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.