A Paraguayan Welcome

I can't believe it's already/only been two weeks here! Time really does fly when you uproot your entire life, move to another country, and are consequently 5,000 miles from your typical support systems... Anyway! But all jokes aside, it really has been amazing.

Starting with a sad goodbye at DIA, I had a layover in Chicago and arrived in DC on the evening of September 22nd. I got to explore a bit of Arlington and went for a run on the National Mall before staging began the next day. The event was hosted in the conference room of a Holiday Inn (so fancy), where I met the whole C-10 cohort for the first time. There are 34 of us, aged 22-60+, but the majority are "recent" grads aged 22-26, and all are environmental volunteers. The staging event was led by the Paraguay country director, a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) who served in Ukraine, but who now works in DC. He was hilarious and excited for us to join a program with so much history and status. At staging, we covered the logistics of the following travel day, important PC rules and regulations to keep in mind, and took our first (of many) group photos!

At 3 am the next morning, we left the hotel for Dulles (with some bus complications in which most of the suitcases had to be stored in the aisle instead of underneath) and watched the sunrise while waiting to check in for the flight. My last American meal was a Chick-fil-A biscuit sandwich, which I now regret. We had a quick layover in Panama, then onto Asunción. Both flights weren't too bad, and I was able to sleep a bit thanks to some Benadryl. The entire day felt incredibly surreal - a good mix of nerves and excitement, which I'm coming to learn is the norm for the Peace Corps. We arrived in Paraguay very early on Thursday morning and were greeted warmly by the PC staff. All the bags were loaded in a van, and we were off to the town of Areguá for our orientation "retreat". With the arrival of our group, Paraguay is now the biggest post of Peace Corps volunteers in the world! How cool!

After a much-needed sleep-in, we began our orientation activities, which mostly meant paperwork and logistics - yay! The hotel was incredibly gorgeous, with lots of plants, birds, 2 pools, and delicious food (think full buffets, 3 meals a day). PC staff joked that they were spoiling us too much, since every other living situation we would have after would be less nice. I also set up my new Paraguayan phone number and (as of now) was able to keep my US number. But if I am not responding to your texts, it's probably because I didn't receive it, so email me for my new number! That afternoon, one of the PC staff gave us a walking tour of the nearby town, famous for its pottery and strawberries, which were just nearing the end of their season and were so sweet and delicious. Thanks to the 6 decks of cards I packed and plenty of downtime, we played lots of card games, and I'm learning to perfect my Euchre-teaching skills.

On Friday (Sept 25), I went on my first Paraguayan run to a nearby lake, and it was immediately very clear that running here will take some adjustment. Cars and motorcycles give absolutely zero right-of-way to pedestrians, and very few roads have sidewalks. Even more fun is that if the roads are not paved, they are made of the red sand that Paraguay is famous for. And running in sand is really hard. That afternoon, we had a few more orientation sessions, then got our host family assignments. The group is broken up into 7 smaller islas of ~5 volunteers who live in the same community, all within a bus ride of the Training Center in Capiatá. We will live with these families for the duration of training (10 weeks), to practice our Spanish and Guaraní and be immersed in the Paraguayan culture.

My host family lives in a town called Costa Alegre, about 20 minutes from the Center, which, for my non-Spanish speaking friends, means "beautiful coast", but no one could tell me what it was the coast was of. A river? The city? Certainly not the ocean in a landlocked country. Los González Sosa consists of mi mamá Elva, mi papá, Vicente, and their two sons, Daniel (23) and Thiago (18), who aren't usually home during the weekdays. They also have 4 little dogs - Chiqui, Loki, Cooper, and Anguja'i - who each fight for their turn in my lap. Elva and Vicente have been married for 25 years and are the sweetest, kindest, and funniest people. I am their seventh PC Trainee, and they accepted me into their home and made me feel so welcome right away. I am very grateful to be able to speak the amount of Spanish I do, since it allows me to both joke around and have deeper, more meaningful conversations. Because Spanish proficiency was not a requirement for PC Paraguay, many volunteers haven't taken classes since high school, and for some it's been even longer. But we are all starting from zero in Guaraní.

Our first activities at the Center were to meet the full-time staff, receive our PC med kits, mosquito nets, and our first "pay day", when I'm reminded that I did not join the Peace Corps to make money. We also had our language proficiency interviews and learned how to make tereré, the country's famous cold Yerba maté drink. That weekend, I attended church for the first time since elementary school and explored the community on walks and runs. The roads around my house are not the safest, especially since it's still dark at 6:00 am before classes. Because of this, most of my runs will either have to be on the weekends in city parks closer to Asunción, or around soccer fields in my community. I have also been trying lots of new foods, since my host dad is an adventurous eater - the first lunch in their home was patita de chancho (pig feet), and it was quite good.

On Monday (Sept 29), we officially started training! After a breakfast usually consisting of bread and café or cocido (the tea version of mate, usually with lots of sugar and milk), classes start at 8 am, and the morning session goes until 12. We have an hour break to eat the lunches our host family's packed – and try a bite of eveyone else's – then right back into classes from 1-5. The first week, the PC sent a van to pick us up, but we took the local bus to the Center for the first time on Friday (Oct 3). We will be expected to take the bus about half the mornings as training progresses, and it is quite the adventure. The days are long and packed full of information, but it feels good to finally get a clearer idea of what our roles could look like. We still won’t find out our permanent site placements until week 7, but we have started to discuss the kinds of projects our communities might be interested in and hear from current volunteers about the work they’re doing right now.

We have 4 types of classes during these 10 weeks - tech, medical/safety, core, and language. In tech sessions, we learn the techniques and resources available to use in our future sites and get to practice them hands-on (composting, tree nurseries, sustainable trash reduction, etc.). Medical and safety sessions are pretty self-explanatory - topics include common sicknesses volunteers face, what to do in a medical emergency, and how to stay safe while taking public transportation. Core classes cover topics such as how to collaborate with counterparts, the ways we will be evaluated in training, and avoiding making harmful assumptions. And since I have the necessary level of Spanish already (at least intermediate-medium), I was placed straight into learning Guaraní. The language is hard and nothing like anything I've heard or seen before, but it's also really fun and engaging. There are only 5 other trainees in my class, and the small-group setting has been amazingly helpful.

Right now, it's spring in Paraguay, which means most days are sunny but not terribly hot. We've had a few days of POURING rain and cooler weather, but I'm mentally preparing for the scorching hot summer, where it can be 100+ F° for weeks without respite.

And the people in my group are incredible. It feels obvious that the PC would attract some very cool and similarly-minded folks, but it really is so fun.

That's all I have for now! I'm having a great time so far and genuinely have zero complaints. I know training will be hard and draining, but I'm so happy to be here and experience everything there is to experience! 💚💚💚