A Life Traveling...: Aspirantes en Paraguay

  The past ten weeks have gone by faster than one could ever imagine. In the past ten weeks, I have only posted two blogs post, this one making it my third. My lack of online presence represents a handful of things… First and fore most, my access to Internet is low and when I have it, it is slow. Secondly, my free time has been spent meeting amazing people, doing incredible things, and most importantly integrating into the Paraguayan culture. As I sit here contemplating what important things I should share with you all, my mind goes blank. Not because I haven’t been doing anything but because my schedule has been jam-packed with activities. My week of training has been spent with five in a half days of technical training and idioma. For the first two weeks I was studying Spanish, and for the last eight weeks I have been studying Guarani. I am proud to announce that I scored above my required level for Guarani—which is really great news given the fact that my site mainly speaks Guarani. My technical training has been jam packed with classes on vermiculture, apiculture, environmental education, trash management, conservation management, and working/ making gardens in Paraguay. This is just a quick over view on all the amazing things I have learned here.
            As for now, I am an official volunteer, and I’m headed to my site right after updating my blog. In site, I’m not sure if I will have reliable Internet or not, so in the chance that I don’t—Merry Christmas and Happy New Years. To give you an idea of what I will be doing in the beginning of site, for the first three months I am required to live with a host family to help me integrate into the community. I’m not really able to start any projects because it is all about integration, plus even if I wanted to, the heat won’t let me. The summers in Paraguay are excruciating hot—to the point where current volunteers have questioned if they have lost their mind and have sat all day in a chair with all four limbs in buckets of cold water.
            So what does that mean for me???? I’m going to walk around with a thermo of ice water and terrere to talk to every house in my community. That’s roughly 80 houses, averaging to about 300 people or so, doing a community wide assessment that will survey to see what the people want me to do, share with them who Peace Corps is and do my best to share our cultures.
            If I were to narrate all the amazing things that have happened in training- it would take a lot more time than what I have now. So more is to come once I have gotten into my site.
And mention that in the past ten weeks I have made an amazing group of friends that have become a reliable, healthy, and supportive network of people. We have all opened up to things that many people in the States may not even know, so cheers to all you G-43 Agriculture/Environmental peeps that have made this experience amazing.

Here is a photo of my specific training group in Cumbarity with our language trainers and tech trainers.