Living with host families: The good, the bad, and the awkward

EXCITING NEWS PEOPLE! I AM LIVING IN MY HOUSE!!!! And now that I am living on my own, I can finally reflect of the past four months of living with families and see how while sometimes it was extremely inconvenient and annoying, overall it was a good experience! I’m glad it’s over though… Because now I can laugh at all the bad, knowing I don’t have to put up with it anymore! Here is a list (in no particular order) of some of the best, worst, and funniest times spent with families.

The Good
-During training, making carrot cake for my family. By the time I went back for seconds, it was all gone! They loved it!
-Gifts I got from various hosts include: a jar of fresh honey straight from the hive, crocs, crochet bed spread, huge bag of peanuts
-Practicing my Guaraní and teaching English
-Terere or mate, twice a day, everyday
-Making guacamole with one of my families in site, and my host sister eating as much, if not more, than me!
-Watching the little kids smile as I brought home books from the library for them to read
-During training going on walks with my host mom, and at site going on walks with my host sisters
-My host dog during training would walk me to class everyday
-Playing cards, volley, swinging with my host siblings
-After staying with a host family for a week, my host sister came to my new families’ house with some hot mbeju and a jar of fresh honey
-Working on a HUGE veggie garden with one of my families. Hopefully that will ensure I have some fresh veggies coming my way in the next couple of months ☺
-Coming back from weekends away and hearing kids yell my name across the soccer field
-Watching Disney movies in Spanish with every host family I stayed with (pretty sure I will have Mulan memorized by heart soon)
-Being the judge in a sibling dance competition (which was HILARIOUS - see photo)



The Bad
-FOOD. By this I mean going days without seeing anything other than carbs or meat on my plates, carpincho, armadillo, enough oil to fill lake Michigan, hardly any veggies, ginormous portions, queso paraguayo (tastes like feet), watching an entire bucket of pig fat being dumped into the chipa that we were going to eat later… the list goes on
-Bowel issues. Please see list above.
-Lack of privacy
-Spending 2 weeks in a room that smelled slightly like pee
-Not understanding anything when the people were speaking guarani
-So. Many. Chickens. (Dead and alive, see photo)
-Walking into my kitchen at one family’s house, realizing I stepped on something strange, and finding out it was a chicken foot from the chicken she killed minutes before
-Being chased by a bull while walking into my host family’s house. No joke. I ran at a full out sprint, and now people constantly remind me of it.



The Awkward/Hilarious
-Tatu in guarani is a slang word for vagina. Me thinking it meant tattoo, I one day asked my host sister if she has one. She was a little weirded out…
-One of my host dads frequently walked around without his shirt and with a gun.
-My 2 year old host sister would take the terere cup, sip, and spit the water back in the cup, then pass it on
-One host sister gave me a thermometer one day when I wasn’t feeling well. It looked like one for your mouth, so I stuck it in. Turns out you put it in your armpits.
-The guarani word for food is very similar to small penis (tembi’u vs. tembo’i). I knew of this, and made it through training without making the mistake. Once in site, my host mom was asking me what words I knew, and I said tembo’i with pride! Then I immediately realized what I did and we died laughing.
-One host mom saying “I think it’s time I tell you about my daughter who died…” then getting up, walking away, and never mentioning it again.
-At the end of my official presentation in site, my boss opened up the floor for questions from the community. The only ones asked were “do you have a brother?” and then “why didn’t you bring him?”
-In one of my houses, I would be locked into my room at night (that’s another story). One night I really had to go to the bathroom, so I ended up climbing through my window to get outside.
-Countless incidents with huge bugs, spiders, frogs, and chickens. Can’t even begin to list specifics, but most involve me screaming and my host brothers taking care of the situation
-Me going to take a picture of pig ears as they were just chilling in a pot, and my host mom grabbing them and putting them close to my face and scaring the crap out of me (below is my host mom and the ears. Can you understand why I was frightened?!)



P.S. For those of you wondering how I spent my first night in my house, here is a picture. Pretty self-explanatory. And pretty damn awesome.

Open for Business!

Just wanted to share what I have been up to lately. I am the third volunteer here in my community, and the first volunteers (a married couple) opened up a library at the school during their service. It was very successful with them, but with the last volunteer it was hardly ever opened. Since day 1 people have been asking me to open it again, and I finally have!

Right now I am planning on going there every Tuesday and Thursday for 3 hours to give the kids a chance to read, play on the computer, do puzzles, and just get comfortable with the space. This is kind of like a trial run, to see what the kids remember about the library, and what I need to focus on. For now, I am just overseeing everything, because I too need to get comfortable before I start bigger projects. In July kids have their winter vacations, so I am aiming to start teaching English/computer classes once break is over and I have a little more time to prepare. It will also be a great place for me to make health related games/books/posters available for the kids to use.

I can already see that I am really going to enjoy working there. The kids light up when they see all the books and play games on the computer, and I can see how valuable this is going to be for them. Now I just have to work on their library etiquette (the place was a ZOO yesterday)!

Here are some pics so you guys can see what I mean!













PS. Happy Birthday tomorrow Pops! And happiest of wedding days to Tessie and Chris! Wish I could be there!

Favorite Picture So Far

To me, this photo reads: This is Paraguay.

This is my 2 year old host sister, Vere, sipping some terere when it was just us hanging out. Normally, little kids don't drink terere because it can upset your stomach (so they say...), but she liked to sneak sips when her family wasn't around.

Also, she's a kid who loves to play in the dirt :)

One With Nature

Note: This post is going to be cheesy. I both recognize and accept that.

Initially, I had planned to post a blog ranting about the Paraguayan school system. It’s typed up and everything, just waiting to be posted, but I have decided to save it for another day. Yesterday, something truly awesome happened, so I am going to write about that instead.

I remember the first time I felt it. I don’t think it was the first time I experienced it, but it was the first time I recognized how incredibly amazing the feeling was. I was studying abroad in Bilbao for a semester, and happened to live 10 minutes away from a beach. At the beginning of my semester it would be packed with sunbathers, but as the weather changed, less and less people were there on my visits. Finally, on one of my last trips before it got too cold, I was the only person sitting on the beach. I remember sitting there and watching the waves crash onto the shore, blissfully happy and thinking about how this is exactly where I am supposed to be. Before I knew it the sun was setting, 2 hours had passed, and I needed to rush home before dark. That night I remember thinking to myself what an incredible time that was. Just me and nature, coexisting peacefully, and enjoying each other’s company.

So yesterday, I decided to take a midday walk around my town. There was a part that I hadn’t visited in a while, and so I wanted to check it out again. As I got near the turn around point, I heard a noise up ahead. Assuming it was a cow blocking my way, I grabbed a stick off the ground and continued on. But once I realized the noise was coming from up in the trees, I stopped dead in my tracks. Monkeys! Up above, were 5 or 6 monkeys, swinging from the branches. And if you didn’t know already, monkeys are my favorite animals ever. Needless to say, I freaked out! I grabbed my camera, called my mom and some friends, and watched cautiously from the ground. After the initial excitement wore off, I just stood there for a few minutes, soaking it in. I was watching them; they were watching me; both of us a taking each other in. Again, I had that powerful feeling that you can only get from these occasions.

I’m sure you are all thinking, “Em, chill out… it was just a few monkeys”! But it’s that feeling that makes it so great. When it is just you and nature, recognizing each other’s presence, and taking it all in. It’s a different feeling when you experience it all alone rather than other people, and I absolutely love it.

Here are some pics of my new best friends. Hope you all have a great weekend! Go Cubs Go!

Hello From Site!

Hello everyone!

So here we are, with my first post from site! Yahoooo! I have been here a couple of weeks now, and so far so good. I’m moving families every 1-2 weeks to start to get to know more people, and right now I am on my second family. My first one is going to be my future neighbor, and they are great. The only downside of living with them was that I shared a room with my 12 year old host sister, so privacy was non-existent. Currently, I am with a pretty cool family. They live on a huge piece of land with passion fruit, mandioca, peanuts, pumpkin, beans, and lots of other goodies. Yesterday was my first day/night with them, and so far so good. The first 3 months are meant for integrating, so not much work wise happening besides observing/talking with people/drinking terere.

The pueblo closest to my town, San Juan Bautista, is a great little city. My first week I cruised around there to figure out where the bank is, the post office, and see what kind of groceries I could find there. I went into about 5 or 6 grocery stores/little tiendas before I found an AMAZING one! I can get oatmeal, raisins, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, garbanzo beans (FOR HUMMUS!), and all for a reasonable price. As I was buying all the stuff, I told the guy how much I loved his store, and that I will definitely be coming back more. That place is definitely going to be my go-to store for food shopping here.

There is another pueblo fairly close to me, San Ignacio, which I have also had the chance to experience a bit. There is a volunteer living in the town, as well as lots of people around it. Every Thursday night there is karaoke at a casino in the town, so myself and some other volunteers got together to go out. We ate delicious food and relaxed the night away, and it was tons of fun! I am very glad to know I have a great place to escape so close to me, because I am sure I will need it sometimes.

A couple tidbits/funny anecdotes to share:

-After getting off the bus to arrive in my site, I proceeded to eat shit with all of my bags. I am still scratched up and bruised, and still laughing about it. Also, once I got to my host families’ house, the power went out within 10 minutes because of a storm. It was a great welcome to site!

-I’m going vegetarian (sort of)! I have told some of you, but here in Paraguay while living with host families, you eat an obscene amount of meat (the other day I was served beef soup… for breakfast). Honestly, just looking at it makes me nauseous now. Until I am living on my own (6 weeks, can’t come soon enough), I am going to be eating as little meat as possible. I have bought some soy products and am beginning to cook with them, and I get plenty of beans and veggies now (since I am buying them). Once on my own, I plan on completely eliminating meat. I don’t know if it’s something that will last for the full 2 years, but right now I am pretty adamant about it. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy meat, and when I get back to the states I can guarantee you I will be munching on a Hebrew National dog at Cubs games, but until then… I’m going to do my best to get rid of it from my diet.

-I spent the first three days in site referring to my sister’s boyfriend as the dog’s name, due to a miscommunication.

-During swear-in weekend, a fellow Jewish volunteer and I happened upon an orthodox Jew in the bar. So what did we do? Make small talk of course! Which then led to us getting the rabbi of the synagogue’s number, along with a photo of the rabbi. In case you were wondering, yes, the photo is hanging in my room.

-My birthday happens to be the same day the US Embassy is celebrating the 4th of July in Asuncion. What does that mean? For my birthday, I will get to see my best friends here, eat good food, drink good beer, and just enjoy a relaxing weekend. Can you say AMAZING?!

-The other day, my host mom gave me an avocado, tomato, onion, and garlic as she said the words “want to make some guacamole?” I almost cried, but refrained, simply because that would mean more time until I ate the guacamole. It was the most delicious thing. Ever.

-Washing your clothes in the campo sucks.

-Last night I had a serious battle with a ginormous bug. It was a close call, but in the end I came out on top. They need to learn to watch themselves...

-I mentioned to my host sister that I am looking for a wooden table for my future house. 2 days later, her boyfriend comes home with wood because he is going to make one for me. Nice? Absolutely. But now I have to pay for this table. I really hope it isn’t too expensive…

-I’ve been working on my future house a lot. I need to repaint the doors/windows because right now they are a color that represents a political party… I am also rearranging the furniture and cleaning the whole place like a mad man. Once I am done with it and move all my stuff in, I will post lots of pictures!

ALSO! I have my new address! If you sent something recently to the old one, I will still get it, but this one is faster and will be my consistent address for the next two years. I will also post it under the Snail Mail tab at the top (along with items that will be very well received if you feel so generous as to mail your favorite Paraguayan resident a package ☺).

Emily Zaideman
Cuerpo de Paz
Av. Mñor. Rojas N˚664
c/ Mcal. López
San Juan Btta
4700 Misiones
Paraguay, South America

That’s all for now, jajotopata! (See ya later, in Guarani)

Super moon rising over the campo

I'M A VOLUNTEER!

“Never underestimate the ability of a small group of committed individuals to change the world" -Margaret Mead

1 year and 6 months after I turned in my application, I, along with all 28 of my fellow G38 peeps, can finally call ourselves Peace Corps Volunteers! This morning we had our swearing in ceremony, and now I get to spend the weekend in Asuncion, and will head to my site on Tuesday.

The Ceremony was great. The Peace Corps director, US Ambassador, a host family representative, and a volunteer representative all gave great speeches. It was sad saying bye to Lidu, but overall a great ceremony. We really should have practiced taking the oath of service in Spanish though, that was a disaster.

This weekend we have a much needed break in Asuncion. I am looking forward to some R&R, good food, and good times before we all go our separate ways. Plans so far include experiencing the Asuncion nightlife, TGIFridays (yes, they have one here), seeing The Hunger Games, and exploring the fun markets of the city.

How am I feeling? 87% excited, 7% sad, and 6% scared shitless. I’m super excited because the day I have waited sooooo long for has finally come! I finally get to go to my site, get settled in, and get going with my work. Sad because I have to say goodbye to some incredible friends, some of my closest are more than 7 hours on bus from me. And scared shitless because… well… I’m about to move into rural Paraguay, by myself, speak another language (or 2) all the time, and I am doing it for 2 years. In reality though, I am really excited for the next chapter to begin!

So as I mentioned, my internet situation in the campo is pretty lousy. I do now have a cell phone though, so if you want to call me, just email me and I will give you the number. And I will be sure to update this when I have the chance! Keep in touch, everyone. All the snail mail has been amazing! My address will change, and as soon as I get the new one I will post it here (but anything mailed to the old one I will still receive).

24 months in the campo as a rural health and sanitation volunteer – let’s do this.

I HAVE A HOME!

Site Presentation Day! excuse the tan lines...

Hello! So I actually have a somewhat exciting post today, as it relates to where I will be living for the next 2 years! I have a small community in the department of Misiones (you aren’t supposed to say the exact name on a blog for security purposes, so if you are really curious I am happy to email you). I just got back from a 6 day visit to my site, and while it was a little overwhelming at times, I can honestly say that I have everything I could want and am very excited to begin the next two years! So now a little bit about it…

It is a small community located about 7km from the main ruta. The town is big on agriculture, so is surrounded by farmland. The community itself, however, is lush with all types of trees. It’s relatively flat, but a very beautiful place to be. There are about 100 houses in the town, as well as an elementary school, high school, health post, police station, church, almacen (store that has all my basic grocery needs), and municipality building (not yet open). The middle of the town is a plaza (it even has a playground!) with all those main buildings located on the sides of it. All the houses are pretty close together, which is nice. I will likely get a bike for when I need to go to the supermarket or visit my nearby volunteers, but to get around my town walking is very easy. I am following up a volunteer who did a lot of work on his house, and I am planning on moving into that after I live with some host families. I am just a block walk to the plaza, have running water, electricity, a modern bathroom, and plenty of fruit trees. There is even already a spot for my hammock! Initially I was indifferent about being a follow up volunteer, but now that I visited I am grateful because most of the people at least somewhat understand the job of a PC volunteer and I have a lot of basic worries already figured out for me.

I spent the week with my community contact, and she is an absolutely amazing woman! She is married and has 8 kids (she told me they didn’t have tv back then…. Ha), 6 of which live in the house with her and her husband. During the week, her granddaughter also comes because she goes to the school in the town. They are a super fun loving and generous family, and pretty open minded for Paraguayan standards. They really made me feel right at home and I definitely think I will stay close with them throughout my 2 years. When I first get to site (April 24th!), I will be staying with a few different families as a way to see different areas of the community and get to know more people. My first host mom is Esperanza, my future neighbor once I move into my house. Then I have about 3 other families lined up who want me to stay with them. All the mothers are already calling me their daughter and are seriously so welcoming.

While there, I visited the school and health post, as well as some families. Mostly though, I just hung out. I am following up an education volunteer, so I can tell already it might be a bit of a challenge defining my role as a health volunteer in the community. There is a library at the school they want me to work at, and are already expecting me to teach English and computer classes. I am definitely open to doing all of those, but hopefully they get that those aren’t going to be my primary projects. As for future work, I am not sure what my main projects will be. Once you get to site you do a big census of the community getting information on what they think is important, and after that I can evaluate and decide what I want to focus on based on their needs. I’m really excited to get to site, but mostly I’m excited to get the first couple of months done so I can be living on my own and have a fairly set work schedule. Right when you get there you are supposed to focus on integrating, so the days will likely be only filled with chatting and drinking terere. Not that I am dreading that, but I will definitely like to get a routine figured out.

Overall, I really feel great about the next two years! If the 6 days I spent there are a reflection of how the community is going to receive me, I feel very fortunate.

Oh, there is one downside though…. Apparently the internet sticks don’t work in my community, and the nearest cyber is 27km away… The municipality building in my town has an internet tower, so hopefully when it opens I will be able to go in there to access to free wifi. The only thing is just as everything here, we are on Paraguayan time… So when it opens, I have no idea. To my friends and family reading this – I will do my best to get on and stay in touch! I know I said it would get better once I got to site, but I guess I was wrong. And I will get a cell phone, so that will help as well. But please don’t forget about me down here! Oh - My mailing address is currently the same. Once I get the new one, I will post it on here.

That’s all for now… This week is Semana Santa, so lots of family time and chipa eating. I’ve decided to share a bit of my cooking too and make some guacamole and chocolate zucchini cake, which I hope they will like! All us trainees are a little concerned about the constipation that lies ahead of us after this week, but it will be a great time to bond with the fam. Hope you all back home have a lovely Passover and Easter. I will leave you all with some pictures from my site :)

My future house!

The world map painted on the school library

Health Post

A beautiful road in my town

A pig leg hanging in my kitchen, that I didn't notice until I smacked my head into it. Lovely, right?

Oh, and of course, GO CUBS GO!!!!