Training

Training for the Peace Corps focuses mainly on language, technical skills, health, safety, and community integration. However, most of the time is spent focusing on language proficiency and technical skills for our work areas. I have completed a week and a half of training so far and I have found training to be very structured and focused. Training is planned to provide the most information to us during the 11 weeks in Guarambare, to prepare us for two years of service. My schedule during the week is as follows:

6:30am- I am awoken by a knock on my door by my host mom or dad. If it is warm enough I jump into our outdoor shower, however during our first week of training it drop over 40 degrees in one night and remained around 50 degrees most of the first week. I only showered once last week since I would have been a popsicle if I showered outside during the cold mornings. In Paraguay it is common to shower at least three times a day during the summer and at least once during the winter. Personal appearance is very important here. You don’t dress to express yourself in Paraguay; you dress to impress other Paraguayans.

7:00am- I drink cocida with my host family for breakfast. Cocida is similar to a black tea in the states, but they add sugar to it before and after they pour it into their cups. I usually have cocida con leche con cochitos (small hard bread sticks that you break up into bite size pieces and place in the cup with the liquid). It is similar to cereal. However, my family enjoys laughing at me because I don’t add a spoonful more sugar to my cocida like is typical here.

7:45am- After walking with my PCT neighbor Brenda; we arrive at the environmental education training facility. It used to be the house of a police commissioner of Guarambre, so it has a pool and futbol field in the yard. We are told it is one of the nicest training sites ever rented by the Peace Corps in Paraguay. Right away we begin language practice. For environmental education we have to obtain a high level of conversational Spanish before we can begin studying Guarani. I am in the intermediate Spanish class, and should begin studying Guarani in a few weeks. I love my language professor. Her name is Pabla and she has been so helpful. There are only four of us in my group and we practice our Spanish for four hours everyday all in Spanish.

12:00pm- I return to my host house for lunch. In Paraguay, lunch is their largest meal and they greatly enjoy serving me way too much food. Usually my lunch is a pretty traditional Paraguayan dish that will consist of a madioca, rice, soup and/or beef. Luckily my family enjoys eating fruits and vegetables, so I am one of the lucky volunteers that gets a salad at every meal and usually a piece of fruit with dinner.

1:00pm- After lunch we return to our environmental education training center for an afternoon of technical skill work. Usually a current volunteer visits us during this time and will share a little about their experience in Paraguay so far and then teach us a lesson. So far we have focused on the school system, gardens, tree identification, and classroom materials. Some really cool things we have done so far with these volunteers is making drinking glasses out of wine bottles and we built a vegetable garden in my back yard.

5:30pm- I return for the rest of the night to my host house. I spend the next few hours showering, eating dinner, talking with my family, playing my guitar, studying Spanish, visiting neighbors and drinking tererre.

8:30 or 9:00pm- I try to return to my room about this time to enjoy some quiet time reading, writing or sleeping.

This is just a quick snapshot of my life here in Paraguay thus far. The training week is never the same, but this is the typical structure at least three days during the week. Some days we travel into the main training center in Guarambare to meet with all the other sector volunteers (agroforestry, bee keeping, and crop extension) to cover topics such as health and safety. We also have excursion days planned into our training. This Thursday I will be traveling with one other volunteer into Asuncion to visit possible volunteer reference sites. Also this weekend I will be traveling to visit a current volunteer in Paraguay. I will spend four days by myself with the volunteer getting to know a little bit about their site, the work they have done, the community integration process for them, and I will get to practice more of my Spanish skills as I travel across the country. I am nervous, but excited for both excursions and I hope to write soon after my return about both of them.