Paraguay in the Media

Hey all my dedicated readers this one's for you!

 CNN's Anthony Bourdain is doing one of his shows " Parts Unknown" on Paraguay this Sunday. Turn into this CNN Original Series October 12th at 9pm ET. It's going to be special and probably give you a lot of in site on this foreign land I've been inhabiting for the past 21 months. Or if you are reading this is thinking about joining that Peace Corps in Paraguay or if you've already received your invitation, you should definitely watch this! If you would like to watch a trailer click here.


Also did you know that Peace Corps Paraguay has their own website? We are getting so high tech here! Be sure to check it out. Its a good resource for future volunteers to take a look inside what we do here in this country and how we live. Its a very new website so we are still working on getting more information up but give it a browse! I sure wish this existed when I was getting ready to come to Paraguay! Click here

The beautiful beach of Encarnation, Paraguay 

Peer Support Network

This past month I self nominated myself for Peace Corps Paraguay's (PCPY) Peer Support Network (PSN). This was the second time during my service an email was sent out asking volunteers to self nominate and I had been thinking about it for a while. I don't know if I have self nominated myself for many things in my life but this felt right. I have arrived at a place in my service where I am genuinely really happy and enjoying the daily highs and lows service can bring. I am in a place where I feel capable to be of support to my peers and use my experiences to support them in any way possible.

Once I self nominated I had a quick interview with the Senior Staff member and training coordinator and was later invited to attend PSN training to become a PSN member. What an honor. I took it with great responsibility and was looking forward to the three days of training. A chance to get away, surround myself with other like minded volunteers with the same vision to support the volunteer community and to learn from some of the Senior Staff from the office.

The training took place in a beautiful location called Marianela. It felt like a sanctuary in the middle of Italy. It was a Catholic retreat center with the most beautiful details. Everything was hand crafted- the floor tiles were imports from Italy and each door was hand craved differently from local Paraguayans. It was all a masterpiece and made the training feel more like a retreat. I hope to be able to go back there again soon.

We had three days training, discussing different topics each day. We began discussing what exactly we are as a PSN, then we learned about the Coach Approach and how to ask powerful questions. We had a session on energy leadership and stress management. We brainstormed ideas on how to market ourselves and be more approachable to the volunteer community. We ended on the third day with a visit from our new Country Director (CD) and the Peace Corps Medical Officers (PCMO's).

My favorite part was the last day when we met with the CD and the PCMO's. First of all the CD has an incredible vision for PCPY and the support provided to volunteers. It is an incredible feeling to be part of that vision and to essentially be on a team of volunteers who take that seriously. I found myself overwhelmed with such gratitude and joy to be in this group of volunteers. It was a unique feeling and one that will be remembered. I did not know how much passion I had and to discover it there was something wonderful.

We finished the session talking with the PCMO's about confidentially and some logistics and protocols. They are so supportive of us improving volunteer support it was empowering to hear from them. Once we heard from everyone we had the opportunity to sign the PSN agreement and officially become a member of the PSN.

Overall it was an enriching, empowering and inspiring training. I met and bonded with new volunteers from other sectors that I had never even talked to before. Volunteer support is something that PC takes very seriously and I walked away from that training equipped to partner with PC in supporting my fellow peers.

The the whole PSN plus some coordinators and the Senior Staff 

Some of the floor tiling at the retreat center 

The church that was in the middle of the center 

Project: Reforestation

A week and 2 days have passed  but that happy, exciting, successful feeling is still lingering. I keep replaying the day in my head and I keep coming up with few words on just how great it was. There are many factors and layers to this day that make it so great and successful and I am going to do my best to share those with you in this blog. 

Last Sunday the 21st of September was the first day of Spring in Paraguay. Together with the help of my community members, A Todo Pulmon and TECHO (both NGO’s in Paraguay) we planted 400 tree’s in my community  an area that was once a forest but within the past 5 years has been cut down to make room for my community. My community is classified as a settlement people came to squatted their land once the forest was cleared. It has been in the process of development for 5 years now. It is a very slow process with lots of road blocks, money and funding for projects being one of them. 

I see many families struggling just to keep a roof above their heads after a strong storm rolls through. The demographics of the community do not help the situation because it is hilly with a lagoon at the bottom half of the community. Around the lagoon is a swamp and floods very easily. Although there is a flood zone people have still put their      make- swift houses in the zone using whatever materials they can find. With  no other open location and very poor materials to build their houses it is a constant struggle. 

I have been wanting to do something big for these people for some time now. I have spent a year and a half walking those dirt roads and playing in the streets with the kids trying to think about some lasting impact I could make. That is a huge task in its self and very overwhelming. But a couple of months ago I asked a few community members if they would be interested in planting trees. They were immediately very interested and we started planning. Peace Corps Paraguay has an agreement with an NGO called A Todo Pulmon that donates trees to communities where volunteers are serving. Once we decided which types of trees we wanted the paperwork was sent. 

It is hard to explain how slow of a process it is in Paraguay. I thought “ ok in 2 or 3 weeks we’ll have our trees and plant them and on to the next thing.”  Oh how naive I was to think like that. It ended up being 3 months before we received our trees then a month later we planted them. There were many frustrating days in those months of waiting, phone calls, rainy days, Paraguayans flaky out and what have you in the land of tranquilopa. Almost nothing is ever done in a timely, on schedule manner.. but then the day arrived. 

The night before I walked down every road on my community to all 200 some houses with a group of 5 children inviting everyone to the tree planting and distribution the next morning. The plan was- begin at 8am with a charla or lesson on how to plant a tree, take care of your tree and why reforestation is important then plant 50 some trees in the plaza and surrounding areas and finally each family would take home 2 trees to plant in their own yards. I realized after that was never a plan only an idea in which we based the day off of.  At 8am the next morning, not one person was there, the chairs we rented  had not arrived and the NGO’s that were coming to help were running late.

I think if this event had happened at any other point in my service I would have been extremely frustrated, angry, annoyed and just pissed off. All this planning and then no one is there, WHAT?? But after living here for a year and a half I have adopted and adjusting to the hora paraguaya or the paraguayan hour and now know and understand that things just happen when they happen no rush, tranqulio, relax as I was told by my counterparts. 

So I did just that. We relaxed and waited.... until 10:30 when within a 15 minute time frame the chairs arrived, the NGO’s arrived and the people showed up! It was perfect. We had a big stereo and microphone someone in the community brought, we were all announced on the radio then A Todo Pumlon talked about reforestation in Paraguay and planting trees then we planted trees! Kids helped, mothers and fathers helped everyone was working together, it was such an incredible thing to watch and be apart of. Then slowly more people from the community started arriving to pick up their 2 trees for their house. I was so happy and smiley and excited to have been apart of this and help my community come together for something so important! It was real and sustainable, something I had dreamed about just a few months prior. 

Afterwards I had some community members come up to me and ask me about other projects we could start up. We shared ideas and dreams and for the first time I really felt a part of this community. It is said in the Peace Corps world that it takes about a year or so to really feel integrated and get comfortable then another year for projects and really understand how things work. Well after that day it came full circle to me. For so long I was frustrated that I had not had one of those great moments in my service, that I still felt like I was explaining who I was to these people and asking for their respect. Well after a year and a half of persistence, resilience and a whole lot of patience I felt it. And it felt so good. Now these next six months have more potential then I ever thought! 

The day we got the trees

Marcos from A Todo Pulmon giving the charla 

A fellow Peace Corps Volunteer who lives close by came out to help plant. 

The girls planting their tree

With one of my community members planting.

With the president of my community, my contact and the NGO's that came out to help for the day! 

The kids in line to receive their trees. 

My Service

Since realizing the date to close my service is rapidly approaching with zero regards to how I feel, have felt and will feel... I have tried to spend some time reflecting on my service...This means many things. A reflection on the things I've grown to love, the things I will be just fine living without.. the things I have learned, the things I wish to forget, the little details that have made this experience spectacular. The people, the places, the smells, the sun and heat. I believe that I will spend the rest of my life reflecting on my service and my little home in ruralish Paraguay, that i am sure of. But for now there are a few things I want to blog about while they are fresh and heavy, while I'm feeling them right now in the midst of the experience... soon they will be only memories and at this current moment that is something I can't shake.

There is so much. So much to say so much to right and to tell. So much that I have trouble beginning and even more trouble knowing when to stop. Today my mom called me and I was so excited to tell her how my community just got 400 trees donated and delivered. Something so simple but to me it was so complex and to explain it in detail I would need a long dinner, maybe some tea time and definitely a face to face interaction. Even explaining it over the phone in english was a struggle. My mind was thinking spanish, guarani, spanish again...but I think it came out in a broken, grammatically incorrect story.. that will later be retold.  

Reflections look like this right now. I could sit under a shaded tree for an entire afternoon drinking anything on ice and be content. I have falling in love with the rising of the moon and spend an appropriate time each evening before bed admiring its beauty and change. It is different and changing every day, kind of how I have felt most days. I am continually corrected by my 4 year old best friend that my spanish needs improving and when I say a word wrong she is not scared to tell me or yell at me the correct word or phrase. Most of the time I don't take it personally but sometimes it hurts me just a bit. I am reminded how I am human and being corrected is still hard for me, even if she's 4. Also I have never enjoy the back seat of a car more then here... Any chance or offer to ride in a car I take. Even if it is just to run a 5 minute errand or to just drive around. Cars mean mobility and I miss feeling mobile. Busses... are basically roller coasters here. They are loud, fast, take there turns sharply, you must keep all limbs inside while they are moving and you never know if you are going to stay in your seat... or even get a seat. They are a wonder and ever time I get on one I feel like I'm risking my life more and more. Just a 2.400GS non refundable fee for your life.

Colors... are all around this country. Everything has color.. the soap, the money, the soda, the busses, houses, walls, streets, furniture, flip flops and the sky! Everything is colorful and every time I notice a new color I smile and I am happy. I sometimes chase the sun just to get a glimpse of its color magic!  Music... music here is catchy and always makes me want to dance. Not like twist and shout or pretend I am in a boy band of some kind but like dance and feel the music. I feel it when I dance and there is something that takes me away whenever I hear my favorite songs.. cumbia, reggaton it doesn't matter. I love them all. I am still learning. Everyday something new. Sometimes its about myself or a life lesson or a skill or just some so basic as when it close my windows at the right time to keep the mosquitos out. I am getting sharper in skills I never even thought about before and it feels so right and so powerful.

People. I have the best people. I want to write a book about them. The family that changed everything for me. The family that really adopted me. The family that trusted me enough to cook dinner for all 15 of them. The family that calls me home. The family that keeps forgiving my broken spanish and sad effort to speak guarani. The family that laugh at my silly and dumb jokes and then repeat them for months after. The family that feeds me lets me feed them. The family that includes me in everything and loves me so well and deeply without even trying because its just who they are. When I think about the people that have touched me during these last 20 months I grow weak and feel a love so close to my soul it can hurt. I am incapable of ever understanding the love, patience and life they are giving me in such a short span of my life. I feel weak when I think about how that day will come where I will have to say good bye. Where I will not be able to walk to their house in 3 minutes at anytime of the day. I think my heart will break a little. I adore this family and although I have a more than spectacular one waiting for me in the states I will always always think dearly of this one in Paraguay. I am incredible blessed by them. I am beyond words blessed by them and will continue trying to explain and give them justice to the measure of what they have given to me. Oh my people, my sweet sweet people.

Lots of these things I dreamed about before. I dreamed of having such a positive experience with the Peace Corps. I dreamed of loving every moment and not regretting anything. I dreamed of completing 2 years of service. And now to be reflecting on the manifestation of a dream is huge. I spend a lot of my free time just deep in thought and reflection. Some times its deep things that confuse my mind and send me on long rants and sometimes its simple like look at the butterflies and how they carry on so freely and blissfully and how I want to be like them...

These reflections will continue to form and probably prove to be as random as this one. Even if my readers have a hard time following I will at least know I said something and accomplished my little goal on reflecting. Until the next series I wish you all the freedom of the butterflies and the color of my world down here.. its blinding sometimes but its always happy!

So much love! 

Me and my girls !

Friendship Day

International friendship day in celebrated on July 30th. Although it is international I don't think I have ever celebrated it in the states or heard of anyone that has. In Paraguay it is a different story. Friendship day is a huge deal and I love it and hope to bring that tradition back to the states one day. There are days to celebrates, fathers, mothers, lovers, martin luther king and free slurpees on 7-11 but a whole day to spend with your friends celebrating.. come on doesn't that seem great??

I spent that day at my health post with all my paraguayan friends. We spend a lot of time together during the week and these people have become my so called "friend group" in Paraguay and I am really thankful for them and what they mean to me here. We had a cook out- your typical Paraguayan asado and I made cupcakes and we had a gift exchange. It may seem a little over the top and at first I thought it was.. like most occasions here in Paraguay they take any chance to have a cook out but while it was happening I took a moment to look around and was so thankful to be celebrating with those people. Here are a few pictures from the day.

A birthday and a celebration

Somedays it feels like there is nothing to do. Like I have already cleaned and re cleaned my house twice, been to the health post, cooked lunch and made a desert and it is only 11am. Then there are days when there is too much to do. The days where I leave my house at 8am and do not return till midnight or sometimes later. These days are usually birthdays. I know I have blogged a little bit about how birthdays in Paraguay are celebrated but I want to blog a little about my host dad's birthday because it is a bit of a bigger deal then the others and was so special.

My host dad is named after Saint Salvador. His family has had this saint ( literally a porcelain doll) in the family for generations. This saint's day is August 6. My host dad just happened to be born on August 6 and there for his name is Salvador. About 7 years ago my host dad had a small chapel built on their property to house St. Salvador. Now every August my host family says the rosary for 9 days leading up to August 6. Then on August 6th we have a big celebration for the saint and then a birthday party for my host dad. This past year was my second time attending and it was such a beautiful evening. The celebration was outside under the stars. A brother came and gave a mass and we sang and danced and was beautiful. My host dad made sure I sat up front and center with him and his wife. I felt so comfortable and at home with them. A million happy thoughts were circulating my mind until I started to think about how this could be my last celebration here... then I got a little sad. But there is still lots of time to spend with them!

A celebration like this takes a lot of work and time and manual labor. We started by making all the flags that you will see hanging in the yard below. We had to cut the paper out, glue it to the string and then transport them to the yard. Then we went shopping for all the food. It is tradition in Paraguay that after a celebration like this one to serve the guest food. There is a mixture of what is appropriate and my family went all out- little goody bags filled with candy, loli pops and cookies, empanadas, sopa paraguaya, a fried meat called milansea, soda, the paraguayan version of cheese puffs. The day of was spent preparing all of this. We worked all morning and through lunch then I ran home to shower and change and continue the evening.

We decorated the chapel, attended the mass, handed out the food, rested for a little while and then begun our cook out for the birthday party, which included 15 kilos of meat, other assorted culturally appropriate party foods and cake! There was beer, wine and whiskey. We danced, talked and celebrated. I was in pure bliss and enjoyed every moment. These people have really become my family athe more time I spend with them the harder it is to think about how in 8 months I will be closing my service.

Please enjoy some of the pictures I took from the celebration!

Girls Leading Our World ( Camp GLOW)

When I got back to Paraguay a few weeks back I had just enough time to rest un pack, clean up my house a little and re pack again for winter camp. This particular winter camp was an all girls camp called GLOW. Which means Girls Leading Our World. This is an internationally known camp run by Peace Corps Volunteers around the globe. Camp GLOW encourages self confidence and challenges campers to think beyond traditional gender roles. Young women are empowered at these camps, creating a safe and supportive environment for cultural exchange, leadership, development and fun!

A little history behind the camp- The first such camp was established by Peace Corps Volunteers in Romania 15 years ago. Since 1995, Volunteers in 60 countries have established similar programs to promote the empowerment of women.  The concept has been adapted and developed since originally conceived, with one group of Volunteers passing along the lessons learned to the next group of Volunteers who serve as counselors and mentors.

This was my first time attending camp and it was beyond my expectations amazing. I was able to take one Paraguayan girl from my community and hope to take more in the future. The girl I took was 14 and had never been to any type of camp before in her life. She had never traveled without her mom and definitely had never been in one room surrounded by 40 + girls her age hearing about female empowerment, health, self respect and leadership. I watched each one of those girls engage in the topics discussed, make connections and share their thoughts, feelings and concerns. 

There were speakers each day, art and fitness activities, sports and group time. Those girls all came as strangers and left like sisters and what a beautiful thing that was to watch. In Paraguay young girls especially, do not get the opportunity to hear about gender roles and lead an open discussion or have sleep overs and dance parties. The female youth of Paraguay spend most of their time in the home doing house chores. If they are allowed to go to school they go and come right home, if they don't have to clean the house or do another chore. In some households they are not permitted to ever leave the house. It is hard to explain in this blog the huge culture difference in gender roles here in this country and on a bigger scale around the world, I will save that for another post or 5. 

In conclusion camp was perfect. Youth were given an opportunity to go to a camp that they might never have again. That in its self was enough for me. I remember thinking that if all my projects fail going to camp would have been enough and I stand to that. The youth of this country will soon be the next generation of leaders and I see no better cause to spend my time, energy and funds on their education and development as leaders. 

Displaying their leadership qualities through art 

All the youth after a leadership project 

My girls group! 

The girl that I took to camp! 

All the girls on their last day at camp! 

The group of Peace Corps Volunteers that took girls to camp.