The Going Gets Tough

When It Rains It Pours
Well, it was a pretty rough weekend.  I got super sick with the flu and pretty much slept for 3 days straight so that was fun.  Saturday night I woke up around midnight to all the dogs in the neighborhood barking like it was going out of style.  Then I heard someone jiggle my doorknob which completely freaked me out.  Then I felt like someone was peering in my window so I started getting out of bed only to hear a gunshot...so I shot out of bed and ran into the kitchen.  In the kitchen I found my mom pacing around with a butcher knife and my sister told me someone had been peering through her window.  As I sat down at the kitchen table, two of our male neighbors waltzed through our back doors with giant machetes.  They left with my brother and his giant gun to try to find the culprit.  I tried to go back to sleep.  The next morning I found out it was my brother who had fired the original gun shot to try to scare off the perpetrator...and apparently the perpetrator was an escapee from a local mental institution.  Hmmmmm....

So Sunday I was feeling pretty homesick.  I was still sick, I was overwhelmed with language and culture, and I was missing my friends, family and America in general.  I had the brilliant idea to watch one of the movies I brought with me from the states.  I got my suitcase down only to find my entire collection of movies was stolen from my suitcase in Uruguay. FML.

PCV Visit
This week we were all sent to stay with currently Volunteers.  I went South to visit a lovely girl named Sarah.  I hopped on the usual bus from my neighborhood Monday morning and about nearly passed out, but I finally made it to Sarah´s house around 4 in the afternoon and we had a fabulous visit.  It rained almost the entire 4 days...and Paraguayans don´t leave their houses when it rains... so we didn´t do much but it was so nice to relax and eat American food!  We made no bake cookies (so delicious), watched a bunch of episodes of Friends and Sex in the City, watched Super Troopers (Hilarious) and hung out and did what girls do best...talked!


Everyone in the community kept asking Sarah why I was so white.  That was a blast from the past...almost like high school all over again!  Paraguayans don´t like to have dark skin, so I think they´re all secretly jealous of my pasty, vampire like complexion. They also told me my legs were soft, l like a baby´s butt.  Why thank you, I haven´t shaved for days.


Well, sorry for the short post, but I´ve gotta run and catch the bus!

 

Cultural Differences

The mission of the Peace Corps has three main goals:

1)      Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.

2)      Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.

3)      Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

During this post, I’m going to begin tackling goal number 3…introducing you all to the lifestyle of the Paraguayans.  Paraguayans are probably the nicest, most giving people I’ve ever encountered in my life, thus far, and if I had to use one word to describe the lifestyle here I would choose “tranquilo.”  It’s a very calm, slow paced, relaxing lifestyle (well, for the locals not the PCTs…PC is keeping our days jammed packed).  Besides the pace of life, there are some other main differences I have found between Paraguay and the United States so here goes…

Terere

                The Paraguayans love them some Terere…and I also love me some terere!  I seem to have lost my handout on Terere within the library of information Peace Corps has given me so my explanation won’t be from an expert, but you’ll get the point.  So Terere is a cold tea made with Yerba Mate…it’s simply Mate when you drink it warm (I have yet to drink Mate).  An equipo is necessary for drinking Terere and consists of:  a guampa (the cup, usually made from plastic sometimes covered with leather, or bull horns), a bombilla (a metal straw with a spoon like strainer at the bottom), and a thermos for the water.  You fill the guampa with Yerba Mate then you pour the water in.  Before you drink Terere you need Terere rupa…some food in your stomach.  The first time you pour water in the guampa over the yerba mate, it’s a sacrifice for Saint Thomas…you have to wait until he “drinks” (wait for the water to soak into the Yerba Mate) before you or anyone else can drink it. 

                Also, Paraguay is blessed with a rich tradition in medicinal herb use.  Use of medicinal herbs for the treatment of mild disease conditions is very common.  They refer to herbs as “yuyos” and they can be either medicinal or non medicinal.  The yuyos are placed in the water in the thermos, and then the water is poured over the yerba mate.  We have TONS of yuyos growing around our house.  Generally, yuyos medicinales are drank in the morning and yuyos without medicinal benefit are drunk in the afternoon.

                Ok, how it works!  Pretty much whenever there is a group of people sitting around talking (aka all the time) terere is present.  One person is the designated Terere server (not a technical term).  They pour the water from the thermos into the guampa (over the Yerba Mate) and they drink all the water from the guampa (after St. Thomas, of course).  The guampas are relatively small and there is enough for about two straw sucks.  After he/she drinks, he/she refills the guampa and passes it to the next person, always to the right.  Once this person finishes, he passes it back to the server, then it is refilled and passed to the next person and so on.

                I’m hoping to have my very own equipo sometime soon!

Siestas!

                Lunch is the biggest meal of the day here, and families all eat lunch together (unless someone works really far away from home).  We get done with our morning training at 11:30 and we don’t have to be back until 1:00pm.  I live right next door so I have an hour and a half break.  I usually come home eat lunch and rest for a little while until I have to go back to class.  My uncle takes a nap in the backyard on a wood pile every day.  It was pretty funny the first time I saw him.  On the weekends, I take siesta a little over board and sometimes sleep for several hours. 

Sharing is Caring

                Along the same lines of Terere, Paraguayans share EVERYTHING.  Whenever we eat a meal, there are only a couple of drink glasses and they are passed around to everyone.  I usually have my own, but everyone else shares.  When we drink a beer, we pass it around the circle, when we drank vodka we passed the glass around the circle, when we ate ice cream we passed the carton around the circle.  I think you get the point.  Even in the bars, a group of friends will buy one beer and pass it around instead of each person having his/her own drink.

                Speaking of meal time, they use the tablecloth as their napkin.  I think this is a genius idea, but they also put a stack of napkins in front of me so I’m nervous to start using the tablecloth.

Can I Get a Clap Clap?

                There are no such things as doorbells and knocking doesn’t exist either.  And oh yea, Dad, the houses here are made of wood, cement, and bricks.  But instead of knocking on a front door (or any door), when you arrive at someone’s house, you stand in their front yard and clap until they come outside.

Dàme Màs Gasolina

                I found out this weekend that my house is a gas station.  I’m not sure how I missed this before, but there are constantly people stopping by to fill up their motos with gas.  They pay my family (I’m not sure what the price is) and someone brings out gas in liter soda bottles.  I’m not sure of any of the details…like where we get the gas, or if my family is making a profit, but my house is the neighborhood gas station.  Last night there was someone clapping outside the house super late, I’m assuming they needed to fill up with gas.

The Plant Moto

                On Sundays, there is a man that drives his moto around with all these plants in a shaded trailer pulling behind him.  The past two Sundays, my family has bought plants from him.  And this past Sunday we also bought some Piggy Banks from him.  Well, actually two toad banks and a strawberry bank.  They are super cute, and they are the kind that you have to break open with a hammer when you want to get to the money.  We usually buy Mango trees.  I’m not really sure where we are planting them, but we are definitely buying them.  The mangoes here are so delicious.  I’m spoiled because my mom always peels and cuts them up for me to take as a snack to class.  All the other kids have to peel their own mangoes.  It really is a funny sight to see all of us together in the PC training center.  We all have bags of snacks and will randomly pull out bananas, mangoes and knives and start snacking on our fruit.  The other day, Danielle (one of the other PC girls in my community) brought an entire bag full of Guavas her mom gave her for a snack.  We all laughed at her when she showed up, but it captured perfectly the generosity of our families.

                It is also VERY common for families to have gardens.  We have all kinds of things growing in our back yard.  We have mandioca (the staple starch here) plants, corn, green peppers, and actually I don’t even know what else.  But  my family is pretty self sufficient off of the land and their animals.

Sugar High

                There is so much sugar in everything.  When I first arrived I was super impressed by how good the fruit juices were.  I saw them put pineapple and water in a blender and blend it up, and it was the most delicious juice I’ve ever had in my entire life.  I soon realized they added half a jar of sugar to the juice.  I’ve stopped drinking so much.  They are constantly drinking sodas, juices filled with sugar, and eating simple carbohydrates.  Kids here are on a constant sugar high!  Bread and starches are the main food group. 

                Also, most of what we eat is deep fried.  After a long day of training, I came home to find we were having tortilla sandwiches for dinner.  I may have already described the tortillas here, but they are different from the states.  They are basically deep fried batter and cheese (if you’re lucky there will be some kind of vegetables in the batter…).  Needless to say I was surprised when we were having bread in between two pieces of bread for dinner, but I ate it.

                Mandioca is the staple food here.  It’s a starchy vegetable kind of similar to a potato.  It’s served with everything, kind of like how silver wear is always on the table in the United States.

Rain

                Everything shuts down when it rains.  They treat rainy days like snow days in the states.  People don’t go to work and kids don’t go to school; however, Peace Corps trainees are Americans and are therefore required to show up to training.  It’s fun walking down a 5km dirt road in the rain.

Motos

                1 in 4 Paraguayans owns a Motorcycle.  They are everywhere.  There are constantly motos driving down our road.  It’s also impressive how many people can fit on a moto.  I’ve seen families of four riding down the street.  It’s pretty rare to see a car driving down my road.  Motorcycle accidents are also the leading cause of death in Paraguay…hence why Peace Corps forbids us to ride them.  If we are caught riding a moto we are immediately sent home and Peace Corps is like big brother…they are always watching.

Animals

                I’m starting to get used to all the different animals.  I had two toads in my dresser drawer earlier today, and I took them outside all by myself…I’m still having issues not screaming when I see them and they hop around!  They pooped in my drawers though; toad poop has an awful odor.  Also, there are always frogs in the bathroom.  I’m not sure how the frogs and toads get in the house, but they have their ways.

                There are so many insects…flies and mosquitos and God only knows what else.  Every bug loves me.  I woke up with 45 new bug bites this morning…somehow they got through my mosquito net. Ughhh.. I’m not a fan of the bugs.

                There are constantly cows, chickens, dogs, goats you name it crossing the road.  I especially love when the animals cross paved roads.  It’s not uncommon to see cows walking down the middle of a paved street in a semi-major city.

                Pets are treated very differently here than in the United States.  For one, none of the dogs are spayed or neutered…I’m not gonna lie it’s kind of strange seeing all these dogs with balls.  Secondly, they roam freely, and I have yet to see a dog with a collar.  Dogs are definitely used as tools, herding animals and watch dogs, more so than human companions.  My family treats our dog, Gustovia, a lot better than I’ve seen other families treat their dogs.  They actually pet her.  She is an awesome dog, so smart…and she is ridiculously smart. 

                I’m pretty sure I mentioned before, but we currently have 4 pregnant pigs.  All I have to say is…4 female pigs, 1 male pig, and 1 day.  He impregnated them all in one day.  I’m pretty sure that’s the definition of stud if I’ve ever heard it.  Also, I found out the other day that if you rub a pig’s belly while he’s standing up he grunts and flops over on his back.  It’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.

These are just a few differences I’ve noticed thus far.  It’s really funny how easy it is to adapt.  Most things don’t even seem strange until I take a step back and look at it through my “American eyes.”   Things are still going well.  I go through random bouts of homesickness/culture shock/frustration/nervousness of two years, but luckily they don’t last very long.  Even though I can’t understand my family well, they are super nice and very good company.   Peace Corps is keeping us ridiculous busy.  I’m sorry my communication has been slow and short and maybe even nonexistent for some of you.  I’m trying my best, but I only have internet access for a short period of time once a week.  I know it’s a long time, but after training my days won’t be so busy, and I’m almost positive PC gives us an internet stick so I’ll have internet access in my house!  Please stay with me, I love hearing from all of you!

An Expert of Awkward-ness

Alright, here’s the official “first” entry.  Sorry about the old information, but I wrote it all out, so it’s getting posted!  I tried to edit it in order to take out repeated information, but I can’t remember exactly what I wrote about last time…but here goes…

Arrival

                I left Arizona on Monday morning, January 31, and I flew to Miami, Fl for “staging.”  Staging was a one day event where all the trainees gathered to meet each other, talk about the mission of the Peace Corps, what we were scared/nervous about, what we were excited about etc.  We left Miami on Tuesday night and flew into Montevideo, Urugauy where we had a short layover.  Upon arrival, the Country Director, Don, and Training Director, Louisa, met us at the gate.  Don told us this would be a good time to use the restroom.  Unfortunately, no one told us you’re not supposed to flush toilet paper (or anything besides number 1 or number 2) down the toilet…and we (and by we, I mean everyone before me) managed to clog up the entire women’s restroom.  Ooops.  After we left the airport we went to a retreat center for the night.  The next morning we began our first day of training. 

Mi Familia

                After an entire day of training we were off to meet our families!  The community I’m in (I’m not allowed to publish my whereabouts just in case someone wants to kill me…or profess his unwanted love for me…true story that happened to a volunteer in the Dominican Republic) is the furthest community from our training center.  There are 10 of us living here and we all love it!  We had a small adoption ceremony where we read the names of our host families and they came and greeted us.  When I called the name of my family, my mom came running over, gave me a big hug, a kiss on each cheek, and she looked at me as if I were actually her own daughter.  It was really nice, and I immediately felt welcome and at home.  After the ceremony we walked to our houses.  My house is right next door to our satellite training center (our training center in our community where a majority of our language classes are held) which is super convenient.  We walked next door and the front yard was filled with family drinking terere (a paragraph on terere to come).  I walked over and said Hola and then gave a blank stare whenever anyone tried to say anything to me.  I started drinking terere with everyone and they all told me how pretty I was (Awww que Linda!) to which I just responded Gracias.   My mom showed me my room.  It’s really nice.  I have a queen sized bed, a closet/dresser thing, a table, 2 fans, a TV and a DVD player!  I’m pretty spoiled.  I unpacked all my stuff then wandered back outside.  There are constantly people coming and leaving my house and it took me close to a full week to finally figure my family out.  If you’d like to know my family dynamic read between the *** 

***Here’s what I got…My mom is a house wife, she is divorced and her ex husband now lives in Argentina with another woman.  I have 4 sisters: Belen, Soledad, Rosa, and Maria.  Belen has a 6 month old baby named Fernando and he might be the second cutest thing I’ve ever seen….only behind my most favorite little man, Gavin!  And he’s pretty much in love with me.   Anyway, we call him el Puerco bebe because he is quite the little pig.  Soledad has a son, but I’m unsure of his name.  He’s 11 years old and he’s from Argentina and I’m unsure of the whole situation.  Rosa is married to Fernando and they have a 5 year old daughter named Octa, and Maria is married to Hugo and they have a 6 year old daughter, Victoria.  I also have 2 brothers.  Lider (I’m really unsure if this is how you spell his name…I can’t understand what they say his name is) has a girlfriend and he lives with her, but they are at the house for a little while every day.  And then there is Rafael.  He is 28 and he works in a nearby town in a factory that makes electricity cables.  I already told him that if I end up in a site with no electricity I’m calling him, and he’s agreed to come and give me light!  I hang out with Rafael the most.***

The community lies along a dirt road (we are 5k from the nearest paved road) and everyone in the community is related.  Everyone.  There is a little “dispensa” seriously 30 ft from my house where we can go to get some basic groceries.  Everyone sits outside their houses at night (all day, really) and whenever you walk by a group sitting outside you exclaim Adios!  I thought this was kind of strange at first, but I really like it now.  Everytime I ever pass anyone I always say Adios and I get a big smile and a returned Adios.

                Everyone speaks Guarani when they are speaking to each other…which seriously just sounds like grunts and nasaly sounds to me…I can’t understand any of it!  Then when they speak to me they switch to Spanish.  I still don’t understand a lot, but I’m getting better.  Whenever I don’t understand something I put up my finger and exclaim Diccionario and run inside my room to get my dictionary.  They are catching on and whenever I look confused and put my hand up they exclaim Diccionario for me!  I’m in the intermediate Spanish class, and we are required to test Intermediate Advanced before we move on to Guarani.  My teacher said we would probably be in Spanish class for about a month then we would graduate on to Guarani.

                We have a cow (a pregnant cow), 5 pigs (4 pregnant pigs all due on the same day!), some hens, roosters, and chickens…it’s not uncommon for the roosters and hens to randomly walk through the door into the house.   We just got little baby chicks the other day.  We have 150 baby chicks and they are so cute!  I went out back to see them and I got so excited then my mom said Dinner in about 45 days with a big smile.  I couldn’t help but laugh, but I really just try not to think about it.

                The food has been pretty good so far!  And, luckily, I haven’t had too many stomach issues, but all the trainees have noticed here that when you gotta go…you GOTTA go NOW! Haha.  But I’ve had pizza a couple times…obviously not exactly the same as pizza in the states, but still delicious, ribs, chicken, pasta, empanadas, nilky (sp? OMG so delicious!) etc.  They eat A LOT of meat…I mean a lot… They eat so much meat that if you tell them you are a vegetarian they will serve you chicken.  And I’m pretty sure I have yet to not only eat but see a vegetable.  I’ve eaten cow feet twice now…which actually isn’t bad as long as I don’t picture a cow stepping in his own poop while I’m eating, and I may have eaten some type of animal dick the other day…I’m not exactly sure, but I was not a fan.

Los Monos!

                I found monkeys!  One day at lunch I asked Rafael (my brother) if there were monkeys around town and he said yes.  Naturally, I told him that I had to see them so he agreed to take me after our siesta (whoever invented the siesta is my hero).  We freaking went on a death march to see the monkeys…I’m not even exaggerating we walked at least 12km.  We finally arrived at a house where it appeared they were having mass.  We stopped and sat on an ox cart, and I asked if we were at a church.  Rafael said no, someone had died.  I wasn’t really sure what was going on, but once the chanting (rosary?) ended we went and asked the owner of his house if we could see the monkeys.  There’s nothing like interrupting a funeral to ask to stomp around in someone’s backyard to see monkeys.  So this yard is pretty much a rain forest, and I finally saw monkeys!  They were really high up in the massive trees so it was kind of hard to see them.  Most of them were females (they were white) and then there was one male (he was brown).  While we were looking around we were completely covered/surrounded by trees and it started raining.  I could hear the raindrops falling and I felt a little splash on me and I exclaimed to Rafael that it was raining.  He looked at me and laughed and told me it wasn’t raining.  Then, he motioned/explained that the monkeys were peeing on us and throwing their poop at us and then sarcastically commented on how nice the monkeys were.  I’m retarded.

                Luckily, the next day, Rafael took me to see another group of monkeys, and these monkeys were everything I hoped for and more!  They were so cute and they were nice!  And even better…Rafael has the hook up and has told me (almost every day) that he’s getting me a monkey before I head to my site!  He told me I need to okay it with Peace Corps to make sure there are no restrictions on having pet monkeys…but I’m going to have my own little monito!  SUPER PUMPED! And Damnnnn I’m good at getting what I want J

               

Conclusion

Hannah, a previous volunteer and a current director, told us that we were going to become experts of awkward.  I was already pretty good at awkward, but I’m finding myself quickly becoming an expert.  I spend most of my days sitting and talking with people I’ve just met.  I understand less than 5% of most conversations.  I sit with people in silence often.  I nod my head and reply with yes, yes (in Spanish, obviously) a lot even when I have no idea what’s going on.  I make countless language mistakes.  I break into English a lot, hoping they will miraculously be able to understand me.  I talk about the weather a lot, mostly commenting on how hot it is, but I’m doing my best to embrace the awkward!        

Living La Vida Loca

I´ve been here in Paraguay for a little over a week now, and everything is going great!  I wrote out an entire LONG blog entry that I was so excited to post today, but unfortunately it´s going to have to wait.  I´m at the internet cafe and the file I saved on my flash drive is too advanced to open on this computer so I can´t upload it. Boo.  Luckily for you all, I have tons of other things to talk about so here goes... 

My average day goes a little something like this...
I wake up at 7:00 am (at the latest).  I shower.  Let me describe my shower.  I have a "modern" bathroom which consists of a toilet, a sink, and a shower head.  The shower incorporates the entire bathroom...there is no curtain, there is no tub, there is no little ledge separating the shower from the rest of the bathroom.  There is a switch on the wall that you can switch on if you want hot water (supposedly).  It´s on everytime I shower, and I have yet to have anything remotely warm come out of the showerhead.  I´ve grown to love a cold shower.  I also don´t have a towel so I´ve been using one of my ND shirts for a towel for over a week now.  It works very well except for when it comes to my hair.  Anyway so after I shower I have breakfast waiting for me on the table.  I usually have cafe con leche (umm its really leche con un poco cafe) and galletas (aka cookies in English) for breakfast.  The galletas look like mini, hard bagels.  After breakfast I walk next door to my satellite training center.  There are 10 volunteers in my satellite community.  I live the closest to the training center!  Once in the training center we separate into our separate groups for language classes.  I have 3 other people in class with me (intermediate Spanish Boom!) and our teacher´s name is Ramona.  She is a local Paraguayan who speaks NO English.  She´s awesome.  Today we talked about amigovios...so much fun to say (friends with benefits) and jakares (a Guarani word for Secret Lovers...the men who come over and sneak in when mama´s sleeping!).  Then Baker (another volunteer) and I told our story about apples...it was Sesame Street worthy.  I was laughing so hard I had to hand the paper over to him for him to finish.  Needless to say, Spanish class is a lot of fun...and there are lots of laughs.  We finish at the satellite training center around 11:30 and I walk home for lunch and my siesta!  This week we´ve been coming to Guarambare every afternoon for training at the main center.  A Peace Corps van picks us up at the satellite training center and drives us to town.  We are in town from 1:30-5:00 then are on our own to get home.  We go to the bus stop and wait for what seems like FOREVER to the bus to come pick us up.  Yesterday we waited at the bus stop for an hour.  Then we hop on a ridiculously packed bus.  I mean standing room only, packed in like sardines.  We´re getting to know each other quickly.  Our bus ride is about 45 mins then when we get off its another 45 minute walk to our houses.  Needless to say, its quite the adventure coming home from Guarambare. 

Once I get home I change into my spandex pants (thank God I decided to bring those bad boys) to protect my legs from further bug bites.  I counted the bug bites this morning... 163...Tengo cientos sesenta y tres picaduras.  That is not a typo.  I win.  Then I sit on the porch with my mom, sisters, and neices.  We drink terere and I usually zone out and sit there in silence considering I can´t understand much of anything that´s going on...they speak Guarani when they´re speaking to each other, and I know no Guarani (yet).  Every once in a while I´ll snap out of it when I hear Casey followed by a question in Spanish.  I usually have to have them repeat it several times.  I´m sure they think I´m an idiot, but I´m getting better...slowly but surely.  Dinner is usually ready shortly after I arrive home.  Rafael (my brother) usually gets home around 9 and I hang out with him for a while.  Last night he brought home a bottle of vodka for me (good boy) so I think we´re in for a good weekend.

Yesterday during my siesta I got really freaked out when I reached down to grab something off the floor and I encountered a giant toad staring at me.  I ran out of my room and asked my sister if it was normal to have a toad in my room.  She laughed and said yes.  My mom came in and grabbed it and threw it outside for me.  When I got home from school later that night, there was another one in my room!  I decided to just accept the fact that I now had a pet toad.  I even named him... chesapo (literally a mix of Guarani and spanish meaning "my toad") very original, I know.  But then when Rafael came home he threw him outside for me.

Well, I´ll try to get the original document saved as an older version so I can upload it sometime soon.  I just wanted to let you all know, I´ve made it, I´m safe, and I´m happy!

Also, let me know if you have any questions, or if you´d like me to talk about anything specific!!  Annnnd I love hearing from all of you so any emails, facebook messages, snail mail...really anything at all, I would love to receive!