November 16, 2011

Today was an extremely busy day in Paraguay.  I woke up at 5 and ran somewhere between 7.5 and 8 miles, which normally would be enough to write a blog about since a lot of crazy things happen when running in Paraguay.  Then I went on an adventure with the other trainees. We saw rock formations, a convent, climbed to the roof of a castle, watched a group of trainee boys jump into a polluted lake in their briefs, and saw hundreds of ceramic nativity scenes. However, I am not going to elaborate on any of those things.  Why you might ask? That would be because something WAY more important happened today.  That is correct blog readers that keep up with what I tell them, today I received my future site location!

I am convinced that the reason the Peace Corps took us on so many adventures this morning is because they knew how insufferable we would be during normal class in the training center.  They brought us back to the training center at 2 with plans of telling us where we were going at 3 (rude).  They tried to distract us with Paraguayan music and dancing (as if the polka could distract me from the folders they were laying out on a table and held the exact location of where I will live for the next 2 years).  I had some predictions before I learned my site; I thought I would be out in the middle of nowhere and that I would not have running water (we all have electricity!).  I ended up being half right.  So which would you prefer? No running water but close to civilization or running water out in the boonies?  I would prefer no water but close to civilization, which luckily is what I got! My site is located in the district of Paraguari.  I am between 3 and 5 km from the main road, which happens to be one of the main rutas in Paraguay and has buses to the capital coming by every half hour.  The closest town is at most a 5km walk (this is awesome in case you weren’t sure whether to be happy or sad for me).  Seriously, I am beyond excited! I am also terrified because this Friday I meet a group of people that want me to move to their town and teach them everything I know about agriculture (not a lot).  More on silly fears later, I am sure you guys are dying to know more about my site!

The site already has a ‘comité de agricoltores’, which is made up of all women! This is basically a women’s agriculture group. I told them in my interview that I was more comfortable working with women and children since Paraguay is very ‘machismo’. I feel like this aspect of the culture makes it hard for female volunteers to be taken seriously in the fields and that more I also found out that the town had a volunteer about 5 years ago and she started a library which they would like me to continue working with.  This is especially awesome! I am thinking about trying to help organize the library (shout out to the staff at SandorTeszler) while I integrate into the community and decide what the agriculture committee would like to do. The volunteer prior worked in the health sector but it means that the town should have an understanding of what the Peace Corps is and my role in the community.  It also means that the house the former volunteer lived in should be available for me!

So now part of the mystery is gone.  I know where I am going.  I know that I won’t have water.  I do not know who is coming to meet me on Friday or whom I will be living with for the 5 days I spend in my future site.  I am terrified, nervous, excited, and awkward all at once.  It is a magical bundle of emotions!  I am sure that I will have my ups and downs with Peace Corps and that right now I am on one of the ‘emotional highs’ that we learned about in training, but right now I cannot believe that I considered going to law school or doing anything other than what I am right now.  Seriously, imagine the stories I am going to come home with after 2 years of using a latrine and bucket bathing?

Hopefully during my trip next week I can take lots of pictures so that people that actually take the time to read my blog can see where I will be living! I hope everything is going well in the states and you all should write me a letter and be my penpal!

Long Field Adventure

So this week we had our long field visit.  This is when a group of trainees goes to stay with a current volunteer in their community.  My language class, which consists of myself, Elijah, Brian and Lauralee, all were sent to a community in Paraguari called Potrero Garay to visit a Beekeeping volunteer named Teresa.  We left on Tuesday morning and stopped in a town for lunch, I mention this only because the town had peanut butter, which all of the trainees freaked out about! When we arrived around lunchtime Teresa took us around to meet our homestay families for the week.  She also mentioned that one of us would be sharing a room with a 13-year-old boy (I immediately got the feeling that person would be me).  We first drop of Brian and then walk for about 10 minutes and drop off Elijah so I am starting to get concerned that we will all be extremely spread out among the community.  After dropping off Elijah we walk about 10 yards and stop again at my house for the week (the distance between the houses will be important for another part of the story).  I meet my mother who is extremely sweet and I am shown where to put my things; naturally, it is in the room where the 13-year-old boy, Alexa is napping.  Luckily Alexa and my family were awesome.  Things did get interesting when I asked Alexa where the restroom was and he pointed outside the fence, I walked outside the fence and he said, “keep going” so I kept going.  He then yelled, “left, to the left”.  This is what I saw to my left:

I wish I could say that I understood how this was supposed to work, but I still honestly have no idea.  I think I get the basic concept but the stool keeps throwing me off.  I also constantly had this fear that I would misuse this “latrine” and end up falling through the wood and get stuck in a gross hole.  Once I had that idea stuck in my head my imagination ran wild and created an elaborate story in which I fell through and my tiny host mother (she was about 5’2’’ and 100lbs) was too weak to pull me out so we had to get Elijah to save me.  Then the rest of my time in Paraguay I’d be the girl that fell in the latrine.  Since I have always felt that any nickname that centers around being any sort of “girl” has a negative connotation (crossfitters remember my reluctance at being labeled “demogirl” in krav class), I avoided the odd latrine as much as possible.

So as you might have gathered by this picture, Teresa’s site does not have running water.  I also learned that the woman I was staying with, Na Vire (na basically means Mrs. in Guarani) was embarrassed by her bathroom situation and almost didn’t host one of us.  Once learning about this I did my best to reassure her that I did not mind at all and not to worry!  She then asked me if I wanted to bathe, after traveling all-day and hiking around Teresa’s site I absolutely wanted to bathe.  So outside we went and we walked down a path carrying a silver bucket and a yellow pitcher.  When we arrived at our destination, a well next to a stream, I couldn’t help but notice the complete lack of privacy.   My mother helped me fill my buckets and left to go back to the house so I could bathe in “privacy”.  During my first bucket bath I couldn’t help but notice how it was sort of awesome that I was standing next to a stream in Paraguay rinsing my hair with water from a well.  Once I was fresh and clean, I walked back to hang out with my family and eat dinner.  The next day I was telling Elijah and Lauralee about my “bathroom”, I told them both that they should not wander around outside between 7 and 8 because that is when I bathe and it would be awkward to have them stumble upon me naked, except for my shower shoes, next to a well.  They both laughed and agreed, or so I thought.  That night when I was leaving the shower I see Elijah and his mom (my host mom’s sister), strolling through the gate to fetch a pail of water.  I scowled at Elijah and he responded that his mom said the water from our well was better for drinking (likely story).  Luckily he saw nothing, although, I may have given a few of the Paraguayan men working in the fields a good view.  All in all I did not mind life without water, which is a good thing since I find out my site on Wednesday and it is completely possible that I will spend the next two years without running water.  Here is a picture of my well:

During the visit we spent a good bit of time practicing Guarani with our language teacher (poor Delphina was forced to come along for the ride) and meeting local members of the community.  I also learned that I am currently speaking Guarani at an intermediate low level.  This is exciting because you have to be at a intermediate mid in order to swear in as a volunteer.  This is also exciting because I am sort of a slacker when it comes to Guarani (I know everyone reading this just gasped since I normally have such a stellar work ethic when it comes to school).  We also gave a charla (talk) on reforestation to a group of women that are in a committee that is raising chickens; the talk went really well! We also helped the women in the chicken committee harvest some plants that they are going to eventually use to make their own chicken feed.  We toured local gardens and learned more about life as a volunteer.  Unfortunately, the Peace Corps forgot to send us down with enough Epipens so we weren’t able to do any beekeeping and it rained when we were supposed to plant Abonos Verdes.  Rain in Paraguay means nothing happens.  School is canceled, men stay home from work and everyone just takes the day off. It was an awesome trip.  Friday was our last day in the community and also my 23^rd birthday.  I was sort of unsure how a birthday in Paraguay would go so I didn’t tell Na Vire it was my birthday. The other trainees and Teresa were awesome about it being my birthday.  Lauralee made me a card, which had 23 mandioca on it, one for each year of my life (mandioca is a plant that they eat here with basically every meal, they are obsessed with it and it has become a running joke because all of the volunteers and trainees).  

Teresa made me an awesome cake of random items she had in her kitchen which turned out to be delicious (it was an oatmeal, chocolate, banana cake).  The best card was made by Elijah, which he then had everyone sign.  Look at how epic this birthday card is:

We then got on the bus and headed out of town.  Long Field was really good for me because it was the opposite of what my Volunteer visit was: no running water and 10k from the nearest bus stop.  The great thing about that is that I loved both of the experiences so hopefully I am ready for anything that Peace Corps throws my way!  Thanks for all of the birthday wishes, I wish that I could be celebrating with all of you but it is nice to know that you still haven’t forgotten about me!

I also have some random pictures to add.  During our visit we had an epic snack that consisted of bananas, apples, fiber crackers (you might chuckle at this but we take our GI health very seriously these days), and peanut butter.  Delicious.

Another awesome, yet random thing, I have learned about while being down here is that sometimes hens will be sort of like adoptive mothers to baby ducks.  When I saw this I thought it was adorable. My friend then told me how funny it is when the baby ducks go into the water for the first time because the chicken mom is on the land freaking out.  Running back and forth on the shore because their babies should not be in the water.  Here is a picture of the happy adoptive family.

Homi's Farm

Last Saturday the Ag group of trainees took a trip to visit Homi’s parent’s farm.  Homi is one of our Paraguayan trainers and he is one of the smartest people I have ever met.  He can answer any question you have about farming in English, Spanish, or Guarani.  His parent’s farm is amazing.  We went to see it as an example of permaculture.  The farm was relatively small, only about two acres but every part of it was used efficiently.  They had worm cultures that were used to produce castings to be sold or used in the fields.  The fields grew food for the animals.  The cows were used for milk and me            at.  The dairy was used to make cheese, yogurt, and ice cream, which were all sold.  The pigs were sold for meat and their poop was collected and used in a biodigesture, which created methane gas that the family used for cooking in order to lower the amount of propane they purchased.  The waste that has to be collected from inside the biodigesture after a while was used to feed the fish they had in a man made pond.  They also had rabbits, which they sold for meat.  The rabbits were in cages above a trough and their poop was also used for fertilizer.  It was slightly overwhelming how efficient everything was.  It was also gorgeous and located right outside the capital.

Pictures from Homi's Farm:

            

 Homi's nephew playing with their dog

 Homi's nephew feeding the cows
 

The biodigesture

 

Rabbits hanging out in their cages

            

Homi's Mom making cheese!

Yesterday, which would also be Saturday, it rained for most of the day.  The thing about living off of a dirt road is that when it rains you can’t go anywhere.  So I woke up around 5 A.M to the sound of rain and slept until around 9, I ate breakfast and realized I was staying inside the house for the next few hours so I organized my room, played with a rubix cube, read, and slept.  Finally by 3 P.M I had cabin fever and I had to leave my room so I braved the mud.  I ran into another trainee Lydia and she and I wandered around our town for the next 3 hours, which was really fun.  Then last night we ended up going to a dance club, Tabasco, because they were having a party to help raise money for the local high school.  It was actually awesome!  The reason is that all of the trainees that went danced around like idiots not caring what the other people thought while all of the Paraguayans grinded their hearts out to weird Paraguayan Polka music.  I am fairly certain that this town will forever think that all Americans do the sprinkler and shopping cart in clubs, which I personally think is fantastic!

This coming week we have our Long Field Visit which means that me, Elijah, Lauralee and Brian are all going to spend 4 days with a volunteer. While we are there we are going to give presentations and work with different committees.  I am actually really excited.  We are staying with new families, which might be odd since 4 nights isn’t really enough time to form a good relationship with a new family, but I think it will still be really fun! I miss you guys and I hope everything is going well in the states!

Laundry Day!

So after being here for almost 5 weeks I finally learned how to do my own laundry! It was about as fun as it sounds. Doing laundry at home can be annoying and all you really have to do is add detergent, move clothes from one machine to another, and fold them at the end.  Here it is so much more.  I started laundry day on Sunday around 8:30 A.M. I learned that there is a process by which clothes are hand washed: whites, colors, blacks, and last socks.  In Paraguay it is rude to let other people touch your underwear or I guess really see it (this could be a lie they told us in training) so the trainees were all instructed to wash their underwear in the shower (about as fun as it sounds, also).  So after I learn about filling this bucket, that used to be a tire but now has a bottom, with water I add all sorts of soaps and throw in my white clothes.  My host-mom teaches me how to properly scrub the clothes and I think I catch on pretty quickly.  After I have all of the white clothes scrubbed and in a bucket waiting to be rinsed a minimum of 3 times I move on to the colored clothes.  I make the mistake of throwing a dress into the same bucket as my whites (I thought this wasn’t a big deal since we were using cold water, since that is all we have unless you boil it).  My mom runs over and re-scrubs all of my white shirts since they now have random red dye on them.  Luckily she was there to save the day and no harm came from my mistake.  Fast forward two hours and 14 buckets of water later and my clothes are clean and ready to be hung on the line! Aside form the color incident there was another highlight of my first true laundry experience.  This occurred when my mom grabbed a chicken from in front of me and flipped it over, holding it up by one leg.  As I looked at her curiously she smiles and says, “Voy a matarlo”.  Which translates as “I am going to kill it”, I then watched her break the chickens neck and hang it upside down by a string around its foot.  I also was luckily enough to eat the chicken for lunch with gnocchi (which was delicious).  After lunch I went to a benefit with some other trainees in a different part of town.  This was pretty fun mainly because it gave us all something to do other than think about how much language we still need to learn.  After I got back I went to the line and saw my clothes, although now extremely stiff, were dry.  This started the exciting second part of my laundry, ironing! Half an hour later my clothes were botfly egg free (hopefully) and ready to wear! Seriously 2 ½ of doing laundry has forever altered the way I will view those magical machines we take for granted in the states.  So the next time you put on a clean pair of underwear think of how nice it is that you didn’t wash them in the shower right after you washed your hair.  Or if you do decide to iron a shirt be thankful that you just want to look nice and you aren’t ironing out of fear of an insect laying eggs in your skin!

I also have the option of going back to paying my host-mom 1,000 guarani per article of clothing (that is 25 cents), which I just might end up doing.  Laundry was fun to learn but I may save that joy for when I am on site and have no other option.  Speaking of site in exactly 2 weeks I find out where I am going!!!! That is very, very exciting! Far more exciting than my birthday being on 11/11/11 this year, which let’s be real, is pretty exciting! Right now there are so many questions in my head.  Will I have running water? Will I be a follow up? Will I be a 10k walk to the nearest bus stop? Will I have to take taxis? Will I be close to other volunteers? If I am what if they hate me!?!?! 14 days and some of these questions will be answered! I also had my first real pang of homesickness the other night.  It was Halloween night and I had been talking to people about how my Dad dresses up as Indiana Jones far too often on Halloween.  Then that night I had a dream that had a lot of random things happen in the beginning (I won’t bore you with details) but ended with me shark fishing with my mom and dad (real parents, not host family).  I was using shark as bait to catch shark and laughing and talking to my dad when I got a bite while I was mid-question.  My dad yelled, “Shut up Maggie and SET THE HOOK”.  My dad then started laughing this super genuine laugh, and then I woke up.  So not only do I have to live with not knowing whether or not I set the hook (I think I did) but I also wake up at 2 A.M having just been dreaming about fishing with my parents and laughing with them.  It was such a mean dream! Luckily I am really good at sleeping so I put on some music and went back to bed; but before I fell asleep I definitely missed home.  So family and friends out there even though I may not have specifically dreamed about you I miss you all, despite the fact that I do still love it here. 

I finally figured out how to change the size of picture!

 Poor dead chicken/lunch.