This is Me in my Chacos---in the CHACO!
I have exactly one week until I find out where will be my new home for the next two years. Next Friday at about 3pm G24 will be receiving our site placements. It is a day we have been looking forward to since we started filling out our Peace Corps Applications. (That might make it sound a little dramatic – but still true!)
We just arrived back in our host training communities – where we have been living since we arrived in Paraguay. This week was an out of community fieldtrip of sorts. We split into two groups and went and spent a week with a real, live Peace Corps Volunteer. We gave a few charlas (kind of like community ed. Talks/future planning for various groups i.e. library commission and a youth group). My group went to Horqueta, Paraguay which is about 6 hours north of Asuncion. We had to drive through the Great Chaco Desert! I will be posting a picture of me IN my Chacos IN the Chaco! It is pretty cool for the first 15 minutes and then pretty much all looks the same. There are lots of cows, vultures and very very poor indigenous peoples and palm trees. The part that we drove through does not really look like what I thought it would look like (Saudi Arabia) there is more shrubbery than I expected.
Spending the week in Horqueta was great! It was packed full of activities but all very interesting and enjoyable. I stayed with a wonderful host family with a daughter who is 22 and the leader of the youth group – who was awesome. They were very sweet! Adam and I gave a charla with the youth group about planning for their future and assessing their current resources and brainstorming what sort of projects/activities they would like to work on in the future. It was a bit intimidating at first but I think it went well.
Poverty is everywhere. At times it rips my heart out and then dances on top of it. It is hard to know exactly what my role is to be here and in the world in general and where my responsiblitiy lies. I do however feel very lucky to have the opportunity to see all the things that I have seen and the privledge to decide when/where/how I want to be involved. Some people (many people) do not have that luxury.
We worked at a day camp for kids in the poorest neighborhood of Horqueta that was run by a PC Urban Youth Volunteer. We played games, made necklaces and sang kids songs in Guarani! It was there that I learned that I have been hosting a foot worm for the past 3+ weeks. PK (or so it is pronounced) is a worm that crawls into your foot and then lays eggs. It is a mildly painful visitor – however not so much that I really knew I had it. I just thought I had a sliver. Thanks to a Rural Health Volunteer who had come to work at camp – I learned that I had been an excellent hostess! My host sister was kind enough to remove it and the worm is gone and no long-term damage had been done. It was a teachable moment = sometimes slivers are really worms living and laying eggs in your toes! Watch out!
Empanadas! Are my new favorite food. Paraguay is a lot like the Minnesota State Fair. Everything is deep-fried. Empanadas are no exception. They are very much like Hotpockets – Parguayan style. Either flour or mandioca flour dough filled with any assortment of delicious things, most often ground beef, hard boiled egg, parsley or ham and cheese – they are then deep-fried. Needless to say – joining the Peace Corps is kind of like being a freshman in college except the freshman 15 might end-up being more than 15.
Last night in Horqueta we had an amazing Asado (Spanish for BBQ). The volunteer that hosted us was incredible! We had a feast beyond any of our wildest dreams – see photo! Also the Urban Youth Volunteer that is working in Horqueta came over for dinner and fire-danced for us. See picture!
This weekend I am going with my host mother to pick-up my three little sisters who went to their grandmother’s house for the week. (My grandmother is 52 and has 12 year old grandkids – they are tight generations!) My grandmother and host mother both have plans for me to meet/marry their son and brother. However – I did NOT join the Peace Corps to be set up. So – it should be an interesting weekend. My future husband will be there! I actually am going to tell them I now have a boyfriend in Horqueta – Mario Gonzalez Gonzales (this is a lie) but will get them worked up! We will see how it goes! Wish me luck!
My host-mom died my hair last week! It was a bonding moment. She said she tried to go to beauty school – but every time she went she got pregnant so she wasn’t allowed to go any more…hmmm….
The weather is BEAUTIFUL today/this week! We are enjoying 70s and sun! My kind of winter! However should it rain again I will need to pull out my long underwear and wool socks again!
I hope you are well and wonderful!
Please let me know how you are doing. One year ago this weekend many of us were gathered together for the festivities of my mom and micks wedding! *sigh. I think of you all and smile!
-love
-r.
1 comment:
Did you say library?
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