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.