With only three hours of sleep under my belt, I left the Sacramento
airport at 6:00 a.m on September 25. I couldn’t really wrap my head around on
what I was actually doing and what this 27-month commitment would mean. I was
overwhelmed with excitement for the unknown, nervousness in not knowing much
about where I was going, sadness for leaving my family and friends behind and
not getting a chance to see some important faces just one last time. With these
arrays of emotions, I maintained a solid confidence in knowing that my decision
to join the Peace Corps represents me achieving a long time dream and how lucky
I am to have a core group of people who have been here with me every step of
the way.
I
arrived in LAX at 7:00 a.m. with a direct transfer to Miami set to leave at
8:00 a.m., as I make my way to the terminal, I hear a voice behind me say “Are
you going to Miami”, in shock as to how some random person would be able to
know that. In which I turn around to respond and it is the girl I noticed
earlier in Sacramento who had a backpacking backpack with a ukulele on one side
and Chaco’s and hiking boots dangling along the other side, to which I then
applied “ Are you doing Peace Corps Paraguay?”. Little did I know at the time, that this girl, Lisa, would
become one of my closest friends thus far. Apparently we both looked very “ Peace Corps” which is why we
both questioned our travels when we saw each other.
Once
in Miami, we took our hotel shuttle back to the hotel, slowly picking up more
and more Peace Corps volunteers along the way who more often fit the part with
stuffed backpacking backpacks and array of outdoor gear. We all registered that night for a day
long staging event on Thursday that would only skim the surface of what
training is going to be like. I wanted to have a low-key night so, I treated
myself to one final American meal with Pizza, salad and a few beers by
myself. As I’m sitting there by
myself thinking about all my friends and family, a girl approaches me to join
me. What lovely company it was as
she was the 1/46 people in our group who I somewhat knew about. Before I left
for journey, a very important friend of mine told me his friend’s best friend
is doing Peace Corps Paraguay, so from that we knew each others first names but
nothing else. So randomly having dinner together, ended up really well, as we
shared stories of the people who make it hard to leave.
After
endless icebreakers, sharing our concerns, and our backgrounds as our group
(referred to G43 from this point forward) consist of two sectors: Environmental
Conservation and Agriculture, we left for our direct flight to Asuncion,
Paraguay. I flight went really
well, we landed at 7:00 a.m. went to debrief and get our host family assignments,
as we start living with them that night. When I got my family assignment I was
so nervous about if they would like me as I had little Spanish under my belt. In my soon to be host town, Cumbarity,
the 12 of us lined up to get called off to our family, frantically trying to
remember the welcoming Guarani phrases we were told to say to our family. I was one of the last trainees
remaining and when my Mom, Catallina, came up to me all I could say was “Hola, no
hablo espanol mucho” and she just smiled and helped me with my bags to the car
she borrowed to take me home.
After a five minute drive, we arrived to the house where I was greeted
by two women in there mid 20’s, a little girl, and what looked to be an
American man, though I wasn’t sure. I brought my bags to my room, was told to
sit down in the front yard, by various hand movements since I literally had no
idea what they were saying to me.
My mom, two sisters, a brother and the American looking man all sat in a
circle trying to speak to me and I kept just smiling, saying “ Estoy cansada,
soy de California, me gusta….., no me gusta… trying my hardest to remember the
Spanish I had in high school and what some friends have helped me with before I
left. In a conversation that kept
going in circles because we couldn’t communicate efficiently, the American
looking man, in fact was American as he butted in translating what they were
asking. Turns out he was the previous volunteer that was visiting my family the
same weekend that I arrived, which ended up being a tremendous amount of help. Tony is Agriculture volunteer from G40
who had the same Spanish level as me when he arrived and gave me great advice
on how to make the most of my Peace Corps experience, warned me on the
challenges I may face, helped me improve my confidence of learning a new language
and getting my familiar with my huge family and the community. Tony stayed with us for three days,
which gave me a great step in integrating as we was able to help me translate
some things to my family which helped us better understand each other….
To be continued….Introducing my family!!!!
Mailing address for those interested in mailing me something from now through the end of November:
Kelsey Eaton, PCT Cuerpo de Paz/CECP 162 Chaco Boreal c/ Mcal. Lopez Asuncion 1580, Paraguay (South America)
