Eclectic Photos

Here is a photo-overview of training. These are not in chronological order, but they do start with the CUTEST things first. Like my little sister...

Maria Paula, my one year old little sister was taking it easy in our front yard flower bed (notice how it's edged with empty wine bottles - yay for recycling!). The black thing behind her is one of our 5 dogs. She was covered in mud and perfectly content... reminded me of me. Isn't her facial expression the best?

These are some adopted puppies that showed up in our kitchen one morning. Ok, so my dad brought them home from some market in Asunción because otherwise the woman was going to kill them... he's a good guy like that. They mostly cried and peed a lot, but they were damn cute.

My homestay sisters, Maria Fatima and Maria Jose, on the night of their quinceñeria or 15th birthday. They're twins, if you didn't notice.

Dancing on our front porch. I was clearly getting into it. Notice my mom, Tina, and Maria Paula also breaking it down. This was a normal evening activity.

My homestay mother, father, and little Maria Paula again on the night of my twin sisters' confirmation.

Some pretty wonderful ladies in my homestay community. The 2 beauties on either side of my mom are sisters and were great friends to me throughout training. Maria Paula, as usual, looking angelic with her little curls. Please notice the jug of wine in Rosi's hand... this was mixed with Coca Cola because that's how Paraguayans like to drink their red wine. It's actually pretty darn good. I passed many an afternoon underneath our giant mango tree, drinking wine and enjoying the company of these 4 lovely ladies.

Some more beauties who lived across the street from me.

My good friends Rachel and Rosi.

Our week "long field visit" during which we lived in the community of a current volunteer (centered in the red and white striped shirt). The 4 of us trainees were accompanied by our fearless language teacher in the red, and our trainer in the plaid. It was an incredible experience to see and hear all about the great projects Jacobo was doing in agroforestry.

The birthday party of Barb and Aurelia, the 2 queens with the crowns. Crazy story... Barb is a 53 year old second time Peace Corps volunteer who did her first service over 30 years ago in Gautemala. Her homestay mother, Aurelia, is also 53 and they actually share the exact same birthday... down to the year they were born! We were lucky enough to be able to celebrate their birthdays together, with a beautiful melding of Paraguayan and US traditions.

Chowing down at Barb and Aurelia's party. Important to notice the mandioc featured on the left, also known as cassava or yuca, a staple of the Paraguayan diet. The bright yellow bread is sopa, which is a denser version of cornbread, with saltiness substituted for sweetness, another staple here. I will definitely be devoting an entire blog post to Paraguayan food and cooking at some point soon, but let me just say, CARBS.

Preparing Thanksgiving pot-luck dishes. The country director of Peace Corps in Paraguay was kind enough to invite all 46 of my training classmates to his humble abode in Asuncion. He and his wife provided the turkey and stuffing, and we provided everything else. As a group of 11, we brought a double batch of amazing oatmeal raisin-banana-peanut-coconut-cinnamon cookies, a fabulous chocolate cake with peanut butter icing, two apple crumbles, and a quiche. There exists somewhere a photo of the tiny oven (with no temperature controls) literally brimming with all these dishes at once. Somehow they all managed to come out complete and quite yummy.

Brenna was slicing and dicing veggies for Matt's quiche and I was putting the finishing touches on the quiche crust. Matt was watching.

Thanksgiving in Paraguay. It was 93 degrees.

Ybu Bound!

A photo of me drinking some terere!





I was able to visit my future home for five days and got to know a little more about the area and my future neighbors.

Ybú is the name of the small, rural community I will be living in for the next two years. In Guarani, ybú roughly means “the place of water” or “natural spring.” The natural spring has dried up since the naming of the area and water is actually a controversial topic. If you want to google map me, check out Lago Ypacarai to the east of Asunción in the department Cordillera. I’ll be living up on a small mountain range on the eastern shore of one of the only lakes in Paraguay. It’s rare to find large bodies of water and ever rarer to find elevation in Paraguay, so I consider myself pretty darn lucky. I’m situated about 6km from the nearest paved road, but there are daily buses if you don’t feel up for the walk (baby). Once in the next biggest town, it’s only about 2 hours to the capital.

My community is rural, just like I wanted. There are about 100 to 115 homes, so a population of maybe 400-600. Guarani is the dominant language, though most everyone does understand and speak Spanish. So I plan to get my study on and learn Guarani ASAP. Parts of the community have running water while everyone does have electricity. There is one elementary school and one high school, both located on the same lot. The economy of the community is based around the two larger towns nearby, which are weekend get-away areas for foreigners and wealthy Paraguayans. For that reason, many men in my community work 6 days a week in construction outside of the community. Many families have small family plots of land where they grow a small field of mandioca, corn, beans, or peanuts. Also, thanks to declining job oppurtunities in Paraguay, many of the men leave to work in Buenos Aires or Spain while their families remain in Paraguay.

Ybú is a beautiful community nestled up above the nearby lake and as you may have guessed, there are some serious views. Due to these views, its proximity to the capital, and its location inbetween two “touristy” towns, foreigners have recently begun buying up land. Walking along any of the red dirt roads, you’ll find palatial get-away homes with pools, garages, tennis courts, and 7 foot tall fences adorned with barbed wire at the top, right beside small wooden homes of Paraguayans. The disparity was schocking at first and my host sister spent a lot of time explaining to me which Germans were friendly, which once killed their neighbors chickens for entering their terrain, and which ones never even used these vacation homes. One of the coser communities was founded by Germans and so there is a small but wealthy German population.

One family has kindly offered a room in their home to me for the first 3 months of my service and after that there is potential to live on my own. I was unable to visit as many fmailies as I would have liked to during my brief visit, but I can’t wait to get to know the rest of the community. As I explained to some already, everyone was embarassingly kind and generous towards me. I couldn’t leave a home or store without some little treat in my hand or shoved in my pocket. I already received multiple dinner invitations and chastisments for not simply staying. “Wait, so you’re here now, you’re going to live here for 2 years, but you’re leaving?” Yea, it makes a lot of sense, I know.

I’m the first volunteer Ybú has ever had, so the idea of me and Peace Corps is totally new. And the rules of Peace Corps. And what the f*%$ Peace Corps is. And why on earth I’m not allowed to ride a motorcycle. Part of my job will be explaining and re-explaining why I’m here, what I’m doing, and how we can work together. But the visit was really fun and really exciting. Plus it was all in Guarani. So lots of jokes were made at my expense, lots of comments about my teeth, hair, and body in general. And that’s only the shit that was translated to me!

As I mentioned, I’ll be swearing in the 10th of December and heading to Ybú the 14th. So wish me luck and stay posted. I will not have internet access regularly for the first 3 months until I have my own place and can get a wireless transmitter, so please be patient. Also, please keep the comments, cards, and emails coming – it’s really wonderful to hear from all of you.