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!
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