Tires, Trees and Training

It's officially been a month here, ¡Que loco!

Training has picked up in full swing. The days are long and dense, but the information is necessary, and I know that everything we are learning and doing will come in handy once we move to site in just a month and a half.

A highlight these past few weeks was visiting a local elementary school in Costa Alegre to observe class there and learn about the Paraguyan school system. I visited the 4^th grade where they were learning about alcoholism of all topics, but were so cute and curious. After class, the entire school wanted our autographs and gave us candies, notes, and gifts. I even signed a few of their arms which was so silly - I'm pretty positive I'll never be a celebrity, so this was probably the closest I'll ever get. The whole morning reaffirmed that I love working with kids and will be so fulfilled if that's at least part of what I get to do for these next two years.

One of the biggest assignments we have during training is called the "Community Engagement Project" (CET) which is a series of activities designed to get us used to working with communities and chosen "counterparts". It is hands-on practice for integrating into our future sites, and allows us to practice using the tools and techniques of community incorporation. The 5 of us living in Costa Alegre helped build a fenced-off playground made from recycled tires at the school with the help of two moms of students, and it was a blast. We have plans to continue working with the mamás, which include a mural right next to the newly created tired-fenced field!

Another fun training activity was visiting El Bosque, a local park owned by a very spirited man who, when everyone around him was clear-cutting their fields for farmlands, kept all the natives trees on his property. Because of this, we took a native Paraguayan tree walk, seeing them full-grown and learning about their uses! We also had the opportunity to plant some trees of our own and learn different planting and propagation techniques. And our homework for the week was to take our own arbolito home to plant with our families!

Guaraní is coming along (slowly), and this Thursday we had our mid-training language tests, interview-style. It was a very low-stakes testing environment, which I appreciated, but I forgot all the Guaraní verbs I had studied. Despite the brain fart, I scored Intermediate-Mid, which I was happy and surprised to learn. The language professors were super impressed with how everyone scored generally - in Spanish and Guaraní - and said that our cohort scored the highest average after the first test compared to any other years!

We also had our first (of three) viajes during training, called the Tech Excursion last week! The purpose of this first trip was to visit an actual site and try some hands-on environmental conservation activities. A group of 11 of us traveled to Isla Púcu (not an actual island, sadly. For being a landlocked country, Paraguay has many towns named costa, isla, y playa), about 1.5 hours northeast of Costa Alegre. We visited a volunteer named Kate there, who is part of C-8, the previous Environmental group that arrived exactly a year before us. The site was pretty big - about 5 thousand people - which will be larger than 90% of the sites my cohort will be placed in, and absolutely gorgeous. In Isla Púcu, we visited three different escuelas - a public elementary school, a private elementary school, and a public high school. We played games, made recycled art, and (barely) won a competitive game of handball. It's obvious that Kate loves her community and has integrated so well - everyone driving bye waved "hello" and the school kids were obsessed with her - which immediately set us up for a successful tech-excursion. We spent the night in little bungalows, surrounded by horses, sheep, goats, and chickens, then helped plant 25 trees at the private elementary school the next morning. The whole experience was incredibly inspiring, seeing how well the volunteer has integrated, and gave me so much hope and motivation for the years ahead.

Running has continued to be quite the adventure. The roads around my house are pretty nice (albeit sandy), which allows for more "normal" runs, but the dogs are scary. They'll sometimes chase after me, and although I haven't yet been bitten, the fear is always there. Which is unfortunate because, as almost everyone who knows me knows, I love dogs, so being wary or even scared of them has been difficult to adjust to. But if I want to avoid the dogs, the answer is la cancha - running circles around fútbol fields - which is just as boring as it sounds. This is not me complaining, because I am so grateful to be able to move my body the way I want!

My host family is still just as fun and funny, and I feel so lucky. Vicente wears his Colorado Rockies hat often and likes to (jokingly) tell everyone that they're the best team in Colorado because they win the most! Every Sunday evening, the church right next to my house that Elva and Vicente are very involved in, hosts a volleyball tournament, and it is the highlight of my week. All age groups play in teams of 4, and while I am still a terrible player, I have been getting better little by little. Instead of missing the ball every time, I can now (sometimes) serve and set it. It's also been a great way to meet other people in the community, and they have started to try to teach me better volleyball techniques (and laugh with me when I inevitably cannot implement them).

And that just about brings me to now. It’s crazy to think a whole month has already passed! I’m feeling so grateful to be here and to be surrounded by such a kind, motivated group of staff and volunteers. My plan is to continue posting once a month, so by the next update I should know where my permanent site will be!

Sending love to everyone back home, I miss you all 💚