START.

Well, this is the beginning. Today marks my third dia in Paraguay. In many ways, it seems like I´ve been here forever, but then I realize that I saw Jac, Trina, Em and the fam just last weekend! How crazy! Here is what I´ve got so far:
There are 31 new PC volunteers who are also starting in Paraguay at the same time. Some are from the Early Elementary Education group, most are for the Rural Development group, and 7 are in my group (Urban Youth Development). We all arrived in Miami on Tuesday, with many awkward silences, had some PC background course on Wednesday, then boarded a plane to Sao Paolo. I, of course, was the only one in the group to sit next to someone NOT in the group. So I had a nice convo about South America, travel, the lack of leg room in ALL flights, blah blah blah.
After a short lay-over, we arrived in Paraguay on Thursday around 10am. (Keep in mind that I'm actually two hours ahead of the east coast...this was extremely difficult for me to grasp for whatever reason.) We had lots of orientation here while everyone felt zombie-like and super stinky from the flghts, then met up with families in the evening.
My family is great! To get into the house, you have to go through a tienda (store) that they own where they sell pan (bread) (which includes little things that taste like stale mini bagels), fruit (apples, oranges, pineapple, etc), shoes, tea stuff, everything. My mother is 52, father 53, brother 24, his wife 19, and their baby 4 months old. The four month old threw up on me last night. I don´t know why this sort of stuff happens to me constantly. Everyone is great, and the father attempts to teach me Guarani constantly (the language that 70% of people here speak). Last night the mother showed me sooooooo many embarassing photos of her daughter (who lives across the street) in various dance costumes from Paraguay, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Arabic countries...I dont know. I was embarassed for her a bit (b/c really, who likes to have their mother whip out old photos?) but generally amused.
We had a language issue the other day when they asked my religion, I said my parents are Episcopalian and they said they´d drop me off at church tomorrow. (They´re Catholic, but apparently aren´t big church goers...)
Anyway, I´ll try to get good about blogging but am unsure of how much free time I´ll have. Hope things are great for everyone! As a super big plus, it is extremelyyyyy hot here but I´m the only one in my group with AC. HA! Que suerte!!