Training Update and a few pictures!!

I’ve been thinking about this post all week and what I wanted to write about. There is SO MUCH happening I feel like there is no way to just write about one thing. So I am going to try and write about a few things that I am learning and take you on a tour of my brain! 

So learning 2 new languages has its difficulties and great rewards. My brain has never experienced so much activity. At the end of the day it feels like mush, it takes all I have to look over my flash cards one more time, turn my light off and crawl into my bed. The most difficult part about this processes is the confusion happening in my brain. I want to speak in spanish, but naturally I speak english. Then theres a point when I can only think in spanish and start to speak in legit spanish-english sentences and I don’t even know what I am saying. There are times when I can only think of the spanish word for something but I want to be talking in english then there are times that swaps. Its very confusing and exhausting. They say that after 2 years here you forget how to speak english, I didn’t believe them at first.. but now after 5 weeks I am having trouble speaking english. To all my bi-lingual friends, you rock!! I want to be like you! 

So language is a huge part of what I am learning, we spend about 4 hours in class each day just learning spanish and guarni. I sometimes feel like the whole day is a class because I only speak spanish in my house as well. After language class we have technical training. This training varies each day. Some topics we have covered are; sexual and reproductive health, nutrition, gardening and composting, cooking over fires,    dental health, trash management, parasite prevention and lots of health education practices. Its all very interesting! The purpose of tech training is for us to practice technical skills, learn to apply skills within the Paraguayan world of work and gain knowledge of possible areas of education with Paraguayans. 

Its all really enlightening and empowering. I am being trained in so many areas, both in english and spanish. Thats another area where my mind freaks out a bit! Over all I am enjoying the tech sessions its just a lot of information. Between language class in the morning and tech in the afternoon, my brain is exhausted in the evening! We have 5 more weeks left of training, its all going by very quickly. On Monday I leave with a group of 5 other trainees for a long field visit. We are staying with new families for the week and working in the community as if we were volunteers. I am nervous and very excited!  

Today we had a huge rain storm, all the roads flooded and the power went out for a while. I made a cup of tea and read. It was very peaceful. Then my host mom made empanadas and I made guacamole! Its was a delicious dinner!! Over the weekend we cooked for the Paraguayans and shared different recipes with them, they enjoyed that. My spanish is improving a lot and I am enjoying talking with my family and the community more. The Paraguayan Holy Week is coming up and we are already starting to prepare food, mainly chipa! A delicious warm, cheesy roll. They eat chipa for every meal, its pretty funny! This weekend we are having another dinner for all the volunteers, I am excited, Paraguayan parties are always fun! 

Here are a few photos, I will try and put more up on my facebook!  

This is the school where we have most of our training. This photo was taken when we cooked for our families  last weekend! 

These are my sisters, Sandra and Karen with the Paraguay River behind us!