Viva la Vida Campo

Hello All! I just wanted to start off by sharing a lovely little gem my friend Kelley Matney made for our training class. Thanks Kel & Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GazPSA8gqhE&feature=player_embedded

All right so I’m finally here now! First few days were sort of a weather shock with cold, rainy, thunder, and lightning nights. Something I had cruelly forgotten about since I came to blisteringly humid and hot Paraguay (being from good ole Oregon). Let’s just say daring to not bringing a sleeping bag was not the best decision I've made. Anyway, my new site is just as quaint as ever, where all the houses are located along one long dirt/rock road. My first host family was a complete turn around from any dynamic I have yet to encounter. For example, there were five kids with ages ranging from one to seven. Lets just say the mother was a little too busy this time around. Besides the constant crying, I did enjoy how easy going they were about my vegetarianism. They were very sweet but typical shy and timid to start conversation. While I was there I taught the mother how to make peanut butter cookies from scratch! Since this very agricultural town has so many peanuts to offer I couldn’t resist :). It is so funny how many delicious things are lacking in a Paraguayan cookbooks simply because they don’t know how to diversify. The motto stick with what's good is pretty standard. Making peanut butter from scratch was difficult and a lot of work but it turned out very tasty for my first time! I was also very relived to finally start talking to her about my objective in Peace Corps Paraguay after about three days. She was very interested in my potential here in her town, and I got the chance to explain Peace Corps three main goals to her and how I will (as a first time volunteer in the site) begin to approach the needs and wants of the people here. 

During my stay with this family I got to accompany her to on of the Women’s Committee meetings, scheduled every Thursday at 2pm. Although I still don’t have a comprehensive grasp on Guarani, I still love to hear these women chat and debate about what they want to achieve. Earlier, during my interviews with my bosses while discussing what kind of site id like, I never would have expected such a wonderfully energized and hardworking group of women when I asked for a strong women’s committee. These women get together every week when most groups I’ve heard about only reunite monthly or even bimonthly. They fund all their expenses directly out of their pocket through fundraising activities like bingo events and raffling, which brings in a small amount with them every meeting. All I can say is I really can’t wait to start working with them closer! Fortunately, in addition to the wonderful group of senoras, my site is also home to some of the nicest families I’ve ever met. I think out of all of them I have only had one hopeless response to my presence, which wasn’t even that bad. They just didn’t really understand why I was here or what I was going to do. They were probably just scared of an outsider, which is totally understandable. I think the hardest part about any Peace Corps Volunteer’s experience in any country is trying to explain to the people why you have left (what they think is) a “perfect” country to come and live where they live. In respect to all the distinct and personal responses out there, I'd like to think we are all here to experience a different perspective on life in addition to giving back. However, explaining that is never the easiest thing to do.

Since being here I have also been discussing with the senoras about my future living situation aka renting a house among the community. I have been introduced to just the cutest house ever! It’s directly in the middle of the entire community and right next to the Health Post and school! It has opens up to a living room and it has one bedroom, a modern bathroom (shower, sink, and toilet J), and a kitchen, all supplied with running water capabilities. However, just recently I was presented with another option which turns out to be just what I need. In the first house I would of had to buy literally everything I needed including a bed and furniture while paying rent. The house I will now be living in soon has everything for me. My soon-to-be neighbor's son was living there and up and left to Argentina so she offered to let me use everything for my stay! Awesome news! Pictures will be coming soon with that one!

I also recently had my Site Presentation Day with my bosses which basically means they come evaluate and talk about how you are doing in site so far and give a presentation to members of the community about What Peace Corps Paraguay does and what our mission is here in the Rural Health & Sanitation Sector. In my case, it did a lot for me and maybe too much lol. What I mean is I now have gone from pretty much leaning the language everyday and meeting new people to full-force project planning. Although, the first three months are pretty much reserved for the former objective, I'm stoked to get started. For example, I have currently finished about 10 censuses with family (to be explained later), began discussing a dental health presentation series in the school, english & computer classes in the colegio, exercise classes with the senoras, Futbol Feminino Torneo, and finally a brick-oven (fogon) commission creation meeting. Overall, it definitely helped my community fully understand why I'm here and how they can get involved. Oh yeah and my boss brought my new bike so that's exciting! The trails here are so beautiful! Take a look!:

Now that I have my internet with me in site I will be updating a lot more frequently but for now I'm going to end it here today and take a little siesta :) Thanks for reading and let me know if your interested in further explanation about anything! Chauu & Besos!