Life is Good

This will be short and super sweet. I just needed to blog real quick because today was a good day and I want to come back in 5 years and be reminded of this day. Nothing crazy happened it was just good. My spanish very fluent today and I had great conversations with my community, the sun was shining, I took a long walk on the country side, observed classes in my school, ate fresh fruit, made new friends that I am so thankful for already, ate kraft mac and cheese and did my laundry. It was a hot day and I loved it.

I loved that for the most part of the day I had the realization that this my life for the next 2 years and I didn't mind it... I actually started to love it. This transition into site is difficult and these first 3 months can be the most changeling  That is way you take days like to day when everything seems right to reflect and hold on to that feeling. So this is my savoring the feeling... telling you about it!

I hope you all had a great day today. Because these great days allow us to laugh at the really bad, awkward days that we will all have eventually. So laugh and go out there and help someone have a really good day. After all its the people right? You

Oh and last night I had my friend over who is another volunteer and we cooked an amazing "gourmet" dinner! Another thing that I will savor, dinners with friends and good conversation! Thanks Jenna! Here's too 2 years!

Best part of the meal was the real olive oil dipping sauce we made for out wheat bread...Mom and Nanny, you know how important this was for me! 

Estoy Voluntaria

What a Crazy week it has been! I will try and blog about everything but there are many details that I will probably forget. First and foremost I swore in last Thursday and am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer! Its crazy! The ceremony was so nice, my host family was there and my mentor surprised me! We raised our right hand and took this oath- 

“ I Roniann LaRoque do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.” 

Taking my Oath! 

Intense, right? Yes, I cried... it was so powerful and such a beautiful moment. I have never experienced something that real before. I am a Peace Corps volunteer, this is my job and this is real life! I’ve been dreaming about that moment for a long time and it finally arrived!It got me so excited and also excited to be an American!!! USA! 

My awesome Mentor who surprised me!  She is one of the happiest people I know! 

All the new volunteers! My G- mates!

My training community, Guasu Cora! 

After swear in, I had some blood work done and found out that I have Dengue Fever, a tropical virus contracted by mosquitoes. I am fine now, but had a pretty intense rash and fever. I rested a lot, drank a lot of water and survived! I wish for no one to ever experience what I did, it was painful!!! But now I am all better and moved into my house!! Yes I am here, I doing it. I’ve enjoyed that last 2 days. Going on lots of walks, playing with the little kids in my community picking flowers, picking fruit and integrating. I have lots of work to do around the house and will post pictures as I make some progress, its a very strange transition. 

The last 2 days have been an emotional roller coaster ( as expected)! I am happy to be here and I need to focus on that. I mostly feel like a stranger to my body because everything is so new but I know I just need time. Right now I will enjoy the awkward conversations and interactions I am having, knowing that I do indeed have a purpose for being here! 

Before I left my host family they threw a going away party and it was so sweet of them, I love them so much. The city I am living in now is really close to them and I plan on returning as much as I can!! Here is a picture with my family from the party!!  

I Have a House!

Last week I went on my future site visit. I was super nervous, it was scary and overwhelming as expected. I cried the first few days, I have learned that with any change and transition in my life I will at some point cry! Any ways... my set up is pretty spectacular! I don’t know where to begin with my amenities, there are so many! I am following up other volunteers so I was left with most everything I would need, including a fully stocked kitchen. Which if you’ve ever lived in Paraguay, you know how special that is! Here is a list of what I will be living with for the next 2 years- 

• I have a 2 bedroom house with an indoor bathroom and huge kitchen! 
• In my lovely modern bathroom.... I have HOT water! Talk about fancy! 
• I am being left with a real mattress (x2) and bed frame! 
• I have a refrigerator, electric oven and 2 hot plates..To make cooking so much easier! 
• I also have a blender!! Perfect for smoothies from all my fruit trees...
• In my yard alone I have a banana, avocado, palmello (Paraguayan grape fruit) , lime, mango, clementine and guava fruit trees! Its a serious fruit paradise! 
• My house has a front patio, where I plan to spend 90% of my time, it over looks some beautiful palm trees and my future garden! 
• I will also have 2 house mates, my cats! Yes I may be turning into a cat lady, but I couldn’t say no, they will provide so much company! ( Molly I know you understand!!) 
• I have space for a garden and lots of trees to hang my hammock
• A bus passes by my house every 30 minutes so I have easy access to nearby cities
• I am 20 minutes from a medium size city and 1hour from Asuncion, the capital city! 
• I am renting my house from a family that I share a yard with and they are so sweet, I will be eating some of my meals with them. They also are there for any needs I might have or questions, I will be very safe there!! 

All of this might sound pretty standard to your living conditions but for a peace corps volunteer in Paraguay this is rare and very special! I am excited to make this house a home and have plenty of space for all you visitors itching to travel! You can have your very own bed room!! So come on down we can sit on my patio and drink fresh juice!!!! Check out the pictures below! 

I will not be living in the community I am working in, it is about a 10 minute walk from my house. At first this was a weird concept and I didn’t like it, but my community isn’t safe for me to live in, so I am totally content with my own house!  The school I will be working in is huge and beautiful! That is also a 10 minute walk in the other direction. I have 3 very large super markets in my closest city, where I will do my grocery shopping. I am again lucky because I can find a lot of american food there and will be able to cook some really great things. I am still thinking about what my first dinner will be in my house... any suggestions? I really just want some mac and cheese! 

So thats my house/ site info. I swear in as a volunteer on Thursday! I am going out in Asuncion Thursday night with my training group to celebrate! Then Friday I travel and “move into” my house!! These next 4 days are going to be so busy! I’ve been trying to fight off a fever the past 2 days so I am trying to rest as much as I can. My host family is having a going away party on Tuesday night with all the trainees and their families, it should be a fun time! Over all everything is great, just overwhelming. The mosquitos are getting really bad and its getting colder, which is a weird combination. The mosquitos somehow bit through my clothes.. like when I have jeans on I still get bites all over my legs... no bueno! 

This is the view of the front of my house! 

This is part of my kitchen and one of my future cats! 

This is one view of my yard and my fruit tress! 

Here is a inspiring quote I will leave you with- 

“ We find by losing. We hold fast by letting go. We become something new by ceasing to be something old...Out of each old self that dies some precious essence is preserved for the new self that is born; and within the child- self that is part of us all, there is perhaps nothing more precious then the fathomless capacity to trust.” - Fredrick Buechner 

Site Placement!!!

I have a site!! I will be living in a small community called Villa Suenos y Esperanzas (Village of Hopes and Dreams)near a town called Capiata in the Central department of Paraguay! It is perfect, I could not be more excited!!! Now to give you some information on where exactly my site is and why it is so perfect! 

So my site is in the same department that I have been living in the past 2 months. It is about 30 minutes from the capitol city as well as other surrounding cities. It is close to the Peace Corps office and training center as well as the host family I have been living with! I am close to cities but I have a 4 k walk into my village that gives me the country feel. I can be in the city if I need to be but at the end of the day I can return to my house, porch, garden and beautiful view of some mountains! It is the best of both worlds!! 

I will be following up 2 other volunteers that have been living and working in this community for the past 2 years. They are a married couple! I am exciting because they have really set the foundation for Peace Corps in that community and are leaving me projects to work on and people to work with. I will hopefully be starting a youth group and a women’s group. The youth are really excited to work with me and the women just received a grant for a community garden! They want me to start a garden club as well.....HOW COOL? I am so excited!!!!!

I will have the opportunity to live in the house that the previous volunteers lived in and I hear it is super nice... for Paraguayan standards!!! They are also leaving me a lot of their stuff.. so basically I am receiving a furnished house! Complete with 2 beds, a table, chairs, refrigerator, oven, fans and more!!! Once I read that, I didn’t think it was real life..but it is and I am so blessed and so so so thankful!!! 

I was super nervous about yesterday and now I can’t stop smiling! Yesterday our language teachers took us on a little excursion around the capital of the Central Department, Argua. We visited this beautiful church, climbed a small mountain that over look a beautiful lake, then we went to lake! We stop and had lunch at a pizza place were I got to eat real margarita pizza! It was so WaterStone or Vin but it was good and I loved it! We also visited some artisans and learned how they make ceramics here, it was a busy day! And to kill some more time we stopped off at Burger King...haha. The weirdest thing is in Paraguay Burger King is one of the most expensive places to eat.. its considered “fancy! ” I laughed a lot at that! But their fries are good and gave me a small taste of America! The best part is this city is super beautiful and I want to go back... and its right next to my future site!! 

So all day we were dragged around and all we could think about were our site placements! Then when we got back to the office, it was perfect! Everything was decorated and everyone was clapping and playing music! It was so beautiful! We were called up 1 by 1 and were giving our cites and then put our picture on this big map of Paraguay! We all had a wonderful time.. there was also cheese cake and real coffee to celebrate! Everyone was there, our teachers, the staff, the country director and many more! I took lots of pictures (obviously) and will try and post them!! Tomorrow I leave to go visit my site for a whole week!!! Bon voyage! 

Semana Santa!

This will be a culture lesson for all of you on how Paraguay celebrates Easter or Semana Santa ( Holy Week). We did a lot, Easter is a huge deal for Paraguayans. We started the week on Tuesday and ended Sunday. It was a really neat experience and I enjoyed it a lot. I feel like I have experienced the Paraguayan culture in a whole new way and have a much better understanding of Paraguayans. The best way to write this post is in a time line form so I will try and break it down for you as best as I can. 

Disclaimer- if you are a vegetarian this may be hard for you to read, suerte ( good luck) ! 

Tuesday 

Woke up to my day slaying and skinning our pig. Came home after class and my mom was stuffing pig sausage and frying all the pig fat... pig fat everywhere!  I then found my 82 year old grandmother chasing around a chicken preparing to kill it for lunch the next day. It was very interesting but I enjoyed it all. We were also preparing the oven for all the chipa cooking we would be doing the next day

Wednesday 

This day is dedicated to making chipa. To best explain chipa I have to relate it to a bagel except harder and not as good. It consist of flour, egg, cheese, milk and pig lard. You make it by the kilo and eat it for days! Its good when its hot and then if just gets hard. But every house in Paraguay on Wednesday was making chipa, it is a Semana Santa tradition. You can make it into different shapes and sizes. Please check out the picture below. My family enjoyed watching me, the Americana make chipa and kept joking with me. We ate chipa all day and had a big lunch and even bigger dinner. For dinner we only had pig and cow, yup thats right. Paraguay loves their meat, and oddly enough I didn’t hate it. Meat and Chipa thats pretty much how Paraguay celebrates Semana Santa. 

My family making chipa! 

After the chipa is cooked! Notice the different shapes and the little cat I created!

The "brick oven" used to cook all the chipa and meat! 

Me, the Norte making chipa!! 

Thursday

This is the big party/ family day. My family was over by 10am and already cooking and drinking. We made more chipa killed 4 chickens, cooked half a cow and more pig for lunch. We didn’t stop eating until 4pm to say I had a food coma is an understatement. I literally was unaware of how much meat I was able to eat, it looked like a food heaven for any male! After lunch I slept for a long long time. My family kept eating and drinking. I’m not sure why but Thursday was the day for them to celebrate Semana Santa! 

Friday 

On Friday no one does anything. All the stores are closed and all the busses stop. It is a complete day of rest, you shouldn’t do anything around the house or prepare any meals. It was a giant fast. You are supposed to only eat chipa and relax. And thats what we did, it was so nice. The house was quiet because everyone was sleeping and was perfect because after Thursday I didn’t want to eat anything! 

Saturday and Sunday 

Nothing much really happened these two days, pretty normal for Paraguay. Had the normal big lunch with what ever family came over, cooked some more cow and pig and called it a day. On Sunday I did get some real chocolate eggs from my sister and then it started to really feel like Easter Sunday! Paraguayans love their traditions and I enjoyed learning about them over this week. 

I didn’t have class for 4 days and it was so nice to rest, integrate some more with my family and hang out with my friends. We played a lot of soccer and hung out a lot. It was good because we really only have 2 weeks left together... which is crazy! Training is already over! I find out my site on WEDNESDAY and then on friday I go to my site for a whole week! After that we have a week to pack up and finish things up at the training center then we swear in and become official volunteers! I cannot believe it. I was freaking out this past week but now I am so excited! I am on the ultimate adventure and I cannot wait to see whats next! Everything is really good right now and I can’t wait for it to get better! Its blowing my mind that it is April freaking first! I hope you get some good pranks in... Paraguay doesn’t understand April fools and my language level does not have the capacity to explain it! 

Update- I just received my first package with a lovely friend all the way from California!! Thank you Brenna, you made my week!!  

This was from on night after we played soccer with some of the kids in the community