It's SPRING time in October!!!

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd so it continues; this crazy, fun, difficult, adventurous, challenging, laid-back, spontaneous thing that they call the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer.

These last 6 weeks being back in Paraguay have FLOWN by! I can’t even imagine how fast the next year  and a half is going to fly!! While I do have my down-days… especially when I’m missing my family and my friends who are basically my family, I am very happy here. I just wish I could transplant you all here! They really do have it right. People just live. They enjoy each other. Time is not the most important. It is the “who” in their lives rather than the “what.” The first questions we ask in the states are about “what do you do?” That question is rather strange here. People work to live rather than live to work. One of the first questions you’ll get here is about your family... “how many brothers and sisters do you have? DO you miss them?” … I have 4 and I miss them SO much!

When I left off, I said I was going to the river… And I DID!

I got right to work when I returned from the U.S. We dove right in to our cooking and nutrition classes. I teach 3 classes a week. I teach once a week in each community. The course is 8 weeks long and the idea is that the women have to complete this course in order to receive a “Healthy Chef” certificate. This certificate is their ticket to participate in a fogon project next year (along with having a garden and planting ten trees.) I have about ninety students. They are mostly adult women but we have a few men and teenage girls, as well. There are 6 main topics that we are covering (cooking healthier sweets, homemade breads, cooking with soy, cooking meat in an oven, dairy, and fruit/vegetables), an introductory class, and a final class where they will have to pass an exam.


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The first class, I made everyone participate in an ice breaker to get comfortable with each other. I drew a giant cow on a piece of paper and had everyone in the circle go around and kiss the part of the cow from where they like to eat. Some people kissed the leg, some people kissed the head (they LOVE to eat cow head here,) some kissed the back, and some kissed the utters (they like milk.)

After everyone has kissed the cow, I now explain that they will now kiss the person to their right in the same place they kissed the cow. The ladies DIED in laughter. I LOVE THIS GAME. It was great except I soon realized that the one lady who kissed the utters (the boobs) of the cow was standing to my left. I was worried… and then SUDDENLY right when it was her turn to kiss my boobs, another lady walked in late and happened to stand right next to cow-boob-lady. Mind you, this lady has no idea what we are doing. Cow-boob-lady takes it upon her self to pull down this other lady’s v-neck blouse completely… nipple and everything. She then proceeds to SUCKLE FROM THIS LADIES TEET!!!! I DIED!! … DIED!!!! On the ground, crying laughing.

Well… no one will show up late to class anymore. An hour and a half later, this lady shows me her boob. It was still red from where her friend suckled. She said “good thing my husband is at work or he might have some questions!”

Today we cooked with dehydrated, texturized soy! We made soy empanadas, tacos, and stuffed bell peppers.

On Sundays we have started a culture and language club. I have about 40 members… they range from 9-24. It is mostly an English class but we also explore culture. This past week we played charades and they had to look at an English personality description and act it out. Their team had to practice the use of the verb “to be” and conjugate it to say “You are ___________? ”

Additionally, a group of 5 young adults come over to my house on Wednesday nights to practice their pronunciation in English and also have conversations. We spend the first hour practicing English and the Second hour they teach me Guarani.

I have been working in the two schools here quite a bit. We have covered dental  health, parasite prevention, and this week we completed hand washing.

For the dental workshops, I taught them songs, we played games with food cards and the kids had to put the “good food” in the healthy mouth and the “bad food” in the ugly mouth with cavities. We also played a game called “I can see your teeth.” I altered this game from something I learned as a volunteer camp counselor. We sat in a circle and the kids had to go around the circle and introduce themselves and say their favorite food… without using their teeth!! If they can see the teeth of a classmate, they have to slap their knees and yell “I can see your teeth!!” … but, again, without using their teeth! I think we all laughed equally as hard!

This week we made hand washing stations out of plastic 2-liter bottles. I had the kids paint them a week before and returned this week to finish the projects.  A lot of the kids do not have sinks in their houses and have not been taught proper hand washing techniques. Since 80% of the kids in Rural Paraguay have parasites, hand washing is an important thing for us to teach. How might one make a hand washing station, you might ask? :

1.)    Cut the bottom off the bottle

2.)    Paint the bottle

3.)    Attach fishing line to the bottom part of the bottle

4.)    Add water to the inside

5.)    Turn the cut off part of the bottle upside-down and place on top of the bottom part of the bottle, use as a soap dish

6.)    Attach the string to a tree

7.)    Twist the cap a little to let the water trickle out

8.)    Proceed with the hand washing

I usually spend my Saturday nights with a group about my age. We drink wine, play cards, and cook together. We switch off between American and Paraguayan dishes. Last weekend I taught them how to play poker and the week before that they taught me how to play a Paraguayan card game. We always have a great time. I am really lucky to have them here. Tomorrow we are going to make pretzels! YUM!!

Oh, yes! My birthday was last month… here are some photos from that day. My two best friends in the Peace Corps came to visit me. We spent most of the day picnicking in the woods and enjoying each other’s company. That night, we made Pizza and drank wine and coke with my Paraguayan family and friends….

Last week the kids and  made a Kyte!

I'm back!!!

I have been a terrible Blogger. I have made a goal to write in this blog 2x a month from now on. To make up for it, above is a video of my life in Paraguay!

This is going to be an extra-long post, since so much has happened since I last wrote. Where to begin…. Ah, yes! Someone wanted to stab me and so I moved sites!

Do not panic! It was all handled very well by Peace Corps and it was not a personal vendetta. A local robber had told someone in my community that the next time he saw me he would stab me if I didn’t give him all of my money. Unfortunately, someone forgot to inform him that I am a VOLUNTEER and don’t have any. Anywho, PC decided that it was not a safe situation for me. They took me out of the site and put me up in a hotel in Asuncion for 2 weeks while they located a new site for me.

·         The bad: I had to leave my old site, Paraguayan family, and friends.

·         The good: I got a free two week vacation in Asuncion with air conditioning and am now in an INCREDIBLE community and VERY happy.

I think, had you asked me, back in my old site if I was happy, I would have said yes. But that is just my personality. It was a struggle every day. I had to wake up and count my blessings and convince myself that I was happy. At my new site, it is just so much easier. I think I would definitely say that the difference is how integrated I feel in my new community. They are such welcoming people and I genuinely feel like I have made great connections with people and have friends here.

 In my last community, a lot of the community members were intimidated by me and too shy to invite me over. One thing that you learn very quickly here in Paraguay is about the stereotypes that people have about Americans. The biggest one is that we are all rich…which, in all honesty is very much true. Just by living in the states we are richer than the majority of the world. I spent a great deal of my time the first couple of months trying to convince people that we are not all rich. Gradually, though, I realized that was not so. In comparison, we are. I grew up in a middle class family but in reality I grew up very wealthy by Paraguayan standards.

Back to the point… I am now working in 3 communities outside of the Caaguazú district. I moved here in the middle of July and spent the first 6 weeks in two week rotations living with families in each of the 3 communities. During these six weeks I completed a community census to get to know the health problems of the community, the way they cook, the types of bathrooms they have, etc. It also helped me to get to know the families a little better and gave us a chance to talk about the projects they would like to see in their community. Without even asking, I had someone from each community offer to go with me and help me complete the census. We completed about 25 in each community (a total of 73.)

At the end of August I compiled all of the data and looked at the health problems reported, the projects desired, and the ways the community cooks. There is a committee that has 5-7 members from each community. This is called the comite de desarollo (the Committee of development.) Their goal is to have representatives of all 3 communities to work together to better the community. In this committee, I presented the data and we drew a problem map together. We connected the most prevalent health problems in the community (diabetes, cavities, high blood pressure, common cold, parasites) with their causes (poor nutrition, poor hygiene, smoking, stress, etc.)  and then connected the causes with the upstream cause (lack of education, bad habits,  lack of resources, cultural norms.)

This was a SUPER effective exercise. It helped people to realize the real causes of the problems. SN: in a post dictatorship society, one of the obstacles we volunteers encounter is a lack of dynamic thinking and problem solving skills. In a society that has been under repression for nearly two hundred years, the society as a whole lacks creativity in problem solving. They were punished for having their own thoughts, thinking outside of the box, or trying to change things. With a new government and a developing society, this is one of the most important skills to try to diffuse into Paraguayan society.

We then talked about the projects we would like to do. We discussed how these projects would address the causes of the health problems. They decided together that we should start with healthy cooking classes and a garden project. From talking to the director of the school I had already planned on teaching three different seminars with the kids in the topics of nutrition, hand washing, parasites, and dental health. These will take place from September until December of this year and start back in February when school starts up again. We also decided to implement a language and culture club every Sunday. In this club we will teach each other English, Spanish, and Guarani. Additionally, we will discuss what culture is and talk about our own cultures and learn about cultures of other places in the world.

Additionally, I am communicating in the World Wise Schools Program with a school in the States. I will be doing this exchange with a teacher I know, Mrs. Cheryl Salyer. I met her through Camp Boggy Creek. I am blessed to be able to continue to communicate with her and her family…and now her students! She has such a wonderful family! Through this program the kids here and there will share about their lives and the cultures of Paraguay and the U.S. Additionally, the kids will learn about the job and life of a Peace Corps Volunteer.

I just got back to my site yesterday. I came back to FL from PY for three weeks to see my nephew born. He is SO wonderful…I love him….A LOT!! It has been a crazy emotional ride these last few weeks. Bev was in the ICU after having the baby. I think I have been more in touch with how much I really love the people in my life these last few weeks than maybe ever. After that incident, I cried every time she fell asleep, I left the room, or had to go home. I can’t imagine losing her. I don’t know what I would do. The connection between siblings is such a beautiful thing. It is wonderful to feel so close to somebody and know each other so well that words aren’t even necessary. You know that the other person loves you and is thinking of you even if you don’t verbally communicate it. I love them all so much...SO MUCH!!!

The baby was born and I think it made me realize that I do want children someday. Sometimes I feel so close to my sister that I physically and emotionally am in tune with her. When she was pregnant I had all of these crazy dreams about breast feeding and having a baby inside of me…and I was on the other side of the planet! After she had him, I could feel her love for him… it is so special and I don’t know how to put it into words. I love watching her fall more in love with him every day. I have never seen this type of joy inside her before.

I also realized how great of friends I have. I was amazed to see that everybody came down to see me. It was really wonderful and made me realize how blessed I have been to have a couple of great people to share each chapter of my life with. I have really incredible friends. I have the type of friends that I respect on so many levels. I feel as if we are all constantly learning and growing together. It really is a beautiful to have those types of connections in your life.

Last night my Paraguayan family threw a family barbecue for my return. While it was difficult leaving my family in the U.S., I couldn’t be more blessed with a better family here in Paraguay. They are the type of genuine people that just make you feel so comfortable loved without having to do anything extravagant. I am SO BLESSED.

Okay, I am done ranting for this month’s entry. I am working on project proposals, a nutrition class for the school next week, and my community study today. However, I am about to take a break and go down to the pond with the kids. I hope you all find the happiness and love you deserve in your life this week!

Jajatopata (see you later!)

-Emily

So much to tell:

Let’s start out with my weekend. My Peace Corps friends came out to my site this weekend to stay with me. We had a BLAST. We went to Villa Rica Saturday, which is about 45 minutes from my site. They have these creatures called capyberas there. They are basically giant guinea pigs…they are WONDERFUL! Haha it was love at first site. They are very friendly too. They let us pet them and take pictures with them. They live in the wild and we found them at a park just meandering about. We got back to my site around seven and made nachos with my family…they weren’t sure what a nacho was but my mom here loved them. Dad wouldn’t try it…said he had a “stomach ache” haha.

After dinner, me, my host mom, and my six amigos proceeded to meander on over to the San Juan Festival. Ladies and gentleman, I have found my new favorite holiday… which is saying a lot since we all know how much I love Halloween. The activities that go on for this holiday (the entire month of June) are ridiculous and involve a LOT of fuego. So first, they have these ghost/zombie like characters who walk around with masks on their faces and in old raggedy women’s clothes and they talk like women (they are actually funny men.) I danced with one! So, they don’t really serve a purpose except to mingle with the people and scare the kids. Next, they kick around balls of fire….yes, I said balls of fire. Just for the hell of it, we were kicking around large balls of fire around the fiesta in no particular organized fashion… really just in the direction where there were a lot of people standing. Perfectly normal, right?

Ok, so here is my favorite game: They have these large bundles of hay stacked up to make broom like things. They light them on fire and then they run around and try to light YOU on fire!!! I learned this because a crazy man kept trying to light my feet on fire! I was running around the party screaming with my chipa stick. Speaking of chip: so, “chipa” is a Paraguayan, cheesy, delicious bread. Usually, you shape it into a bagel looking thing and cook it in the outdoor oven. At these festivals however, we put the dough on a stick and cook it over a fire (SO RICO) (rico=delicious.) Anyways, I call it chipa tembo’i …which means little penis chipa. I don’t think anyone here ever noticed how falic this looks but I thought it was supposed to be that way…it’s a crazy holiday, right? But the women thought it was hilarious that I called it that.

Last night I celebrated the 13^th anniversary of my women’s commission with them. I do love fiestas here…free delicious food and always dancing. We ate chicken asado, sopa (Paraguayan version of cornbread…SO GOOOOOD!), and some other things that weren’t so rico. We all ate and then my Paraguayan Mom put on some music and dragged me out to the dance floor. Everyone started clapping so I grabbed her and started dancing a fast waltz. The song ended and we decided that everyone should come dance, so we made a large circle with all of the women and had a grand time (note that these women are anywhere from 65-78 years old!) We all had a great time!

It has been a fun few days out here in Paraguay! This week I will be going into a nearby city to do a radio show with one of my fellow volunteers. Our local group of volunteers does a radio show for the area. It is a mix of subjects from saving money to education, to how to take care of your teeth. There is actually a very large portion of the people here that listen to the show…I’m a little nervous but if all else fails I will just start singing in English… they will think it’s great because they don’t know what I am saying. Speaking of, I tried my tricky schemes on my first victim last week but he figured me out too quick! I want to teach someone to say ridiculous things in English that they think mean something else. I think it would be funny to have someone try to greet me in English everyday with ridiculous phrases. My neighbor asked me how to say “how are you” in English and I told him it was translated as “how silly is your dragon?” Although he has already caught on to my schemes, it would be funny to have a neighborly conversation like: “Hola Emily! How silly is your dragon?” “Hola Jose, muy bien y vos?” “Bien, tambien” every day. It’s the small things that get me through haha.

Other than that… I am working on doing a community census and talking to all of the women’s commissions here in the community about the community health problems and what they would like to work on. I think we will end up having themed months where we work on a specific theme with talks about the problems and projects to address them. Some of the things that we will cover will be: sanitary latrines, parasitosis, high blood pressure, diabtetes, dental health, among others. I am still trying to adjust to working here. Sometimes I feel like I had very little experience from the states to help me do my projects here. It is a whole new world of health and the way people work in a different culture is very different than the way we do things in the states. One of the biggest differences is thast we don’t like to mix business and friendships too much but here you have to establish friendship before you try to work together. Also, people are more tranquilo (laid back) here. They are always on the Paraguayan hour here. If you say let’s have a meeting at 3…you probably won’t start until 5 or tomorrow, or next week, or never. But I am learning.

I hope you are all doing well in your lives. I would love to hear from everyone. Also, A BIGGGGGGGG THANK YOU to my family for sending me winter clothes! They are wonderful! I am all set now for cold season here in Paraguay! 

Time to go gather firewood with my family…

Hasta pronto! -Em

Never talk about a Paraguayan to another Paraguayan

Last week I asked for "new volunteer advice" from the surrounding volunteers in my area, after my first VAC meeting. They all had similar advice which was, 'don't talk talk to Paraguayans about other Paraguayans, whether it be good or bad." I suppose most volunteers learn this the hard way through small town gossip. I learned this lesson last night in a very large and public fiasco.
Let me set the scene: Adrianna, my host niece, has been preparing a special dance for the school festival for the past two weeks. I knew that it was to be last night and that we were oing as a family. It was to start at 8 pm. When we left, I immediately realized that it was not a small school festival, like I had thought.I walked out of the house and heard music blaring. The school had rented speakers and hired a DJ...yes, a little out of place for my Paraguayan neighborhood. But just as I soon realized after arriving, there are many things in Paraguay that are a little odd. One being that while the country is behind in things like having modern bathrooms, sinks in kitvhens, electric stoves, everyone has a cell phone, sometimes they hire DJ's and have large sound system's for the schools who don't have money for books, and people with no bathroom sometimes have motorcycles. Anyways, back to te story....
 We arrive at 7... it doesn't actually start until 9 because time here is called the "Paraguayan hour" which is kinda like island time. Anywo, there ends up being between 400 and 500 people here. My niece danced first and it was beautiful, she is just the cutest little girl! Next, there were other dances and several internationally reknown Paraguayan musicians. One in particular gave me goosebumps. He was about my age and sung like and angel and could play the guitar better than I had ever heard. My family has been asking me since I got here if I have found someone to be my novio Paraguayo (Paraguayan boyfriend) yet. I turned to my host Mom, laughed, and said "Ya encontraste mi nuevo novio Paraguayo" (I have just found my Paraguayan boyfriend.) I was JOKING, obviously as I laughed and patted her leg. The next thing I know, she runs up to the stage to tell the anouncer that there is a Pretty American who wants this guy as her boyfriend! He announces this to all 400 people here, including the strikingly talented and good looking artist on the stage. At this point we are both red in the face and I am DYING laughing in my seat, feeling more embarrassed than I have in a while. It is really hard to embarrass me, well done Paraguayan Mom, well done. She returns back to her seat to say that she thought he should know and that he says I am very beautiful... BLAH!

So, hooray embarrassing moments. Oh, the romance is sizzling in Paraguay.

What's going on this week?
Tuesday an eye doctor is going to come out here to give eye exams for free!! (Thank you Kristin for connecting me)
Wed I will be visiting two commissions to invite them out to my site presentation for the followin day
Thurs SITE presentation...wooo!!!
Fri The big newspaper in Paraguay is coming out to my site to do a story about how hard working my Women's commission is...YAY!!!
Sat-Mon I'm off to Asuncion to pick up packages, get my flu shot (that the Peace Corps is forcing me to have), do some work in the office, and have a little fun with some of my girlfriends

It has been a while...HELLO!

Hello friends and Family!

Sorry it has been so long since I have written, things have been a little hectic here! I no longer have access to internet all the time. It takes me about an hour bus ride to get to the city to use the internet cafe.

So much has happened since I last wrote! First of all, I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer as of April 15! Our group of 48 volunteers swore in with the ambassador of the U.S. at the U.S. embassy. It was a really great ceremony...well mostly just for the chocolate cake... which was fabulous!

After our ceremony, we all stayed in the capital of Paraguay for 3 days to have a small vacation before leaving eachother for our sites that we will be l living in for two years. We stayed at a nice hotel in the city and all exchanged movies and music before departing to the ends of the earth...well, really just Paraguay.

We all left for our sites on the 19th of April by bus. We brought with us as much stiuff as we could fit on our backs and left the rest in storage until our site presentations with the Director of Rural Health and Sanitation (this is when our boss comes out to our sites to officially present us to our community.) I will be having my site presentation on the 19th of May. I hope it comes sooner than later because I am f-f-f-f-f-f-FREEEZING! yES, i SAID IT. iT IS COLD in SOuth America right now...I could see my breath this morning as I left the house in burmuda shorts. Hahaha I guess when I left for site sweating, I did not plan for cold wheather and left my long pants in storage.

Just got a notification from the PC office about packages... thank you to everyone who sent them!! I dont know who they r from yet, but thanks!!! hahaha

Lets see, right now not too much is going on in the form of what I am doing for work in my community right now. I am not allowed to actually start working for three months. This is so that I can get to know the community first and thorouughly understand the way they do things and what the problems really are. So, right now I have just been talking with people and getting to know my new neighbors. I attended a women´s commission meeting ( this is how people get stuff done here. They are groups of about 20 women who work together in an pofficial group to ask for things from the government to better their lives and they also work together in the farm and their gardens to raise money together for their families.) yesterday and talked to the ladies about furture projects and goals. We discussed the major healñth problems afflicting people here and what causes those problems. We then had a brainstorming sessiion on things we could do together to better the situation. The main problems were things like nutrition, diabetes, high blood pressure, parasitosis, and dental health. When I asked about dental health, everyone started laughing and covering their mouths because it is a HUGE problem here. Most people are missing teeth...a lot of teeth. When someone has a cavity here, they just yank out the whole tooth. AND people have  ALOT of cavities. Nutrition is really ppoor here. People eat a lot of sugar and fat. They also have poor dental hygeine practices. Most people to not brush their teeth.

Over the next two years I will be working with this commission, the school, and the other 4 womens commisions in the village to better health practices. I will be working with kids in the school to talk about hygeine, parasitosis, nutrition, and dental health. Along with the new school commision that we are getting together, we are going to tryu to bring a doctor and a dentist out to the school. We would like to get some antiparasitosis drugs for the village (on average 80 percent of people in the rural parts of paraguay have parasites) To do this, we have to write out documents and go through some beaurucratic nonsense to ask from the government.

As for my day-to-day stuff: right now, I am working on completeing a house for me to live in. The host family I am living with now are lending me a house rent-free! Which is ver nice of them. It was SUPER dirty when I first saw it. I have never seen so many spiders in my life... I am talking a thatch roof FULL of webs and spiders. I took some spider fumagator in there and knocked them out...but not without having a few in my hair and climbing up my arms! My neighbor came over to see what I was doing the other day and we were talking about her kids. I had a broom in my hand and she said in spanish that I had a spider on my arm. I threw the broom and screamed. This was the day that everyone learned of my fear of spiders. haha. Apart from cleaning, we are putting in a bathroom. There is currently a latrine there but my family was pretty insisten that they didnt want me leaving my room in the middle of the night to use the latrines, so we are putting in a bathroom. Most everyone in the village uses latrines. The houses are mostly thatch roof houses. People are poor here. They are all farm families. They leav their houses aearly in the Ox cart to go to the chacra.

Apart from my house stuff, I spend most of my day doing chores..haha. Life takes longer when you don{t have things like microwaves, stoves, vens, dishwashers, washing machines, ect. Haha so I devote half a day to washing clothes and then I usually make atleast one meal for our family everyday. This is for two reasons: one is that I want to teach my host mom how to cook healthier (almost everything here is fried and contains red meat.) The second is that I want to eat well. I enjoy vegetables, and they are few and far between in the food here. So right now I buy groceries for our family and we eat salads...because I make them! haha

Other than that, not a whole lot going on in rural Paraguay. I heard that you all had some pretty crazy tornadoes... I hope everyone made it out okay! I miss you all a lot! I think about how blessed I am to have such wonderful friends and family back home everyday. I am excited to be able to come back for a couple of weeks at the end of August and beg of September for the birth of my new nephew!

If you have the resources to come down to Paraguay, come visit me anytime! My village would love to meet you all!

Jajatopata! (guarani for see you later) -Em

A short update!

Hello friends and family!!

First of all, I would like to apologize for the sloppiness of the last post. I wrote it quickly on my laptop and on “notepad.”

Thank you all for commenting on the last post. I enjoy hearing from you and my family here always wants to know what my friends and family are writing to me. I haven´t figured out how to respond to the comments yet...so Lo Siento! Below is my address for those of you asking  :o)

Emily Teachout (PCT)
Cuerpo de Paz
162 Chaco Boreal c/Mcal. Lopez
Asuncion 1580, Paraguay
South America

(SN: if you are sending me anything, be advised that I may not get it for a couple of months... mail that comes to me has to be inspected by the US embassy, which can sometimes take a while. Also, I dont know why this would apply but please dont write the value of the package as more than 100 dollars. If you do, I have to pay A LOT of taxes on it and pay to have it inspected) Pero, gracias in advance!

Okay, so now for the fun part: my weeks so far (well part of them.)

So, I found out the hard (fun) way that Sunday is not the day of rest here. Haha. So, I woke up on my first Monday here for school and could not move!! LOL! We had SO much fun!!  SO we woke up Sunday and went to play some soccer (which is called futbol here.) After this we went swimming down the street in the hole in the ground (???) LOL it is kind of like a pond but just a big  hole in the ground basically! It was SOOOO much fun!! The kids and I were having a great time. They thought it was the greatest thing that little minnows will nibble at your hands if you hold them really still.

After our swimming experience we took showers and went to the neighbor´s house.  She has a rather large house with a lot of different fruit trees. My friend brought me what he called an Manzanita (small apple.) It really did look like an apple but it was the size of a nickel! Craziness… I didn´t believe him at first but it really is. It doesn´t taste like an apple…more like a nectarine and it is delicious!!

So let me give you a down low of my daily routine here in PY:
Wake up around 6am and have warm milk and break for breakfast with my sister here ( I have gotten slick though and bought some instant coffee to add to my warm mile and sugar)
Leave for school at 730 and begin Clase de Espanol. Spanish class lasts until 1130, when we all leave to have lunch with our families. Lunch is the most important meal of the day here!
After, we wither go to technical training in a bigger city or in our neighboring barrio (where the other health group lives. SN: We are split into 4 groups living in different places. There are two health groups and 2 education groups. Each group is about 12 people.
When we return, we do various things but usually, we start cooking dinner with the family and drink terere.

      On Tuesday we had quite an adventure, as we were paired into groups of two and had to find our way to the Capital of Paraguay, Asuncion. We were given very little directions and were expected to find our own way there by means of buses and asking people (in Spanish, of course.) I was paired with a really great girl and we had no problems, just a lot of fun. It was similar to a scavenger hunt in which we had to find different places and ask certain people for things like school supplies and such. We also checked out their train Museum which is SUPER cool! The best part was definitely lunch, though. I had French fries… and they were delicious!!

                We spend about 4 hours every day in language training and are learning about health problems in PY and things like gardening and nutrition. I learned how to make soy empanadas last week and soy milk. Tomorrow we are making our own soap in class! I am pretty excited. On Sunday, my sister´s friend is going to teach me how to stitch a special way that they do in Paraguay… so many cool things to learn!

                On Monday I will be visiting another volunteer at their site in the Campo (the very rural outskirts.) I will be spending 3 days with her learning about what she does and what life is like in the Campo. I am pretty excited!!

Good News: my Spanish is definitely improving!!! 

Funny things not to say in Spanish (learned all of these from saying them):

-Nos Comemos … I will not explain this one since my family is reading, but some of you can figure it out
-Concha (very similar to Cancha which is soccer field but concha  means vagina…so if you can imagine you wouldn´t want to ask anyone if they want to go play in the concha)
- Do not try to literally translate hotdog… literally translated would be perro caliente …which basically means you want to have sex with the dog) The correct term here is Pancho.
… I have more because they happen every day but I will stop here haha! My professor is constantly giving me the same look of “wow, did you just say that?!” It is funny when she has to correct me… and it happens at least once a day!

All in all, I am very happy. My family here is wonderful! We all have such a good time with each other and they all have such a great sense of humor!
I miss you guys a lot!! Love you all!

-Em

Hola!! My first week...

Hola mi Familia y mi amigos!!
I have made it safely to Paraguay. I am really enjoying my service thus far. Yesterday was the first time I met my host family. I was really hoping for a large
family with muchos ninos. ANDDDD I definately got what I was hoping for!! There are 10 people in my host family!!! I was worried when they got to my envelope and it had a
 bright orange post-it attached. It was because I have such a large family and my host mother and father are both dissabled (my host father is in a wheel chair and mi madre
is blind.) However, my host sister actsas my host mother. T
She is VERY helpful and understanding of my limited espanol. I was feeling like a dumb-ass since every fifth comment out of my mouth was "no entiendo" but she told me that
I speak/understand more than her last volunteer (she has hosted two others.) She said it is completely normal for me to not be that good yet and that it would come easily.
I showed her my textbook for spanish and told her that the book was "muy importante, si?" and laughed. She laughed and reassured me that she could teach me whatever I
needed to know. My host family is all-around wonderful! There are a lot of kids but I have been spending a lot of time with Fabrizio (he is 2) and Jaquleen (she is 5.)
I like them the most because a.) I am learning a language with Fabrizio and b.) Jaquleen puts up with my lack of language skills because I give her bubbles.
My host sister made pizza...which was probably the best pizza I hvae ever had. I have to say, though, I was not expecting to eat pizza with my host family on the first night.
SIDE NOTE: We spent our first night in Paraguay at a retreat center. At this center they told us to go ahead and drink the water. The next day our nurse practitioner says "how many of you drank
 the water last night?" And goes on to say that most of us would probably be sick. However, I have been drinking it and have been fine. The water here come from an argentenian
 well and is very clean. It is only once we start drinking well water on site that I will need to be careful.
Short story, long, I have not had any gastrointenstinal problems so far :)
All of the staff here are wonderful! I have never experienced language teachers like these!! Haha imagine... a spanish teacher who actually wants me to learn!! crazy.
 The security guy is super awesome, also. He is pretty mello but reminds me of the mobsters who smile and pat you on the back while reminding you that after you screw
 up he will slit your throat. HAHA he was like "I live here with my wife and three daughters
but trust that I will travel the country to make sure you are safe.
All of the other volunteers are equally as awesome! They are all really great people and we are having a fabulous time together!
Let's see....what else should I tell you...
Am I having regrets?
I had a moment today as I was dropped off with a family I did not know and suddenly trying to speak a language I don't know very well/ sign to what I mean, where I thought
seriously for a second "what the hell am I doing here?!"
But rest assured it subsided quickly. I will be fine and I feel better that my host sister is confident that I will be fluent in no time.
 It is difficult since no one speaks english butttt it forces me to figure it out.

Are there pets?
So in addition to my large family...they have a TON of pets!! Which is unusual for Paraguayans, so I struck gold!!
They have atleast 3 cats (but I don't think I have counted them all,) 2 dogs plus all of the neighbor pups that wander through the yard and hang out with me,
1 duck, sseveral chickens, one baby bird who just hangs out on everyone's shoulder, and a VERY LARGE frog that ran into me on the porch.
There is talk of 2 very cool things: 1) that rural healt volunteers will be able to have motor cycles on site soon. AND 2.) that we get to choose to have either
 a horse or a bike as a mode of transportation :)
What's the weather like??
HOTTTTTTTTTTT!!!! HAHA and it isn't even as hot as it will be soon! No A/C. But some very convenient fans in my bedroom.
What is your house like?
My family actually has a muy grande casa. I have my own room with a bed and a dresser, and a table. It is connected to my sister's room,
 which I like. We ALL share a bathroom. There are only 2 rooms closed off... the kitchen, dining and sitting area are outside.
They cook over an open flame (no ovens or stoves.) We spend most of our time drinking the tea here called Terere, which is DELICIOUS!!! Basically they put these plant pieces
(everyone makes it a little differently) in the bottom of one metal cup and they have a thermos full of ice cold water (although you can drink it hot in the morning.) It is
a social thing. You sit in a circle while one person pours the terere. They pour the water into the cup with the plant pieces and you drink the entire thing and pass it back.
Then, they fill it again and pass it to the next person. Oh, ya! I forgot to mention you drink it through a metal straw...which is totally gnarly.
Are there a lot of bugs?
Not more than I'm used to, so far. BUT there are a lot of FROGS!!! And you know how I hate those slimy little creatures!!
What's the dating situation like?
We had a weird day today. They basically told all gay volunteers that it was best not to live openly...which I thought was weird. I understand that the culture doesn't
understand it and it might compromise the mission buttt I felt some kind of way about it.
As in the rest of the world, boys will be boys. There are 4 Paraguyan boys my age living in my housing area. They keep giving me that "what's up girl" smile.
haha and one learned how to say "hello. How are you?" in English for me! haha
What else can I hold your procrastination with....
There is a ton of fruit here!! Everyone has guava, orange, and mango trees in their yard. The climate is very similar to SOuth Florida. I was trying to explain that to my host family and they thought it was the weirded thing ever!
I told them that there are mangos in Florida and they thought that Florida must be another country.
--SOOOO my host sister has internet and a webcam!! Haha.. and a cell phone! I realize that this makes it sound like we must live in a nice house and for Paraguay it is.
However, I am still shocked that for where we are and where they live they have these things!! I said "hola!" to her real hermana en Espana over the webcam and it was
totally crazy!
What else can I bore you with....
I had to sign a waiver today to swim in the U.S. embassy pool. haha I think I am making it bigger than it really is in my head. I am imagining giant water slides and
waterfalls but I have a feeling that the embassy isn't all that wonderful.

All in all, I feel fine. I am constantly realizing just how comfortable I am with change. I love not knowing what is going to happen tomorrow. I LOVE that each day is a new day! And I LOVE
that it is my job right now to just enjoy the compania of otros donde de un differente pais con un differente cutural que me. Oh, look. There goes my Spanglish!! Tomorrow I
get to start learning the Paraguayan equivalent of Spanglish which is Spanish and Guarani. Which, by the way, my family already speaks so I am not understanding a lot.
I am very fortunate to have such a wonderful Paraguayan family! They all seem very happy to have me and are very gracious hosts. I couldn't be more pleased with my experience thus
far, I am confident that it will be a great experience. I know that I will struggke with the language but I feel right at home here. They all have a great sense of humor...
and even though we can't understand eachother a lot, we are constantly laughing together and enjoying one another's compania.
I miss you all dearly and I hope all is well in your lives. Please write me back and let me know what is going on in your lives.
I love you all :) Buenos Noches mi amores.