As the title of this entry says in guarani, "I'm living the good life". I just completed my 4 month work report that gets sent to Washington DC to assure them that I am not just chillin out in my hammock all day. Reflecting on the last 4 months made me realize that I really have accomplished a lot. Granted, the majority of that time was spent trying to integrate into my community, but that in itself is no easy feat. I would say it's probably the hardest part of being a peace corps volunteer. To me, successfully integrating means that I have adopted enough of their culture to be considered normal. I'm still that crazy blonde who has no family here, cooks weird food, talks funny, and who has bruises all over her body because she attempts to do man's work. BUT, I think I have gained my community's trust and I really do have a lot of people who care about me. I attempt to speak Guarani whenever I can, and they respect that. My old host mom now speaks to me only in guarani which means a lot to me because in the beginning she said to me, "You don't know any guarani. If you can't speak our language, how are we going to work together?" And now she is the president of my Fogon Comission and we are working together just fine. :)
I have been a very busy bee these days. I just finished a 4 week charla series about nutrition with all the high school students. We learned about the importance of a balanced diet by analyzing the food pyramid, about vitamin and mineral deficiencies in paraguay, basic nutrition facts (like you must eat fruit to maintain your health), and how to make milk from soy beans. Almost all of this was brand new material for the students. They've never heard of Spinach before and had no idea which foods contain calcium, let alone the other vitamins and minerals we talked about. I think they enjoyed my lessons and I hope they learned something. I had some issues with classroom management (as this is my first time teaching), but I had a few tricks up my sleeve to deal with the trouble makers. I also have issues with the 15-18 year old boys in my classes. They're completely obnoxious and inappropriate, but i guess that's what you get for being the only blonde haired person nearby. On the other hand, the elementary school kids are amazing. I walk in the classroom, and everyone stops what they're doing to listen to what I have to say. It's really a pleasure teaching them and I know they're learning new things for sure. This week I will be finishing up 4 weeks of dental health charlas. We covered why teeth are important, how to brush properly, how to use floss (because none of these kids have ever used it before), foods that are good and bad for your teeth, how a cavity forms, and this week we'll start fluoride treatments. All 84 students now have their own labeled toothbrush with a sample toothpaste tube in their classrooms and they brush every single day at school. They also each got a dental floss and I constantly see kids using it. A big thanks goes to Dr. Stone, who donated all of these materials.
Nothing too new with the Fogon (brick oven) commission. We just had another meeting yesterday, and we finalized the paperwork to hand in to the municipality. There are 20 people on the commission who will eventually get fogones. This Saturday, the commission is hosting a party to raise money for the cause.
My favorite project thus far has been teaching english. I was so hesitant to start classes because quite frankly, I was not at all interested. However, a few persistent kids got me to give in and thank god I did. I started with 2 students and now have 45. I teach 2 classes every Wed and Fri for an hour each. We have class right at my house and I use the side of my house as a chalkboard and it erases perfectly! We've learned greetings, a couple verbs, some adjectives, numbers, and animals so far. The kids are between the ages of 7-16 and the 10-11 year old age group is definitely learning the fastest which I found interesting. There's some who are learning rapidly; I can already have a conversation with them, and others much slower. However, everyone is so interested and really putting in a lot of effort. In my opinion, it's also boosting their self-esteem because I'm all about positive reinforcement, and giving them a different perspective on how one can learn. Their classes in the school are ridiculous. If the teacher shows up, she or he usually writes a million words on the chalkboard, and leaves while the students are told to copy what it says in their notebooks. Literally, that is what school is here. At least in the english class, we play games and have a lot of active participation which they are responding really well to.
I also went to a Peace Corps sponsored HIV/AIDS workshop with one of the nurses, Lourdes, from my community health post. My boss had to call them up and get her permission to come, but I am SO thankful he did. The doctor at my health post had previously told me that they don't want me to teach about sexuality or anything regarding sex in the high school because the parents will get mad. He said that since homosexual marriage was legalized in argentina, the parents have been worried that it'll happen here and so they're way of dealing with it is to not talk about it at all. First of all, I don't really see the relationship between homosexuality and teaching about safe-sex, hiv/aids, and STIs. Early teen pregnancy and the spread of STIs is a mojor problem in my community and instead of educating about prevention, they want to just forget about talking about it altogether??? That's ridiculous! Anyway, at the workshop we learned about how to teach about it using didactic materials, statistics in paraguay, discrimination, transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS. Two people living with HIV came and told us their story which I think was extremely eye-opening to all the paraguayans in attendance. When we got back from the workshop, Lourdes sent me a text that said, "Come to the health post, we're going to plan a charla to give to the parents." I went and had a meeting with the 3 nurses and doctor and we discussed that we will first present all the information we learned at the workshop to the parents, see what they have to say about it, and then begin charlas in the high school about less controversial topics such as self-esteem, values, and gender equality. Later on in my service, I will hopefully have the permission of the parents to start teaching about sex. We'll see how everything turns out!
Well, this is getting extremely long, so I will stop for now. Sorry it's been so long since I last updated. In general, things here are great and I feel like I am right where I need to be. I love my work here, even though I have some days where I'd much rather be at home spending time with my family and friends, and NEW NEWPHEW!!!!, but I know that these people really need me and I need them. I am learning so much about another culture, different people, and about myself. This is the only experience I will ever have like this and I fully intend to make the most of it.
chaocito!
Monday, September 13, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
feelin the paraguayan love
17/8/2010
I just found this saved in “my documents”. My host sister must have done this one time while she was using my laptop. ----
Laura, Ever , Daniela y María Inés siempre serán amigos aunque estén lejos unos de otros, siempre se llevaran en el corazón
Con amor……………
Maria ines
In English: Laura,Ever, Danielle, and Mari Ines will always be friends even though we may be far away from each other; we will always carry each other in our hearts. With love, mari ines
I love these people. They’re so sweet. Another example of Paraguayan love is that I went to the elementary school yesterday to celebrate “Paraguay childrens’ day”. I just played some games with them like duck duck, rooster, red light green light, and a game of soccer… boys vs girls. I brought some chalk (thanks mom) so that they could draw on the concrete outside. I walked over there to see what they had drawn and ALL over the school yard it said “Daniela, te quiero mucho”…. Danielle, I love you so much. How ADORABLE! Then, today, I made some chocolate cake (for dinner, sh don’t judge) and brought some over to my new neighbors. Instead of just accepting it as a small gift, this cute little old lady had to offer me something of hers… 4 home-produced chicken eggs.
This past week, I’ve accomplished A LOT. I wish my busy-ness would be spread out more, because I know in a couple weeks, I’ll be back to not having much to do. But, I had my first brick oven commission meeting on Saturday. I went house to house to personally invite everyone and of course, only 10 people showed up. However, I was content with that because I feel it’ll be better for me to start out small and then later if more people are interested, we can form another commission. So, I presented the benefits of having a fogon, our peace corps model of the fogon, and what we need in order to construct it. Then, we voted on who will be pres, vp, teasurer, and secretary and sat down to write out the Acta that needs to be presented to the mayor in order to be recognized by the government so we can eventually petition for money for the project. WHEW. It was a very productive meeting, and I’m very excited about this project. One dude, named Alder was a god-send at the meeting. He explained everything I wanted to say much better that I could in guarani and patiently explained to the members about my mission, why I am here, and to please make me feel welcome in the community. He works at the municipality and he knew how to write up the official document which was a HUGE help. So, we’re going to wait about a week or so to see if anyone else shows interest, and then we’ll move forward in the very slow process of getting money.
On Monday, I started my nutrition lessons with the high school. There are only 50 or so students in the high school, so we broke them up into 2 groups and I taught both for about 45 minutes. We went over the food pyramid (but in Paraguay, it’s a food cauldron), then we planned a daily nutritious diet based off of a chart I presented them with. At the end of one class, we had a little extra time, so the student I took to the leadership camp in Pilar presented one of the games we played and did a very successful job at taking initiative and explaining the game. Yay! Tomorrow, I’m doing dental health lessons with four classes in the elementary school (wish me luck because pre-school and 1st grade only understand guarani…) and we’re making and selling detergent with one of the high school classes.
Lots of work, but I’m loving it.
On a different note, Briggie and Gabe will be having their baby any day now. I’m thinking about you guys always and GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!! I love you and am so proud and happy for you both
I just found this saved in “my documents”. My host sister must have done this one time while she was using my laptop. ----
Laura, Ever , Daniela y María Inés siempre serán amigos aunque estén lejos unos de otros, siempre se llevaran en el corazón
Con amor……………
Maria ines
In English: Laura,Ever, Danielle, and Mari Ines will always be friends even though we may be far away from each other; we will always carry each other in our hearts. With love, mari ines
I love these people. They’re so sweet. Another example of Paraguayan love is that I went to the elementary school yesterday to celebrate “Paraguay childrens’ day”. I just played some games with them like duck duck, rooster, red light green light, and a game of soccer… boys vs girls. I brought some chalk (thanks mom) so that they could draw on the concrete outside. I walked over there to see what they had drawn and ALL over the school yard it said “Daniela, te quiero mucho”…. Danielle, I love you so much. How ADORABLE! Then, today, I made some chocolate cake (for dinner, sh don’t judge) and brought some over to my new neighbors. Instead of just accepting it as a small gift, this cute little old lady had to offer me something of hers… 4 home-produced chicken eggs.
This past week, I’ve accomplished A LOT. I wish my busy-ness would be spread out more, because I know in a couple weeks, I’ll be back to not having much to do. But, I had my first brick oven commission meeting on Saturday. I went house to house to personally invite everyone and of course, only 10 people showed up. However, I was content with that because I feel it’ll be better for me to start out small and then later if more people are interested, we can form another commission. So, I presented the benefits of having a fogon, our peace corps model of the fogon, and what we need in order to construct it. Then, we voted on who will be pres, vp, teasurer, and secretary and sat down to write out the Acta that needs to be presented to the mayor in order to be recognized by the government so we can eventually petition for money for the project. WHEW. It was a very productive meeting, and I’m very excited about this project. One dude, named Alder was a god-send at the meeting. He explained everything I wanted to say much better that I could in guarani and patiently explained to the members about my mission, why I am here, and to please make me feel welcome in the community. He works at the municipality and he knew how to write up the official document which was a HUGE help. So, we’re going to wait about a week or so to see if anyone else shows interest, and then we’ll move forward in the very slow process of getting money.
On Monday, I started my nutrition lessons with the high school. There are only 50 or so students in the high school, so we broke them up into 2 groups and I taught both for about 45 minutes. We went over the food pyramid (but in Paraguay, it’s a food cauldron), then we planned a daily nutritious diet based off of a chart I presented them with. At the end of one class, we had a little extra time, so the student I took to the leadership camp in Pilar presented one of the games we played and did a very successful job at taking initiative and explaining the game. Yay! Tomorrow, I’m doing dental health lessons with four classes in the elementary school (wish me luck because pre-school and 1st grade only understand guarani…) and we’re making and selling detergent with one of the high school classes.
Lots of work, but I’m loving it.
On a different note, Briggie and Gabe will be having their baby any day now. I’m thinking about you guys always and GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!! I love you and am so proud and happy for you both
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
proud home-owner :)
11/8/2010
Hello, hello… it’s been a while. The past month has been a whirlwind of housework, terere, and project planning. Biggest news is that I finally moved into my house and I am in fact lying in my very own bed, not feeling bad about using my laptop or the internet because I am completely and totally alone, free of Paraguayans. Not that Paraguayans are bad of course, but it feels awfully nice to be in a place that I can now call home. Tonight will be my first night in Paraguay alone… after 6 whole months! I reached the 6 month marker which is crazy to think I’ve been gone for half a year already. Do you guys miss me yet?
So, I’m really achy. Housework is hard and I’ve been doing it for 2 whole weeks now. It took a lot to get this house “liveable”. It was a mess, but now it is beautiful! I have become a professional painter (I painted my room light purple!), a handy-woman (I brought light into my kitchen!), a gardener (I made my plant beds and started planting all kinds of goodies), annnnnd a cleaning lady (I spent at least a solid week just cleaning). I finished up some last odds and ends in my bedroom and moved all my stuff here. I now have at least double of what I came with thanks to packages from home! Pictures are up, bed is comfy, and everything is in place! I love it. As for the kitchen, eh… it could be better, but I’m waiting for my refrigerator and gas tank. Once those come, I’ll be able to start cooking and then I’ll become a chef as well. While preparing this house, I was frustrated, mad that only Sandra and my 8 yr old buddy were helping me, and tired of killing cockroaches and spiders. But now, after all my hard work, I’m so proud and happy. Obviously this is only my first night and a lot of things could still go wrong, like leaks in the ceiling which I’m pretty sure exist, but for now, I am very content and can definitely see myself living here for two years. I also have a lot of older neighbors who have invited me over for terere, mate, and fruit whenever I want to. They only speak guarani, so it will push me to continue learning even though it would be so easy to quit and give up because it is possible to get by with only Spanish, depending on the person.
So anyway—after a few scrapes, bruises, nasty surprises in dark corners, and paint-stained hands, I am officially a first time house-owner.
Hello, hello… it’s been a while. The past month has been a whirlwind of housework, terere, and project planning. Biggest news is that I finally moved into my house and I am in fact lying in my very own bed, not feeling bad about using my laptop or the internet because I am completely and totally alone, free of Paraguayans. Not that Paraguayans are bad of course, but it feels awfully nice to be in a place that I can now call home. Tonight will be my first night in Paraguay alone… after 6 whole months! I reached the 6 month marker which is crazy to think I’ve been gone for half a year already. Do you guys miss me yet?
So, I’m really achy. Housework is hard and I’ve been doing it for 2 whole weeks now. It took a lot to get this house “liveable”. It was a mess, but now it is beautiful! I have become a professional painter (I painted my room light purple!), a handy-woman (I brought light into my kitchen!), a gardener (I made my plant beds and started planting all kinds of goodies), annnnnd a cleaning lady (I spent at least a solid week just cleaning). I finished up some last odds and ends in my bedroom and moved all my stuff here. I now have at least double of what I came with thanks to packages from home! Pictures are up, bed is comfy, and everything is in place! I love it. As for the kitchen, eh… it could be better, but I’m waiting for my refrigerator and gas tank. Once those come, I’ll be able to start cooking and then I’ll become a chef as well. While preparing this house, I was frustrated, mad that only Sandra and my 8 yr old buddy were helping me, and tired of killing cockroaches and spiders. But now, after all my hard work, I’m so proud and happy. Obviously this is only my first night and a lot of things could still go wrong, like leaks in the ceiling which I’m pretty sure exist, but for now, I am very content and can definitely see myself living here for two years. I also have a lot of older neighbors who have invited me over for terere, mate, and fruit whenever I want to. They only speak guarani, so it will push me to continue learning even though it would be so easy to quit and give up because it is possible to get by with only Spanish, depending on the person.
So anyway—after a few scrapes, bruises, nasty surprises in dark corners, and paint-stained hands, I am officially a first time house-owner.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Sandra
Sandra is my life saver. She just turned 16 years old, yet already has so much to teach me. With my two sisters gone, I’ve found myself alone in the house quite often as my oldest sister is usually busy. There have been many days when I’m left to fend for myself food-wise with pretty much nothing in the refrigerator. Sandra has willingly come over all of those days and helped me put together something pretty decent for lunch. She’s taught me how to cook a whole variety of food, start a fire, dance to raggaeton, and how to enjoy the simple things in life. She’s always making sure I have everything I need and acts like my mother half the time. She’s helped me so much in my garden and took me on an adventure to visit a school in the neighboring community. I genuinely enjoy her company and I find myself at a loss whenever she’s not around. We joke around constantly and tell each other almost everything. Is it weird that my best friend is 16? Anyway, her mom left over a week ago to go to argentina in order to see a doctor because she’s been having a lot of problems with her legs. Who knows when she’ll be back. Her dad works in a neighboring town and is gone all day, every day. He’s also violent with the kids while drinking and rarely lets them leave the house when he is around. So, in the meantime, Sandra is responsible for keeping up the household… cooking, cleaning, washing her dad and brother’s clothes, and caring for the animals, yet somehow she still finds time for me. Granted, we can’t go work on my house anymore together because she needs to stay and watch her house, but she’s always over here (we live right across the street from each other) or inviting me to her house to have mate dulce. She is a doll, and I have so much respect for this little girl. I look back at my life when I was 16 and I never had any of the hardships she has, yet she is always happy with a great attitude. Not only does she not complain, but she does everything with a smile, laughing her way through the hard times. My peace corps goal is to be more like Sandra.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
some updates
29/6/2010
VIVA PARAGUAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just got back from a very busy, and very EXCITING day!!!!!!! Today is the day of San Pablo, my community’s patron saint. I woke up at 5am to the sounds of bombs going off and church bells ringing. My sister told me that this was to “wake up san pablo”. Well, it worked. We had a mini parade at 7:30 which consisted of a beaten up pick-up truck with the statue of Saint Paul in the bed. There were about 30 community members following behind, praying. Then, we had mass in the chapel. The priest only comes to our town once a month, so this is a big deal. I would say there were a good 60 people there. The mass was said in guarani, but to my surprise, I understood mostly all of it. Congratulations, me! Then we brought our TV over to the church and we all sat outside and watched Paraguay kick some butt!!! We all painted our faces with the Paraguayan flag. It was absolutely amazing… I had goosebumps during the whole shootout. My community went wild screaming when we won. These people are crazy about football and the fact that we have one of the 8 best teams in the world seriously means a lot to this country. Afterwards, we all ate lunch together which was cooked by some very guapa (hard-working) women who spent the entire morning making delicious chicken and a rice salad. To top it all off, I started playing soccer with all the little kids, then we played a trillion games of “pato, pato, gallina”.
All day today, I couldn’t help but notice that I am fully accepted here. Everyone goes out of their ways to greet me, talk to me, ask me if I still enjoy my life here, offer me their fruit from the trees, and invite me to visit their houses whenever I want to. The kids run up to me and give me huge hugs, are constantly asking me questions about “alláaaaaaaa” (the united states), and are always so curious as to what I am doing here and why in the world I want to learn guarani. They are the most patient with my inability to speak or understand guarani very well which is very endearing. Even though I cannot communicate with a majority of the smaller kids, I can still play games with them, and they LOVE it. My sisters here have become like my real sisters. We spend so much time together and we laugh and joke about the silliest things. We have the same sense of humor which is always helpful. They go out of their way to help me and it means the world to me. They come lay in my bed with me at night and we just talk. I’m definitely going to miss living here. My favorite person here and best friend, 15 year old Sandra, is always over our house hanging out. She’s awesome and makes me feel right at home. She mostly will only talk to me in guarani because she says it’s the only way I’ll learn. At first, I hated her for it, but now I love learning her new phrases and it’s really helpful. I’ve learned really well how to insult someone in guarani because that’s usually the brunt of our conversation. She tells me I’m fat, and I tell her she smells bad. The other night we had a dance party at my old host family’s house. Before leaving, my host sister told me I looked like I was pregnant. These people are brutally honest, but they sincerely don’t intend to be mean. In their culture, it’s totally normal to tell someone “you look ugly today”. Instead of getting upset about it, I came right back at her with, “Shut up Auxi, you’re fat too.” I don’t really think I’m getting fat, I’m hoping it had to do with the shirt I was wearing, but whatever. What do they expect when they only feed me cow fat, spaghetti, and bread? Anyway, Paraguayan dances. They’re always interesting and a great source for gossip. If you dance with someone for more than one song, it means you want to be their girlfriend. If you dance with someone with a bad reputation, word gets around. No matter what you do, everyone is watching; hence my reasoning for staying low-key and not wanting to dance with anyone. I managed to have the fattest, ugliest, oldest man at the party hitting on me ALL night. And by all night, I mean he stood by my side and just stared at me, practically drooling. When I refused to dance with him, he bought me a soda in hopes that this would change my decision. No. An hour later, he asked again. Of course, I said no. Within 5 minutes, I had another soda in my hand. I couldn’t help but laugh at his ruthless insistence. Eventually I turned to the mean side and told him I would never dance with him in my life, so please leave me alone. I relocated myself and was then asked to dance by my 16 year old English student. No, no, no. We were joking around and he told me over and over again, “que mala que sos” which means you’re so mean. Blah, blah. Now every time he sees me, he greets me with, “hola, mala.” He came over to the house today to try and get my phone number, but thank god my sisters wouldn’t give it to him. All I can say is that it’s going to be a long two years.
12/7/2010
I’m just laying in bed during another rainy day in Paraguay. We’ve lucked out so far because the weather has been awesome the past few weeks (like 70 degrees), but now it looks like the cold is rolling in with a whole bunch of rain storms. On rainy days, I don’t feel bad about sleeping in until 8am . I made myself some fried dough for breakfast (healthy, I know but at least I’m cooking), and then I ventured out to bring something to my old host family. I sat with them and had some mate while we watched the rain falling. After, I went to the health post to talk to the nurse, whose house I will be moving into in august. I took my bike there and got stuck in a whole bunch of mud puddles, lost my sandal in a puddle and had to fish it out, and arrived back home looking like a huge truck just splashed a whole bunch of mud all over me. I now understand why Paraguayans don’t leave the house in the rain. I’ve been buried in housework and worrying about the cost of putting in a modern bathroom. Turns out, the bathroom will cost 2.5 million guaranis which is equal to about 500 dollars. Doesn’t seem to bad when I put it that way, but I only have 3 million guaranis in my bank account right now and that needs to pay for my food, everything else I need to buy for my house (mattress, sheets, silverware, plates, pots, pans, chairs, a gas tank for my gas stove, and whatever else I discover that I’ll need… like cockroach spray because I’m pretty sure my kitchen is infested hahah). SO, looks like I’ll be waiting until we get paid again in august to buy any of these things. I’ll be living simply for the first few months, but after that, I won’t be paying monthly rent so I should have plenty of money. I’ve started my garden with my favorite 16 year old! I have two tablones set up which are just raised rows of dirt. I’m going to buy seeds this week and start planting! The backyard of my house is a disaster and the only play for me to put my garden is over an old trash pit. So hopefully I won’t be eating chunks of glass and rubber with my veggies. I have tons of fruit trees which is exciting!!! I have guyaba, bananas, grapefruit, grapes, cherry-ish things, and a fruit called mammon which I’m not really sure what that translates to. The worker dude is starting the bathroom when it stops raining, so I’m just hoping it’ll get done relatively fast. I’m more than ready to move in and live on my own!!!!!!!! EXCITING! I’ve been having a lot of family drama in the house that I’m at now between the three sisters. It’s a super long and complicated story, but I’m right in the middle of it all, and as much as I love these girls, I think it will be best for me to get out of here and stay somewhat detached.
As far as work goes, it’s pretty nonexistent right now. I’ve just been hanging out and getting really close with a few of my neighbors. I feel like I’m an actual resident here now instead of just a visitor. The schools have been on strike for 3 weeks, they are now in 2 weeks of winter vacation, and the news says that they’re planning for 45 more days of strike after break. I was planning to start my health lessons in the primary school on dental health and in the high school about nutrition, but it looks like that may be put off for quite awhile. In the meantime, I’m finishing up my census and planning to hold a meeting to start my committee for my brick oven project. We’ll see how all that goes!
I have to tell you all this story because it was one of my best days here in Paraguay so far. I went to my future house to start cleaning it up and to start work on my garden. I was NOT looking forward to all the work that needs to be done, but I figured I need to start somewhere. Auxi, Mari Ines, and Sandra came with me and brought all their tools and cleaning products. We put on some loud reggaeton and before I knew it, the majority of the neighborhood kids showed up to help. I stopped working for a second and took a look around. Every child, as well as my sisters and Sandra, all had some sort of tool in their hand doing a job on my house. One 10 year old was cutting down a tree in the middle of the garden with an ax, one was sweeping the patio, one was cutting back bushes, one was raking the leaves, one was getting all the cobwebs off the walls, one was scrubbing my bedroom floor, one was getting dirt off the roof tiles, and one was digging in my garden, getting all the trash out of the way. I was so overwhelmed with a feeling of gratitude that I forgot about all the work and money I’d be putting into this house. It was so amazing to see these children genuinely caring for me. This is why I’m here in Paraguay: for the children.
VIVA PARAGUAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just got back from a very busy, and very EXCITING day!!!!!!! Today is the day of San Pablo, my community’s patron saint. I woke up at 5am to the sounds of bombs going off and church bells ringing. My sister told me that this was to “wake up san pablo”. Well, it worked. We had a mini parade at 7:30 which consisted of a beaten up pick-up truck with the statue of Saint Paul in the bed. There were about 30 community members following behind, praying. Then, we had mass in the chapel. The priest only comes to our town once a month, so this is a big deal. I would say there were a good 60 people there. The mass was said in guarani, but to my surprise, I understood mostly all of it. Congratulations, me! Then we brought our TV over to the church and we all sat outside and watched Paraguay kick some butt!!! We all painted our faces with the Paraguayan flag. It was absolutely amazing… I had goosebumps during the whole shootout. My community went wild screaming when we won. These people are crazy about football and the fact that we have one of the 8 best teams in the world seriously means a lot to this country. Afterwards, we all ate lunch together which was cooked by some very guapa (hard-working) women who spent the entire morning making delicious chicken and a rice salad. To top it all off, I started playing soccer with all the little kids, then we played a trillion games of “pato, pato, gallina”.
All day today, I couldn’t help but notice that I am fully accepted here. Everyone goes out of their ways to greet me, talk to me, ask me if I still enjoy my life here, offer me their fruit from the trees, and invite me to visit their houses whenever I want to. The kids run up to me and give me huge hugs, are constantly asking me questions about “alláaaaaaaa” (the united states), and are always so curious as to what I am doing here and why in the world I want to learn guarani. They are the most patient with my inability to speak or understand guarani very well which is very endearing. Even though I cannot communicate with a majority of the smaller kids, I can still play games with them, and they LOVE it. My sisters here have become like my real sisters. We spend so much time together and we laugh and joke about the silliest things. We have the same sense of humor which is always helpful. They go out of their way to help me and it means the world to me. They come lay in my bed with me at night and we just talk. I’m definitely going to miss living here. My favorite person here and best friend, 15 year old Sandra, is always over our house hanging out. She’s awesome and makes me feel right at home. She mostly will only talk to me in guarani because she says it’s the only way I’ll learn. At first, I hated her for it, but now I love learning her new phrases and it’s really helpful. I’ve learned really well how to insult someone in guarani because that’s usually the brunt of our conversation. She tells me I’m fat, and I tell her she smells bad. The other night we had a dance party at my old host family’s house. Before leaving, my host sister told me I looked like I was pregnant. These people are brutally honest, but they sincerely don’t intend to be mean. In their culture, it’s totally normal to tell someone “you look ugly today”. Instead of getting upset about it, I came right back at her with, “Shut up Auxi, you’re fat too.” I don’t really think I’m getting fat, I’m hoping it had to do with the shirt I was wearing, but whatever. What do they expect when they only feed me cow fat, spaghetti, and bread? Anyway, Paraguayan dances. They’re always interesting and a great source for gossip. If you dance with someone for more than one song, it means you want to be their girlfriend. If you dance with someone with a bad reputation, word gets around. No matter what you do, everyone is watching; hence my reasoning for staying low-key and not wanting to dance with anyone. I managed to have the fattest, ugliest, oldest man at the party hitting on me ALL night. And by all night, I mean he stood by my side and just stared at me, practically drooling. When I refused to dance with him, he bought me a soda in hopes that this would change my decision. No. An hour later, he asked again. Of course, I said no. Within 5 minutes, I had another soda in my hand. I couldn’t help but laugh at his ruthless insistence. Eventually I turned to the mean side and told him I would never dance with him in my life, so please leave me alone. I relocated myself and was then asked to dance by my 16 year old English student. No, no, no. We were joking around and he told me over and over again, “que mala que sos” which means you’re so mean. Blah, blah. Now every time he sees me, he greets me with, “hola, mala.” He came over to the house today to try and get my phone number, but thank god my sisters wouldn’t give it to him. All I can say is that it’s going to be a long two years.
12/7/2010
I’m just laying in bed during another rainy day in Paraguay. We’ve lucked out so far because the weather has been awesome the past few weeks (like 70 degrees), but now it looks like the cold is rolling in with a whole bunch of rain storms. On rainy days, I don’t feel bad about sleeping in until 8am . I made myself some fried dough for breakfast (healthy, I know but at least I’m cooking), and then I ventured out to bring something to my old host family. I sat with them and had some mate while we watched the rain falling. After, I went to the health post to talk to the nurse, whose house I will be moving into in august. I took my bike there and got stuck in a whole bunch of mud puddles, lost my sandal in a puddle and had to fish it out, and arrived back home looking like a huge truck just splashed a whole bunch of mud all over me. I now understand why Paraguayans don’t leave the house in the rain. I’ve been buried in housework and worrying about the cost of putting in a modern bathroom. Turns out, the bathroom will cost 2.5 million guaranis which is equal to about 500 dollars. Doesn’t seem to bad when I put it that way, but I only have 3 million guaranis in my bank account right now and that needs to pay for my food, everything else I need to buy for my house (mattress, sheets, silverware, plates, pots, pans, chairs, a gas tank for my gas stove, and whatever else I discover that I’ll need… like cockroach spray because I’m pretty sure my kitchen is infested hahah). SO, looks like I’ll be waiting until we get paid again in august to buy any of these things. I’ll be living simply for the first few months, but after that, I won’t be paying monthly rent so I should have plenty of money. I’ve started my garden with my favorite 16 year old! I have two tablones set up which are just raised rows of dirt. I’m going to buy seeds this week and start planting! The backyard of my house is a disaster and the only play for me to put my garden is over an old trash pit. So hopefully I won’t be eating chunks of glass and rubber with my veggies. I have tons of fruit trees which is exciting!!! I have guyaba, bananas, grapefruit, grapes, cherry-ish things, and a fruit called mammon which I’m not really sure what that translates to. The worker dude is starting the bathroom when it stops raining, so I’m just hoping it’ll get done relatively fast. I’m more than ready to move in and live on my own!!!!!!!! EXCITING! I’ve been having a lot of family drama in the house that I’m at now between the three sisters. It’s a super long and complicated story, but I’m right in the middle of it all, and as much as I love these girls, I think it will be best for me to get out of here and stay somewhat detached.
As far as work goes, it’s pretty nonexistent right now. I’ve just been hanging out and getting really close with a few of my neighbors. I feel like I’m an actual resident here now instead of just a visitor. The schools have been on strike for 3 weeks, they are now in 2 weeks of winter vacation, and the news says that they’re planning for 45 more days of strike after break. I was planning to start my health lessons in the primary school on dental health and in the high school about nutrition, but it looks like that may be put off for quite awhile. In the meantime, I’m finishing up my census and planning to hold a meeting to start my committee for my brick oven project. We’ll see how all that goes!
I have to tell you all this story because it was one of my best days here in Paraguay so far. I went to my future house to start cleaning it up and to start work on my garden. I was NOT looking forward to all the work that needs to be done, but I figured I need to start somewhere. Auxi, Mari Ines, and Sandra came with me and brought all their tools and cleaning products. We put on some loud reggaeton and before I knew it, the majority of the neighborhood kids showed up to help. I stopped working for a second and took a look around. Every child, as well as my sisters and Sandra, all had some sort of tool in their hand doing a job on my house. One 10 year old was cutting down a tree in the middle of the garden with an ax, one was sweeping the patio, one was cutting back bushes, one was raking the leaves, one was getting all the cobwebs off the walls, one was scrubbing my bedroom floor, one was getting dirt off the roof tiles, and one was digging in my garden, getting all the trash out of the way. I was so overwhelmed with a feeling of gratitude that I forgot about all the work and money I’d be putting into this house. It was so amazing to see these children genuinely caring for me. This is why I’m here in Paraguay: for the children.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Life in the campo
Hey all- i don´t have too much time to write because my campo bus will be coming soon to take me from my nice little town that i´m in now (san ignacio) to my life back in the campo (san pablo). Campo live is so different from live back in the states. i was talking to brigette yesterday and after i told her how i had just watched my host sister rip the head off of a chicken, handpick all of the feathers out while it was bleeding from its pores, then proceed to cut it in peices while blood was splattering all over the kitchen table, she used the word barbarian to describe my people. i thought that was hilarious, because maybe that is what i also thought in the beginning, but now these people are my family and i consider it quite normal to be woken up to a scene like this. i´d personally rather eat the chicken you can conveniently buy at the store, but paraguayans largely prefer pollo casero (home-made chicken). hey, it keeps life interesting :)
so things have been wonderfully busy which i love. i´ve done my health census with 25 families and the requirement is 50. Im going to try and do it will all 100 families in my site, because hey, why not.. i have the time. Ive been finding out that they think the flu is by far their worst health problem, that no one seeks medical attention when necessary, and that there is no one that teaches about health in the community. Ive also been way overwhelmed with the number of people who say they REALLY want fogones (brick ovens)... we´ll see how hard theyre willing to work to make this a reality. As of now, it looks like my biggest project will be a brick oven project. i will be very busy, but i´m excited if everything will go according to plan.
i will also be attempting to start a youth group over our winter break which is July 12th to the 15th. i want to do things like cooking, english classes, arts and craftsy things, sports events, movies, anything that theyre interested in. with the things we make, i hope to sell them so that we can go on a big trip at the end! im starting lessons in the primary school about dental health after the break, and about nutrition in the high school. we´ll be selling friendship bracelets during friendhsip week which starts july 26th and buying paint to paint a world map on the wall of the high schooL! i´m not promising any of these things will definitely happen because paraguayn culture seems to be iffy on making any type of committment, but it´s what i have planned and i can only hope for the best!!!!
unfortunately, i gotta run to get my bus, but before i go.. i really wanted to thank everytone who has sent me a package or a letter. im not kidding when i say these things are keeping my spirits up and giving so many things to work with! your inspiring words and words of encouragement keep me mentally into my work and your packages with arts and crafts thigns and personal items are giving me so much motivation to work and plan all my projects. i love you all so much and am so grateful to have my friends and family at home. the biggest thing i have learned since being here, is that i have a great life back in the states that i will never ever take for granted ever again! love, peace
dani
so things have been wonderfully busy which i love. i´ve done my health census with 25 families and the requirement is 50. Im going to try and do it will all 100 families in my site, because hey, why not.. i have the time. Ive been finding out that they think the flu is by far their worst health problem, that no one seeks medical attention when necessary, and that there is no one that teaches about health in the community. Ive also been way overwhelmed with the number of people who say they REALLY want fogones (brick ovens)... we´ll see how hard theyre willing to work to make this a reality. As of now, it looks like my biggest project will be a brick oven project. i will be very busy, but i´m excited if everything will go according to plan.
i will also be attempting to start a youth group over our winter break which is July 12th to the 15th. i want to do things like cooking, english classes, arts and craftsy things, sports events, movies, anything that theyre interested in. with the things we make, i hope to sell them so that we can go on a big trip at the end! im starting lessons in the primary school about dental health after the break, and about nutrition in the high school. we´ll be selling friendship bracelets during friendhsip week which starts july 26th and buying paint to paint a world map on the wall of the high schooL! i´m not promising any of these things will definitely happen because paraguayn culture seems to be iffy on making any type of committment, but it´s what i have planned and i can only hope for the best!!!!
unfortunately, i gotta run to get my bus, but before i go.. i really wanted to thank everytone who has sent me a package or a letter. im not kidding when i say these things are keeping my spirits up and giving so many things to work with! your inspiring words and words of encouragement keep me mentally into my work and your packages with arts and crafts thigns and personal items are giving me so much motivation to work and plan all my projects. i love you all so much and am so grateful to have my friends and family at home. the biggest thing i have learned since being here, is that i have a great life back in the states that i will never ever take for granted ever again! love, peace
dani
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
June 15, 2010
Time for a nice and long update! So we’re already halfway done June, which means I’ve been in site for 6 weeks now. Things are going really well so far. I am now living with my second family, a family of just 3 sisters. Their parents have passed away about three year ago. My oldest sister, Librada, is 29 and is a teacher in the highschool and preschool. My other sisters, Auxi and Mari Ines, are 17 and 14. I’m excited because Mari Ines turns 15 in August and will have her quinceanera (15th birthday party). It will be my first one and I’m interested to see what it’s like. Apparently it’s a really big deal. I’ve seen pictures and it looks like a wedding! My sisters are really awesome and help me out all the time. I love just hanging out with them because it reminds me of being with my sisters at home when we used to goof around night. They teach me little words in guarani and my oldest sister sits down with me about 2 nights a week for an hour to teach me and answer any questions I have about the language. Still, my Guarani is not very good, but after talking to other volunteers, they told me it could take up to a year to start speaking it. Trust me, it is a very hard language with some crazy sounds that I’m not capable of making. However, I am understanding more and more of it and I feel much more comfortable when I’m surrounded by a whole bunch of guarani-speaking paraguayas. Anyway, my supervisor came to visit me on the 10th. He brought my bike, my packages that my family had sent me (THANKS!!!!!!!), and some of my extra luggage that I couldn’t bring with me the first time. My bike is awesome and I love riding it everywhere!! We filled out some paperwork about how I’m adjusting to the community and completed my work plan for the next three months. Some of those things include doing a world map painting in the high school, starting a recycling system in the schools, continuing my detergent, soap, and shampoo projects (yes, we make these things and sell them around the community to raise money for class trips… we’re going on one on Thursday to visit Jesuit Ruin, super psyched!), start doing health lessons in the elementary school and high school in dental health, parasites, and nutrition, start a women’s commission with people interested in starting a Fogon (brick oven) project. I have to do a census with 50 families, and I started that yesterday! I did 7 houses and so far, every single one of them wants to work for a fogon. Looks like I’m coming back to the states with huge muscles because it’s gonna be a lot of hard labor! In order to make a fogon, I need to dig for red dirt (a pretty deep hole to get to the dirt), mix the red dirt with water and a little cement, buy a whole slew of bricks and lay them while including the oven and chimney. We need to have an organized commission to make this possible because we need to write a proposal to the government in order for them to give us the money to buy all the materials. They need to approve our project, and it takes a long time for the money to actually arrive. I’ll be lucky if I start actually building the fogons in the next year. Anyway, my supervisor and I went to the high school and filled the director in on our plan, then ate lunch at my old host family’s house (where they told him I was their “preferred daughter” hahaaa, and then visited the house that I thought I was going to live in for the next 2 years. However, he didn’t like that there weren’t any close neighbors nearby, so I have to look for another housing situation. I took a look at the nurse’s house because she’s moving and I liked the location much better, however, there’s no shower and it just has a latrine, which is fine, but I’d prefer to have a shower installed. We’ll see what happens. The house is just one room, with an attached outdoor kitchen area, with the latrine in the back yard. I wouldn’t have a sink, just a spigot out front. I liked the other house way better, but this still isn’t a bad option. I think I’ll be looking at 2 more houses this week, so I’ll keep you posted! Then, we had my meeting with my community members at the school. I went house to house handing out invitation and about 30 people showed up which I was more than satisfied with. They seemed really excited and all had nice things to say about me. One woman offered to do my census with me to help me translate Spanish to guarani, so that will be really helpful! I made apple cake and banana bread so I think my people left pretty happy All in all, it was a really productive and helpful day! Next week, I’m making more shampoo with a class, and we’ll start making our homemade bar soap with cow fat! I’m excited and interested to see how it all works out. Well, I’m about to go meet up with the senora to do more censuses with my neighbors. I know this update was a long one, but a lot has been going on! I still have my super bored moments, but I have a lot of work to look forward to and start working on. It’s in those bored moments when I start getting a little homesick, so my goal is to stay busy… and I do have plenty of things to get started.
Happy birthday gabe! Hope your bbq was fab. Also, happy father’s day pops! Love you!! Anddd happy anniversarys to all my fave people. Hope you spent your days well and enjoyed every second. Love you all
Time for a nice and long update! So we’re already halfway done June, which means I’ve been in site for 6 weeks now. Things are going really well so far. I am now living with my second family, a family of just 3 sisters. Their parents have passed away about three year ago. My oldest sister, Librada, is 29 and is a teacher in the highschool and preschool. My other sisters, Auxi and Mari Ines, are 17 and 14. I’m excited because Mari Ines turns 15 in August and will have her quinceanera (15th birthday party). It will be my first one and I’m interested to see what it’s like. Apparently it’s a really big deal. I’ve seen pictures and it looks like a wedding! My sisters are really awesome and help me out all the time. I love just hanging out with them because it reminds me of being with my sisters at home when we used to goof around night. They teach me little words in guarani and my oldest sister sits down with me about 2 nights a week for an hour to teach me and answer any questions I have about the language. Still, my Guarani is not very good, but after talking to other volunteers, they told me it could take up to a year to start speaking it. Trust me, it is a very hard language with some crazy sounds that I’m not capable of making. However, I am understanding more and more of it and I feel much more comfortable when I’m surrounded by a whole bunch of guarani-speaking paraguayas. Anyway, my supervisor came to visit me on the 10th. He brought my bike, my packages that my family had sent me (THANKS!!!!!!!), and some of my extra luggage that I couldn’t bring with me the first time. My bike is awesome and I love riding it everywhere!! We filled out some paperwork about how I’m adjusting to the community and completed my work plan for the next three months. Some of those things include doing a world map painting in the high school, starting a recycling system in the schools, continuing my detergent, soap, and shampoo projects (yes, we make these things and sell them around the community to raise money for class trips… we’re going on one on Thursday to visit Jesuit Ruin, super psyched!), start doing health lessons in the elementary school and high school in dental health, parasites, and nutrition, start a women’s commission with people interested in starting a Fogon (brick oven) project. I have to do a census with 50 families, and I started that yesterday! I did 7 houses and so far, every single one of them wants to work for a fogon. Looks like I’m coming back to the states with huge muscles because it’s gonna be a lot of hard labor! In order to make a fogon, I need to dig for red dirt (a pretty deep hole to get to the dirt), mix the red dirt with water and a little cement, buy a whole slew of bricks and lay them while including the oven and chimney. We need to have an organized commission to make this possible because we need to write a proposal to the government in order for them to give us the money to buy all the materials. They need to approve our project, and it takes a long time for the money to actually arrive. I’ll be lucky if I start actually building the fogons in the next year. Anyway, my supervisor and I went to the high school and filled the director in on our plan, then ate lunch at my old host family’s house (where they told him I was their “preferred daughter” hahaaa, and then visited the house that I thought I was going to live in for the next 2 years. However, he didn’t like that there weren’t any close neighbors nearby, so I have to look for another housing situation. I took a look at the nurse’s house because she’s moving and I liked the location much better, however, there’s no shower and it just has a latrine, which is fine, but I’d prefer to have a shower installed. We’ll see what happens. The house is just one room, with an attached outdoor kitchen area, with the latrine in the back yard. I wouldn’t have a sink, just a spigot out front. I liked the other house way better, but this still isn’t a bad option. I think I’ll be looking at 2 more houses this week, so I’ll keep you posted! Then, we had my meeting with my community members at the school. I went house to house handing out invitation and about 30 people showed up which I was more than satisfied with. They seemed really excited and all had nice things to say about me. One woman offered to do my census with me to help me translate Spanish to guarani, so that will be really helpful! I made apple cake and banana bread so I think my people left pretty happy All in all, it was a really productive and helpful day! Next week, I’m making more shampoo with a class, and we’ll start making our homemade bar soap with cow fat! I’m excited and interested to see how it all works out. Well, I’m about to go meet up with the senora to do more censuses with my neighbors. I know this update was a long one, but a lot has been going on! I still have my super bored moments, but I have a lot of work to look forward to and start working on. It’s in those bored moments when I start getting a little homesick, so my goal is to stay busy… and I do have plenty of things to get started.
Happy birthday gabe! Hope your bbq was fab. Also, happy father’s day pops! Love you!! Anddd happy anniversarys to all my fave people. Hope you spent your days well and enjoyed every second. Love you all
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