More Paraguay Observations

Lesson Learned: When you have a lot to catch people up on, write the blog post on your laptop, save, and bring to the internet café. Apologies if the last one was way too long and scatter brained. Hopefully I will get better at this…

Bueno… more observations (and another fairly long post… lo siento)

Animals – in my house, the pets are treated similar to that in the US. By that, I mean they are not kicked or beaten, they stay within the compound when no one is around, and the dog wears a collar… I even saw one person walking their dog on a leash! I have heard in many areas of Paraguay they are not treated as nicely, so I was glad to see that Vovi and Michi (my dog and cat) have a nice life here. Also, there are farm animals all over the place. When walking down the road, it is very likely to see cows and chickens roaming. There was one time when the cow was completely blocking the road, and when I took a picture all the Paraguayans I was with thought it was HILARIOUS that I found that noteworthy.

Walking – so far, my host mom and I have taken a 45 min-1 hr walk every night. We go with her friend Perla and they speak Guaraní most of the time while I just look around. I must say, I have become quite good at dodging cow crap and burning garbage on the roads. We also learned a shortcut from Guarambaré (our training location) to Nueva Esperanza (my home village) that is great! Or was, at least, until I wore nicer sandals to training, walked home in them, and ended up limping the last 10 minutes after developing 4 HUGE blisters on my feet. I then proceeded to park myself on my bed for the next 15 hours.

Integration – In all honestly, in a little more than a week here in Paraguay I feel more integrated that I ever did studying abroad in Spain. Part of it is definitely the occasion – I am here to become a member of Paraguayan society and live this life every day, where as while I was abroad I simply used Spain as a home base during my jaunt across Europe. That doesn’t mean I didn’t love Basque culture and the people there, it is just that I have immersed myself much more fully here. It also helps to be so disconnected. In Spain, I would immediately come home from class and get on my computer to talk with everyone at home. Here, I come home and am forced to talk with my host mom and neighbors for hours until I go to bed. I am already thinking way more in Spanish, and will find myself writing in spanglish in my journal. I love it!

Food – I am missing the variety of veggies, big time. Sometimes I will get a cabbage/tomato salad in my lunch, but not always. It’s usually meat and carbs, and red meat at that. I am going to start buying more veggies to share with my host mom and hopefully show her how delicious they are! Also, my host mom is the greatest at letting me help out! When making a typical Paraguayan dish, she always let’s me watch and help her, so that is great!

Training Group – My training group, G38 (G stands for Guarambare), is full of some seriously awesome people. We come from all different walks of life, yet are all able to bond over the simple fact that we are all here in Paraguay, and in it together. On Valentine’s day it was one volunteer’s birthday. To celebrate, we rented out a place that had a soccer field and volleyball courts, drank beers, ate cake, and just had a blast. The people in Nueva Esperanza (13 ppl) were alone in Guarambare on Thursday since the other group had training in their site. We spent most of the day sharing stories and laughing. At lunch, we all crammed into a table and then made a pact to make it the full 27 months. Cheesy? Yes, but I really hope we all make it!

Hopefully I will post some pics soon... the internet cafe here sucks