Causi Pac (Cheers in Quecha)

When you only visit Spanish-Speaking countries for a while you need to learn how to say cheers in local indigenous dialects! This post is different than most of my travel posts because I was with a class for the majority of the trip so we were kept pretty busy, and this is a paper I was required to write for class.

Reflection Paper:

Looking back at my Peru experience, three distinctly different phases emerge, each with its own challenges and enjoyable moments. The first phase was my time in Peru before the SOFE class-portion started. The second had a Christian theme as we visited churches in Lima, the nun-run camp of Cruz Blanca and our time in Ayaviri with the brothers from the Prelature. The last portion of our trip focused more on ancient indigenous culture and the community that has been built up around that. Each phase brought light to different issues faced by that particular community and shows what a richly diverse but conflicted country Peru is.

During my first week in Peru I had an opportunity to be a tourist on my own in Cusco and figure things out myself. I also had an incredible experience on my 4-day trek, one that was difficult in other ways. My friend, Katie, and I joined two solo travelers and were guided through the Ausangate mountains for 4 days, crossing three mountain passes, going from dramatic peaks to massive glaciers and finally ending at the stunning Rainbow Mountain, at 16,500 ft. The altitude was a struggle for all of us but the rest of the trek was invigorating. Having done a bit of international travelling and having lived abroad a couple times, I always enjoy exploring on my own, so there were times during the rest of the SOFE that I struggled being lead around in a big group. I was incredibly grateful to have this time on my own to explore, get outdoors, and do something new. It was tough to transition from vacation mode to school mode, especially with my friend Katie off to another trek before travelling South America for the next 6 months. Researching each of the nonprofit organizations got me excited for next 10 days, even though it would not be as exhilarating as the first week.

I think the Christian theme that went along with the first part of the SOFE was because of location. Since Lima is the capital of modern-day Peru, ever since the Spanish conquest, churches dominate the city and the majority of people we talked with were Catholic. We saw this while touring Lima as we visited several churches and the Plaza Mayor with the main cathedral right next to the Palacio Gobierno. The Christian theme continued at the Cruz Blanca camp. The nuns who ran Cruz Blanca seamlessly integrated themselves into the community that the camp served. They understood the community’s needs, assets, and desires. It was neat to see the way the shantytown community reacted when Susana entered the room. She was a role model and an inspiration to everyone we met with.

While the brothers at the prelature had similarly good intentions, their efforts to revive the Ayaviri community seemed out of touch with the wants and desires of the residents of the community. I greatly appreciated the brothers’ hospitality during our trip but we struggled to have a productive conversation with them. In looking back at our two days in Ayaviri, there were many factors that contributed to the frustrating experience. The first, which cannot go unmentioned during the trip, was the effect the presidential election had on each of us. The disappointment knowing we would be returning to a country different than one we had left was a concern on everyone’s mind. Most people also struggled with the high altitude of Ayaviri, which made it harder to focus on the organization. Lastly, the conversation we had with the brothers seemed to frustrate both the brothers and most people in our group. For me, the fact that the brothers were unable to answer what the community wanted was a red flag. They had some potential projects but everything seemed disjointed without an overarching goal or mission. The projects were ideas that had come from the brothers, none of whom where originally from Ayaviri, rather than ideas coming from the community. Projects within the prelature focused around the church as the solution, which could have been what the community wanted, but it seemed like no one had bothered to ask.

The last part of the trip was in stark contrast to the second part. Several of the key ideas at Kusi Kawsay and Kusi Nan really resonated with both my view of how to run an organization and my personal values and morals. I wrote in my journal that “Pisac was literally and figuratively a breath of fresh air from Ayaviri. The way Kusi Kawsay and Kusi Nan approach their mission is to use the culture and strengths within the community. We visited the farm and the school, which were very authentic and a nice change from the Prelature. I found myself inspired by so many of the concepts Roman spoke about and wrote several of them down.”

·      Kusi Kawsay means “happy life”

·      We are not better than anything or anyone else, we exist in parallel

·      Inee – giving and receiving, you must give first in order to receive, you do not take

·      Their mascot is the hummingbird because it is always moving but still in the center

·      The motto for learning at the school “you learn, you feel, you do”

·      They are in inclusive culture; not replacing but reaching in.

·      You are sacred when you give

·      Time does not pass. We pass, time is there.

·      There is no good or bad. Everything in its place.

I really enjoyed having Roman and his family/colleagues as our guides not just in Pisac and Amaru but through Ollantaytambo, Machu Picchu and Cusco. I felt like we got a genuine experience, different than any other guides would have given.

            I would like to work on the Kusi Kawsay/Kusi Nan project to develop some program evaluation to help improve their communications to donors, volunteers and prospective donors. I look forward to working with an organization that has helped me readjust to life back in the states. Remembering some of the ideals at Kusi Kawsay and Kusi Nan has helped me find a new perspective and peace through the current political unrest.

I think my background in Community Development could be helpful to both groups in Ayaviri; the Prelature and the women’s group. I also know it takes a long time and significant involvement to build trust and relationships with a community, and I worry that any suggestions I make would not be met favorably. I worry I would just end up frustrated and I don’t want to be frustrated with the capstone of my masters coursework. If there is no one else working with the Prelature I would be interested in helping them develop a logic model, in addition to work I’d like to do with Kusi Kawsay/Kusi Nan.  

I'll post some pictures on Facebook later. There are too many to sift through right now. 

Still a mystery...

I stopped posting to my blog during the last two weeks for a couple reasons. First, because I wanted to experience everything I could in my remaining time and not tie myself to a computer. Second, after my last post I was pulled in to my supervisor’s office; she had heard about the blog through other co-workers who were concerned that based on my post it didn't sound like I had a work-plan. While this was partially true because my work plan had changed, I wanted this to be a space to share my experience with people back home, not something that got anyone in trouble (myself included). As a result I do not plan to post this to any type of social media and realize not many people will see it. I guess that’s the good news bad news of making friends in the world of social media in 2015.

The last two weeks of work a group of boys from a German High School volunteered on several different homes in the town of Arroyos y Esteros. While the boys a lot of spoke German on site, they were all born in Paraguay. I didn't go out to site with them every day, since Arroyos y Esteros took 1½ to 2 hours to get to, depending on traffic. Since the boys all spoke Spanish, and some even spoke Guarani, I questioned somewhat my purpose on site. Laura needed to be there some days to help with tools and logistics, but she couldn't drive, so I functioned mainly as her driver. Regardless of feeling somewhat useless, I still enjoyed my time on site, helping the kids of the future homeowners work on their handstands and other gymnastics skills, sitting around and drinking Terere with the masons because it was too hot to work for much more than a half hour at a time. The rest of my time in the office was fairly uneventful, but it allowed me time to start reading St. Vrain e-mails closer and re-integrate myself back to the real world. I also gave about a half hour presentation on St. Vrain Habitat (in Spanish) to the whole office.  

One day while the boys were at lunch the masons let me and Laura lay a couple bricks, something Laura said she had never done before in 1½ years of working there.

Saturday, a week before I left, I went to play soccer with a group of women. Playing soccer I immediately felt comfortable and confident. I think this confidence translated off the field as well. After playing we sat around sharing beers and chatting for the next 4 hours. They seemed genuinely interested in what I was doing in Paraguay and conversation was not as intimidating as other large groups of people. I could tell this was the kind of group I would have been friends with if I had been around longer. Probably my biggest regret about my time in Paraguay is not finding this incredible group of women sooner. I played with them again on Monday night, and hung out until almost 1am for someone's birthday, and then played with some people from Habitat on Tuesday.

Chicas Futbolisticas.

The last week Mary went to join Basilio down in Encarnacion for their 25^th wedding anniversary. So I was in charge of dinner for a couple of nights and also had access to a car. I made latkes for Katrina, Yohanna and both boyfriends for the first night of Hannukkah. Yohanna and Dani took me to eat Lomito one night, a large traditional Paraguayan sandwich. Yohanna and I also took the bus and met up downtown to do some Christmas souvenir shopping one day after work. It was nice to have a little bit of freedom.     

Latkes for the first night of Hannukkah!

The beast that is Lomito.

My last weekend in Paraguay I traveled to Iguazu Falls. Iguazu is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, it lies on the boarder of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina. I had heard the best views are from the Argentina side, which you had to cross Brazil to get to. I went with Katrina and her boyfriend Jose. Since I had had an end-of-year dinner with the Development Department on Saturday night and my flight back to the states on Monday, we decided to take an overnight bus to the Falls. It left at midnight on Saturday and 5 buses, a scare that I wouldn't be able to cross Brazil for lack of a Visa, and 11 hours later, we arrived. On one of the buses I met a Japanese woman who lived in England and was travelling by herself in South America for two weeks. Shigeko and I were fast friends and walked around the Falls together for a couple hours. The Falls were absolutely breathtaking. I have more photos than I know what to do with and none of them do justice to this natural beauty. It was probably about 4 times the size of Niagara and all natural, walking through a jungley forest to get the best views. This mini-vacation was a wonderful treat and a great way to end my time in Paraguay.

Las cataratas de Iguazu.

"La ultima chipa"

I never did learn how to say "Cheers" in Guarani. But every time I asked it sparked an interesting conversation, which is what I really wanted out of the question...I guess I'll have to come back to figure it out!

Jaha!

This week at work it was back to the office. I spent some time processing evaluations from the past two Global Village volunteer teams, some time translating some materials and some time shadowing different people on staff; an architect and Pepa, the Coordinator of the project ‘Sirviendo a Colaboradores’, a program that collaborates with businesses and companies to provide new homes, additions or home repairs for their employees.

I continue to not entirely understand how things get scheduled at the office, whether an official outlook calendar situation does not exist or if I am just not included it. It results in a lot of “okay, Nicole you’re going to go with this person to this place for this amount of time and you leave now”. Sometimes one or more of those items is left out or I miss it in translation. There are also times I don’t know what we’re doing until after we get there. I’ve found it helps to have a “Jaha” attitude. Jaha is one of the few Guaraní words I’ve learned. It basically means “let’s go” and has been the attitude I’ve tried adopt in relation new things, different experiences or lack of a comprehensible schedule.

Friday, December 5^th was the International Day of Volunteers. Habitat threw an event at a bar downtown. It was my first time seeing much of the nightlife downtown. The event started at 8, but no one showed up until almost 10, so I brought out my deck of cards out and taught Laura, Milena and Pepa how to play ‘Asshole’. Explaining it in Spanish I’m pretty sure they were convinced I was making up rules the first couple rounds but then got the hang of it. The event was nice, but incredibly difficult with loud music in a crowded bar, to understand people. I think I had a full conversation with someone in which they asked a question, I responded with an answer to a completely different question, they said something I didn’t understand and I just continued to talk about whatever I had been saying before, repeat. Other than loud bars I am have more significant conversations and pick up on at least the topic of conversations happening around me.

Laura, Milena, Pepa and me before any volunteers showed up. 

December 8^th is a National Holiday, the Día del Virgen de Caacupe. Luckily this year it fell on a Monday, making it a 3-day weekend. I went with Mary, Basilio and Yohanna to visit some of their family in Encarnacion, a city in the south of Paraguay, about 5 hours from Asuncion, because Jaha. Basilio’s parents and two brothers all live in Encarnacion or the campo surrounding it.

We left super early Saturday and arrived in time to have lunch with his parents. They have a modest house on a large plot of land with a stream that runs through it. 

"Nicole, want to take a stroll down this stream?" "Jaha!"

Basilio’s older brother lives “next door” which is more like “the next farm over”. He owns about 16,000 chickens and sell eggs and chickens for a living. They also grow the majority of their own vegetables and have a fishpond in the back, where I caught my first real fish! A tilapia that we had for dinner the next night. 

That time I caught a tilapia, grilled it and ate it! Jaha. 

Saturday night we all went to Basilio’s younger brother’s house in the city, he owns a business and was having a holiday party for all of his employees. Dinner wasn’t served until about 11:30pm but the meat there was some of the best I’d had since I’d been in Paraguay, specifically the lamb. The whole family was incredibly warm and welcoming. They made me feel truly comfortable, like I was part of their family.

Also beers in Paraguay are as big as my head. Yes, of course I have my cuse koozie. Jaha.

On Sunday I went to visit some of the Jesuit Ruins of the area and then went to the “beach” along the Río Paraná. 

Me, cousin Nadia and Yohanna at the ruins. 

Beachin. 

For dinner we had my tilapia (along with three others and an 8-kilo fish that was actually what most people ate). After dinner I went with Yohanna and two of her cousins to Encarnacion’s version of the Virgen De Caacupe. We walked about 12 kilometers along the Camino a Itacúa to the sanctuary of the Virgin of Itacúa…starting at midnight. Jaha. The whole experience was so interesting and I am still trying to digest it. It started out with a couple other groups of people along the route, to Mardi Gras sized crowds so heavy that cars couldn’t get by. Upon arrival in Itacúa there were venders almost like a carnival or a fair. We arrived at about 2:30am and there had to have been tens of thousands of people there. We waited about 45 minutes in a line that barely moved to see the Sanctuary, spoiler alert: it’s a small statue of the Virgin Mary in a cave-like rock formation along the river. There were thousands of people sleeping on the lawn waiting to see it in the morning, for this it almost seemed like a music festival…without the tents. And this isn’t even the main destination for the Día del Virgen, I kept thinking, “Caacupe must be insane. THIS is insane!”. For some it is a truly religious experience, for others it’s something to do because other people are doing it. For me, as someone who likes to be a part of things, I was certainly right in the middle of one of the most significant parts of Paraguayan culture. I was incredibly glad that I had jaha’d when asked if I wanted to go for an 8 km walk that started at midnight, despite the fact that we didn’t get back until 4:30am. Words and pictures can’t describe this phenomenon, but here’s an attempt:

Cousin Cesar, Yohanna, cousin Marcia and friend walking with a mission. 

And walking…

Entrance of Itacúa. 

People sleeping, people waiting. 

Part of the waiting, at least the view was nice. Hard to tell from this photo but the moon was almost full, and those lights are Argentina. 

There she is!

The Rest of Thanksgiving Week

A little behind here, internet wasn’t working at the house on my laptop, and the wifi a the office was down.

Thanksgiving week we had a group of wonderful Global Village volunteers who gave up Thanksgiving with their families and loved ones to spend the week in Paraguay building a new home for Señor Victor, his wife Edith and their three children. I got to spend the entire week with them starting from their first meeting at the Hotel Sunday night, the entire week at the worksite to a City Tour on Saturday and on my day off went Zip-lining with them on Sunday. It was an “open” Global Village trip, which meant the volunteers were from all over the US, ages 20 to 70+ with a mix of first-time Habitaters to some who had been on 20+ Global Village builds.

Several volunteers in the group spoke some Spanish so I wasn’t as needed on site, and wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself the first day. I didn’t want to take anything away from the volunteers, but after about 30 minutes of waiting around in case anything needed to be translated between the masons and the volunteers, I got bored and picked up a shovel. I was probably equally as useful as a translator as I was for being young(er) and strong(er) and able to help with some of the heavier tasks. That being said, it definitely made for an exhausting week.

End of the week. Global Village volunteers and masons with Señor Victor, Edith and their children in front. This was barely a hole in the dirt when they started on Monday. 

Hand turkeys and thank you notes I helped the kids make for the volunteers during lunch on Thanksgiving. 

I accompanied the group to dinner Wednesday night at a harp school (something that started when the group from the St. Vrain Habitat affiliate came to Paraguay last October, and has been done with every volunteer group since!). It was a lovely evening with the owner of the school, his son the teacher, and three of their top students who were all in their early to mid-teens. They played beautifully, everything from traditional Guaraní songs to Coldplay to Billy Joel. The owner’s wife made a delicious spread of Parguayan food: Sopa Paraguaya, chipa, yuka, potato salads and carne asada on the BBQ. His daughter also performed a traditional Paraguay dance in which she balanced a glass bottle on her head while wearing a gorgeous ñandutí (Paraguayan embroidered lace) dress. After eating the volunteers had an opportunity to take their turn trying the harp. I think the best I heard from one of them was twinkle twinkle little star.

Arpa Róga.

Bottle dancing in ñandutí dress.

Thursday night was the birthday of one of the women who works at Habitat so I went out and enjoyed my Thanksgiving dinner at TGI Fridays, famous also in Paraguay for their 2 for 1 Happy Hour drink special. There were about 8 people at dinner and keeping up with their conversation in a loud restaurant was nearly impossible. Afterwards we walked to a bar in the cute neighborhood called Carmelitas that had salsa dancing and live music, but didn’t start until 11. When we got there at 9:30 it was dead, and unbelievable how many people showed up between 11 and midnight, which is when I left. Two of the volunteers from the group came out too, and as one of them put it, “it’s always fun to see how the locals shake it” literally. I was under the impression that we were going to be dancing but going to a salsa bar in Paraguay, it turns out, is for watching. I think more people may have started dancing after we left since it was so “early”.

Music at the salsa bar. 

On Saturday I accompanied the group on their city tour and to the market downtown. Some of it I had been to before and but I was able to learn more about the history of the city and had the opportunity to watch the changing of the guards at 10am on Saturday in the main plaza of the downtown area. Saturday afternoon/evening I prepared Thanksgiving dinner (see previous post). Sunday I went with some of the volunteers on an adventure tour they had scheduled (separate from the actual Habitat portion of their trip) and invited me to come along. Most of the volunteers who spoke Spanish had left by that point and it was actually great that I went because the driver didn’t speak any English, nor did the staff at the Adventure company, so I found myself thrown on the spot translating the history of zip-lining and general safety information. Afterwards we went on a short boat-ride and had lunch at a German restaurant called Alemana, famous for their pastries, bollo, which greatly resemble powdered jelly donuts.

Changing of the guards outside the Monumento a Los Heroes. 

German pastries. This one's for you, Mom. Enjoying some bollo at Alemana! 

Overall it was a great week, I don’t know that my Spanish improved a ton but I proved to be somewhat useful throughout the week and especially on Saturday and Sunday when Laura and Milena were not around. It was a busy week with tiring work during the day and events at night, which, after 3 weeks of being away from my busy life at home, I can say is just how I like to live life. There are times when I can appreciate a routine but overall I really enjoy having a plan with a plethora of things to do. #todaslascosas #allthethings

Día de Acción de Gracias

16 Steps to preparing Thanksgiving Dinner in Paraguay

1. Tell host family you would like to cook a large traditional American meal for them
2. Brainstorm with host family if there are any markets that sell Turkey
3. Research Thanksgiving menus and gather old menus from Dad
4. Translate ingredients into Spanish
5. Convert gallons, lbs, and cups into liters and kilograms for shopping purposes
6. Go to the grocery store that is farther away because it has the Turkey
7. Gather ingredients (READ: Make due with what is available) through explaining ingredients to host Mom when translation from google translate didn’t work and come to the conclusion that A) YES said ingredient exists, B) NO it does not exist in this country or C) I am unable to sufficiently explain “celery” any other way than “vegetable” “green” “long and skinny” “no leaves like lettuce”
8. Turkey basically defrosts in the car on the way home because it’s 95 degrees out with 95% humidity
9. Turn oven on. A task that is incredibly painful, see #8.
10. For cooking purposes convert cups, Tbsp, and tsp into small mug, big spoon and small spoon from the kitchen
11. Cook for 4 straight hours, covered in sweat, see #8.
12. Recruit a helper, because maybe starting to cook Thanksgiving dinner at 5pm wasn't the best idea.
13. Explain the reason we celebrate Thanksgiving using a 5-year-old’s language abilities, while trying to remember everything I knew about Thanksgiving when I was 5.
14. Explain I have no idea why Thanksgiving is the last Thursday of November, but after this experience I’d guess it has something to do with #8.
15. Go around the table and share what you are thankful for.
16. Eat (at 9pm - normal dinner time), Drink (wine without the ice and coke for today) and Be Merry! Then eat pie. 

Shopping List

This may have been the first time I'd ever cooked a Turkey

Helper Yohanna

It worked!

I am thankful for this wonderful family who have opened up their home and shared their lives with me. 

SUCCESS!

Three Miracles

Because I am selfish and uncreative, I am stealing this title from my grandmother, who used to use it to tell the story of her and my great grandparents’ escape from Nazi Germany. I realize the blog entry of my second week in Paraguay is not worthy of such a title, but it felt like three miracles.

On Monday, after another monotonous day in the office, it must have seemed like something was wrong, because during our run in the Botanic Gardens Mary asked me if I had been bored at work. I tried to respond respectfully with, it’s not that I’m bored necessarily, just that I don’t talk to anyone during the day. I think she understood immediately and expressed that she wanted me to enjoy my experience, and that if something wasn’t working we could change it. I hope that I effectively communicated that I wanted to help the affiliate wherever their need for me was most but also wanted to understand the affiliate as a whole. The next day Mary, my supervisor, Azucena, and Milena, the Volunteer Coordinator took a look at my work plan and collectively realized that I did not actually need to be in Paraguay to do any of the things on it. She said it was Milena’s idea to have me spend more time with volunteers, so I am spending the entire week of November 23^rd in the field with the Global Village team.

The whole week got better from there. I spent the majority of Wednesday with Milena and Laura getting tools from the worksites the week before and taking them to the worksite for the next week. I got to spend about 6 hours in a truck with them and learned a ton about Habitat Paraguay’s Volunteer Program, their strengths, weaknesses, and goals. It was interesting to compare volunteer programs; they were both very interested in how things work at our affiliate. Milena was especially interested since she will be leading the first ever “reverse” Global Village trip when a group of Paraguayans come to Colorado to help with Flood Recovery builds next summer. I was also able to learn some about each of them. It was great to spend the day practicing speaking Spanish, rather than just reading it.

This week my Spanish has continued to improve but group settings are still incredibly difficult for me to understand. Thursday morning (this is the day of miracles) I overhead a conversation that I was not a part of, understood what was happening, offered a solution and they took it! Miracle number one. Then someone from the family services department asked if I wanted to attend an orientation with her, so I could learn more about that side of the organization as well. I ended up having lunch with her and two other people from that department and kept up with the conversation for at least 15 minutes! Miracle two. After that the lunchroom was completely empty but rather than sitting there depressed and alone I watched the Pitch Perfect 2 trailer (thanks Lara, Laura and Melissa for each sending it to me separately). Yes, my third miracle is the Pitch Perfect 2 trailer and I am okay with that.

This week I also got the opportunity to see a several new towns including Y’pacarai, Guarambare, Limpio, Luque, and J. Agosto Saldivar (all of which I’m still working on pronouncing, specifically the first two, which are in Guaraní) between the errands for the worksites and the two family services meetings I attended. Mariene, the family services employee who took me around with her, was happy to answer my questions and shared tons of information about everything from working with the families, to the cities and towns we went through to government and policy. I had my first experience with a family that spoke almost entirely Guaraní, which still sounds like garbled vocal inflections lacking any actual pronounced syllables to me, but at least I can tell the difference between that and Spanish.

Family services orientations happen in libraries in Paraguay too!

Saturday I went with Katrina to the town of Caacupé, famous for their Basilica with the largest sanctuary in the country. December 8^th is the day of the Virgin of Caacupé in which thousands of Parguayans make the 50-kilometer pilgrimage from Asuncion to the Basilica in Caacupé to touch a statue of the Virgin Mary. The basilica was very impressive with stained glass windows and an observatory deck with a great view of the region.

Basilico de Caacupé from the front. 

Basilico from above. 

Outside the Basilico. 

Sunday I meet the Global Village team and get to start working with them on Monday!

Oh yeah, I also did this. Juegos del Hambre.  

Ciao for now!

Llegadas y Comidas

Before I left I had a conversation at work with Reuben about thinking about the question “Where will you be 2 days from now? Or a week or 10 days?”. Well, it’s been 10 days since that conversation and wow has a lot happened in those 10 days. This is my attempt to share some of the things I’ve done, thoughts, maybe #thefeels, without boring anyone or writing a novel. Upon revision, I’m sorry, it turned into a novel. If you don’t have time, I don’t blame you here are the bullet points:

• Family: I’m living the Executive Director, Mary, and her family (husband and 2 daughters in their early 20’s), they’ve been incredibly accommodating and wonderful hosts
• Work: I work in the Administrative office in the Resource Development Department researching grants and foundations in English and translating materials from Spanish into English. The translating I enjoy, I’m not finding much in the list of International Organizations and I’m glad I’m not a fulltime grant writer and get to interact with people in my job
• Language: I’m getting better quickly with the language but group settings are still a big struggle
• Weekend: This weekend I got to spend Saturday with the Global Village team of Canadian Firefighters and Sunday at a celebration for the National Military Day 

For anyone else still here (read: mom) it has certainly been an exciting, emotional and thought-provoking week.

During my stay I am living with the Executive Director of Habitat Paraguay, Mary, and her family. Her husband, Basilio, just celebrated 25 years in the Military and this week was promoted to Comandante (I’m not sure what level that relates to in the US Military, but it’s my understanding that after one year he will be at the highest level). They have two daughters, Katrina and Yohana, 23 and 21, respectively. Both live at the house, are in school and working fulltime. Mary, herself, just finished her bachelor’s degree last week and also visits her mother every day to bring her food. So, here I was coming down to Paraguay to try and learn to take it all in, live a slower life and take “me time” (some strange concept people have told me exists, but I’ve never entirely known what it means), to find myself with an one of the busiest families in the country. That’s not entirely true, this lifestyle does not seem uncommon for Paraguayan families, several of whom are working multiple jobs with long hours. Mary and Basilio have made it clear they are not a traditional Paraguayan family. Upon my arrival they offered me beer, whiskey, red wine with coke (that’s how it’s drunk down here and it’s not bad!) and I said, I think we’ll get along just fine. They also eat a lot more vegetables and don’t have red meat with every meal, which is what I had heard was the norm. That being said, when I arrived there was chicken, pork and steak on the grill for lunch, in addition to some salads.

Basilio and Mary. 

The house is bigger than I expected, especially after the 10-minute drive from the main road on a rough rocky dirt road. It is 2 stories with 3 bedrooms, living room, dining room, family room, kitchen, open garage and really nice backyard full of plants including a mango tree and a lime tree, a table that could seat up to 8 or 10, a small bar and, of course, the grill built into the stone wall.

Backyard patio with bar and grill in the back. This is where I sit and journal most nights. 

Katrina, the older daughter, also works at Habitat as one of their Architects and has been deemed my tour guide. After a nice family lunch on Sunday she took me downtown to the “centro” where we walked around a museum with some Paraguayan history and culture. We also took a fun short boat ride on the Paraguay River, which runs through the city. Back at the house I got unpacked and then, for literally the first time since I can remember, I didn’t know what to do with myself. No homework, no work, no laundry, cleaning, or cooking. The Internet was down because of a storm. The house is a little outside of the city in a smaller town called Mariano Roque Alonso and I’ve yet to approach the idea of walking around by myself. So I got out my journal and started writing. I have so far written every day but I won’t share that all here because first it’s a boring account of what I did every day and ate for every meal, and also it’s in Spanish.

Me and Katrina on the Río Paraguayo with Asunción (and our new teenage friends) in the back.

The Habitat office is not far from Mary’s house. 15 minutes with no traffic, but there’s always traffic. The workday starts at 7am and everyone is pretty much gone by 3:30 or 4pm. Quite a difference from our office with no set schedule but you can’t count on most people to be there till 9, if they’re coming in at all that day. There are 55 people who work there; so far I think I’ve got down the names of the nine people in the Resource Development and Volunteer Mobilization Department where I work, but even that has taken me all week.

This week I was working primarily on researching grants from a list of International Organizations and Foundations that have English websites to see if we should apply for any. It’s been a lot of searching without finding much and has made me really glad I’m not a fulltime grant writer and get to actually interact with people in my job. After a day and a half of just that I asked my supervisor if I could switch off between that and something else because it was starting to wear me down. She gave me some material to translate; family profiles, grant reports and applications. The last couple days went by a little faster as I started to find a balance between both tasks and with the translation I feel like I am producing something. However, despite sharing an office with the rest of the department, I still don’t really interact with anyone; staff, volunteers, donors, as a part of my job.

T-shirt exchange! New coworkers with Habitat shirts I was going to get rid of. 

At the beginning of the week I would count down until I could take my lunch break, only to discover that lunchtime in a 55-person office with everyone speaking rapidly in a language you are just learning is incredibly overwhelming. I’ve never looked forward to and dreaded something so much in my life, except maybe my driving test. One day I took lunch late to avoid the chaos but not being around anyone at all during lunch in addition to not interacting with anyone during the day just made me depressed.  

Casual horses in the Botanic Gardens. 

Almost every day after work I’ve gone for a run with Mary at the Botanic Gardens, which has felt very freeing. On Tuesday it rained all day so we couldn’t go. This was one of the days I had researched grants to little avail all day and had lunch late. I did one of my favorite boot camp workouts in the garage, then offered to make dinner because Mary had a late meeting, and made a red sauce pasta with sausage that everyone liked. While making dinner and then waiting for Mary and Yohana to get home I talked with Basilio for probably about 2½ hours, all in Spanish. I think went through at least 4 phases of group development in about 6 hours, from forming to storming, norming and performing. I always forget the last one because it doesn’t rhyme.

I’m sure it’s all just the settling in process that comes with any job…only in a new language in a new culture.

It’s amazing how quickly you can learn a language when you are living it 24/7 and have no other option. I have an app on my phone that doesn’t need wifi to work and will translate one word at a time. It has come in handy several times when I am in a conversation and can come up with enough words around what I’m trying to say. Yohana commented that she could tell I was speaking better after just 4 or 5 days. I am sure I still butcher grammar and my vocabulary is limited, but I noticed yesterday that I’ve said a couple things without thinking about every word before I said them, and realized that I said it correctly, verb conjugation and adjectives agreeing and everything.

I am able to talk with people one on one pretty well, especially when they know I am learning Spanish and speak slowly and use simple words. I’ve probably gone from understanding about 35% to 70% on this front. Where I struggle is group settings. I probably only pick up 5-10% of what two or more people are talking about when they know each other well. I am probably at about 20-25% understanding strangers or people who don’t know each other very well, as long as I understand the context. I keep telling myself this is week one and things will get better. As an extravert who recharges my own energy off of the energy of others, it’s been a challenge to have that limited.

On Saturday I spent the day on site with the Global Village team from Canada that had been on my flight from Miami to Asunción. They were a group of firefighters from Ottowa, a mix of fulltime and volunteer, young and old, men and women, plus a handful of spouses. Since it was their last day we only worked a half-day and then had a variety of activities in the afternoon. Despite the fact that I spent the majority of the morning moving sand from the road, where it had been dumped, closer to the house in broken wheelbarrows, it still felt great to sweat, get to know the volunteers and be a translator.  

Proof I did some work down here. I'm not sure why I look so awkward posing, I think that was the wheelbarrow you had to hold up with your leg. 

There was a small ceremony after lunch to recognize the families and the volunteers and all the hard work that had gone into the home. The ceremony was very nicely done. It’s always great to see how Habitat changes lives, not just of the families, but of the volunteers. I love seeing a group of mostly Habitat newbies who leave at the end of a weeklong build knowing that they’re taking back with them far more than they brought and they’ve become lifelong advocates for stabilized housing. It’s how I got involved with Habitat and with affordable housing and why I stuck around and, I guess, how I’ve ended up in Paraguay.  

Other afternoon activities included visiting a Paraguayan Fire Station, the central market, getting the best empañadas in town from the oldest restaurant in the country, and a Brazilian Steakhouse for dinner. I wasn’t intending to stay for dinner, but the volunteers invited me to come along and since I didn’t know when the next time was I would be speaking English, I was so glad I did.

It was interesting to compare the GV team’s week to mine. Even though I had been living the Paraguayan life with a Paraguayan family for a week, there were a ton of things that they knew about that I had no idea, like the 3 Paraguayan beers that are at every restaurant or why all the dogs have really short legs. They had done so much; played soccer, gone to a traditional harp concert with a bottle dancer, taken a city tour, gone out dancing and seen live music. A small part of me felt like I had missed out on something. But I remembered that they have 18 people to ask questions about the country and the culture as opposed to just me, AND they could ask things in English. The information I gather about the country is based on the limited words I can use to ask questions, and the 30-70% of what I understand when I get my answer. Regardless, my favorite part of the week by far was facilitating conversation between the volunteers and the families so they could share pictures of their kids and talk about what they do for work. I felt I had served a purpose and helped a connection between two people from very different backgrounds that would have otherwise never happened.

Part of the Canadian team with the future family of this home. 

Lastly, the name of this post is Llegadas y Comidas, which means arrivals and food, so seemed fitting for my first week. It’s also the name of the text group between me, Mary, Katrina and Yohana which is primarily about rides and most importantly, food.

Despite the look on my face, I'm enjoying some Paraguayan sopa, like cornbread, but denser and not sweet and usually with cheese.