Hello folks!!!
So my life is no longer a question mark, I finally know where I will be living for the next two years! My future site is in the lovely area of Paraguay called Misiones. It is southern Paraguay, and so I am very much looking forward to a new area of Paraguay I haven't seen yet.
Things I know so far include:
-I am a follow up volunteer (meaning a volunteer will be leaving my site as I arrive)
-I have a health post, elementary school, library, and high school
-I am 7K from the ruta, meaning a bike is definitely in my future
-I will be continuing a recycling project the last volunteer did, as well as doing dental health charlas, teaching english, and teaching computer classes
-There are about 100 houses, and 500 people. That is 1/2 the size of my high school class. yikes.
The process of finding out was awesome. Why? because it was exactly (well, sorta) like hogwarts!!! They picked our names out of a (sorting) hat and then put our faces on a map!
anywho. That is really all the information I have right now. On Thursday I head to my site for 6 days to get a feel for it, which I am very excited for!
Hope you are all well!!
p.s. sorry mom and dad that you dont get a personal email, this is just easier than typing it twice
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Saturday, March 17, 2012
The Hilarity They Call Long Field Practice
Happy St. Patrick's day everyone! Hope you will all be celebrating in style! I know my friends and I have the green food dye ready for this evening :)
Yesterday I got back from Long Field Practice, where my language class and teacher went as a group to visit a volunteer. We lived with host families, did charlas (lessons) in the classroom, lead a women’s committee meeting, and got to see what the job of a rural health and sanitation volunteer looks like. I was struggling with my host family at first and didn’t love it, but overall I think the experience was definitely a positive one. Why? Well here you go:
• Bucket bathing by star/moon light and (attempting) to poop in a latrine
• Having my host sister ask if I needed to go pee, then go with me to pee, and then dropping trousers next to me while peeing. Naturally, I couldn’t go anymore, so I told her “mas tarde” (later) and walked away trying to hold in my laughter.
• My host family dog had some problems. It is actually kind of a sad story… His back legs were stepped on by a cow and were broken, and now he walks with a serious limp. A side effect of this is that his little red rocket is now permanently out.
• I witnessed a cow intensely licking a horse’s butt. This lasted longer than I was there watching.
• In language class one day, we learned how to say “your mom” (nde sy) in Guaraní. Needless to say, we spent the rest of the class making your mom jokes and dying of laughter.
• I was on a Paraguayan radio show (I am really becoming quite the celebrity here, keep an eye out for me on Perez soon). We all went around to introduce ourselves, and when the volunteer went to introduce Jamin (another trainee), she introduced him as hymen (in Spanish his name is said hameen). This lead to uncontrollable bouts of laughter and us eventually getting kicked out of the radio show and not even allowed to talk about what we wanted.
• And finally, the best part. We went to the town of Carepegua because some of us (mainly me and one other person) really wanted to buy hammocks and this was the town to buy them. Immediately when getting out of the van, the local old crazy woman spotted Jamin and found her prey. She was following us pretty closely and once we realized, we stopped walking to see what was going on. She then proceeded to push me out of the way and slap Jamin with her flip flop. She then started to cry and sprawled herself out in the street. Everyone around us started cracking up since they all knew about her and were watching. Then we quickly bought hammocks and got out of there, and drove 5-6 blocks to get some ice cream. After getting food, we are getting back in the van and Jamin starts yelling to close the door ASAP. Sure enough, there was old crazy lady, who apparently followed us to the ice cream shop. She was yelling at us and followed us for a bit, but thankfully we lost her. At the next store, we talked with the worker about her, and apparently she walked around the town naked recently. Yes, I realize this is sad because she clearly has issues, but you should have seen it. You can’t make this stuff up.
I am posting some pics on my facebook, so be sure to check them out there!
Yesterday I got back from Long Field Practice, where my language class and teacher went as a group to visit a volunteer. We lived with host families, did charlas (lessons) in the classroom, lead a women’s committee meeting, and got to see what the job of a rural health and sanitation volunteer looks like. I was struggling with my host family at first and didn’t love it, but overall I think the experience was definitely a positive one. Why? Well here you go:
• Bucket bathing by star/moon light and (attempting) to poop in a latrine
• Having my host sister ask if I needed to go pee, then go with me to pee, and then dropping trousers next to me while peeing. Naturally, I couldn’t go anymore, so I told her “mas tarde” (later) and walked away trying to hold in my laughter.
• My host family dog had some problems. It is actually kind of a sad story… His back legs were stepped on by a cow and were broken, and now he walks with a serious limp. A side effect of this is that his little red rocket is now permanently out.
• I witnessed a cow intensely licking a horse’s butt. This lasted longer than I was there watching.
• In language class one day, we learned how to say “your mom” (nde sy) in Guaraní. Needless to say, we spent the rest of the class making your mom jokes and dying of laughter.
• I was on a Paraguayan radio show (I am really becoming quite the celebrity here, keep an eye out for me on Perez soon). We all went around to introduce ourselves, and when the volunteer went to introduce Jamin (another trainee), she introduced him as hymen (in Spanish his name is said hameen). This lead to uncontrollable bouts of laughter and us eventually getting kicked out of the radio show and not even allowed to talk about what we wanted.
• And finally, the best part. We went to the town of Carepegua because some of us (mainly me and one other person) really wanted to buy hammocks and this was the town to buy them. Immediately when getting out of the van, the local old crazy woman spotted Jamin and found her prey. She was following us pretty closely and once we realized, we stopped walking to see what was going on. She then proceeded to push me out of the way and slap Jamin with her flip flop. She then started to cry and sprawled herself out in the street. Everyone around us started cracking up since they all knew about her and were watching. Then we quickly bought hammocks and got out of there, and drove 5-6 blocks to get some ice cream. After getting food, we are getting back in the van and Jamin starts yelling to close the door ASAP. Sure enough, there was old crazy lady, who apparently followed us to the ice cream shop. She was yelling at us and followed us for a bit, but thankfully we lost her. At the next store, we talked with the worker about her, and apparently she walked around the town naked recently. Yes, I realize this is sad because she clearly has issues, but you should have seen it. You can’t make this stuff up.
I am posting some pics on my facebook, so be sure to check them out there!
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Daily Life as a Trainee
As a trainee, your life for 10 weeks is pretty much laid out for you hour by hour… so here is what I do on a day-to-day basis.
Training is located in Guarambaré half of the time, and in my community of Nueva Esperanza the other half. Usually, we have 4 hours of language class in the morning (with breaks, thankfully). Then we have a break for lunch. In Guarambaré, we eat at the training center with a lunch that our host family packed for us. When in our communities, we go home for lunch to eat with the fam. The afternoons are filled with talks about security, medical safety, and technical training (depending on the day). Training is from roughly 7:30-5 M-F, and then just until lunch on Saturdays. Sundays we get the day off.
In Nueva Esperanza, just about every day after training a group of volunteers play volleyball in the neighborhood. Sometimes we play with a host brother and his friends of one of the trainees, while other times it’s just us Americans. I am finding that it is a great way to decompress and relax, and really enjoy it. When I’m not playing volley, I am relaxing in the front of the house with my host mom - people watching and drinking tereré.
Thankfully, training is not just in a classroom. There is the Peace Corps Volunteer visit, where we get to see what it is like to live as a rural health and sanitation volunteer. Then there is Long Field Practice (next week!), where we travel with our language class to get some hands on experience in the field. And finally, we have our future site visit, where we spend a few days in the community that we are going to spend the next 2 years. There are also some excursions and what not, which help to break up the classroom routine.
Some of the fun technical type training I have learned so far include: how to make a planter for veggies out of newspaper, how to build a trash pit and build a fence for it, how to dry fruit/veggies/etc for storage in the off season, and how to dig a veggie garden, and how to build a fogon. I have found everything we learned in tech training so far very practical and fun, and I look forward to hopefully being able to incorporate them into my site.
Training is located in Guarambaré half of the time, and in my community of Nueva Esperanza the other half. Usually, we have 4 hours of language class in the morning (with breaks, thankfully). Then we have a break for lunch. In Guarambaré, we eat at the training center with a lunch that our host family packed for us. When in our communities, we go home for lunch to eat with the fam. The afternoons are filled with talks about security, medical safety, and technical training (depending on the day). Training is from roughly 7:30-5 M-F, and then just until lunch on Saturdays. Sundays we get the day off.
In Nueva Esperanza, just about every day after training a group of volunteers play volleyball in the neighborhood. Sometimes we play with a host brother and his friends of one of the trainees, while other times it’s just us Americans. I am finding that it is a great way to decompress and relax, and really enjoy it. When I’m not playing volley, I am relaxing in the front of the house with my host mom - people watching and drinking tereré.
Thankfully, training is not just in a classroom. There is the Peace Corps Volunteer visit, where we get to see what it is like to live as a rural health and sanitation volunteer. Then there is Long Field Practice (next week!), where we travel with our language class to get some hands on experience in the field. And finally, we have our future site visit, where we spend a few days in the community that we are going to spend the next 2 years. There are also some excursions and what not, which help to break up the classroom routine.
Some of the fun technical type training I have learned so far include: how to make a planter for veggies out of newspaper, how to build a trash pit and build a fence for it, how to dry fruit/veggies/etc for storage in the off season, and how to dig a veggie garden, and how to build a fogon. I have found everything we learned in tech training so far very practical and fun, and I look forward to hopefully being able to incorporate them into my site.
PCV Visit
Last Monday – Thursday I headed to a small town in the campo outside of Caazapa to visit a current rural health volunteer and see what her life is life. It was such a fun experience and definitely made me more excited to become a volunteer! If I wrote about the whole visit, you would be reading for forever, so here are some highlights:
• Myself and two other trainees went to watch our host volunteers do a TV show in which they talked about what they do here in Paraguay and why they are here. Little did we know that we would be making an appearance on the show, and I even answered a question! It was spontaneous, hilarious, embarrassing, and lots of fun.
• Biking/walking 12km in the dark is definitely an adventure. It was long, but funny, and a good experience! Plus – polo players – natty’s obnoxious question game that he plays in the car came in super handy! Also, I do not need ice to wipe out, just some darkness and unlevel ground.
• Eating foods like tacos, homemade pizza, and oatmeal raisin cookies is amazing. Made me super excited to be able to cook for myself again!
• When in the campo, if you tell someone you want to kill a chicken at some point in your 2 years, you will come back 2 nights later to accomplish that goal. I did need some assistance, but I can successfully say that I killed, defeathered, and ate a chicken. It was not nearly as exciting (or sad) as I anticipated, but being a meat eater I think it is important you know how to do it! It was definitely something I will never forget, and I know I gave the family and Zoe (my host volunteer) a good laugh while I did it!
• Visiting the health post and schools in Zoe’s community. Both are places I will likely work with in the future, so it was great to see what she does there and get a better understanding of how they work. It was definitely an eye-opening experience, and I am looking forward to learning about things I can do with those places in my future site.
• Hammocks are the greatest things ever and I will be purchasing one ASAP.
• Pan lids, cutting boards, and tupperware tops all make great plates. You can also make glasses out of empty beer bottles. Looks like I’m going to get resourceful here!
Overall, I absolutely loved the trip. What I gave you was just a quick recap – it was really a great few days! I had an incredible host volunteer who made me feel so at home and showed me all around. We had lots of laughs and adventures, as well as some much needed down time.
• Myself and two other trainees went to watch our host volunteers do a TV show in which they talked about what they do here in Paraguay and why they are here. Little did we know that we would be making an appearance on the show, and I even answered a question! It was spontaneous, hilarious, embarrassing, and lots of fun.
• Biking/walking 12km in the dark is definitely an adventure. It was long, but funny, and a good experience! Plus – polo players – natty’s obnoxious question game that he plays in the car came in super handy! Also, I do not need ice to wipe out, just some darkness and unlevel ground.
• Eating foods like tacos, homemade pizza, and oatmeal raisin cookies is amazing. Made me super excited to be able to cook for myself again!
• When in the campo, if you tell someone you want to kill a chicken at some point in your 2 years, you will come back 2 nights later to accomplish that goal. I did need some assistance, but I can successfully say that I killed, defeathered, and ate a chicken. It was not nearly as exciting (or sad) as I anticipated, but being a meat eater I think it is important you know how to do it! It was definitely something I will never forget, and I know I gave the family and Zoe (my host volunteer) a good laugh while I did it!
• Visiting the health post and schools in Zoe’s community. Both are places I will likely work with in the future, so it was great to see what she does there and get a better understanding of how they work. It was definitely an eye-opening experience, and I am looking forward to learning about things I can do with those places in my future site.
• Hammocks are the greatest things ever and I will be purchasing one ASAP.
• Pan lids, cutting boards, and tupperware tops all make great plates. You can also make glasses out of empty beer bottles. Looks like I’m going to get resourceful here!
Overall, I absolutely loved the trip. What I gave you was just a quick recap – it was really a great few days! I had an incredible host volunteer who made me feel so at home and showed me all around. We had lots of laughs and adventures, as well as some much needed down time.
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