Almost a month in....

Mba’eichapa!

Sorry for the long wait and the lack of communication….it is very easy to just avoid internet and communication in order to not have to spend the time writing etc…not to say that y’all are not important or deem writing, which of course you do!

As you can see “mba’eichapa” is the first word I learned in Guarani. The loose translation is “How is it going?” but literally I think it just means “how.” It is accompanied with a nice strong handshake even from the women…not of that limp fishy type of shake I got in Uganda but not like the power grab in the US. If you are greeting women, then they go to air kiss both your cheeks and comment ‘Que linda…” etc…or some comment on if you look fat (happy) today and for me basically talk about my blue eyes. If you are so lucky to get two kisses from a guy but that is generally reserved for good friends…not necessarily boyfriends etc… Though I have had the occasion where a unknown guy, mostly my brother’s high school friends, zoom in for the cheek kiss and manage to lay nice sloppy wet ones on my cheeks. That as we learned is a sign in Paraguayan culture for a sign of interest… My grandmother on the other hand coordinates the kissing with a couple of squeezes to my thighs. We have yet to figure out the actual intent but Nina (another trainee and also granddaughter) think that it is checking out my childbearing abilities as we have never seen her do this to guys. It might also have something to do with her lack of fat, I think she is about 90 and though is quite spritely; her thighs might be the diameter of my lower calf.

My grandmother happens to live on the corner between the main street, Calle Ybate, and my house so I often walk through her open-air house, rooms off of an open walk-way, to get to mine. At the beginning of my time I didn’t know any other way so all of the other trainees who came to visit had to awkwardly meet and greet my grandmother, aguela (yes, sort of like Spanish) as well, thigh squeezing and all.

Ill try to give you guys just a few more details of my life (I am actually using another girl’s computer to write this ahead of time…) So as I mentioned the last time I have class all day and once a week go into the big town, Guarambare for group class. Training is sort of going back to school, something I should have expected but also so much information in such a short time – back to HS or elementary with a 8-5 schedule. It is also increasingly compact because they are now fitting 12 weeks of training into 10 weeks because of budget cuts…note: y’all should write you congressman to complain about PC budget cuts…seriously they don’t need to give PC that much money for it not to go a long way in these developing countries. Its the third week and I am actually starting to click with the language though I am still in the basic sort of sentences. In the afternoons we have tech training, mostly focused on bees but some agriculture stuff because we are truly crop extension volunteers just with a more specialized sector.

The bees: I am actually really enjoying it, I like bees. They are the sort of animals that are real organized and I get so much satisfaction from just the basic ‘lets reorganize the hive and clean it and make it all lindo and everything…’ the ocd-ness of the operation is great. We do work with Africanized bees so they are more aggressive then the ones in the US. They initially had Italian bees here but in the 50’s someone brought some African ones to Brazil to experiment and of course because you can’t really control bees, they got out and their genes started to dominate the Italian population. It is still spring so they aren’t that angry but as the people with beekeeping experience have mentioned much more aggressive. You would never consider going into a hive without smoke and full body cover…I have only been stung a couple of times and have had varying reactions from a welt the size my fist on my knee to not even having a reaction when I got stung right below my eye. That was a relief, and really really hurt, my eyes watered A LOT but I cant even find the sting now. That was on my volunteer visit, which the highlights were working bees, getting lost and chauffeured by the Paraguayan military and then getting sick….topped off by a 10 hour bus ride which I couldn’t eat anything on because I was sick.

I just found an English radio station but probably will spend all night at the internet cafe on Nov 4th....

Lots of love,

Marcy

A Week In...

Well, here is a bit of a taste of my life right now....I get up every morning at around 6.30 and get ready for school (school on days that I am only with beekeeping). I have a small breakfast of tea, its like nescafe with lots of milk really, and some little bread things. I walk down the road to CHP´i, the subcontracted organization which trains PC Paraguay. I have language class until noon where I go back home for a bit of lunch, a lot of lunch because its the largest meal. Then return to school for technical training till 5 or so. Home - hang around go visit people play soccer until dinner around 8 or so take a cold shower and go to bed. I realize that this is brief - I am also pressed for time...sorry I will elaborate more once my little sister isnt waiting on me at the internet cafe. On other days we have to go into town for training with the big group - which means we leave our site at 6.30...yeah! Oh, we met the bees for the first time and it was really cool - they are africanized I wrote down the species but forgot to bring it today....

Have fun with life in the US!
Marcy

Mba´eichapa!

So I am just writing a quick post to tell everyone I have gotten here safely. Internet is real expensive here and also I dont really have a lot of time to get to the internet etc... The PC Group that enters in September 2008 (G28) is all agriculture and environmental volunteers; crop extension, beekeeping, agroforestry and environmental education. There are 28 volunteers in total, we all met in Miami and had some basic training....got on the plane on...Wed night? Im not totally sure, dates and days dont pass in a normal way. We stopped off in the Sao Paulo airport and then got to Paraguay on Friday morning, amazingly we arrived on the same plane as the president, Fernando Lugo, who had just been in NYC for the UN. It was pretty amazing because everyone on the plane was really excited and there was military and bodyguards everywhere. We arrived and it was a whirlwind ... I live in a small community the furthest out from the main training site with a family that has had several volunteers in previous years. I have a brother, Ariel 17 and sister, Alice 7 and of course mother and father and A LOT of family around me. The primary language is Guarani which is an interesting adventure along with all the other trainings that we get... I´ll write more soon! Have a fun winter...its going to get very hot here soon...
Marcy

The Last Best Place

It is 11.15 pm the night before I leave Missoula...I have many feelings running through my mind but those are mostly clouded by denial of stress and the current cold virus that decided to pop up my last couple days in Montana. Leaving for two years plus is a bit stressful, exciting and unimaginable, in many ways it exactly like what many of my friends are experiencing, the first day of school or new jobs etc...but there is that two years in a hut that is possibly the major difference.

I might say that I know very little about Paraguay - I might add that it might not entail me to spend two years in a hut like PC Africa has to look forward too. It definitely will be different from domestic life in Montana or DC but I believe that I certainly will have power and maybe even running water (fingers-crossed for at least a tap). Paraguay is an unknown country to most people and also to the Missoula Public Library -so what I know is from either Wikipedia or the 20-page packet that was sent to me upon my PC invitation. A brief summary of my knowledge:

1. the largest export is hydro-electric power (why I know I will have power)
2. had a very bloody war in 1870 with Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, the War of the Triple Alliance, which resulted in a state (department) named after President Rutherford B. Hayes (Presidente Hayes)...go figure
3. there was a dictator, Alfredo Stroessner, from 1954 to 1989, terrible guy - like Nazi war criminals who then was overthrow, yet his political party still retained power until the most recent election.
4. and the new president is a former bishop, a leftist, Fernando Lugo - who knows what he will be up to because he was only inaugurated in August of 2008.


My preparation for this trip, the only part I had definite information on, was my packing list which I won't burden you with but I will offer a little amusement of my packing situation.

Here is picture of what the living room looked like with all the items I intended to fit into my two bags (80 lbs max) and to be honest ALMOST all of it did fit...who knows if I will actually use all of those items but if not they will find a nice home in Paraguay.

As I conclude this post, I have a couple of thoughts, some more important than others.
1. On behalf of my mother's strong emphasis on grammar - I apologize in advance for the glaring grammatical errors which will certainly occur in the future.
2. I promise to do my best on updating this blog - but there will be unavoidable voids on information and voids in time...who knows what sort of sketchy internet service I will find at my site...
3. If you write either email or snail mail - I will do my best to write back but also there might be unavoidable stretches of response time...who knows what sort of mail services...and yes I will be testing the global mail service and reporting back ie. letters to Thailand and even Europe.
4. Last but not least, I am excited to share my experience with all of you and give you maybe a brief look into a different culture and world...and I am thankful for all of your friendship and support on this new adventure that I am taking and happy that none of you tried to convince me otherwise.

I will miss you but I will see you all again...in two and a half years or when you are lucky enough to visit me...!!!

PS. For the next three months (my training I will probably have weekly email access and feel free to share this blog with anyone who seems interested).
PPS. Make sure to subscribe to this...I will eventually stop emailing to tell people I've posted...or if I can figure it out I might automatically put all of you on this