Buen dia! I’m writing
from Coronel Oviedo, where I am for the day and night to have a meeting and
down-time with some fellow peace corps volunteers that are in my VAC (volunteer
action committee?) and live in the same area of Paraguay. I’ve been in my site
for over a month now and the integration thing is getting easier – although
there are things that I am still struggling with and probably will for most of
my service. I’ve been moving around a bit now – I haven’t moved myself entirely
but I am in the process of moving to a new family’s house that is close to the
center of La Novia and right across the street from the Club Social which is a
meeting place and entertainment space basically in the community. It’s super
lindo and has a nice brick floor space that I have now started to use for my
evening yoga classes! (Check my facebook for pictures!)
I talk about yoga
with basically everyone in my site because I really want to get exercise myself
and also work on health and nutrition especially with kids and women here. An
idea was born to start teaching yoga after my newly started English classes that
I’ll be holding right now four times a week. It was incredibly inspiring and
also overwhelming to be in front of so many Paraguayans who are eager to learn
and also think everything I do is just hilarious or curious. I just happened to
go to Nueva Londres (the small town next to La Novia) one day last week, and my
Paraguayn friend Marizol took me to the local radio station to talk to one of
the radio hosts, Rafa, and see if I can eventually do some work with the radio
station. He ended up interviewing me on his show (called Amistad y Tradicion) and
I announced that I was starting English classes and also teaching yoga at the
club social in La novia. Since that morning, he’s been announcing the class and
so on Thursday evening for the first one – 30 people showed up! It was crazy, I
didn’t even realize how much of an influence the radio could have. Young people
from 7 years old to 20 something and also some senoras came from 3 of the
neighboring pueblos and also from the La novia. We started with the alphabet,
and I’ve never taught English in my life except for a few words here and there
through my travels in Latin America. We shall see how it goes! There are peace
corps materials I have available to me to use for lessons, so I’ll be going off
of those and then just what my students (!!) are excited about learning or
need/want to work on. I’m excited to already have a side project, and
especially because it involves also doing lots of yoga as well.
All in all I am in a
great place right now and although I miss vegetables terribly and Guaraní gives
me the worst headache - especially at the 2-hour long women’s committee meeting
where 25 senoras are talking over each other in guarani and change subjects
every 2 minutes – and I’m happy about (probably too much so) having working
internet in my site finally. It’s not the fastest internet ever, and I think
skyping may be too hard to do with the connection. But expect me to be in touch
more now! Although I shouldn’t be spending all my time on the internet. It’s
just so damn hot out all the time so taking a 3 or 4-hour siesta is totally
legit. At least in my book.
Oh and one last on my title for this entry - it's a phrase I've heard a lot here at lunch time when I say that I can't eat all that I'm given on my plate. "The afternoon is long" - so you better eat up basically, since dinner isn't til 8:30pm and most Paraguayans just eat milk and bread or fried tortillas for dinner. Luckily my meals have been mostly vegetarian (which means chicken usually) and there's also a merienda (snack) at some point in after my siesta. I definitely am not going hungry here, that's for sure. Anyways, more soon loves hope
all is well.
