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!!