Somewhere between waking up at midnight puking in a discarded paint bucket in the dirt floor,wooden shed that served as the all purpose room/kitchen/ my bedroom with a sheet door, with stomach acid and mbeju (a kind of PY mix between a pancake and cornbread) coming out my nose or between running to the very Slumdog Millionaire-esque outhouse with my headlamp on, barely making it in time with Chivivi (Guarani for Diarrhea) I decided that until Samantha Brown did a Passport to Paraguay, I no longer valued her opinion on la-de-da travel.
Peace Corps, facilitating people´s ability to talk about mortifying bodily functions (or sometimes the equally discerning lack there of) in public since 1961. (Seriously this is a top ten most touched on topic among volunteers.) Not complaining though. I actually felt triumphant at the end (and took a picture of myself with a thumbs up at 4 am) like I was getting the writ of passage for volunteers over and done with. Puking in foreign countries is a character building experience and quite frankly a reality, no mas.
My trip definitely was a learning experience in "campo" and "campo-campo." They all slept in one bedroom, putting a bed and sheet door in a part of their dirt floor multipurpose area ( I´d say kitchen, except for her wood burning stove was in another building attached by a doorway) both buildings being made out of wood slats, one with corrugated metal roof, the other with thatched palm frans. I got a crash course in bucket bathing (technically halved tired bathing.) Little House on the Prairie ain´t got nothing on me. The latrine really was bad though. We´ve learned the necessary items to make one sanitary and it lacked them all. I tried to hold it and use the neighbors or the one at the volunteer´s house unless it was an emergency, especially after the night my flashlight reflected on a throbbing trail of worm larvae filling by the doorway....
Barnyard animals roamed the yard and house freely: ducklings, piglets, chicks, kittens, you name it. I can´t follow how supposedly female volunteers gain weight because I definitely ate entire meals of crushed peanuts or lima beans.
Despite being sick and the lack of comfort that I´d grown accustomed to in Guasu Cora, I didn´t let it sour my longfield practice. I stayed with an amazing family, a young couple in their mid 30´s with 2 daughters, age 1 and 7, and was quite afected by their laughter, their constant jubilant spirits, and the tenderness between them. I followed Zuni, the mom, around like a lost puppy while she cooked and told me all sorts of stories about being the oldest of 7, moving to Buenos Aires at 16 to send home money, and how she became entertwined in the life of a senora for whom she cared for for 5 years. Watching Eli, the dad, dance and play with his daughters in the kitchen after dinner, making faces and clowing around with Baby Alicia, and how tenderly he wet and combed her baby curls and put them in a little clump on the top of her head. How Zuni woke up when she heard me at 2 am to make me a remedio (medicinal herbs) tea for my stomach, for which she had to start a fire to boil water on the wood burning stove. That despite having next to nothing, they gave me the largest portions, perhaps one of their beds, maybe even first dibs on bathing water (I know mine was clean, I just obviously never figured out if they changed it, though they did have a running water spigot in the yard, but as people reuse cooking and cleaning water from preparing meals more than once sometimes, who knows. Doctor Oz would have a field day in Paraguay, Mom.) How patient they were with my Guarani, eager to teach me more and for me to reciprocate with English (some of the neighbor girls came over and we ate tangerines off the trees and took turns pointing at things and saying them in Guarani, Spanish, and English.) If this is what I´ve learned and it hasn´t even been 2 months, I can´t begin to fathom how different I´ll be today from who I´ll be in April 2012. I will also often wonder how my little family is San Miguel is making it.
We went as a group from Monday to Friday to see PCV Amy, who is a year into her service. With it raining all the first day and me recovering from being sick all night the last day, I didn´t do much that week besides give a charla in the school to 8th-9th graders on gender stereotypes and plant a couple of trees, but that won´t even be the part I remember as fondly as I will the time I spent with the Bridas-Rojas family.
People are slowly wrapping up what they came to do in the internet cafe and with it getting dark, I don´t want to get left behind. Hope everyone is well and I have 2.5 days off the upcoming week for Semana Santa. Hopefully I´ll get another chance like this to come into town without coming for school and really get to write what I want to say in my blog for a change (the driver dropped a few of us off on the way home from the trip.)
Adio America.
-Steph
Friday, March 26, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Week 5 of Training: The G-bay Chronicles
I´m pretty sure this internet cafe has a virus because the spot to type my password is showing the letters, not turning them into stars, awesome....
Anyways, halfway point in training. Have yet to talk to anyone on Skype, including my own family. :(I will be on every Wednesday at this time until training is over or we have a special activity that day. Things are fine. Learning lots of new info, new skills (like brick laying) new language. Went on tech excursion last week to stay with a volunteer at a different site (who is extending third year to ecotourism in Jamaica), so we could meet new families and see what some different communities are. We put in a fogon (brick oven) and pileta (brick structure to support concrete sink) at their local school. The site´s lack of water, or ¨clean water,¨ as they had an uncovered well at the school with ferns growing down the side of the walls and a dirty chipped plastic bucket (don´t worry I didn´t drink this, though the clean water the volunteer brought us smelled wretched) and my inability to speak with the Senora whom I stayed with (or maybe her hesitancy to talk to a Norte,) was kind of disheartening. I got a pretty high mark on my Guarani Mid term Interview (everyone has kept using my self given joking title of Guarani Rainman) so I think it had more to do with the later.
We also have interviews this week with our RHS director in aiding him pick a site for us. I´m going to tell him that I´m more interested in working with youth in schools, summer camps, Ahecha Project (photography youth group) PC Mag, radio shows and partnering with hospitals and NGO´s. All this info are things that i´ve heard other volunteers working on and will hopefully get me in a decent sized community with running water....
Oh yesterday was interesting and different from our normal pace. We had a cooking session and group up with different moms. I got to go to my "aunt´s " house and I learned how to make soy empanadas, soy milk, and soy hamburgers, which they try to teach a lot of in conjunction with our nutrition charlas with all the hipertension and high blood pressure in Paraguay as it´s much cheaper and packed with protein it is per kilo compared to meat. I imagine once I´m cooking for myself I´ll be eating a lot of it since I don´t know how much I´ll want to bother with buying, carrying home, and preparing meat the way they sell it here.
Next week we´re gone in groups all week for ¨practica larga¨or long field practice. We go with 4 other aspirantes and stay at a volunteer site and just practice what we´d do in site: construction, charlas, censuses, meeting nurses who work at health posts, etc. Oh and something else exciting, our resettling allowance got increased with the bigger PC budget this year, so I get an extra 2 grand or so more when I come home, woot.
I´m saving up my guarani´s since I don´t really have any expenses, so with that and the money Dad gave me before I left, I figure I can probably buy a tiny netbook at a mall in Asuncion when I swear in so I can talk and post up my 400 or more pictures when I get to my site. If not, I can price them and budget out a portion from each paycheck until I do.
That´s about all I got for now. Oh and apparently it´s St. Patty´s Day, so someone drink a "carbomb" for me. I´ll go have a delicious Brahama at "Papu´s: Un Lugar Diferente" after school.
Jajotopata Folks.
Anyways, halfway point in training. Have yet to talk to anyone on Skype, including my own family. :(I will be on every Wednesday at this time until training is over or we have a special activity that day. Things are fine. Learning lots of new info, new skills (like brick laying) new language. Went on tech excursion last week to stay with a volunteer at a different site (who is extending third year to ecotourism in Jamaica), so we could meet new families and see what some different communities are. We put in a fogon (brick oven) and pileta (brick structure to support concrete sink) at their local school. The site´s lack of water, or ¨clean water,¨ as they had an uncovered well at the school with ferns growing down the side of the walls and a dirty chipped plastic bucket (don´t worry I didn´t drink this, though the clean water the volunteer brought us smelled wretched) and my inability to speak with the Senora whom I stayed with (or maybe her hesitancy to talk to a Norte,) was kind of disheartening. I got a pretty high mark on my Guarani Mid term Interview (everyone has kept using my self given joking title of Guarani Rainman) so I think it had more to do with the later.
We also have interviews this week with our RHS director in aiding him pick a site for us. I´m going to tell him that I´m more interested in working with youth in schools, summer camps, Ahecha Project (photography youth group) PC Mag, radio shows and partnering with hospitals and NGO´s. All this info are things that i´ve heard other volunteers working on and will hopefully get me in a decent sized community with running water....
Oh yesterday was interesting and different from our normal pace. We had a cooking session and group up with different moms. I got to go to my "aunt´s " house and I learned how to make soy empanadas, soy milk, and soy hamburgers, which they try to teach a lot of in conjunction with our nutrition charlas with all the hipertension and high blood pressure in Paraguay as it´s much cheaper and packed with protein it is per kilo compared to meat. I imagine once I´m cooking for myself I´ll be eating a lot of it since I don´t know how much I´ll want to bother with buying, carrying home, and preparing meat the way they sell it here.
Next week we´re gone in groups all week for ¨practica larga¨or long field practice. We go with 4 other aspirantes and stay at a volunteer site and just practice what we´d do in site: construction, charlas, censuses, meeting nurses who work at health posts, etc. Oh and something else exciting, our resettling allowance got increased with the bigger PC budget this year, so I get an extra 2 grand or so more when I come home, woot.
I´m saving up my guarani´s since I don´t really have any expenses, so with that and the money Dad gave me before I left, I figure I can probably buy a tiny netbook at a mall in Asuncion when I swear in so I can talk and post up my 400 or more pictures when I get to my site. If not, I can price them and budget out a portion from each paycheck until I do.
That´s about all I got for now. Oh and apparently it´s St. Patty´s Day, so someone drink a "carbomb" for me. I´ll go have a delicious Brahama at "Papu´s: Un Lugar Diferente" after school.
Jajotopata Folks.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Sum all this up? Where to begin...
Hey Everyone! Trying to get out a quick blog post during my lunch break in Gbe. Bah! Sitting down and trying to sum up everything that I´ve seen and done in the past month seems so dauting and trying to pick out words to properly convey the experiences in 25 minutes almost seems hopeless.
I´ve officially been here a month today. Two more months of training. Training is really fun, yet grueling. 8 hour days, with 4 hours of Guarani 6 times a week (even Saturdays) in the mornings, then technical training every afternoon, with Wednesdays having all 4 different training communities coming into the shared Gbe center for common areas on cultural, safety, etc. It´s a lot like a summer camp\study abroad\Paraguyan culture bootcamp. We´ve all gotten really close (the 12 of us who are RHS, or Rural Health and Sanitation,who live in Guasu Cora.) I feel pretty lucky to have such a great group, as well as an awesome host family. I really want to post pictures, but with the slow internet in cafes, it´ll have to be on a weekend, not to mention I´m afraid of getting a virus on my memory cards. Forgive me if I´m repeating myself or if this is all jumbled, I don´t know what I´ve posted from emails before. I acutally think that when I swear in I´ll have internet through a Tigo plug in modem, like the ATT 3G cards we have in the states, I´ll just have to buy a computer or bring one back at Xmas (thanks to the misinformed Packing list.) Right now with the jam packed days, after class on Wednesdays there are about 50 Americans and Paraguayan High Schoolers vying to use the 25 computers spread out across Gbe´s 4 internet cafes, so I´d rather walk around and eat an ice cream and go on a scouting mission of the city rather than sit in line to use a computer, sorry. Weekends I try to integrate into the community by going to the Saturday soccer match, and sometimes we even play a US vs PY girls game (and I have to do a week´s worth of laundry when it´s sunny!) rather than walk 45 minutes to a main road, catch a bus when or if if feels like coming, hope an internet cafe (or anything really) will even be open on a weekend. I promise though that I´ve been writing almost daily in my spiral notebook and taking notes on the days that I haven´t to share more indepth what I´ve learned and what crazy adventures I´ve been on when training ends and life takes on the more tranquilo pace of an actual volunteer (I hear training and volunteer lifestyles are like night and day.)
Mad Props to A. Glenn!! I´ve received mail from you and then my PBC county elections absentee ballot, woot!
I´ve only been to Asuncion once for a day, aside from when we flew in. I hear that after the swearing in ceremonry all the trainees take a 4 day vacation with the hotel discounts we receive through PC and lay by the pool, go see movies, shopping, etc, so that and Blas and Melo´s wedding are the two things keeping me going when it´s 93 degrees and no buildings have AC, I have no idea what my teacher just said to me in Guarani, I have to kill a giant spider in my room, I have to hold on for dear life in a crowded city bus, etc..
Anyways, I have to go back to school in 10 minutes. I miss everyone and hope everything is falling into place for everyone as is my tranquilopa life.
-Steph
I´ve officially been here a month today. Two more months of training. Training is really fun, yet grueling. 8 hour days, with 4 hours of Guarani 6 times a week (even Saturdays) in the mornings, then technical training every afternoon, with Wednesdays having all 4 different training communities coming into the shared Gbe center for common areas on cultural, safety, etc. It´s a lot like a summer camp\study abroad\Paraguyan culture bootcamp. We´ve all gotten really close (the 12 of us who are RHS, or Rural Health and Sanitation,who live in Guasu Cora.) I feel pretty lucky to have such a great group, as well as an awesome host family. I really want to post pictures, but with the slow internet in cafes, it´ll have to be on a weekend, not to mention I´m afraid of getting a virus on my memory cards. Forgive me if I´m repeating myself or if this is all jumbled, I don´t know what I´ve posted from emails before. I acutally think that when I swear in I´ll have internet through a Tigo plug in modem, like the ATT 3G cards we have in the states, I´ll just have to buy a computer or bring one back at Xmas (thanks to the misinformed Packing list.) Right now with the jam packed days, after class on Wednesdays there are about 50 Americans and Paraguayan High Schoolers vying to use the 25 computers spread out across Gbe´s 4 internet cafes, so I´d rather walk around and eat an ice cream and go on a scouting mission of the city rather than sit in line to use a computer, sorry. Weekends I try to integrate into the community by going to the Saturday soccer match, and sometimes we even play a US vs PY girls game (and I have to do a week´s worth of laundry when it´s sunny!) rather than walk 45 minutes to a main road, catch a bus when or if if feels like coming, hope an internet cafe (or anything really) will even be open on a weekend. I promise though that I´ve been writing almost daily in my spiral notebook and taking notes on the days that I haven´t to share more indepth what I´ve learned and what crazy adventures I´ve been on when training ends and life takes on the more tranquilo pace of an actual volunteer (I hear training and volunteer lifestyles are like night and day.)
Mad Props to A. Glenn!! I´ve received mail from you and then my PBC county elections absentee ballot, woot!
I´ve only been to Asuncion once for a day, aside from when we flew in. I hear that after the swearing in ceremonry all the trainees take a 4 day vacation with the hotel discounts we receive through PC and lay by the pool, go see movies, shopping, etc, so that and Blas and Melo´s wedding are the two things keeping me going when it´s 93 degrees and no buildings have AC, I have no idea what my teacher just said to me in Guarani, I have to kill a giant spider in my room, I have to hold on for dear life in a crowded city bus, etc..
Anyways, I have to go back to school in 10 minutes. I miss everyone and hope everything is falling into place for everyone as is my tranquilopa life.
-Steph
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