitchen has a dirt floor but I actually don't mind it at all. Its kind of nice to be able to spill something on the floor and not clean it up. I also have an "outside" kitchen that is made of wood which houses my fogon. I have actually tried using it but with limited success. AND its also got a modern bathroom and a HOT WATER SHOWER!! All for the same price I would have paid to live in the old volunteer's one room house. It still needs a little work but I love it. Its so nice to finally have my own space!

Everyone here keeps asking if I am scared to live on my own since its so rare for a woman to live sola here. I'm really not though. Not only is my house really secure (I have a fence and bars on my windows like everybody else here) but the neighbors are really protective of me. Nothing gets past the watchful gaze of my landlady.

I also now have a guard dog to keep me safe! She's not doing much guarding yet though, since shes six weeks and weighs less than a kilo. But she'll get there. Her name is Chipa.

Now that my fogones are pretty much done (I technically have one more to go plus the one I am building at my community contact's house but neither will be right away) I am looking for other ways to keep myself busy. I helped Miriam (the volunteer closest to me) with an HIV/AIDS course this week which went really well. It was exhausting to even WATCH all the work that she had put into this three day camp so it was even more rewarding that it went so well. We had 30 kids show up from her community and we all gave charlas (short talks) on themes dealing with STIs, reproductive health and things like that. My charla was on sex myths which there are tons of here in PY. Our HIV/AIDS coordinator from PC came and gave charlas and demos and we even got a doctor from UNICEF to come all the way from Asuncion as well. It was so rewarding to see these kids learn and to even open up a little and ask questions.

Since my last week or so has been filled with helping Miriam prep for this camp I hadn't really missed my fogones much but now I am starting to. It was nice to have a routine! Now school is on vacation (winter break here) so its hard not to be lazy. Next on the list of things to do will be working on my census (three page health questionaire I have to do with 50 houses in my community for PC) and working with the health post. I'll let ya know how it goes!

Fogones fogones fogones

Here's the long awaited update! With pictures!

So as many of you all know, I have been left a fogon project by the previous volunteer in my site, Anne. Anne had the whole thing set up for me when I got here, all of the materials were bought and everything, the only thing I have to do is build fogones. So that is what I have been doing for the last month, building fogones!

You may ask, what on earth is a fogon? Here we go. Fogones are brick cookstoves that use firewood, but are much more efficient than cooking on an open flame. It also has a chimney to pull out the smoke and an oven.

PC Health Sector is pretty keen on building them because they fulfill many needs and are relatively cheap and easy to build. Fogones use less firewood than cooking on an open flame (yay less global warming) and are also healthier to cook on since there is far less smoke to inhale and cause respiratory infirmaties. Having an oven also allows people to bake things instead of fry them and the 4-hole cooktop allows for cooking a variety of things at once.

All and all, for about the equivalent of about 80-100 USD it improves the quality of life for a family a LOT, especially the ladies and kids.

And I have so far made 8 fogones, the pictures you see are of the last one I did today with Soledad, the volunteer from Tajy. She biked 15k to Caazapa and took a bus the rest of the 7k to my site. Shes awesome!

Making a fogon starts for me around 8am. I bring all my tools to the house where I am going to make it and survey the spot. Usually its inside a kitchen, but today you can see from the pictures we built it outside. Fogones are pretty big (6ft long by 2ft wide), so many people elect to build another room for it or enlarge their kitchen to fit it. This family is going to build the new room around their fogon to be the kitchen and the old kitchen is going to be made into a modern bathroom.

As a part of the “contrapartido” (part that each family has to contribute) to receive a fogon, the families have to supply me with somebody to make the mezcla (mortar) for the bricks. Its really easy, just red dirt and water, but if I had to do it alone, there's no way I could get done in one day. Today the husband and a neighbor boy were both on hand to make mezcla, which was awesome. While they are starting to make mezcla I usually lay out the bricks and do all of the measurements to make sure its really nice and square and in the spot that the senora wants it (after all she's going to be the one using it).

Laying out the first layer takes a little bit of time, but after that it goes pretty fast. Seven layers like so to make the base, which then gets filled up and capped off. Usually one would use dirt to fill the base but you can really use anything hard. In others I've put glass bottles (popular choice since there's no recycling here), old broken bricks or roof tiles, or rocks.

After its all filled up and capped off with a layer of bricks, its time to work on the arms for the cooktop and the box for the oven. After three layers on each, I put on the iron cooktop (its heavyyyyy, but these also last forever if taken care of) and add rebar to suspend the oven. In order to have a nice hot oven, it needs to have at least 7cm around each side for the air to circulate. Two more levels then put in the aluminum chimney. Since this one was outside, the chimney was really easy, but other times I haven't been so lucky. To make the hole for the chimney on Monday I had to use an old fashioned auger (looks like a corkscrew but HUGE) to make holes in a wooden board and then knock the pieces out with a machete since we didn't have a saw. I've also learned how to chisel out bricks with a piece of rebar and a hammer to make a hole in a brick wall without bringing the house down.

After that the only thing left is to top it off. This is the trickiest part (besides keeping the whole thing level and square which remains bastante dificil for me) because you have to use rebar and then lay the bricks on top and put mezcla in all of the spaces without it falling through. If its good mezcla, with lots of clay, no problem, but if its got a lot of sand, it will fall through and I've had to go find different dirt to use for this part. One layer more on top to cover it up and ya esta! Opama! (done, in spanish and guarani). By this time its around 2 or 3pm and my workday is over. Not too bad for an amateur albanil (mason)!

Terere...what you do when you're bored in py

What do you do when there is nothing TO do in Paraguay? Some cultures they smoke, some they drink coffee, but here its mate and terere.

Terere is basically the Paraguayan national pasttime. Its what you do when you've been working all morning and want a good excuse to sit in the shade and rest. Basically, its a type of tea made from yerba mate served cold. So you take your yerba mate and fill up your guampa, which is the special terere cup. This cup is usually made of wood or metal. The fancy ones have a leather covering with pretty designs on it.

The simplest form of terere is to just pour cold water into the guampa and suck it out with a special straw called a bombilla, asi no mas. But many people here add yuyos (pronounced jew-jos, medicial plants) to the water. I like to add the ones which are classed as “refrescantes” (refreshing, don't really have much of a medicinal value) because they're tasty. Cedron kapi'i is lemongrass and its my favorite to add. You can also add lime, lemon or mandarine leaves.

Whereas terere is an original Paraguay invention, mate (the hot version of terere) is indigenous to Argentina but is made the same way except you use hot water (boiling...great way to burn one's tongue) and usually the guampa is smaller. Terere is a mid-morning to afternoon thing while mate you only drink in the early morning or in the evening, unless its really cold in which case you do it all day. There are also different yuyos for mate, many of which are super bitter, but I really like mansanilla (camomile) mixed with mint. SOOO tasty. Its just starting to get cold enough to drink serious mate, so this weekend I bought myself a thermos and a wood mate guampa. The guampa is made of palo santo, which is a special wood that is its own yuyo. Smells lovely, kind of like cedar. Hand wrought polished guampa plus plastic thermos set me back a whole 10 USD. Now I can take mate with me wherever I go :)

First Week in Site!!

It is really interesting arriving at site during Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Paraguay. Paraguay is a predominantly Catholic country with some pretty cool cultural aspects thrown into their beliefs and traditions that makes it unique.

First theres the food aspect of Semana Santa. I don't know if it's like this everywhere, but there are certain things you can and can't eat and cook during SS here. Of course theres the usual no meat on Friday rule but here most people don't cook at ALL on Friday. For example all I've eaten today is fruit salad (I peeled approx 10 oranges, 1 pineapple,and 2 apples to help my contact make it...my hand hurt all day) and chipa. Chipa is a huge part of SS all on its own. Traditionally, people make chipa on Wednesday before Easter. I had the great honor of helping one of the families in my community make chipa so I got to see how its made. I am surprised I can still eat it after watching.

What I had chosen not to think about every other time I had eaten chipa on a bus or in the street (besides being a SS tradition, chipa is also one of the most popular street foods in Paraguay) is that its terrible for you. We used around 15 kilos of flour (mostly corn, but some mandioca flour too) and about 15 eggs, 2 liters of milk, at least 5 kilos of Paraguayan cheese and 3 kilos of LARD. When all of these ingredients are mixed by hand just so by whipping the egg whites seperate from the yolks, only adding the milk a little bit at a time, and kneading vigorously its ready to be put in the tatakuaa, the special chipa oven. It looks kind of like an igloo, and its basically just a half circle made of bricks with a base and two openings on each side to add wood and later chipa. First you add tons of wood and get it really hot. After an hour or so of preheating, you push out all of the ash and embers and put in the chipa. The end result is sort of cornbread textured but with a harder outer shell and a slightly gooey cheezy interior. If your mouth isnt watering yet, it should be, because its delicious. And even though I know its extremely unhealthy, I have allowed myself to eat a ton of it by telling myself I will exersize my chipa kilos off once I get my bike from Peace Corps.

But enough about my love affair with lard filled goodness. I also got to go to church for the first time here today. I had been to the oratorio (local church with a layperson reading the mass), but the church in Caazapa was a totally different story. The church was huge and beautiful with adobe walls, high ceilings and big arched windows. I'll take a picture of it next time I go into Caazapa for sure. And the service was pretty interesting as well. The first part was outside and they talked about the crucifixion and all that, then basically did a mock funeral, where they took the statue of Jesus down and walked it into the church for the second part. I didn't understand all of it, but it was neat since I've been to Catholic church a bunch of times in the US and they say all of the same prayers, but they still have their own local flair for it.  

Future Site!!

So I am so stoked about my future site!! There is so much to love about Cabayu Reta! I met up with my community contact and Anne, the volunteer I am going to be following up on Friday. Anne has done SOOOO much in the community. Not only did she help organize two really awesome women's commisions and complete a fogon project, she also worked a ton in the school and speaks killer guarani. And just recently she started another fogon project and a sink and concrete floor project that I will be continuing. One of the big advantages of being a follow up volunteer is that a lot of times they already have projects going on that you can get started on pretty quickly. What I was really dreading is that if I was a first time volunteer you spend at least three months explaining what the heck you are doing there and figuring out things that the community needs. On one hand its a little scary having to go straight into site with a really high set of expectations, but on the other its so nice to finally be able to DO SOMETHING instead of just training for it.
But even if I didn't have this fogon project to work on, I'm sure I would have plenty to do anyways. There is a nice, well-equipped health post in my community which also serves four outlying smaller communities. I'm pretty sure there is enough work to do there that I could just go in and help out nearly every day for the next two years and not get bored at all. There are only two people who work there (the head nurse is my community contact), and are both super hardworking.
Besides that, the scenery is gorgeous. I have an abandoned  rock quarry about 3k away from my house that is basically a huge swimming hole. I got to check it out with Anne and Miriam, the volunteer closest to me. I am so lucky to have her so close by, shes only about 3k from my site and will be an awesome resource for learning how to get started in my community. She already wants me to help her with some workshops she is doing at her school in a few months.
While I was there on my visit I got to meet a lot of people in the community. Peace Corps wants us to live with a family for the first three months in site in order to get to know people and work more on our language skills. I think I am going to spend my first month with the family of the president of the fogon commission, whos daughter also was Anne's best friend in site. After, I'm going to live with my contact for a month (who actually has a modern bathroom...que suerte!!) then either of the nurses at the health post. Afterward, I really hope to live in the house that Anne had been living in. Its a little complicated because her neighbor who owns the house really wants me to live there, but her family (who also part owns the house) wants to leave it open for when they visit once a year. My contact offered to talk to her and I hope she does. The house is in a perfect location, and all of Anne's stuff (and the stuff she borrowed from her neighbors) would be available for me to use. Keep your fingers crossed that my awesome contact will make it happen for me!

Just got back from Long Field Practice. For those of you unfamilliar with Peace Corps lingo, on long field we go in small groups to volunteers's sites for four days to do small projects and see what they're up to. During the four days, we live with a family at their site and do the whole “cultural integration” thing again.

For me, long field was an emotional roller coaster. Three other volunteers and I went to visit Aaron in Solano Escobar, Paraguai (department directly to the east, only about 2.5 hours from Guasu Cora) for our long field. Aaron is G29 which means hes about to finish up his service in April, and one of the people in our class is going to be his follow up. First of all his site is GORGEOUS (I'll try to upload a picture if I can), hes got mountains and a lake and its generally a really pretty community. Also Aaron has an AWESOME house. Its brick and is all nicely finished inside with concrete and tile. From what I've heard its the second-nicest PCV house in the health group (the nicest belongs to Jordan and other PCVs have nicknamed it Jordan's Palace...never seen it myself but I've heard stories). All and all he has a great setup.

The family I stayed with was much different than my family in Guasu Cora. By now my family and I here are so accustomed to one another that we get along great. I've almost forgotten how awkward it was in the beginning. Not so with the family in Solano Escobar. They were definitely nice people but we just didn't click as well. They didn't talk to me terribly much and tended to laugh at my attempts at Spanish and Guarani. Normally the “poke fun at you” Paraguayan sense of humor doesn't get me down at all and I usually am laughing just as hard, but when you are put in a totally strange place with not-so-friendly-seeming people it gets reallllyyyyyy discouraging. To top off those weird feelings, the food the first day was aweful. For lunch we had overcooked pasta with really fatty bony carne followed by plain fried tortillas for dinner with tons of mandioca (manioc is a traditional staple food in South America and Africa. Its a tuber with the nutritional value of cardboard and not much taste. Usually its served just plain boiled here and its on the table like bread...you eat it with everything).

So after the super awkward dinner and after dinner conversation, I had a little pity party in my room and wrote it all out in my journal and told myself that no matter how bad it was, I was learning from this experience, and in the end, its only four days and I can survive. I took some deep breaths and told myself that I was going to be more “tranquila” about the small stuff that was getting me down about this visit and just take it all as a learning experience.

And it totally worked. I rocked the positive vibes the rest of the time I was there and ended up having a pretty good time and getting a TON done. On Tuesday, we built almost an entire fogon in one day at a local school, and Wednesday we did charlas (short lessons) about dental health to elementary school kids. Personally I was terrified about doing the charla because I have no teaching experience and I am not the biggest fan of kids. But, when I actually went up there and did it, it felt great. Getting those kids to laugh at my Spanish jokes really made my day. Ive also got some good pictures of them brushing their teeth.

Volunteer Visit

Hola!!
Sorry I havent given you an update in a few weeks but its been SOOO busy! Training is getting pretty hectic and we are doing a lot more “hands on” type work so I'm really starting to feel like I'm learning a thing or two.

A little more than a week ago we went on our first volunteer visit. We were all assigned different health volunteers that had been in site at least a year. My volunteer, Nicole, is stationed in the department of Itapua in southeastern PY very close to the major city of Encarnacion. Paraguay is a pretty small country but even so, it can take a VERY long time go get around because of the transportation situation here. Encarnacion is basically the farthest away you can get from the capital and not be going out into the Chaco (the other half of PY past Rio Paraguay—less than 3% of the population lives there). To put it in perspective, it took me longer to get from my doorstep in Guasu Cora to Nicole's site than it would  take me to fly from Miami to Montevideo :O!! Here's how it went:

Woke up at 5 and started walking to the Ruta (paved road) at 5:30. The walk to the Ruta is about an hour and it seems like a heck of a lot longer when the sun's not up yet. However, Riso and I were definitely not alone on the Ruta...so many people in Guasu Cora work in Asuncion that they start that early every day in order to beat the traffic and get to work.
We got to the bus stop around 6:30 and waited about 15 to 20 mins for the Nueva Italia bus to pick us up (I still havent found out if there is anything actually “italian” about NI yet but I'm really curious). Luckily there were two other volunteers on the bus from the other health community so we had some buddies. Even more lucky, one of them was going the same way I was and we could ride all the way to the Asuncion terminal together. Having never been to the infamous “Terminal” before, I was more than happy to have a buddy, especially since we would have to switch buses.

We switched buses in Guarambare (place were our big training center is so we know it pretty well) and got on the bus to the terminal. Unfortuanately, our bus got caught right in the middle of rush hour and it took nearly twice as long to get to Asuncion as it normally would. Normally, I dont mind public transportation much at all but the buses here in the cities are killer. The windows are always open, its crazy hot and the pollution is nauseating. Plus the crowds. They pack the buses SOOO full here its insane. You always think they won't be able to fit more people on and then the bus driver's assistant guy is basically telling people to hang out the doors and hold on for dear life. If you are lucky enough to get a seat you also have the pleasure of a face full or someone's fat tummy when he makes a sharp turn.
Anyways so we made it to the terminal finally and went to search for the offices for the right bus. I found it pretty easily and I got SUPER lucky because the next bus was in 5 minutes!! I hopped on it and was on my way. The Encarnacena was super lindo (lindo=fancy) and had super comfy seats. Good thing too because I had to ride on it for almost 7 hours.

The ride was beautiful...occasional towns and lots of green. Farther south there were lots of ranches and you could actually see the mountains! When I first got here I couldnt believe that there were palm trees! I didnt think it would be so tropical so far inland, but we have coconut palms and mango trees and banana trees...the whole shebang. Plus we also have scrubby grasslands that you would think of in Argentina.

Finally made it to Encarnacion around 3:30pm and we shopped around at the supermarket (it was almost like a real grocery store!!) and then headed to her site, finally getting there around 6:30! Over 12 hours later!!

But it was totally worth the trip. It was REALLY nice to be able to hang out and cook and ask her like a zillion questions about what its like to be a real life volunteer. She filled in a lot of blanks for me and it was great to be able to go out into the community with her and see what shes up to. One day we were able to go meet a family that she did cooking classes with and another we got to meet her community contact, the director of the school. I did also get a realistic PY experience, though, since it rained one day and we didnt get to do anything. When it rains here entire towns shut down. Buses don't run or anything.

Por suerte, the next day was dry and we were able to go back to Encarnacion and check out the city. It is a lot smaller than Asuncion but it still has a lot of cool shops and a beautiful plaza. We went to a sushi restaurant for lunch and I was STOKED to go but I was pretty disappointed in the quality. I guess I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up, but I was really missing Sushi Blues and didn't get anything close. For what I paid, I would have rather gotten awesome PY food than mediocre sushi. Other than that, Encarnacion was really cool, and I'd definitley like to visit again when I have more time.

Since we came back from site visits last Thursday, its been nonstop training. Language is getting a lot more intense, and we already had our first test on PC rules. This week we also had our first “Dia de Practica” where we went out and met people in the community and started looking for mini-projects to do in our training community. I'm working with Riso and Esteban and we think we might be able to build a fogon  for one of our neighbors (classic project in PY—its basically a big brick oven that allows people to cook more efficiently and not over an open flame so its healthier).

We also did some practice censuses yesterday which I really enjoyed. For our site, we will be required to fill out a health census form for 50 families, and its a big part of our community study. I was pretty proud of myself because me and my partner got out of our comfort zones and went and met new families instead of asking our families or their relatives. I was kind of surprised that people were so willing to help us and SO friendly. I feel like for at least three hours this week, I have felt like a legitimate volunteer and it felt AWESOME.

Alright, time to hit the Spanish homework, but I'll update again soon!

PS any of you that want to send mail, its apparently not as slow as I thought. Some people have already gotten packages and cards since we have been here. If you want, you can try and send me some snail mail love to this address:

Ashley Lauren Reef, PCT
Cuerpo de Paz
Chaco Boreal 162
Asuncion, Paraguay

My weekend

Right now I am watching futbol on TV...muy abborido (boring). So perfect time to write another blog. This was a pretty awesome weeknend here in Guazu Cora. Satuday was my host mom's mother's birthday, so we had a little party for her. The party started at around 11 when Carly (the volunteer who is staying with my host mom's mom) came to get me to let me know that it was time to kill the turkey. Now this turkey had been a much talked about subject among our family for weeks. Aurelia (host mom's mom) said it was going to be her present to herself to eat one of her fat turkeys. So all afternoon, Carly and I watched turkey prep. (note: vegetarians stop reading here and restart at the beginning of next paragraph). When I came over, we had just missed its acutal demise, and it was hanging upside down from a tree already dead. Next, Aurelia dunked it in boiling water and started plucking it. It took the better part of an hour to defeather the thing. Then she cut it apart, utilizing two different knives and then, when that didnt work, a two foot long hacksaw. It was quite the spectacle to watch. It went into a pot with tomatoes, onions, carrots and LOTS of garlic to cook all afternoon. Its amazing how disconnected we are from our food in the US. Since I've been here, I have watched the demise of two animals and I'm sure it wont be the last. I think I would be more than happy to be a vegetarian.

The actual party didnt start until late in the night (almost 10), and it was totally a family affair. 10-15 of the family came for dinner which consisted of the turkey with the sauce and rice (ricissimo!!!! --delicious in spanish), and the ever-present asado (this time beef ribs). The food was great and we got to drink a little beer and hang out with everybody. The only thing that gets awkward about family gatherings is that they pretty much ONLY speak guarani. So the only way we knew any of whats going on is that my host mom or her sister Daisy would translate for us. Guarani is SOOOO hard to understand. Every once and a while, I would pick out a word or two but its pretty few and far between at the moment. The party didnt go too long, we were all in bed by 11:30, full of beer and cake and yummy yummy pavo (turkey).

Today I got to sleep in til almost 10 which was awesome. Right after I woke up, another volunteer, Eric, came by to tell me that he and his dad were going to work on his garden and asked if we wanted to help/watch. I gladly accepted, since gardening in PY is definitely a skill I will need later in my site. Carly and I headed over to Eric's and learned to make tablones (raised beds) and how to spred compost. Very exciting (totally not joking...I'm really excited about gardening and teaching paraguayos how to grow and cook different veggies).

In the afternoon, my host sister asked me if I wanted to go to “the beach.” I gladly accepted because “the beach” around here is the Rio Paraguay and I've seen pictures and its gorgeous. I rode with Eric and his fam and my mom and host sisters followed in their moto. When we got to the beach it was really crowded but BEAUTIFUL...really rocky and full of tide pools. We sat on the rocks and drank terere with the families. It was really relaxing and we got to stay and watch the sunset before the mosquitoes chased us home. I definitely hadnt expected to go to the beach in a landlocked country but Paraguay continues to pleasantly surprise me.

Thats all for now, coming up will be highlights from our trip to the BIG CITY (Asuncion) on Tuesday! I love you and miss you alllll!!

A day in the life of a PCT in Paraguay

Hey guys! Sorry its been a while since my last entry but ive been really busy...so i though id fill you in on WHY its been so hard to write a blog :) Heres what a typical day is like for me here in Guazu Cora, dept. Central Paraguay.

I get up hellaciously early (around 645) and eat breakfast with my host mom. She gets up at like 6 when her other two daughters go, alone, on about an hour bus ride to the capital to work for their dad. The dad is a misterious figure in my life...ive never met him, but I know he exists. I am kinda afraid to ask my host mom if they are separated or something, because I never hear her talk about him or anything. The only things I know about him is that he is a buisnessman in Asuncion and that Dalila and Violeta help him out at his “store”. But I digress....so after I eat breakfast I usually sit and try and figure out what is going on on the news channel for a few minutes while I wait for Carly and Eric to walk to the esquelita (little school—where we do most of our training...basically a little building in our satellite community).

The walk to the esquelita is like 10-15 mins. Its a dirt road in pretty shistey condition so when it rains, it becomes a mud river. So we get to the school and start classes around 745. Right now im in the intermediate spanish group so I study with 3 other people who are at around the same level. There are 4 other people learning beginner spanish and 4 others learning gurani (in spanish). Hopefully I will get to an acceptable level where I can start learning guarani by like week 5.

We have lunch at 1130, and since Carly and I live at the end of the road, my host mom brings us lunch on her moto (moped...they are super common here along with motorcycles and dirtbikes and no one wears helmets. Fun fact, 3 people per day die in paraguay because of moto accidents...in a country the size of NC). Lunch is the big meal here and its usually full of meat and starch. These people dont really believe in veggies.

After lunch we get picked up to go to Guarambare (aka the big city to us out in the campo...actually a small suburb of Asuncion) where we switch gears to talking about the “other stuff” like development goals and health and safety and all that other fun stuff. Today for example, we had a talk about how not to get robbed on a bus (most common crime against volunteers) then we had a talk with some current volunteers about what its REALLY like out in the campo campo (cuz apparently Guazu Cora is the Ritz compared to whats to come). They talked about their projects and how they went about planning etc.

After class we have like an hour to hang around in the town before we have to back to campo-land. Today I went right to the internet cafe to do the blog thing. When you get to the internet cafe, you sit down at a computer and just hope to god its going to work today. The computers are decently modern (like a few years old) but like everything is held together with glue and tape and one thing or another generally goes wrong if you sit there long enough. Like skype for example will misteriously take like 10 mins to boot up. Or the internet goes down for a few mins. Or your headphones are crap. So you sit there wasting your precious internet time (which is a little more than a dollar per hour) while there is a Paraguayo under your desk trying to fiddle with the wires when it doesnt work. So you can see why its a little frustrating to try to get anything done during your precious internet time.


After the cafe, we wait for the oh-so-unpredictable bus to take us home. Its "supposed" to come every 30 minutes but its kind of a crapshoot. After my 15 min bus ride and hour walk home, I usually just hang out with my host fam until its time to go to bed. I have a fair amount of reading and homework so im pretty much running on empty by like 11. I am the first to go to bed at my house usually. Sometimes Carly comes over and studies with me since shes two houses down and my fam loves her. My spanish is def getting better but its just taking time.

Phew. Long day right? Speaking of which I need to stop being antisocial on the computer and go hang out with the host fam. I love you guys!

First night in PY

I MADE IT!! A solid 15 hours later, I have officially made it from Miami to beautiful Asuncion, Paraguay. To my complete shock I was actually able to sleep for approximately 5 hours on the overnight flight from Miami to Montevideo, which is the reason I am able to be up past 10pm right now writing this blog. We only experienced minor delays and luggage loss (apparently 23 bags wouldn't fit on our flight from Montevideo to Asuncion, including one of mine, but they will be arriving tonight sometime to our host family's houses). Today was pretty chill after we got in. After all of the luggage was sorted out, we headed to a “retreat center” in Guarambare to eat and hang out. Real training starts tomorrow morning where I can hope to get vaccinated for all manner of sub tropical diseases that have it out for me and then we have our Spanish placement interviews. Next, we will be meeting our host families. For me, this is one of the scariest parts about training (besides the language of course). I am just petrified that I will say something or do something completely culturally inappropriate during the first five minutes that will make them think I am an insensitive doofus. I know I'm overreacting, but I haven't lived with a family (even my own!) for almost 5 years so it will take a bit of getting used to.

As I am writing this, I am scratching all over. I remember PC documents stating that Paraguay is not a malaria country. Wellllllllll that doesn't mean that it isnt chock full of mosquitoes and other bitey insects that want to suck my blood and keep me up itching all night. Blerg.

When I stepped off the plane in Asuncion, it was second nature to reach for my cell phone and start to call all of you guys to let you know that I've made it in safe. HOWEVER, my cell is now disconnected and I won't be able to use the internet until at least lunch time tomorrow. It is REALLY weird to be disconnected from the world, even for less than two days. Its so funny how reliant we are on technology.

  

This is my real life!!

This is my real life. I can barely believe it. I cant believe I am lucky enough to be on a plane right now to start my Peace Corps adventure in Paraguay. You guys don't even know how excited I am.

The last few days I was in Raleigh were awesome. I couldnt believe how many people came out to my going away dinner and how many people even just called me or txted me or facebooked me to tell me that they were excited for me and wish me luck. I have been kind of a wanderer my whole life, and I can honestly say that Raleigh has felt more like home for me than anywhere else I have ever lived. I am truly blessed to have such awesome friends and family and I will miss you all sooooo much while I am in Paraguay. Thank you all for supporting me even though you might think I'm a little nuts for doing this.

So right now, I am looking out my window on the ridiculously tiny plane to Miami (seriously, this is a little scary. Its only got three seats across and I cant stand up all the way in it. To top it off we were 20 minutes late getting off the ground because we needed more oil in our left engine. Good to know that I'm flying around in a tiny bucket of bolts lol) and I still can't believe that this is real. Even though I've been stalking other volunteers' blogs and reading up on Paraguay nonstop, I still don't think I really know what to expect. But for me, its kind of the fun part. I get to just get in there and make it happen all by myself and see what I can bring to the table to make people's lives better. I know its going to be incredibly difficult at times, but I have no doubt that this will be the most rewarding thing I've done so far.

The next few days are going to be crazy crazy. I'm getting into Miami around 4 today and then just hanging out with other volunteers until orientation starts tomorrow morning. I'm going to be going strong from 8am to 11pm when we get on our first plane that takes us to Uruguay. The flight is like 9 or 10 hours but its going to feel SOOOO much longer because its overnight and we also lose two hours on the way. I am not so happy about the whole overnight flight thing. I mean I know it allows us to now lose an entire day to travel, but you KNOW I am going to be way too jacked up on excitement to sleep at all on that plane. The next morning I fly to Paraguay and we start training. I think I will be able to have the interwebs again on Thursday so I will definitely try and give yall an update then and let you know how insanely hot and humid it is while you all are still freezing up here in winter-land. :)

En Route to Miami

This is my real life. I can barely believe it. I cant believe I am lucky enough to be on a plane right now to start my Peace Corps adventure in Paraguay. You guys don't even know how excited I am.

The last few days I was in Raleigh were awesome. I couldnt believe how many people came out to my going away dinner and how many people even just called me or txted me or facebooked me to tell me that they were excited for me and wish me luck. I have been kind of a wanderer my whole life, and I can honestly say that Raleigh has felt more like home for me than anywhere else I have ever lived. I am truly blessed to have such awesome friends and family and I will miss you all sooooo much while I am in Paraguay. Thank you all for supporting me even though you might think I'm a little nuts for doing this.

So right now, I am looking out my window on the ridiculously tiny plane to Miami (seriously, this is a little scary. Its only got three seats across and I cant stand up all the way in it. To top it off we were 20 minutes late getting off the ground because we needed more oil in our left engine. Good to know that I'm flying around in a tiny bucket of bolts lol) and I still can't believe that this is real. Even though I've been stalking other volunteers' blogs and reading up on Paraguay nonstop, I still don't think I really know what to expect. But for me, its kind of the fun part. I get to just get in there and make it happen all by myself and see what I can bring to the table to make people's lives better. I know its going to be incredibly difficult at times, but I have no doubt that this will be the most rewarding thing I've done so far.

The next few days are going to be crazy crazy. I'm getting into Miami around 4 today and then just hanging out with other volunteers until orientation starts tomorrow morning. I'm going to be going strong from 8am to 11pm when we get on our first plane that takes us to Uruguay. The flight is like 9 or 10 hours but its going to feel SOOOO much longer because its overnight and we also lose two hours on the way. I am not so happy about the whole overnight flight thing. I mean I know it allows us to now lose an entire day to travel, but you KNOW I am going to be way too jacked up on excitement to sleep at all on that plane. The next morning I fly to Paraguay and we start training. I think I will be able to have the interwebs again on Thursday so I will definitely try and give yall an update then and let you know how insanely hot and humid it is while you all are still freezing up here in winter-land. :)