Friday, October 28, 2011

Getting guapa with the bees!

So this week we have gotten more into our agricultural training, which is awesome! We had sessions on crop rotation, abonos verdes (green manures), tree planting, soil, and, my favorite so far, bee keeping.  My first experience with bees did not go so well. It was basically me standing with a terrified look on my face not knowing what to do.  That was about as fun as it sounds.  This time the bees we looked at were more used to being around people and the trainers were more comfortable with them.  I got to suit up in bee gear and pull out parts of the structure, which was awesome.  Unlike the first time when bees were aggressively dive-bombing at my face these bees just buzzed around.  They were very ‘tranquilo’ and therefore very Paraguayan.  I ended up being in the group being taught by Caleb, who actually is the boyfriend of the volunteer I stayed with.  He was very guapo and good with bees (guapo in Paraguay doesn’t mean good looking, it means hard-working).  We also ate some of the honey from one of the combs and it was delicious.  Now I think I have changed my mind and I wouldn’t mind being in a site that had to work with bees.  We find out what site we are in 4 weeks and the suspense is evil.  I understand that they want to take their time when placing us but I just want to know!
            In other news I am still doing well down here! I know that it hasn’t been a month but I am not homesick yet.  Although I lost the GI challenge that has probably been my lowest point here, and honestly that wasn’t even that low.  I am pretty sure we might all be out of the challenge. The group of trainees has already become incredibly close and we all are in this together.  I think it might be harder for the ones that came down with significant other’s back home but we are all there for one another. 
            The food could use a little more variety but luckily I still love bananas.  I have also come to love my fresh from the cow coffee and milk.   Paraguay is an amazing country and the people are awesome!  I was also told that I would be fine when I got to site because I am exactly what the people expect: light eyes and light skin.  This also earned me the nickname of “ojosclaros” which I am hoping doesn’t stick but we will see. We have also been talking about the different issues volunteers will face in site.  The main challenge I foresee is that fact that I am a woman working in agriculture.  Men and women go into the fields for one reason, to have sex.  In order for me to be able to go into a field without starting ‘chisme’ (gossip) I need to gain the trust of the wife.  So unlike the male volunteers who plan on integrating by picking up a hoe and being guapo in the fields, I will be confined to terere with the woman until I can be trusted with the men.  Maybe by then I will be an awesome beekeeper and I can do a wild hive capture and hang out with my bees to kill the time until I can show how guapa I can be!
            Also I am not sure if this gets repetitive but by the time I actually write a blog post I am too lazy too look back and see what all I have already said.  Also thanks to everyone that comments on the blog! I have no clue how to comment back! But I want you to know that I read them and I love them! Sky, I agree completely that bugs in your clothes are super gross! Also Heidi it is awesome that you are taking Spanish! I think I am going to come back home speaking a weird Paraguayan Spanish but I am okay with that!

Okay well I miss you guys and I hope everyone is doing well! I tried to put up some pictures but they didn´t show up so I will try again next week!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Volunteer Visit


So I just finished up week three of training and I cannot believe how quickly it is going. I spent Monday through Thursday with a current PCV named Kendall at her site and it was awesome.  I finally did not have to sit through boring power points (which I understand are necessary) and I was able to learn what an actual volunteer does.  What I came to realize is that Peace Corps is all about integration.  We went over to her neighbors and drank terere; it is a tea type drink that is cold and is passed around in circles.  Terere is really a time to be social.  Most of the women I drank with wanted to talk about how ‘linda’ my skin is, ask if I was aware of the dangers of the sun, find out if I had a boyfriend, ask if I wanted to meet someone Paraguayan, and comment on the weather.  Honestly though, Paraguayans are some of the nicest people I have ever met.  They find out you are visiting and immediately invite you into their home and offer you food.  They are all just very curious about what we are doing here.  They are also some of the most honest people I have ever met.  For example, when I was riding back from Kendall’s I ended up taking the bus with my friend.  An old man approached us as we were drinking a beer outside of a restaurant near our bus stop and asked if we spoke any Guarani (the local language), I responded with my standard ‘michi mi’ which means a little. Generally people laugh at this and understand that I really do not speak any so they continue in Spanish.  This man decided he wanted to teach us some more words so he taught us the Guarani word for big (of course I have already forgotten it).  He then used the word in a sentence.  His first sentence basically translated as “You are big” he then explained, “vos sos alta” or you are tall while he pointed at me.  The next sentence he directed at my friend saying “You are big” but then he said in Spanish “vos sos gorda” which means you are fat.  He then starts laughing about how big can mean so many different things.  He had no idea that what he just said was considered extremely rude by American standards.  Paraguayans will be the first ones to tell you if you have gained weight or describe you by your physical features.  One girl in the group is known as “la china” because she is Chinese.  I am known in my town as “la alta” if they do not remember my name.
Okay so back to my visit with Kendall, after we met with the neighbors and discussed my lack of love life (I have a lot of Paraguayans that are trying to fix me up on dates with random people in the community, super awkward and funny) we suited up in some bee gear and went out into the fields.  After my first experience at a beehive I can honestly say that bees are terrifying.  Basically you are in a white suit that is protecting you from hundreds of pissed off bees that want to sting you.  They zip around your face and dive-bomb into your mask.  Kendall actually got stung in the face, but she handled it like a champion and we put the hive back together and got out of there. The next day I went to a different volunteer’s community and watched her and Kendall give a “charla”, or lecture, on HIV awareness.  It was very informative watching how two volunteers worked together and filled in gaps in each other’s Spanish to give this talk to a bunch of high school students.  It was also good to see that the country was teaching about proper condom use since it is 90% Catholic here and I think even the school might have been Catholic. 

On this visit I also ate more vegetables than the entire time I have spent in Paraguay and it was GLORIOUS.  Kendall said that during her PCV visit when she was a trainee all she wanted to do was nap and eat vegetables; so that is what she planned for me.  She also had a shower heater so I took slightly warm showers for a few days! 

When I got back to training I was in for a rude awakening because most of the other volunteers had very different experiences, by that I mean they were bucket bathing and using latrines. I find out in about 4 weeks what my real site will be like so fingers crossed that I get electricity! Also if I have to bucket bathe I think I will build a structure to hide behind while I do it since most of the volunteers just stood naked behind their houses to bathe.  I might want a little bit of privacy for that. 

Also a few people have asked some questions about my birthday and the package situation down here.  I have been told that packages do make it down here and generally they are not tampered with; however, they take much longer that the post office says.  Apparently they can get here after 2 weeks or maybe 3 months.  That being said I love getting mail so if you want to send me anything feel free! My address is:

Maggie Flinn PCT
Cuerpo de Paz
Chaco Boreal 162 casi Mariscal. López
Asunción 1580, PARAGUAY

Currently I am craving peanut butter of any variety (send me your favorite kind!) or almond butter, I love Halloween candy (let’s be real I love all candy), and Starbucks instant coffee.  Also if you are super tech savvy and know how to put movies on flashdrives or dvds I would love any random movies or tv shows! I also love surprises and stupid things so you could send me silly putty and legos and I would be thrilled! I also would love to have pen pals so feel free to just write a letter! I think the postage on a letter is a little under $1 so not too bad.  There are other ways to send packages that would be faster but I am pretty sure the price is ridiculous and not worth it. 

It is starting to get a little hotter in Paraguay but it is pretty similar to Georgia so I am doing okay.  I am a little bit terrified about the winters since the houses do not have any insulation.  Apparently work in the campo sort of comes to a halt in summer and winter and people spend their days trying to figure out how to cool off or warm up. My volunteer gave me a lot of good advice on this topic; she said if you need some R&R take it.  You do not do your site any good hanging out being miserable so take a day or two and visit a friend.  It was good learning how the current volunteers dealt with issues. 

Alright that is all I have for now! This week is going to be a TECH based week so hopefully I will learn some really awesome skills that I can explain.  I also found out that in about 6 weeks I will have the opportunity to kill and pluck a chicken.  The bad thing is that we have been raising these chickens for the past few weeks and I might already be too attached to do the job.  If this is the case though I can give my chicken to my homestay mom (who I love) and let her do the dirty work! I hope everyone is doing well and I miss you guys!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

The End of Week Two


Week two of training just came to an end! On Saturday’s we only have a half-day of language (4 hours of Guarani is painful enough) and then we get the afternoon off.  Today a bunch of us are going into Guarambare (which is where I should be uploading this post).  This week has been pretty interesting.  We had our first TECH class on Tuesday, which basically means we finally learned about agriculture instead of the Peace Corps rules.  It was awesome.  There were three different stations and we were split into three groups.  The first station was all about chickens.  We learned about raising them and what sort of shelter should be provided.  Then we got 20 chicks, which our group is taking care of.  For this first week I was on chicken duty with Brian, it has actually been really fun.  The next station was working in the field.  We went out and planted a bunch of different plants.  Apparently about half the trees in Paraguay can be planted by just cutting off a live part of the tree and planting it.  We are also taking turns tending to this new “demo plot” but I do not do that until Week 4.  The last station was a small garden.  Here we learned how to cut down bamboo and build fences.  Then we learned how to make elevated soil beds. It was really fun to finally get outside and do work instead of sitting and reading power points! I would also like to give a shout out to my father for teaching me how to properly swing a hammer.  A bunch of the guys said I should congratulate him on teaching his daughter proper hammer technique.
Thursday we had another adventure.  We were paired up and given different locations in Asuncion that we had to visit.  My partner was Mark.  He is married to Susan, also a trainee, and he is about my Dad’s age.  We planned on meeting at 5:30 to walk to the bus stop, which is a little over a mile down the road.  We were told we had to wear business casual clothes and of course it was pouring down rain all morning.  We ended up getting to the capital soaking wet and getting lost.  So we walked around for about 30 minutes until we found the place we were looking for.  During this time we got a lot of looks, which I interpreted as “stupid gringos”.  We ended up going to a seed store, Agro Abasto and Mercado 4.  Both places were huge and had pretty much everything.  We even found owls for sale in Mercado 4, pretty sure that is illegal.  We didn’t actually meet with any people so our professional dress was unnecessary and just made the adventure a little more ridiculous.  Especially when the giant bus drove by us and sprayed us with water.  All in all it was fun day though.  The people were nice to us and helped us when we were lost and we got to go explore. 
So on Monday I have my first visit with a current PCV.  I leave early Monday and stay with a girl named Kendall until Thursday.  It is my first chance to learn what it is like to be an actual Peace Corps Volunteer.  I am pretty excited and also nervous.  When we were in the capital on Thursday a girl approached me at the Peace Corps office and asked if I was Margaret Finn, I said no but I was Maggie Flinn. She then told me she isfriends with the girl I am staying with and she wanted me to bring a good attitude and some wine.  My response naturally was “red or white?”I am hoping that this is a good sign that the trip will be fun. 
So I have noticed some things about Paraguay that I thought I would share.  First it is absolutely a “machismo” culture.  The men and women have pretty set gender roles.  It is odd for the female trainees to go watch the guys play soccer, and even more odd that I want to play (I do not think I am going to get an opportunity to play with anyone other than the kids).  The men also catcall and whistle at all the ‘norteamericanas’.  When you walk down the street in town all of the men in the stores continuously tell you how beautiful you are and how you stole their heart.  Fortunately it is not scary or threatening since they mainly do it to show off to their friends.  The other interesting thing they do is that when you are walking with a guy they tell him how beautiful you are.  They stop talking to the girls and just compliment the guy on their companion.  All of the female trainees have had random Paraguayan men come talk to the male trainees, in front of us, and go on about how pretty we were and how lucky the guys were.  It is very odd listening to men talk about you like you aren’t even there.   But despite the cultural differences I still love it here. The country is beautiful and the people are so welcoming.  I am extremely excited about getting out and seeing more of the country this coming week!

Monday, October 10, 2011

Fishing with the Locals


After finishing my first full week of training I must say that Peace Corps has a lot of rules.  When we aren’t learning about rules we are in 4-hour language classes for Guarani (we can take Spanish classes after we reach intermediate levels of Guarani).  After 20 plus hours of a new language and spending everyday speaking Spanish to a family I just met I will say this week has me exhausted.  I love Paraguay and I am having an amazing time so far but the language is frustrating.  You try and communicate something with your family three times in Spanish and then you try that last time in English on the hopes that they somehow learned another language over night (unfortunately for me they have not). 
Luckily there are about 16 other American volunteers in the exact same situation.  We have been exploring the local land going on hikes and runs.   The locals seem to think it is bizarre that we want to go running.  Since my meals have pretty much been fried bread I think I might need to continue running. Seriously the food is delicious but this is pretty much what I eat: Breakfast is bread and a drink that is 2/3 milk (straight from the cow and heated up) 1/3 instant coffee. Lunch is generally 5 empanadas and 4 pieces of bread (I usually give away about half of it) and for dinner we have bread, meat, and rice.  The reason the food is so good (although bland) is most likely because it is the freshest food ever.  We also always have a constant supply of mandioka (probably spelled wrong).  This is actually a plant root that is kind of like potato and they love it.  I am surprised they haven’t tried to fry it, they fry everything even hard-boiled eggs.
So today (Sunday) I went on a hike with Emily, Brian, and Elijah (who they call Elias since they cannot say his name down here).  We ended up going with about 7 kids who wanted to go fishing.  Although we planned on going on a longer hike the lake was only about 20 minutes away.  We climbed a brick fence and walked along the edge until we came to a lake next to some stables.  Apparently we were at the former Vice President of Paraguay’s house.  Brian and one of the boys went to go see if we could fish and they said it was fine so off we went.  The poles consisted of a piece of bamboo, two yards of string, and a hook.  We used worms for bait.  After about 3 hours the kids had about 20 fish, probably 10 were actually keepers.  These kids insisted on keeping everything so they ended up bringing 2-inch fish home to their parents.  Emily caught a baby fish and Elijah caught a decent size fish.   The problem with the bamboo stick method is that when you get little nibbles on the worm you can’t set the hook because the fish are too small so you sort of just wait.  Then if you get a real bite you jerk the rod back, essentially flinging the fish behind you.  Elijah was casually holding the rod in his hand when he got a big bite that pulled the rod into the water.  Elijah, not wanting to lose a local kids rod, jumped in the lake after the rod.  The rest of us looked over to see Elijah victoriously climbing out of the lake, fish still on the rod.  It was a very fun day.
I am also attaching pictures; since I am writing this blog in my room without Internet I don’t really know what ones I will attach.  I just wanted to save money by not having to type blog posts at the Internet cafes. 




Rules and Regulations

So far training has just been going over Peace Corps rules.  I found out there are 4 things that if I do will get me separated administratively from the Peace Corps.  These 4 things are:
1.      Using or being rumored to use illegal drugs. (When they say rumored they mean numerous people in the community call and are concerned about you)
2.      Leaving the country without notifying the Peace Corps.
3.      Refusing immunizations.
4.      Riding a motorcycle (In extreme cases this can be broken, like if I am in urgent need of medical care and a motorcycle is the only way to travel).
Those seem okay to me, especially after hearing that motorcycle accidents are the leading cause of death in Paraguay. So besides listening to Peace Corps rules we have also being practicing Guarani, the second language of Paraguay.   It is super hard. We have three hours of language classes a few times a week and my brain just throbs during them.  Also when I get home I not only have to speak to my host family in Spanish (a challenge on it’s own) but they throw in random Guarani to help me practice. 
Today we also had an interesting medical lecture on diarrhea.  The volunteers have actually made a contest to see who can make it the longest without GI problems.  About 5 of the 34 are out of the running but I am still in there and hoping to win! Apparently it is super common and I feel like the 34 of us are closer in 1 week than most people are after months of friendship.  We are all in the same boat and we have absolutely no shame.  I have a feeling that if I laugh or make fun of anyone with issues that will be when gastrointestinal karma strikes down on me. 
On a less gross note, I had my first interview with the Agriculture staff this week about site location preferences.  I am trying to be open minded and the main thing I want is to be close to a few other volunteers.  I think I could survive without running water and electricity (it would be hard) but I will need a few Americans to suffer with.  I told the trainers that were interviewing me that I like animals and I like to fish.  They also asked how I envisioned my service, which is an odd question since they have spent the last week basically telling us “don’t expect anything because you will be wrong”.  I told them I had no expectations and an open mind, but they kept pressing for an answer.  I finally said I imagined having a dog by my side.  So they wrote on my form “Wants a dog”. Hopefully they can make that happen!
So there are 18 Agriculture Volunteers and they are awesome! We lost one in the first few days and no one is really sure why she went home.  She was my roommate in Miami and seemed very nice.  This first week has been overwhelming and they are right when they describe it as a roller coaster of emotions but I cannot imagine going home now.  I spent almost a year applying and I am going to do my best to see this through.
I know some of you guys have been worried about me but so far I love it down here. Apparently I am in the “honeymoon phase” of Peace Corps and it will eventually pass but for now I am extremely content in my little room.  My family and I are getting closer and there are fewer awkward pauses.  My diet consists of bread and fried foods but luckily I am able to trade with other kids at lunch and I buy my own fruit. I think I could definitely get used to the Paraguayan lifestyle, did I mention they siesta? We don’t get to yet since we are in training but in December, bring it on! I miss you all (unless you are a stranger reading my blog).

Monday, October 3, 2011

First Few Days


After what seems like a week of traveling, but was only really 2 full days, I have finally made it to where I will be spending the next 10 weeks! So the trip to Paraguay, although long, was relatively uneventful, until we tried to enter Paraguay. Literally each one of us had something wrong with our visa.  Mine took the prize for being the absolute worst.  First, my expiration date had white out on it, which is typically a no-no for government documents. Second, my name was randomly cut off halfway through the o in Rose.  Third, my personal favorite, my gender was listed as “masculino”.  Luckily the Paraguayans were kind enough to look the other way and let us all enter the country (we should be getting new visas this month) but the event has earned me the nickname ‘Marty’ for the time being.  Hopefully this does not stick and I am no longer known as the new guy in the group. 

I am living with a family in Santo Domingo, about 25 minutes away from our training site.  There were 35 of us in total at staging, which basically was so we all understood what we were getting into and to ensure we all made it down.  Half of us are agricultural extensionists and the other half are environmental education volunteers. The Ag group (including myself) is living in Santo Domingo.  The coolest part about this is that 3 other volunteers are staying at my 3 neighbors homes! We are all within walking distance (less than 3km from each other).
So my house is a family of 5, the parents and their two daughters and son.  The girls are 19 and 13 and have been so nice to me! The mom is also very sweet but her Spanish is a little harder to understand.  Luckily over the past few days my Spanish has been coming back to me bit by bit, which is a very good thing.  The house has all of the basics.  I have running water, electricity, and my own room.  Although my showers are all extremely cold, I am thankful that I do not have to bucket bathe (although that may change when I move to my site). 

I have yet to do laundry but I think I will try to tackle that challenge tomorrow.  If it does not go well an arrangement has been made for the families to wash our clothes at the price of 1,000 guarani per item (4,000 guarani is roughly 1 dollar).  That seems very reasonable to me.  The scary thing is you have to iron all of your clothes because they dry on the line and bugs will lay eggs in them.  Also apparently Paraguayans do not wash other people’s underwear so I am supposed to take the underwear with me in the shower and clean it myself.
Everyone in my program is very nice and we all seem to get along.  I recently discovered my kindle has an internet browser that runs off of free 3G so I get a little bit of internet at my house, which is awesome! We haven’t started real training yet but that will happen next week. Tomorrow is my first day off and I have no idea what I am going to do.  Hopefully I will find some adventure to take part in so that I have more exciting things to write about! 

I didn´t end up doing laundry yesterday, but I went to a party instead! Much better use of my time!