Hello to all and hope all is well wherever you all may be in the world,
I will start this post out by expressing once again my astonishment and, in a way, my comlpaint of how hot it is here. I have been in Paraguay for just a little over a month and a half. It is the dead of winter here, and I certainly didn't expect this heat even though I knew it is generally always warm here all year round. It reached almost 90 degrees everyday this past week. Having said that, the weather here, at least in the winter can be quite bipolar. I'll explain.
2 weeks ago today I left to go on my second long site visit. I stayed in a town in the eastern part of the country about an hour or so from the Brazilian border. The purpose of this second long visit is to have the opportunity to stay with another host family for a few days and to experience the life of a volunteer. Our volunteer was very cool, and it seemed that he was integrating into his community well. I stayed on the outskirts of town in this neat wooden home. The thing about the home was that it was very drafty because the wooden planks that made up the walls of the house weren't always flush next to eachother so as to prevent wind or hot/cold air coming in. This past week was particularly cold, and I think it was probably 40 degrees in the entire house at night so once I got into my sleeping bag at night there was no way I was getting up for anything during the night. Anytime I stuck my head out of my military style sleeping bag that I brought with me to Paraguay, it would feel as if I was sticking my head into a freezer. Despite 3 freezing nights, the trip went really well!
The first day we met the host families with which we would be staying for the duration of the visit. The woman with whom I stayed, Arsenia, is an older mother whose several daughters had already left the house either to look for work in Ciudad del Este or marry and work in their homes. I got along really well with her. She told me a lot about her family and her life. During my stay there we did several activities having to do with self-esteem, working in groups, and communication with several groups of students from the community school. The students responded well to the activities and were enthusiastic to have us there although there were some students that were quite shy perhaps due to the fact that there were so many foreigners around. We also got the chance to visit the municipality, which is basically the town hall where the mayor and all public officials in the community work, and the cooperative, which is a type of credit union for which members pool together financial resources for their mutual benefit. Cooperatives are everywhere here in Paraguay. Banks and other financial institutions are few and far between unless your in the capital. All and all, I had a great time on the long field visit.
The week that followed was a busy one since, in addition to having class and training from 7 in the morning until 5 at night as usual, a city nearby called Yaguaron was holding its patron saint festival, during which many musical acts come to play on a stage next to the town's municipality. It was always a lot of fun. Orchestras, polka and guarania groups, and traditional dancers came to show off their skills. As you all may not know, polka and guarania are considered the two traditional types of music and dance in Paraguay. Guarania is slower and one doesn't typically dance to it. The polka, on the other hand, is always danced to, and the steps are quite easy that I have already gotten the hang of it through some practice with my host mom since she loves to dance! The festival lasted 6 days from two Saturdays ago until this past Friday.
This past weekend was very eventful as well since the 4 quarterfinals for the Copa America were played, and it was my host mother's birthday on Sunday, and, for that, her eldest son, Federico, cam to visit from Ciudad del Este. On Saturday we watched two games of which one Argentina lost to Uruguay and Peru beat Costa Rica. On Sunday, before the games, many relatives came to out house to celebrate my host mom's birthday. She has a huge family. I have a feeling that most Paraguayan families have big families and maintain well the relationships with their relatives. This makes for big celebrations since so many people get together for family events. After eating a ton, I watched the Paraguay versus Brazil game with all the relatives and, also, my four friends and fellow trainees came over to watch the game as well so there were more than 20 people in front of this small television with so much excitement and nervousness during the entire game since it was hard fought by both teams. The game went to penalty kicks as the game ended in a 0-0 tie after two overtimes.
Not to take anything away from my host mom's birthday, but this day will be remembered as the day when Paraguay beat Brazil in penalties 3-0. Brazil shot miserably, and Paraguay won! Well fought by Paraguay, although I believe that they only lasted because their goalkeeper, Villar, played amazingly, stopping shots that one would think would be definite goals...And so Paraguay goes on to play Wednesday against the winner of the later game, Venezuala. All of Paraguay will be watching. Well those that have access to a television that is! I suppose it was important to make that distinction... As I'm now tired of writing, I will leave you all with the news that I will find out my site on Wednesday. I'm excited, nervous...all of those types of emotions...But I'm calm and ready. We will be then traveling to visit our respective sites from this Coming Saturday until the following Wednesday. I'll update you all as soon as I can once I find out!
Peace and Que Paraguay gane la Copa America!
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Happy 4th of July!
Hello everyone,
I have very little time right now because I leave for my long field visit in about 20 minutes. It's about 7:30 in the morning here, but I wanted to at least post a short update, and, most importantly, I wanted to wish my mom and sister a very Happy Birthday yesterday and a very Happy 4th of July to all Americans at home and abroad.
The past week and a half or so We've been very busy with more training and language classes. Our days are always filled to the brim with classes, training, and activities. Luckily, we got yesterday off, and I was able to visit Asuncion with my host mom because she wanted to show me around. We went to the center of the city, near the River Paraguay to see the Palace, Cabildo, Pantheon of the Heroes, and a few other landmarks of historical importance. We also went to this restaurant called Lido Bar, which is right across from the Pantheon of the Heroes. The food was amazing. The empanadas were the biggest ones I've ever eaten!
In a few minutes, I'll be leaving for a long field visit along with the other 4 trainees that are in my Guarani language class. It should be a lot of fun, and it will give us an opportunity to visit the school and municipality in the town that we're visiting. A better post will be coming soon after I get back from the visit so I can elaborate a little more on my activities the past couple weeks. Until then, Hope all are doing well, and I'll post more pictures soon hopefully!
I have very little time right now because I leave for my long field visit in about 20 minutes. It's about 7:30 in the morning here, but I wanted to at least post a short update, and, most importantly, I wanted to wish my mom and sister a very Happy Birthday yesterday and a very Happy 4th of July to all Americans at home and abroad.
The past week and a half or so We've been very busy with more training and language classes. Our days are always filled to the brim with classes, training, and activities. Luckily, we got yesterday off, and I was able to visit Asuncion with my host mom because she wanted to show me around. We went to the center of the city, near the River Paraguay to see the Palace, Cabildo, Pantheon of the Heroes, and a few other landmarks of historical importance. We also went to this restaurant called Lido Bar, which is right across from the Pantheon of the Heroes. The food was amazing. The empanadas were the biggest ones I've ever eaten!
In a few minutes, I'll be leaving for a long field visit along with the other 4 trainees that are in my Guarani language class. It should be a lot of fun, and it will give us an opportunity to visit the school and municipality in the town that we're visiting. A better post will be coming soon after I get back from the visit so I can elaborate a little more on my activities the past couple weeks. Until then, Hope all are doing well, and I'll post more pictures soon hopefully!
Monday, June 20, 2011
Che ryguata...that means I'm full!
So yesterday was Father's Day...in the States and here in Paraguay! I would like to celebrate all loving fathers, alive and deceased, especially my dad and grandfather who, along with the rest of my close-knit family, mean everything to me.
The Mighty Paraguayan Sun!
This is what we would call a "ñandu guasu" in guarani, otherwise known as the tarantula. They're quite popular in the Paraguayan countryside!
Yesterday was extremely hot hitting nearly 90 degrees Fahrenheit. We're in winter supposedly so I'm kind of worried about how hot it will be in the summer, which is quite a long season here. My host brother told me it's not uncommon to reach 45 degrees Celsius here in the summer which translates to about 113 degrees Fahrenheit. I've been sweating like a pig to say the least the past few weeks... Anyway, back to Father's Day.
We went to a relative's house a few kilometers down the road, and I ate a ridiculous amount of asado. Asado, for those who aren't familiar with the term, is pretty much a barbeque with a ton of meat consisting mostly of beef and pork. Here in Paraguay, they do not waste much in terms of food. They use every part of the animal, even blood, intestines, head, and any other part you can imagine, including ears and bones that serve as food and toys for dogs. I helped the men of the family prepare the meat a bit while the women made side dishes and the little kids played around the house. There were about 25 of us in total so I got to meet more of my extended Paraguayan family. I ate far too much meat. My host mom loves to serve me food. I'm convinced she would like me to become gigantic, that is, in a horizontal manner! The guarani phrase "Che ryguata" has proved to be very handy, though I still find it hard to eat a healthy amount of food here. After we got back, I fell into a food coma. Now on to other more important matters.
This past week was our first of 3 volunteer site visits. Some trainees stayed in pairs for the visit and a few went alone. I was one of the ones that went alone, though my commute wasn't bad as I only had to take one bus that only took 3 hours. I stayed in a tiny town in the south central part of the country. It had it's own municipality, school, a few tiny food markets, and, of course, several soccer fields. Everywhere I seem to find more soccer fields than anything else which I guess is great if you like soccer, as I do, but not so great if you want businesses and other activities that help the community. I actually got to play the second day. The other players were good, so it was a competitive game. I'm beginning to see that it quite common here to smoke cigarettes while playing here. I find this pretty hilarious and strange at the same time. I had to pay 2 thousand guaranis, which is the equivalent of 50 american cents to play. It seemed strange as it was only a pick-up game between friends. Little did I know, they bet on the games, and as my team won both games, each player on my team got 4 thousand guaranis so I made a 100% return. Haha. Peace Corps says we can't earn money during our service, but as I didn't know about the bet and as I would be using it to celebrate the win anyway, I don't think it was a big deal.
The town in which I stayed is quite small, though the area in which my volunteer often worked is a much smaller, rural village called Potrerito Yvaty. I will put some pictures up of my visit at the bottom of the post to give you all an idea. My volunteer worked with the municipality a bit earlier in his service, but is now working more in the school in this rural area. I was able to go to the school with him, talk to some of the students and professors, sit in on a class, and, also, help him give a class.
The volunteer was well known is his community. Everyone we passed would always greet us and often talk to us at length. It was pretty cool to see how he integrated into his community and how well he got to know everyone. He also spoke guarani well, proven by the fact that he would often converse with the locals in a language that I could barely understand, even though I could recognize that it was, in fact, guarani. One of the projects on which he will be working on shortly is a photography class for the students of this village. It will be an opportunity for the kids to learn basic function and use of the camera along with learning techniques and styles of photo taking. It sounded great so we talked about the program a bit and gave out permission slips to be signed and returned.
Apart from that, I was able to meet several people in the community, and everyone was very welcoming. Come to think of it, so far all Paraguayans I've met seem to be very friendly and generous even to the extent that people, in San Patricio and Postrerito, who especially don't have much would always offer me terere, food and their warm company. And by much, I am only comparing material possessions that a typical American family would have and that which a typical Paraguayan family has. This comparison, of course, is only based upon the little time I've spent here so far. Though, it reminds me how important relationships are and how unimportant material possessions are when it comes down to what truly makes a person happy. I like to think that I realized this before I came here, but I know that this experience of both being away from loved ones for so long and having to make another, new family here in Paraguay makes it much more real. My happiness and success here depends on the love from everyone at home and the relationships I build here.
Now I will put up some photos, which is probably what you've all been waiting for while working your way through my rambling. So here are some photos of my site visit. Enjoy! Perhaps, in my next blog I will explain and teach some of the Guarani language, gastronomy, and culture of which I've been learning so much these past few weeks. Until then, Peace everyone!
The main road in Potrerito with school on right
Some kids playing soccer!
Just before sunset
The Mighty Paraguayan Sun!
This is what we would call a "ñandu guasu" in guarani, otherwise known as the tarantula. They're quite popular in the Paraguayan countryside!
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Che vare'a... that means I'm hungry!
Hello all!
If you're all wondering about the title, I'll get to it! First things first.
As you all can see, I've made it here to Paraguay! This will be the first blog that I write in Paraguay! I arrived more than 2 weeks ago, and it feels like I've been here for months. I say this because so many things have been packed into such a short amount of time. I arrived in Miami for Staging not this past Tuesday but the Tuesday before. That night I met a few of the other trainees and then tried to get some sleep. Wednesday was filled with ice breakers and other orientation activities to get to know better fellow trainees and the organization through which we'll be serving Paraguayans! All my fellow trainees are really cool. It was nice being around them because I no longer had to do much of the explaining why I'm here that I've been doing the past few months because everyone joins the Peace Corps for roughly the same reason. After a busy day, we went to the airport around 6:30, and, after a long check-in process and a 2 hour delay, we finally took off at around 2 in the morning on Thursday, technically.
We arrived in Asunción, Paraguay at around 2:00 after a short lay over in Montevideo, Uruguay. To be honest, I hadn't in the moment nor have I now thought much about the fact that I had just flown to a place quite distant and distinct from the place where I have lived my entire life, and that I will be spending quite a while here. I think I've been handling this fact well so far. I have not once questioned my intentions, and I have not once freaked out about the fact that my resources, primary support groups, and responsibilities will now be in a country in which I've never lived before. I've felt no reason not to be calm. I have too much to learn and take in during these short 11 weeks of training that it seems pointless and quite overwhelming to be preoccupied with much else.
Once off the plane, we were greeted by the Peace Corps Paraguay staff. From now on, I will use PCP as an abbreviation referring to Peace Corps Paraguay because I can already foresee it becoming old quickly having to write that out over and over again... Continuing on...We spent out first night in Paraguay at a retreat center not too far from the airport outside of Asunción. It was a nice time to relax a little, talk to fellow volunteers and staff, and experience some of Paraguay's traditions, one of which being the drinking of an herbal type tea called terere. It is very similar to mate, the most important distinction being that it is taken cold, not hot. There will be more about terere and mate later I'm sure, but for now, for all those that are interested in how to speak Guarani, the last vowel in words is the one that carries an accent. This is a general rule. For example, one would put the emphasis on the last e in terere. In the exception to this rule, an accent will be put on the vowel that is stressed to make clear its pronunciation. For example, Mba'éichapa, which is the most expression used to greet someone that roughly translates to "Hi, how are you?," has the accent over the e to show that the stress is not on the last vowel.
The next day we me the rest of the Peace Corps training personnel. All the staff are great. After having a session at the training in Guarambare, we went to our communities to meet our host families. I'm staying with an older retired couple and their son who is a university student. After having lived only a little over 2 weeks with them, I already feel like I can call them my Paraguayan family. I love them. They are very warm and welcoming, and were excited right from the start about hosting a trainee. The first weekend, Joel, the son, invited me to play soccer with a few of his friends and to go to one of his friend's birthday party. He is around my age, so I feel like we have a lot in common. My host mom is very caring and generous, especially with feeding me enormous amounts of food. It's great because she's a good cook, but if I didn't still have a good metabolism I'd probably be huge in a month or so. She taught me how to say 'I'm hungry' in Guarani! It's Che vare'a. I guess she figured that it is important to express my desire to eat. Ha! I'll talk more about specific foods in another post. She and my host dad also try to teach me a lot of Guarani, which can be a little overwhelming at times because I'm learning a lot of Guarani in class, but I appreciate it a lot. Luckily, we exclusively speak in Spanish, or Castellano as it's called here. They do not know any English, but since they lived in Ciudad del Este, which is a Paraguayan city that is located at their border with Brazil, they understand and can speak Portuguese as well, so sometimes we converse in that as well which is cool. It's amazing how they essentially can speak in 4 different languages: Castellano, Portuguese, Guarani, and Jopara, which is a mixed language of both Castellano and Guarani that it widely spoken in Paraguay.
In terms of Guarani, I've surprisingly learned a lot so far, and I feel like I can independently think about the language and figure a lot of things out based on the structure, form, and grammar rules of the language. Our training combines language classes and specific technical training which we have each day. Training is quite intensive, and we don't have much free time especially since a lot of time spent outside training is with family and other volunteers, so I'm exhausted by the time I have any of it.
Apart from all the Paraguayns I've met and all the language and culture of which I've been learning, I've been able to get to know better my fellow trainees, which has been nice because they're all very cool and have great things to share with Peace Corps and with other trainees/to-be-volunteers like me. We all actually got a chance to go to Asuncion, the capital city, for the first time in pairs to do a little excursion in which we had to find a few places in the city and then find our way to the Peace Corps office. I had a great partner, Evelyn, and we had no trouble getting around, and we had a good time figuring everything out. Tomorrow (Monday, June 13, 2011), each trainee will be visiting a volunteer to stay with them for a few days to experience first-hand the life of a volunteer and the work in which they're involved. I'm looking forward to it. I will be going to a little town called San Patricio in the departamento of Misiones which is in the south of Paraguay. I will update soon to tell you all how it went. Until then, I leave you all with a picture of the entire training group so you can see the people with whom I've been working. I'll try to put up some other pictures up soon, and write a little bit more diligently about my experience thus far.
From right to left, more or less, we have Steph, Roberto, Taylor, Amy, Eric, Vicky, Julie, Veronica, Kevin, Johanna, Ginsey, Shavon, Richard, Estee, Brittany, Randi, Molly, Dion, Evelyn, Ben, Chris, Marilu, and, finally, Me.
If you're all wondering about the title, I'll get to it! First things first.
As you all can see, I've made it here to Paraguay! This will be the first blog that I write in Paraguay! I arrived more than 2 weeks ago, and it feels like I've been here for months. I say this because so many things have been packed into such a short amount of time. I arrived in Miami for Staging not this past Tuesday but the Tuesday before. That night I met a few of the other trainees and then tried to get some sleep. Wednesday was filled with ice breakers and other orientation activities to get to know better fellow trainees and the organization through which we'll be serving Paraguayans! All my fellow trainees are really cool. It was nice being around them because I no longer had to do much of the explaining why I'm here that I've been doing the past few months because everyone joins the Peace Corps for roughly the same reason. After a busy day, we went to the airport around 6:30, and, after a long check-in process and a 2 hour delay, we finally took off at around 2 in the morning on Thursday, technically.
We arrived in Asunción, Paraguay at around 2:00 after a short lay over in Montevideo, Uruguay. To be honest, I hadn't in the moment nor have I now thought much about the fact that I had just flown to a place quite distant and distinct from the place where I have lived my entire life, and that I will be spending quite a while here. I think I've been handling this fact well so far. I have not once questioned my intentions, and I have not once freaked out about the fact that my resources, primary support groups, and responsibilities will now be in a country in which I've never lived before. I've felt no reason not to be calm. I have too much to learn and take in during these short 11 weeks of training that it seems pointless and quite overwhelming to be preoccupied with much else.
Once off the plane, we were greeted by the Peace Corps Paraguay staff. From now on, I will use PCP as an abbreviation referring to Peace Corps Paraguay because I can already foresee it becoming old quickly having to write that out over and over again... Continuing on...We spent out first night in Paraguay at a retreat center not too far from the airport outside of Asunción. It was a nice time to relax a little, talk to fellow volunteers and staff, and experience some of Paraguay's traditions, one of which being the drinking of an herbal type tea called terere. It is very similar to mate, the most important distinction being that it is taken cold, not hot. There will be more about terere and mate later I'm sure, but for now, for all those that are interested in how to speak Guarani, the last vowel in words is the one that carries an accent. This is a general rule. For example, one would put the emphasis on the last e in terere. In the exception to this rule, an accent will be put on the vowel that is stressed to make clear its pronunciation. For example, Mba'éichapa, which is the most expression used to greet someone that roughly translates to "Hi, how are you?," has the accent over the e to show that the stress is not on the last vowel.
The next day we me the rest of the Peace Corps training personnel. All the staff are great. After having a session at the training in Guarambare, we went to our communities to meet our host families. I'm staying with an older retired couple and their son who is a university student. After having lived only a little over 2 weeks with them, I already feel like I can call them my Paraguayan family. I love them. They are very warm and welcoming, and were excited right from the start about hosting a trainee. The first weekend, Joel, the son, invited me to play soccer with a few of his friends and to go to one of his friend's birthday party. He is around my age, so I feel like we have a lot in common. My host mom is very caring and generous, especially with feeding me enormous amounts of food. It's great because she's a good cook, but if I didn't still have a good metabolism I'd probably be huge in a month or so. She taught me how to say 'I'm hungry' in Guarani! It's Che vare'a. I guess she figured that it is important to express my desire to eat. Ha! I'll talk more about specific foods in another post. She and my host dad also try to teach me a lot of Guarani, which can be a little overwhelming at times because I'm learning a lot of Guarani in class, but I appreciate it a lot. Luckily, we exclusively speak in Spanish, or Castellano as it's called here. They do not know any English, but since they lived in Ciudad del Este, which is a Paraguayan city that is located at their border with Brazil, they understand and can speak Portuguese as well, so sometimes we converse in that as well which is cool. It's amazing how they essentially can speak in 4 different languages: Castellano, Portuguese, Guarani, and Jopara, which is a mixed language of both Castellano and Guarani that it widely spoken in Paraguay.
In terms of Guarani, I've surprisingly learned a lot so far, and I feel like I can independently think about the language and figure a lot of things out based on the structure, form, and grammar rules of the language. Our training combines language classes and specific technical training which we have each day. Training is quite intensive, and we don't have much free time especially since a lot of time spent outside training is with family and other volunteers, so I'm exhausted by the time I have any of it.
Apart from all the Paraguayns I've met and all the language and culture of which I've been learning, I've been able to get to know better my fellow trainees, which has been nice because they're all very cool and have great things to share with Peace Corps and with other trainees/to-be-volunteers like me. We all actually got a chance to go to Asuncion, the capital city, for the first time in pairs to do a little excursion in which we had to find a few places in the city and then find our way to the Peace Corps office. I had a great partner, Evelyn, and we had no trouble getting around, and we had a good time figuring everything out. Tomorrow (Monday, June 13, 2011), each trainee will be visiting a volunteer to stay with them for a few days to experience first-hand the life of a volunteer and the work in which they're involved. I'm looking forward to it. I will be going to a little town called San Patricio in the departamento of Misiones which is in the south of Paraguay. I will update soon to tell you all how it went. Until then, I leave you all with a picture of the entire training group so you can see the people with whom I've been working. I'll try to put up some other pictures up soon, and write a little bit more diligently about my experience thus far.
From right to left, more or less, we have Steph, Roberto, Taylor, Amy, Eric, Vicky, Julie, Veronica, Kevin, Johanna, Ginsey, Shavon, Richard, Estee, Brittany, Randi, Molly, Dion, Evelyn, Ben, Chris, Marilu, and, finally, Me.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Why Peace Corps?
Welcome!
Thanks to all who have visited my blog as this is my first post! Whether you are family, a friend, a former professor or coach, a soccer player I've coached, a former co-worker, or a complete stranger, I invite you to join me as I soon begin my Peace Corps service in Paraguay as a volunteer in the Community and Economic Development Program.It has been a long time coming. I applied nearly a year and a half ago, I received an invitation about 5 months ago, and I begin the adventure in a few days. Time has flown to say the least. Despite the rapidly approaching departure date, I do feel prepared and ready.
In the past few months, especially this past month, I have found it extremely important to reflect on why I've made the decision to serve in the Peace Corps. I feel it is important not only for myself but also for the sake of everyone I love and care about, for my decision to serve greatly affects the lives of those that I love as well. It is for this reason that I believe they deserve to understand my motivation.
Some may ask, for example, why the hell I would decide to live in a poor, under-developed country for two years giving up the American life I've known for 23 years, sacrificing potential opportunities I would have in the United States, rarely seeing loved ones, all of whom mean the world to me, and leaving to discover a culture, community, and lifestyle all of which I know very little. This is a good question. It is a question that I know I will be asking myself at the most difficult times during my service, and it is precisely the question I wish to address in my first blog.
First, it is true that I genuinely want to make a positive impact on the world regardless of how big or small. I believe most people do in many different ways that are all their own. For me, this is the way I've chosen at this point in my life. However, making a difference in the world obviously does not mean one has to leave one's country for 2 years to work in a community located in a far-off land. After all, inequality, injustice, poverty, violence, and all the other things that keep me restless exist in all parts of the world including in America. I could just have easily pursued a volunteer opportunity in the United States. I mean to say that one opportunity is no more worthy or less worthy than the next. Therefore, my choice to serve abroad was quite deliberate and has also much to do with my passion for learning foreign languages and cultures, traveling, experiencing new things, challenging myself and beliefs about life that I hold, getting to know people with a different perspective than my own, and understanding other ways of life. I've been very fortunate to have been born in a safe and stable country with all the opportunities, rights, and privileges that come along with being an american citizen, to have received a good education leading up to a college degree, and to have been raised by extremely loving and supportive parents. I'm grateful for what I have and the privileges I've been afforded. I've enjoyed life in the United States, but I want to know something else beyond the life I've led in the U.S. because I think there's more out there to see and that there is worth in experiencing other things and being less ignorant about the diversity and the challenges that exist in the world.
Now on to the next question worth considering: What are my expectations? To be honest, I find it more important to consider what I expect of myself than to think of what I expect of the Peace Corps and the community in which I'll be living. I do, of course, expect that the Peace Corps will train me well and lend support as needed, but I see little point in thinking about my expectations of others until I'm actually there. If there's anything that I confidently believe in terms of my expectations, it is that my service will be difficult and that I will learn much. I also expect that things will take time; getting to know my host family, my community, Paraguayans as a people, and fellow volunteers and Peace Corps staff; integrating myself into Paraguayan society; learning the culture and the indigenous language, Guarani; finding people with whom to work and projects on which to focus; coping well with the stress of service and being away from my homeland and loved ones. All of these things will take time. I like to think that I'm patient. My patience, among many other things, will be put to the test. It will be crucial to be open-minded. I expect many things will be different in Paraguay. I expect of myself the strength to accept some differences and the courage to challenge others. I expect many things will be the same in Paraguay. Again, I expect to accept some similarities and challenge the others.
Another question many of you will be wondering is what exactly I will be doing, or, better yet, what I hope to accomplish through my service. I can tell you what my job description is, but what I will be doing on a day to day basis depends largely on the people in my community and the things that matter most to them. I did not join the Peace Corps to work for the United Stated government. I joined the Peace Corps to work with real people and to assist communities in better facing the challenges that hinder the progress they themselves want. This would all mean nothing to me if my work meant nothing to the people with whom I work. Therefore, I hope to first get to know the people in my community so that I can then transfer apposite knowledge to them that I've gained through school, experiences, jobs, and life. Ok. Now I will stop being vague and start telling you all something more concrete.
The more concrete description of the work of a CED (Community and Economic Development) volunteer in Paraguay can be broken down into 4 main areas: Civic Education, Entrepreneurship, Family Finance, and Information Technology. Basically volunteers are there to help identify resources in the community that can be used to further development in these 4 main areas. They also serve the role of trainer /teacher through which one can give classes and training on several different topics. You can work with schools, municipalities, youth groups, womens groups, neighborhood and cultural commissions. The options are plentiful, but may vary greatly depending on the specific needs of the community. I want to write more on this subject so people will have a better idea about what Peace Corps is all about, but I feel like it will be best to describe my life once I'm actually there.
I'll leave you all with a little info about Paraguay. For those that are a little geographically challenged, Paraguay is located in the heart of South America bordering Bolivia, Brazil, and Argentina. Most Paraguayans are of mixed Spanish and Guarani ancestry. Guarani is the indigenous people that inhabited the are when the Spanish arrived. Guarani, the native tongue of this indigenous group, is widely spoken, especially in rural areas, along with Spanish. Both Guarani and Spanish are the official languages of Paraguay. So yes, I will be learning Guarani! Ha! So while all of you back in America are in your cubicles, I will be learning a new language and living in a new place! Don't worry. All of you can make fun of me when I'm taking cold bucket showers, walking miles to get anywhere, and encountering big spiders hiding in my shoes! Don't know if any of that will be my reality. Ha. I'll just have to wait and see. Two years seems like a long time, but time will fly so I'm going to try to enjoy it to the fullest and give as much as possible.
Check back again sometime for my first post in Paraguay!
Another question many of you will be wondering is what exactly I will be doing, or, better yet, what I hope to accomplish through my service. I can tell you what my job description is, but what I will be doing on a day to day basis depends largely on the people in my community and the things that matter most to them. I did not join the Peace Corps to work for the United Stated government. I joined the Peace Corps to work with real people and to assist communities in better facing the challenges that hinder the progress they themselves want. This would all mean nothing to me if my work meant nothing to the people with whom I work. Therefore, I hope to first get to know the people in my community so that I can then transfer apposite knowledge to them that I've gained through school, experiences, jobs, and life. Ok. Now I will stop being vague and start telling you all something more concrete.
The more concrete description of the work of a CED (Community and Economic Development) volunteer in Paraguay can be broken down into 4 main areas: Civic Education, Entrepreneurship, Family Finance, and Information Technology. Basically volunteers are there to help identify resources in the community that can be used to further development in these 4 main areas. They also serve the role of trainer /teacher through which one can give classes and training on several different topics. You can work with schools, municipalities, youth groups, womens groups, neighborhood and cultural commissions. The options are plentiful, but may vary greatly depending on the specific needs of the community. I want to write more on this subject so people will have a better idea about what Peace Corps is all about, but I feel like it will be best to describe my life once I'm actually there.
I'll leave you all with a little info about Paraguay. For those that are a little geographically challenged, Paraguay is located in the heart of South America bordering Bolivia, Brazil, and Argentina. Most Paraguayans are of mixed Spanish and Guarani ancestry. Guarani is the indigenous people that inhabited the are when the Spanish arrived. Guarani, the native tongue of this indigenous group, is widely spoken, especially in rural areas, along with Spanish. Both Guarani and Spanish are the official languages of Paraguay. So yes, I will be learning Guarani! Ha! So while all of you back in America are in your cubicles, I will be learning a new language and living in a new place! Don't worry. All of you can make fun of me when I'm taking cold bucket showers, walking miles to get anywhere, and encountering big spiders hiding in my shoes! Don't know if any of that will be my reality. Ha. I'll just have to wait and see. Two years seems like a long time, but time will fly so I'm going to try to enjoy it to the fullest and give as much as possible.
Check back again sometime for my first post in Paraguay!
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