Mba'epa Rejapo

So, what on Earth have I been doing the last couple of weeks?  Well, I’m still trying to figure that out as well.  The weeks seriously fly by here!  I got a door complete with a lock and some pretty sweet skeleton keys installed so I can officially leave my house without fear of coming home to an empty house.  My boss came from Asuncion for my site presentation-which sounds a lot more exciting than it actually was.  I’m living with another couple of host families to finish out my 3 months with families.  I received a loan from Peace Corps so I can install a new roof, a floor, and a bathroom in the house.  I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do everything, but I REALLY just want to be able to take a hot shower, stand barefoot on my floor without ending up with muddy feet, and have a house full of dry things-even when it’s raining.  Is that so much to ask?

The girls’ soccer team is still up and running!  We’ve had 2 games so far…I played in the first and we lost 3-1.  They played a second game while I was out of site and won!  And the third game is scheduled for this weekend…but it’s been raining all week so we’ll see what happens.  Anyway, now for the more exciting things…

Carpinchos

                A few weeks ago, a few of us from my training group went to visit one of our friends in her community, Zaro Caro.  Sweet name, I know.  The trip there took a grand total of 8 hours, but it was definitely worth it.  It was basically a weekend full of LOTS of good food, drinks, friends and English with some Paraguayan festivities thrown in for added fun.  Saturday we woke up and went to a city named Villa Rica-the home of the Carpinchos (Capybara in English aka the largest rodent in the world).  There are 4 of them that live in a park in the middle of the city.  When we got there I was sad to see they were all sleeping on an island in the middle of this manmade lake until I realized we could rent paddle boats and float out to them.  Awesome surprise #1 of the day.  We paddled out to get a closer look.  They are seriously giant hamsters; cute and ugly at the same time.  When we brought the boats back in, the park lady (very technical term) called them over so we got to see them swim to the shore, and then we took a bunch of photos while we played with them and petted them.

                After we left the park we wandered around the city a little more and did some grocery shopping for dinner.  I might have been more excited than Charlie when he found the last golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s factory when I stumbled across marshmallows in the grocery store. S’MORES.  Awesome surprise #2 of the day.

                We headed back to the community to make and eat some dinner (Nachos…mmmm) then headed to a San Juan festival with Emily’s host family.  We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.  We were all standing in a circle chatting when all of a sudden a flaming (and by flaming I literally mean on fire, not gay) soccer ball flies at our heads.  The community is seriously playing soccer with a fireball (pelota tata—Jopara—pelota=ball in Spanish, tata=fire in Guarani).  So that was kind of scary, but died down after a few minutes.  Next, I’m sitting down roasting some caburet (most likely butchered the spelling on that) which is chipa dough put on the end of a stick and cooked over the fire, when everyone starts grabbing large brushwood, lighting it on fire and chasing everyone around.  I kept exclaiming “WE’RE GOING TO DIE TONIGHT” and I was fully prepared to stop, drop and roll.  I am happy to report that nobody died, nobody was burned, and nobody had to stop, drop and roll.

Friends

                I finally have some Paraguayan friends (that are my age)!  Hooray.  Their names are Marcelina and Luis and they are so much fun, not to mention very helpful.  Marcelina is a nurse in San Ignacio and will be helping me with some charlas in the school within the upcoming weeks.  Luis is studying engineering and can speak quite a bit of English and is currently applying for Fulbright scholarships in the United States and Australia.  He’s been very helpful as well, not to mention he gives me rides to and from town sometimes.  In return I’m helping him translate his super long, impressive resume into English.

Healthy Smiles

                While I was in town last week, Marceline met up with me and took me to the regional hospital.  I met with the Directora of the hospital, introduced myself and talked with her a little bit about my work plans.  I’ve arranged to start doing fluoride treatments in the elementary school, and the Directora is supplying the pills.  They will be ready to pick up next week!

                Next, I went and talked with the Director of my elementary school and we sat down and wrote up a pedido (letter of request) for toothbrushes/toothpaste.  I typed up the letter and had the director sign and stamp it.  Luis and Marcelina came and picked me up and we went around to different stores and pharmacies in San Ignacio to ask for toothbrush/toothpaste donations.  Really, Luis did all the work.  He knows pretty much everyone in town, he would introduce me, and I would show my paper, say Hola, smile and next thing I knew we had a bag full of toothbrushes/toothpaste.  Everything is much easier when you have Paraguayans working alongside you…which is how I’m supposed to roll anyway…

                They are planning on coming to pick me up tomorrow morning and we’re going to plan out our Charla and start giving them sometime next week hopefully!  Each student will have his/her own toothbrush, toothpaste, and rinse cup.  I’m going to talk to the teachers and the director of the school to implement brushing after snack every day.  And we’ll do a week of fluoride treatment once a month.

               

House Calls

                This month, a doctor and a nurse from the neighboring community started coming to work in my community’s health post every Thursday.  I finally made my way over to meet them yesterday, and it was AWESOME!  They are both super nice and super guapa.  They are really excited to work with me, they have a lot of really great ideas and they seemed very responsive and supportive of the ideas I have.  Additionally, they let me go on a few house calls with them.  We went to a house I’d never been to before to check on a momma and her newborn baby.  I even got to help the nurse prick the baby’s heel in order to perform a test for retardation.  And by help, I mean I held the flashlight for her and handed her the test strip when there was enough blood, but I was still excited and felt kind of important.  Next, there was another baby who had bronchitis (at least I think that’s what they said) and they ended up taking him to the hospital.  When his dad loaded him in the car he arranged him so he looked like he was my son.  The doctora thought this was cute/funny so she snapped a photo of me and my “hijo.” I have several hijos/ sobrinos in the community.  Some kids call me mom and other ones call me auntie haha.  And the third patient we saw was an old lady in a wheelchair.  I have no idea what was going on with her besides she had high blood pressure (along with every other adult in the community/Paraguay).  The language completely escaped me in her case.  They read blood pressures a little strange here.  Instead of saying 120 over 80 (healthy) they say 12, 8. 

Things are starting to pick up, and I’m starting to work, slowly but surely.  I still need to talk with the Director of the school, but I’d like to organize a clothing/coat drive for the students.  There are quite a few kids who don’t have warm clothes and it’s getting colder so hopefully we can get some swapping going so unused clothes can find some homes and the kiddos are a little warmer.

I’m planning on starting to teach some English classes…most likely starting the first week of August.  I have some ideas for fun activities…but if anyone has any neat activities/ideas I’d love to hear them.

I want to get a school garden planted and start implementing healthier snacks.  Right now, the kids just buy candy during recess then are given cookies for the school provided snack.  Once we have some veggies growing we can make carrot bread, or banana bread or something at least slightly healthier.

Speaking of healthy, almost every adult in the community has high blood pressure…as a result of the diet.  So some cooking classes are in order.  Good thing I’m such a good chef (ha!).

I need to form a women’s commission to hopefully get a fogon project started.  Also, there seems to be an overwhelming desire for a modern bathroom project.

Trash is a problem.  Garbage cans don’t exist; everyone just throws their trash anywhere and everywhere.  Then they sweep it into a pile once a week or so and burn it (malo).  Other people don’t sweep it or burn it, they just live in it.  I refuse to throw it or burn it (because it’s bad for the environment), and I feel like a mentally ill trash hoarder.  I currently have two giant bags of trash at my house.  I’m going to dig a trash pit, but it’s been raining all week…

Well I guess it wasn’t necessary for me to spell all that out before I start doing anything, but thanks for helping me organize my thoughts! Haha.  So needless to say there is a lot of work that can be done in the community.  Like I said before, if anyone has any fun, innovative ideas feel free to shoot them my way, I’m open to suggestions.

I hope everyone is doing well, I miss you all like crazy!

The Going Gets Tough

First of all, I just want to say thank  you to all my amazing friends and family.  Most of you know what I've been going through the past week, and it means the world to me that you are still supporting me and sending me lots of love...and for those of you who don't know...the story goes a little something like this...

Last weekend I went to visit my dear friend, Lucila (the lady I met on the bus my first week here).  She had originally told me I was welcome to stay with her if I so desired, so I went to see if that offer was still good.  She said of course I could still stay with her, but there was a slight problem.  She was leaving for Argentina the following day until the end of the month.  Well, silly me, never knowing what date it is figured this was just a couple of days and said "Oh, perfecto, muchas gracias" when she said I was more than welcome to stay with her when she returned.

So the next day Hugo asked me when are you moving?  And I said well I was going to stay with Lucila when she gets back from Argentina.  And he said, well she's gone for the whole month. Mmm she left on June 1 and is gone until the end of June...ooops.  So I said, well then I'm staying here.  Afterall, you wanted me to stay for the entire 2 years (ok I didn't say that part).  And he said, well you can't stay here.  My son (who left his wife and job in Argentina) is tired of sleeping with the creatures (my translation for kids) and wants his room back so you need to leave.  So I said, Ok I will start looking for something tomorrow.  Then I went in my room and had my first breakdown and major cry session since arriving to Paraguay.  I felt really betrayed because this is the family I felt closest to in the community, who wanted me to stay for the entire two years, and who insisted I stay in the room even though their son was coming home from Argentina (I offered to leave before he came back).  In hindsight there were some passive aggressive behaviors that I should have taken as my cue to leave, but hindsight is always 20/20 and for Pete's sake I'm in a different culture and I can't understand a lick of Guarani or what is a cultural norm.  So the next morning I woke up and hopped on the bus to San Ignacio without saying anything to anyone.  Thankfully, Lyn, the office coordinator helped calm me down, hung out with me all day, and helped me figure out what to do.  I went around town and bought a bed, an oven/stove thing and other things that were necessary in order to live on my own, then Victor a Peace Corps chofer drove me back to my site.  I unloaded all my crap into my room then told Hugo I have all my stuff and I'm ready to leave as soon as I have a place to go.

It's now 48 hours after he asked me to leave and I'm sitting in my own house.  It is a brick house with a thatch roof and dirt floor.  There are spiders everywhere and I'm scared of what kind of bug bites I'm going to wake up with.  I have a water spicket out front, a latrine...a legit I have to get down in the bottom of my squat to defecate latrine and then pour water over my waste to make it go somewhere else, and a wooden box to shower.  There is no water in the shower so I have to fill a bucket at the spicket and then carry the bucket to the box.  I took my first bucket bath tonight.  I was basically like a 5 year old kid splashing water on myself, dunking my head in a bucket and not actually getting any cleaner.  At least I tried?

There have been good things happening too :)
-I started a women's soccer team on Monday.  We have our second practice tomorrow, and we have a game on Sunday.  Not really sure where the game came from or why on earth so quickly, but it should be interesting.  I think I'm playing. I'm definitely the worst player on the team, but they all want me to play for some odd reason...probably for another excuse to laugh at me :)
-One of the teachers in the high school started teaching me Guarani during Recess today.  I'm supposed to go back tomorrow.  She is really helpful and is actually writing things down with me and explaining things as opposed to just blurting out random phrases to me like everyone else does.
-I have my first ever actual boyfriend.  His name is Nali and he's 21 so I guess I'm a cougar.  He's Paraguayan and lives in my community.  Our conversations are interesting.  He's most comfortable in Guarani and I'm most comfortable in English so we try to meet in the middle with Spanish.  Hopefully I didn't just jinx the relationship by publishing it on here.
-The kids here are amazing.  I can't understand a lot of what they say, but they get so excited to see me and they fight over who gets to hold my hand or hug me first and its just adorable.

I promise to expand more on the good things next time!  Again, I want to thank all of you for being there for me.  I'm bound to go through a lot more ups and downs and I wouldn't be able to make it if I didn't have such a strong support system.  I'm sorry that at this point I feel like I'm just taking and taking from everyone and I can only hope that I will be able to give back to you all one day.  And a special thanks to Jenny.  I don't think I can ever thank you enough.  You're probably the only one who will ever understand what I'm actually going through and your advice and support is keeping me going.  I'm not sure how you did it alone 4 years ago!