This love/hate relationship I have with Paraguay

After returning from a wonderful and relaxing vacation in Uruguay, a beautiful developed country, I’ve been noticing a few things about Paraguay that I really love and a few things that I really hate.

Paraguay is not a terrible place. Paraguay has been the catalyst to so much change in my life. It has been the place where I have grown so much as a person; I’ve found myself and the love of my life here in Paraguay. My time as a Peace Corps Volunteer has been amazing and flown by, in a short while my time will be done here in Paraguay and will cry when I leave.

I guess it’s time to fill you all in with the love/hate relationship I have with this querido country, Paraguay.

I Love that the yard of my house is currently filled with mandarins, pomelos, oranges and guava fruit.

I Hate how things just don’t work or break easily.

I Love the way of living, tranquilo.

I Hate how so very few people have goals and aspirations. (Save the $ for school instead of buying a new cell phone or moto.)

I Love how every time I am reading or on the computer the people automatically think I am studying.

I Hate having to practically force people to want to work and do something good for their community. (It’s not like they are busy doing other constructive activities, at least here in San Salvador.)

I Love fat. I have a new found love of meat fat. It’s so good. Why did I used to cut it off and throw it away?

I Hate being so far away from home. I feel like this whole time I’ve stayed strong and really tried not thinking about home. But now that the end is getting close and I have other things on my mind, like getting married, I am starting to get anxious. At least I have lots of fun work to keep me busy.

I Love chipa guazu. Muy Rico.

In other news…We, the centro cultural, have receive the grant money for the project in the train station. Today I went with my contact and we bought 45 chairs for the train station to have, permanently. It was an amazing feeling. Today I accomplished my biggest goal, chairs for San Salvador!!! Hooray!!!

It is still CRAZY hot. I have taken to showering about four times a day. I really want a kiddy pool.

Went to another volunteer’s site one day and got a bunch of new movies and TV shows. But its actually kind of dangerous, because now I don’t want to leave my house.

I learned how to make ñanduti, traditional lace work.

Time keeps rolling on. I’m still trekking. But if it doesn’t cool down soon I may melt.

At the beach in Punta de Diablo, Uruguay

The hand sculpture in Punta del Este, Uruguay

Nanduti that I made!!


Our CHAIRS!!

Ñande Ha'e Tenoderá - We are the Future - Photos

Here I am, still in Paraguay, and the heat continues rising. It is defiantly hotter than last year, but luckily the house I live in now isn’t an oven like my last house. I am able to sleep past 7 am without waking up sweating.

So I am starting to get back to work after the LONG holiday season. During Christmas and New Years the people really don’t do anything. Their families from out of town usually come to visit, therefore when it comes to working and projects, nothing will get done. Oh and lucky for us San Salvadoreños our fiesta patronal happens to be January 6^th but they always have the big party the first Saturday of January. Making the holiday season extra long. This year it happened to fall the 1^st of January. Therefore we had a New Year’s party and the next day a huge patron saint party. Then the entire first week of January was filled with festivals, concerts, bull fights, carnival rides and much more. Therefore the second week of January the town was back to normal, silent. And I was really ready to get to work.

The first thing I had on my plate was a Youth Leadership Camp, Ñande Ha'e Tenoderá, we are the future. I took two girls from San Salvador and we went to Tati Yupi the biological reserve that the company Itaipu is in charge of. Itaipu is the huge hydroelectric dam that is on the border of Paraguay and Brazil. The dam supplies almost all of the electricity for all of Paraguay. When they built the dam, obviously the water rose on the other side flooding part of the jungle. The now “lake” and land around has been made into a biological reserve with space to have camps. We were lucky enough to have the privilege to stay at the camp for 4 beautiful days. Filled with activities and talks such as; what is a leader, communication, human rights, civic education, how to plan projects, working in groups, self esteem and much more. We played tons of games, danced, sang and had a blast. The people from Itaipu also donated a tour of the dam at night to see the lights. Some of the kids said that these were the best 4 days of their lives.

In San Salvador there is no Youth Group, and the girls I took have come back home with a lot of energy and really want to form one. The end goal of the camp is to have the kids go back to their communities and do some sort of project. They have six months to plan the project and finish the project, hopefully. Then six months from the first came there will be a reconnect camp to share their experiences of working with their communities. One idea we have is to form a youth group and do a project involving trash. Maybe giving talks to the youth of the community and then doing a project with garbage cans. There is one public garbage can in San Salvador. We have an oil factory here; therefore there are lots of big tin drums which we can hopefully get donated to make garbage cans. So we’ll see what happens in the next few weeks.

Some good news…The SPA grant that I wrote along with the Association of the Culture and Community Center, the train station, was approved and the check is waiting for us to get in Asuncion. Included in the project will be the reinstallation of the entire lighting system inside and out. Also we will be equipping the inside of the station to be able to use the computer and other electrical devices. We will buy 50 plastic chairs to be able to hold more courses and events at the station without having to rent chairs, which gets expensive. We will also restore the antique latrines, putting in new floors, painting, doors, and lights. Currently the station doesn’t have bathrooms making it difficult to invite visitors and have courses. Lastly we will buy a printer and will the computer hopefully will be able to start computer classes. We are going to try and finish everything for March 31^st which is the founding day of San Salvador and they also do a locomotive festival or a cultural week in the train station in this time. So this project along with the youth group will keep me busy for at least a few months! Then hopefully will finally be able to start the business course for youth that I’ve been wanting to teach for ages!

Meanwhile I am going to Uruguay on a little vacation in February, I need to see the ocean and eat fresh seafood, it’s been way too long in a land locked country. Also…David and I have decided to get married!!

The whole group!

Patricia, myself and Noelia- The girls from San Salvador

At the Itaipu Dam

The lake the used to be a forest

Human Chairs

The youth

we are the future

At the beach in Iturbe, not quite the same as the ocean...

more pics from the pilgrimage

The beautiful sun set.
Cunchi and Jake

Are we there yet??

Trying to take our minds off the pain.

Myrtha fell and went boom. Getting some attention from the doctors.

All the people the in the morning.

Hanging out at camp.

Cunchi and Jake again

Pilgrimage to Itape

The Virgin of Itape

Religious pilgrimages are a big deal here in Paraguay. The biggest one is for the Virgin of Caacupe which is December 8th. People from all over the country arrive in Caacupe by walking, riding a bike or taking a bus. People from really far will take a bus to a certain point, then will walk about 7 km. The second biggest pilgrimage is to the Virgin of Itape. Well Itape happens to be semi close to San Salvador. I remember last year I had just arrived in San Salvador at this time and had no desire to go with the people to visit the Virgin. Well this year I decided to join the people and walk 32 km to Itape.

We left at 5:30 pm, the hottest time of the day, and walked directly into the sun for 2 hours. Well walking wouldn't be the correct word, running is a better description of the pace we were going. About 2 km into the journey I started to hear; my feet hurt, its so hot, i need water, etc. At one point very early into the walk one woman, Mirta, was calling all the people she knew to come and pick her up. The local doctor passed by and she asked for a ride and he said he wasn't going there. Well about 2 hrs into the walk we passed by the town where there is another volunteer and picked him and his buddies up. Oh I forgot to mention, I was walking with about 6 women who are very "chuchi" or prissy.

Cynthia, Cunchi, Noelia, Maria and Me

We picked Jake up and kept on going. By this time we were walking in the shade, the sun was going down and it was finally cooling off. My face gets very red when i work out but everyone was convinced that I was sun burnt. I was soo hot, soaking wet dripping with sweat, but my spirits were still high. I had to put my game face on because the only thing I was hearing was the complaining of the women. walking along the long dirt road

It finally got dark and the mosquitoes came out. We passed by a place to fill up our waters and one woman filled her bottle up with beer. We asked the owner how far to Itape and she said 5 km. We were close! Walking, Running, Walking, Running...5 km later, we still hadn't gotten there. We could see a town off in the distance that was at least 5 km more. By this time the people had slowed down a little but not much, and we still hadn't taken a break. My whole entire body was stiff. I could hardly bend my knees and couldn't feel my feet. But I didn't express my pain to anyone wanted to keep moving. Oh yeah since I've been in Paraguay I really haven't worked out or done much exercise.

We were 1 km away and the women wanted to sit and take a break. I said "don't sit down, keep moving we are so close." We arrived at the main street that would take us to the Virgin. It was full of vendors, food and people. I felt like I was at the state fair. Of course in large crowds people get separated. But at least we had a meeting point, the medical tent. The local doctor, who originally wasn't going there, was there and the other nurses from San Salvador. It was hilarious; every person would go up to the medical tent and ask for muscle relaxers or something for the pain from walking. We finally all met up and then looked for a place to set up camp. Imagine a huge fair ground with people sleeping on every inch of the grass. There were probably about 5,000 people sleeping.

We put all our blankets on the ground and laid down. It felt soo good. There was a party but I had no desire to go dancing. We sat there and listened to the mass at midnight meanwhile trying to sleep. But not possible. At 4 am there was another mass. And at 5:30am one of the women called her husband to come and pick us up. The main mass was at 6 am but she had no desire to stay. Neither did I to be honest. So we ended up leaving at 6 am and got home by 7 am. The other people who stayed didn't get home till 6 pm, the bus broke down along the way home and no one had the energy to walk.

All in all it was a good experience, I got to know some people from my town a lot better, I was able to see the beautiful country side and see the Virgin of Itape. But I don't think I'll walk it again!

It's Summer Again

Melissa, me and Angelic at Thanksgiving.

The sunflowers infront of my house.

Yummy quiche that I made.

English class graduation, and their sweeet shirts

Veggies from the school garden

And summer is Hot, Humid, and Sticky. Luckily it started a little later this year. We actually had a very pleasant spring with a few hot days broken up between crazy rain storms. There is no such thing as "drizzle" here, when it rains there is a crazy show behind it all.

My summer is pretty packed with happenings so hopefully I'll stay busy enough I'll forget about how hot it is. One of the stores in town started selling ice cream, and I think I am their more frequent customer.

Ok...sense its been a long while sense I've written I do a little update of things that have passed.

-The school year ended, and our school garden was a huge success. I had them all write poems about the garden and they were super fun to read. Oh and the veggies are still growing and delicious.

-The nuns sabotaged the Halloween party at the train station. Now I am stuck with 2 bags full of decorations. By the way...thanks mom for dragging those down here from the states.

- I wrote and finished my first grant ever and it happened to be in Spanish. The grant is funded through USAID. We, the Association, are fixing up the train station, which also functions as our community and culture center. There are no chairs, so we'll buy those with the money. There is no bathroom, so we'll make that will the money, and the lighting system is going to be reinstalled, making it possible to have night events, plug in the computer, and the new printer we are buying with the grant. All in all the station will be a place where everyone in the community can go to take different courses offered there with all basic necessities met.

-Chase and Kimmy came to visit. But only after getting to brazil and realizing that to enter into Paraguay you need a visa. So their visit was cut down to 2 days. But two of the funniest days in paraguay! We went to Aregua to see the lake, and hung out around Asuncion.

- Peace Corps Paraguay thanksgiving was held in Encarnacion this year. A blast as always. Lots of good food, good people, new friends, boos, sun burns, and laughs.

- We had our 2nd year english class graduation. The girls were surprised when I presented them with the shirts that say "english class 2010" that some friends at home helped buy. Thanks again everyone, the girls started to cry.

- The first "Feria Atesanal" is going to be tomorrow. The Association with whom I work is putting on a fair for the women in town who make traditional artisanal work. We've been very busy prepping this, I hope they have success and can sell some stuff. I have a feeling I'll be one of the baggiest clients buying Christmas presents.

- Both of my cats had kittens, so at one point my house was full of 11 cats. Yes I was that crazy old cat woman. Now I'm down to 3.

Now a few things I am planning on for the future.

- I am finally going to start the business class for youth. There is A LOT of movement going on right now in San Salvador with the construction of the new road, and lots of construction going on in town, the people need to take advantage of the movement and open some sort of businesses. they would make a killing off all the workers.

- I am taking two youth to a leadership camp in January that will focus on civic education, leadership, and much much more. Our goal is to come back and start a youth group.

- We have more art fairs planned for january and march.

- Our patron saint day is january 1st so there will be a week of parties.

- Angelic, Melissa, and I are going to take a vacation in February and go to Uruguay for a week. Yes the beach finally. Its time to get out of this land locked country and see some salt water.

- Jake, the volunteer closest to me and I are planning on doing a few weekend summer camps filled with sports, geography, art and much more. The kids have NOTHING to do here in the summer so hopefully we can have some fun in the heat.

- In march there will be a business workshop that I'll hopefully take two people from San Salvador. There is such a huge need for business here and hopefully we can get some going.

Well that's about it. I am really starting to miss home. Starting to think about the future, what the heck am I going to do after Peace Corps.?? Makes me a little nervous and anxious.

I really truly miss everyone so very much. I hope everyone is doing well and has a great holiday season. Enjoy the snow while I die of heat.

love

liz

Only in Paraguay

Last night at about 11:30 pm I went to the bathroom. In the bathroom there is a window pretty high up and it was open. I could hear the sound of a cow eating grass, and realized that cows had entered into the yard. I ran outside, grabbed a bamboo stick and started chashing after the cows, making the sound vrrroomm vrrroom. The cows ran to the back enterance, which they had opened to get in. The cows, and the baby ran to the yard of our next door neighbor. One cow ran sraight to the washing machine that the neighbors have outside, which is literally right next to the house and started licking it. Meanwhile the baby went to see what was around the corner. I heard the noise of a plastic bucket. The baby cow came around the corner with the bucket on its head. I was on the ground laughing. What a scene, a cow is licking a washing machine while a baby cow runs around with a plastic bucket stuck on its head. The owners never woke up to see the action outside their house.

Fighting for the cupcakes

The English class that I have continued to teach consists of 9 girls ranging from 12 to 15 years old. We are currently in our second "year" of English class. Without fail they come to every class which are held Wednesdays and Thursdays from 5pm-6pm in the train station.


Besides just English class we've gotten involved with the World Wise School Program that Peace Corps does. It is basically a pen pal program. The Volunteer, Me, is set up with a teacher in the states, my mom. First I wrote a letter to her class explaining what Peace Corps is, what I do, and about Paraguay. Then we decided to start do to pen pals because my mom's class has a lot of spanish speakers. The 7th and 8th grade science class of my mother wrote the letters first. The letters were in spanish and the girls were very excited. Then my girls replied, they were supposed to be in English, but some of them wrote in only spanish and sealed the envelope without showing me. In the letters we receive photos and send photos, the girls LOVE it.

We've gotten to know each other at this point on a more personal level so I feel like our English class has become more of a girls club more so than only English. The other day we were locked out of the train station, so we played charades outside with action phrases. For example; eating ice cream, throwing a ball, holding a baby, blowing bubbles, sewing fabric, and riding a bike. We ended up just goofing around and talking and then one of the girls said can you print off song lyrics in English, we want to learn Lady Gaga. Then they started to make a list for me of the songs they wanted to learn in English. Then another girl said " lets raise money so we can go on a field trip." It was a good idea. Lets do it I said. Then the topic changed to, lets raise money so we can make t-shirts that say "English class". Then the argument started. What color are the shirts going to be, what picture is going to be on it, but the decision was made to raise money to make shirts.

The next week we had class at my house. I had printed off the song "paparazzi" by Lady Gaga, and we started to sing. They wanted to know what every little word meant, I said it doesn't translate well and a lot of the phrases don't even make sense in English. So we just practiced the pronunciation. They want to sing the song for their graduation of English class. Then we decided the next day we would make cup cakes, something they have NEVER seen before, to sell and raise money for their t-shirts. We made a list of ingredients needed and split them up between everyone. The next day, without fail they all showed up, with ingredients in hand. I decided to make a simple cake from the Peace Corps cookbook. Therefore I had the measuring cups and spoons out, and the girls were so confused. In paraguay they don't measure anything. They just know how to make a cake apparently. So they thought we weren't making a cake, it was something else. Then we decided to dye the cake green, and blue. We went over to my host families house to use their electric oven because I didn't want to use all my gas. We put the first batch in and waited. While waiting we played "telephone" in English, and charades again.

The first batch came out, and the girls bought them all and ate them. Then they liked them so much, they pre-paid for the second batch, and waited very closely to the oven. When I took the second batch out the girls ran to me, and were taking the cup cakes out of the pan even though they were really hot, burning their fingers. Some girls paid but didn't get their cup cakes because the other girls ate them, so they had to wait for the third batch to come out. They ate every last one of the cup cakes. I didn't even get a cup cake, neither did my host mom or dad. We didn't even get to go out and sell the cup cakes. They raised money for their shirts, but it was their own money.

We decided the next time we'll make 4 times the batter and actually go out and sell the cup cakes. But the whole novelty of the cup cake is what blows their mind. They have never seen them before, and because they are in their own little spaces, its not cake. Thanks mom for bringing the cup cake pans, a real hit!!

Other news...Hesaka my cat is now a mother, I am now a grandmother. She has four beautiful little babies. Ndikuaai is pregnant also and will be giving birth soon. When I told a fellow volunteer she told me, "you're supposed to be the responsible american and get them fixed." I am guilty, I am irresponsible. But only this one time. I went to the vet, and I am going to get them fixed when they are doing nursing. He also told me he can sell the kittens that I can't get homes for. Yes I am that crazy person with the house full of cats.