Sharing Paraguay

This past week I had the most amazing opportunity to have one of my best friends Sprout-Kate, from Western and Lutherwood, visit me here in Paraguay for the week. Sprout is currently voluntering for the year in Montevideo, Uruguay, through the Young Adults in Global Missions program of the Lutheran church. She arrived in Uruguay at the beginning of September, and this was the first opportunity either of us has had to see anyone from home. So on Saturday I made the 6 hour bus ride into Asuncion to pick her up from the airport that evening. I left almost 3 hours early from the hotel to pick her up from the Asuncion International airport, I heard the bus was infrequent so I wanted to give myself some extra. The bus is very infrequent because Parguayans do not usually have the money to travel by airplane, and if they do, they also have the money for a car to drive themselves there. I waited for almost an hour and a half before the bus finally did come to pick me up. Sitting in the international capital airport of Paraguay that is roughly the size of a Macy´s department store brought to my attention that Paraguay definitely is still developing in lots of ways. I sometimes get asked the quesiton from Paraguayans of why don´t more people visit Paraguay for tourism. I think that the main reason is that it is so expensive to fly in. There are no direct flights to the USA and thus no one wants to pay over a thousand dollars to visit Paraguay when Argentina and Brazil are so much cheaper and have a developed tourist centers. I am not saying this to detour anyone from visiting me, just reminding myself and you all that visiting Paraguay is not like taking a cruise.

So after 5 months apart, at roughly 9:36pm (Paraguayan time), we were finally reunited! Everyone in the terminal stared at us as we hugged (Paraguayans kiss cheeks) and began to cry. Luckily before Sprout arrived, I met a nice gentlemen at the airport who had just returned to Paraguay after spending over 10 years in the USA. We talked in English about his time in the USA and my time here in Paraguay, and since the flight he was waiting for didn´t get in for another two hours, he was nice enough to drive us to our hotel for the night. Saving us the hassle of trying to catch a bus at that hour or an expensive taxi ride. Sprout was a little freaked out, but driving in a Mercedes is much nicer than any bus ride in all of Paraguay. We spent our first night in an air conditioned hotel room snacking on peanut butter m&m sent to Sprout by her mom and chatting all about our past five months apart. We did not sleep that much the first night.



On Sunday we traveled to my see my host family and neighbors in Guarambare. Brenda, my training neighbor and best friend in Paraguay, also joined us for our trip to Guarambare. It was great walking down the familiar streets and stopping to say hello to some of the families we met during our three months of training. However, the best part was being in the company of my host family and Brenda´s. Both families were excited to see us and comment on how fat both Brenda and I have gotten since December. We just laughed and blamed them for always feeding us white bread and sugar. It was great to feel as if we had never left. Sprout got to drink her first "ha" or turn of terere and I got to see my little Paraguayan boyfriend Derlis. The most exciting part of being back in Guarambare was seeing my PUPPY!


During training, Brenda´s dog Blanqui got pregnant. Both of us were pretty shocked by the experience of a dog going through heat. Neither of us had ever had a dog before, so whenever we were sitting around at her house we would try our best to protect Blanqui from the 5 or 6 male dogs that would lurk around the edge of the yard. So when she got pregant, both Brenda and I decided that we were going to take the plunge and ask to have one of her puppies each. On Christmas day we found out that 6 puppies were born. So on our travel back to Guarambare for the day we had the big moment of selecting our puppies. Brenda knew that she wanted a male dog, and I knew that I wanted a female. They were all sleeping under the outdoor sink when we arrived. But slowly throughout the afternoon, they came out into the shade of the trees where we were sitting insearch of food and water. While we were there we found out that my host family´s black lab was the father and I knew instantly which one of the puppies I wanted to call my own. The black female puppy with two white spots on her chest. Before I knew what she would look like, I decided to name her Che Rubia Porâ or My Pretty Blonde Girl in a mix of Spanish and Guarani. The best part is that she is all black! So far the Paraguayans are getting a kick out of her name. Right now she is one month old and still needs to stay with the mom, but hopefully when I get my own house at the beginning of March I will be able to bring her home. (However, I am not very excited for the 6 hour bus ride with a dog sitting on my lap in a box. I heard you can give them a little Benadryl they will sleep the whole time. Hope it is true!Trust me I will write a future blog about this adventure to come!)


After staying the night on Sunday In Guarambare, Sprout and I traveled back to Ayolas for the next few days. The 6 hour bus ride in midday heat, may not have been the best idea, but we got here safe and sound. The next adventure was moving houses. Since I said that I was only needing to live with Señora Susana for one week, I had to move on to my fourth family here in Ayolas. My new and current family is the Directora (or Principal as we say in the states) of the main school I will be working with. She was gracious enough to open her house to me for the next few weeks before I move on to my fifth and possibly final family. Directora Cresencia lives with her husband, 16 year old daughter, the husband´s father, and 19 year old cousin. She is one of 18 kids and her husband is one of 9! So there has been lots of family members in and out of the house. Sprout and I had a great time during our three days here, sitting around chatting with them, eating lunch, and playing some no rules Paraguayan style volleyball. At some points I thought that my new host family liked her more than me because they would always comment on her "perfecto" Spanish, but in the end they would always say that since I know some Guarani I am their favorite.



Also while we were in Ayolas we took some time to eat some ice cream, go for walks, bake some banana bread for Cresencia´s family, ride around town in the back of the firefighters truck, and eat tacos for dinner with the other Peace Corps volunteers in Ayolas. Our big adventure in Ayolas was to the Yacereta dam. I had been wanting to visit, but I thought that it would be more fun to take the tour with a friend. And that definitely was the best decision, since it was an extremely surface level information tour. I know that no one wants to hear about all the fish that actually have been killed by the building of the dam, or all the residences that have been flooded both up and down river from the dam because of its construction, but the hardest part was not having good enough language skills to ask the real questions. I know that this won´t be my last tour of the dam during my two years, so hopefully in the future I can get some more information out of the tour guides. I was able to take some pretty good pictures there anyways.






After three days in Ayolas we headed on back up to Asuncion for our final two days together. Luckily all the volunteers were called into the office that week to receive our H1N1 shots, so we were able to meet up with lots of my friends and celebrate Jessica W.´s belated birthday. We went out for some great Mexican food, saw New Moon in English, drank fresh brewed coffee, explored some outdoor markets and slept in a miraciously freezing cold air conditioned hotel room.


Early Saturday morning we loaded into a taxi and took off for the airport.After a little bit of a stressful check in process, Sprout quickly made it through customs and she was off. This was a really great opportunity to experience what it will be like when the rest of you all visit me during the next two years! (wink, wink) And it was nice to share some of my frustrations and concerns with someone who is experiencing a very similar program and lifestyle in South America.

Overall, it was one of my best weeks I have had in Paraguay. Sharing the culture, language, and my Paraguayan families with someone I love. One of the main reasons why I joined and continue to enjoy serving as a Peace Corps volunteer is because two out of the three main goals of Peace Corps is about sharing and experiencing culture. Not only learning about Paraguayans, but also providing them the opportunity to learn about some of our personal culture and experiences from the USA. Paraguayans remember Peace Corps volunteers. I have heard stories dating back 20 to 30 years about Peace Corps volunteers who ate peanut butter and jelly sandwhichs, who drank coca cola with breakfast, who married this Paraguayan or that Paraguayan, or who just visited their family once to drink terere when they were 5 or 6 years old and now they have 5 and 6 year old children of their own. It is important to be yourself as a volunteer, and become a part of the stories that Paraguayans will tell for years to come and for us as volunteers to create our own stories with Paraguayans that we will tell to friends and family for years to come as well. Sharing.