Mbaí`chapa!

Mbai’chapá (hey! How’s it going?) from Paraguay! After a very long plane ride to Brazil, a four hour line for our new boarding passes in Brazil, and a short (ok, I mostly slept through it) two hour ride to Asunción, we finally landed in Paraguay. We were greeted by Peace Corps staff, the Country Director, and cool weather – most surprising for most of us trainees!

Paraguay is beautiful. It’s very green and tropical looking – there are so many different kinds of trees and flowers here. The dirt and therefore most of the roads are a rusty red color, and it’s very sunny. We had very cool weather the first couple of days here, but today it’s much warmer and more humid. Although I spend most of the evening sitting under the roof of the patio with my host family, the stars have been striking when I’ve seen them on my trips to the bathroom to brush my teeth before going to bed, haha.

My host family is AWESOME. The family consists of my host mother Eva, my host tuva (father in Guarani) Raúl, my host brother Anchi who’s 31, my host brother Dani who’s 19, and my host sister Nancy who’s 14. Nancy is super friendly and has been helping me a bunch getting to know the house and the neighborhood, and practice both my Spanish and my tiny bit (michimi) of Guarani too. She has great taste in music, and hopefully we’ll get to share our music soon. Dani is very nice too. He works in his father’s nursery and plays soccer everyday. I haven’t seen Anchi too much, but he’s been very friendly as well. He works very early in the mornings at a chicken processing factory in a nearby town and has a six-month old baby named Angel Jesus. Raul, my host father, tells me “tranquilo” (relax, relax) which is a very typical Paraguayan expression that details the way of life here, and tell me not to hesitate to ask for or about anything. Eva, my host mom, is very sweet as well. She has been advising me to be careful about falling in love with a Paraguayan boy. It has happened to many female Peace Corps Volunteers with some very good and some bad results, I guess haha. My family has had 4 Peace Corps trainees before me, so they are pretty familiar with us Estado Unidogua. J

Although I am still learning and adapting to many of the cultural norms here, my family is really taking care of me. They slow down their Spanish for me, and explain the funny stories that I don’t quite get. I laugh at myself quite a bit, and try to make jokes…who knows how funny they are really or if everyone’s just laughing at how strange I am, but hey what’s the difference right??

Most of our training takes place in our “satellite communities” which are neighborhoods where we live close to the other trainees in our respective programs. There are 42 PCTs in total – MUCH larger of a group than I expected! But it’s great so far. There are a lot of people to get to know but it’s a little less stressful that way I think now. No pressure to make instant friends with anyone – we can just let it happen naturally. J I really like my Crop Extension group so far, and will be excited for Wednesdays too because that’s when the whole group comes together at the training center in town for training. Most of our training is learning the languages. My group is beginning with Guarani because we will be working most directly with farmers en el campo and we will most certainly need our Guarani more than anything else. Other groups that work more in schools are starting with Spanish because they will probably use it more often, but we all need at least a basic level of both. I am learning so much more Spanish now, but I’m really excited to be learning Guarani in training. Many people (including my family) speak a mixture of Spanish and Guarani so even if I spoke perfect Spanish (which clearly I am very far from), I couldn’t understand half of what they say. It’s a challenge but I’m starting to pick up some of the different sounds to recognize Guarani already. It’s much more nasal than Spanish, just like Portuguese.

We will also have technical training about soil, crops, gardens, food security, beekeeping, etc., and training in safety & security, health, and cultural adaptation.

Yesterday I subjected myself to a mandatory beesting to see if I was allergic. It hurt! But after that, my Hepatitis A shot REALLY felt like nada, haha. And all of the beekeepers got their own EPI pens…all I could think of were my fellow Bournians and our long list of allergies and allergic reactions.

Qué mas…

I played futbol this afternoon at la cancha (playing field) with fellow PCTs TK/Taylor/Tyson (new nickname from the host mamas because they can’t really say Taylor haha) and Kyle, and a bunch of little kids from the neighborhood. I was the only girl. I can already tell that I am going to have to pick my battles in terms of which cultural norms to stretch. For example, playing futbol with the guys…definitely not normal. But it went fine, I think that it’s more that it just surprises people. Of course I was terrible, but it was so great to get out and stretch my legs a bit. My teammates really included me too. The six year old passed me the ball three or four times and I only lost it immediately twice. ;) That was definitely a whoa moment. Like whoa, I’m in the Peace Corps, in the middle of South America, playing soccer with a bunch of little kids. Que lindo. Cool.

It’s really expensive to make international calls here, but I managed to get ahold of my mom on Skype at least yesterday. It was so good to talk to her, even for just ten minutes. The cyber café in town is really small and always really busy, especially with all the new PCT business too, so I’m not sure how often I’ll be able to get online. However, I will be writing letters and sending them out very soon, and posting blog entries when I can.

I miss everybody and wish I had a better way of sharing this experience with you. Pero, se va la vida. It’s how life goes. Cuidate mucho y hasta pronto.

Con mucho amor.