Stud Jataity

Post 2 of 2!

Now, we’ve been warned to be careful about exposing the exact locations of our training sites and service sites in public forums, as a precaution against those who may harbor ill-will towards Peace Corps Volunteers.  However, in this post I have decided to take a risk and disclose the name of my service site (partly because I couldn’t resist posting the photo that immediately follows), and to trust that this blog will not fall into the wrong hands.

I had a great site visit!  Despite a spot of rain and cold, I really enjoyed the 5 long, jam-packed days in Jataity (from late Friday, November 18 to early Wednesday, November 23).  I spent a lot of time cooking with my new host mom, drinking maté and terere with the family, exploring my new community, and listening to others prattle away in Guaraní that I could rarely understand, haha.  I stayed with the Santa Cruz family, which includes Secu and Santiago, their 5 adult children (though I only met 3 and only 1 lives permanently with them still), and several of their grandchildren (including a 10 year-old boy who lives with them).

I really like what I've seen of Jataity.  It's a beautiful area, and the houses and buildings are quite spread out, with fields for animals and crops at most of the houses.  It'll be really nice when I can get a bike!  Especially since we can't ride on motorcycles (the major mode of transportation; you should have seen the looks I got when I told anyone that I wasn't allowed to andar en moto...).

Beginning on December 12, I will become a member of the community Yataity/Jataity (pronounced with the “J” sound).  I don't actually know what this "Stud Jataity" sign is for...I spotted it on one of my walks around the community, at the entrance to someone's property.  Rest assured that I will make it my mission to find out...

Jata'i is the name of this here plant (I don't think the hose is strictly standard), a variety of "palmera" (palm, I assume); and Ty is a Guaraní suffix that means, among other things, "aglomeration of."  Therefore, I will soon be living within an aglomeration of jata'i palm plants.  Woohoo!

The trip from Asunción bus terminal to Pilar bus terminal takes about 5-5.5 hours.  Pictured right: I traveled to Pilar with my community contact, Gladis (whose nickname is apparently Ña Toona...idk), who came to meet me at our Contact-Meeting event on Friday.  She's a really great woman--soft-spoken yet not afraid to speak up when she needs to get something done.  She's also one of two nurses who run the Puesto de Salud (health center) in Jataity.

On the left is my new host mother, Secundina (Secu--a much more apparent nickname), whose family I stayed with for the week.  She's a woman who loves to laugh, and I spent a great deal of time chattering away with her in some strange mix of languages.  In this picture she's holding her maté guampa and bombilla--something she was rarely without, what with all the rain and cold southern wind (see Post 1 of 2).  (If I didn't mention it before, maté is similar to tereré, but the water (or milk) is HOT instead of cold.)

(Yes, that's a bidet in the background.  I've seen them multiple times in this country, though never actually hooked up/in a state to be used.)

When Ña (short form of doña, the word usually used for Señora in Guaraní) Toona (the name of a tree species in Paraguay...yeah I still don't know) and I arrived at the terminal in Pilar, we were greeted by her husband, Ángel, and my new host parents, Secu and Santiago.  Ña Toona and Ángel kindly took my large backpack to their house so I could stay in Pilar with Secu and Santiago, unencumbered, and go to the festival that their daughter Mariela's school was having.  This festival was an end-of-the-year celebration that involved each class performing a sort of gymnastics-rhythmic dance, complete with cartwheels, lifts, and at one point...diving somersaults through a ring of fire (whaaaat!).  I was unfortunately not on-the-ball enough to get a photo of it.  Fail.  But here's a nice picture of Mariela's class' dance instead!  Mariela is just finishing the highest grade in colegio (which is like high school), and lives in Pilar with her husband of half a year, Freddy.  They're both really, really nice.

Here's a picture I took during a spontaneous guitar/accordian jam sesh that took place on my new family's patio on Saturday.  They played some Paraguayan polkas, and the guitarist sang the words to a few of them in Guaraní.  My new host father, Santiago, is the accordianist (?) on the far right.  He's a really mellow, friendly guy, who likes to put me on the spot with my Guaraní.

This is the house of the Santa Cruz family (Secu and Santiago), where I will be living during at least part of the first three months of my service.  In order to get to know as many community members as possible, I'm hoping to get the chance to live with several different host families for a few weeks each, before moving in to my own little house.

My future house!  This is where I was informed I will be living when I move out on my own, haha.  It's a really nice little house (casita), right next door to the Santa Cruz house.  Although it'll certainly be a bit lonelier living on my own, I'm very excited to eventually be in control of my diet again.  And I'm going to try to get some pets!

This is a photo of the patio of my casita, which is full of fruit trees that I'm sure I'm going to love.  The space on the other side of the back fence is also the property of my landlord family, and I've been told I can build a garden there.  Awesome!

On Saturday night, I want to a Torín--bullfight--in Pilar with Ña Toona and two of her small grandchildren.  While I was told repeatedly that the bulls are not allowed to be killed during bullfights in Paraguay, it was still a bit unsettling to watch at times.  They´ve got to get those bulls angry somehow, after all...

The clowns and toredores/bullfighters did do some cool gymnastics-sort-of tricks involving handstands and flips with the bulls.  That part was actually pretty cool, aka dangerous-looking.

It rained all day Sunday and Monday morning, which just about shuts activity down in Paraguay.  Traveling about becomes very difficult when the streets turn to mud, after all.  However, on Monday afternoon I was able to visit the elementary school that I'm hoping to work at as part of my service.  The school year ends in December and picks up again at the end of February, I believe, so I'll have a little time to come up with a game plan.

Here's a picture of the school patio and some of the classrooms.  It's a rather small school with about 70 students total.  Some students attend school in the morning (in this case, first, second, and third grade), and the rest attend school in the afternoon (fourth, fifth, sixth, and preschool).  This is the common "torno" system used in Paraguay, which allows smaller school buildings to be used for a lot more students.  I met the directora of the school, as well as many of the afternoon teachers, who all seem eager to let me work with them next February when the school year starts up again.

I also visited the Puesto de Salud on Monday afternoon.  Inside is a wide variety of exam rooms, available for a range of consultations including general, dental, and birthing rooms.  This is where Ña Toona works the morning shift every day.

Then I walked past the Comisaría, or police station, which I´ve been told has four policemen working at it, although I saw no sign of them.

And here is Jataity´s Oratorio (church), which I have not had the chance to see inside of yet.

Pictured here is a tatakuaa.  It's a traditional Paraguayan outdoor oven, which is still used especially to make several important staple dishes, such as the ubiquitous chipa!  This week with my family I got to help make chipa, which are small pieces of bread made of mandioca (yuca, I think?) flour, corn flour, Paraguayan cheese, anis, salt, sugar, milk, and egg.  Chipa can be found everywhere--sold by vendors who hop on and off buses, the local despensa (little stores often run out of houses), random women biking down the street with a basketful, cars driving by announcing chipa by bullhorn, etc etc.  And now I can make them as well!  They are slightly bland and nondescript to taste at first, but soon become alarmingly addictive...haha, maybe there's an extra ingredient or two in there that I didn't see them add.  I also learned to make several other dishes, including chipa guazu, which is a large pan of sort-of corn bread made from fresh ground corn, Paraguayan cheese, milk, and salt.  Only slightly different than the also-popular sopa paraguaya (surprisingly, for you Spanish-speakers out there, not a soup), which is made from corn flour instead of fresh-ground corn.  It is therefore easier to make year-round but also denser and drier.

Jataity is located in the ecoregion Chaco Humedal, which is a wetland.  I took this picture after the day and a half of rain that we experienced, so there isn't always this much water in this spot, per se, but I think it gives a good representation.  And I really like taking pictures of reflections...

^Secu and my 10-year-old host nephew, Luca (who had just gotten out of school), who accompanied me on part of my walk.

On Tuesday morning, I went into Pilar to attend the Clausura/Close of a project that a current Env PCV, Brian, has been doing for the last two years. It's called Basura Cero=Escuela Saludable (Zero Garbage=Healthy Schools).  Here he is presenting some data on the 16 schools that were involved: how much they were able to recycle, how much recycled art they were able to sell to raise funds for the schools, etc.

In this picture, Estela, the directora of my school in Jataity, is accepting a certificate for the great work they've been able to do.  PCVs have found that programs implemented in the form of competitions tend to be more successful, so Basura Cero is structured this way as well.  Jataity's school has made it into the top handful of schools, by the point system, every year.  Just sayin'.

Pictured here is the "Reciclón" that Brian constructed earlier in his service.  The basic colors and "Ciclón" idea are based on futbol club Cerro Porteño and their Cyclone mascot (see Post 1 of 2).  It's covered in different types of trash examples, including a large fake battery on the back.  I think it's really creative, and the Paraguayans definitely get a kick out of it.  When I told Secu I was going to try to go to this Closing event, she got really excited and tried to explain this large trash suit to me--which was utterly confusing for me at the time, as you can probably imagine.

And finally, after the Closing, Brian took me to explore Pilar a bit. Here is a picture of the Río Paraguay, from a lookout spot in Pilar.  Across the river you can see Argentina in the distance.  As PCVs, though, we're required to give notification and get permission before leaving the country, so I probably won't be heading over there too often.  We also stopped in at the Municipality building, and I met the 4 workers in the Environment department.  After that, we also stopped in at the post office!  On the second tab above, I'm going to post what my new mailing address will be.  Letters and packages should get to me faster (23 days for packages, he says) through this address, AND, according to Brian, nothing ever gets stolen when it's sent through Pilar.  I gave my name to the postmistress, and I'll give her my cell number when I get one.  Then, when a package comes in for me she'll text me, I'll come to Pilar, we'll walk together to Customs a block over, and I'll watch them go through the package there.  Woohoo!  So beginning in December, if you want to mail anything to me, please send it to the new address! ;)

So that was my site visit!  As you can probably guess, I'm pretty excited about it all. :)  I figured this post would be more interesting if it was full of pictures, but at the risk of wearing your patience too thin, I'll finish off this post with a few photos from Thanksgiving.  We were invited to spend the holiday at the U.S. Embassy with the new ambassador.

PC Country Director Don giving a short speech in the ambassador's home before we dug into the delicious array of food that was both brought by us and supplied by the ambassador.

Trainee Rosemary being fabulous.

Playing frisbee on the gorgeous grounds of the Embassy after stuffing ourselves in true Thanksgiving-fashion.

We had the odd experience of being transported to and from the embassy by way of a (I assume) rented out public City of Guarambare colectivo (bus).  Now, it's common practice for vendors to hop on and off buses selling pretty much anything you can imagine.  Our trip through Asunción became especially entertaining when these vendors would hop onto the bus...only to discover themselves amidst a sea of white faces.  At this point they would either muster their courage and try to find out if we spoke Spanish, or slowly back up and hop right back off the bus in confusion.

We also ended up having a transportation mix-up on our way home from the embassy.  In the morning, we were picked up by the small private buses that we usually take to our classes in Guarambaré in the mornings.  We were then dropped off at a gas station near the City of Guarambaré colectivo depot, and switched onto the aforementioned public bus.  That's all well and good, but on the way home from the embassy, the public bus dropped us off at this same gas station...turns out we were supposed to ride that bus all the way to our respective communities.  Fortunately, when we have classes in Guarambaré, we take Nueva Italia public buses home in the afternoons.  This gas station turned out to be about halfway along the route that these Nueva Italia public buses take.  So, after orienting ourselves, we were able to split up and successfully hop on a few of the successive Nueva Italia buses that passed by.  Que suerte, crisis averted!  What a great/bizarre day.

This is a panda.

I hope you had a spectacular Thanksgiving!!  Over and out.

Beware the infamous Southern Wind

Dear avid readers,

I apologize for not posting earlier, as I had promised. In Paraguay, the viento sur, or southern wind, is the cause of many trials and troubles.  For example, the southern wind brings the cold and many sicknesses; I’ve even heard that the southern wind is responsible for Dengue fever.  While I can’t back up those claims, I’m sure that the southern wind is responsible for my own bought of mystery illness that struck Thursday night and took me out of commission most of the day Friday.  (Especially since we've already established that there are no germs in Paraguay.)  But now, with the aid of some rehydration packets and non-FDA approved medicine, I'm well on my way to a full recovery.  So while I’m apologizing for the delay, which I know was very hard on all of us, you’re going to have to take up all complaints with the southern wind.  Thank you!

And now on to other matters.  Today I’m going to give you all a real treat—a double post!  This post will catch you up on some goings-on, including long overdue photos of my training community and family (which I will be leaving all too soon, with mixed feelings). 

Post 1 of 2:

A Quinceñera that I went to with my family!  Here you can see the birthday girl, Pabla, as she greets her guests and accepts gifts.  Off to the right you can see the very elaborate,very well-lit, and also very pink birthday cake arrangement in the distance.  (Nayeli is in the bottom right corner.)

Erwin! With his brand new camioneta/truck set that he got as a gift from two of his aunts who just returned from a relative’s wedding in Argentina.  Boy, does this kid love his trucks.

And here is a photo of the house I’ve been living in since arriving in Paraguay.  :)

The increasingly popular “rock climbing in a skirt.”  I hear it’s becoming all the rage.

The morning of Site Assignment day, we were taken to Aregua as part of a cultural excursion.  Here we are, learning some traditional pottery techniques in a city known for its pottery (and especially Nativity scenes, around this time of year).

There are several national soccer “clubs” in Paraguay.  The two most popular teams, with the most intense rivalry, are Olimpia (black and white) and Cerro Porteño (blue and red).  There are also several other clubs, including Guaraní (yellow and black), Libertad, and Luqueño, among others.  Now generally, a family tends to stick together, rooting for the same team.  However, in my family, Papá Ever, Nayeli, Tia/Aunt Karen, and I (sometimes you just gotta pick a side) are all Olimpistas; Edu, Mamá Lourdes, Abuela/Grandmother Lela, and Tia/Aunt Lourdes are all Cerristas; and Erwin and Abuelo/Grandfather Membi are Guaraní.  As you can imagine, this produces some very entertaining game watches.  As fascinating as this all is for you, the reason I bring it up is that in my house we have several small statues of dogs and pigs wearing particular club colors.  My mamá Lourdes had a Cerro Porteño dog that was tragically broken (an accident, I'm sure) by one of the kids.  Pictured above is the replacement Cerro pig that I got her as a gift from the Aregua pottery markets.  You wouldn’t believe how hot a commodity these little fellas are.

It’s hard not to enjoy a good glass-bottle Coca-Cola on a lake beach in Paraguay.

Not exactly the sturdiest dock I’ve ever been on, but that’s half the fun.

Album cover?

If you got to live in a castle, you might become a nun too.

What? Posed? No, never…

In the last agonizing hour before finding out our site assignments, we did get to listen to some really pretty, traditional Paraguayan music—often polkas, played by a harpist and one of our language teachers, Aurelio, on guitar.

And then our Env Program Manager Eli (who, along with Alistair, matched us with our sites), who also happens to be trained in traditional Paraguayan dance, showed us some really cool dances in a gorgeous dress made out of the very intricate traditional Ñanduti lacework.

Our sites! Finally!  There’s me, in the Southwest corner, hanging out.  As you can see, there’s a noticeable absence of Env and Ag volunteers up in the Northern region of Paraguay, which is called the Chaco.  The Chaco covers about 60% of the land mass of Paraguay, but only about 3% of the population live there (if I remember correctly).  It’s a rather inaccessible, arid region that receives very little rainful and is partly covered in dense thorny forests.  There have been Env and Ag volunteers stationed within the Chaco in the past, but at the moment we’re all concentrated in the much more heavily populated Eastern region of Paraguay.

That's all for this post!  I've got a few random videos and some more pictures that I'll put up on Facebook...some day... :) 

Che Sitiorã

(Written Wednesday night)

Today we found out our future sites!!  After swearing in on December 9^th, I’ll live in a small community near Pilar for the next two years.  Pilar is the capital of Departamento Ñeembucu. It’s right across Río (river) Paraguay from Argentina, and it´s about a 5 or 6 hour journey from Asunción.  My community is around 100 families and is located approximately 5 km outside of Pilar.  According to my fancy little information packet, we have dirt roads, electricity, and some houses have wells while some have running water.  It is unlikely that I will have internet access in my house, but I should be able to bike into Pilar when I need to use internet.  One of my maps shows an airplane in Pilar, so it will be interesting to see if there are any flights from Buenos Aires that would make visits from you folks slightly more direct... :)

My site sounds so great.  It’s exactly what I’ve been envisioning/hoping for since my PCV visit—a small community that isn’t very far from a larger town where I can have access to more resources when necessary.  I’ve heard only good things from other trainees who have visited the Pilar-area or who have talked to volunteers who have worked there.  The only michî/small downside is that I’m pretty far from most of the other trainees, who are more clustered to the east of Asunción.  However, I’ll soon have a new “VAC” of volunteers to work with.  We haven’t heard a ton about VACs yet (or what it actually stands for), but it’s basically the group of volunteers who live nearest to me.  In my case, it looks like my VAC consists of all of the volunteers in Ñeembucu (about 13), including 2 other Env trainees and 1 of the Ag trainees.  VACs meet every so often to hear PC news, and are encouraged to collaborate on some projects, especially on side projects that may focus on the job of another sector (i.e., for a health workshop, a Rural Health sector volunteer is a very good resource).  Also, it appears that there are 3 volunteers who actually live in Pilar—very close to me.

Really though, despite the maps and statistics in our information packets, we know next to nothing about our sites.  But Friday, we’ll be meeting community contacts and traveling with them to our sites!  We’ll stay there until next Wednesday, meeting the family who will host us at the beginning of service, other community members, getting a feel for the place, etc etc…can’t wait!  I’ll take some pictures and report back next week J sometime after Thanksgiving, which we’ll be celebrating at the US embassy.

I found a map with Pilar on it:

The yellow part on this map of Departamentos is Ñeembucu (the star is Pilar--the departamento capital), which contains all my VAC members:

Wish me luck!

Photos!

Waiting at a bus stop with Becca (the trainee who lives across the street with my host grandparents), Karen (her sister/my aunt), and Lourdes (my aunt, who took care of me during the first few weeks of training)

My 9-year-old host sister, Nayeli, and I, waiting for one in a series of buses to go to a nearby outdoor fair ("expo") that was going on throughout the first week or so of training

The guampa (cup), bombilla (straw), and termo (thermos) for tereré that Karen carried around the whole day--like the majority of the people at the expo

One corner of the plaza where the expo was being held--motorcycles are one of the most common modes of transportation...though we´re not allowed on them

(Different day) Some awesome artwork in Asunción (the capital of Paraguay)

Traditional Paraguayan lacework--Ñanduti

The volunteer, Liz, who I visited for my PCV visit, along with the children of the family whose property her house is on

Just a really sweet looking plant

Teamwork! Teaching the niños how to make bracelets

A watering hole where we took some local students to go swimming--it´s hot out!

Halloween!! Trainees bought candy from town and left it with our host families, and then some of us taught our small host siblings how to (kind of) dress up and go trick-or-treating

Brook, who dressed up at her house to give candy to the niños

Crescent moons here look like a U, not a C!  I think it´s cool...

 [It's too much of a pain to rotate these photos. Sorry I'm not sorry :) ]

On the way home from our Long Field Practice (visiting another volunteer for a week), we stopped at Paraguay´s original 200 year-old train station in Sapucai.  Paraguay had the first rail system in South America...though now they have no rail system...

We went to Long Field Practice in small groups--very busy and very fun

Some of the original train blueprints, still just sitting out in the open in the train station, which is now being restored to become a museum and cultural center

One of the original trains--pre coal burning--these locomotives ran on steam produced by wood

Our tech trainer, Leo, and Guarani language professor, Ramona, who came on long field to keep the training going

My 6-yr-old brother Erwin after performing a traditional Paraguayan dance at his school´s dance festival last night (11/11/11)

My 9-yr-old sister Nayeli, in yellow, performing her class´ dance

Nayeli and her classmate Jasmine

My 16-yr-old brother Edu (all the way to the left)

Edu again, second from the left--his class did a "modern" dance

No Paraguayan event would be complete with the odd dog rolling around on the ground :)

Enjoy!  I´ll add more pictures soon of the rest of my family, and of my house and neighborhood.  This Wednesday we find out the name of our future sites, and on Friday we meet our community contact and travel with them to site for a short pre-service visit...so we're all a little preoccupied right now.  I´m very excited and very nervous.  I can´t wait!!