Reconnect Training

This week (April 21-25) my entire G had what they call reconnect.  It is a training that takes place once we have been in site for 3-4 months and we all come together in the training center.  We had a wonderful week here and it was a great time to see all of my G mates, many of which I haven’t seen since we all went to site in December.  During this week in training we were able to stay with our original host family which has been a great time to catch up with my host family.  I have really enjoyed spending the week with them and nothing beats a hot shower (which I don’t currently have in site) and just the love and wonderful support of my host family.  I got a little bit of grief from my mom since it has been a couple of months since I have visited but I tried to make it up to her this week.  The training aspect of this week was divided into two different sections, so the technical session started on Monday at noon and went through the end of the day on Wednesday. 

On Monday we all met up in the training center and spent the afternoon as just our environmental conservation and education group.  We talked about our community needs assessment and also all got a chance to share our community maps and just talked about our first three months in site.  It was a great time to just share our successes as well as problems that we have all experienced in site our first few months. 

On Tuesday morning we were picked up early from our training communities and traveled to Apyragua, located in the department of Paraguarí. We went and visited a current environmental volunteer from G-40 (our sister G).  We spent the entire day at her beautiful site and learned all about starting tree nurseries, grafting citrus trees, and abonos verdes (green manures).  Below you will be able to see some of the pictures and I will tell you the story as I go.

This is a picture of the tree nursery that Tiffany (the PCV) and her committee set up.  They are currently growing citrus trees, mainly lemon trees to use for grafting on of other citrus.

This is just a picture of the “chain gang” that we had set up to help fill up the watering system.  We had to use the well to bring up water which we put in buckets and then put into the gravity fed watering system.

This is just a beautiful picture of her site with the hills in the background.

This was a picture of the charla (presentation) Tiffany gave about what she did to start this project and the grants she was able to obtain.

This is the watering system that they used to water each of their seedlings.  This system is very fancy for down here in Paraguay but works great!

After we learned about her project and had a quick lunch we then had the opportunity to learn the basics about tree grafting.  This is the wrong time of year to graft citrus trees, it should be done in the spring here, but we were mainly just practicing the technique.  This is a picture of Jason who was my partner for the project and below you can see a picture of what the new tree looked like when it was done.  We were using a limon rootstock and grafting on orange trees.

This is just a beautiful flower that I found at her site and below you can see another picture of her site.

This is just a cool looking insect that I found that landed on my hand.

When we were done with tree grafting and nursery management we walked across her community and visited with a farmer.  We went out to his kokue (field) and learned more about abonos verdes and we were able to see three that were actually planted as well as we were able to plant some ourselves.

After learning about abonos verdes the farmer showed off his onion production, and he has a very nice set up and was getting ready to move the onions into the field.  After walking around his property we were able to head back to the bus and arrived back to our training communities later that evening. 

On Wednesday morning we were once again picked up early and went into Asuncion and visited INFONA which is a national forestry institute.  It was a wonderful stop and I learned a lot more about trees and tree seeds of Paraguay.  I also got to meet many other forest engineers and was able to get a lot of questions asked.  They also give out free trees and tree seeds so I was able to drop off the request form that my community sent me with and will be picking them up in a couple of weeks.  They have a wonderful set up and when I come back I hope to spend more time there to learn more.  We then traveled into downtown Asuncion to the SENATUR office where we learned about tourism in Paraguay.  It was a good presentation to learn about the steps they are taking to get people to travel down here and around in Paraguay.  We spent the afternoon on Wednesday in the PC Office getting caught up on a lot of administrative things.

Thursday morning began the next phase of our training which was language/cultural training.  So we were able to spend about four hours in language class.  At first I wasn’t looking forward to this because I just felt like I was where I wanted to be when I came back but it all worked out great.  Our language professors are FANTASTIC and were able to figure out where we were and then we made a list of the things we wanted to learn.  So by the end of the morning I felt very confident and had learned a lot more technical vocabulary in Guarani and Spanish.  In the afternoon we heard from our fantastic medical team and then had a discussion the rest of the afternoon with our higher ups from Asuncion.  It was a great time to just share our ideas, frustrations, and just hearing from them about what resources are available to us. 

On Friday we had language class all day which I wasn’t looking forward to but they did a great job of breaking it up and by the end of the day I learned a lot.  We also got done at 4 so I was able to come home early and spend some more time with my host family.  I am sitting here at the kitchen table and just finished eating dinner with them all.  It is so fun to see how we all have changed in just a few short months.  I am much better with language and my sister now has a serious boyfriend, my brother’s daughter Mia has grown up so much since I left.  She is now talking up a storm and running everywhere.  It is so great to know that I will always have this supportive family here and so great to get caught up with everyone.  Will be heading back to site in the morning and will be working on my house this week.  

Semana Santa (Easter)

This past week we celebrated Semana Santa or the week leading up until Easter.  The celebration here in Paraguay is very different from my experiences in the US but I had a wonderful time.  So below I will summarize a little bit about what I learned about this week as well as share a few photos.  I am by far not an expert nor did I understand everything that went on, but I hope you get a snapshot.

The celebrations seemed to start (at least for my family) on Wednesday night where we made chipa.  This was a very fun evening with my host mom, sister, and nephew.  Making chipa is a little bit hard to do but my host family are experts and were happy to share the process with me, it mostly just involved a lot of time kneading the dough which is a fantastic arm and hand workout (which I found out the following days).  My mom made just the “normal” chipa shapes as well as shapes of birds for the kids and then I started to get a little creative and made letters for different people’s names.  K for Katie-my name in site since no one can say Kaitlyn, A-Alcides who is a friend in site, B-Basilio for my contact, and then I also tried making pretzel shapes which were great but they didn’t understand the concept of pretzels so I guess I will just have to make them sometime.  The chip was then put in the outdoor oven (tatakua) and baked.  It turned out great and I had a great time making it with my family.  Chipa is VERY POPULAR this week and everyone seemed to be making it and I had to pace myself eating it so I wouldn’t get tired of it.  

This is a picture of my mom making up the first part of the dough.  Notice the two kittens under the table and three of the six dogs trying to get the scraps.

This is my mom trying to cook a little piece of chipa with a fork over the gas stove for my nephew and to do a taste test before we rolled it all out.  It was very similar to roasting marshmallows and we all got a kick out of it.

This is a picture with my host sister (Rosie) and her two year old son Junior.  She is just two months older than me but has her wonderful son who I love but is a handful!

Here is a picture of some of my wonderful chipa designs that I had fun with.  I even decided to “decorate” them with cheese that I cut into different shapes and pressed into the dough.  Overall the chipa turned out fantastic and we had enough to last for a few days.  I have learned that the best time to eat it is hot out of the oven!

The celebration continued on Thursday- Ultima Cenar (the last supper) where we had a huge asado (BBQ-sort of) where we had a mixture of beef, pork, and chicken that was marinated in fresh garlic and lime juice all day and then cooked in the tatakua.  We also made Sopa Paraguaya which you probably read about a couple of months ago (the heart healthy corn bread).  We had a big family dinner and it was so great to just see all the family together. 

On Friday things started to get a little messed up because it POURED just about nonstop for two days with the rain ending on Saturday night.  On Friday (Viernes Santo) you are not supposed to eat meat but we ate all of the leftovers from the night before.  Saturday (Sabado de Gloria) is just a day of reflection and a day to just spend with family. Also during this week no one played music so the community was abnormally quiet.  Sunday was Domingo de Pascua where evidently everyone normally attends church.  Unfortunately (at least in my community) Sunday ended up being a day to work since everyone lost two work days with the rain so instead of going to church we all spent the day working on various projects.  Overall it was a great week that was full of spending time with family and friends and making wonderful food, I also learned a lot and was able to share some of my Easter traditions.

During Samana Santa on Monday one of my bosses was able to come out and look at my final housing option and I was able to get approval for the house.  I have a lot of work to do including replacing all the electrical wiring, putting in running water, replacing windows, and a lot of cleaning up.  My house is just in fact the old high school and is just one big room.  It is going to be great when I get everything done and finished and will be my own space that I am very excited about.  I love my host family but living with host families for seven months now I am ready to have my own space and be able to set my own schedule and to cook for myself.  I am trying to get everything done by the first week in May but time will tell and I will keep you posted.  Below you can see some pictures of my future house!

This is a picture of when you enter what you can see.  I have moved out all of the old desks but it will be cool to have such a big chalk board in my house!

This is a view from the door looking at the other side of the house.  The cabinet that was in the house was home to a large wasp family and after three days I finally got rid of them all and was able to get it moved out and to get everything cleaned up.  

This is a view from the front outside.  As you can see I am going to have plenty of natural light and have plenty of windows to replace.  I just can’t wait to get it finished up and start on my garden/ other landscaping.  Stayed tuned for more pictures soon!

Porter's Memorial Service

As many of you know I lost a fellow PCV and friend here in Paraguay, Porter Knight.  I first wanted to start out this post with pictures from Porter's amazing memorial service that was held in Asuncion.  Below are some pictures from the service itself.  It was a very hard time for all of the PC family but it was just great for everyone to be together and PC Paraguay had the support of the PC worldwide.  Many other PC countries and NGO’s (such as WWF) send beautiful flower arrangements.  The service itself was beautiful and we all heard from his G (the people in his group G40), his two different host families (his first training community as well as his current host family), the ambassador, and many different PCV and PC Staff.  It was a very well attended service and it was just so great to be a part of it during a difficult time for all of us.

This first picture is just of a board of some of the pictures of Porter during his time here in Paraguay, many of which are just with his friends and some of his projects and his community.  He always seemed to have a huge smile on his face.

The next picture is of his G mates and each of them took turns telling stories about Porter as well as one word that they will remember about him.  They also read a wonderful poem which I have included below that was read at the service.

Not How He Died...But How He Lived (By: Summer Sandercox)

Not how did he die, but how did he live? 

Not what did he gain, but what did he give? 

These are the units to measure the worth 

Of a man as a man, regardless of birth. 

Not, what was his church, nor what was his creed? 

But had he befriended those really in need? 

Was he ever ready, with word of good cheer, 

To bring back a smile, to banish a tear? 

Not what did the sketch in the newspaper say, 

But how many were sorry when he passed away. 

This is a picture of me saying a few words about Porter since I was the volunteer who stayed with him for just less than a week during training so I was able to talk about my experience with Porter.  Overall it was a very emotional day and very hard to say goodbye to a friend.    I was also able to write a letter to Porter’s family and the entire memorial service was recorded and sent to his family.  It was just great for the entire PC community to come together from all the volunteers to staff as well as other family and friends as well as the support from PC worldwide.  Although I only knew him for about 6 months he still was a good friend and a great loss, but I will always remember Porter and the good times we were able to spend together.

A Time of Change

Sorry I haven’t written another blog post for about a month now; things have just been very busy and crazy lately.  This past month though seems like it has been a transitional time with many different aspects here in Paraguay so I figured that this post will cover a few different aspects of change.

As the United States is gearing up for Spring and warmer weather we are preparing for Fall.  We have had an increase in storms and rain as well as a cooling down of the temperatures which has just been fantastic.  I have really loved the weather with it cooling down nicely most nights but warming up during the day.  Also the storms here are just fantastic with great amounts of thunder and lightning so have provided for much entertainment, at least for me, most Paraguayan’s I know don’t like storms.  Unfortunately though with the storms come a loss of electricity and water which has lasted for just a couple of hours to a couple of days.  Also with the US springing forward and Paraguay falling back I am now only one hour difference from home and now on east coast time.  This is a lot better than the three hour time difference that we had before and makes it a lot easier to communicate with everyone back home.

Also this month I have had even more problems with my housing situation here in site.  So as of right now I am still trying to get my housing situation taken care of and working closely with PC and others in my community to try and get this figured out.  I have to say by far though since I have been in Paraguay this housing situation has been my biggest source of stress.  I know that it will all work out in the end but at this point it is all out of my control so I am just trying to take it day by day.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my host family here in my community but so far I have been living with three different host families for the last six months and have been living out of a suitcase, so needless to say it is starting to get old.  I am just looking forward to having my own space and being able to cook for myself and to set my own schedule.  I will keep you posted though as I figure stuff out, which should hopefully be sometime within the next couple of weeks!

As many of you have probably already heard we lost a PCV down here in Paraguay this past week on the 25^th.  His name was Porter Knight and he was from the other environmental group (G-40) that is serving down here in Paraguay and will be finishing up and leaving Paraguay this Nov-Dec.  I visited Porter my first month in country for PCV visit so I stayed with him and his host family for a week.  I encourage you to go back through my blog post from that week called 3 de Noviembre which was the name of his site.  I had a wonderful time at his beautiful site and met a lot of wonderful people; Porter also had some great projects going on there and was very passionate about what he was doing. 

Porter’s death has been a shock to all of us down here and around the PC community worldwide.  I can honestly say that this is just not something that I ever imagined having to deal with when I joined PC and not something that is even common among PCV’s worldwide.  Sadly though it was a very tragic death and they are still trying to figure out exactly what happened.  PCV’s and PC staff, as well as many others from all over the world have been pouring in letters, posts, and words of encouragement this week and it is just great to realize that even though I am a PCV in Paraguay I am part of a much larger family that is spread around the globe. 

This week on April 2^nd we will be holding a memorial service for him in the PC office with volunteers coming in from all throughout the country.  I think this will be a great time to just remember Porter and all he brought to Paraguay and his community as well as share stories and just to comfort each other.  Some of his friends from his G are also putting together a wonderful video full of pictures and remembrances from people down here to send to his family back home.  I just can’t even begin to imagine what his family is going through back home as well as his community here in Paraguay.  He was very well respected and loved in his community and I know they are also in shock and trying to move on.

So as you can tell March has just been a month of change from the wonderful change in weather to the tragic death of a friend.  I have decided to share some picture below from this month, so please enjoy.

 

 

These first three pictures show some of the wonderful food that we have coming in this late summer/fall time.  We have just had endless avocados it seems like just falling from the sky.  So one day I made my family some great guacamole which they loved and had never tried before.  I have learned that they don’t eat many avocados and when they do they just eat them with sugar.  At first they were timid to try the guacamole but once one person tried it and liked it they all soon followed suit.  Also the avocados here are HUGE and about the size of my hand.  Since we have had so many falling I decided to try and freeze them (recommendation from FB friends) so I figured I would give it a try.  We just have so many more falling than we could eat so I will try using them as a butter substitute in cooking. 

 

 

 

The sunsets lately have just been outstanding with the storms coming through and then leaving behind some breathtaking sunsets.

 

The next pictures is just a flower that has been blooming recently around my community. 

The next two pictures are of some insect larva and insects I have found around my community for you insect lovers out there.

 

 

 

This is a picture of one of our many rain storms here in site.  I am just amazed at how fast the rain storms come in and then drop A LOT of rain before quickly heading back out.

 

 

I know that it is hard (if not impossible to see this on the computer) but there was a beautiful rainbow after our big storm that came through and I was trying to get a picture of it.

 

This is a picture of one of those cool mornings and after my mom had made breakfast on the wood stove all of the dogs were fighting over space underneath the stove to get warm.   

I have also included two pictures that I had taken when I was visiting Porter at his site in October.  The first one is of him after we had picked a bunch of peaches and the second is a picture of a beautiful sunset from his front porch.  Although he isn’t with us anymore I have lots of wonderful memories of him here in Paraguay and will be remembering him throughout my service as a constant reminder of how precious and fragile life is, but at the same time how he did and how I can make a difference here in Paraguay, no matter how large or small. 

Paraguay Verde- Part 3 (Our Trip Home)

We finished with the camp on Saturday morning down in Ayolas and unfortunately the last bus to get us home into the community left Caaguazu at 4 in the afternoon so it was just impossible for us to catch that bus.  We also don’t have any buses that run to my site on Sunday so since we were not able to get back to site until Monday morning I decided that we might as well take our time getting home as well as show Romina some other places in her country.  So by the time it was all said in done Romina and I had traveled a complete circle around the southern half of the country.  Below you will see some pictures of our fantastic travels to Encarnacion and the Jesuit ruins in Trinidad.  Enjoy!

We left Ayolas about noon and went about 45 minutes north and got off the bus on Ruta 1.  From there we just had to wait a little while and caught the bus over to Encarnacion.  Encarn is located right on the Rio Parana (the same river the dam was on) and across the river you can see Posadas Argentina.  The beach from the river here looks like you are on a huge lake.  This picture is looking at an old factory with the city of Posadas in the distance.

This is just a picture of me with my feet in the river and it almost seemed like I was at the ocean.  Don’t worry mom I got you some sand for your collection!

Romina and I enjoying the cool water with Argentina in the background.

This is just a picture of the beach itself which is actually very touristy and since it was a Saturday it was very crowded.  The volunteers I talked to that live around here say that during the week is the best time to come because there isn’t anyone there.  Can you imagine being a PCV here, I wouldn't ever want to leave the beach!

After our wonderful afternoon in Encarn we then traveled with one of my G-mates to her site which is located in Trinidad.  She lives about a five minute walk from the ruins themselves and her project involves with working in sustainable tourism so she knows all of the park guides and guards so we were able to get a special and FREE tour.  This is a picture of me and Nari (the environmental volunteer in Caaguazu- my closest neighbor) standing in front of the ruins.  We arrived there right before sunset so I wasn’t able to get great pictures but I tried my best and I’m sure I will be back at some point again.

This is a watchtower and also known as the Torre de Atalaya.

The next few pictures are just of different areas around the ruins.  It was just amazing to see the stone carving that was just so beautiful and I can’t even imagine how long some of this stuff took and how they could have built these huge structures back then.

This is a picture of Romina in the front of the church.  Can you see her?  I was just amazed by how tall the structure it was and could only imagine how grand it used to be when it was first built.

This is a picture of the huge and beautifully carved pulpit.

This is just a picture that I took looking out from the church out into another part that had a beautiful huge tree and with sunset it looked like a great picture!

This is an artist’s replication of what the church probably looked like when it was first built.

After we took our self-guided tour right at sunset we had a hour to look around before we went on the night tour.  So we had time to visit with some of the artisans that sold their crafts outside of the front gates as well as tour the small museum.  Once it finally got dark enough they started the night tour which was just FANTASTIC and pictures just can’t do it justice.  It was a clear night and the stars were just so beautiful and seeing the ruins at night just made it seem like a completely different place.

This is just a picture that I took inside the church itself with some of the intricate carving.

This is another picture of the watchtower just at night.

We had a fantastic trip in Trinidad and were able to see so much in just one night.  On Sunday morning we got up and got on a bus to go back north through Cuidad del Este and then back west to Caaguazu.  We spent Sunday night with a wonderful volunteer married couple and had a great time cooking enchiladas and had a movie night.  We arrived back into site on Monday morning about 11:30 and we both had a wonderful trip and saw a lot but were also just ready to be back home again.  

I also got a nice pique again on my foot and I know many of you got grossed out by the picture of the larva itself so I just decided to take a picture of what it looks like on the outside before I took it out.  It honestly just looks like a blister and feels like one.  I am becoming a real pro at getting these out which I don’t enjoy doing but I don’t really have another choice.  I have also learned that there is an opportune time to get them out of your foot but I am still working on this and hopefully will not have too many more to base my observations on.

I am still living with my second host family that I have lived with for two months already and it sounds like I will be living with them until PC can come back out and inspect the new house that I want to rent.  The original house that PC had approved fell through when it came down to it but now I have another house very close to the other one that is beautiful and already has a lot of furnishings. 

Over the next few weeks I will be working on the house mostly just cleaning and organizing everything so I can start staying there once it gets approved.  I am also starting to look at prices and will be buying a fridge, oven, stove, and other things soon.  It feels weird doing all of these things when I have not even done them in the US and I am learning that they don’t post prices here but rather is a system of going back and forth until you decide on a price.  It isn’t like Lowes or somewhere where you just walk in and pay that price.  I guess it is nice because I can barter a little bit but at the same time frustrating.   I am learning that if I buy all of my appliances at one place not only will I get a better price but I can also get them to deliver it 30 km to my house which makes my life A LOT easier.  Hopefully I will be posting pictures soon once I get the house looking better.

I am also beginning to start all of my surveys and have given all of my surveys out to the school teachers so I should be hearing back from them over the next week to see what they would like help with in the school.  I am also walking my host niece and nephew to school every day since she goes to class in the afternoons.  My nephew is only two so he can’t go to school but sadly he still cries every day when we have to leave for school to start, but perhaps he will figure it out soon.  Also I should be starting my community survey soon where I visit every family and ask questions.  I hope you all enjoyed all of the blog posts!  Also many of you are asking what I need and the best thing to do would be to contact my mom because she has my ongoing list of things that I need.  

Thanks!