Paraguay had it's big bicentennial celebration this year in May, but in a somewhat surprising twist of events my site also had it's 400 year foundation anniversary this October. In preparation for the celebration, I took part in several events and publications as a part of my Peace Corps service to my community. Through the process of collecting interviews, poems, pictures, and historical items,
Please login first to post comments.
When one thinks of Peace Corps from the comfort of one's own sofa in the glory that is an American dream home, one's thought process frequently jumps to the challenges of basic living that comprises the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer. Whether that be lack of water and electricity, to growing one's own food, or to walking long distances in ankle-deep mud; the physical differences between life in
It is hard to believe... and perhaps even harder to swallow: I am at my one year service mark in Paraguay.
A year ago today, I swore in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer to serve in Departmento Caazapá for the following 2 years and begin an adventure that many call "the toughest job you'll ever love." I came in feeling a bit nervous, tired, fat, and at least 7 dusty hours on the road unbathed
Fútbol (soccer) season is back now at the mid-point of my Peace Corps service. This year, rather than the World Cup we were all about the Copa América. Once again decked out in my Paraguay fútbol jersey, I sat excitedly in a friend's house glued to the TV for the semi-finals against Venezuela. The boys were already cheering and yelling at the screen before the game even started. I giggled inside
Trust: it cannot be bought, bartered, or persuaded. Trust is a fundamental element in any relationship whether it be between oneself and his government, his friends, or his partner. Upon trust is built the foundations of a democracy and close bonds between any who wish to form lasting relationships. Trust is comprised of many elements, of which we must continuously be conscious. Such elements, I
If we were at an all-time low for the last couple of months- this month is making up for all that, and then some- on our local comedor (soup kitchen) project. After a difficult pollada sale and little progress made on infrastructural changes, this month we decided to approach our work and support of the community from several new and promising angles.
First off, our approach thus far to food
It has been exactly one year now since I formally quit my job to become a Peace Corps Volunteer. To help out those that are currently packing for their own personal adventure- here's my packing list and some suggestions looking back after a year's worth of service.
EquipmentLarge Suit CaseBackpack (medium sized & backpacking)Large and Small PurseSleeping BagTravel PillowQueen Sheets/
It’s been a while since I’ve given an example of typical life as a Peace Corps Volunteer. This time, to mix it up a bit, I’d like to talk a bit about my past week- which has been a whirlwind of activity mixed with fiesta, siesta, and descansa.
Sunday started off the week well with a restful morning during which my weekly youth group meeting was cancelled due to “Día del Trabajador” (Day of the
<!--StartFragment-->
Before arriving in Paraguay, I had heard that Christian religious holidays were a big deal. I was beginning to catch on after having now been through virtually a year of Catholic celebrations. However, Holy Week and Easter were really quite unique in my experiences. Aside from having school and work cancelled starting on Wednesday of Holy Week, there are several fun
<!--StartFragment-->
Peace Corps often talks about the cycles of one’s service, and here we are again. We have now been up and running for four months in my community’s soup kitchen. It has been a real roller-coaster ride, though I have never experienced one so long and bumpy… but with any luck we at moving in the right direction.
It all started, as one may recall, with an unplanned
<!--StartFragment-->
So, as often happens when I get into a series of books, I start to make comparisons between my life situation and that of the fantasy world I’ve entered between the hardback covers. Recently, I’ve been reading the J.R. Tolkien “Lord of the Rings” and the “Hobbit” series; and it’s got me thinking about the similarities between life in Hobbiton and life here in Paraguay.
<!--StartFragment-->
During one of our recent community meetings, the local priest of my small Paraguayan pueblo observed to the Constructores de la Sociedad that in many ways I could easily be taken for a leader in our group. One of my youth similarly stated during the leadership camp last January that I was indeed a leader in town bringing people together on community projects. While
<!--StartFragment-->
For a country I’ve heard very little about and a vacation I’d planned last minute, Uruguay is everything and more than I could have imagined. In fact, my vacation to Uruguay was so wonderful that I can see myself actually living in Montevideo sometime in the future. Note: I do NOT say that about many places.
My vacation started with a 15-hour bus ride from Encarnacion,
<!--StartFragment-->
Hello readers- whoever you are! It has been another long haul since the last time that I wrote. Shortly following my amazing week in Paraguay during which I made my last entry, I came into one of my worse weeks. As always in the Peace Corps, there are life’s ups and downs. Some days are really sunny, others it starts to rain and shuts everything down. Without going too much
Goodness- where have I gotten off to as of late? Right?
Well, you'll be happy to know that I've finally woken up. I cannot really tell you what happened to my inspiration these last few weeks, but the lights have returned and my clear blue eyes see once again why I am here and the path that I've embarked upon.
This week has been absolutely wonderful in both an eye-opening and returning to one's
Dusk is falling at Itaipu as we are waiting in front of the buses that will take our group of 70 Paraguayan youth on a tour of the world's largest operational dam and generator of electricity for both Brazil and Paraguay- a feat of modern science and engineering. But this is not what is on display tonight, nor the most astonishing of what we will see. A flamboyant joven (youth) pulls out his
Christmas in Paraguay is most definitely unlike any other Christmas I've ever experienced- and to be fair, this is not my first merry-go-round.
I headed back to my training site near Asuncion for a special Christmas with the host fam. I arrived on the 23rd and immediately was invited to a neighborhood party. After several hours of chat, music, and Brahma I went home feeling happy to be back '
After weeks and months of searching, I've finally located and moved into my own house!!! The additional freedom and privacy are very much appreciated. I find I even sleep better knowing that nobody can watch me behind my closed doors. I know... sounds a bit odd that people might ever be watching me, but you'd be surprised. People here know what time I get up, what I ate for breakfast, and even
Whereas the USA is a highly visual culture with an extensive written record, Paraguay is an auditory culture. History, language, news, and of course the local chisme is based heavily in what is said from one person to another, day to day, generation to generation. As such, in place of local newspapers we've got local RADIO. My small, middle-of-nowhere town has 3 local radio stations with another
Today I attended my first ever local VAC meeting in a neighboring pueblo. Simply awesome. Many Paraguayan cities have a strong German influence. The city visited today was just one of these with it's own German high school, museum celebrating it's international heritage, and an organizational structure unlike any other I've yet seen in Paraguay. How refreshing- right down to the homemade ice
With all of the new projects I've gotten into as of late, it has been a week chockfull of work and even more so a week for learning. Although I am frequently the "teacher" or "facilitator" in my activities, I find that I spend most of my time learning (sometimes I think more) than teaching. I wonder if there will ever be a time when I feel like I've finally "figured out" Paraguay. So, please find
Today was one of the best Paraguayan days that I have had in site. I cannot say that it was special in any grand fashion, but it was productive, fun, innovative, and new all in one: BALANCED.
I awoke after a rather short night's sleep at 6:30am to no electricity or running water. It was raining (more a slow drizzle), so school would likely be cancelled in the morning. Nonetheless, I was up and
<!--StartFragment--> In an effort to organize my thoughts and to give readers and idea of what I'm up to out here, I've put together this list of projects currently underway in my Paraguayan service divided into the categories of the Community Economic Development sector:
Educación Cívica/Participación Ciudadana (Civic Education/Citizen Participation) - Constructores de la Sociedad- This is my
For something I wasn't looking forward to, how ridiculously exciting it was to have completed my official "Site Presentation"!
It took several days to prepare- finding a location, making invitations, visiting practically every institution in town to deliver invitations, etc. and nearly didn't happen at all due to one of the largest hail/wind storms Paraguay has seen in some time (knocked the
I officially made it one month in site before my first trip to Asuncion this weekend. As I understand from past volunteers and current friends, this makes me just about insane. And, to be fair, I was feeling a bit on the verge of cracking before the wee descanso. Thank the big man (or woman) up there for NVAC (not actually sure what that stands for now that I think of it... but it's a bit like
As I have mentioned before, my site is pretty well removed from the nearest paved road. Several
hours to the north and south, I am surrounded by a sea of red dirt (or mud when it rains) and expansive grassy fields. However, I recently discovered a 12km stretch of asphalt just south of the city on what will someday be a paved international Ruta 8 through the county connecting Argentina to Bolivia
Paraguay is a predominately Catholic country with approximately 96% of the population identified as such. That being said, many of the holidays in Paraguay relate to religious events, saints, etc. Fiesta Patronal is celebrated in every city when the day for the city's patron saint comes about. In my site, we've been gearing up for Fiesta Patronal celebrating the Virgen de la Natividad for the
It's 2pm in southern Paraguay, but it very much feels like 6pm and nearing dusk anywhere else. The weather forecast for the last week: SMOKE. The weather forecast today: ACID RAIN. The sky outside it eerily orange, the rain awkwardly black. This is my first lesson (of what will likely be many) in Paraguay's struggle with pollution.
For the last week now, throughout the country, Paraguay has been
Whohooo!!!! This morning at 10am at the US Embassy in Asuncion, Paraguay I took the oath to become an official Peace Corps Volunteer. Yes this last three months was just a teaser- now for the real thing.
It's kind of a crazy thing to think about: I am swearing-in as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I have been working towards this so long, but the challenge has yet to begin. On Tuesday, I will arrive
<!--StartFragment-->
My first visit and first week at my site in Departmento Caazapa presented many new opportunities and experiences. The most obvious and striking impression when one first arrives, is that I am quite removed in Caazapa. From my town it is 96km to the north (most common route) and 60km to the south (only one bus per day this way) from a paved road. Which translates into a very
It´s official: I am one very big step closer now to swearing in and becoming a volunteer. I now know where I am going to be living for the next 2 years!!! Tomorrow, I head to the Encuentro organized by our APCD to meet my site contact. The next day, I´m off on my first visit to Districto Caazapa and my new hometown.
This week I traveled to another part of the Districto Central for my Long Field Visit, a week´s worth of ¨field practice¨ in a potential volunteer site before we take the plunge in August. The town I visited was only a half hour away from my training community, but it felt like I could have been several hours outside of Asuncion. The mix of campo and ciudad in Paraguay is quite staggering, once
Che Ro'y is Guarani for ¨I'm cold.¨ Ro'y is simply ¨It's cold.¨ There you go, the first lesson in highly useful Guarani next to Mba'eichapa, and all that I seem to be talking about these days. I know that this is a topic typically reserved for small talk, but given that this winter has brought some record low temperatures to Paraguay I think a good discussion about weather is warranted.
To
Although I have been here for well over a month at this point, I finally found a couple of hours to hide out in my room and consider all that has happened and is happening in my life right now. For the first time since I arrived in Paraguay, I finally realized: I live in South America, and I am in the Peace Corps!
I know it probably seems silly to many of you, but I think that it is a little
This weekend, I attended an inspirational and completely outstanding Youth Leadership Camp (Part II- the second encounter) on the border between Argentina and Paraguay outside of Aeolas. Part I of the Youth Leadership Camp took place last January, during which the youth participated in sessions on leadership, management, and entrepreneurship with various business leaders from around Paraguay (and
As I mentioned previously, Peace Corps training has a large practical component in addition to language lessons and classroom technical sessions. In addition to the volunteer visit in the interior, we also have what are called "Dias de Practica" encouraging us to get out into the community to learn more about our training pueblo and try to find managable small projects for our time in site. After
¡VIVA PARAGUAY!
THE WORLD CUP is a HUGE deal in Latin America. In addition to having many of the best teams worldwide, South America is simply futbol (soccer) crazy. On days when Paraguay is playing, everything literally shuts down or at least slows down so that we can watch the game. Today was the last of the games in Group F. Paraguay played New Zealand for a tie 0-0, and Slovakia
While much of training is spent in the Centro-i drilling lessons into our heads, there are plenty of training sessions out and about in the Paraguayan cities and countryside. This weekend, I had the opportunity to visit a volunteer in a small central town of about 5000 inhabitants. During my stay, I learned all about volunteer life, cooperatives, and ao po'i.
The volunteer I visited has a pretty
A day in the life of a Peace Corps Trainee in Paraguay is (so I hear) one of the most intense periods of one's volunteer service. Challenging and jammed packed of new information, I can't disagree! Here's a taster to outline it a bit for ya:
My stopwatch goes off, it's 6:30am- time to wakeup. I reluctantly roll out of my twin bed and into the cool, musty air that lingers in my bedroom on this
I’m going to try and keep my blogs as educational as possible throughout this experience to meet the second and third goals of the Peace Corps in culture sharing and to keep things interesting! Today, I’d like to cover a topic very integral to Paraguayan culture: Mate and Tereré.
Mate and Tereré are both types of “tea” for the foreigner. The former is sipped while hot, the later cold. The primary
Thanks to everyone that has expressed an interest in my health and well-being during the
last week- I have indeed arrived safely in Paraguay!
My service period began in Miami where I was introduced formally to the 21 volunteers
participating in training and (ojala!) service in the area of Community Economic
Development. During this rapid ?staging? session, we discussed our aspirations,
Down to the last week and things are really ramping up! I've unpacked and repacked from my last adventures, and it looks I've got pretty much everything in order so that I can sleep soundly whilst abroad. Literally and figuratively. Most of my bags are packed, various obligations fulfilled, some good-byes already made. Although I feel on top of it all at the moment, I just know I'm going to
Now that I'm down to the crunch time, it seems as if only yesterday I was filling out the application. Looking back, however, it was certainly a longer wait than I had originally anticipated. Fresh out of my MA and back in the USA only late last September, I foolishly thought I was only a personal statement and a few recommendations away. Since then I've graduated, traveled southern Europe, taken
It all starts here. I've been wanting to join the Peace Corps since age 13 when one of my teachers told me about his work with elephants in Africa. Now, nearly 10 years later, I find myself on a mystical dream journey of my own to Paraguay. (Sorry no elephants.) Just what will does this adventure have in store? Only time, and this wee blog can tell.
How many entries are we showing above?
For now, we are showing up to 50 entries on each page. Entries that
are too short are filtered out. For more entries, please use
archives.
|
Connect to Peace Corps Journals
About the Journal
Contact Us
Disclaimer:
| |
| Copyright (c) 2010 |
