The Long Goodbye, Part 2

I am incredibly busy in site right now, and that’s exactly how its supposed to be.  During training they told us all these things about how your service is going to be.  They explain that, at least for agriculture volunteers, the first few months of service are going to feel slow. Then, most volunteers move into their own house and things speed up.  The first year mark rolls around and volunteer projects are getting off the ground.  Then, the second year just flies by.  Community members know the volunteer and have more confidence in her, meaning the second half of the second year is just plain busy.

Tereré

That’s exactly how it went for me.

I drank a LOT of tereré in the first few months with EVERYONE.  It didn’t fee like I was doing much, and I worried that I was a “bad” volunteer.  But that long community integration time has been paying off this second year.  I’m glad I did worry to much about doing charlas and tallers (lessons and workshops) in my first few months, my language wasn’t good enough anyway.  The result of waiting, is that now people KNOW me and are (mostly) willing to listen to me.

There is also something they talked about in training, called the “emotional rollercoaster.”  It talks about the emotional ups and downs that most volunteers experience.  This is the best link I could find.  Basically it breaks down, in astounding detail, the highs and lows of service.  There are several swings in the 10 weeks of training, then a little peak when you get to site, then a dip as you relies what exactly your in for for the next two years.  It goes up again as you settle into life in the country. There is a peek at the year mark and a dip directly after; perhaps a indicating that your pleased with how far you have come in a year, and then the realization that you have a year left.  Then it evens out for most of the second year.  Finally, it dips at 2 to 3 months before your COS (close of service) date; the time during which you are worrying about the future, trying to finish up your work, and saying goodbye to the people you have grown to love and quite likely will never see again.

You should all be impressed that I limited my self to just three tree planting photos...

During training I rolled my eyes and for the most part ignored these predictions.  But I came a cross the paper detailing these ups and downs about a month ago, and was absolutely astonished at how accurate they were to my own experience.  Apparently they actually know what they are talking about in training.

One of the schools.

On top of being busy with work in site, there is also the astounding amount of paperwork necessary to leave Peace Corps.  Remember all that paperwork you had to do to get into Peace Corps, well you have to do almost as much to leave it!  I was all set to start applying for jobs while in-country, but I have decided to just wait until I get back to the states.  The busyness and my oh-so-slow internet connection, just make it too difficult.  Since almost no one in my community knows I have a computer, they don’t realize that I’m actually working when I’m inside my house.

English Class!

I finally met my “follow up” this week.  For the most part, Peace Corps Paraguay has a 6 year, three volunteer, rotation for any given site. The idea is that there is a “first time” volunteer, and then two separate “follow-up” volunteers.  I was a first time volunteer. I was my community’s first resident volunteer.  My responsibility was to build a foundation of understanding and good will upon which follow up volunteers could build, along with continuing any projects.  The fact that my community wanted another volunteer after me, and was viewed by Peace Corps as a good functioning site for one, is fantastic.  I think I got a really good follow up and I am very hopeful for her and for the community.  I absolutely wish her the best (I’m not saying her name or posting a photo because I haven’t asked her permission).  She will have a very different service that I did (everyone’s service is unique), but I think she and the community will do great things together!

Piña Poty, the Women's Committee.

I know I started out this post saying how busy I am.  But I wrote that several weeks ago, now its much more tranquillo.  I am mostly just wrapping up my classes and packing up my house… and saying goodbye.

First Host Families

After over a year in Paraguay, I am visiting the host family I had during training. I lived with them for 2 ½ months. They are special because they are the first Paraguayans to really interact with volunteers before we have gotten a handle on social norms, language, or even local food. We get off the plane in Asuncion, and (depending on what time the flight came in) we are bussed to our host communities and dropped on our host family’s doorstep. Volunteers are instructed to side step the possibly rocky conversations about religion, sexuality, politics or race that might come up, but other than that, we are very much our American selves. We haven’t yet learned that long, seemingly awkward, pauses in conversation while sipping tereré are perfectly normal. We haven’t yet become accustomed to people wiping their mouth on the tablecloth or picking their nose publicly without shame. We still might feel offended or uncomfortable if someone makes an observation about our weight or skin color. During training, our host families see us make many a fauz pas. They see us react uncomfortably to situations or comments that are perfectly normal and acceptable in Paraguayan society. They have to deal with us accidentally doing and saying things that are perfectly normal in the USA, but inappropriate here. They might see us battle our first bout of homesickness… or physical sickness like continuous vomiting and diarrhea (which must be almost as bad to overhear as it is to experience). Essentially they see us at a very vulnerable stage in our time in-country. We are still learning the basics. We make mistakes with them that after a month or two in country we would never dream of making, and by the time we get placed in our permanent site, we forgot we ever had to learn.

It is hard to be a trainee, but being a host family is challenging too.

classes and training

Wow have my days been busy! Each hour of the day (or at least the time between 8 and 5) is heavily scheduled during training. When we have training at the main center, we have to take two different buses from our little outer communities. All in all, it takes about 40 mins to get from my casa, to the training center. Not a bad commute, although very crowded on the buses.
My host mother tought me a new, and delicious way to eat oranges. First you cut a bit of the top off, than you peal it with a knife, but leave it encased in the white skin. Then you slowly squise it and slurp up the juice as it rises to the top where you cut off a bit. Once you have gotten all the juice out, you can open it up and eat the pulp (if there is any left).
Very good.

And it starts

We are in Brazil now suffering through a 13 hour layover on our way to Paraguay. I got to meet the whole group in Miami at staging, and so far everyone seems fantastic. A great many of the 47 volunteers recently graduated college in May, but several of them have a few years of post college or gradute life under their belts. Its nice to finally be able to talk about my hopes and consernes with other people who have been obsesing over the PC in the last few months too. We each have little differnt bits of information about our job assignemtns and about Paraguay itself. Its difficult to remember names at the moment, but Im sure that over the next three months we will all get to know each other very very well.
Im sure my blog posts will get more exciting as we move along in training.