The wondrous and sometimes not so wondrous life of a PCV

Wow...okay, I feel like I finally have a few peaceful and uninterrupted moments to spare so I can update my life here. It's somewhat of a mess so for simplicity's sake, I'm going to break down this post into 3 parts. 

PART 1 *IST* - Three weeks ago I left site for my 3 month In-Service Training (G-38 Reconnect) in Guarambare and stayed with my very first host family I had during training. First of all, it was extremely weird being back with my first host family and living so close to all my friends from training. Being there again made me feel like I had been gone for so long and honestly how great we all had it during training. I take back everything I said about those first 3 months because it's the Hilton compared to the situation I have now. NOT that I'm complaining because I love it and I'm totally accustomed to my campo life! Anyway, training was okay besides the 5 hour Guarani language sessions we had the first 3 days. I also realized that the transition from FULL scheduled days to campo tranquilo life was really different. Explanation for my stir-craziness for the first month here. The second part of IST was held in Asuncion which was great because we all got reimbursed for all being together again in the capital to blow off some steam. The last day of IST we spent pretty much the entire day chatting with our sister G-35 (Rural Health and Sanitation Training Class who came here a year before us) about the projects they have been up to. Personally, it was really helpful to hear about some of the actual real life projects that real volunteers are doing. Since the end training it has been hard to really foresee the development and creation of my goals in my community. Furthermore, we are given the RHS project plan which lists and describes 5 goals of our sector, but until now I haven't really been able to mentally grasp how to take those goals written on paper and turn them into a reality. Overall, IST was very helpful but tiring. Let's just say I was excited to get back to the campo and get started on some new projects. 

PART 2 *COMING BACK* - On my way back to site I had my friend Kalena accompany me. Since the Ahendu festival (Peace Corps Paraguay Committee) was the following weekend and she lives so far away from Asuncion, she decided to come stay with me so we could hang out and head back together. Besides, I also broke my phone and the phone Peace Corps gave me didn't work (my luck) so I was lucky to have someone else PC connected with me. Little did I know that our cosy little 5 day stay at my new house would be rudely interrupted/changed. For starters, my last campo bus never showed up to take us back to the entrance of my site so I paid for a 50,000 mil cab ride then had to have someone pick us up and take me the 4k in. Once I arrived, all the times I kept saying: "what else could happen" cliche-a-ly nipped me in the butt because I was about to realize what trusting random Paraguayans was about to cost me. After turning on the lights to my house I realized that my electric oven was gone. I went around to my neighbors wondering if maybe they had decided to borrow it (thinking they might have an extra key) but they were just as shocked as I was. After my neighbors assured me of who the "ladron/a sin verguenza" was even though I knew I couldn't trust the random finger-pointing, I took a homemade cocktail and delicious mexican food for remedy.

 Although I was extremely angry and hurt I realized that I literally could not do anything except tell every person I knew by using their infamous radio so'o (gossip in guarani) to my own advantage hoping that one day word would get around who did it and maybe even a confession. At least that was the advice given by our Safety & Security director who also drove into my site to come help me out.  Once he took me to the police station (10k away) and told me that I would most likely get reimbursed for my oven I rethought the question he had been asking me all day: "Are you sure that's the only thing they took from your house?" Honestly I hadn't really taken a clean look since I decided to move into the house behind my neighbor's (they began fixing it for me over the week). Sure enough I realized they also took my new Kindle Fire and the $80 I had been saving for vacation. SWEET! I thought. More depressed and more vulnerable. I couldn't help but think do I have ANY kind of security of my things or was I stupid to think I could bring anything of value down here. After some quiet sulking I finally realized the only thing I could take away from this is to be a little more conservative about my things because no matter how much you think your friends with someone or how much you think you can trust someone, there will always be people out there that will steal. Oh well lesson learned I guess. The upside, I had another excuse to get out of site and blow off some more steam, which takes me to...

PART 3 *AHENDU* - Every three months the Peace Corps Paraguay committee Ahendu ("I hear" in Guarani) puts on a concert to help support their cause. It's always really fun and it raises a lot of money especially the HIV/AIDS Date Auction. Most of the time volunteers will preform so it's a great time to see and hang out with all of our friends. So clearly we all try to make it in to Asuncion and see it. I'm super glad I took another trip back even though it was so quick after Reconnect. I REALLY needed it. I got a lot of needed shopping done and even bought some amaranth and brown rice so I'm excited to eat that :) I'm in serious withdrawals of nutritious grains. The only thing I can get regularly here is bleached white rice. Although it was really hard to find and super expensive it is SO worth it! We also went a little crazy and went dancing so that was fun too! On my way back to site I decided to go and help my friend Karen move into her new house who lives about 2 hours away. It was really nice to have help with both of my houses lol so I thought she could use it and plus I wanted to see someone else's site! Also totally worth it :) Here's some pictures of the good weekend that picked up my spirits :)

Gettin' our dancin on @ Ahendu

Karen & I @ her Site!

Emily, Jamin & I @ Ahendu

David, Brice, Kalena, Emily and I @ Ahendu w/ our friend Beer Tower :)

Karen & I

Yihanna & I