Then and Now

Six months ago my plane left the US bound for some country that many Americans don't even know exists. Paraguay has become my home and the people here my family. I still have dreams almost every night about being back in the States with my family and friends. I still sometimes wake up not knowing where I am and having to remind myself that I'm in Paraguay. I still have cravings for good cheese, chocolate or Kansas City barbecue. I've learned a lot in the past 6 months and I'm going to share some of those things.

I'm learning to cook! Real food, not just mac & cheese (although if anyone wants to send me some, I would be very happy). I've gotten pretty good at peeling vegetables with a knife. I actually enjoy eating lots of vegetables now! I can't really make anything without a recipe, let's not get crazy now.

Sharing has become a lot easier. Not that I didn't like to share before but it's different now. We share bites of food, the straw with tereré, glasses and silverware at meals. My host family does this thing where whoever gets the chicken heart cuts it into pieces and gives everyone a piece. I always thought that was cool.

I'm not as easily offended. During training my host mom commented on how everyone seemed to be losing weight except for me, who seemed to be gaining it. Not that my losing weight would be a good thing but I had never really been told something like that before. But I got into site and the women greet each other with "Hola gordita!" and it's meant endearingly. Because after all, if you're fat, you're happy!

Everyone knows everyone else's business. Secrets don't stay secrets for long and the best thing to do on a hot afternoon or a cold night is sit around and gossip. Everyone knows what I'm doing, where I'm living and who I danced with at the last fiesta. By the way, I'm supposedly getting married to my friend Eduardo because we danced for so long at the San Juan festival.

Bugs and spiders aren't really all that scary anymore. When I see a huge spider now I want to take pictures of it to gross people out back home. That's probably a good thing since there are tons of spiders living in my walls. We ignore each other though and it's all good.

Buses will always be late and over-filled so there's no reason to get upset about it. Usually there will be breast-feeding mothers, livestock and various furniture on the bus as well. I recently drank mate with a bus driver on a chilly morning while I was basically sitting on the dashboard. You just kinda have to go with it.

Along with going with the flow, I can now sit with a group of people only understanding about 10% of what's going on and be completely comfortable. I'm used to being stared at, being asked all sorts of ridiculous questions and saying thank you when someone says they like the color of my skin, as if I had anything to do with it.

If I want or need anything, I can't just ask for it directly because that would be rude. If I would like a glass of water at a neighbors house, I could wait for one to be offered, or I could say "Would you mind, if it's not too much trouble and if you're not too busy, getting me a glass of water and by the way, your outfit today is fantastic.” I'm no longer confused when someone says "come here a little" or when I'm told to put something "here no more". It's just more polite that way.

I've learned that many Guarani words sound almost exactly alike. Mburukuja, mbarakaja, mbaraka, and mbokaja just to name a few (passion fruit, cat, guitar and coconut palm). I'm pretty sure the native Guarani tribes just did this to confuse silly foreigners trying to learn their language in the future.

Roosters do NOT only crow at dawn. They crow all night and all day. And guinea hens are even worse. I didn't even know what a guinea hen was 6 months ago and now it's my nemesis at 4am when it won't shut up.

I've learned that I'm a lot stronger than I thought. I've done crazy things like dig a latrine hole with a bowl, teach a group of women how to bake bread in Guarani, sit around while everyone critiques everything about me, take a cold shower in the dark when it's so cold outside I can see my breath. Sometimes it feels like I've been here forever and then remembering I still have 21 months left makes me miss home so much. But most times I'm happy to have 21 months left because that means I still have a lot of time to do great things here.

Thank you all so much for your continued support. I love getting mail, I love hearing about what's going on in your lives and I think about you all everyday.

Love,
Mandi

A Day in My Life

I realize I haven't updated this in a couple months. That's because I don't really think my life has been that interesting lately. I don't have anything though-provoking or life-changing to write about so I'll just tell you all about a typical day in my life.

7:00am
I wake up to the sound of the giant pig squealing at the kitchen door because it wants to eat. It's a horrible noise but that's what pigs do so no reason to get upset about it. I lay in bed listening to the hustle and bustle around my house. My 20 year old sister has already left for work at the Municipality in the nearest town, Santani.

7:30am
I wander into the kitchen where my mom greets me with “Mba'éichapa neko'ê” (How did the sun rise? or How did you sleep?). Because I'm still not thinking that clearly in English, much less in Guarani I just reply with “Iporã” (Well). On my better days I can make a complete sentence with “Cheko'ê porã” but that usually doesn't happen. She replies with “Gracias a Dios” (Thanks be to God) then tells me to go sit down at the table so we can drink cocido. Cocido is delicious. It's yerba and sugar simmered over coals and then added to milk or water. We drink that and eat rolls or banana bread, if I can get my hands on some bananas, or chipa. Then we sit and listen to the radio and chat. My mom also sells soy milk so people come and go all morning with their 2 liter milk jugs getting refills for 2 mil (less than 50 cents).

10:00am
We eat a little snack and drink tereré together. If it's sunny we will sit outside in the shade and chat with neighbors who walk by. If it's rainy, like today, we stay under the porch and watch tv. My mom begins preparing lunch and I do laundry or go to the school to drink tereré with the teachers or hang out with other families and, you guessed it, drink tereré.

12:00pm
We all gather around the table for dinner. My 18 year old brother goes to pick up my sister from Santani for lunch. I am very lucky to be living here because my mom has a beautiful garden that she is very proud of. Because of this, she loves serving fresh veggies from her garden. It's also lettuce season right now so we have “salad” (lettuce, salt, oil and lemon) with every meal. The rest of lunch consists of a broth with meat or pasta or rice with meat and the ever-present mandioca. It's pretty much the same everyday.

1:00pm
On nice days we sit in the yard, eat fruit and drink tereré. I usually zone out of the conversation until I realize that someone has asked me something in Spanish and everyone is staring at me. Sometimes I go to the school or to another family's house. Lately I have been working on my house too. On rainy days everyone stays inside. I get some good reading time in and there is always a telanovela (soap opera) on tv, which my sisters are obsessed with.

4:00pm
At this point in the afternoon my host mom usually announces some social event that we will be going to soon. I never really get much warning on these things and the rest of the family already seems to know exactly what's going on. We have horse races, which usually are just men sitting around drinking beer while the occasional horse trots down the track. My mom, in addition to selling soy milk, also sells beer so it's a good event for her to go to. And if she brings her American daughter she gets even more business. I have also been to many rezos since I've been here. They are basically small memorial services. They happen 9 days after a person has died, then at 6 months, then a year, then every year after that until 5 years. People gather at the person's home and someone leads prayers for the deceased. Then they pass out chipa and cookies and candy and we socialize. I am usually a popular topic of conversation. My host mom introduces me as her daughter and other women always point out that I look more like Rosalba, my mom's sister who lives in Ciudad del Este. Apparently she is pale too. I would like to meet her sometime to see if these similarities truly exist. People tell me I'm linda (pretty) and I've been asked several times if I am German, Brasilera, a Mennonite or a model. They also ask if I have a boyfriend and tell me that I am going to find my husband here. Awesome, glad that's settled.

5:00pm
It's starting to get dark so everyone disperses to gather their cattle and herd them back to the pin for the night. If it's a chilly night we drink mate dulce, which is delicious or just tereré if it's a warmer night. We sit on the porch and enjoy each other's company. Sometimes neighbors come over and chat for a while. I usually get bored pretty quickly because all of the conversations are in Guarani so I wander off to my room to read or take a shower because it gets too dark. We don't have a light in the bathroom so showering is night is interesting. It's also nice to shower before it gets too cold because we don't have hot water.

8:00pm
The news comes on and we gather around to watch the news. It's surprisingly graphic compared with news in the US. My mom fixes dinner or sends someone out the the cruce (about 2km away) to buy empanadas if she doesn't feel like cooking. We eat dinner and watch the news and talk. Dinner has slightly more variety than lunch and I usually enjoy it a lot more. Sometimes it's a roast chicken, or fried eggs with veggie, or a mandi'o dish (my favorites).

8:30pm
Time for bed! My family goes to sleep pretty early so I head to my room and read or listen to music before I hit the hay around 9 or 9:30pm. It's very quiet at night except for the occasional dog fight or rooster crowing (the don't only crow at sunrise by the way).

I've sort of gotten into a routine and I'm discovering more and more ways that I can help this community. People still have to tell me “tranquilo, Amanda” some day when I get antsy about sitting around for hours. Life is pretty slow out in the campo but it's good. It's home.

Text me!

you can text me on my cell phone for FREE from this website: 

http://tigo.com.py/seccion/mundo-tigo

in the box that says 'envio de mensajes' click on the box that says PARA and select my area code: 0984 then type in the rest of my phone number: 610026

texto: type in your message

leave the 'pin' box blank

firma: put your name

codigo: type in the code on the left

click 'enviar' to send

It's super easy and I would love to hear from you! I'll try to get back to you asap. Things are going swimmingly, I love and miss you all!

The Rio Paraguay now flows through my room

I knew it was going to storm last night. I knew the rain would probably wake me up, but not like this. I was having a lovely dream last night when I was awoken by water gushing into my room. In the minute that it took me to realize I was actually awake and to get up out of bed, the water was already past my ankles. I looked around and realized where it was coming from: the gutter that ran along my family's house and through my room was falling apart. I stood there like an idiot not knowing what to do then started moving things away from the water, only to have them soaked again in minutes. Victorino was terrified and somehow ended up clinging to the wall. He kept jumping away every time I tried to pick him up but eventually I grabbed him by the nape and tossed him on my bed. I'm sure he was grateful.

At this point, my host mom had heard the ruckus and come in. She just stood there like me and said, “Ay! Hay agua!”. Yes host mom, hay agua. We grabbed some boards that were in the other room and used them to push the gutter back in place. We stood there for probably 10 minutes holding the gutter up and occasionally laughing at the craziness of the situation. Finally she had me hold both boards while she got a chair and more wood, which she shimmied between the gutter and the roof to hold it up. By this time a part of the gutter in my other room fell too and that room was beginning to flood. So I took my board, ran in there and held it up. My mom found a large piece of wood and propped it up with a chair and a bucket.

Once the water had stopped coming in, my oh-so-guapa host mom immediately got a squeegee and started clearing the water out of my room. The only problem was it was still storming like crazy outside and the water outside was just as high as the water in my room. So as she pushed water out, it just came right back in. But that woman worked like crazy and finally got a good amount of the water out. She was making jokes the whole time about how clean my floor was going to be and how I got to see the Rio Paraguay and how I probably had wanted to shower anyway.

Oh, and we did all this in the dark because the power was out. Este es mi vida!

New Address

I got a new address. This one is much closer to me at the local post office in Santani. When I get mail, the guy that works there will call me (convenient!). He even takes packages so send whatever you want. Also, I added to wish list to the side of this page. Just some things I'd like to have, if you want to send me a package but don't know what to send :)

Amanda Firestone, PCV
Correo San Estanislao
Avenida Independencia Nacional, 727
Codigo Postal, 8210
Paraguay
Sud America

What am I doing here?

So, I've had several people (including myself) wondering what the heck I'm doing here. You see pictures of fiestas, dinners, birthdays, fútbol tournaments and really not much else. So you might be thinking: she left for 2 years to eat and watch soccer with a bunch of strangers?!

I just arrived in my site last week. Nobody here knows me and there are still many people here who don't know what Peace Corps is and who have only seen one or two other people from the United States before. Right now I am here to build relationships and to build trust. I still don't know the language here very well. Many people here only speak Guarani or choose not to speak Spanish. So in order to get to know people I hang out, drink tereré, go to social events. That's the only way you learn.

Peace Corps teaches sustainable development. We don't just show up for a month or two, build some wells, then leave. We teach people things that will change they way that they live for the better so that when we leave they can continue what we have taught them. That doesn't happen overnight. I can't just show up in a school, tell kids to brush their teeth and wear their shoes and then hope everyone does it. I have to get to know families, get the know the kids, talk about parasites and teeth brushing multiple times.

So what am I doing here? I'm hanging out, drinking tereré. I'm building relationships. It may not seem like “work” by what we as Americans are used to but it's necessary to make a difference over the next 2 years.

I'm a big kid now

So as you probably know, I finally swore in last week. Yay! It was a nice, short ceremony. The Peace Corps country director and the US ambassador both said a few words. Then we all stood up, raised our right hands and took the oath that almost every US government official or worker takes to defend the Constitution and whatnot. Then we ate cake. I got to talk to the ambassador briefly and she told me about this Paraguay-Kansas Committee. Apparently Paraguay sends a lot of kids to school in Kansas and they live with families there. I'm not sure what school but I found the committee building later and took a picture. (I'll post pictures later—probably much later so hold your horses.)

Swearing-in weekend was awesome. Lots of volunteers were in Asuncion for various events. There was one called Ahendu where a bunch of people played/sang/performed. It was good. Basically it was a great way to spend our last weekend together as a “G” before going out to all different parts of the country. My last night there, a bunch of us went up to the roof of our hotel and hung out. I realized then how much I was going to miss everyone. These people who I only met 3 months ago have quickly become like family. We'll see each other every few months and now we have cell phones (YAY!!) but it's still sad to leave everyone.

On that note, I arrived in site today carrying a suitcase, a hiking backpack, a normal backpack, another bag and a cat in a birdcage. Only in Paraguay. I was nervous about arriving but once I got here I quickly remembered how much I love it here. My family welcomed me warmly and I got started settling in. I let my cat out of his birdcage and he immediately started peeing all over my stuff (thank you Vic Torino). Aside from that, he is the sweetest kitten. He was obviously not loved on very much the first few months of his life and now that I own him he follows me around everywhere and wants to cuddle all the time. I'm alright with that :).

So I finally made it! Don Pedro, the health coordinator, is coming with the rest of my stuff and hopefully my bike in 3 weeks to do my site presentation so until then I'll just meet families, drink tereré, learn some Guaraní and probably explain that I'm not a nurse about 8000 times. Woo!