On Friday we all meet at a
conference center outside of Asuncion where all of our contacts came to meet us
for the first time. Before we even
arrived they had lectures about safety/security, emergency procedures, what to
expect of us, and other general information about Peace Corps. So when we finally arrived we had a long
snack/ terere session which was a good informal way to meet our contact for the
first time. The contact that came to
pick me up was Basilio who is the director of the school in my community. Once the introductions were made we had a
smaller group session and separated the contacts from us. During this time we made two lists one of
which was what we expect from our contacts and the other is what they should
expect from us. Once both groups got
this complete we came back together and shared them with each other and it was
really cool to see that many of the things overlapped. They all seemed to understand that we need a
lot of help with our language and further adjusting into the culture but that
we wanted to be treated as a member of the community and as an ally to work
with. After that we had the final
session with everyone back together and Eli and Alister (my bosses) just said
their final words. We concluded with a
wonderful lunch during which time many people were leaving in every different
direction to catch a bus to their site.
Luckily for me my contact drove his car, mainly because the bus schedule
didn’t align with our schedule. So we
had about a 4 hour drive to get to know each other a little bit and he pointed
out interesting places along the way.
My site
is located about an hour and a half drive north of the city of Caaguazu. Caaguazu is the wood capital of Paraguay so
there are many saw mills and people making every single wood product imaginable
along the road. Once we left the city
the roads turned to dirt/ mud. They are
currently in the process of paving the road becoming the new route 13 in
Paraguay but at this point only small stretches are done and none of the bridges
are done. One of the main reasons this
new road is going in is because there is LARGE production agriculture along
this road, mainly soy beans and corn as far as the eye can see so they need
better roads to transport their products.
So with that said they have make shift bridges mainly just a lot of dirt
built up and even though it had not rained for many days it was super
muddy. When we turned off the main road
we drove about 5 km to get into my community of Jukyry Central. The roads the last 5 km were even worse
because they are not considered a primary road and a lot of erosion has
occurred leaving huge canyons in the road.
Also if it rains there is absolutely no way to get in and out of site.
My
community officially starts on the other side of a creek that we drove over and
is located in some beautiful rolling hills.
My community as a whole is an agricultural community with many people
growing mandio, sugar cane, corn, yerba mate, watermelon, and citrus
trees. All of the agriculture in the
community is done by hand, without machinery so I just enjoyed watching the
people hoeing huge fields and also using oxen to plow. The people here work very hard and many
people grow enough for their families as well as a few extras to sell at the
market. My community consists of 67
houses and around 200 people I would say but it is so hard to tell. The families here are very large and everyone
in the household is very hard working from sun up to sun down on various
farming tasks. Many of the men work in
the fields while the women work around the home and milking the cows, feeding
the chickens, pigs, etc., as well as all of the household chores like washing
clothes and making food. Everyone seems
to have a very specific job to do so no one is ever sitting idle for too long.
When I first arrived into my
community I went to the school and met three of the professors (one of which is
my host mom who teaches all day). In the
afternoons they hold escuela which is the younger grades consisting of just 3
classes while in the morning is the colegio (like our high school). My host father is also a professor but he
teaches in the morning and then works in the fields in the afternoons. The school itself is small but very quaint
with a small soccer field, many trees providing shade, and a wonderful large
school garden and small tree nursery!!!
The kids work in the garden just about every day mostly this time of
year to harvest the vegetables but it is a super place to start when I begin to
work in the school. I am just amazed
because the school garden is organized and each grade has their own bed to work
with and the garden looked great. They
also have a lot of citrus trees growing which is great because they are looking
more long term. Citrus trees are very popular
here and from what I have seen are planted with many other crops growing
beneath them so agroforestry is already here and practiced, even though people
don’t call it that!!! So it looks like I will have an infinite supply of
oranges, grapefruit, peaches, bananas, lime/lemon, etc. This community already seems to know about
sustainability and making the most out of every space which makes my job a lot
easier!
My host family consists of my mom
Mabel and dad Hugo and their two daughters Maria and Pilar. They live in a nice house surrounded by
wonderful trees, most of which are fruit trees.
They have a lot of farm animals, including many milk cows, pigs, chickens;
it seems almost like Old McDonald’s farm especially with baby animals running
around everywhere including kittens, puppies, piglets, calves, and baby
chicks. We have an outdoor kitchen where
they cook over a fire as well as an outdoor cold shower (which is nice when
it’s hot but I don’t think will be nice come winter, oh well) and an outdoor “bathroom”. Many houses in my community have what we
would consider an outdoor bathroom with running water and a toilet but my
family seems to like the older style of a hole in the ground so it is taking
some adjustment but is doable. In the
pictures below you can see some of these buildings.
This weekend we just spent a lot of
time hanging out under the shade tree since it is so hot and Hugo worked all of
the time in the fields and the girls just worked around the house. I also began to walk a lot around my
community trying to figure the layout of the community and try and figure out
where different people live. We went to
church on Sunday which was a cute country Catholic Church and the preacher (I
don’t know the Catholic name for a preacher) only visits once a month but the
other Sundays is taught by the church leader.
There were a lot of people in attendance and the service was in Guarani
so I didn’t really understand it but it was just nice to be in a church
again. Plus I’m sure if I go enough I will
slowly be able to understand as my Guarani improves! Also I really enjoy that in the campo they
partake in siestas so it is cultural acceptable to sleep in the afternoon for
an hour or more which is just up my alley, I could definitely get used to that!
On Monday morning I went with my
host parents and sisters to school for the day.
The morning session goes from 7-11 with a 30 minute recess in the middle
and the afternoon from 12:30-4:30 with another 30 minute recess, so the kids
are actually only in class for a little over 3 hours per day. Also the education system is a lot different
from that in the states and mostly consists of the teacher writing the notes on
the chalk board and then just the kids copying the notes done but it isn’t
interactive at all. The class sizes at
my school are small with about 10 or less per grade with only 5 different
professors. This week was a little bit
different because it is the last week of school until February so most of the
class time consisted of taking exams. I
observed Mabel’s class in the morning and the afternoon. We had just enough time at lunch to walk home
and fix lunch and then come right back.
We got out of school early because it started to cloud up and just begin
to thunder off in the distance but they called off school for the rest of the
day so the kids could walk home safely and we were able to get home right as it
started to rain. So I have learned that
in Paraguay if it looks like rain is coming or if it rains even just a little
bit school will be cancelled. Later in
the day I walked around my community with my contact right after the rain and
off in the distance was a beautiful double rainbow which just was a perfect end
to the day as well as introduction to the community.
The meals here are very different in the campo
compared to more urban areas, or compared to my other host family. The breakfast consists of hot milk (straight
from the cow!) and crackers with dulce de leche (similar to caramel) which
sadly doesn’t last very long. Lunch is about
12 and even though it is over 100° consists of a soup usually with meat, beans,
and rice. Dinner isn’t served until 9 pm
and is also a soup or something else; also mandio is served with everything
which is sort of like a potato very starchy and a little sweet. We also had a bunch of fresh fruit from the
trees and veggies out of the garden.
Also all of the watermelons are coming ripe so you can buy a huge
watermelon for just over $1 US which is perfect when it is so hot. Also I was able to drink a lot of wonderful
fresh fruit juice, I just have to get a glass before they add all of the sugar
and my favorite so far was fresh pineapple juice and fresh lemonade!
On Tuesday morning I spent the
morning working with my contact to fill out all of our mandatory PC paperwork,
so we had to fill out a site locator form which consisted of a detailed map as
well as a list of phone numbers, radio stations, nearest police station,
hospital, etc. all in case of a future emergency. It is super important I know but it is hard
to draw a map and use only landmarks since there are not any street signs so I
just had to use references like a corn field with a tree in the middle so
hopefully if they need to find me they can just call and hopefully they don’t
change the crops or cut down the trees I used as references! Also I had to fill out an emergency form on
how I would be able to get out of site using both the public bus system as well
as have a contact with a car so in case of an emergency I could get out of
site. We had quite a fun time drawing
maps and trying to figure everything out but luckily my contact what super
knowledgeable and helped answer all of my questions. In the afternoon I took a much needed brain
break and to get caught up on more paperwork because my community mainly speaks
Guarani and luckily my host family also speaks Spanish so after a few days I
just need to sit down and think in English and to try and write down all of my
new words. Also my contact is super nice
and gave me a Spanish-Guarani dictionary so now I can use my English-Spanish
dictionary first and then the other second until I get my Spanish down
more. It is amazing how fast though I am
catching on to the language when I don’t have any other options for
communication.
Overall I had a fantastic time in
my new community even though I was only there for 5 short days. Everyone I met was super nice and even though
it is a very poor community (I guess in my standards) it didn’t matter who I
was visiting but they were all trying to feed me and just completely opened
their home to me. Everyone wants me to
come and stay with them instead of living with my host family for 3 months so I
told them I would think about it but it would be impossible to stay with
everyone and moving every week just doesn’t sound like fun to me but we shall
see. My community is so beautiful with a
fair number of trees but a ton of beautiful birds, immense insects including
many different butterflies. We also have an indigenous community located
outside of our community about a 2 hour walk into the forest I am told so I
think one day in the future I will have to go visit that community. I am really
looking forward to living here! Sorry I
didn’t take a lot of pictures but I figured I have two years to do that plus I didn’t
want to walk around with my camera just yet.
After my 3 months in site with a
host family I will be able to move out on my own and right now I have two
different options. The first option is
the house right next to my host family who is owned by my aunt and she lives in
another city and the house is just her “vacation” home that she only uses a few
days a year but it is fully furnished so that is a great option. The other house is beautiful and located just
down from my host family and is a huge wooden house with a thatched roof but my
favorite part is outside with a huge grape arbor about 30 ft x 30 ft and every
fruit tree imaginable. The downside is
that it is completely empty and needs a lot of work but we will just have to
see. Both houses are nice and I would be
happy with either one. Also before I am
allowed to move into either house I have to get Peace Corp staff out here to
check it out and go through the safety/security check list.
On Wednesday morning I got up
before the sun to catch the bus a little bit after 5 am. My host mom drove me out to catch the bus
which saved me from walking which was really nice. I was one of the first pickups along the line
so I was luckily able to get a seat. The
back half of the bus is without seats which at first surprised me but I quickly
learned that everyone in the rural area uses the bus to transport their goods
to market. So by the time we reached
town about an hour and half later the ENTIRE back of the bus was filled with
fresh fruit, veggies, corn, and every other crop. I guess it is also common to have animals on
the bus to take to market but luckily none this morning. Also all of the weight in the back of the bus
for sure helped with the slick muddy roads.
Luckily the bus ran because the previous days it did not due to the rain
on Monday. The ride took about an hour
and half to get into Caaguazu where I got off and then caught another bus into
San Lorenzo (suburb of Asuncion) to catch my bus back home where I arrived a
little bit before noon. So I was able to
spend the afternoon getting unpacked and caught up on things.
I hope that you all have a
wonderful Thanksgiving; I will be spending it in Asuncion at the house of the
ambassador which I think will be tons of fun.
MY NEW ADDRESS:
Kaitlyn W. Bradley, PCV
Correo Paraguayo- Caaguazu
Caaguazu, Paraguay
Codigo Postal 3400
Sudamerica
0984664378
