moving to la novia

Hola dear wonderful people who happen to be reading my blog! I am writing from asuncion in my hotel having terrible coffee and some bread and fruit to fuel me for my trip back to la novia (my site).  I was in the capital this weekend to attend a peace corps event called ahendu (in guarani this means ‘I listen’) which entails volunteer committee meetings during the day at the office, and then an open-mic fundraiser in the evening at a bar downtown.  I actually had been in my site for only 4 days before I trekked back to Asuncion, but I wanted to come back into town to collect some things I wasn’t able to bring with me the first time, and also see some volunteers before they swore out and left the country – like my awesome mentor sybil. It also was comforting to reunite with some friends my training group and have a fun weekend going out to ahendu, going to the movies, and relishing in the air conditioning before we go back to our sites. It will probably be 3-4 months before we all are together again, and also before I’m back in asuncion. Although – anything can happen really when you’re in the peace corps. Life changes so quickly and people come and go so fast it’s hard to catch up.

I’m really excited to get to my site and start figuring things out in la novia. There are about 50-55 households and a lot of those are families that are related. My counterpart, Lucia, has a family of 10 – all sisters! Paraguayans have HUGE families, it’s almost impossible to remember everyone’s names. I started a list in my notebook and I have to reference it in secret to make sure I’m getting someone’s husband or child’s name right. I am living with a new host family right now probably until after the new year – 2013 what!? – and then move to a different families house to get to know more people in the community.  Right now its my host mom Dona Petrona, her husband Don Silvio, their son Juan who is 22, her sister Dona Silvina, her daughter Luz Maria who is 11, and the grandmother who is in her late 80s and only speaks guarani. I’ve already gotten project ideas with Don Silvio for agroforestry, designing their garden plot and to keep records of planting and methods, and to build a worm box in their garden to use lombriculture. He’s super guapo and I’m excited to work with him. Dona Petrona is the treasurer of the women’s committee I’m working with, and goes to the farmers market with her sister and the president of the committee in Coronel Oviedo (the closest big city about 30 minutes away from La Novia) every Tuesday and Saturday to sell food – empanadas, chicken soup, chicken milanesa (breaded and fried) and sometimes fruit.

I will be heading into my site very soon, and will have internet when I go into Oviedo to use an internet café. I probably wont have wireless until the end of January when my site presentation is and my boss comes to formally “present” me to my community and reinforce what it is peace corps is doing in Paraguay and what my role is as an agriculture extension volunteer.

I have to run to pack up and catch my bus but I will write again next week! Lots of love and happy holidays! I can’t believe it’s going to be Christmas when its 105 degrees out. Oh, Paraguay. 

Swear-in day!!

The day has finally arrived. Today I will swear-in as an agricultural extension Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay. I’m feeling nervous and excited and still in disbelief that this has been real life. We’ve been tested in more ways than one to ensure we have the technical and language skills to start us off in our sites. Wednesday was a final “exam” of sorts as we sat under the great big mango tree at our centro’i (in Guarani you add ‘i to the ends of words to signify little – the little centro or center) in Cumbarity, the training community where I’ve been living. The exam consisted of forming teams of two people and answering questions about training in both Guarani and Spanish. Niko and I came in 3^rd place (we called ourselves Tavyrai – or crazy in Guarani) and the winners received two giant watermelons. Fruit is starting to be in startling abundance – the trees are heavy with mangoes everywhere you look and on the side of road basically anywhere you can find bigger watermelons than I’ve ever seen in my life.

Even though I was deemed to be able to converse in Guarani at an intermediately middle level, I am still wondering how the heck I’m going to communicate about anything other than the weather (Hakueterei - it is so hot) and when I brush my teeth (Che arambosa rire ajecepilla - after breakfast I brush my teeth…). I also am constantly saying something that has a double meaning and making my host family crack up laughing while I stare at them dumbly not sure exactly what part was funny. For example, if you say che haku instead of just ‘haku’ when it’s hot, that basically means you are very hot in a sexual way.

A taste of Guarani:

Che (shay) – I

Nde (nnnday) – You

Ha’e (ha’eh) – him/her/them

Che arambosa = I eat breakfast

Nde rerambosa = You eat breakfast

Ha’e orambosa = He/she/they eat breakfast

What is frustrating about the language, which I just can’t wrap my head around, is the lack of the verb “to be”. When you say che haku you’re just saying “I hot” and not “I am so hot”. Its going to take some getting used to, I kept searching for a way to say “I am” in classes and it’s just easier to give in to the simplicity. Ohh Guarani. Most people speak primarily Guarani in La Novia (my site) and they understand or speak Spanish as well. Ideally after a few months or you know, at the end of two years, I will be fluent in Guarani. It’s necessary for me to speak it to work with the community and have people see that I’m actually interested in their lives and culture. One of my technical trainers Jonathan describes it in this way – speaking Spanish with Paraguayans is like watching black and white TV, and speaking Guarani is like watching in color (maybe even 3-D!). There’s a world of a difference, even though I find myself thinking b-b-but why can’t we just speak Spanish!? It would be so much easier…

Nothing about the Peace Corps is really supposed to be easy, and as I start this journey of the next 24 months I will be reminding myself that it is through the hard times that I will learn the most. I am making a commitment tomorrow to serve the people of Paraguay and the community of La Novia, represent the United States in the best way possible, and be part of a sustainable developmental process that focuses on people and their needs.

Thank you to everyone who helped me get where I am right now – family, friends, colleagues, professors, mentors, instructors, trainers, people I’ve met traveling and couch surfing, fellow travelers, everyone. I am so grateful to have the people I do in my life and for the opportunities I’ve had and the biggest one that is right in front of me. On Monday I will be moving into my site, and for the first three months be living with different families in order to integrate. After that I will have my own little house, and will really begin my own life in Paraguay working in agricultural extension. Stay with me as I embark on this journey, and know that I am thinking of you from the heart of south America. Lot of love! 

Hola de nuevo

 

Hola de Nuevo :) Hope you’re all doing well. I am writing from the training center in Guarambare, where just yesterday I found out that I will be moving to La Novia (yes, the girlfriend), a small town of about 50 households in the district of Nueva Londres in the department of Caaguazu. I am excited to go visit my site and will be leaving tomorrow to meet my community contact(s) and spend about 4-5 days in site! It’s crazy that this is happening so soon, but also we’ve been waiting since day 1 to find out where we will be living as volunteers for the next two years. Training has been a little world of its own, where it is not at all indicative of my actual life as a volunteer in agricultural extension. I am with 50 other Americans basically every day, and have my entire day from 7am to 5pm rupi (around) scheduled and almost every minute accounted for. Contrast that to my soon to be life where every moment is lived in the present and nothing is planned (well some things will be planned but not like this) and everything is tranquilo. 

I don't have time to post more - but I will be gone without internet til next Wednesday and then celebrating Thanksgiving at the US Embassy in Asuncion on Thursay! Happy thanksgiving everyone and lots of love!!!! I'll be thinking of you :)

xoxo

ps
the pic above is of me outside my homestay 

hola, mba'eichapa?

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Hello friends and family! It's officially been a month since I've arrived in Paraguay and I'm finally sitting down to write my first blog post in country. I’m at the Peace Corps training office in a small town outside of Asuncion and there is wireless internet, so a bunch of us are escaping the brutal heat outside and using the air conditioning and internet to catch up with people and get our internet fix. I don’t even know where to begin with how this past month has been, it feels like forever already – my days are packed full of an intensive training schedule for language (Guarani), technical training in agriculture, and cultural immersion that includes safety and medical trainings and lectures. This past month or so has been a whirlwind of hugging goodbyes, plane rides, and bus trips; new language, food and dietary changes, new friends, new soil, and so much more.

I’ve been training with 26 other agriculture volunteers, and we are distributed between two satellite-training communities where we each live with a host family and have our meals with our family each day. My host family is great- there is Dona Carmen, Don Porfirio, their neice Estela and her two-month year old son Ivan. The house is modest, and I feel like a princess because I have my own room and bathroom (with a hot water shower!) and the four of them share one bedroom with two big beds. I’m totally spoiled right now. I am going to enjoy it while I have it though. The food has been definitely interesting so far – but overall great. I started eating some meat before I left before Paraguay because I knew I would have to adjust to eating it again – after over 10 years of vegetarianism, a quick stint in veganism, and then fluctuating between pescatarian and completely vegetarian more recently. It’s been quite interesting and eating fish and chicken is the easiest for me, I actually seek out chicken now in order to get protein since the thought of eating pork or beef is unsettling for my stomach and my mind. I’ve had pasta dishes with my host family that have the tiniest pieces of beef in it and that is easier to stomach, but a huge hunk of beef asado (basically, BBQ) is not something that is even remotely appetizing to me. Paraguayans definitely love their meat and it’s a part of the culture. However, there are a number of Paraguayan vegetarian dishes and I plan to become a culinary expert in these over the next two years J

Since the internet is not reliable for me right now, it’s hard to say how frequently I’ll be able to post. However, I will try to post at least once a month and ideally every two weeks or even more if I have regular internet. I will be staying with my current host family (the Aldana family) until swear-in as a volunteer which is December 7^th, in Asuncion. After that, I will move to a new host family in my future site where I will live for two years to carry out my service. After three months with that family, I can choose to move into my own place. I don’t know what I will decide yet, but I am definitely leaning towards finding my own little shack so I can eat what I want and when I want, and also set up internet and have a little more consistent contact with people. We will receive a wireless USB connector when we swear-in as volunteers, and until then I only have internet when I’m in the main training center – which is a couple days a week now.

I’ll be traveling a week from tomorrow on my long site visit, which is a trip that involves doing work that a volunteer is currently working on and I will have language class each day while I’m on that visit. The short site visit I went on with my fellow trainee Erin was to visit Lauralee and you can see pictures on my Facebook of us on that trip! It was totally tranquilo (calm, cool) and so much fun – it made me excited to get to my site and live on my own in Paraguay and carve out my own little life here. I think that the long site visit will be great and a real hands-on experience to help me grasp what I am really getting myself into the next two years. It will also prove to me how much I need to work on my Guarani skills – which is getting better every day.

Speaking of Guarani – that is the reason this post is titled as such – mba’eichapa is the most valuable phrase to know, it means “how are you?” and I say it dozens of times a day when I meet and greet people in my classes and in the community.

I’ll have to wrap up this post now – and I had to actually write most of this off-line as the internet at the training center cut out and we weren’t able to re-start the router since the room was locked. Thank goodness for my friend Julia who already purchased a wireless USB port J I may decide to do that – but it’s expensive for right now and may not be the right company that I will eventually want to use in my future site.

Anyways, I will conclude with one last thing which is I am completely in LOVE with the Paraguayan skies – the sunsets and sunrises are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. The only thing that is missing I’ve been realizing is an ocean! It’s quite bizarre to have the wind blowing and just get the feeling I am near the beach, and then realize I am no where near any major body of water. Unless you count the river that was my street on Friday morning after an intense storm that monsoon rained for hours on end. There are lakes and rivers nearby and all over Paraguay, but definitely don’t replace the ocean. Anyways, I am not complaining because I love this country’s beauty for what it is – but let’s just say I will be ecstatic to see the beach again on any coast when that happens J

Hopefully you’ll see more pictures on my blog but also I’ve posted a number of pictures on my Facebook as well. If we aren’t friends on there, please friend me! It’s an easy way to be in touch J and definitely easier to receive messages there since my gmail (mterry13) is so full of junk mail that it’s hard to sort through the messages.

Sending all my love to all of you back home and friends and family that are all over the US and beyond. Abrazos para todos and I am thinking of you all. Thank you for your support, prayers, and love!

More soon J

Xoxo

Meagan

The eve before departure

I'm so nervous and excited in the eve before my adventure begins as a peace corps volunteer in paraguay! i had a fantastic going away party down by the river in my neighborhood, with my family and friends this weekend. it was complete with a taste of my soon-to-be life with power outages, no running water, and a torrential downpour. fun!

I wanted to give you all my address that I will use to start in Paraguay which is:

Cuerpo de Paz,
Chaco Boreal 162,
Asunción, Paraguay

Please be aware that the mail will get to me a little slower - but by using the Peace Corps address and a courier like Fed-ex for packages, it shouldn't be a problem reaching me.

I leave for Miami tomorrow for staging - where I will meet the other 49 volunteers I am going to Paraguay with, 25 of which are other Agricultural Extension volunteers. From Miami, we will fly together to Paraguay (which goes to Buenos Aires, then Asuncion) on Wednesday evening. I will be meeting my host family who I will live with for the 11-weeks of training on Friday! I hope to have internet at some point to update you all on what my life is like during training- and where I will be living the next two years!

Lots of love and so much thanks to all those who have been giving me love, support and encouragement in my departure. I will miss everyone dearly, and cannot wait to share with you my experiences. Thank you again and see you on the flip side!

xo

sunrise...sunset...

I just got back from a trip to Acadia National Park with my family and I'm so glad I finally got to Maine before I leave for Paraguay :) I think I'm only missing a handful of states in the continental US and I really would like to get to all 50 while in my 20s - Alaska and Hawaii may have to wait a while though. It was a wonderful vacation; totally relaxing, gorgeous views, awesome hikes, and we had quality family time that was long overdue! It's been a while since I've taken a trip with my parents and brother (and our dog, jade) and we had to rent a mini-van to fit all of us and our stuff we schlepped up to Acadia. It was well worth it since it came with a DVD player - although the 12 hour drive today was a bit much even with three movies. The weather was insane on our drive back - news and warnings on tornadoes, a pretty heavy rain storm, bad car and truck accidents - was a bit frightening. Makes me realize that extreme weather events are probably something my generation is going to see a lot of from climatic changes. But that's for another rainy day to discuss...

Back to vacation - here are some snapshots from the trip - my brother, dad and jade and i when we first arrived in acadia, me at 6am for the sunrise over cadillac mt, and sunset on top that same day, and family shot at jordan pond. I'll admit that getting to the top only meant getting in the car since you can drive up. Made me feel like a bit of a cheater- but it was an incredible view at both times of day.

There are many more photos (we took hundreds) and I'll create a Facebook album to show a larger smattering of our family times in Maine. I'm glad to be back home in NJ and am excited to see some familiar faces very soon, I've missed people here so much!

I hope that everyone back in California and the west coast is doing incredibly well - I am missing everyone! It's been really great to be back home for this month though, it's helping with me transition and get ready for leaving. Although it's hard to reconnect with old friends just to leave so suddenly. I hope that through blogging and emailing and some internet connection I will be able to stay in touch with everyone as much as possible :)

Sending all my love! xo

life before peace corps in paraguay

hello!

i will be converting my blog to a chronicle of my adventures in paraguay as an agricultural extension peace corps volunteer. i leave september 25th for paraguay, and am leaving davis, ca in one week! i just had my last day with the uc davis policy institute, and saying goodbye to great people was so hard! i will miss everyone over there. i leave for NJ next week, and will spend time at home with my family before leaving for south america.

i just finished my first year of graduate school in international agricultural development, and i will come back after 2 years in the peace corps to finish my degree as a masters international student. 

i will write again as things are getting closer to my departure, so check back in a month or so as i prepare for my next adventure in south america!

til next time..

xo!