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.