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!