So this week has been a bit crazy. I had been feeling kind of sick last Wednesday, but didn't really have time to be sick, so I pushed through it. Saturday I went to help a fellow PCV plant trees with an environmental camp she was doing in her site. By the time the camp was over and we had eaten lunch, I was just feeling completely exhausted. I had been planning on going to a birthday party for a 15 year old with my favorite family in my barrio, but just wasn't up for it. I did basically nothing on Saturday evening, and when I woke up on Sunday I felt terrible. I realized I had been taking ibuprofen steadily for 5 days, so decided to wait a while until I could figure out if I had a fever. I didn't feel particularly sick--but every muscle and joint in my body hurt, I had a headache, and I was just exhausted. When I finally took my temperature, I had a fever of 103!! I called the medical office, but was basically told to keep taking ibuprofen and toughen up. I said it seemed a lot like the symptoms of dengue (which is a major problem in my barrio), and the doctor agreed with me, but still said there was nothing I could do. Thanks. Anyway, I took two Benadryl and knocked myself out for about 13 hours. Monday I felt a bit better and my fever had gone down to just over 100, so I read in my hammock until my trainee got to my house for a four day visit. (Yes, obviously all I want to do when I have a high fever is host someone I don't know for four days.) The visit was good--I basically just had to show the trainee what life is like for a real live Peace Corps Volunteer. That included explaining that stuff gets cancelled last minute constantly, and that about half of the kids show up for school if there is rain, which there was.
Anyway, I survived the week, and don't think I still have a fever. (Small celebretory dance.) I also got a phone call from the Peace Corps Office yesterday. This year marks the 45 year anniversary for Peace Corps Paraguay, Paraguay's bicentennial, and the Peace Corps 50th anniversary. Obviously the PCO decided to celebrate all those things together. They're making a new Peace Corps Paraguay video, which I assume will be shown to new trainees here, and to promote PC PY in general. They chose me as one of the PCVs to interview! I'm not sure what this will entail, but am feeling pretty...ummm...special. Hopefully things turn around in my barrio in the next few weeks and people stop cancelling nearly every event I'm a part of so I can become slightly more positive before this interview. It has been, to say the least, a really rough week. I'm feeling pretty discouraged and frustrated. Here's hoping things turn around and I don't come off as a total Negative Nancy in this interview.....
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Big News and Meat Radio
Yesterday was full of news! I went to finally have the mayor of Limpio sign the document that will cede the room in the municipal-run community center to the library committee. This means that he or future mayors will not be able to take any books, materials, or furniture from our library. It means that the library will continue to be communal—just for my neighborhood of Villa Madrid. I also got a phone call from the Peace Corps Office, saying that my SPA Grant of $3,000 has arrived for us to buy books and furniture for the new library. If this seems pretty late in the game, considering I have only 2 months left, it’s because it is. My library committee and I have about 4 weeks to spend all the money, so that’ll be a big push and will definitely keep me very busy. I’ll leave a lot of the organization piece to the library commission and my follow-up volunteer (who will be here for 2 years and arrive in my site a few days before I leave).
I was also at the municipality yesterday morning to finalize a truck to go to the water treatment plant in Limpio for 100 trees for a neighbor PCV to take to her town (about 20 minutes away by bus). Though she (the PCV) doesn’t live in Limpio, the mayor agreed to donate the trees since I’m going to be helping her plant them in her environmental camp that is running through Saturday in her neighborhood. Though they didn’t have any municipal trucks available, they sent the mayor’s private chauffer with the mayor’s truck. Yes, I have this kind of pull with the mayor, apparently.
Unfortunately, I also heard some bad news yesterday. As I believe I’ve mentioned, Paraguayans are notorious for their wandering eyes (and I’m not talking about the kind that can be simply solved with an eye patch at a young age, though that is also a problem for some). It is pretty common for couples to cheat on each other, particularly the men. This may come from Paraguay’s history—particularly the War of the Triple Alliance in which Paraguay lost nearly 90% of its male population. Whatever the reason, cheating is a reality in Paraguayan culture. So, supposedly one of the main male contacts with whom I work on the library committee cheated on his wife (another very active member in the library committee) while she was away working in Argentina for the past 2 months to make money. Again, I’m not sure what happened, but they’re talking about separating. They have 5 kids, ages 5 to 20. It is just really sad, and really unfortunate for the kids, obviously. But, on a more selfish note, it puts a big kink in the library process. I’m hoping, for everyone’s sake, that they end things amicably. Both of them are from northern Paraguay, so it would be a huge strain on the kids for one to move back north. We shall see. I think I’m going to talk to the wife today after she talks to a lawyer.
Let's move on from "radio so'o" (which means gossip but is literally translated as "meat radio") to the actual radio... I do the radio show each week with two other PCVs and we talk about various topics. Last week was environmental issues, particularly against littering and how to recycle. Today we talked about healthy relationships, the decision of when to have sex, and the lack of the sex talk between parents and their kids. I’ll spend the afternoon today making banana bread and then going to a youth assembly to hopefully expand the youth group I’ve been working with for the past year and a half. I’m not sure how I got roped into baking for a bunch of teenagers, but I wish I was more surprised to be doing so. Better go bake!
I was also at the municipality yesterday morning to finalize a truck to go to the water treatment plant in Limpio for 100 trees for a neighbor PCV to take to her town (about 20 minutes away by bus). Though she (the PCV) doesn’t live in Limpio, the mayor agreed to donate the trees since I’m going to be helping her plant them in her environmental camp that is running through Saturday in her neighborhood. Though they didn’t have any municipal trucks available, they sent the mayor’s private chauffer with the mayor’s truck. Yes, I have this kind of pull with the mayor, apparently.
Unfortunately, I also heard some bad news yesterday. As I believe I’ve mentioned, Paraguayans are notorious for their wandering eyes (and I’m not talking about the kind that can be simply solved with an eye patch at a young age, though that is also a problem for some). It is pretty common for couples to cheat on each other, particularly the men. This may come from Paraguay’s history—particularly the War of the Triple Alliance in which Paraguay lost nearly 90% of its male population. Whatever the reason, cheating is a reality in Paraguayan culture. So, supposedly one of the main male contacts with whom I work on the library committee cheated on his wife (another very active member in the library committee) while she was away working in Argentina for the past 2 months to make money. Again, I’m not sure what happened, but they’re talking about separating. They have 5 kids, ages 5 to 20. It is just really sad, and really unfortunate for the kids, obviously. But, on a more selfish note, it puts a big kink in the library process. I’m hoping, for everyone’s sake, that they end things amicably. Both of them are from northern Paraguay, so it would be a huge strain on the kids for one to move back north. We shall see. I think I’m going to talk to the wife today after she talks to a lawyer.
Let's move on from "radio so'o" (which means gossip but is literally translated as "meat radio") to the actual radio... I do the radio show each week with two other PCVs and we talk about various topics. Last week was environmental issues, particularly against littering and how to recycle. Today we talked about healthy relationships, the decision of when to have sex, and the lack of the sex talk between parents and their kids. I’ll spend the afternoon today making banana bread and then going to a youth assembly to hopefully expand the youth group I’ve been working with for the past year and a half. I’m not sure how I got roped into baking for a bunch of teenagers, but I wish I was more surprised to be doing so. Better go bake!
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Best. Day. Ever. (but sans H2O!)
Best. Day. Ever.
OK, so maybe not best day ever, but I’ve had an excellent day. And here’s why: I had a great meeting with the mayor of Limpio. Limpio is a town of 80,000, and I live about 3km outside of it in a neighborhood of 800 houses. It was only brought to my attention by a friend from the states that knowing the mayor of a town of 80,000 is weird, but I don’t find it strange in any way. The current mayor is named Tito, but his brother was the previous mayor. Though the previous mayor was supportive enough in my projects and always donated money when various neighborhood groups I’m involved with asked, I wasn’t the biggest fan. The reason? The traditional greeting between a man and a woman in Paraguay is a double kiss—a cheek-to-cheek on both sides. (Generally your lips don’t make any contact.) The old mayor used to intentionally aim for the corners of my mouth. It made me uncomfortable, and with good reason. Since the woman is generally in control of what kind of greeting it is between a man and a woman (double kiss or handshake), after he pulled this maneuver with me twice I gave him the hard extended hand, signifying that I was only interested in a handshake. That didn’t help him from doing the “killer” move on me. I say Killer, because that’s what we used to call it at the camp where I used to work. Someone is designated as the “killer” and while everyone goes around shaking hands, he/she scratches the palm of the hand of the other person. The other player then shakes hands with a few other people and keels over dead. It is truly a great game, but the former mayor was not playing this game at the time. It is a (super creepy) sexual advance.
Regardless, this new mayor, Tito, is not creepy towards me in any way—he is actually quite professional. I’m very pleased with this fact, to say the very least. Today we had a meeting in which I wanted to talk to him about three things. 1) Peace Corps in general, that I am getting a follow-up volunteer in my site when I leave in April that he should coordinate projects with, and that I’m trying to send an environmental PCV to another section of Limpio to work with the water treatment plant, which has a huge amount of veggie seeds and vegetables and trees that anyone can transplant for free. Essentially, I wanted to show him how great Peace Corps is and how helpful we can be to Limpio. 2) If he wanted to sign a note saying that he’d send 100 saplings to the next town over so I could help another PCV do an environmental camp with kids. This was only tricky in that I was asking for him to send a truck over with the trees so we wouldn’t have to take them on the bus, and it is actually not benefitting Limpio in any way. 3) This is the most important, and what I was buttering him up for, to be perfectly honest. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’m working with a library committee to build and start a library. The problem is, we want to put the library in a municipal building without giving all of the power to the municipality to move the library to wherever they choose. This means asking the mayor to sign a document. I was a bit letrada (this basically means sneaky/tricky in PY) and told him that we were looking for a place where we could put the library, but where it is safe, and has a night guard. He fell for my wonderful trap and suggested the municipal-run community center in my neighborhood. Though we haven’t signed a contract as of yet (that should happen this upcoming week), he is enthused about the project and more than willing to help. This was a huge load off my shoulders. We should be getting the money any day now, and will soon be buying books and the shelves and such to equip the library with all it needs. My library committee and my follow-up will most likely be in charge of organizing it and getting the ball rolling, since I have such little time left here.
On another note, the mayor gave me some other good news. He said that he is donating the money to fix the motor on the water tank that gives me and about 350 other houses water daily. My water situation is unstable to say the least, with water about 5 hours a day, but the motor broke on Friday and we have been without a single drop of water ever since. I ran out of potable water yesterday, which…umm…sucked, but my neighbors gave me a bunch today since they have a different (and more expensive) water source. I have a big barrel of water I fill whenever I can in case of emergencies, but even that is down to about 2 inches of water. Today I bathed at the Peace Corps Office, since I had to go in there briefly to deal with some other things, but otherwise I’ve just been using an absurdly small amount of water to bathe. To be honest, I’ve not been the cleanest person here the past few days…and remember, we’re in the midst of summer. Thankfully it has been rainy and a bit cooler in the past few days or I have no idea how I’d be surviving… I’m hoping that tomorrow the motor on the water tank gets fixed and things return to normal.
OK, so maybe not best day ever, but I’ve had an excellent day. And here’s why: I had a great meeting with the mayor of Limpio. Limpio is a town of 80,000, and I live about 3km outside of it in a neighborhood of 800 houses. It was only brought to my attention by a friend from the states that knowing the mayor of a town of 80,000 is weird, but I don’t find it strange in any way. The current mayor is named Tito, but his brother was the previous mayor. Though the previous mayor was supportive enough in my projects and always donated money when various neighborhood groups I’m involved with asked, I wasn’t the biggest fan. The reason? The traditional greeting between a man and a woman in Paraguay is a double kiss—a cheek-to-cheek on both sides. (Generally your lips don’t make any contact.) The old mayor used to intentionally aim for the corners of my mouth. It made me uncomfortable, and with good reason. Since the woman is generally in control of what kind of greeting it is between a man and a woman (double kiss or handshake), after he pulled this maneuver with me twice I gave him the hard extended hand, signifying that I was only interested in a handshake. That didn’t help him from doing the “killer” move on me. I say Killer, because that’s what we used to call it at the camp where I used to work. Someone is designated as the “killer” and while everyone goes around shaking hands, he/she scratches the palm of the hand of the other person. The other player then shakes hands with a few other people and keels over dead. It is truly a great game, but the former mayor was not playing this game at the time. It is a (super creepy) sexual advance.
Regardless, this new mayor, Tito, is not creepy towards me in any way—he is actually quite professional. I’m very pleased with this fact, to say the very least. Today we had a meeting in which I wanted to talk to him about three things. 1) Peace Corps in general, that I am getting a follow-up volunteer in my site when I leave in April that he should coordinate projects with, and that I’m trying to send an environmental PCV to another section of Limpio to work with the water treatment plant, which has a huge amount of veggie seeds and vegetables and trees that anyone can transplant for free. Essentially, I wanted to show him how great Peace Corps is and how helpful we can be to Limpio. 2) If he wanted to sign a note saying that he’d send 100 saplings to the next town over so I could help another PCV do an environmental camp with kids. This was only tricky in that I was asking for him to send a truck over with the trees so we wouldn’t have to take them on the bus, and it is actually not benefitting Limpio in any way. 3) This is the most important, and what I was buttering him up for, to be perfectly honest. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’m working with a library committee to build and start a library. The problem is, we want to put the library in a municipal building without giving all of the power to the municipality to move the library to wherever they choose. This means asking the mayor to sign a document. I was a bit letrada (this basically means sneaky/tricky in PY) and told him that we were looking for a place where we could put the library, but where it is safe, and has a night guard. He fell for my wonderful trap and suggested the municipal-run community center in my neighborhood. Though we haven’t signed a contract as of yet (that should happen this upcoming week), he is enthused about the project and more than willing to help. This was a huge load off my shoulders. We should be getting the money any day now, and will soon be buying books and the shelves and such to equip the library with all it needs. My library committee and my follow-up will most likely be in charge of organizing it and getting the ball rolling, since I have such little time left here.
On another note, the mayor gave me some other good news. He said that he is donating the money to fix the motor on the water tank that gives me and about 350 other houses water daily. My water situation is unstable to say the least, with water about 5 hours a day, but the motor broke on Friday and we have been without a single drop of water ever since. I ran out of potable water yesterday, which…umm…sucked, but my neighbors gave me a bunch today since they have a different (and more expensive) water source. I have a big barrel of water I fill whenever I can in case of emergencies, but even that is down to about 2 inches of water. Today I bathed at the Peace Corps Office, since I had to go in there briefly to deal with some other things, but otherwise I’ve just been using an absurdly small amount of water to bathe. To be honest, I’ve not been the cleanest person here the past few days…and remember, we’re in the midst of summer. Thankfully it has been rainy and a bit cooler in the past few days or I have no idea how I’d be surviving… I’m hoping that tomorrow the motor on the water tank gets fixed and things return to normal.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Otro Dia
So, kids are a huge part of my life here, to say the very least. They come visit me all the time to color, or read, or just play. Sometimes they decide my house is too messy and do my dishes. I’ve shown some the joys of the internet, about a jillion pictures from my life, and how to cook various foods. I made pancakes for one of my favorite families last week. I’ve become so used to just cooking for myself that it was much more of a to-do than I expected. On top of that, the kids kept asking if I thought they’d “know how to eat pancakes”, which is an expression that I love and that has repeatedly gotten me out of eating kidney, liver, intestines, stomach, and other innards. I told the kids that I’m sure they’d have no problem figuring out how to eat pancakes, and I was right, except for one kid, Guillermo age 5, who for some God-forsaken reason apparently doesn’t like pancakes.
A few days ago I was bucket bathing, another part of my life that I had completely forgotten to mention in my last blog about things that’ll be different in the US. Here’s the thing—I like bucket bathing. When it’s cold and I have to heat up water and then jump around to keep myself quasi-warm while bathing is not enjoyable, I must admit. But with the hot weather that we have now (February is the hottest month here), I actually enjoy it. I think of it as jumping into a pool over and over again—it is that refreshing. Anyway, the other day I was bucket bathing at around 6:30pm before heading to a meeting on the other side of my barrio. I heard someone clapping outside of my house, which is the Paraguayan equivalent to ringing the doorbell. “Quien?” I yelled, knowing whoever was at the other side of my door could hear me thanks to the half-wall that makes up my bathroom. It was a few kids who live a few blocks away, wanting to “study”, which really means color/play. I shouted that I had a meeting, so I didn’t have time to study, and they said they’d come back after, at 9pm to play. I said it was too late, but suggested “otro dia” we could play. This is essentially a total brush off. Saying “another day” is a passive way of being sure that no other date is set for play time with them. Here I say it to random people trying to sell things on the street, and we both pretend I’ll find them the next time I’m in town to buy their handicrafts. These particular kids get the brush-off because of the last time they came to visit. They’re nice enough kids, but brought their toddler cousin. The family very simply does not have the money to buy diapers, so they let the toddler urinate and defecate wherever she so pleases. Generally, I have no real problem with this, though I don’t like to be around for it. Last time the kids visited, the kid pissed all over my chair and floor. It wasn’t really a problem, though I had them leave about ten minutes later. My floor is made up of big bricks and is easy to clean. I actually spit on my floor with some frequency—this may be another habit I need to change when I’m stateside again, huh?
On a totally different note, we’re still fundraising for the public library project in site. I adore my library group—it is a small group, but everyone is so dedicated and hard working. Also, they’re hilarious, which makes it a lot more fun to have 3 meetings a week with them. At the moment, they’re obsessed with the idea of putting a huge framed picture of me on the wall of the library. I’m quietly hoping someone suggests again that the library is named after me, but for now I’ll settle for a huge picture of me with glasses on and a finger to my mouth, forever shushing the room.
A few days ago I was bucket bathing, another part of my life that I had completely forgotten to mention in my last blog about things that’ll be different in the US. Here’s the thing—I like bucket bathing. When it’s cold and I have to heat up water and then jump around to keep myself quasi-warm while bathing is not enjoyable, I must admit. But with the hot weather that we have now (February is the hottest month here), I actually enjoy it. I think of it as jumping into a pool over and over again—it is that refreshing. Anyway, the other day I was bucket bathing at around 6:30pm before heading to a meeting on the other side of my barrio. I heard someone clapping outside of my house, which is the Paraguayan equivalent to ringing the doorbell. “Quien?” I yelled, knowing whoever was at the other side of my door could hear me thanks to the half-wall that makes up my bathroom. It was a few kids who live a few blocks away, wanting to “study”, which really means color/play. I shouted that I had a meeting, so I didn’t have time to study, and they said they’d come back after, at 9pm to play. I said it was too late, but suggested “otro dia” we could play. This is essentially a total brush off. Saying “another day” is a passive way of being sure that no other date is set for play time with them. Here I say it to random people trying to sell things on the street, and we both pretend I’ll find them the next time I’m in town to buy their handicrafts. These particular kids get the brush-off because of the last time they came to visit. They’re nice enough kids, but brought their toddler cousin. The family very simply does not have the money to buy diapers, so they let the toddler urinate and defecate wherever she so pleases. Generally, I have no real problem with this, though I don’t like to be around for it. Last time the kids visited, the kid pissed all over my chair and floor. It wasn’t really a problem, though I had them leave about ten minutes later. My floor is made up of big bricks and is easy to clean. I actually spit on my floor with some frequency—this may be another habit I need to change when I’m stateside again, huh?
On a totally different note, we’re still fundraising for the public library project in site. I adore my library group—it is a small group, but everyone is so dedicated and hard working. Also, they’re hilarious, which makes it a lot more fun to have 3 meetings a week with them. At the moment, they’re obsessed with the idea of putting a huge framed picture of me on the wall of the library. I’m quietly hoping someone suggests again that the library is named after me, but for now I’ll settle for a huge picture of me with glasses on and a finger to my mouth, forever shushing the room.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Scabies Free and Winding Down
I talked on Skype with my brother today. He’s in India and is super guapo (that means hard working here, though elsewhere means good looking) and was harassing me about updating my blog, which I somehow haven’t done in a full month. I realized that it isn’t that I don’t have anything going on in Paraguay, it’s just that things here just seem so normal to me. My library committee is trucking along, doing fundraisers for the 25% of the funds needed to build the library. The other 75% is (hopefully) coming in a couple of weeks from a SPA grant. I had originally wanted to do a Peace Corps Partnership for the money, which would have meant asking everyone I know to donate money, but the SPA grant (through USAID) seemed like a better option. All in all, the project will cost $4,000 and will be passed along to my follow-up, who arrives in Paraguay tomorrow. (NUTS!)
We had our Close of Service conference last week, which just meant a load of paperwork and realizing that I’m actually going to be leaving this wonderful and sometimes weird place in about two and a half months. Some of it was nice to think about—traveling after Peace Corps a bit through South America with my best friend from Peace Corps, going back to the US (and family, friends, and delicious foods that are included in that). But other parts made me anxious. I’m applying to grad school right now, which is an incredibly strange process to do from my house in Paraguay. I can’t believe that I will no longer be living in the fantastic community of Villa Madrid that has made me feel like I’m welcome and at home. I’m sad to leave the great Peace Corps relationships I’ve built here. It is just such a mix of emotions.
And then I think of how different I’ve become since joining the Peace Corps. I realize that there are all sorts of things that will be strange not to do while back in the US:
1) Drinking terere (the wonderful Paraguayan tea) all day every day.
2) Grunting at animals.
3) Giving myself a free day because it’s raining, or looks like it might rain.
4) Eating popcorn for dinner. All the time.
5) Making faces at children on the bus.
6) Having inappropriate conversations in English no matter where I am.
7) Siesta.
8) Being stared at everywhere I go. Unabashedly.
9) Considering eating lunch/dinner in a grocery store a delicious meal.
10) Speaking Spanish (and mishimi Guarani) daily.
11) Not flushing toilet paper.
There are so many more, but I just can’t even think of them. The US seems like such a foreign place at this point. It’ll also be sad to realize that that 10 year old kid who has a “This is What a Feminist Looks Like” shirt probably knows what it means. I’ll miss those horrible English grammar errors on clothing… I’ll try to be better in the next few months keeping an eye out for things that no longer faze me but once did. My February resolution is now to be better about this blog. You’re welcome.
PS-Best news I got yesterday is that I don't have scabies! This is what success looks like.
We had our Close of Service conference last week, which just meant a load of paperwork and realizing that I’m actually going to be leaving this wonderful and sometimes weird place in about two and a half months. Some of it was nice to think about—traveling after Peace Corps a bit through South America with my best friend from Peace Corps, going back to the US (and family, friends, and delicious foods that are included in that). But other parts made me anxious. I’m applying to grad school right now, which is an incredibly strange process to do from my house in Paraguay. I can’t believe that I will no longer be living in the fantastic community of Villa Madrid that has made me feel like I’m welcome and at home. I’m sad to leave the great Peace Corps relationships I’ve built here. It is just such a mix of emotions.
And then I think of how different I’ve become since joining the Peace Corps. I realize that there are all sorts of things that will be strange not to do while back in the US:
1) Drinking terere (the wonderful Paraguayan tea) all day every day.
2) Grunting at animals.
3) Giving myself a free day because it’s raining, or looks like it might rain.
4) Eating popcorn for dinner. All the time.
5) Making faces at children on the bus.
6) Having inappropriate conversations in English no matter where I am.
7) Siesta.
8) Being stared at everywhere I go. Unabashedly.
9) Considering eating lunch/dinner in a grocery store a delicious meal.
10) Speaking Spanish (and mishimi Guarani) daily.
11) Not flushing toilet paper.
There are so many more, but I just can’t even think of them. The US seems like such a foreign place at this point. It’ll also be sad to realize that that 10 year old kid who has a “This is What a Feminist Looks Like” shirt probably knows what it means. I’ll miss those horrible English grammar errors on clothing… I’ll try to be better in the next few months keeping an eye out for things that no longer faze me but once did. My February resolution is now to be better about this blog. You’re welcome.
PS-Best news I got yesterday is that I don't have scabies! This is what success looks like.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
