Summer is coming in Paraguay.

And by summer is coming I mean with daytime temperatures in the 80s and 90s if not 100+, I'd say although December 21st is the first day of summer, nobody told Paraguay.

There's only one way to survive.

Enter: Tereré

I have been doing a horrible job blogging about culture in Paraguay so here's the most important tradition in a nutshell.  Tereré is yerba, a tea-like plant, with cold water poured over it and consumed through a metal straw (bombilla) out of a cup (guampa). It's just like its cousin mate in other parts of South America, except cold because as I've just explained, it's freaking hot here. Rules: Serve in a circle, don't drink if you're sick, don't touch the bombilla with your hands, and the guampa is not a microphone (aka shut up and pass it already). The sharing seems weird at first, but actually Paraguayans share most drinks. After a meal if we're going to have a drink, soda, wine mixed with coke, or beer, we use one glass and it goes around until it needs to be refilled. You're probably thinking "But Dani, germs! You're a health volunteer!" Be that as it may, I find I like the ritual of tereré and all of it's sharing glory, and there's no better way to spend the afternoon "integrating."

I'm a little behind so October highlights are as follows:

- Along with one of my Paraguayan girlfriends, I started a twice weekly Zumba class for women in my community and the project has had tremendous success. We asked the Municipality for permission to use the tinglado, which is a sort of outdoor gym and put up a few flyers, and has 70 people show up for our first day! We have worked our way up to dancing for 45 minutes and now have more than 140 registered participants ranging from 12 years of age up to 67.

-I celebrated my twenty-fourth birthday in my site and passed a very lovely day with friends and students. My Zumba class even sang me Happy Birthday and my contact showed up with fruit salad for everyone.

-I got to visit my site mate Vania for Halloween. It was great so see another site and another part of Paraguay.

November has been about wrapping up my classes as my students prepare for their final exams.  I'm also looking forward to Thanksgiving at Clara's site with some of my favorite humans. I even found a pumpkin to make Nana's cookies!

I'll try to do more updating soon!!

Project Updates!!

So now that I've been living in Paraguay for over half a year, I've been getting a lot of questions about how my day to day life has been changing. The biggest changes have been that I am now renting my own house and have several projects in the works. As with anything new some things I've tried have gone better than others, and I'm making changes to improve as we move forward. Here are a few of the things I'm doing:

Life Skills/Sex Ed- For the past month I have been teaching twice a week in my local high school. My students were definitely skeptical at first, but participation has been getting better and better and a few of my young women have even approached me to ask my opinion/support on a potential reforestation project. My classes are based off a really cool program called "Como Planear mi Vida" which has a ton of interactive activities. This week, our theme is Gender Roles and Stereotypes.

Hygiene and Parasite Charlas- With my first through sixth graders, we got back to the basics this month with "charlas" or short mini classes on hand-washing and how to avoid parasites. Intestinal parasites, including ascaris (round worm), hookworm, and giardia are extremely common in my community. The Ministry of Health provides medicine free of charge every year, but the pills only treat current infections. For this reason my charlas focused on avoiding new infections. I've used stories and games in my classes and the kids have responded really well. I love that they are always excited when I show up. We're planning to finish the Parasite lectures and get through Nutrition before summer starts in December, and to kick of the coming school year with a bigger dental health campaign.

English- Paraguay recently changed their national curriculum to include English as a foreign language at the high school level. The kids only have class once a week, but I've been going in to help out. It's been a good way to get to know the other grades that are not taking my class yet, and we have a good time.

Exercise Class- Last week I brought one of my friends from site to a training in project development, and she was inspired to work with me to teach a Zumba- type fitness class for women in our community. Young men play a LOT of soccer, but opportunities for women are harder to find. We are going to start with twice a week and judge community interest from there.

In the near future I hope to do a summer reading program with our cultural center/library as well as continue working with my health center to put together a sort of birth class for young mothers. My site has 21 companias which are even more rural communities that are served by our health center and we are seeing quite a lot of young women coming in. I've seen first hand how empowering giving birth can be, but there can also be a lot of fear where there is a lack of knowledge, especially for young first time moms. My friends Vania, Rachel, and I are also talking about doing a traveling camp this summer (December) using the Grassroots Soccer program which uses soccer practice to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS, reduce the stigma associated with HIV positive individuals, and do general education and prevention. The program started in Africa but has recently expanded to work with Peace Corps communities.

I'm very excited to be busier and I can't wait to update you all with how things are going!

Progress. What is progress?

Last week we had our first in service training called Reconnect. Reconnect is an opportunity to get together with our group-mates and discuss the successes and challenges of being a Peace Corps Volunteer thus far, as well as receive a few more tech and language training sessions. We also trained on the system that we will be using 3 times a year to report our activities.

Outcome indicators and attendance and checks for learning are all important and give us a way to quantify our progress. After our Reconnect training, we are "full" volunteers having passed the "integration" period. I think many of my group-mates, like me, went home with a checklist full of projects to continue, improve, or start. We felt refreshed, excited, and ready to dive in once more.

Then I came back to site, finished prepping super lindo folders for each of my High School Students and... No school today, no school Friday. Maybe no school in between because of rain. Uf. So much for my first week of teaching.

Vania, one of my wonderful comrades send me this during our first month, and it's at times like these that I break out and read:

Gradual Progress

an adaptation of the I Ching by Sheila Heti and Ted Mineo

Weeds shoot up and multiply, but they are easily pulled from the earth. A tree that stands strong on a mountain will last and last. A tree pushes up through the soil and down through the earth in equal measure. Because of its steady and certain progress, it is not uprooted easily. It firmly clasps the ground.

All progress from here will be steady and gradual, like the growth of a tree. This is not a time for agitation or revolution. Impulsive gestures will be ignored or will irritate like weeds. Though impatience at this time is understandable, nothing of lasting value can come from it. Do not try and push things ahead of their time. You may have to wait longer than you’d like for the changes you hope will occur. Work, therefore, gradually, not expecting any quick success. The time for harvesting will come, but it has not come yet.

You have been given a certain place in this world. Your culture and traditions are not a separate thing from you. The people around you who live by its structures and values are not so different from you are. You all feel the same things. You have collectively chosen to act in certain ways, which is what creates a society. You are a real part of this society. Progress involves respect for it, for its laws are part of who you are, and you are more a part of it than you realise. Understand your place within it; progress will spring from its values, and from living within them now. Then, from within your current conditions, you will advance.

If you are rooted in what is virtuous and right, so will your ends be virtuous and right. Do not try to dominate situations. Instead, turn your focus to steadily refining your inner self. There are no shortcuts ahead.

There are no shortcuts ahead. Until next time!

So I'm trying to post at least one blog post per month, and here we are on the last day of July. Time is really going pretty fast down here in Paraguay, and it's hard to believe that I've been in my site for 3 months. I'm really excited because after our reconnect training which is next week, I will be starting teaching in the schools. I'd been greeting anxious for something to do other than walk around and meet people.

It was also "winter" break for 2 weeks, and I took advantage by going on a little vacation myself. I used quotes because it's 80 plus degrees again, so maybe it's spring now? I'm not sure. Anyway, Kit came to visit me and we spent a weekend in Asuncion, a week in my site, and another week in Argentina in Buenos Aries and then Iguazu Falls. It was the perfect break and now I'm back and feeling ready and motivated to hit the ground running.

Unfortunately I still don't have pictures, but I sent out a plea to my group-mates so hopefully someone with a similar camera can bring me their cord so I can show off my site and some of my adventures. Also look for project updates in the coming month!

Before I go, I'll explain a fun little part of Paraguayan culture, the word "guapo/a." In every other Spanish speaking country, this word means good looking, handsome, etc. In Paraguay, it means hardworking. Here are a list of things I do that elicit cries of "que guapa!" (how hardworking you are!) from my neighbors:

-When I'm awake before 9am "Que Guapa!"
-When I take a walk "Que Guapa"
-Helping a neighbor cook a meal (that I in turn get to help eat) "Que Guapa"
-Get off the bus from a neighboring town "Que Guapa"
-Any time of exercise "GUAPISMIA"
-Comment that I worked on something, anything earlier that day "Que Guapa"
-Read books for pleasure "Que guapa"

Needless to say, I can't wait to see how many "Que guapas" I can collect once I'm actually teaching.

Bye for now!

There will come a day when I upload pictures...but, sorry Mom, it is not this day.

Since my last post things have been moving along poco a poco. Still taking a census, still planning with the schools, and still working in the health center. Small wins include acquiring a list of all of the students at all 3 schools, having someone agree with me that potentially using a calendar to organize classes was a good idea, and finally getting some plants in the ground (yeah leafy greens). I also have made a giant map of my community, bought a stove, cleaned my future house, went to a party, and planned part of a trip to Argentina. I also finished three books recently: One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Time Machine and Shantaram, all highly recommended.

Looking over this list, it strikes me that I probably could have done most of these things (minus the reading) in a weekend in the states. Here, I needed more than a week. It just goes to show you how different that pace of life is. My free time gets filled up with books, walks, and spending time with my host family and friends. My Mom keeps asking me if I am going insane here and doesn't seem to believe me when I tell her I am doing just fine. It's different, it's an adjustment, but it's...as they say here, tranquilo. There really isn't a better way to describe it. And while I'm sure that the pace of life will be a challenge to some of my projects and test my patients at times, there is definitely something to be said for having an hour or so each day to sit in the sun, drink copious amounts of terere/mate weather depending, and watch your neighbors/cows walk by.

I'll leave you with another dialogue from my paseos:

stranger: Good morning!
me: Good morning Senora, how are you today?
*senora invites me in we go through normal introduction*
senora: so, we all know you are a spy.
me: pardon?
senora: we know you are a spy here looking for water.
me: why would I be looking for water? As I said I'm here with el Cuerpo de Paz...
senora: yeah yeah but the USA is running out of water and then you will need to steal it from us. You know Paraguay has a lot of "agua dulce"
me: Well I can promise you I'm only here to work in Health. Yesterday I was at the schools doing...
senora: Yeah, sure you were.

New friends! We actually moved on from there, as she didn't seem to be too bothered by my so-called espionage.

Another comical exchange while I was working in my garden:

landlady: Do you want azadita (little hoe)?
me*having heard asadito (meat on a stick, little BBQ)*: No thank you! I ate very recently!
landlady: *looks at me like I am an alien*

Así es la vida! Until next time.

General life updates!

Last week I had my official presentation to the community. A lot of the people I invited showed up which was encouraging. My Peace Corps boss came and talked about the history of the Peace Corps, the work we are doing in Paraguay, and about my role in the community. After that, I said a few phrases in Guarani to warm everyone up, then introduced myself and talked about how I was happy to be in Caballero, blah blah blah. Then we all ate my delicious, made with yogurt so it kinda counts as healthy, banana bread. A few community members also gave me a few words of welcome and overall I would say it was a successful event.  Hopefully my role here has been made clear and it was the start of a lot of productive partnerships.

I'm still working slowly but surely on my health census, and have officially signed a housing agreement. I move into my own place on the 1st of July! I'm excited to have my own space to do yoga without half the neighborhood coming over to watch and ask questions about my "ejercicios." I'll also be able to plant a little garden to supplement my diet a bit--all I can find in site are tomatoes, onions, and green peppers. That being said, if anyone wants to send me some fun seeds I'm up to give anything a try!

I'll leave you with a general outline of the conversations I have with new people (generally middle aged women), because I find it amusing. Yay cultural exchange/integration!

me: Hi, I'm Dani, the new Peace Corps Volunteer in Caballero.
new friend: You're so pretty! You're so white! You're kinda chubby!
me: Ha, thank you, thank you, thank you?
new friend:  Do you have a boyfriend?
me: Yes, I have a boyfriend but I'm here to work in health...
new friend: But you need a boyfriend here too! I'll induce you to my cousin's friend's son's classmate! He's (any age between 16-40) and you'll love him. Are you going to stay here forever?
me: How kind of you, but really I am here to work for two years. I'm working with the health center and the schools.
new friend: Do you have kids? How old are you? 18?
me: No, I don't have kids, and I'm 23.
new friend: JOVENCITA! (which is like "oh you're still so young") Don't worry you still have time for kids, just make sure you have them before you are 30!
me: Of course of course, but you know, some people in the United States have their kids when they are 35, even 40!
new friend: Che dios! (OMG) Well, if that's the only way just make sure you have them so you have someone to take care of you when you're old. Come visit me tomorrow?
me: I'll try and come by next week I'm working on meeting everyone for my census.
new friend: Yes yes, see you tomorrow then.

One month down, twenty-three to go! My first month living in Caballero has flown by. Now, I can safely say that I expect to be happy and content living and working here. Sometimes it is definitely hard being the outsider, but everyone in my community has been very welcoming and seems to be looking out for me.

I finally have a semi regular routine worked out. I spend my mornings working in the health center. Sometimes I take vitals, sometimes I accompany the vaccination team on their outings, and if it is a slow morning, I just chat in a Spanish/Guarani mix with the doctors, nurses, and various other support staff. This has been a really good way to get to know my community and make some contacts for future projects. I head home for lunch with my new host family, stopping and talking with whomever I meet along the way. It takes me a long time to get anywhere because 1) I walk everywhere and 2) I'm still new and interesting so people want to talk to me. Especially kids. I've never been so popular in my life.
After lunch is siesta time. I don't like to sleep in the middle of the day or I can't fall asleep at 9/10 when my family goes to sleep so I generally read Harry Potter (in Spanish), or study language for an hour or so before heading out again to work on my health census/visit the schools.  I am interviewing as many families as possible to get a better idea of the needs and desires of the community. It's also been a great excuse to introduce myself to people that I haven't met. Visiting the schools is fun because the kids are super excited about working with me, and thankfully all 3 of the principles are also excited that I am here.
I head home around 5ish for "snacktime" with my family. The eating schedule in Paraguay is a bit strange, with a super light breakfast (coffee, bread), huge lunch (today I had 3 different types of carbs), a snack around the US dinnertime, and a light dinner around 8. I'm trying to fit in some exercise everyday as well. I've been running a decent amount, and people love to tell me that they saw me pass by.

The work right now is slow and I spend a lot of afternoons just sitting around chatting, but I really do think that this will serve me well in the long run as I strive to make Caballero really feel like home.

PS- NEW ADDRESS CONFIRMED. Snail mail welcome. :)

Well, I've officially been in site for one week. This week just so happened to also be Semana Santa in Paraguay, (and I suppose for Catholics everywhere) so I've been filling my days visiting neighbors, practicing my Spanish/Guarani, making Chipa, and going to church. I did spend Monday and Tuesday morning in the health center learning how everything works/recording vitals. Next week things should pick up a bit and I hope to meet the remaining school principals, get started on my health census, and get into a more regular schedule.

Wait, what in the world is Chipa you ask? Good question.

If you look up Chipa on Wikipedia, you will be directed to “Cheese Bun,” which doesn't really get the whole message across, as the flavor is very different than any type of bread I've ever had.  It’s made with a mix of mandioca (cassava, yucca, whatever you want to call it) flour, corn flour, pig fat or butter (but much more commonly pig fat), eggs, cheese, salt, and anise seeds. Chipa is traditionally made on Wednesday to be consumed on Good Friday when everyone abstains from eating meat. I wanted to ask why pig fat doesn't count as meat consumption but I figured since I’m new, better just to go with the flow. Chipa is also consumed throughout the year and is sold on buses for 1 or 2 Guaranis (50 cents/1 dollar). After participating in the preparation, I can see why most people are happy to prepare their own chipa only once a year, as it’s very labor intensive.

Wait, my description has inspired you to make your own chipa at home? Well, here are some pictures to guide your efforts! As for a recipe, you’re on your own. Every family has their own version and when I asked questions along the way I got answers like, “You’re done kneading when it looks good,” or, “I don’t know how much (whatever ingredient) really, my mom just tells me when it’s right.”

Step 1.

Buy and chuck corn and remove the kernels. Run the kernels through a grinder to mash it all up like so. Also, if you are planning to use a tatakua (brick oven), heat that sucker up with a crap ton of wood and giant fire.

Step 2.

Filter the mashed up corn through a screen so that you have corn flour. In a giant bowl, mix your eggs, salt, pig fat, and cheese with your hands. Add both types of flour and the anise seeds and continue mixing, eating the dough to decide if there is enough of any one type of ingredient. For the record, I did not try the raw pig fat dough, although it was offered 57 times.

Step 3.

Knead the dough “until it looks right,” which, I think was until it was more smooth and less crumbly.

Step 4.

Shape the dough. Common forms are circles, parallelograms, and if you are a child, various animals or letters of your name.

Step 5.

Place banana leaves on top of your baking sheets, place the chipa on top, and put everything in the tatakua. It’s done when it’s done, as baking time depends on how hot your fire was.

Step 6.

Eat hot chipa, as this is when it’s best. By Friday, you need to dip it in various sugary tea-like substances, but oddly, this grows on you.

Step 7.

Take chipa to your neighbors/parents/brothers/sisters/aunts/uncles/cousins/grandparents/everyone you have ever known, and expect that they will give you some in return.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Today is the day my training group and I have been working hard for during the past ten weeks. We will be officially swearing in as Peace Corps Volunteers in a few short hours, and tomorrow we will all make our way on various buses to our new homes.  I am excited to get started, although for the first few weeks I will be doing more investigative work/continuing to study Guarani than starting projects. I should also have some more free time to update my blog as well, but in the meantime, here's a picture of what I can see from my new front yard.

I have a site!! I will be spending my next two years in a pueblito called General Bernardino Caballero, about 100 km from Asuncion. For the celebration/site revel everyone received folders with their site description, names of other volunteers that are near them, the types of resources they will likely be working with, names and occupations of contacts etc.  It's actually a ton of information but I feel that there is only so much a folder can tell you about a community, so I'm really excited to visit this weekend. One of my contacts is coming on Friday to meet me and take me back. I'll spend the weekend meeting as many people as I can, but especially the doctors and nurses that are working at the health center as they were the ones who requested a volunteer for their community.  After that, it's back to training to finish up all the odds and ends until we all move for good on April 11th.

One of things that I'm specifically excited about are the area. Paraguay is very flat, but my site is actually at the base of some hills and there is a ton of hiking/outdoorsy (zip lining?) stuff nearby.  The health center has also expressed a lot of interested in prenatal education/breast feeding/general women's health which would fit my interests perfectly, but really the opportunities will be endless.

I'll be sure to update after he visit, but for now here's a picture that I found from a google search.

www.panoramio.com

Hey all. I simply cannot believe that in less than one week I will know where I will be living for the next two years of my life. Expect an update next Tuesday with that info. I couldn't be more excited!

Long field practice has also come and gone. It was an awesome opportunity to put into practice what we have been doing in training. Katie and Brad were super guapos, (remember Spanish speaking friends, this means “hardworking” not “good-looking” here in Paraguay, although I would apply both statements to this Peace Corps power couple) and set up three different opportunities for us to present to Paraguayans. I have this fear that I will move out to my site and despite the fact that my teachers and current Paraguayan family have no problems understanding me, NOBODY will. However, on the visit it appeared that most people, both adults and children, are able to understand me. My host for the week and I even talked in depth about her interest in natural/preventative medicines, which resulted in a brief reprise from eating meat for which I was very thankful.

I also finally took a few photos.  And by I took a few photos I mean I handed off my camera to our tech trainer and he took some, and then my memory card decided it wouldn't work without being reformatted. Whoops. Instead, here’s a picture of where I've been living for the past 2 months:

My host family's home.

Favorite Flower: Copa de la Noche

Halfway There

I'm in the middle of the 5th week of our 10 week pre-service training. It's hard to believe that time is going so fast. Next Monday we leave for long field practice, which is a four day excursion to help a volunteer and get some more hands on training in a setting more similar to what we will experience in our own sites. I'm headed to Caaguazu with one of our language teachers, a tech trainer, and four of my classmates. We will be giving a charla on dental health to adults, helping with a computer class, and giving a charla on parasites to first-graders. I'm excited to see another part of Paraguay while trying out my language in a more stressful/realistic situation.

After the trip, we'll have only one more week before we receive our site placements. We had placement interviews where we talked about the kind of work we would be excited about doing, and I'm optimistic.  All of the community health sites will have a health center, a school, and some sort of commission (youth, women's, etc.)  I think having all of these resources nearby will give us a lot to start with.

Fun fact of the day: Guarani (the language I'm studying here) occupies third place for the etymological origin of the scientific names for plants, behind Greek and Latin.

Completed Fagone for a local school and my training group. Photo credit to Kelsey!

Machete Training

Safety First

Pre-Service Training

Hello again. It's hard to believe I've been in Paraguay for 24 days already. The time really is just flying by, and we are kept busy with our training activities Monday-Saturday. Last week I got a chance to head out to the campo for a site visit with a current volunteer. It was a really positive experience and let me know what things I want to talk about in my placement interview. The site I visited was a rural, quiet town not too far from the main ruta. We did a radio show with another volunteer, helped unload the materials for a fagone (brick oven) project, went on a walk with some community members, and made a ton of good food. School is about to start back up for public school kids so most volunteers will start back there once a week or so as well.

Next week will be week 4 of my 10 weeks of training before I head to site! After having a taste of freedom staying focused in class is going to be challenging. Living with a host family is great but I'm looking forward to being able to cook my own food again.

Pictures next time.

PS- For some reason this song is immensely popular in Paraguay, my host family plays it in the car, my neighbors blast it all day long...who knows.

Alive and well!

I’m writing this first post in the shade of a covered front porch just after seven in the evening, wearing as little clothing is as socially acceptable in Paraguay, and praying for rain.  My trainee group, G44, arrived in Asunción at 8am on January 31^st and this heat (over 100, reaching 108) has persisted without a break.  Welcome to Paraguay!

In the past 11 days I have been placed in a host family, completed a week of our 10 week training, and had something like 100 liters of tereré, a ubiquitous iced yerba mate drink.  We have also been so busy with training that it feels as if I’ve been here a month at least.  Our classes are held either in the small town of Guarambaré or in one of two satellite s communities where the host families live.  Training covers language, our technical area-health, culture, security, and the “intangible elements” that a volunteer needs to be successful.  So far, everything is been pretty basic aside from my new language of study, Guaraní.  Guaraní and Spanish coexist pretty much equally in Paraguay, with a preference for Guarani to tell jokes, fight, and express emotion more generally.  It’s difficult, but I’m enjoying the classes and my host family loves to help me practice.

This week we are going to Asunción in pairs to talk to NGOs or other government organizations to familiarize ourselves with some options for partners as well as the city itself.  I’m excited not to be stuck in the classroom for 8 hours and for a chance to check out the capital city. We also are going on site visits next week so I’ll finally get to see the campo we've been talking so much about.

Limited internet and time but I’ll try and update again soon!!

Enough Said