Happy Turkey Day

Happy Turkey Day!

I hope you enjoy yourself to the fullest with your families and friends. If at all possible, eat some strawberry pretzel jello and green bean casserole for me. What are YOU thankful for this year?

I am thankful for many a thing at this moment, but just to name a few…a super supportive family, the fact that every day is a little adventure here in Paraguay, letters from home, my health, the fact that I got to grow up in the U.S. of A., lemonade, my running shoes, and good chipa (national food of Paraguay – kind of a corny/cheesy/floury bread that ideally is hardish on the outside and soft inside.)

The plan of action for today is a potluck at our training center with some of the technical trainers and center staff. Should be fun and delicious! I’m making mashed potatoes and hopefully something that resembles green bean casserole. (???) Jahechata. We will see. Also some real American football may be in the works. It’ll be hot but hey, tradition is tradition, no?

Last week I found out where my future site will be, and I just spent the last five days visiting. Here are the basics:

WHO: Me! And the other 196 people who live in my site. (Talk about small town life.)

WHAT: 2 years working in agriculture and whatever else the community is interesting in working in. There is a strong women’s comite already that I’ll be working with, and a beekeeping comite and a youth group are in the works as well. My first few months will mostly be spent getting to know the families and people of the community, and maybe working with some family gardens, soil recuperation, and curves de nivel (to maintain the soil while working on hillsides). I’ll mostly be chilling, and working alongside people once they get to know me and extend an invitation. My main purpose is to be a bridge to resources – and to work with people so that whatever projects we embark on are sustainable after I leave.

WHERE: A little village called San Jose Boqueron, pop. 196. It’s located in a little valley next to a big cerro (hill) in the department of Paraguari. To get to my site from the capital of Asuncion, I take one bus (3-4 hours) to my closest pueblo of Ybycui, and then it’s 10 kilometers or 6 miles into the campo to my site. That’s 2 hours on foot (proved it this morning) and hopefully a lot less on bike or horse. The community is beautiful – very green, very lush, VERY buggy. The houses are pretty spread out in general, and lots of the land is open for cattle grazing. An arroyo or stream runs down from the cerro and through pretty much the whole community. My goal is to climb to the top of the Cerro sometime in the next two years. That would be awesome.

WHEN: December 11, 2009 – December 11, 2011. Our Swearing In Ceremony takes place on the 11^th. That’s when I’ll finally be a genuine, bonafide Peace Corps Volunteer! (and happy anniversary Mom and Dad!) A few days later, I’ll head out to my site for good. For the first few months, I’ll be living with three or four different families, all of whom I met and spent days with this past week. All of the senoras are great cooks and very guapa (hardworking) – lucky for me. After that, I hope to move into one of the unoccupied houses in the community to have a place of my own, but close to neighbors as well.

WHY: To help with what I can, to be a friend, to be a role model, to be a student, to be a teacher. To experience and respect another culture while maintaining my own – easier said than done I’m beginning to see. To help the Paraguayans I will live with to have more and to be more. To follow what I feel is the right path for me at this point in my life. To challenge myself. To try and live intentionally every day.

I’ll leave you with this scene that I especially want to remember from this past week.

I’m coming back from a memorial prayer hape in a neighboring community, walking with a group of mostly young girls, ranging in age from 8 to 12, with a few teenagers mixed in. The red dirt road slopes and curves in front of us, and the sun is setting in the distance, amongst the coconut trees and to the side of the mountain. The girls are shy at first, but soon enough they’re asking me all sorts of questions in Guarani, and giggling at every answer I offer. Though fifteen minutes before they would hardly answer back to my “Hola!”, now I’ve constantly got a girl in each hand and another with her arm around my waist. It’s like this - silly, affectionate and comfortable that we walk the 5 kilometers back to San Jose Boqueron with the sky pink and purple in front of us.

Here are some pictures from my site visit. You´ll see my tour guides, a.k.a. my contact´s super-cute grandkids Manuel age 5 and Miguela age 8, who took me up and down the mountain roads to go a visiting.