WARNING: this is a very long blog post!
the first picture on the right is of us cuerpo de paz girls in our soccer game, the second picture is of all of us and the girls we played against, and the last one is of jacob killing a chicken... and yes he is pulling the head right off! it was crazy to watch, but jacob was lovin it! then he helped pluck off all the feathers and cut it into pieces! my grandma asked if i was next to kill one, i said i´ll just watch jacob do it! ha!
I was suppose to go visit a current volunteer today but i got all the way to asuncion and there was no buses because the road had been washed out from the rain, so i get to try again tomorrow... oh well so i just went back home and decided to do a little emailing instead! I finally got smart and I’m writing this before hand on my computer, saving a copy to my jump drive and copying it to my blog! I’m saving so much time by writing it before hand but I get to write so much more because I’m doing it in several different days! Yeah! So now that I have time I can go into a little more detail about things. Since its been almost two weeks since I last updated! First of all my family is pretty darn great! Ana (ma) is quickly becoming a good friend. I feel like I’ve been here for a really long time, but its only been three weeks! Ana and I talk every day, she tells me about what it was like when she was pregnant, about her friends, the crazy things she did when she was young, gossip around town and just whatever we feel like talking about. At the beginning I mentioned that I have a really hard time understanding her, now I get about 93% of it! Ha! She likes to talk a lot, but also likes to listen to me talk and explain things I do in the states and when I talk about my family! Ever (dad) is a little more quite, we mostly talk about soccer or who I drank and played cards with the other night! Or we’ll just sit in silence and play with Alexis, which is always fun and entertaining and gives me a short break from Spanish! I really couldn’t be happier with the host family that I got… its perfect for me! My friend Andy on the other hand, is in a family with 4 host brothers… he is always playing some sport whether volleyball, soccer or American football! I wouldn’t fit in well in that situation, I need some downtime!
Speaking of soccer, Saturday the 20th was our first all girls soccer match! We played against some girls that came from Villeta… which is a bigger town about 20 min away! I was a little nervous because the entire community came to watch us play them! And you know me, I’m not that good at soccer! There were only two of us, of seven that even had played soccer before! But surprisingly we did pretty good, we lost both of our games (0-1, and 1-3) but like the boys told us, we were really fun to watch and we did so much better than they were anticipating! Ha! I did kick and totally miss the ball a couple of times though! I was SOOO close to making three goals, one of them was so close it hit the side of the arch… damn! I did okay, not fantastic, but I tried hard! And of course afterwards the men bought and shared beer with us! That’s what I love about this community, everyone is so nice and we share and hang out, I get to practice even more Spanish, and they teach us some words in Guarani! And there are soccer games that happen every tues, thurs and sat. Jacob (my neighbor that I do everything with and walk everywhere with) is really really good at soccer and I always go and watch him play with the ridiculously good Paraguay men! The night of our girls soccer game some of our group went to Villeta to party cause its Carnival… but some of us didn’t want to go, so we just got together at my grandparents house (which is 20 yards from mine) and drank some beer and played some cards. We were taught a game called escoge quince, which means choose 15. Basically you just use the cards in your hand and the cards on the table to add up to 15… I’ll teach y’all when I get home! So I was talking to my tech trainer the other day and she said that all of our sites will have electricity and most all of our sites will have running water! Which I’m sure I’ll be happy either way, I just wanted to have electricity, and I will!! But I had an interview with our head health guy, Don Pedro, he is who decides what site you go to. So I told him that I would love to be able to work with a doctor/nurse to see what medicine was like in this country. I will for sure be doing other projects as well, but if I could work a little bit with them it would be awesome! So he said he would see what he can do, but not to count on it! However, on Friday we had two other volunteers come in and give a small presentation on how to be a health extensionist… and one of the girls said she was premed and she just made friends and started to volunteer at her bigger hospital and she got to do lots of crazy things like IV’s, shots, blood pressure and she even got to help with surgery! I got really excited and want to be somewhere where I could do this too, the reason she got to is because she was close to a regional hospital, they are much bigger hospitals and actually do procedures. Most sites just have a puesto de salud which is just a very small building with a nurse and basic remedies.
So a little more about terere, I don’t think I really explained how important this is to their culture! We literally drink it all day long! We go to class at 7:45 – 9:00 and then take a break, at that break we prepare our terere. What it is, is yerba mate which is a bunch of herbs/dried plants that you put in a guampa (cup), then you prepare the yuyos (pronounced jujos) which are the medicinal herbs that can be for specific parts of your health. Like if you’re suffering from kidney stones, for example, you can take burrito- no not a Mexican burrito, it’s a plant that helps with kidney pain! Or my favorite is mentai, which is mint- its just a refreshing yuyo! So you put your yuyos in a bowl thing and pound them up them up and those go into your jarra (pitcher) and you put water in your cup and let the water get absorbed, which they call “Saint Tomas drinking the first one”. Then you starting drink it. There is one person designated as the pourer, and they start to their right and continue around the circle passing the cup, filling it up and passing it to the next person. If you don’t want anymore you give the cup back and say gracias! It really is a cool tradition. I love it, I do it at school, at home with my parents, and randomly when we’re visiting our friends or neighbors! I’m going to bring some back with me, so don’t you worry, you will all get a chance to experience it with me! So we have lots of current volunteers come and show us how to do a charla (small presentation on a topic) or how to do a summer camp! Two of them came and gave a charla on parasites, it was very interesting… they basically told us that parasites are everywhere and you’re probably going to get one at some point in your service! Yeah! The one girl had round worm once and girardia on and off for the two years… she also didn’t have running water so that made it so much easier to get girardia! So I’ve basically accepted that fact that I will probably get some kind of worm, but the Peace Corps has good medicine to cure us! How exciting right!
Besides soccer, I play lots of volleyball, on Sunday I played at my friend Andy’s house. I showed up and I got in the second game, and you play with the same partner as long as you win, well I won the first game… and the second… and the third… by this time I am extremely tired, because I’m super out of shape plus its ridiculously hot! We end up playing four games in a row, we go to 12 and its old school rules like you can only score a point when you serve… and when I mean rules, there really aren’t any, you can carry the ball, hit it however you please! So needless to say I am super extremely exhausted by the end of our four games, I am sweating all over my body and am covered head to toe in dirt! I show up at my house and my friend Liza (my PC bestie) had stopped by to hang out, and her and my mom where like: what happened to you! I was pretty sweaty and dirty! Ha! But it was super fun, but two days in a row of rough physical activity in the heat… my body is tired! Good thing that night my dad and I shared a bottle of Argentine wine so I could pass out early and happy! But our family typically goes to bed really early because of Alexis, which is just fine for me, I’m all about getting my sleep! I usually go to bed around 10 and wake up at 6:30… look at me getting up early and everything! But morning is my favorite time, because its not too hot and its so refreshing!
Last week I was working on my charla, which is a small presentation. I’m doing mine on nutrition. But instead of doing a boring stand up and talk to everyone, I made a super sweet Jeopardy game… its one of my best, and oh so interesting! But I was working pretty hard on that, basically three nights in a row when I get home from school. And of course its not too many hours because I have to get my evening shower in to clean off from the day, I have to eat dinner with the family, and a lot of times I play with my baby bro before dinner while mom is finishing up cooking… hes a bit needy, so I wheel his little stroller into my room and we have dance parties while he plays with popples! He loves having things in his hands, but he doesn’t quite have the fine motor skills perfect yet, so he always drops whatever is in his hands a lot, and will whine until someone picks it up and gives it back to him! But I love playing with him, and I know it helps mom out so she can actually work! My charla last week went really well though… I started out my presentation with my sweet trucker hat on backwards, bright pink sunglasses and the music blaring to “Lets get the Party Started” by Pink! So I come out of our school dressed like this, music on and dancing my crazy dances!! Everyone was lovin it! Then I did my presentation on nutrition and everyone liked my Jeopardy game! It was pretty good, I was the second person to give a charla and I think I set the bar pretty high! However there was a current volunteer there to help with the charla and she was the girl that I was going to go visit at her site this weekend… so I got to meet her ahead of time which was cool! She was really neat and after meeting her I knew I was going to have a good time! And she was helpful to tell me what things to bring for the weekend and exactly what buses to take!
We got “Mission Possible” assignments last Wednesday to go with a partner into the capital, Asuncion. My partner and I met up at the bus stop at 6:30am (she was from the other town that’s the other direction (2k) from the main route, and we’re 3k from the route to our community. But we met up and had specific locations to go to in the city to get used to the buses and the city of Asuncion. There wasn’t too much there and the city was super spread out, you really have to know what part of town to need to be in to get specific things! We went first to the botanical gardens walked around an… interesting… museum! And then walked around the park, there were soccer fields, and pretty plants! Our next stop was the location where we pick up any big packages people send us, so that was a good place to know how to get to, it was kinda hard to find, it just looked like a warehouse… but now we know! My partner was a little shyer, so I did all the talking this day. We had to ask people what buses we needed to take and every bus driver to drop us off at the right place, because we had no idea! But everyone was very helpful and we didn’t get lost once! After our two places we had to find, we went to the Peace Corps main office where we did lots of random activities and got to know the place! And that’s where we got our assignments for what site we were going to that weekend!
p.s. I’m really glad I brought my computer, it has come in handy many of times! And there are options if your site can support it, there are internet flash drive things that you just put in your computer and can have internet. I don’t want it for like the first year, but it could be helpful later, so I might be getting internet full time at my site, depending on where I am and how things work out. But definitely not for a while. But once I get my cell phone when I’m a for real volunteer it is free to receive incoming calls… so you guys can all call me!! Im not quite sure how expensive it is for you, but maybe mom and I will try it out and let everyone else know!!
Speaking of soccer, Saturday the 20th was our first all girls soccer match! We played against some girls that came from Villeta… which is a bigger town about 20 min away! I was a little nervous because the entire community came to watch us play them! And you know me, I’m not that good at soccer! There were only two of us, of seven that even had played soccer before! But surprisingly we did pretty good, we lost both of our games (0-1, and 1-3) but like the boys told us, we were really fun to watch and we did so much better than they were anticipating! Ha! I did kick and totally miss the ball a couple of times though! I was SOOO close to making three goals, one of them was so close it hit the side of the arch… damn! I did okay, not fantastic, but I tried hard! And of course afterwards the men bought and shared beer with us! That’s what I love about this community, everyone is so nice and we share and hang out, I get to practice even more Spanish, and they teach us some words in Guarani! And there are soccer games that happen every tues, thurs and sat. Jacob (my neighbor that I do everything with and walk everywhere with) is really really good at soccer and I always go and watch him play with the ridiculously good Paraguay men! The night of our girls soccer game some of our group went to Villeta to party cause its Carnival… but some of us didn’t want to go, so we just got together at my grandparents house (which is 20 yards from mine) and drank some beer and played some cards. We were taught a game called escoge quince, which means choose 15. Basically you just use the cards in your hand and the cards on the table to add up to 15… I’ll teach y’all when I get home! So I was talking to my tech trainer the other day and she said that all of our sites will have electricity and most all of our sites will have running water! Which I’m sure I’ll be happy either way, I just wanted to have electricity, and I will!! But I had an interview with our head health guy, Don Pedro, he is who decides what site you go to. So I told him that I would love to be able to work with a doctor/nurse to see what medicine was like in this country. I will for sure be doing other projects as well, but if I could work a little bit with them it would be awesome! So he said he would see what he can do, but not to count on it! However, on Friday we had two other volunteers come in and give a small presentation on how to be a health extensionist… and one of the girls said she was premed and she just made friends and started to volunteer at her bigger hospital and she got to do lots of crazy things like IV’s, shots, blood pressure and she even got to help with surgery! I got really excited and want to be somewhere where I could do this too, the reason she got to is because she was close to a regional hospital, they are much bigger hospitals and actually do procedures. Most sites just have a puesto de salud which is just a very small building with a nurse and basic remedies.
So a little more about terere, I don’t think I really explained how important this is to their culture! We literally drink it all day long! We go to class at 7:45 – 9:00 and then take a break, at that break we prepare our terere. What it is, is yerba mate which is a bunch of herbs/dried plants that you put in a guampa (cup), then you prepare the yuyos (pronounced jujos) which are the medicinal herbs that can be for specific parts of your health. Like if you’re suffering from kidney stones, for example, you can take burrito- no not a Mexican burrito, it’s a plant that helps with kidney pain! Or my favorite is mentai, which is mint- its just a refreshing yuyo! So you put your yuyos in a bowl thing and pound them up them up and those go into your jarra (pitcher) and you put water in your cup and let the water get absorbed, which they call “Saint Tomas drinking the first one”. Then you starting drink it. There is one person designated as the pourer, and they start to their right and continue around the circle passing the cup, filling it up and passing it to the next person. If you don’t want anymore you give the cup back and say gracias! It really is a cool tradition. I love it, I do it at school, at home with my parents, and randomly when we’re visiting our friends or neighbors! I’m going to bring some back with me, so don’t you worry, you will all get a chance to experience it with me! So we have lots of current volunteers come and show us how to do a charla (small presentation on a topic) or how to do a summer camp! Two of them came and gave a charla on parasites, it was very interesting… they basically told us that parasites are everywhere and you’re probably going to get one at some point in your service! Yeah! The one girl had round worm once and girardia on and off for the two years… she also didn’t have running water so that made it so much easier to get girardia! So I’ve basically accepted that fact that I will probably get some kind of worm, but the Peace Corps has good medicine to cure us! How exciting right!
Besides soccer, I play lots of volleyball, on Sunday I played at my friend Andy’s house. I showed up and I got in the second game, and you play with the same partner as long as you win, well I won the first game… and the second… and the third… by this time I am extremely tired, because I’m super out of shape plus its ridiculously hot! We end up playing four games in a row, we go to 12 and its old school rules like you can only score a point when you serve… and when I mean rules, there really aren’t any, you can carry the ball, hit it however you please! So needless to say I am super extremely exhausted by the end of our four games, I am sweating all over my body and am covered head to toe in dirt! I show up at my house and my friend Liza (my PC bestie) had stopped by to hang out, and her and my mom where like: what happened to you! I was pretty sweaty and dirty! Ha! But it was super fun, but two days in a row of rough physical activity in the heat… my body is tired! Good thing that night my dad and I shared a bottle of Argentine wine so I could pass out early and happy! But our family typically goes to bed really early because of Alexis, which is just fine for me, I’m all about getting my sleep! I usually go to bed around 10 and wake up at 6:30… look at me getting up early and everything! But morning is my favorite time, because its not too hot and its so refreshing!
Last week I was working on my charla, which is a small presentation. I’m doing mine on nutrition. But instead of doing a boring stand up and talk to everyone, I made a super sweet Jeopardy game… its one of my best, and oh so interesting! But I was working pretty hard on that, basically three nights in a row when I get home from school. And of course its not too many hours because I have to get my evening shower in to clean off from the day, I have to eat dinner with the family, and a lot of times I play with my baby bro before dinner while mom is finishing up cooking… hes a bit needy, so I wheel his little stroller into my room and we have dance parties while he plays with popples! He loves having things in his hands, but he doesn’t quite have the fine motor skills perfect yet, so he always drops whatever is in his hands a lot, and will whine until someone picks it up and gives it back to him! But I love playing with him, and I know it helps mom out so she can actually work! My charla last week went really well though… I started out my presentation with my sweet trucker hat on backwards, bright pink sunglasses and the music blaring to “Lets get the Party Started” by Pink! So I come out of our school dressed like this, music on and dancing my crazy dances!! Everyone was lovin it! Then I did my presentation on nutrition and everyone liked my Jeopardy game! It was pretty good, I was the second person to give a charla and I think I set the bar pretty high! However there was a current volunteer there to help with the charla and she was the girl that I was going to go visit at her site this weekend… so I got to meet her ahead of time which was cool! She was really neat and after meeting her I knew I was going to have a good time! And she was helpful to tell me what things to bring for the weekend and exactly what buses to take!
We got “Mission Possible” assignments last Wednesday to go with a partner into the capital, Asuncion. My partner and I met up at the bus stop at 6:30am (she was from the other town that’s the other direction (2k) from the main route, and we’re 3k from the route to our community. But we met up and had specific locations to go to in the city to get used to the buses and the city of Asuncion. There wasn’t too much there and the city was super spread out, you really have to know what part of town to need to be in to get specific things! We went first to the botanical gardens walked around an… interesting… museum! And then walked around the park, there were soccer fields, and pretty plants! Our next stop was the location where we pick up any big packages people send us, so that was a good place to know how to get to, it was kinda hard to find, it just looked like a warehouse… but now we know! My partner was a little shyer, so I did all the talking this day. We had to ask people what buses we needed to take and every bus driver to drop us off at the right place, because we had no idea! But everyone was very helpful and we didn’t get lost once! After our two places we had to find, we went to the Peace Corps main office where we did lots of random activities and got to know the place! And that’s where we got our assignments for what site we were going to that weekend!
p.s. I’m really glad I brought my computer, it has come in handy many of times! And there are options if your site can support it, there are internet flash drive things that you just put in your computer and can have internet. I don’t want it for like the first year, but it could be helpful later, so I might be getting internet full time at my site, depending on where I am and how things work out. But definitely not for a while. But once I get my cell phone when I’m a for real volunteer it is free to receive incoming calls… so you guys can all call me!! Im not quite sure how expensive it is for you, but maybe mom and I will try it out and let everyone else know!!
