Its been quite a couple of weeks! I´ve been busy, but have managed to upload pictures too so please follow the link at the bottom of my blog to see visual evidence of the fun and friends here in PY!
I had a trip into the capital, Asunción, about two weeks ago. It was really entertaining and great to see my friends that I´ve missed for 6 weeks, but it´s not my home. My home is here, out in the middle of no where, and after 3 days I was more than ready to return to my tranquil life. We did manage to see another movie, and go to an American restaurant... yes, we chose HOOTER´S! Turns out they play American football, so we went for that and seriously stayed for the wings!
At my house we have a pretty extensive love triangle going on, and I may be the one who benefits! We have two male dogs and one female. The girl, Chickitita, was on a type of birth control which is in the form of a shot and given to her every six months. They tried to give it to her and a few drops didn´t go in her hip, and she went into heat that night. We didn´t know who the daddy would be, but the giant dog, Tobi, has been really protective of her and naps with her during the day so looks like we know who big poppa is! In four months I may have a pupi!! (Puppy in spanish but pronounced poopy)
I´m sans a daily schedule so I´ve invented my own. Its been working pretty well and gives me a lot more direction with my days. Time for coop info is in there, as well as language study, visiting the school, talking with neighbors, exercise and of course.. CHE TIEMPO! (me time, in Guarani)
Last week I had my first brush with death. Yes, I killed a tarantula! I´m sure its of of many to come, but let it be known world... I screamed like a school girl throughout the entire process! I woke up to find it in my bathroom halfway under my trash can. I stared in disbelief for a solid 15 minutes debating my strategic attack. I eventually opted for one tennis shoe (why not both? your guess is as good as mine!) because I had the most control over my foot. Brooms seemed risky and I didn´t want it to charge at me! So I smashed it, with my right foot, and squealed!! The I had to scoop it up with cardboard and through it outside, all the while shivers ran down my spine. Good times!!
Yesterday was a blast! Real campo day for me! Got up at 4am to kill a cow! I had seen this before, so it was a little less traumatic since I knew what to expect. I will however, never eat the stomach again. I had tried it, and didn´t exactly enjoy the flavor, but now that I´ve seen them push probably 40lbs of poop out of it then just rinse with a hose and boil to it? I think I´m done, thanks! I also helped them prepare blood sausages... which I politely tried but also, won´t be requesting. They basically take the liver, heart and some other internal organs... grind them up, mix them with the cow´s blood then throw the concoction back into the small intestines. Yummy! My family was picking at it all day saying how good it was. Knowing the process just takes away the flavor for me.
Peace Corps has asked me to come into Asunción Monday to help them write an annual report for PC Washington, D.C. so I look forward to enjoying two days and three nights on their dollar! I also hope to pick up materials about bananas and pineapples so I can better understand the work of my farmers, potential projects for the women´s committee, materials to teach English when school gets out here in November, and information about a PC scholarship for my guarani teacher who is the perfect candidate! Its for any female in the country that has a desire to continue their education, and she´s more than qualified because she´s in hair school and becoming a teacher at the same time while still fitting in a few lesson for me each week. She´s great!
I´ve been doing a lot of reading, but I´ll start from here on out updated on my book selections.
Currently Reading: Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
Comments: hands down one of the subtly funniest books I´ve read to date!
And here are the pics.... They don´t all have captions right now because the computer is being slow, but the house ones are kind of obvious... before, and the glory that is NOW!
Peace Corps Paraguay Dos
I love you all and please keep the emails, notes, and packages coming!
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Thursday, October 4, 2007
And the adventure continues!
So let´s just walk through an average morning of Betsy trying to get to the internet, shall we? Great... So my alarm blares in my ear at a lovely 4:45am. I turn it off, wash my face and brush my teeth in just enough time to make it outside to see if the bus will even show up today. Last night was the first night in my house (woo hoo!) but while I´m bus waiting, I like to chat so I go over to neighbors house. Every time I hear a large vehicle trekking through our bumpy, dirt road I have to run out to the road so i don´t miss it. Usually there are 1-3 false alarms, but then it comes trucking down the road. This morning, I say goodbye to my family/neighbors as the bus driver´s little assistant guy is saying something to me as the bus continues to COAST on. I swear I hear ¨no brakes,¨ but can´t be sure yet that brakes in English is the same as in español. Regardless, the americana is a little confused and trying to figure out what they want me to do as the bus stops and clearly, is no longer functioning. Great! Is this my fault? I was the one they were slowing down for? Its right in front of my house? Needless to say, I feel awful and can do nothing about it.
So what´s the next logical step when you have a bus stranded 11km from the paved road with 15ish passengers, mostly old men and women? That´s right... flag down my host dad/neighbor (I´m switching to ¨neighbor¨ since I am now living solo, although I still consider them my family closest friends!) He´s a good guy, so he offers his truck. That´s right, his truck and a rope that looked a little too thin for my liking pulled that giant bus to a few different locations while the guys pushed at various, specified times. Eventually, after about 45 minutes of this potentially Beva-caused charade, we get to little hill in the road big enough to push us down and we start the engine. After this, I realize he was correct... he did mean brakes and if I even make it town to write my blog it will be a miracle! We sped through those country roads like the Dukes of Hazard, picking up zero passengers, including my nearest PC neighbor that had to walk 5km to the main road and get another bus (with working brakes, I´m sure.) The bus driver didn´t feel like slowing down over the 45 minute bus ride to town, but I made it alive so that´s exciting!
Oh buses in Paraguay...
As for updates, its been an interesting two weeks. After my last entry, I received a phone call from the PC office. Turns out the director of the coop and municipality volunteers, and our director of security for PY responsible for the safety of all 140 volunteers were fired. Misuse of government computers was the reason, but what that means is still very unclear. To make that day even brighter, my favorite doctor in the office (who worked there for 28 years and 9 months) quit. Why go to work if your buddies aren´t there? The PC/PY office lost 3 great paraguayan employees and its going to be hard to adjust without them! They were all great guys. To top of the week, we had a guy from our small 16 person training group quit. He was a coop volunteer, so now we´re down to a whopping 6. He was 35 and didn´t feel he could continue to do this for two years, so he fled back to DC. He´ll miss out, but we all choose our own paths!
After 6 days of painting, almost 4.000.000Gs (about $720), 631 songs on my iPod and a lot of sweat, my house is basically ready! I still need to buy fans and get them installed, but I slept there last night and although I think rats live in the roof of my kitchen, I´m still loving my house! Its great to have my Independence back, although my family/neighbors are sad that I´m not in there house. I thought Raquel (my host ¨mom¨) was going to cry last night, but I´m not far and still spend a lot of time with them. I´m glad to be on my own so I will be able to work on my projects in peace (3 and 8 year olds can be distracting... who would have known??) and explore other neighborhoods. Preparing my own food without judgement and exercising will be great! My first cooked meal was curried rice... appropriate, although I had to ask myself... am I in Peace Corps INDIA??
Speaking of projects, I basically have my next two year planned out in secondary projects but still have NO clue what do with the coop! That will come in due time, but for now I´m focusing on starting a women´s committee, a youth committee, and lots of activities for the school that´s near me including teaching English during the summer, doing health presentations (I´ll start with dental health next week!), art classes, and my big thing is a culture class once a month! These won´t all hit me at once, but at least I´m starting to get the ball rolling.
Speaking of art, I need your help! My years of Dance Marathon fundraising has left me no shame when it comes to asking for money! I´m starting to work with a committee here that is working to raise money for cameras kits so students here can learn more about photography and we can learn how they visual their world! Its called Ahecha, which is ¨I see¨ in Guarani. The project was inspired by the documentary Born in Brothels, which if you haven´t seen I HIGHLY recommend! It was a favorite during my social work studies at USC. Below is a link, and if you can give a small (or large!) donation I would really appreciate it. There is so little creative energy in this country, so us Peace Corps volunteers are trying to generate it one project at a time. Its the first committee within the PC/PY world that has really sparked my interest. I love art so much and it can be so important for development, but its rarely expressed here. We´re trying to raise just over $5,000 which is pennies compared to my old DM goal of $100,000! Help us reach this goal too if you can, and I thank you in advance! Donations can be made by clicking this link:
https://www.peacecorps.gov/resources/donors/contribute/projdetail.cfm?projdesc=526-179®ion=latinamerica
Well someone buy some ice skates and ship them to Satan... I actually went to church last week! It probably been a solid 10 years since I willingly went to church, but I want to experience every aspect of life here so I gladly got up Sunday morning and went. Turns out the kids here play the same game I loved as a child before Sunday school... kick the dead tarantula! Yep, that´s what they did in the TINY church with about 40 chairs and 20 church goers. I wish I would have had my camera! The service lasted about 2 hours and although there was an apparent priest upfront (90% of the country is Catholic), there were 2 guys in the congregation that actually felt what they were thinking was more important so they would often interrupt the priest mid sentence to present their views on the topic. It was all in Guarani so I didn´t understand 99% of what was said, but somehow they got on the topic of women in politics. That got all 20 people chatting up a storm! Not a good idea to put down women when without them you´d have a church of 2 long winded men! It was an interesting morning to say the least!
Tomorrow up I´m early again to catch a hopefully working bus to Asunción. Its been 6 weeks since I´ve been into the city and its time to pick up packages (hopefully!), mail, and more importantly... see my friends! My group of trainees is spread out and I´m the only one that hasn´t seen anyone else, so I´m more than excited to be reunited! Thanks for continuing to keep me in your thoughts and look for another update in a few weeks!
So what´s the next logical step when you have a bus stranded 11km from the paved road with 15ish passengers, mostly old men and women? That´s right... flag down my host dad/neighbor (I´m switching to ¨neighbor¨ since I am now living solo, although I still consider them my family closest friends!) He´s a good guy, so he offers his truck. That´s right, his truck and a rope that looked a little too thin for my liking pulled that giant bus to a few different locations while the guys pushed at various, specified times. Eventually, after about 45 minutes of this potentially Beva-caused charade, we get to little hill in the road big enough to push us down and we start the engine. After this, I realize he was correct... he did mean brakes and if I even make it town to write my blog it will be a miracle! We sped through those country roads like the Dukes of Hazard, picking up zero passengers, including my nearest PC neighbor that had to walk 5km to the main road and get another bus (with working brakes, I´m sure.) The bus driver didn´t feel like slowing down over the 45 minute bus ride to town, but I made it alive so that´s exciting!
Oh buses in Paraguay...
As for updates, its been an interesting two weeks. After my last entry, I received a phone call from the PC office. Turns out the director of the coop and municipality volunteers, and our director of security for PY responsible for the safety of all 140 volunteers were fired. Misuse of government computers was the reason, but what that means is still very unclear. To make that day even brighter, my favorite doctor in the office (who worked there for 28 years and 9 months) quit. Why go to work if your buddies aren´t there? The PC/PY office lost 3 great paraguayan employees and its going to be hard to adjust without them! They were all great guys. To top of the week, we had a guy from our small 16 person training group quit. He was a coop volunteer, so now we´re down to a whopping 6. He was 35 and didn´t feel he could continue to do this for two years, so he fled back to DC. He´ll miss out, but we all choose our own paths!
After 6 days of painting, almost 4.000.000Gs (about $720), 631 songs on my iPod and a lot of sweat, my house is basically ready! I still need to buy fans and get them installed, but I slept there last night and although I think rats live in the roof of my kitchen, I´m still loving my house! Its great to have my Independence back, although my family/neighbors are sad that I´m not in there house. I thought Raquel (my host ¨mom¨) was going to cry last night, but I´m not far and still spend a lot of time with them. I´m glad to be on my own so I will be able to work on my projects in peace (3 and 8 year olds can be distracting... who would have known??) and explore other neighborhoods. Preparing my own food without judgement and exercising will be great! My first cooked meal was curried rice... appropriate, although I had to ask myself... am I in Peace Corps INDIA??
Speaking of projects, I basically have my next two year planned out in secondary projects but still have NO clue what do with the coop! That will come in due time, but for now I´m focusing on starting a women´s committee, a youth committee, and lots of activities for the school that´s near me including teaching English during the summer, doing health presentations (I´ll start with dental health next week!), art classes, and my big thing is a culture class once a month! These won´t all hit me at once, but at least I´m starting to get the ball rolling.
Speaking of art, I need your help! My years of Dance Marathon fundraising has left me no shame when it comes to asking for money! I´m starting to work with a committee here that is working to raise money for cameras kits so students here can learn more about photography and we can learn how they visual their world! Its called Ahecha, which is ¨I see¨ in Guarani. The project was inspired by the documentary Born in Brothels, which if you haven´t seen I HIGHLY recommend! It was a favorite during my social work studies at USC. Below is a link, and if you can give a small (or large!) donation I would really appreciate it. There is so little creative energy in this country, so us Peace Corps volunteers are trying to generate it one project at a time. Its the first committee within the PC/PY world that has really sparked my interest. I love art so much and it can be so important for development, but its rarely expressed here. We´re trying to raise just over $5,000 which is pennies compared to my old DM goal of $100,000! Help us reach this goal too if you can, and I thank you in advance! Donations can be made by clicking this link:
https://www.peacecorps.gov/resources/donors/contribute/projdetail.cfm?projdesc=526-179®ion=latinamerica
Well someone buy some ice skates and ship them to Satan... I actually went to church last week! It probably been a solid 10 years since I willingly went to church, but I want to experience every aspect of life here so I gladly got up Sunday morning and went. Turns out the kids here play the same game I loved as a child before Sunday school... kick the dead tarantula! Yep, that´s what they did in the TINY church with about 40 chairs and 20 church goers. I wish I would have had my camera! The service lasted about 2 hours and although there was an apparent priest upfront (90% of the country is Catholic), there were 2 guys in the congregation that actually felt what they were thinking was more important so they would often interrupt the priest mid sentence to present their views on the topic. It was all in Guarani so I didn´t understand 99% of what was said, but somehow they got on the topic of women in politics. That got all 20 people chatting up a storm! Not a good idea to put down women when without them you´d have a church of 2 long winded men! It was an interesting morning to say the least!
Tomorrow up I´m early again to catch a hopefully working bus to Asunción. Its been 6 weeks since I´ve been into the city and its time to pick up packages (hopefully!), mail, and more importantly... see my friends! My group of trainees is spread out and I´m the only one that hasn´t seen anyone else, so I´m more than excited to be reunited! Thanks for continuing to keep me in your thoughts and look for another update in a few weeks!
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