Peace Corps Visit ( PCV)

Hola! I spent the last 4 days living with a current PCV at her site. My volunteer’s name was Bri, she is from Arizona and was really nice! Her site was pretty campo which is the Paraguayan version of rural. She lived in a quiet, mountainous community that lots of people vacation in. I wanted to blog a little about the trip, it was mostly a lot of eating and relaxing! 

School doesn’t start till next week for the Paraguayans so there wasn’t much going on for Bri. In the summer in the campo you don’t really do much, it is hot and people just relax. So thats what we did. Bri lives in an awesome house, for PCV standards. Its a 2 room house with an indoor bathroom. It was cosy and I liked it, perfect for a PCV. It even had screened in windows and warm water for showers which is a huge plus for housing here.

I arrived on Monday via bus and made it without any problems! I was so proud of myself! We grabbed lunch,ice cream and went grocery shopping. It was awesome to go to a big super market, they had so many options I felt like a kid in a toy store! We bought lots of food and went back to her house. Is is a 8k walk from the city to her house so we took a taxi. There are only 2 buses that go into her community each day. On Monday we laid around, napped, chatted and cooked pizza. Really good pizza, Bri made the dough from scratch and it was so good. We ate 2 whole pizza’s. I was so pleased! 

On Tuesday I had yogurt and granola for breakfast and it was heavenly! I had forgotten how good yogurt was, when you live with a host family you really have no control over what you eat :( We also met with the principal of the school and chatted and toured around a bit. Bri made burritos for lunch and then we napped some more! For dinner we made cinnamon buns and I have absolutely so regrets. I had a craving and it was satisfied. I highly recommend making cinnamon buns from scratch, it will change your life. 

On Wednesday we walked around her community and talked with some people. I learned some more about what its like to be a health volunteer here and the life that comes with that. It was good to live it out for a few days, see what I would and wouldn’t want at my post. We obviously ate more.. I made a veggie pasta and it was also wonderful, got my veggie fix since Paraguayans don’t really eat veggies! Bri made garlic  bread sticks and then we took more naps.  Life in the campo stops between 1pm -6pm so you just go with it. That night we had some more cravings for chocolate peanut butter brownies and salt and vinegar chips. All were made from scratch and all were wonderful!! 

I ate a lot, but we also ran a lot so it evens out, right? It was nice to get away from the training life for a little and eat some american food favorites. I had a good visit and learned a lot. While I was away my host mom kept texting me to check in and tell me she missed me. It was really sweet and I felt so loved! It was nice to come back today and fewl so welcome when I got home. All in all it was a good week. A few more things 

1. I learned how to make peanut butter from scratch and will be perfecting that recipe while I am here 
2. I love cooking even more when its from scratch, makes everything taste better and it just feels better! 
3. My love for ice cream grows by the day 
4. Also getting a nice tan! Not ready for a winter here! 

I promise there is more to life in Paraguay then food. It was just an exciting week to eat so much american food!! You never know hoe much you love things until you can’t have them every day... next I will be making bagels from scratch! Just call me Betty Crocker! 

Have a good weekend everyone. I will be relaxing and going to a 2 year olds birthday party! Should be filled with Mickey Mouse decor and lots of screaming ninos!