Parasites and Bull Fights

Parasites

                I got me some Parasites!  I’m glad I can cross that off my list of things to do before I die.  It was very exciting; 10 days of diarrhea, intense stomach pains, and a pregnancy of gas.  I finally went to the Doctor and she said sounds like Giardia and gave me some anti-parasite pills.  Thankfully, they worked quickly.  I was starting to get embarrassed by the explosions in the bathroom.  Oh, and I learned laundry day is the worst day to have diarrhea.  There is a constant flow of traffic in the bathroom filling up buckets of water. 

                If I had to do it over again, I’d prefer to get Sevo’I Pyta  (Round Worm) like one of the other trainees did.  He got to poop out worms.  Well, actually he said it just kind of fell out of his butthole when he was showering one day.  I guess I still have time.

Bailey!

                Bailey is really sick again.  She was doing really well, but took another turn for the worse when I had to leave for a few days.  I think she got another round of the vichos and needs another vaccine.  She went from looking like a plump little pig to an anorexic puppy in 5 days.  Please pray for her again.  I’ve only had her for a short time, but she’s already my sanity here, and I don’t think I can handle losing her.

Future Plans

                I finally got my MCAT scores back.  I did well enough to be a competitive applicant so I’m super stoked that I will not have to endure that torturous study process and test again.  I’m trying to decide if I want to start the application process next June so I can jump right into school after I end my service, or wait until I end my service to start the application process.  I’ve emailed a couple schools asking if they would be willing to do phone interviews because I’m in Paraguay right now.  And by a couple schools, I mean I contacted the Phoenix division of U of A.  Their answer was Nahanari (no).  We’ll see if I can scrounge up some extra money to fly to and around the states for interviews during my service.  Thankfully, I still have time to think about things.  I’m not sure why I just wasted everyone’s time with my thoughts about life, but I promise the rest will be more interesting. 

Dia de Practica

                We had 5 Dias de Practica during training.  Basically it was just 5 days of putting our technical knowledge to use.  We made a losa for the latrine, we built a fogon, etc.  The last day we were supposed to work with someone from the community and come up with our own plan.  Zoe, Jaime, and I decided to work with the staff at the Puesto de Salud.  We dug them a compost pit (which the doctor wanted) then gave them a little charla about how to build and maintain a compost pile. 

                One of the other groups did a “Dia de Comida” for the community.  We were all supposed to prepare a healthy dish with our families and have a pot luck style lunch followed by a charla about nutrition and diabetes.  I made chicken salad which was delicious.  I’m not biased at all.  But, it was a pretty intense process which started with killing the chicken in my backyard.  I didn’t actually kill the chicken, but I saw a group of them being de-feathered and prepared.  It was one of the baby chicks we got when I first arrived.  Everything is made from super scratch here, but I have yet to see a measuring cup.

Site Presentation!

                Site presentation day has finally come and gone!  We started the morning off in our satellite training centers.  I was feeling particularly pregnant with gas (from the Giardia) that day.  I walked home for lunch to be greeted with “Are you getting fatter, Casey?”  I just glared at my sister and continued walking to the bathroom. 

                Anyway, we went to Guarambare in the afternoon.  We walked in and Don Pedro (the Program Director my program) and Hannah (one of his assistants) were finishing up a giant map of Paraguay labeling all of our sites.  We all sat down and they had a manila envelope with all of our pictures inside.  One of the staff members started by picking a photo from the envelope; that person went up first, their program director announced the name of their site, and the trainee received a packet of information, placed his /her photo on the giant map, and picked the next face from the envelope.  I was waiting for what seemed like forever!  I was the 3^rd to last person picked, but my site is super sweeeeeet!  The community is San Juan Podrero, in the district of San Ignacio, in the department of Misiones.  There was an education volunteer in the community about 5 years ago.

                The packet they handed us had a ton of information in it.  I’m pretty much a first time volunteer.  There was an education volunteer there about 5 years ago.  Apparently she married a man from the community. Hmmmmm.  But some of the things my site wants help with include: dental health and parasite prevention (I obviously know what to do in order to avoid parasites…oooops )  in the schools, nutrition and cooking classes with women, vegetable garden promotion with individual families and in the school, working with youth (como planear mi vida), reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, maternal/infant survival, and Latrine construction.

Evaluations

                We’ve had 2 evaluations so far.  We have to fill out self evaluation forms, then the profesoras and technical trainers get together to evaluate us as well.  Finally, the profesoras talk with us about our evaluations.  My first evaluation was nothing special…Ramona agreed with me that I met expectations for everything and sent me on my way.  My second evaluation was awesome.  Mariela said the nicest things to me.  The written comments said I needed to work on pronunciation more for both Guarani and Spanish (I need to try to cut the white girl a bit haha).  She suggested I work more with kids to gain more confidence and vocab.  They written comments also said I was integrating into the community and culture well.  Then when she was actually talking to me she kept saying that she thought I was going to make a great volunteer because I had a really great attitude.  She also said a lot of times blondes are a lot more serious than I am, but I’m always laughing and my community will appreciate my laughter.  Hopefully, my community doesn’t mind my frequent, spontaneous, uncontrollable spurts of nervous, awkward laughter because they happen often.  Then she said she had been kind of nervous when I mentioned something about the little misunderstanding with my brother (probably didn’t write about that, but its not important).  She thought I might shut down or be less productive/happy because that’s the way other girls have been in the past, but she was impressed with how I handled it and was glad to see I didn’t let it bother me.  So basically she thinks I’m awesome…at least that’s how I translated everything in my head…and I’ll let you all in on a little secret...everything is always better (in some way, shape or form) in the translations in my head.

My Package Fiasco

                I finally received the package momma bear sent me.  Thank-you so much to those of you who contributed movies to my package!  I really appreciate it.  It was a pretty good sized box weighing 13 lbs, and it was quite the chore getting my box home.  I already had a large bag filled with notebooks, my lunchbox, a giant water bottle, shoes and gym clothes…I had ambitions of going to the gym in Guarambare that day, but chose to eat an entire bag of cookies instead.  I make good life choices.  Anyway, we flagged the bus down, and it was packed (like usual).  I got on behind Zoe who was having issues finding money to pay her fare.  I was standing on the stairs, and Jaime was standing on the stair below me.  The bus takes off while I’m still standing on the stairs holding a giant bag on my shoulder and a giant box in front of me.  I finally get up the stairs and pay and try to maneuver my way somewhere to stand.  The bus turns a corner, and I fell backward, screaming and sitting on some man’s face.  I’m saying ahh I’m sorry, I’m sorry only to realize nobody can understand English so I switch to Spanish and everyone is just staring at me.  After a few seconds I was able to pull myself off the man only to realize he was blind.  Poor guy had no idea what hit him.  Begin nervous, uncontrollable laughter NOW.

Site Visit

                The weekend after we received our sites we went on a little trip to visit our future sites.  We were split into two groups and sent to two different cities to meet our contacts.  I went to San Ignacio (super close to my site).  My contact’s name was/is Lourdes.  She is super pregnant…due May 5…and super cute.  She was wearing a nametag that said Lourdes next to a picture of my face…slightly creepy Peace Corps haha.  I thought Peace Corps did a really nice job of planning a day with us and our contacts.  They explained the goals of a health volunteer, and they spent a lot of time talking about the challenges we as volunteers are facing.  We had some snacks and lunch and were on our way to our sites shortly after lunch.  Lourdes had a car so we drove to San Juan Potrero…we also stalled 4x just trying to get out of the “parking lot” so I was kind of nervous for the drive…but we made it, and all in one piece!

                The community is really pretty!  I stayed with Lourdes and her family which consists of: her, her mom, her sister and her sister’s boyfriend.  There are also 2 other sisters, but they don’t live in the house.  And her dad works in Asuncion and comes home once a month I think she said.  Also, Lourdes boyfriend spends a lot of time at the house.  The house is across the street from the elementary school which sits next to the high school which sits next to the puesto de salud.  On the other side of the elementary school is the police station for the community.  The house was pretty sweet.  I got my own room which was nice.  There was also a modern bathroom-which I hear is kind of rare in the community.  The power went out twice during my visit…both times while I was showering.  Nice warm water turns freezing cold fast when the power goes out.  The outside of the house has trees everywhere!  There were mango trees, banana trees, avocado trees, pear trees, orange trees, and lime trees!  Oh, and there is a grape vine too!

                I went to see a possible future house for me.  It’s really sweet.  It’s the meeting place for Red Cross in the community and they are building a nice, big vegetable garden outside.  It has a bedroom, a kitchen, a modern bathroom, and a GINORMOUS living room.  I mean I’m going to have the party house and 50 people can sleep in my living room.  And, it’s already furnished.  There is a bed, a rompero (closet/dresser thing), a refrigerator, a cabinet in the kitchen, and an oven/stove thingy.  It’s filthy so it definitely needs to be cleaned and fixed up a bit, but it has major potential.  Oh, and all I have to pay for is electricity every month.  Hopefully it works out because it’s a pretty sweet deal.

                The next day, I went to a youth group meeting at the church and had no idea what went on.  They spoke Guarani the whole time so I just sat there and stared in to space.  I was walking back to my house alone when I encountered 2 cowboys on horseback pulling a bull behind them on a leash.  The bull stopped in his tracks when he saw me.  I decided to play it cool and keep walking, mainly because I didn’t really have another choice.  There was only one road, fenced on both sides, and we were walking on it.  I looked at the bull; he put his head down, swiped his front foot across the dirt a couple times, and took off toward me.  I turned around and ran as fast as I could/up the side embankment.  About .5 seconds later the bull whizzed past me, missing me by about 6 inches.  If I hadn’t already pooped that morning, I would have shit my pants.  I almost had a heart attack.

                The next day, momma bear (I think I’m on to momma bear 4 now), asked if I’d like to visit a sick man with her.  I said sure so we took off walking.  The man was super sick.  Apparently he had throat and stomach cancer.  He found out 2 months ago, but was not doing well at all.  He was only 40 something years old.  He was lying in bed, he was super thin, and he couldn’t do much besides groan in pain.  He seemed to be in so much pain, I felt so bad for him.  Apparently he smoked a lot, drank a lot, and didn’t eat very much.  He died 2 days later so we returned for the wake.  They had him open casket on a table on the patio.  I walked up to give the two kiss cheek greet to his mom, and I almost started crying (which is a lot for me).  I felt so bad for her.  All I could think of to say was Lo siento.

                I also spent some time talking, and a lot of time terere-ing, with the director the school and the director of the high school.  I really like the director of the high school we had a pretty good chat about a lot of different topics.  Every time I was talking to a new person while he was around he told them I was going to marry a Paraguayan just like Jennie, the previous volunteer.  I went to the health post one day and talked a little with the nurse.  She is the only one that works in the health post and she only works in the morning.  She didn’t seem very interested in me, or interested in working with me or helping me, but I might give her another shot.  I played soccer with some of the high school girls during recess, and I talked with some of the teachers.  I talked to the president of the community soccer club and kind of joined the team, but got too intimidated to actually try to play.  I sat and watch a soccer practice one afternoon and was invited to hang out with all the boys after.  I like hanging out with the boys.  I feel more comfortable around the boys; I’m not sure why…for the infiniti-eth time in my life…I wish I was a boy.  They have more fun…not to mention less feelings (usually). 

                There are also TONS of horses in my site, and horse races are a common occurrence.  There was one while I was there.  There’s a track made out of the grace with a barbed wire/wood fence in the middle dividing it into two lanes.  There were 3 races one day.  All the men bet on the horses and drink beer.  The women just watch.

                I had a really nice visit in my future community, and I am really excited to get to know more people and start working.  Everyone in the community kept telling me I reminded them of Jennie, the previous volunteer, and asking if I was going to marry a Paraguayan also.  I always replied with it’s possible and a big smile.  That response seemed to go over well.  It was crazy the emotional roller coaster I was feeling while I was there.  I would be perfectly content one minute visualizing myself in San Juan Potrero for 2 years, and not long after be wondering what the hell I was doing there, if I was doing the right thing etc.  For the most part I’m really excited, but I also have uncertainty.  I think most of my uncertainty stems from my frustration with the language.  Everyone in the community speaks Guarani, and I feel like I’m starting over.  The only time Spanish is spoken is in the school.  Also, the community seems to have a lot of expectations from me, and I don’t want to let them down.