What have I been up to...?

When I first joined Peace Corps, every little thing was new, so there often felt like there was a lot with which I could update my blog. However, as my service progressed, particularly towards the end of my fourth month in training until now, I was making the same motions over and over, none of which seemed particularly newsworthy. Still, after receiving an irate email from a precocious certain someone demanding to know if I had died, it occurs to me that I should perhaps provide you all with an update.

I've just completed my 6th month in Paraguay. In my first three months, as most of you already know, I stayed in Santo Domingo, where I received my training. Then, three months ago, I moved to my site, which is called Potrero Pucu. (Again, most of you know all this, but its been a while.) I began quickly, teaching compost workshops, building veggie gardens with a few of my families here, starting to get to know my community, and also starting my community-wide health census.

About seven weeks in, I moved to a neighboring community called Potrero Naranjaity, where I lived until just recently. I was staying in a very nice house with three rooms, a modern bathroom, room to raise pigs, horses, and also grow a vegetable garden. There were also loads of fruit trees. P Naranjaity was about a kilometer and a half from the center of Portero Pucu - not all that far, but it increasingly felt like a different world. The houses, like the one where I was staying, were almost all better equipped than Potrero Pucu's houses, and several families owned cars or had running water.

I decamped from there and moved in with another family back in Potrero Pucu. It doesn't have running water, and it's a much poorer family. On the other hand, the view outside my window is incredible. Also, perhaps more importantly, this family doesn't really speak Spanish, so in the past week I have learned more Guarani than I have in all my previous training in Paraguay.

Besides whipping along with my Guarani training, I and other members of my G had our Reconnect - a week of meetings and workshops at the three month mark to kick-start this next phase of our service. I've trucked through about 37 of my 50 censuses, begun the world map at our local school, and a few days ago I hauled about 2000lbs of sand to the school to help them renovate their bathrooms.

I also went pig-hunting (My family had a sow run free and give birth in the wild), and have been little by little recovering from that ankle sprain. Looking ahead, I'll be finishing up my census, finishing the world map, and starting between one and five groups or commissions. the goal (as I see it from the information I've gathered in my census) is that we need to start a Fogon Commission, a Running Water Commission, and a 2-4 woman's groups. (Woman's groups can work on anything from cooking classes to production depending on what they want to focus on.)

It continues to be an incredibly rewarding experience, though certainly trying and confusing.
There's a lot more to say on this, but another volunteer in my G summed it up better than I could.

"I arrived in site with high hopes determined to not get bored or depressed and determined to at least start every project that was needed. Now I’m not writing this to say that I’m bored and depressed and not getting anything done… but sometimes I feel that way. I moved into this community knowing my two contacts and their families and also knowing that part of my job is to meet everyone here and explain who I am and why I’m here and figure out what it is they really need. My idea of what work is has changed a lot and some days if I spend a good few hours visiting with people, I consider that work, even if most of the time I sit in silence listening to other people talk (which is usually the case)... I usually get up between 6 and 7, depending on how long I feel like sleeping in and typically spend the morning drinking mate (hot terere), helping out with preparing breakfast and lunch and cleaning up a little bit, do some laundry, and sometimes I do a little reading...

The thing about my life as a Peace Corps Volunteer is that it usually sounds more exciting on paper than it really is and people telling you that you will have hard days or be bored is a lot different than the actual experience. ... " ---> You can see more on her blog ----> http://www.alisonpatt.blogspot.com/

My experience as a volunteer is a bit different than Ali's (guys deal with a whole different mindset here), but in general, it's been three months of lowering expectations, integrating, and just getting used to things.

More to come shortly...