Aaand...We're Back!

Post 1 of 3.

The night before Swearing-in, at the end of training, the family of Becca and me had a wonderful, and sad, despedida (farewell party) for us.



With my host mom, Lourdes, and her youngest song, Erwin.  I'm the first volunteer to ever stay with this family, although there have been training groups who've lived in this community in the past.  Mamá Lourdes says I will always be her hija (daughter), and am therefore welcome back any time.  They have been the most welcoming, caring family I could ask for during the shaky transition into a new culture and language, and I have indeed returned to visit several times in the past months (for a day on the way to or from Asuncion), a pattern which I hope to continue throughout my service.





My host siblings and I--Erwin, Nayeli, and Edu



After the million and one combinations of group shots, I let Erwin run wild with my camera for a while...resulting in a few surprisingly artistic shots!

And here is a shot of my terere equipo--termo, guampa, and bombilla--graciously being modeled by my friend Jimmy during our last terere session as trainees.

And finally, the day we've all been waiting for...Swear-in!  I'M A REAL VOLUNTEER NOW!

Fellow G-mate Jake, who we nominated to speak for us during the Swear-in ceremony.  There were also speeches from the US ambassador, several Paraguayan officials, the Peace Corps Paraguay Country Director, and Eli, the head of my sector.  These numerous speeches were followed by a strangely anticlimatic "repeat after me" oath led in English by the US ambassador, and then in Spanish by a Paraguayan man of import.  And voila! The transition from PCT to PCV was made with success!

Our training families were also invited to attend the ceremony, and the Municipality of our training city (in whose building the ceremony was held) gave us each a tajy (the now-rare national tree of Paraguay) to bring to and plant in our new communities across Paraguay. 

With my amazing APCD Eli, the head of the Environmental Conservation sector.

With our technical trainer, Leo, and PS Alistair (Eli's second-in-command)

And then, after a short weekend of celebrations and good-byes in Asuncion, it was off to site for the rest of December and Christmas! For the first several weeks in site, I stayed with Angel and Gladys (pictured above with Gladys' aunt Maria).  The Christmas tradition in Paraguay is to stay up until midnight on Christmas eve, then eat a large meal with the whole family and give a toast at midnight. Slightly earlier in the evening we drove into Pilar to visit the nativity scenes set up in the plaza.

Three of Angel and Gladys' grandchildren, Milagros, Maria Paz, and Fernando, also came with us.  Who doesn't enjoy hanging out with a giant turtle?

Not for the faint of heart...here is our Christmas-day asado (bbq) pig, waiting on the kitchen table to be skinned and cooked up. Nbd. Strangely, I have not yet been convinced to start eating meat....(well, aside from the ocassional chicken and fish...which any Paraguayan will assure you is not meat).

Unlike the US tradition of gift-giving on Christmas, most Paraguayan children get a gift or two on el Dia de Tres Reyes (Three Kings Day).  A family from my community who now lives in Buenos Aires brought donated toys and snacks with them for Three Kings Day and invited all the children of Jataity to a bit of a celebration, so that no one who be left without a small gift this year.

Just before New Years, I moved in with my second host family in Jataity (the same family I stayed with during my Future Site visit).  Here's my host nephew Luca sporting a brand-new (temporary) fauxhawk, in true futbolista fashion.

At the beginning of March, I moved into my own house!  It's right next door to my second host family's house, and gives me the long-awaited ability to start cooking again.  Here you can see the quite common sight of cows strolling past the house.

It is both astonishing and impressive the amount of things that a Paraguayan can transport with their motos.  I've seen a moto going down the street with a board across the back with 2 dozen chickens dangling from it, or a bushel of 20 foot long bamboo stalks across the lap of a moto rider.  Here, my landlord and his son were using a moto to transport some final things out of my new house.  Two people and about a third of that pile of stuff went with each moto trip...

In February, the Paraguayan school year began anew (since the seasons are opposite here).   Though I visited the Directora and profesoras during their prep week, I also went the first day of school to meet all the students at once.  Our  school in Jataity is rather small, with only about 50 students total.  Half come in the morning (first through third grade), and half come in the afternoon (fourth through sixth grade, plus kindergarten).

Here I am with the afternoon turno students and profesoras, and the Directora (to my left).  You  can see  my ever-cheeky host nephew Luca throwin' up some hand signs in the front row...
These kids are great!  I started out actually teaching by doing some activities/a lesson for Water Day in March, and since then I've also been teaching English and teaching some lessons in their Trabajo y Tecnologia (kind of like Life Skills) class on Wednesday.  I work mostly with this afternoon/older group, and so far they've been very receptive to my lessons about venenos caseros (organic pest deterrents), composting, trash, etc.  And they do enjoy laughing at each others' English names (their first English lesson, in conjunction with learning the alphabet).

In March I also brought my friend/community contact, Romina, to a Climate Change Workshop  near Asuncion.   With other Environmental Sector volunteers and their contacts, we learned how to explain climate change to other Paraguayans, and learned about adapting to/mitigating climate change here in Paraguay.  Now let's go plant some trees!

This is a picture of some famous ruins in Humaita, a town not too far from Pilar.  A rather important battle took place here during the War of the Triple Alliance, where Paraguay fought against Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina.  In this war, a  devastating 90% of Paraguay's male population died, and about 60% of the population overall.  In the end, Paraguay lost some of its land in the Chaco region (and part of the Chaco is called President Hayes today, because he arbitrated a decision that kept Paraguay from losing a good deal more).

This is where I am^

This is what I'm doing^

And this is how I travel^
Translation: On the bus.
Top left...How I see it.
Top right...How other people see it.
Bottom left...How those outside see it.
Bottom right...How the driver sees it: Great, there's still so much space!