Miami to Asuncion

Hola Amigos! Voy a salir por el aeropuerto de Miami en un hora y media. Manana, a las doce, llegamos en Asuncion, Paraguay por nuestro proximo dos anos en Cuerpo de Paz.

Hello Friends! We are leaving for the Miami Airport in an hour and a half. Tomorrow at noon, we arrive in Asuncion, Paraguay for our next two years in the Peace Corps.

I'm ready to go now. I've met the 18 amazing people who I will spend PST (Pre-Service Training) with for the next 11 weeks. They are from all over the states (Seattle, Ohio, LA, Texas, Pittsburgh, Florida, Arizona, Colorado) and range in age from 21 to 35. I am the second oldest at 33. There are people with master's degrees, people working on them, and people who don't care about them. A handful left boyfriends or girlfriends behind. Some will continue relationships through the next years. 7 are women and 11 are men. Two are fluent in Spanish (at such an advantage) the rest of us vary in our abilities. We decided at lunch today to make a list of all the countries we've collectively visited. We think it will be pretty damn impressive.

Once we arrive, we will meet our host families pretty much right away and then training begins on Friday. We will end up splitting up between the two projects we represent (RED and MSD) and all 18 of us will only train together once or twice a week. I'll be in the MSD (Municipal Services) group with 6 other people and me.

The next 11 weeks are going to be VERY TIRING. But, I am so looking forward to learning intensely again. I'm looking forward to being in the classroom. It has been a long time since I've really studied (at least full time). Lots of people know that if I could afford it, I would go to school pretty much all the time and collect master's degrees. :)

I can't wait for the day, sometime in the future, when my brain decides to click and all of sudden, I can speak Spanish. I will stumble along until then, hopefully not butchering things too much (Tengo mucho mierda "I have a lot of shit" instead of Tengo mucho miedo "I have a lot of fear" is one mistake we've heard about.

Keep tuning in. Who knows what the next two years will bring?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO STEPHEN, MY NOT-SO-LITTLE BROTHER.

The Tree

This is the pine tree in the front yard of the house where I grew up and where my parents still live. When they moved into the house in 1971, it was shorter than my dad. He used to put Christmas lights on it. We took this photo this weekend because the poor tree is dead and is being taken down soon. It's making my mom sad.

I went for a walk in my old neighborhood yesterday and I looked at all the beautiful houses and yards and how green everything is. And tomorrow morning, when my parents take me to the airport in Boston, I'll take one more long look at the city I love, the city that will be my home for the rest of my life, I hope.

I am not sure if I am crazy to be going. It's possible I am. But I also know it's the right move for me. And a good next step in this life I'm creating and trying to make as big as possible.

So I'm off. I'll miss here a lot, but I'm sure my new here will become a home soon enough. I'll miss everyone a lot, but I'm sure I'll make a new everyone soon enough. The new will never replace the old, only stand in place in the meantime until I'm here again, with everyone.

Soon, Karen

A Week Out

Now some people say that you shouldn't tempt fate
And for them I would not disagree
But I never learned nothing from playing it safe
I say fate should not tempt me.
- I Take My Chances, Mary Chapin-Carpenter

I love rollercoasters. I wait in line no matter how long and I wait to enjoy the 32 seconds or (for a rare treat) the 73 seconds of the ride. I look up at each car as it runs its course overhead while I wait in line. I get butterflies. I try not to think about the possiblity that I could fall out to my death if something went wrong. I engage in banter with whoever I'm in line with about whatever mundane thing we can come up with. I reassure that person that this ride will be awesome and we'll be fine. I even go so far as to time the ride to use that as ammunition as to why it'll be easy-peasy. I have to use these methods to their fullest when I am with my sister, Susan, as she is a rollercoster lover and scaredy-cat all rolled into one cute package.

This last month has been a very long wait in the ride for this new rollercoaster. And now, I'm only about three people back and I'm trying to decide if I want the front car or to just get in somewhere safer, like the middle. I know this for sure now, though: I am looking forward to going. I knew it would come. Everytime I'm in a line for that crazy new ride, by the time it is time to get into the little car and pull my knees up (since I never fit well in the car), I'm excited more than everything else.

I know that I haven't even gotten on yet, yet I'm already anticipating the slow, clanky ride up to the crest of the first hill and the inevitable drop that follows. That'll be hard. But exhilerating and amazing, too.

I just hope that the 27 months of this experience feels longer than the 66 seconds of the rollercoaster. I know I run the risk of it feeling that fast. I must savor. And perhaps sections of these 27 months will be like getting off and getting back in line for another ride, with all the anticipation, worry, butterflies and excitement that happens every time, no matter how many times I've ridden before.

I'm a week away from departure. Packing has ensued. Boxes have been loaded into the extremely useful hatchback Ford Escort and driven to Chelmsford and unloaded through the bulkhead into the basement. I have found old letters from friends and family that have survived a series of moves and are still in a box under my bed that I forgot about. I have a growing pile of things that are in the running to come to Paraguay with me (do I really need 9 t-shirts? will i need fleece pants in a country where it is 100 degrees for about 7 months of the year? do i take a mini hairdryer or my regular sized one? how many books?).

My room is starting to be a bummer. I have hesitated to take my photos and artwork from around the world off my walls because the empty nails are sad. And the dustbunnies are big enough to get up and dance with me which makes them a bit frightening (and telling...I'm really not a very clean person). I keep forgetting I have kitchen stuff to pack up because I own so little of it.

The weather this week is supposed to stay spectacular, which is a lovely Boston treat for my last week. I walked 3 miles around Jamaica Plain pond this morning, thinking about how much I love that area of the city and how long it took me to discover it.

I spent 3.5 days in LA this past weekend with friends and their children and revelled in small hands and swings and the joy an old computer brings to a 5-year-old who has discovered disneykids.com. I have thought about how big all my pseudo-neices and nephews will be when I see them again. I have thought about the real neice or nephew I could have by the time I come home. I am reflecting. A lot. It feels healthy.

In 7 days, I'm off to tempt fate or, depending on how you look at it, for fate to spend some time tempting me. I'll take my chances.

Every new beginning is some other beginning's end...

It's not the end of an era, because two years is hardly an era. But, it's the end of a bite-size piece of my life, for sure. Yesterday was my last day at Wentworth Institute of Technology.

When I first applied to WIT, it was because I really wanted to come home to Boston from Pennsylvania and I thought maybe I was ready to be a director. I wasn't sure if WIT was the right place for me, since it was full of tech students and being a Simmons alumna from the early 90s, I had ideas about WIT. But, I knew shortly after arriving on campus that this was going to be a place where I would not only succeed, but like a lot.

And the last 27 months (wow, I worked at WIT the same length of time that I'm going to be in Paraguay) have proven that. These students are the best I've ever worked with. I've been (counting grad experiences) on 5 campuses as staff over the years, and these are my favorite as a group (no offense to Oxy and Gburg readers!). Wentworth students know why they are in college (most of them) and they truly focus on their studies while making time for other things, too. I see in them a dedication to being hard-working, successful, career people that most American college students lack. It is really nice. Especially in a time in our society when 2/3 of high school graduates this year are applying to college. How many of them are going because they know what they want to do?

I have loved working with my colleagues at WIT. It is an interesting place and it is headed for even more greatness. I have no doubt that the next two years will find it growing and becoming even more what it is than it already is. (If that makes sense.)

I have never worked on a bigger or better team than at Wentworth. The SLP department staff is a pleasure. They are hardworking, clear on why we do the work we do, and willing to back it up with facts. I have never, ever worked on a team willing to take time to do assessment the way this team is. It is a mark of true professionalism when a team is willing to take a chance that we'll learn that our program that we spent so much time planning just didn't do what we wanted it to do with the participants. And then, be willing to go back and fix it. This is why these people will continue to succeed. To look at oneself objectively as possible is difficult.

When beginning a new job on a campus, it makes a big difference when the people who work in offices other than yours are willing to answer the phone and take a "I have no idea what I'm doing can you help" phone call. EVERYONE at Wentworth made time for those calls from me. The importance of this is not lost on me. Thank you.

I had a lot of really wonderful moments in only 2 years and lots of really frustrating ones. The true test, I believe, is when the frustrations are things I was willing to expend energy on. I think it means that no matter what, I cared. And why would I expend energy if I didn't care?

I will miss Wentworth very much. I will think of it often. I will mark the year and think, on August 27, wherever I am, about WOW. I will remember on October 14 that someone new in SLP is knee-deep in their first Family Weekend. I will think, on January 24, about how the MLK Breakfast is going. And I will wonder, in the 20s week of April, who is winning the Wentworth Bowl. Don't think I won't. I've lived abroad before and I thought stuff like this. It seems mundane and silly, but it keeps my heart close to home.

Best to everyone at WIT. Keep on keeping on.

Scared? Who's scared?

It's T-17 days and counting.

I realized this week that I have fear about leaving for Paraguay. So I sat with that for a day or so and then finally got sick of being afraid and not knowing why. So I really felt it and figured out that what I'm afraid of is being sad. I am anticipating missing friends and family, being far away, missing out on Fourth of July festivities (my favorite holiday), and generally struggling with all the normal things someone struggles with when they leave.

Once I knew what what going on and could put voice to it (Tengo miedo que estar triste), then I could move on. Today I'm good. I set up all my "home secretary" stuff for my mother and cleaned out my email and sent myself some documents I know I'll want later. I got a giftcard from a committee I'm on at work for REI so I get to go buy new shoes tomorrow to take with me.

I had a meeting at another campus this morning and I bumped into a student who was at a program I was part of about safe travel for women. When I told her what I'm doing, she said that she likes when she meets people with amazing lives and I'm one. I'm not sure I have an "amazing life" but I sure liked hearing that. It helped in a difficult week.

This is a rollercoaster. Picking up my life and leaving for a new adventure is not easier just because I've done it (a few times) before. People might think it looks easy and I do it without reservation, but they are wrong. Everyone has reservation. Everyone wonders if the choice they are making is the right one. Everyone cries a little. But it gets us through to the next step and gets us to the next risk.

That's where I've been headed all week. And I'm almost there.

My sister's wedding

My sister married her longtime boyfriend, Suneel, in a traditional Hindu ceremony capped by a Catholic exchange of vows and rings on Saturday, May 6. The festivities began Thursday morning and didn't conclude until Sunday morning. It was a long, amazing, intense weekend. My brother and I realized how much we appreciate each other as we worked together to make Susan and the rest of our family happy and comfortable and (hopefully) blissfully unaware of the small fires we put out. My parents were champs, flowing with a ceremony that was totally foreign to them.

I am going to miss everyone a lot when I go, but I realized this weekend how much. I love my family a lot and I'm worried about how I'll get by without them. I'm so pleased for my sister, but still trying to figure out how I forgot to prepare for the fact that she's married now. :)

Adventures in the Peace Corps

MY NEW ADVENTURE
It's Monday, May 1. Four weeks from today, I'll depart Boston for Miami and then three days later, I'll travel to Asuncion, Paraguay. I'll be just outside Asuncion for 11 weeks of training, until August 18. Then I'll go somewhere else in Paraguay for 24 more months of service. (I won't know where until the 8th week of training.) I'll be a municipal development volunteer (muni for short). That means I'll be partnered with a governmental official in a municipality (town) of between 5,000 and 25,000 people working on municipal service projects. I'll work with the local government but also with the people in the town. Paraguay is one of the oldest continuous Peace Corps project countries. The PC has had a presence since 1967 and has never pulled volunteers out for any reason. It has been very isolated for much of its history and has had some struggles (see below in HISTORY for more).

WHERE IS PARAGUAY?


It's okay. I had to look, too. I knew it was one of only 2 landlocked S.A. countries, having been to Bolivia last summer, but had to open a map online while I was still on the phone with the Peace Corps placement officer to be sure I knew. Paraguay is small (about the size of California).

HOW MONEY WORKS (everyone keeps asking this)
I am paid enough money in a stipend each month to live modestly in my community (although, PC requires that I be safe and comfortable, so I may have slightly more money than I really need). I also get "adjustment" money if needed to rent an apartment/room or furnish someplace. This is individual. If I live with a host family, I won't need this.

I get $225/month of service that is deposited into an account in the US (and taxed) and I get that money when I return home to the U.S. I also get $24/month of service that accrues in a "vacation fund" that I can use at any time. I earn 2 vacation days per month of training/service, which works out to 7.7 weeks of vacation. I am also flown to Miami for staging, to Asuncion for training, transported to my community, and flown home to the US at the end of service.

Basically, unless I want to travel around or fly home for a visit, I don't need any money of my own.

APPLYING TO THE PEACE CORPS
http://www.peacecorps.gov/
I applied in late January and was interviewed in person in Boston at the regional office (http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=meet.regrec.boston) in mid-February. My process was very quick. After the interview, I was nominated for a placement. I didn't know what country or when it would be departing (my recruitment officer didn't know either).

After completing a hellish medical/dental/eye/counseling clearance packet and FedEx'ing that in from Indianapolis while at a conference, I was then cleared medically. (Shout out to Mike, the Lab Manager at my doctor's office who fast-tracked my test results like a champ and shaved 2 weeks off my process and probably is single-handedly responsible for my getting to go to Paraguay!) As I joked to my mom "If I didn't wear contacts, I'd look like a robot on paper" since I'm totally healthy and don't even have a filling.

It can take anywhere from 6 months to a year or more from application to placement. I prefrenced Spanish-speaking, but said I would consider anything. Truth be told, I really wanted Spanish-speaking. And I got lucky.

HISTORY
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107879.html
Paraguay has a very interesting history. It was governed by three dictators during the first 60 years of independence. The third, Francisco López, waged war against Uruguay, Brazil, and Argentina (The War of Triple Alliance) in 1865–1870, a conflict in which half the male population was killed. A new constitution in 1870, designed to prevent dictatorships and internal strife, failed to do so, and not until 1912 did a period of comparative economic and political stability begin. The Chaco War (1932–1935) with Bolivia won Paraguay more western territory.
After World War II, politics became particularly unstable. Alfredo Stroessner was dictator from 1954 until 1989, during which he was accused of the torture and murder of thousands of political opponents. Despite Paraguay's human rights record, the U.S. continuously supported Stroessner. Stroessner was overthrown by army leader Gen. Andres Rodriguez in 1989. Rodriguez went on to win Paraguay's first multicandidate election in decades. Paraguay's new constitution went into effect in 1992. In 1993, Juan Carlos Wasmosy, a wealthy businessman and the candidate of the governing Colorado Party, won a five-year term in free elections.
Raúl Cubas Grau was elected president in May 1998. In 1999, Cubas was forced from office for his alleged involvement in the assassination of Vice President Luis María Argaña. The vice president had criticized Cubas for refusing to jail his mentor, Gen. Lino Oviedo, who had been convicted of leading a failed 1996 coup against Wasmosy.

Luis Ángel González Macchi, who was appointed caretaker president after Cubas stepped down, undertook a governmental overhaul, and for the first time since Stroessner was overthrown, political and economic power was no longer entirely within the hands of the corrupt and military-backed Colorado Party. The U.S. has accused the Colorado Party of smuggling, money laundering, trafficking Bolivian cocaine, and supporting international terrorist organizations.

In Aug. 2000, the opposition Liberal Party won its first major victory in more than 50 years with the election of Julio Cesar Franco as vice president. He narrowly defeated the son of the previous vice president, Argaña. Paraguay's government sought to clean up the political system by bringing to trial political and military figures suspected of human rights violations, corruption, or other crimes.

In 2002, antigovernment rioters demanded that President González Macchi resign, blaming him for Paraguay's protracted recession since the late 1990s. In Dec. 2002, González Macchi was accused of mishandling $16 million in state funds. He was acquitted in an impeachment trial in Feb. 2003. Former journalist Nicanor Duarte Frutos became president on August 15, 2003. He has pledged to clean up the pervasive corruption in his nearly bankrupt country.