PVC Alex Batzer

Swearing-In Ceremony w/ all us G-38 girls and our wonderful Tech Trainer Hannah!

Oh Hello! I made it :) Yay! Pre-Service Training that is! I'm a real volunteer now. Before coming I never really considered the reality of swearing-in. I kind of brushed it off like "duh...of course I'm gonna swear in". However, training and site presentation was much more than I had in mind and you all will have to excuse my jump start into the blogging process because after a week of being in Paraguay I completely lost all "ganas" (motivation) to stay in the pueblo after 8 hours of training and try to use faulty internet in order to update my life. So now since I will be having A LOT of time on my hand these next three months trying to do my best to integrate into my new and beautiful community, I will try to be much more updated :)

My Spanish/Guarani Class with Aurelio (Best Teacher Ever!)

Anyways, back to training, since it started about three whole months ago I'll try to sum it up a bit. My training class G-38 of 28 people was split up into two groups; 13 in a small community and the others in another small community. I lived with my sweet host mother and her 16 yr old daughter who actually had her baby girl when I was living with them. So I had baby fever the last three months :) From day one I felt like a part of the family. Always inviting me to parties and introducing me to the large family. The young primos always running around to make sure they gave me their daily saludo "Hola Aleee!" My mother was such an amazing cook and made awesome vegetarian food especially for me :) A part of Paraguayan culture that I definitely will not be taking part in unfortunately. Problem is here when I say I don't eat meat, chicken or hot dogs are served. "Pero, no es carne". Sorry folks not my thing. Yet, my mother caught on almost immediately and was awesome. Even though I technically consider myself vegan I will definitely be compromising that for the time living with families. 

Me and My Host Mother (during Training) making some Chipa

Kelley and I walking home from Training 

Besides my living situation, Pre-Service training was a little overwhelming at times. I will always remember one of the first days our country director warned us to brace ourselves because training was going to be nothing at all like Service (8 hour structured and planned out days). It was all the information we will need for two years basically jam-packed into three months, including two language classes. Direct quote: "Its like taking a drink from a fire hose" and thats exactly was it was. Although I did learn some great things, I'm so stoked to get out there and starting working in my own manner on my soon to be tranquilo but to-be=guapa (hardworking) schedule. 

Some of the Aspirantes and I after Site Presentation Day

No on to my new site! Unfortunately, due to security reasons I cannot disclose publicly my specific location. However, it is about a 4 kilometer walk in from the main Ruta and it has about 770 people living there. There is a school, a colegio, and a health post all within very close proximity. The people mainly speak Guarani, and Spanish is hardly ever used, so I will be studying a lot since my Guarani abilities aren't so great still :/. The town's economy is very much ruled agriculturally and the wealth divide is really polarized which is strange in a rural area. For example, poorer families live closer to the center of the village and more wealthier families live on the outskirts with larger land spreads. More land = more wealth. Furthermore, cows seem to be the dollar signs here as well. My site also has a wonderful and really guapa Senora Committe which I am extremely excited about. Basically everything that happens publicly in Paraguay functions with these "committees and commissions". For example, A group of people from a pueblo or town get together and become recognized by the government through bureaucratic paperwork. From there they begin to "pedido" (request) for set-aside government money to fund projects to improve their livelihood or health. If their request is well-developed and worthy they will most likely receive the money to begin working. Some projects include: building fogones, chicken coops, sanitary latrines, modern bathrooms, etc. Giving money out to groups who end up being very successful is somewhat of a political tool for these politicians. 

My first Host Mother's kitchen during Future Site Visit

My House To Be :) Imagine a huge veggie garden in the back!

The room I stayed in during Future Site Visit

Additionally, more recent news, I am the new main attraction here. During my site visit three weeks ago I stayed with one of the families who share a yard with the combined schools. This translated into anytime there was a recess (which also happens to be all the time) I had a captivated and silent audience staring at my every move. Eating, reading, talking, cooking, running back in a towel from my bucket bath, they would be huddled up whispering and staring at the new "Norte" that would be coming to live here. You might be wondering, oh come on that's not bad! You have new friends and they are all interested in meeting you, however, in a Paraguayan setting, that is not always the case ;) Very interested but quite shy are Paraguayans. A combination of my terrible Guarani, a lack of Spanish speakers, and an enormous amount of hesitation to start up a conversation or even to respond to my attempt at making conversation, I was stuck in one of many awkward encounters soon to come. Another note from Peace Corps we were given during training: "You will all become professional at dealing with awkward". Carpe el awkward! I have also been offered at least three different marriage proposals by some of the senoras. "Oh I have a boyfriend already", "I'm just here to work", "I don't need a boyfriend" = No excuse is worthy of rejecting. In the end, my community was interested in two things = why I don't eat meat and why I don't want to marry all of they're lovely sons. I foresee a lot of effort to convince my community why I'm here yet, I do feel like there is a lot of potential for great projects in the future. Guapo - Guapa Communidad!

As a wrap up to my first of many to come posts, I want to say that I am extremely excited to finally start my two years service, get settled in a new community, and starting working with ambitious members of this community! Anddd although I'm technically supposed to use my first three months to integrate and become closer with the people of my community by living and spending time with families, I will be starting my censuses of about 50 families in order to complete a Community Study/Needs Assessment. I will then use this is narrow down the specific problems or areas of concern, and from there develop ways to improve them sustainably. For more information about my Rural Health Sector, check out the this link to the Peace Corps website:

http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=learn.wherepc.southAmerica&cntry=paraguay

Hasta Luego y Jajotopata! (See you later in Spanish & Guarani)