2 Months in Site!!!

Today, February 13, 2012, marks my 2-month anniversary in site.  I also moved out of my homestay yesterday and into my casita!  For my first night the room had all of my stuff (I have no idea why I thought 2/3 of these things were necessary to bring) and a bed.  I used a hammock as a sheet and a sleeping bag as a blanket.  I have since then managed to make a deal to borrow a stove for 2 years and bought some of the essentials (ie. Two 20 gallon buckets for carrying water to and from the well).  Hopefully the drought ends soon since we are starting week 4 without water in the well.

My contact has begun asking me when I am going to start ‘working’.  This is an odd question for me to answer because technically Peace Corps literally expects me to spend the first 3 months just integrating and getting to know the people.  I have some ideas about lectures that I can give but I have no way of getting people to all meet to actually give the lecture.  I also am slightly terrified by my lack of agricultural knowledge. I am starting my garden after I get my house all set up and I have no idea what I am doing.  Paraguayans are going to be laughing at the rubia with the machete messing up her bamboo fence. 

I have brought up my concerns about lack of project ideas with some volunteers that have been here over a year and what they said both calmed my nerves and freaked me out.  Basically it took them about a year in site to figure out how to meet with the community and what projects were actually feasible.  I am extremely glad that I am not that only one that has felt like they have no idea what they are doing; I am not glad that I will most likely feel this way for another 9 months. 

When they tell you that in the Peace Corps you will have a crazy rollercoaster of emotions you sort of shrug and think “obviously…” (At least this is what I did).  Then your first low point hits you. I haven’t had a point low enough to make me consider the option of ET’ing (early termination) but I know a lot of volunteers have, and I am sure my first time is just around the corner.  It is more that I have moments where I just want to be normal.  I don’t want to have fair skin and speak with a funny accent.  I don’t want to have to think while watching telenovelas because it isn’t in English.  Then 20 minutes after I mentally list everything that is bothering me about this country I get offered a glass of mango juice fresh from the mango tree that I am sitting under.  While drinking my juice I realize how absolutely awesome it is that I currently call Paraguay home. Outside of my new house I have 2 types of mango trees, grape vines, banana trees, apple trees, and a grapefruit tree.  I could stop buying groceries and live off of the fruit I can pick from my window.  Crazy!

I have been told the first 3 to 6 months in site are the hardest, even harder for Ag and EE volunteers because we come right at Christmas and right at the start of summer when it is too hot to do anything but sweat and the kids aren’t even in school.  Luckily Paraguay has a very laid back attitude about work and often times I am told I am ‘guapa’ (hard-working) just for eating food.

Speaking of food there is another aspect of Paraguay that baffles me.  The women here love to feed me.  They enjoy nothing more than having me try something they cooked (they literally cook 4 different things, all fried and with inappropriate amounts of salt).  If I don’t eat the mountain of food they put in front of me they ask if I am on a diet, or worried that my boyfriend won’t like me if I am fat.  They then complain I don’t like their food and guilt me into eating more, when I honestly stopped eating because I was full.  They have now started telling me that I am a little more ‘gordita’ than when I arrived.  I explain to them that the reason is I am eating more than I am comfortable with and they just laugh.  This is another reason that I am thrilled to be in my own house where I can finally control what I eat! If I never see another batch of fried cow fat I will die happy.

List of random food I have eaten in Paraguay: Cow foot (ligaments inside the hoof), cow brain, cow cheek, cow tongue, cow stomach, pig blood sausage.

They really like to eat the entire cow. The tongue was creepy because it feels like you are accidentally chewing your tongue and eating it and the cow cheek tasted the best.