From the beginning...

I decided on a whim to start a blog. Mostly out of boredom. That was last night, while stuck in my pueblo, but then I deleted it like an idiot and gave up. So I will start again. I´m not very good with keeping in touch with people, so I will start from the beginning to update everyone. I´ll try to make it brief.

Last march I applied and was accepted to peace corps. I had my interview and talked all about my human development and familie studies major that I was about to graduate with and my horrible spanish speaking skills. That summer I received my invitation to Paraguay, to work in the field of agriculture. Crop extension they call it. First thought; where the hell is Paraguay? Don´t they speak spanish there? I don´t. Second; what the hell is crop extension? agriculture? My previous agriculture experience includes weeding my neighbors from steps for money in high school and refusing to eat the veggies out of my moms garden when i was younger, just because i thought that was gross. Yeah, so I was the perfect candidate for this job.

Anyway, I arrived in PY September 28, 2006 with 33 other bright young trainees/future volunteers. After 3 months of living with a host family and having training/school everyday to learn about agriculture, culture, and language (spanish and guarani), I was assigned to my site where I would be living for the next two year. Colonia Jerovia, Quinta Linea, Caazapa. I´m about 7 hours south of the capital of asuncion on bus. My closest town/pueblo is Caazapa, which is about 2 hours (30 kilometers) away from me. Once you exit the pueblo, its all dirt road to get to my site and we must cross 12 old as dirt, rickety bridges as well. One bridge just collapsed last week, which is why I am stuck in Caazapa at the moment. They just fixed it, so I will finally have a bus back to site tonight. I´ve been out of my community since monday. I went to the capital for medical issues. I think I have a parasite in my stomach making me extremely sick, so I´m getting my shit tested. Exciting.

So my life in site is pretty much routine. I wake up around 7, drink maté for an hour, poop in a hole, sweep my porch, eat breakfast, wash my clothes, visit people, drink tereré, eat lunch, nap, visit people, bathe in a bucket, drink maté, eat dinner, go to bed around 7. of course i occasionally throw in some language studying, lots of reading, oh yeah and i work sometimes too. having no background in agriculture makes it difficult, especially being a young woman. the men don´t listen to me or want to work with me. i hear everyday that women shouldn´t be in this field, and i should focus more on women jobs, which i have been. I work a lot with the women in their gardens, we make soap and we cook, i also do a lot with the chilren because there are sooo many in my community. I just gave a dental hygeine charla and gave out close to 100 toothbrushes and toothpastes to the kids, i teach them nutrition, we color, and i´m teaching 1 english.

I had to build a house. I have a fantastic garden with tons of veggies. I have two dogs who are my life, 4 hens, a rooster, and lots of mice that frequent my house and i frequently kill with a broom. I had a cat but my neighbors killed it with a machete. I would like another cat to eat my mice. i shit in a hole and bathe in a bucket. i have running water outside my house. when it rains my roof leaks. are you jealous yet? Its tough at times obviously, but I am so happy and wouldn´t change a thing. When I´m lonely or homesick I have special people in my community that always know how to cheer me up. I complain all the time (which is inevitable in my situation), but afterwards I can always laugh and I always have great stories to tell.

I´m sorry this turned out longer than I had planned.

I´ll probably end up writing more later while i´m stuck in town waiting for my stupid ass bus.