Christmas - PY Style

So Christmas this year was less than exciting. Being away from family and friends for the first time made it challenging, along with all of the cultural adjustments I am going through during my first two weeks in site.
All that to say, for as unexciting as Paraguayan Christmas is, the simplicity to it was something that isn't present in Christmas in the U.S. The advent spirit was something that I was also missing, not being able to be amongst a community of believers to encourage this and draw this out in my. So let me tell you about Christmas in PY.
During the weeks leading up to Christmas there are prayer meetings every night. They are called something like "reso de la familia" or a family prayer service. The community (the attendees change each night) meet at a different house each night around sunset, say their normal prayers, read a passage from the bible, and discuss the passage in relation to a topic. I appreciated being amongst people who desired to discuss the word of God, even if I couldn't get much out of the conversation because of language difference. There is a final closing prayer service at the prayer chapel in the village a couple of days before Christmas.
Christmas Eve is a day of preparation. The pig is cooked, Sopa Paraguaya is made, fruit is cut for the Clerico, and the Pecebro (or Creche) is set up. Then comes the waiting, until midnight of Christmas eve, but once it comes there is a celebration, and families visit eachother and kisses are passed around and Clerico is drunk.
While this is about all that happens on Christmas, I appreciated the imagery of waiting, which is what Advent really means. But it is waiting with expectation and preparation amidst the wait.


This is the Pecebro, or the Creche that was made in preparation

To celebrate in a little more of a manner more comfortable to my cultural norms on Christmas morning I walked 20 minutes to the volunteer closest to me's house and we shared a pancake breakfast and a pizza lunch together!
Merry Christmas to all!

An official volunteer...What?

Ladies and gentleman, my training is over, but my life as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay has just begun. On Thursday of this week I said farewell to my host family in my training community and boarded a van full of other trainees dressed in their best clothes and headed to the United States Embassy to swear-in as Peace Corp volunteers. I dressed in my new Aopo'i shirt, a typical shirt that is made to be "fresco." Paraguayans love ceremony, and this was a great Paraguayan ceremony with the Minister of Tourism and the Director of WWF (World Wildlife Fund) attending and speaking at the ceremony, as well as the ceremony being completely in Spanish for the first time.
Afterwards was a time of celebration. We ate a delicious cake that volunteers get when they swear-in and when at close of service. Mmmmm, it was delicious. We then took the walk from the U.S. embassy back to the Peace Corps office, which was a walk that, to me, signified the change that I had just gone through. No longer will I be driven around Paraguay in 4x4 vehicles. No longer will my schedule be made for me. No longer will my housing be automatically arranged for me. In some ways it is scary, but I appreciate the freedom as well.
Swear-in weekend is a fun weekend for the new volunteers to hang out and meet the "seasoned" volunteers. We also spend time getting to know Asuncion. This morning we swam in the pool at the embassy.
On Tuesday I will journey out to my site. It sits about 3 hours directly East of Asuncion about 3K from the main road. My emotions are a mixture of excitement and fear, and a lot of unknowns. My life will completely change...again!

Thanksgiving in Paraguay

Happy Thanksgiving...a couple of days late. As you may have guessed, Paraguay doesn´t celebrate Thanksgiving. It was business as usual. The nice part is that I work for the U.S. government, which celebrates all U.S. and Paraguayan holidays, so I had a holiday. The director of Peace Corps Paraguay invited all of us trainees over to his house for a Thanksgiving potluck. I decided to bring a sweet potato dish that I ate last year at Thanksgiving and absolutely love. Instead of yams I used Batatas...actual sweet potatoes and instead of brown sugar I used molasses. I had a lot of fun making them and learning how to find food in Paraguay and manage a Paraguayan kitchen. There is a supermarket in the training town where I got sugars and flour. I got butter at a corner supermarket in another town, and the rest of the ingrediens: nuts, sweet potatoes, milk, at the mercado. I bought an egg from my neighbor as well, and then used a little of my host mom´s molasses. A large majority of the lower class Paraguayans have gas ovens and stoves, so I learned how to use a gas oven for the first time. The dish turned out a success and everyone at Thanksgiving loved it and I am passing around the recipe to friends here.

So the director of Peace Corps Paraguay has a really incredible house in the capital of Asuncion. It reminded of some of the houses that I visited in East Memphis. We swam in the pool and lounged in the yard, along with eating an incredible amount of delicious food...including vegetables (vegetables have become a luxury in my Paraguayan diet.) I enjoyed visiting with other trainees that I don´t get to see very often and relax by the pool. The cold water of the pool was refreshing in the Paraguayan heat!

Training is quickly wrapping up. We have two weeks before swear in. Last weekend I visited my future site. It is in a beautiful location only 2.5 hours from Asuncion and 3K from the nearest paved road, which is pretty nice. I have it better than a lot of my friends that have a two hour walk to the bus stop. My bus is only 1K away. Although I think I would have enjoyed a more remote community, I think I am going to like my site! One of my contacts has a kitten that she is going to let me have so I am reading up on how to care for a cat!

Ciao for now friends!
Jajatopata!

5 weeks down

I have been living in Paraguay exactly 5 weeks. I was thinking earlier this week that this is starting to feel familiar, natural, & almost comfortable. Of course there have been days when I wish I was back home in the states and would rather be drinking a latte at Dunn Brothers than being here in Paraguay, but I wouldn´t trade this for anything, not even a steaming hot shower (although I do have these for now...).
I am still in training. I have 5 weeks to go. I am fairly impressed with the training program that the Peace Corps has. They are very strategic about what they do to help us become integrated into Paraguay culture and life. Their approach is that the individual is responsible for their own learning. Every time I am doing something new I realize that a previous activity is helping me to realize the current activity. So it is very cumulative and experiential. It is also rigorous and I have a hard time keeping up. We normally have language in the morning and technical areas (mostly agricluture related things) in the afternoon.
Sometimes we will go to town and meet with our entire group of 47 for common areas (health, safety, development, policies, working with youth.) The technical areas are pretty interesting. We built a bio-intensive garden and learned how to build a compost pile. We created a demo plot of common cash crops in paraguay and experimented with fertilizers and mulch. We learned about vermiculture, soilds, and green manures. I taught about tree planting, and last week we learned how to do some beekeeping. I only got stung once. We also have talked about methodology in a Paraguayan context. Oh, and we are raising chickens!
Something cool we got to do was go alone into the campo and stay with a volunteer for 4 days. This was helpful to see exactly what being a volunteer is like. This upcoming week we will go in groups of 4 for a week of living and working in a current volunteer´s community.
Something neat that they are working into training is a ¨day of practice¨ where we go and work with a contact in our community and use methods that we are being taught in training. I am working with a very guapa (hard-working...BA) woman that has 70 chickens, 2 pigs, and 5 cows. She also makes her own cheese and sells eggs.
I am enjoying my family stay as well. My family is very sweet. I live with a Mother, a father, their 2 year old daughter and their 5 year old niece. Sometimes the girls get on my nerves, but I lock my door if they do. Sometimes I get antsy to be done with training and be in my site and living alone, but we will find out in less than 2 weeks where our sites will be!!

Aqui Estoy en Paraguay

Mba´eichapa? I made it to Paraguay! What a journey it was to get down here. We had a 15hour layover is Brazil and we finally made it. Sometimes I walk down the street in the town I am staying in and I have to remind myself that I am in Paraguay. It has been easy to pick up my Spanish again. Luckily my family here speaks Castellano (what they call Spanish) but I have started to learn Guarani already. It is a pretty easily constructed langauge but it is hard to remember all these new words.
My life really consists of days filled with taking in new (and some old) information and theories. I moved in with a host family in a small village outside of the capital. The dad is a farmer of mostly vegetables that he sells to the supermarkets. They have 2 young daughters (5 and 2) who are mostly sweet and sometimes annoying when I just want to be alone in my room and even when I close the door they open it without knocking! Talk about different definitions of privacy! But it is fun to have them around. Earlier this week we had a huge storm and the night before the storm the power went out and the water shut off...for different reasons. My house is pretty modern (running water inside, hot showers, electricity, washing machines), so it was definately preparation for the campo.
The training sessions are fairly interactive and I appreciate the Peace Corps training staff. We have gotten to have volunteers come in and do training sessions with us and it has been so helpful to hear about their experiences and imagine what my life might be like in the campo (country). Today we planted out garden. It was fun to learn new things and hear about what other trainees know! We planted beets, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, lettuce, and onions. We also learned how to make compost! I really like the agricultural society and drinking Terere/Mate. This place is tranquilopa.

"Because I Can..."

Tomorrow morning I leave for my journey to Paraguay. I can't believe that this moment is finally here. It doesn't even feel real, but my bags are packed and my belongings here in Minnesota are put away for the next two years.
A phrase that my mom and I have used these past couple of months is "Because I Can." Why is my mom calling me right now? "Because she can." For the next two years the ability and frequency for my mom to call me will not be as easy.
Other occasions that I have used this phrase are:
-Drinking milk
-Vacuuming the carpet
-Using the air conditioning
-Eating Chipotle...and lots of Pizza!
-Driving my car
-Hanging out at Dunn Bros. Coffee Shop
-Visiting friends
-Sleeping on a comfortable mattress and pillow
-Spending time on the internet and watching TV
-Snuggling with Ranger, my dog.
-Hugging my parents and friends

As of tomorrow many I won't have access, or at least frequent access, to these things. I will miss all of these things but some of them I will be glad to be free of. I am looking forward to the simpleness and the stillness in Paraguay. As I enter this new culture and country my senses will be hightened and I will experience many new things. It will be very exciting and maybe even a little scary. But I am prepared and excited for this journey.

Tomorrow I fly to Miami. I will stay there Tuesday night and spend Wednesday in orientation, which includes meeting the other volunteers that are going to Paraguay with me. Then on Wednesday night we will begin the over eleven hours of travel to Paraguay. I will first go through 3 months of training, which includes living with a host family in a small village, learning the language, skill sets, cultural norms, and health and safety tips. I will post when I can! Until the other side of the Equator!

Not...quite....in Paraguay

So I know this blog may confuse some of you because it already says I'm in Paraguay. Alas, not yet. In August I moved from Memphis back into my parent's basement in Minnesota. This is where I am until I fly to Miami for "Staging" (aka orientation) on the 28th. The following day, the 29th, is when we leave for Paraguay. It's only 20 days away! I can't believe it!

After I arrive in Paraguay I will spend 3 months as a Peace Corps Trainee. I will live in a village with a host family, study Guarani, learn about the culture, and be trained on all things important to being a crop extension volunteer in Paraguay! During that time I will learn the actual location of where I will be living and then in December I will move there and that is where I will stay for 2 years. So within theses 5 months I will go through a lot of transition. I hope you can keep up!

What the heck is an aspiration statement?

Once I accepted my Peace Corps invitation I had to complete an aspiration statement and a resume to send to my supervisors in Paraguay to get to know me. The resume was pretty easy, but the aspiration statement I put off to the very end. What is this thing anyways? Well, I finally sat down and pounded it out. This is what I came up with.

A.The professional attributes that you plan to use, and what aspirations you hope to fulfill during your Peace Corps service.

My professional background is in Social Work, so I have been equipped with skills that allow me to effectively work with individuals, families, groups, and communities so that they have the skills and ability to help themselves. The most influential experience in my professional training up to this point was working at a community organizing agency. I learned how to use their model for community transformation which not only focused on the physical aspects of the community, but also the development of the people within the community. Developing trusting relationships and identifying within the community and individuals the resources and skills that are available to themselves were important skills I gained. The foundations of this strategy were developed by Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educator and theorist, and one who I have studied and model my work after. The strategy I plan to use is the approach of a servant-leader that places the work and development of the people first and second comes accomplishing the task that is to be accomplished. Other attributes include taking initiative, being self-motivated, a good listener and learner, a team player, organized, flexible, and the ability to see a need and address it.
I am really looking forward to practicing this model as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay as well as acquiring strategies that the Peace Corps uses to become an effective community worker. My goal is not to “save a community,” but to be effective in one or two systems within the community which will allow for the community to continue changing over several years. I hope to assist in developing skills and abilities, including leadership, in individual members so that they can continue the work.

B.Your strategies for working effectively with host country partners to meet expressed needs.

I think that in order to work effectively with a host country partner it requires building a level of trust. It is extremely important not to view myself as the “expert,” but see ourselves as learners together. My strategy is to help guide and shape change while simultaneously empowering others to become change agents within their community. Knowing how to utilize our resources will be important to our success. It will be important to be honest so that my expressed needs are met and that we work effectively together. Patience will also be an important skill, as I have already learned through the Peace Corps application process. The relationships that I build within the community will be a key part to the work that I will be doing. Using every opportunity I have to interact with the community members will be a key component. Not only will I be intentional about my host family relationship, but also take time to interact with the people that they introduce me to and that I come in contact with around the community. I think it will be incredibly important for me to become a listener and also to share myself with others. This past year working with Somalis I developed a level of comfort to stop by their homes simply to visit and share a cup of tea. This was a really special thing that I hope is welcome in the Guarani culture. It will also be important to identify community leaders.

C. Your strategies for adapting to a new culture with respect to your own cultural background.

One of my demonstrated strengths is that I can easily adapt to a new environment. The strategy for adapting to a new culture that I find the most helpful is to suspend judgment and become a learner of the culture. Another thing that I have appreciated when crossing cultures is to understand the values of the culture and then see what they look like daily in a culture. For example, Somalis don’t value time and they don’t value individuality like American culture does. Therefore not only is being on time not important but neither are birthdays important because they mark both time and they celebrate the individual. I find these types of things important to learn about when entering another culture. I am very welcoming of difference and accepting of others and will use that to my advantage. First I will be a learner and second I will become a teacher. When the Paraguayans seem to be uneasy with a U.S. cultural norm that I am displaying, I will take the opportunity to teach them about my culture. Not only will we understand each other better but I will continue to respect my culture. An ability to laugh will be extremely important along with recognizing the stages of culture development that I am in.

D. The skills and knowledge you hope to gain during pre-service training to best serve your future community and project.

One thing that I hope to learn during training is additional agricultural teaching and skills. My training in agriculture is basic and there is so much more that I feel I need to learn to be effective. I am looking forward to learning the Guarani language. I also hope to learn about the values and norms of the culture before entering the culture. I am hoping to learn more useful skills and strategies for working effectively in a community.

E. How you think Peace Corps service will influence your personal and professional aspirations after your service ends.

After returning from the Peace Corps I foresee myself returning to school to earn my masters in social work with an emphasis on social and economic development. Not only will the Peace Corps be a great addition to an application and a way to receive financial assistance, but the skills that I acquire in the Peace Corps combined with the skills acquired after receiving a masters will be a combination that will assist me in working in low-income, underserved communities across the United States and possibly the world. I desire to work towards social justice. I don’t know exactly what that will look like but being exposed to a community organizing model while interning at a community organizing agency gave me a vision for what community development can look like when the residents are given control and guidance. I can see myself working for a small community organization in the U.S. or, in contrast, with the United Nations or Oxfam International.
Personally I desire to develop a global worldview that can assist me in being an effective U.S. citizen, either inside the U.S. or around the world. The U.S. is a diverse country and knowing how to work amidst diversity will be important. Also, teaching those who have a minimal cross-cultural understanding in order to raise their awareness will be important in building bridges across differences in the U.S. I desire to develop relationships, live simply, seek community and share hospitality. I hope that the Peace Corps experience offers unique perspectives on what it means to live as a community and that I will experience Guarani culture of hospitality.

The Journey Begins

So this Peace Corps journey actually began for me about five years ago when I first heard about the Peace Corps as a freshman. I was young an idealistic (well I still am) and I wanted to change the world through community development. When I came upon the Peace Corps it sounded perfect.

The spring of my senior year of college I started my application. This normally doesn't take as long to complete, but I didn't finish it until the middle of December. The application was really long and consisted of such a wide variety of question from how much debt do I have to how would I describe my cultural development.

Once I submitted my application (it was completely online) I heard from the Peace Corps within a couple of days. They sent me some paperwork that I had to complete within the next two weeks, so I went home for Christmas, got fingerprinted, and turned in the necessary forms. I heard back from them soon after that and I set up an interview with my recruiter. I had my in-person interview on February 16th and by the 26th I was nominated. At that time I knew that I would be going to South or Central America doing Agriculture extension and leaving in September. That was all I knew until I was invited.

The next three months I spent completing paperwork that the PC had sent me in regards to my medical and dental health. I visited a doctor, a dentist (twice) and an eye-doctor. Everything checked out. I sent it all in the beginning of May. The next time I heard from the PC was the end of July. They e-mailed me and asked me to call them, we discussed some health related matters, I sent them more paperwork a couple days later, and then a few days after that I heard that I was medically cleared.

That was the beginning of August and I was supposed to leave in September! I still didn't know where I was going or when I was supposed to leave. Meanwhile my life in Memphis was naturally transitioning and I didn't know whether to look for work or move back in with my parents. I opted to move back in with my parents for a short time, but cut the time limit at September. Luckily, I didn't have to. On August 13th I received a phone call from the PC asking me some more questions about my willingness and clarifying some of their policies for me. On August 17th I received my invitation in the mail, which said that I had been invited to serve in Paraguay as a Crop extensionist and that I would be leaving September 29th. Whew! I read the required materials, and e-mailed my acceptance the following day.
And this journey is only just beginning!