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!