The title says: I can´t believe that today, I was presenting to 26 students in a high school! En serio! (Seriously!) In Spanish! But I did. And I did it well. I thought so and the profesora who sat in the back and evaluted me thought so too. :)
I was so worried. I had written out everything I was going to say and how I was going to do it, and the whole time, I have been pissed that I have to do this, since I haven´t written out what I was going to say for a presentation since I was in high school (or maybe early on in college). It´s one of my skills, to be able to get up in front of just about anyone, any number of people and talk about whatever. And here I was, going to talk about self esteem and the importance of working hard and I was so scared.
But, It was great! I was able to use humor and kid with them and explain things well. They participated and other than the fact that a few times I couldn´t understand what they were saying to me and had to ask another student to scribe on the whiteboard for me so I could stop looking like an idiot, it was so good! Yay. I now officially believe I can teach stuff in site.
I know my Spanish is advancing, because the other night, for over an hour, I talked with my host mom about my sister´s interracial marriage and was able to explain the nuances of why it is not that weird in the US for this to happen. She was particularly interested in how my sister would raise her kids in a different religion than her own. She also loved the stories about the amazing 4 day wedding and really loved the part about the Catholic preist throwing a fit. :) And, I was able to understand every word of her story about the time she was in college and she and a friend took out the friend´s father´s car without permission and scratched the roof all to hell and painted it with 10 bottles of white nail polish...he didn´t notice for a week and they totally got away with it. Great night. I´m so pleased with myself that I can talk for an hour about complicated stuff in another language. I´ve wanted this for so long.
Tomorrow at 3 p.m., they are going to hand me a folder with information about where my new home is going to be. I will get onto email on Saturday sometime to post info about it, so stay tuned. I´m so excited. I can´t wait to find out. Only one of the seven of us in my group will be a "follow up volunteer", going to a site where there has been a volunteer before. That site is Yuty, the place I visited last week. The rest of us will get a new site where we get to create whatever we find out they want or need with no preconcieved notions of Peace Corps. I´m pretty sure I´m NOT going to Yuty, because it´s just not the right place for me, so vamos a ver! (We will see!)
¿Que mas? I promised more about people. My sister who is 10 is such an amazing kid. She is a natural actress, often putting on little funny skits in the kitchen with false teeth or crazy sunglasses or more. She just breaks out in song, randomly, and often imitates Michael Jackson or the Matrix apropos of nothing. It´s hilarious. We play Uno a lot and watch the Simpsons all the time. I´m just starting now to be able to understand what the Spanish-speaking Bart, Lisa, Marge and Homero (as he´s known here) are saying. It´s a little victory when I can get a whole scene. She and I laugh together a lot. I keep thinking how great it would be if I suddenly was able to make a lot of money and when she´s 18 and I´m 41, I could invite her to come for a month to the US and could pay for it all. I´d love to give that to her. I of course would never mention this to them, though.
I have taken to doing my own laundry. I put it all in a bucket in the bathroom and use the cool laundry soap I bought in Yuty for a mil ($.17). I liked doing my own laundry this way in Thailand, too. I´m a weirdo. I had to stop in Thailand because I didn´t have enough time. I was working so many hours there. But, here, I´ll be able to. We´ll see. If I can make friends with someone like the woman in Yuty who has a machine, I´m prolly gonna end up paying. Vamos a ver sobre este, tambien.
I have totally begun to study Guarani. Here´s a little taste.
Che areko mokoi ermanos Estados Unidospe. Che aiko Itápe Paraguaype. Che sy ko´ape oreko mokoi memby. Che aikota Paraguaipe por mokoi ano.
Okay, that says: I have 2 siblings in the United States. I live in Ita in Paraguay. My mother here has two kids. I am going to live in Paraguay for 2 years.
Construction is that the "a" in front of "reko" makes it the first person. The "o" in front of "reko" makes it the third person. The "ta" after the "ko" means future. The "pe" after a place means "in". It´s really interesting. I love the structure. I totally understand it. But, the pronunciation is so hard. I´m getting it though. If I can speak a little, it´ll help.
¿Que mas? I know nothing about the news. I have been only paying the slightest attention to the middle east and the senate vote about abortions and other things. I really know nothing. Anyone who wants to send along a little news sound bite now and then, I´d much appreciate it. I do know that the damn Big Dig is falling to crap, though. Amazing. And we think the infrastructure here is a mess. Jeez.
I am still patiently awaiting the cold winter weather, although I will admit the 90 degree heat does dry my laundry in only 3 hours or so. Quite convienent. Giant apples only cost a mil ($.17) and a big ol´pear only 1500G ($.25). But remember, I only earn $2.44 a day right now. Hee hee.
Tomorrow we are going on little cultural trips to different towns that are arty where we can buy hammocks or ao´poi, which are traditional Paraguayan shirts. That should be fun. I think they are only doing it to distract us from worrying about finding out our sites at 3.
Much love and missing. My first bout of homesickness has passed and I´m well now. Done with training, but well. Tell all your orientation staffs that they should be glad their damn training isn´t for 11 weeks! Jeez.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Pues, me encanté Yuty...
Well, I loved Yuty. What a wonderful little place...actually not that little. With about 4300 people in teh center and another 23,000 in over 80 different campañias (rural communities), it´s hardly small. There´s the Municipalidad and a rockin´library and a huge plaza with a grand church. There´s a pretty little traffic circle and resturants and even a couple of small hotels! (there´s not even a hotel in Itá!)
Kara is the volunteer who has lived and worked here for 2 years, she leaves in August. She worked on the cultural center, the library, with some neighborhood groups (notably one of women who make detergent, soap, and other things to sell locally).
She is "llevar-ing" her boyfriend (spanglish for taking him back to the States) and they will be married in Februray. Paraguay has a rather high percentage of volunteer marriages to host country nationals. Many stay here. (I can´t imagine this now, but vamos a ver and nunca dice nunca - we will see and never say never.) He´s fantastic, works at the Muni and is studying English now.
This town is 90k off the paved road, so if it rains, there´s no coming or going. The island of Yuty, más o menos. There´s no internet here, yet, although, there may be soon. To get from here to Asuncion is 90,000 G round trip, a small fortune on Pace Corps salary. But, I felt at home there. At peace more than in Itá. No sé porque. (I don´t know why.)
Someone from my group of 7 is going to be placed here. We don´t know who yet. There´s another site close by called Buena Vista. It´s much smaller, but supposed to be cute. We´ll see! I find out Friday, July 28 where I´m going to be living for the nxt two years. And the following Tuesday, we go on a 2 day retreat with our sit-contacts (each of us is matched with someone in the community). Then we travel with them to our future sites on August 3 for a week. We return to Itá on August 8 for only 10 more days before we swear in! I´m getting really excited and less nervous as time goes on.
My host mother in Yuty not only fed me gloriously, but she did all my laundry in her Machine! Amazing. And, she´s a teacher and we had a great conversation about studnets and learning and politics and stuff. Her husband is Argentinian and he is there working with her son who´s 19 who is studying. She and her 14 year old daughter are in Yuty. There´s lots of family splitting her because of lack of stady work in Paraguay regardless of education level.
Otras cosas:
- I haven´t mentioned the Paraguayan sky. It´s AMAZING. It looks fake sometimes, sort of like the Grand Canyon or the Annapurnas. Some days I can´t believe it isn´t a backdrop.
- Music. I cannot believe the noise pollution here. NO matter time of day or night, music blares - out of cars, trucks, houses, bars, restaurants. You name it. There´s this Paraguayan called cachackra. It´s everywhere. The most popular song is called ¨Dame duro¨ translated as ¨give it to me hard¨more or less. There´s no chance of it´s popularity fading, and in fact is playing right now in the internet cafe.
-Español, also known as Castellano. I´m coming along. I learned a lot in site this week. Everyone I meet seems to understand me. Now if only I understood them back! Hee hee.
NOTE: I tried to upload other photos and can´t! Sorry!
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Mi madre dijo que...
So my mom called me out. She says that she's still waiting to "smell" and "taste" and "know" Paraguay through my writing. She's right. I've been lazy. When I go to "Orange" (which is our nickname for the Internet place in Ita because the building is painted bright orange unlike no other) I am always stressed for time and money and usually just post something up and be done.
So, I figure I owe it to you all and to myself to really hunker down and try to invite you all into this crazy little country that I've begun to call home.
--There is a sugar cane factory along the Ruta on the way to Guarambare (where we train together once a week with the other group). Picture yourself on a micro (public bus) with a million other people. You got on and had a seat, but you got up to let an older woman sit down. Now you are holding on for dear life to the overhead bar while bracing your hip against the side of the bus, because the driver goes 50 mph and then slams on the breaks every 500 yards or so to pick someone up. There are no bus stops in Paraguay. You just stand on the street and stick out your hand and a bus will stop for you. Even if it just stopped less than 100 feet away to pick someone else up. Back on the bus: You are being stared at a lot, because your backpack or your jeans or your hair or something is giving you away as a "norte". The floor of the bus is thin metal and on some buses, some days, there are small holes and you can actually see the road pass by below your feet. There might be a chicken that joins you on the bus, or a small child toting a basket full of freshly baked chipas (bread with cheese and egg). When you begin to get close to the sugar cane factory, the smell permeates the air. Baby puke. That's all you can think of, and you hope that the wind is going AWAY from Guarambare, or else you'll have to smell this funky air all day while training.
--Awaking in the morning and opening the door to figure out the weather is always a challenge. Those who live in New England probably have some idea of what it is like to never know what the weather will be like, one day to the next, but even I have not experienced anything like this. 92 one day and 60 the next. In the morning, it might be "hace frio" (cold) so you put on jeans and socks and two layers. By 11:30 when you walk home from lunch, you have stripped off a layer and your socks and are still hot by the time you get home. And then when the sun goes down, it's chilly again. Sun and heat are often followed by rain and clouds and mist. Paraguayans take any sign of rain as a sign that they should definitely begin burning garbage. So, sometimes when the clouds begin to roll in, the smoke does too. Sometimes it's pleasant -- just leaves and orange rinds and the like. Other times it's toxic--plastic and bags and other man-made items. But, either way, no matter what the weatherman says, you probably know if it's going to rain based on the amount of smoke in the air and the smell.
--Mandioca is yucca. For those of you who aren't familiar with either, it's a root vegetable like a potato, only harder. And while it grows underground, it has a tree that grows up to about 4 or 5 feet in height. When they are harvested from the ground, they are covered with a dark brown bark that you have to peel before you boil them, inside is white. People eat them plain, just on a plate after being boiled. It would be like eating a slightly undercooked potato slice. Others mash it up and use them to make a pancake type thingy or use them for the dough for making empanadas. Empanadas are a half-circle shaped pastry that is filled with beef or chicken, along with egg and some veggies (sometimes). The dough is either made from mandioca or corn and then is either fried or baked. You can buy the dough circles at the store in a package and make your own. They are really easy. I've made soy-meat ones. Oh, let's talk about soy!
--Soy. There's tons here. They begin as beans. The ground is so fertile and soy so healthy, there is a national move to encourage people to eat it more. The process is that you have to soak the beans for 12 hours or so. Then you boil them for a long time, then you crush them up in a blender, and then push them through a strainer to separate the milk from the meat. Then you can use the milk to make a cake, use to make juice with fresh apples or oranges or mangos or whatever is growing on the tree in your yard. You can use the meat to make empanadas or cook with veggies and eat plain on with salad. It's really yummy and the protein equivelent is equal to like, a bunch of chicken or whatever. Lots of people in the campo don't know how to use it or prepare it and some consider beans a "poor people's food" and keep trying to eat meat exclusively, but it's getting better.
--Sunday mornings, the church bells ring out and then church music is piped out of the church and into the community. I live about a half-block from the church, so it's my morning greeting. This morning, the 8 a.m. mass was being broadcast out over the speakers as well. Many people here are very Catholic, but don't attend mass. The sounds of Sunday mornings are lovely though, especially since they are my only free day right now.
--Exhaust. Go outside and stand next to the nearest big truck you can find that is idling. Breathe in at the back of the truck two or three times. Ah, the smell of Paraguayan cities. :)
--Open hours. The stores open at the crack of dawn and there are people in the street early (around 6:30ish). But, they also close early. You can't buy anything after 6 or 6:30 at night. Well, okay, you might be able to find a dispensa (small store in someone's house) that is still open. But, you have to plan ahead to get what you need. Maggie (a woman in my group) lives where there is a dispensa, and her host mom gets up all night long on Fridays and Saturdays to sell stuff to mostly drunk people who want more beer and ring the bell.
--The sound of clapping hands. Here, when you come to someone's house and want them to let you in, you stand outside their door and clap. Seriously. If someone knocked on a door, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't know what it was. And I still haven't gotten used to it. Partially because half the time, when someone is in the street clapping, I have no idea if it's for us or another house nearby. It just sounds like clapping. But, my family always knows when it's for them. Our house also is two stories and the main living areas are upstairs. There's french doors that open to a balcony on the street, but if it's the slightest bit cold, those doors are closed and I can't hear anything. So, a few times, my friends have come by and clapped their little hearts out and I've never heard them. But, without fail, my family hears it when it's for them. Hee hee.
--The dog chorus. I've never been a fan of white-noise, especially to sleep with. I have one friend who can't sleep without it. But, I've been converted, and since the only white noise I'm able to produce is running the fan in my room (which, luckily, it turns out, is really loud). Thank god for it, because the damn dog chorus woulda killed me otherwise. There are about 100 dogs on my street. 3 live with Jim across the street. There are a couple on one side of me that live there and the others, I have no idea where they come from. But, the noise they make when they get started is astounding. One begins, woof, woof, woof. Another joins in, woofa, woofa, woofa. A bigger one gets started, arrrrwoof! arrrwoof! arrrwoof! And soon, the entire dog chorus is woofing away as if Arthur Fiedler was out on Calle Lopez in Barrio San Antonio in Ita, conducting the whole affair. One night, it went on for over an hour. One night, it was directly in front of Jim's door to his bedroom for an hour and he said it sounded like they'd invited a goat. Often, it sounds as though someone is being killed. This week, one of the dogs at Jim's is in heat, so it's even better! Viva la dog chorus, and thank f**k for the noisy fan my family gave me.
Next installment: people...but for now, Chau. I'm off for 5 days into the unpaved road yonder. I'll catch you on the flip side when I return. Luvvies.
So, I figure I owe it to you all and to myself to really hunker down and try to invite you all into this crazy little country that I've begun to call home.
--There is a sugar cane factory along the Ruta on the way to Guarambare (where we train together once a week with the other group). Picture yourself on a micro (public bus) with a million other people. You got on and had a seat, but you got up to let an older woman sit down. Now you are holding on for dear life to the overhead bar while bracing your hip against the side of the bus, because the driver goes 50 mph and then slams on the breaks every 500 yards or so to pick someone up. There are no bus stops in Paraguay. You just stand on the street and stick out your hand and a bus will stop for you. Even if it just stopped less than 100 feet away to pick someone else up. Back on the bus: You are being stared at a lot, because your backpack or your jeans or your hair or something is giving you away as a "norte". The floor of the bus is thin metal and on some buses, some days, there are small holes and you can actually see the road pass by below your feet. There might be a chicken that joins you on the bus, or a small child toting a basket full of freshly baked chipas (bread with cheese and egg). When you begin to get close to the sugar cane factory, the smell permeates the air. Baby puke. That's all you can think of, and you hope that the wind is going AWAY from Guarambare, or else you'll have to smell this funky air all day while training.
--Awaking in the morning and opening the door to figure out the weather is always a challenge. Those who live in New England probably have some idea of what it is like to never know what the weather will be like, one day to the next, but even I have not experienced anything like this. 92 one day and 60 the next. In the morning, it might be "hace frio" (cold) so you put on jeans and socks and two layers. By 11:30 when you walk home from lunch, you have stripped off a layer and your socks and are still hot by the time you get home. And then when the sun goes down, it's chilly again. Sun and heat are often followed by rain and clouds and mist. Paraguayans take any sign of rain as a sign that they should definitely begin burning garbage. So, sometimes when the clouds begin to roll in, the smoke does too. Sometimes it's pleasant -- just leaves and orange rinds and the like. Other times it's toxic--plastic and bags and other man-made items. But, either way, no matter what the weatherman says, you probably know if it's going to rain based on the amount of smoke in the air and the smell.
--Mandioca is yucca. For those of you who aren't familiar with either, it's a root vegetable like a potato, only harder. And while it grows underground, it has a tree that grows up to about 4 or 5 feet in height. When they are harvested from the ground, they are covered with a dark brown bark that you have to peel before you boil them, inside is white. People eat them plain, just on a plate after being boiled. It would be like eating a slightly undercooked potato slice. Others mash it up and use them to make a pancake type thingy or use them for the dough for making empanadas. Empanadas are a half-circle shaped pastry that is filled with beef or chicken, along with egg and some veggies (sometimes). The dough is either made from mandioca or corn and then is either fried or baked. You can buy the dough circles at the store in a package and make your own. They are really easy. I've made soy-meat ones. Oh, let's talk about soy!
--Soy. There's tons here. They begin as beans. The ground is so fertile and soy so healthy, there is a national move to encourage people to eat it more. The process is that you have to soak the beans for 12 hours or so. Then you boil them for a long time, then you crush them up in a blender, and then push them through a strainer to separate the milk from the meat. Then you can use the milk to make a cake, use to make juice with fresh apples or oranges or mangos or whatever is growing on the tree in your yard. You can use the meat to make empanadas or cook with veggies and eat plain on with salad. It's really yummy and the protein equivelent is equal to like, a bunch of chicken or whatever. Lots of people in the campo don't know how to use it or prepare it and some consider beans a "poor people's food" and keep trying to eat meat exclusively, but it's getting better.
--Sunday mornings, the church bells ring out and then church music is piped out of the church and into the community. I live about a half-block from the church, so it's my morning greeting. This morning, the 8 a.m. mass was being broadcast out over the speakers as well. Many people here are very Catholic, but don't attend mass. The sounds of Sunday mornings are lovely though, especially since they are my only free day right now.
--Exhaust. Go outside and stand next to the nearest big truck you can find that is idling. Breathe in at the back of the truck two or three times. Ah, the smell of Paraguayan cities. :)
--Open hours. The stores open at the crack of dawn and there are people in the street early (around 6:30ish). But, they also close early. You can't buy anything after 6 or 6:30 at night. Well, okay, you might be able to find a dispensa (small store in someone's house) that is still open. But, you have to plan ahead to get what you need. Maggie (a woman in my group) lives where there is a dispensa, and her host mom gets up all night long on Fridays and Saturdays to sell stuff to mostly drunk people who want more beer and ring the bell.
--The sound of clapping hands. Here, when you come to someone's house and want them to let you in, you stand outside their door and clap. Seriously. If someone knocked on a door, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't know what it was. And I still haven't gotten used to it. Partially because half the time, when someone is in the street clapping, I have no idea if it's for us or another house nearby. It just sounds like clapping. But, my family always knows when it's for them. Our house also is two stories and the main living areas are upstairs. There's french doors that open to a balcony on the street, but if it's the slightest bit cold, those doors are closed and I can't hear anything. So, a few times, my friends have come by and clapped their little hearts out and I've never heard them. But, without fail, my family hears it when it's for them. Hee hee.
--The dog chorus. I've never been a fan of white-noise, especially to sleep with. I have one friend who can't sleep without it. But, I've been converted, and since the only white noise I'm able to produce is running the fan in my room (which, luckily, it turns out, is really loud). Thank god for it, because the damn dog chorus woulda killed me otherwise. There are about 100 dogs on my street. 3 live with Jim across the street. There are a couple on one side of me that live there and the others, I have no idea where they come from. But, the noise they make when they get started is astounding. One begins, woof, woof, woof. Another joins in, woofa, woofa, woofa. A bigger one gets started, arrrrwoof! arrrwoof! arrrwoof! And soon, the entire dog chorus is woofing away as if Arthur Fiedler was out on Calle Lopez in Barrio San Antonio in Ita, conducting the whole affair. One night, it went on for over an hour. One night, it was directly in front of Jim's door to his bedroom for an hour and he said it sounded like they'd invited a goat. Often, it sounds as though someone is being killed. This week, one of the dogs at Jim's is in heat, so it's even better! Viva la dog chorus, and thank f**k for the noisy fan my family gave me.
Next installment: people...but for now, Chau. I'm off for 5 days into the unpaved road yonder. I'll catch you on the flip side when I return. Luvvies.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Voy a visitar otro lugar en Paraguay en departmento Caazapa, se llama Yuty
I am going to visit another place in Paraguay in the department of Caazapa called Yuty. We (three of us in my group, a language teacher and my trainer) leave on Monday a.m. and come back on Friday. This is called Long Field Practice. We give charlas, work with the Muni, etc. Should be a lot of work and a lot of fun. Considering that Yuty is 90 k.m. off the highway and that road is dirt, we are really hoping it doesn´t keep raining or we won´t get there.
This week has been hard. I am homesick for the first time and struggling with small group dynamics. We found out our sites are more rural than usual, and while I am glad about this since smaller Municipalities need us more than larger ones, it is also a little scary. Perhaps I´ll be living in a place like Yuty, off the main ruta and then I will be on the island of Yuty if it rains and the roads shut. But, I´ve lived in very isolated places before (I once spent 4 straight months on Koh Tao without leaving at all and NEVER left Steamboat for over 5 months) so I know that part will be fine. It´s the communication that scares me. Internet and the ability to keep in touch. But, again, I´ve dealt with that before too. I continue to worry about my level of Spanish and being understood and understanding. I know at this point I can be understood without too much trouble (even if I sound like an idiot) but it´s the understanding others part that scares me more.
¿Que más? (This phrase has become a running joke, because our language teachers say it every two seconds to get us to expand and talk more about stuff. We give them a hard time about it.)
I got a french pedicure for 5000G last night (about $1). That was a nice treat. Food continues to be fine. I should do a whole post about that at some point. I will. I bought the Paraguayan equivelent of Soft Scrub and cleaned my bathroom floor the other day because it was so gross (anyone who knows me well knows that it must be really gross for me to actually get down and clean something!). We found a bakery and now the owners expect us each day after class. :)
This weather is insane. Yesterday it was 92 degrees (about 35 C) and today it´s about 65 (20 C). Crazy ass winter.
I´m going to Asunción on Sunday to see Piratas del Caribe II which just opened today. YAY! A real movie in a theatre. In ENGLISH! Woo hoo.
Este semana, mis compañeras de clase y yo empezamos apriendiendo Guarani. Ahora, yo tengo tres idiomas en mi mente. Loca! Necesito traducir Guarani a ingles en mi mente y despues, traducir a español. Dios Mio! Pero, yo sé que es mejor saber algo Guarani porqué lo ayuda con trabajando con la gente. (This week, my classmates and I began learning Guarani. Now, I have three languages in my mind. Crazy! I have to translate Guarani to English in my mind and after, translate to Spanish. My God! But, I know that it is better to know some Guarani because it helps with working with the people.)
All is well in Paraguay. Hope you are well too. Keep in touch. Love and missing.
This week has been hard. I am homesick for the first time and struggling with small group dynamics. We found out our sites are more rural than usual, and while I am glad about this since smaller Municipalities need us more than larger ones, it is also a little scary. Perhaps I´ll be living in a place like Yuty, off the main ruta and then I will be on the island of Yuty if it rains and the roads shut. But, I´ve lived in very isolated places before (I once spent 4 straight months on Koh Tao without leaving at all and NEVER left Steamboat for over 5 months) so I know that part will be fine. It´s the communication that scares me. Internet and the ability to keep in touch. But, again, I´ve dealt with that before too. I continue to worry about my level of Spanish and being understood and understanding. I know at this point I can be understood without too much trouble (even if I sound like an idiot) but it´s the understanding others part that scares me more.
¿Que más? (This phrase has become a running joke, because our language teachers say it every two seconds to get us to expand and talk more about stuff. We give them a hard time about it.)
I got a french pedicure for 5000G last night (about $1). That was a nice treat. Food continues to be fine. I should do a whole post about that at some point. I will. I bought the Paraguayan equivelent of Soft Scrub and cleaned my bathroom floor the other day because it was so gross (anyone who knows me well knows that it must be really gross for me to actually get down and clean something!). We found a bakery and now the owners expect us each day after class. :)
This weather is insane. Yesterday it was 92 degrees (about 35 C) and today it´s about 65 (20 C). Crazy ass winter.
I´m going to Asunción on Sunday to see Piratas del Caribe II which just opened today. YAY! A real movie in a theatre. In ENGLISH! Woo hoo.
Este semana, mis compañeras de clase y yo empezamos apriendiendo Guarani. Ahora, yo tengo tres idiomas en mi mente. Loca! Necesito traducir Guarani a ingles en mi mente y despues, traducir a español. Dios Mio! Pero, yo sé que es mejor saber algo Guarani porqué lo ayuda con trabajando con la gente. (This week, my classmates and I began learning Guarani. Now, I have three languages in my mind. Crazy! I have to translate Guarani to English in my mind and after, translate to Spanish. My God! But, I know that it is better to know some Guarani because it helps with working with the people.)
All is well in Paraguay. Hope you are well too. Keep in touch. Love and missing.
Monday, July 10, 2006
Visité San Juan Bautista y ví un voluntario en su sitio
I visited San Juan Bautista and I saw a volunteer in his site. (That´s the translation of the title.)
We went on our "technical overnight" to check out another site. We attended a "charla" given by the volunteer, Leo, about civic education and we had dinner with the Intendente (Mayor). After that we drank beers and hung out with both Americans and Paraguayans. The next day, we went to a meeting of a women´s neighborhood comission (they first built a bunch of fagons (which are outdoor ovens) and now they are working on getting some modern bathrooms with septic tanks built). We also visited the Casa de Cultural and the Biblioteca (Culture House and the Library) before we left. It was a cool visit and a good change of pace to get out of Itá.
I got a "Intermediate Mid" on my language test. That´s the level I have to be at before they will let me go to site, so that´s good, since I have 6 more weeks. It´s also the level you have to be at when you start studying Guarani, so now I am. It´s hard and intimidating. There are 12 vowels. a, e, i, o, u pronounced the same as in spanish and y, said like a gutteral sound you would make when you poop. Then there´s a, e, i, o, u and y which are all nasal. Say a short a sound through your nose. That´s it. Every word in Guarani ends in a vowel. Apparently I won´t need it much, depending, but it does a world of good to know some.
¿Que mas? We figured out that we get $3 a day for stuff. We are obviously fed and housed, but for everything else, that´s what we get. It´s enough, but not enough to go around buying stuff. I have to be careful.
As I get better at speaking Spanish, my host mom has kicked it up a notch, so it still feels like I don´t understand anything. I guess if someone learning English was all of a sudden speaking in the past participle, I´d use it more and it´d be hard for them, too. I still love my family, though. We talk forever some nights.
Did I mention there´s a housekeeper/childcare woman in the house? She cooks and cleans and takes care of both girls while Malú is at work. She left this week to go back home to take care of her ailing parents since she´s the only single one of 14 kids. I´m not sorry to see her go. I didn´t like her. She poked me a lot and I couldn´t understand anything she said (Malú said she can´t understand her sometimes, too.) She also tried to exhort some money from me for doing laundry. Long story. Anyway, now there´s a new girl who´s 21 and can´t cook anything. So Malú is teaching her. She cleans like a demon, though, so Malú likes her so far. It´s weird to have a maid in the house, but I´m getting used to it, too.
Nada mas. Ojala que el español que estoy aprendiendo ayudará en el futuro en los estados unidos. Hay muchas palabras specifica a Paraguay. (I hope the spanish I am learning will help me in the future in the U.S. There are many words that are specific to Paraguay.)
Love and missing.
We went on our "technical overnight" to check out another site. We attended a "charla" given by the volunteer, Leo, about civic education and we had dinner with the Intendente (Mayor). After that we drank beers and hung out with both Americans and Paraguayans. The next day, we went to a meeting of a women´s neighborhood comission (they first built a bunch of fagons (which are outdoor ovens) and now they are working on getting some modern bathrooms with septic tanks built). We also visited the Casa de Cultural and the Biblioteca (Culture House and the Library) before we left. It was a cool visit and a good change of pace to get out of Itá.
I got a "Intermediate Mid" on my language test. That´s the level I have to be at before they will let me go to site, so that´s good, since I have 6 more weeks. It´s also the level you have to be at when you start studying Guarani, so now I am. It´s hard and intimidating. There are 12 vowels. a, e, i, o, u pronounced the same as in spanish and y, said like a gutteral sound you would make when you poop. Then there´s a, e, i, o, u and y which are all nasal. Say a short a sound through your nose. That´s it. Every word in Guarani ends in a vowel. Apparently I won´t need it much, depending, but it does a world of good to know some.
¿Que mas? We figured out that we get $3 a day for stuff. We are obviously fed and housed, but for everything else, that´s what we get. It´s enough, but not enough to go around buying stuff. I have to be careful.
As I get better at speaking Spanish, my host mom has kicked it up a notch, so it still feels like I don´t understand anything. I guess if someone learning English was all of a sudden speaking in the past participle, I´d use it more and it´d be hard for them, too. I still love my family, though. We talk forever some nights.
Did I mention there´s a housekeeper/childcare woman in the house? She cooks and cleans and takes care of both girls while Malú is at work. She left this week to go back home to take care of her ailing parents since she´s the only single one of 14 kids. I´m not sorry to see her go. I didn´t like her. She poked me a lot and I couldn´t understand anything she said (Malú said she can´t understand her sometimes, too.) She also tried to exhort some money from me for doing laundry. Long story. Anyway, now there´s a new girl who´s 21 and can´t cook anything. So Malú is teaching her. She cleans like a demon, though, so Malú likes her so far. It´s weird to have a maid in the house, but I´m getting used to it, too.
Nada mas. Ojala que el español que estoy aprendiendo ayudará en el futuro en los estados unidos. Hay muchas palabras specifica a Paraguay. (I hope the spanish I am learning will help me in the future in the U.S. There are many words that are specific to Paraguay.)
Love and missing.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Hoy es Diá de Practica numero tres
Today is Dia de Practica number 3. We have 5. During these days, we are meant to go out in Itá and talk with people and possibly work on a small project with someone in the community as a way to practice what our days and work will be like in our placements later. Kimberly and I were matched together and we went two weeks ago to talk with the Director of the Technical High School. Today, we meet with him to finalize the charlas (talks) we will give on self esteem (autoestima) and the importance of being a hard worker (importancia del trabajo duro o ser guapo/a) (NB: guapo and guapa here mean "hard working" intead of "cute/goodlooking"--este es muy interesante.)
Because our project was so easy to put together - the director had worked with the Peace Corps women who were in Itá - I went this morning to interview the Secretaria de Mujer (Secretary of Women) at the Municipality in Itá. It was an interesting conversation. The office was opened only 2 years ago and deals will all issues relating to women. She created a women´s interest group and deals with domestic violence problems. She is pretty dynamic. We talked for about 45 minutes and since I´m still only getting about 80% of what anyone says to me, it was even more interesting. Hee hee.
We go tomorrow for one night to a place called San Juan Bautista in the Department of Misiones for our Technical Overnight. We will spend time with the Volunteer who lives there and learn more about Muni work. Not next week, but the week after, we go for 5 days for Long Field Practice. There are two sites for that, the 7 of us are split. We again spend time with a volunteer and learn even more.
On July 28, I find out my site. I´m getting excited and worried at the same time. I remember so clearly that when Becky and I were travelling in Asia, I would not want whatever transport journey we were on to end (like the 20 hour train ride or the 15 hour bus ride) because even though it was exciting to be in a new place, it meant having to walk around finding somewhere to stay and reacclimating all over again. Training is like one of those journeys. It´s been long and will be longer, but at the same time, there´s so many challenges that come with its ending. Leaving my family here, who I´ve grown to really like (and they me, they keep asking if I can be placed in Itá) and leaving the safe little bubble of my cohort, and going somewhere alone and having to figure out the work every day. But, I don´t have as much fear about this than I did about leaving in the first place from the US, so I must be fine. I know wherever I go in Paraguay, I will be able to do good work there, helping people be more in order to help themselves have more.
Here is a list that Jenny and I (the volunteer I went to visit my second or third week) and I made called: What is development work? I share it so you have more idea what I will be doing for these two years and what I want to do in the US when I get home.
--We are here to help people be more, not just to have more. Working on the being more is best. The having more often overshadows and can sometimes undermine the being more.
--Our work is a process. Our work can´t be known before we get somewhere. Our work will be grounded in relationships. Our work, therefore, might not become completely clear for some time, and once we think it has, it might change.
--What does "sustainability" really mean and look like? How do we check for it? We need to engage in constant self-assessment: do our actions create sustainability and independence or dependence on the part of Paraguayans (or whoever we are working with)?
--We should recognize that we will be tempted to "take charge" and have "successful" projects that ultimately lead to more dependence. We should recognize that fostering independence and sustainability is more ardous, more time-consuming, and often less clear (in its outcomes).
--Development work is an inherently long process. Sustainable development cannot be anything but a long process.
--Most of us want to be able to see and touch the results of hard work. Sometimes we just don´t get to....
--We will be uncomfortable. We will engage in action that takes us outside our comfort zones. PC Volunteers need to be willing to engage in real relationships, be wrong and therefore re-assess, admit what we don´t know, and put ourselves in work situations we might not be able to control.
--Our nature as humans is to want answers: the "correct path" is either "one" (black) or the "other" (white). This is our nature because feeling lost makes us uncomfortable and we want to believe we have done good. In development work, we must be prepared to LIVE IN THE GRAY.
--The little things (small changes) need to be enough.
Until next time, Love and missing.
Because our project was so easy to put together - the director had worked with the Peace Corps women who were in Itá - I went this morning to interview the Secretaria de Mujer (Secretary of Women) at the Municipality in Itá. It was an interesting conversation. The office was opened only 2 years ago and deals will all issues relating to women. She created a women´s interest group and deals with domestic violence problems. She is pretty dynamic. We talked for about 45 minutes and since I´m still only getting about 80% of what anyone says to me, it was even more interesting. Hee hee.
We go tomorrow for one night to a place called San Juan Bautista in the Department of Misiones for our Technical Overnight. We will spend time with the Volunteer who lives there and learn more about Muni work. Not next week, but the week after, we go for 5 days for Long Field Practice. There are two sites for that, the 7 of us are split. We again spend time with a volunteer and learn even more.
On July 28, I find out my site. I´m getting excited and worried at the same time. I remember so clearly that when Becky and I were travelling in Asia, I would not want whatever transport journey we were on to end (like the 20 hour train ride or the 15 hour bus ride) because even though it was exciting to be in a new place, it meant having to walk around finding somewhere to stay and reacclimating all over again. Training is like one of those journeys. It´s been long and will be longer, but at the same time, there´s so many challenges that come with its ending. Leaving my family here, who I´ve grown to really like (and they me, they keep asking if I can be placed in Itá) and leaving the safe little bubble of my cohort, and going somewhere alone and having to figure out the work every day. But, I don´t have as much fear about this than I did about leaving in the first place from the US, so I must be fine. I know wherever I go in Paraguay, I will be able to do good work there, helping people be more in order to help themselves have more.
Here is a list that Jenny and I (the volunteer I went to visit my second or third week) and I made called: What is development work? I share it so you have more idea what I will be doing for these two years and what I want to do in the US when I get home.
--We are here to help people be more, not just to have more. Working on the being more is best. The having more often overshadows and can sometimes undermine the being more.
--Our work is a process. Our work can´t be known before we get somewhere. Our work will be grounded in relationships. Our work, therefore, might not become completely clear for some time, and once we think it has, it might change.
--What does "sustainability" really mean and look like? How do we check for it? We need to engage in constant self-assessment: do our actions create sustainability and independence or dependence on the part of Paraguayans (or whoever we are working with)?
--We should recognize that we will be tempted to "take charge" and have "successful" projects that ultimately lead to more dependence. We should recognize that fostering independence and sustainability is more ardous, more time-consuming, and often less clear (in its outcomes).
--Development work is an inherently long process. Sustainable development cannot be anything but a long process.
--Most of us want to be able to see and touch the results of hard work. Sometimes we just don´t get to....
--We will be uncomfortable. We will engage in action that takes us outside our comfort zones. PC Volunteers need to be willing to engage in real relationships, be wrong and therefore re-assess, admit what we don´t know, and put ourselves in work situations we might not be able to control.
--Our nature as humans is to want answers: the "correct path" is either "one" (black) or the "other" (white). This is our nature because feeling lost makes us uncomfortable and we want to believe we have done good. In development work, we must be prepared to LIVE IN THE GRAY.
--The little things (small changes) need to be enough.
Until next time, Love and missing.
Friday, June 30, 2006
Tengo entrevista de idoma el miercoles proximo...
I have my first language skills interview next Wednesday (that´s what the title says) and estoy preocupado (I´m worried). My language skills are a million times better than when I arrived, and my family has recently commented on how much better I speak now than 4 weeks ago. I can read quite a bit and understand most of it. Last Sunday I read all the US-based international news in the Sunday paper and got almost all of it.
But, I get really nervous in front of other people. It´s my competitiveness coupled with feeling embarrassed along with not wanting to sound stupid, so I freeze. But at the dinner table with family, I´m willing to sound dumb in order to learn, so I´m fine...more than fine. I´ve been able to have pretty complex conversations about money, lifestyle in the US, the role of fathers in parenting, and why we from the US leave our parents´s homes when we are only 18 (the Paraguayans think that is very weird as they live with their parents until they are married and oftentimes afterwards as well).
I will prepare some for Wednesday´s oral exam, which is only a conversation with a teacher who doesn´t know me very well, and I´ll hope that I sound intelligent when I do it. I am able to speak using the future tense (Voy a ir a Asuncion el Sabado...I am going to Asuncion on Saturday) and using the past tense (Yo comí mucho anoche...I ate a lot last night) and using the imperfect tense (Cuando era joven, yo trajababa todos los dias con mi hermana...When I was younger, I played every day with my sister) and even with the past participle a little bit (Yo he comido ya...I have eaten already). I also have learned a lot of idomatic phrases which are really helpful. (Yo acabo de comer...I just ate; No estoy razón...I´m wrong; and Estoy de acuerdo...I agree.) Idioms are the bomb and it´s no wonder my mom has a hard time teaching them in English to her non-native speaking students in Lowell...they don´t directly translate at all!
Que mas? My day to day life is actually pretty boring. I go to class, eat with the fam, talk with friends, maybe have a beer and do lots of homework and studying. We are currently in the middle of a series of Dia de la Practica, and Kimberly and I are preparing to present two ¨charlas¨ (workshops...chats) to the students at one of the high schools. We will do one about self esteem and one about why working hard is important. We are working with Fredy Olmeda, the director of the school. I am excited (and nervioso) to present to 30 high school students in SPANISH. We will work in concert with a teacher, which will be better.
There are yacares in the laguna here, in the middle of town. (Crocodiles...) We see them cuando hay sol (when there is sun). The funny thing is that yacare is a Guarani word and is also used to mean a man who sneaks into a woman´s room/house at night to hook up with her...apparently leaving your window open and making plans with a man results in a yacare visit. (NB: the word is pronounced with a hard J like in English...JACKARAY.) Just a little tidbit for those of you keeping track of cultural nuances. :)
We have visited with the director of the democracy project for USAID. Interesting. We have learned loads about how the municipalities run and the tax laws and the other stuff that the towns are responsible for. We have done workshops about relationships, machismo, dating, and using non-formal education technicques. We even learned how to use SWOT! (FODA in Spanish...)
Happy 4th of July. Everyone enjoy your breaks. Much love and missing.
But, I get really nervous in front of other people. It´s my competitiveness coupled with feeling embarrassed along with not wanting to sound stupid, so I freeze. But at the dinner table with family, I´m willing to sound dumb in order to learn, so I´m fine...more than fine. I´ve been able to have pretty complex conversations about money, lifestyle in the US, the role of fathers in parenting, and why we from the US leave our parents´s homes when we are only 18 (the Paraguayans think that is very weird as they live with their parents until they are married and oftentimes afterwards as well).
I will prepare some for Wednesday´s oral exam, which is only a conversation with a teacher who doesn´t know me very well, and I´ll hope that I sound intelligent when I do it. I am able to speak using the future tense (Voy a ir a Asuncion el Sabado...I am going to Asuncion on Saturday) and using the past tense (Yo comí mucho anoche...I ate a lot last night) and using the imperfect tense (Cuando era joven, yo trajababa todos los dias con mi hermana...When I was younger, I played every day with my sister) and even with the past participle a little bit (Yo he comido ya...I have eaten already). I also have learned a lot of idomatic phrases which are really helpful. (Yo acabo de comer...I just ate; No estoy razón...I´m wrong; and Estoy de acuerdo...I agree.) Idioms are the bomb and it´s no wonder my mom has a hard time teaching them in English to her non-native speaking students in Lowell...they don´t directly translate at all!
Que mas? My day to day life is actually pretty boring. I go to class, eat with the fam, talk with friends, maybe have a beer and do lots of homework and studying. We are currently in the middle of a series of Dia de la Practica, and Kimberly and I are preparing to present two ¨charlas¨ (workshops...chats) to the students at one of the high schools. We will do one about self esteem and one about why working hard is important. We are working with Fredy Olmeda, the director of the school. I am excited (and nervioso) to present to 30 high school students in SPANISH. We will work in concert with a teacher, which will be better.
There are yacares in the laguna here, in the middle of town. (Crocodiles...) We see them cuando hay sol (when there is sun). The funny thing is that yacare is a Guarani word and is also used to mean a man who sneaks into a woman´s room/house at night to hook up with her...apparently leaving your window open and making plans with a man results in a yacare visit. (NB: the word is pronounced with a hard J like in English...JACKARAY.) Just a little tidbit for those of you keeping track of cultural nuances. :)
We have visited with the director of the democracy project for USAID. Interesting. We have learned loads about how the municipalities run and the tax laws and the other stuff that the towns are responsible for. We have done workshops about relationships, machismo, dating, and using non-formal education technicques. We even learned how to use SWOT! (FODA in Spanish...)
Happy 4th of July. Everyone enjoy your breaks. Much love and missing.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Hace tres semanas que yo llegué en Paraguay
It has been three weeks since I arrived in Paraguay. Amazing. It feels like three months. Seriously. I do not remember the last time I was so ensconced in learning, whelmed (not over, but just whelmed, and I have lost enough English at this point to not know a good word to use here) with imformation, and happily acculturating. College was the last time, I guess. This is really intense and really great all at once.
The Paraguayans have a word for the life I´m supposed to live. ¨Tranquillo.¨ Translated to English, this would be "chill" and in Thai, would be "mai pen rai." But here, it is a true way of life. The way of being in the US, hurrying here and there, is totally foreign to this culture. I am already effected. I walk slower, I think slower, I am more willing to just figure it out later than I have been in a long while. This way of life is not natural for me at all, but I really like it and I think I will come to appreciate it.
We had a huge session on site matching and site placement the other day. I will visit my future site in week 9 or 10. Right now is only week 3. But, the process of matching seems meaningful and thoughtful. The Assitant Director here (my jefe) looks at the available sites (of which there are more than there are of us) and then at our skills, our language, our abilities and our attitudes and then matches us to a site. They also take our requests, but only to a point. Right now, I have no requests. I think I can potentially succeed anywhere.
We are not supposed to be thinking of projects now, really. We obviously know our interests, but we won´t really know what a site needs till we get there. Por ejemplo, if I decide that my interest is in garbage clean up and nutrition for kids and then I get to Chelmsford (my hometown in the US for arguements sake) and I pitch this there, who knows...right? Maybe some school kids are already doing garbage projects or this subject is a sore spot for the Town Manager/Mayor for some reason, and I upset them. Or, perhaps the kids have great nutrition, or the parents or health center are insulted by my insinuation that they don´t. BUT, instead, if I get to site, introduce myself, say I work at the Municipality (our equivelent of Town Hall) and say that I´m there to support projects, perhaps a mother´s group will approach me about the fact that there´s too much garbage in the streets and they want to organize THEMSELVES to do something about it. Now I can appropriately react. Make sense?
What I´ve learned, basically, is that development work is not to help folks HAVE MORE, but to help them learn how to BE MORE. The HAVING MORE sometimes can undermine the BEING MORE, if that makes sense. It´s slow, ardous, relationship-building-based work. And, I´m really excited about it.
Que mas? I visited a volunteer in her site last week for 4 days. It was great to see her work in real time, and see what a Muni voluteer does. I really liked her, too. It was great! We have also begun our Dia de la Practica, of which we have 5, to practice by talking to people in Ita and developing a "mini project" while we are here. Very cool.
Final observation: today, June 24 is Dia de San Juan, a celebration of a saint. It really lasts the entire month and involves these games and traditional things. Sort of like hotdogs on the 4th of July. There´s one game called pelota del fuego (ball of fire) in which a ball made of cloth and dipped in gasoline is lit on fire and kicked around. Crazy. Tengo mucho miedo, y, no me gusta. Me creo que este es muy peligroso. (I was very afraid and I didn´t like it and I think that this is very dangerous.)
Oh, and the US Embassy in Asuncion is hosting a 4th of July gig on Saturday the 1st. We´re off to play with the marines and other PCV´s and I am staying overnight in a hotel in Asuncion. Yay! Fun.
Love and missing. K
The Paraguayans have a word for the life I´m supposed to live. ¨Tranquillo.¨ Translated to English, this would be "chill" and in Thai, would be "mai pen rai." But here, it is a true way of life. The way of being in the US, hurrying here and there, is totally foreign to this culture. I am already effected. I walk slower, I think slower, I am more willing to just figure it out later than I have been in a long while. This way of life is not natural for me at all, but I really like it and I think I will come to appreciate it.
We had a huge session on site matching and site placement the other day. I will visit my future site in week 9 or 10. Right now is only week 3. But, the process of matching seems meaningful and thoughtful. The Assitant Director here (my jefe) looks at the available sites (of which there are more than there are of us) and then at our skills, our language, our abilities and our attitudes and then matches us to a site. They also take our requests, but only to a point. Right now, I have no requests. I think I can potentially succeed anywhere.
We are not supposed to be thinking of projects now, really. We obviously know our interests, but we won´t really know what a site needs till we get there. Por ejemplo, if I decide that my interest is in garbage clean up and nutrition for kids and then I get to Chelmsford (my hometown in the US for arguements sake) and I pitch this there, who knows...right? Maybe some school kids are already doing garbage projects or this subject is a sore spot for the Town Manager/Mayor for some reason, and I upset them. Or, perhaps the kids have great nutrition, or the parents or health center are insulted by my insinuation that they don´t. BUT, instead, if I get to site, introduce myself, say I work at the Municipality (our equivelent of Town Hall) and say that I´m there to support projects, perhaps a mother´s group will approach me about the fact that there´s too much garbage in the streets and they want to organize THEMSELVES to do something about it. Now I can appropriately react. Make sense?
What I´ve learned, basically, is that development work is not to help folks HAVE MORE, but to help them learn how to BE MORE. The HAVING MORE sometimes can undermine the BEING MORE, if that makes sense. It´s slow, ardous, relationship-building-based work. And, I´m really excited about it.
Que mas? I visited a volunteer in her site last week for 4 days. It was great to see her work in real time, and see what a Muni voluteer does. I really liked her, too. It was great! We have also begun our Dia de la Practica, of which we have 5, to practice by talking to people in Ita and developing a "mini project" while we are here. Very cool.
Final observation: today, June 24 is Dia de San Juan, a celebration of a saint. It really lasts the entire month and involves these games and traditional things. Sort of like hotdogs on the 4th of July. There´s one game called pelota del fuego (ball of fire) in which a ball made of cloth and dipped in gasoline is lit on fire and kicked around. Crazy. Tengo mucho miedo, y, no me gusta. Me creo que este es muy peligroso. (I was very afraid and I didn´t like it and I think that this is very dangerous.)
Oh, and the US Embassy in Asuncion is hosting a 4th of July gig on Saturday the 1st. We´re off to play with the marines and other PCV´s and I am staying overnight in a hotel in Asuncion. Yay! Fun.
Love and missing. K
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Algunos Observaciones
So I thought it might be time for a ¨Karen´s random observations¨post. Here goes.
--It is not winter here, really. It is warm. We´ve had a couple of chilly days/nights so far, but nothing crazy. Apparently it´s coming. Whenever you guys are the hottest in New England, that´s exactly when I´ll be coldest.
--My laundry set up is sweet. I bought the soap and a woman does my laundry at my house for free. But, she ripped a big hole in the leg of my only jeans. Nice. I did a very good sewing job, and I think they are able to still be worn...we´ll see. I do have a few other pairs of pants, so no worries...I won´t be wearing jeans in the heat of most of the year anyway, right?
--This country has a HUGE amount of patriotism. Considering the long and somewhat sordid history (for more info, read that post here), it is wonderful. As the guy from the American school in Asuncion who gave our history talk said, this is a country who´s history is based on on success but on survival (he´s Paraguayan and lived in the US for 16 years as a young person).
--There are not many birds. The number of stray dogs is bothering some of my companeros, but not really me, considering they are far less in number than in Asia. There are crazy dog choruses in the freaking middle of the night which are driving me nuts. I finally decided to sleep with the fan running in the corner in an effort to drown out the dogs. It´s working.
--The Spanish teachers really care about us. I talked one-on-one spontaneaously with Noemi today about my progress and although I told her I´m worried that I´m not doing well enough, she assured me I am. I told her I know it´s only the second week and that there´s still plenty of time and she agreed. She doesn´t speak English, so everything I need to convey I have to do in Spanish. So far so good. I am still scared to death of Guarani, but I will make an effort because it will take me far in my site if I do.
--Yesterday, we went to the chu-chi mall in Asuncion for a few hours. It was nice to be in a grocery store that had peanut butter and such, since you can´t really find it elsewhere. Remember me saying that you can go to Asia naked and with no bag and find everything you need there? Not the case here. I might even need to import OBs from home because you can´t even find those. Interesting.
--Food: lots of carbs. Not many veggies other than lettuce and tomatoes. Fruit in abundance, but so far, my family doesn´t eat whole fruit. I buy it on the street when I can. Lots of one-pot meals: soups, meat with rice, etc. Lots of frying. But because overall, food is less abundant in quantity, I have actually lost a little weight already. We´ll see. I´m looking forward to living on my own and cooking for myself again.
--Toilets. All western in cities. I have yet to use a latrine, which are mostly in people´s houses in the campo. It´s possible I could end up somewhere with one, but not sure yet. TP is not abundant, but not as absent as in Asia. Lots of soap. Parguayans care a lot about cleanliness.
--The sky is pretty. The streets are paved with huge cobblestones that aren´t flat, they are every which way, walking is a bit of a challenge. Lots of places don´t even have that, only dirt. Stores are tiny and have few things. Computers and internet are in towns and cities but not elsewhere. There´s a good chance that I´ll get a site where I only have internet once a week or less. I could have daily, too. You never know. There are amazing flowers and trees here. The flora is to die for.
--I have not taken a lot of photos. A few here and there, but as most of you know, I prefer to take things in first hand instead of from the other side of a camera. I promise to somehow get some to you. I haven´t figured out how yet.
--People stare. But not a lot. But, we are in Ita, where Cuerpo de Paz is very well known. They´ve had lots of volunteers in Ita in the past. When I go other places there is more staring. Yesterday on the bus, I was with three others and they were on the otherside of a VERY CROWDED aisle from me. I was totally incognito, not talking or whatever. Then, Jim yelled from the other side, are you looking where we have to get off? in English and I yelled back. So much for blending in...everyone stared after that! Hee hee.
All is well. Keep well, all. Love and missing.
--It is not winter here, really. It is warm. We´ve had a couple of chilly days/nights so far, but nothing crazy. Apparently it´s coming. Whenever you guys are the hottest in New England, that´s exactly when I´ll be coldest.
--My laundry set up is sweet. I bought the soap and a woman does my laundry at my house for free. But, she ripped a big hole in the leg of my only jeans. Nice. I did a very good sewing job, and I think they are able to still be worn...we´ll see. I do have a few other pairs of pants, so no worries...I won´t be wearing jeans in the heat of most of the year anyway, right?
--This country has a HUGE amount of patriotism. Considering the long and somewhat sordid history (for more info, read that post here), it is wonderful. As the guy from the American school in Asuncion who gave our history talk said, this is a country who´s history is based on on success but on survival (he´s Paraguayan and lived in the US for 16 years as a young person).
--There are not many birds. The number of stray dogs is bothering some of my companeros, but not really me, considering they are far less in number than in Asia. There are crazy dog choruses in the freaking middle of the night which are driving me nuts. I finally decided to sleep with the fan running in the corner in an effort to drown out the dogs. It´s working.
--The Spanish teachers really care about us. I talked one-on-one spontaneaously with Noemi today about my progress and although I told her I´m worried that I´m not doing well enough, she assured me I am. I told her I know it´s only the second week and that there´s still plenty of time and she agreed. She doesn´t speak English, so everything I need to convey I have to do in Spanish. So far so good. I am still scared to death of Guarani, but I will make an effort because it will take me far in my site if I do.
--Yesterday, we went to the chu-chi mall in Asuncion for a few hours. It was nice to be in a grocery store that had peanut butter and such, since you can´t really find it elsewhere. Remember me saying that you can go to Asia naked and with no bag and find everything you need there? Not the case here. I might even need to import OBs from home because you can´t even find those. Interesting.
--Food: lots of carbs. Not many veggies other than lettuce and tomatoes. Fruit in abundance, but so far, my family doesn´t eat whole fruit. I buy it on the street when I can. Lots of one-pot meals: soups, meat with rice, etc. Lots of frying. But because overall, food is less abundant in quantity, I have actually lost a little weight already. We´ll see. I´m looking forward to living on my own and cooking for myself again.
--Toilets. All western in cities. I have yet to use a latrine, which are mostly in people´s houses in the campo. It´s possible I could end up somewhere with one, but not sure yet. TP is not abundant, but not as absent as in Asia. Lots of soap. Parguayans care a lot about cleanliness.
--The sky is pretty. The streets are paved with huge cobblestones that aren´t flat, they are every which way, walking is a bit of a challenge. Lots of places don´t even have that, only dirt. Stores are tiny and have few things. Computers and internet are in towns and cities but not elsewhere. There´s a good chance that I´ll get a site where I only have internet once a week or less. I could have daily, too. You never know. There are amazing flowers and trees here. The flora is to die for.
--I have not taken a lot of photos. A few here and there, but as most of you know, I prefer to take things in first hand instead of from the other side of a camera. I promise to somehow get some to you. I haven´t figured out how yet.
--People stare. But not a lot. But, we are in Ita, where Cuerpo de Paz is very well known. They´ve had lots of volunteers in Ita in the past. When I go other places there is more staring. Yesterday on the bus, I was with three others and they were on the otherside of a VERY CROWDED aisle from me. I was totally incognito, not talking or whatever. Then, Jim yelled from the other side, are you looking where we have to get off? in English and I yelled back. So much for blending in...everyone stared after that! Hee hee.
All is well. Keep well, all. Love and missing.
Monday, June 12, 2006
Enfermeras, Solderos y Veudas en El Desfile
Today was a holiday in Ita. It celebrates the end of the Chaco War, which was fought with Bolivia over a huge piece of land in the north of Paraguay which essentially has nothing but they thought there might be oil there. We won in 1935. Today was a huge parade with all the school kids, teachers, firetrucks, etc down the main Ruta in Ita. It lasted a long time and there were food and balloon vendors and such. It was a lot like the 4th of July in Chelmsford. Somehow, I always get to foreign countries right when there´s a major holiday. It´s cool.
In my hermanita´s (small sister´s) school, which, oddly enough, is named Escuela Walt Disney, there were all the 4 and 5 year olds dressed as nurses (the girls), soldiers (the boys), and widows. The widows each had a sign with the name of what I can only assume is their dearly departed. The little nurses each had on a hat and carried a little medical kit. Each little soldier had a gun, a canteen, and had been painted with beards. It was amazingly cute. And it made me think: whoop-de-do for the Minutemen. Where´s those who helped on the frontline and those left behind in our rendering of our war success in our desfiles (parades)?
I´m an idiot and left the house without my camera, so I´ll have to beg copies off friends who aren´t so dumb. We had a beautiful early winter day for the parade as it is a clear blue sky and about 60 degrees here. So nice.
Yesterday, the 7 of us who live in Ita travelled to Las Piedras, about 15 minutes away by bus to visit the other 11 folks in our group. They live in the campo (the country) which is a suburb of Ita. They live in a farming community because their project is Rural Economic Development. We were fed yummy food and then played soccer, hung out in the sun and spoke bad spanish with little children. The day wound up with dancing and then we headed home. We are all kind of glad we live in the big city instead of the campo.
Last night was declared (by us) NO FAMILIES, NO SPANISH night and we played cards at my house in my room and drank a couple of beers and only spoke English. It was nice. But, also turned me into an idiot all over again when I tried to talk to my family that night. Too much English is not a good thing.
Overall, though, my Spanish is pretty good. As soon as I stop trying to directly translate in my head, I´ll be better off. But for now, my vocab is growing every day and I am getting better at my tenses and remembering that sentences (and paragraphs) need verbs!
All is well in Paraguay, a small little landlocked country with a wicked history that needs some help to take the next step. I´m hoping I can be part of it.
In my hermanita´s (small sister´s) school, which, oddly enough, is named Escuela Walt Disney, there were all the 4 and 5 year olds dressed as nurses (the girls), soldiers (the boys), and widows. The widows each had a sign with the name of what I can only assume is their dearly departed. The little nurses each had on a hat and carried a little medical kit. Each little soldier had a gun, a canteen, and had been painted with beards. It was amazingly cute. And it made me think: whoop-de-do for the Minutemen. Where´s those who helped on the frontline and those left behind in our rendering of our war success in our desfiles (parades)?
I´m an idiot and left the house without my camera, so I´ll have to beg copies off friends who aren´t so dumb. We had a beautiful early winter day for the parade as it is a clear blue sky and about 60 degrees here. So nice.
Yesterday, the 7 of us who live in Ita travelled to Las Piedras, about 15 minutes away by bus to visit the other 11 folks in our group. They live in the campo (the country) which is a suburb of Ita. They live in a farming community because their project is Rural Economic Development. We were fed yummy food and then played soccer, hung out in the sun and spoke bad spanish with little children. The day wound up with dancing and then we headed home. We are all kind of glad we live in the big city instead of the campo.
Last night was declared (by us) NO FAMILIES, NO SPANISH night and we played cards at my house in my room and drank a couple of beers and only spoke English. It was nice. But, also turned me into an idiot all over again when I tried to talk to my family that night. Too much English is not a good thing.
Overall, though, my Spanish is pretty good. As soon as I stop trying to directly translate in my head, I´ll be better off. But for now, my vocab is growing every day and I am getting better at my tenses and remembering that sentences (and paragraphs) need verbs!
All is well in Paraguay, a small little landlocked country with a wicked history that needs some help to take the next step. I´m hoping I can be part of it.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Yo vivo en Ita
After a very long journey which included American Airlines putting us in a hotel for 12 hours in the middle of the day and the best shower of my life, we finally arrived in Asuncion on Thursday night, June 1 at around 12 a.m. We stayed at a retreat center for the night and then went to the training center in Guarambare on Friday morning. We spent the day dealing with logistics, such as shots, getting books issued to us, and getting some moola. Then we spent the afternoon in sessions and language interviews and such.
We met our families in Ita (about 25 km from Guarambare) that night. Mine is amazing. Mom and Dad are 38 and the girls are 10 and 3. They are fun and loud and crazy just like my own family. There are always a million people coming and going and around the kitchen table. It´s great.
We train from 8 to 5 every day with a 1 hour break for lunch, which we go home to eat with the family. My house is about a 10 minute walk from the CAPICI where we train. I walk with two other volunteers who live right near me. At night, we have been out twice to the Donna, a local bar for beers. Next Saturday morning, June 10 is the first Paraguay game in the World Cup. Looking forward to that.
There´s WAY more, but i don´t have time to post it all right now. I will tell you more later. I am really pretty happy. No worries.
We met our families in Ita (about 25 km from Guarambare) that night. Mine is amazing. Mom and Dad are 38 and the girls are 10 and 3. They are fun and loud and crazy just like my own family. There are always a million people coming and going and around the kitchen table. It´s great.
We train from 8 to 5 every day with a 1 hour break for lunch, which we go home to eat with the family. My house is about a 10 minute walk from the CAPICI where we train. I walk with two other volunteers who live right near me. At night, we have been out twice to the Donna, a local bar for beers. Next Saturday morning, June 10 is the first Paraguay game in the World Cup. Looking forward to that.
There´s WAY more, but i don´t have time to post it all right now. I will tell you more later. I am really pretty happy. No worries.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
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.
Sunday, May 28, 2006
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
Monday, May 22, 2006
A Week Out
Now some people say that you shouldn't tempt fateAnd 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.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
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.
Friday, May 12, 2006
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.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
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. :)
Monday, May 01, 2006
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
