Reconnecting with Family

Time just seems to be speeding by faster and faster the longer I'm here. So hi, welcome back to your (somewhat) regularly scheduled Maya in Paraguay update!

The week after Dastan left was full of activities for Semana Santa (Holy Week) leading up to Easter. In a Catholic country, Easter is a much bigger deal than Christmas and is celebrated accordingly. There was only school on that Monday and Tuesday, but that does not mean learning occurred. In every single class, I made and ate enough chipa (a traditional Paraguayan baked bread made with mandioca flour, corn flour, pig fat, anise, and cheese) to last until next Holy Week. Semana Santa is a week to spend time with friends and family, so I attended two Última Cenas (Last Suppers)—one with Fati's extended family and the other with Owen's lovely host mom. They were big family cookouts with lots of meat; it's traditional not to eat meat on Good Friday, so we really "stocked up."

On Good Friday, instead of attending church (oops), I had the chance to go camping in the cerros about an hour from Mbocayaty with Ziggy and a few of her friends. We just spent one night, but it was so lovely to be in nature, swim (and cliff jump!) in the arroyo, and cook over a fire. I slept terribly on my thin yoga mat, but that's just part of camping, right?

The next week, my cohort (C-10) had our reconnect training. Reconnect was a week of classes held at the Training Center (TC) in Capiatá and was the first time that all the volunteers in the cohort were together again since we left for site back in December. We all stayed in a hotel together in Itauguá (another Asunción suburb) and bussed to the TC for sessions about making vegetable gardens at our schools, how to implement zero-trash programs, and citrus tree grafting! Plus Guaraní class, of course. It was so lovely to see faces that I hadn't seen in 4 months and to hear some of the wild stories that Peace Corps volunteers are famous for. The whole week was definitely exhausting, since I am used to working a maximum of 7 hours a day, so sitting for 9 hours straight and speaking English to 30 volunteers was a lot. But it was also wonderful to talk to the environment team about future projects and ask questions, and I left feeling inspired with lots of new ideas for my school and community.

After Reconnect ended on Friday, I got to visit my host parents—Elva and Vicente—from training, which was so lovely. I've been lucky to see them a few times since December, but this was my first time being back at the house where I spent my first 3 months in Paraguay. It was actually so strange being there—the smells and atmosphere brought me right back to wildly busy and tiring days, getting used to a new culture and language. It was the first time I had reflected on how far I've come since September. That weekend, a large group of us stayed in Asunción, shopping and indulging in the same delicious Korean food we had the night of swear-in. And then on Sunday, April 12th, two very special visitors arrived (happy, Mom?). My parents were finally in Paraguay!

We spent 2 nights in a very chuchi (fancy) hotel in Asunción, eating great food, exploring the centro (downtown) and its rich colonial history, and spent a wonderful afternoon with Elva and Vicente back in Costa Alegre. Then we rented a car and drove to my site to see how different a volunteer's life in South America in 2026 was from, say, a volunteer's in Africa in 1995. Jokes aside, I had a blast showing Mom and Dad my house, açai, the plaza, and the cerrito park, and they got to meet my host mom, cousin, and older brother. We had a fun dinner in Villarrica with Nico and Ziggy, and they even got a taste of my daily "working life" when we visited the Agricultural School the next morning to ask about receiving help for my school garden.

The drive back to Asuncion was quite an adventure (there may or may not have been 2 speeding tickets involved), but we spent the night in a hotel close to the airport to be up for our 6 am flight to Buenos Aires Montevideo the next day. When our original flight was cancelled, we flew to Uruguay and then took a two-hour ferry across the bay to Argentina, where we stayed 4 nights in another very fancy hotel (thank you parents and credit card points) in Buenos Aires. Compared to Paraguay and Asuncion, BA felt so urban and "developed." Granted, both cities have distinct neighborhoods, fancy restaurants, and nightlife, but leaving PY for the first time in 7 months really gave me some interesting perspective.

We all really loved Buenos Aires, since it is giant—about 16 million people live there (for reference, NYC has a population of ~20 million), making it the 4th most populous city in the Americas! Thanks to Stefanie's love of good food, we ate so many delicious meals, including a food tour and many bottles of Argentinian wine. A full day was spent exploring the town of Tigre, an hour train ride from the city, sometimes also called the "Venice of South America." It is a huge network of rivers and islands in the Paraná Delta where people live or have vacation homes. Our trip also included so many artisan markets (hooray), gorgeous museums and buildings, and a tango show! It was such a wonderful week, not only because I got a little spoiled but also just to see my parents and show them a bit of what South American life is like.

I arrived back home last Monday (and isn't it crazy that I now refer to Paraguay as home?), and immediately jumped right back into working. It's been a bit of a wild last month, routine-wise (Dastan, Easter, training, parents), so I'm excited to show my counterparts that I can actually accomplish the things I promised I would. And after an unfortunate ankle sprain during Reconnect (darn you, weak ankles and hidden holes), I'm building my running mileage up from zero, which is another part of my routine that I really missed. But of course Paraguayan schools are so funny sometimes; I worked only one day this week since Thursday was Día del Maestro (Teacher's Day) and Friday Día de la Trabajadora (Labor Day). So maybe the routine is the friends we make along the way.

So yeah, that's what's been up with me! Sometimes writing this blog feels like a chore, and then I remember how nice this will be to read back on in two/five/ten years and how you all want to know what I'm up to down here, which motivates me. Much love to you, the reader. 💚💚💚