Wait, those jumbled letters are actually words?!

There will most likely never be a weekend that doesn't consist of a billion parties. It doesn't seem to be in the cards for me to just have a relaxing weekend without fiestas! Don't get me wrong, it's awesome to see how Paraguayans party but it's sort of an exhausting cultural experience to continuously engage in.

Anyway, on Friday we got to watch one of our G-mates (I'm a part of G-44) play a soccer game because she's super guapa (a word used to describe someone very hardworking, not to be confused with the other meaning of guapa which is good looking... not how they use it here) and got invited to be on a local team. How cool is that? I really don't know how much more integrated she could be!!! It was definitely a learning moment about time here in Paraguay because we thought it started at 8:30pm so being our North American selves we arrived at about 8:15pm so that we could get all situated and what not. wellllll, this was silly of us because really it didn't actually end up starting until 9:45pm. Welcome to the Hora Paraguaya. Most things do not start when they are said to. Ugh. It was super awesome to watch though and now it will probably a little Friday night ritual because what better way to spend a Friday than watch a partido del fútbol?

On Saturday we were invited to a dance class which was totally sweet. Initially I was under the impression that our dance instructor (who is the uncle of the guapa fútbolista) would just be teaching some of us trainees alone. When we arrived it was an actual structured class for little kids. How adorable?! We learned some traditional moves and we were invited back for next week too so I've got my weekend planned! Seeing the little boys and girls do their little dance moves was the most precious thing ever. Plus I'm sure it was hilarious for the parents to see us twenty-something year olds try and do these moves. Whatever, it's tranquilo.

On Sunday I went to the most intense birthday party ever. It was hosted by a local 7 year old and her parents and it was just so amazing. It was Minnie Mouse themed and I don't even have the right words to justify its extravagance. There were satin banners everywhere, in pink, red, white and black. There were mimes and butlers serving food. Each table was perfectly color coded with matching satin chair sashes and impeccable center pieces. There were huge balloon fixtures and a food display that was honestly just breathtaking. You wouldn't think a Minnie Mouse themed food display could be breathtaking but it was. There were full size candy bars for the taking, along with glass candy jars filled with various treats, everything color coded (obviously) and a magnificent cake that my host mother made! The amount of work put into this child's party was insane. If anyone wants a Minnie Mouse themed wedding, this set up would have certainly sufficed. I should have taken some notes for my own wedding HA! They had a clown act come in for the kids and even though my Spanish is pretty sketchy it was really funny.

Oh, and today I officially started my Guarani classes. woah. It is so crazy, but at the same time I think it's a really beautiful language. There are sounds that I've never had to make in my life so that makes it pretty difficult to pronounce but hopefully I'll learn it.. poco a poco. Here's my little spiel:
 

Mba'éichapa! (Mba'éicha Nde réra?) Che réra Ambyr. (Moõgua nde?) Che estado unidogua. (Mboy año rereko?) Areko viente tres año. (Mpa'epe remba'apo nde?) Che aspirante Cuerpo de Pazpegua. (Moõ reiko y moõ remba'apo?)  Aiko _____ y amba'apo ______ (revy'a Paraguáipe?)Avy'a Paraguáipe.

Hello! (what's your name?) My name is Ambyr. (Where are you from?) I'm from the United States. (How old are you?) I'm 23 years old. (What is your work?) I'm a Peace Corps Trainee. (Where do you live and where do you work?) I live in ______ and work in _______. (Are you happy in Paraguay?) I'm happy in Paraguay! 

That's all for now
xox

more fiestas (there seems to be a trend) and the PCV visit

I feel like a lot has happened since my last post, I just haven't had the time to write anything down.

I made it to Asuncion with my partner last Wednesday. It went pretty well, we didn't get lost per se. Our instructor gave us the wrong directions (not sure if that was intentional or not..) but thanks to my marvelous directional skills I was able to navigate our way to the correct destination! WOO! We had to go to the Centro Cultural Paraguayo Americano first, and then to the Red Cross. It was really interesting. Then it started to pour rain, which was a first since we had been here. So we were soaked as we walked to find a bus that could take us to the Peace Corps office. It was actually quite refreshing!

On Valentine's I was happy that I got to Skype with Matt! (YAY).

On Saturday, there was a huge party at "the club" for Valentine's day/Carnival. In Paraguay they have their own Carnival in Encarnacion and it's a pretty big deal so locally they held their own fiesta. It also happened to be one of the other PCT's birthday so we had a little gathering at her house first. We left to go to the fiesta at midnight (Paraguayans really know how to party and don't start until very late!). There was a pretty decent size group who went. There was live music and dancing and beer all night. It was super fun and I ended up staying until 4:30am. A strange thing that I encountered was that in order to use the bathroom I had to pay 2 mil (which is equivalent to 40 cents, mas o menos) to get toilet paper to go to the bathroom.

On Sunday, my host family and I went to another fiesta for my host sister's godmother. She lived in what I believe to be a suburb of Asuncion. It was very nice! They had 5 adorable puppies at their house and my host dad kept joking that I was going to sneak one home in my purse, I was slightly (aka VERY) tempted. The daughter of the birthday girl, her friend, my host sister, and I went on a little excursion after lunch. They took me to this beautiful area near the Rio Paraguay. There were huge mansions, a yacht club, and a really nice beach! We spent a little time there before the fam and. I had to return home. I skyped with Marguerite, one of my best friends, and that was treat. Then I had to prepare for my PCV visit.



My favorite puppy

All five puppies on my lap!

Bright and early on Monday morning I had to take a bus 3.5 hours away to a city called San Ignacio. I met my mentor, Liza, there. We took another short bus ride to her site which was near by. It was awesome to get the opportunity to see how volunteers really live their lives on a day to day basis. We went to her health post which seemed pretty active and well structured and we had a lot of meetings with people in her community regarding some of her projects. It was nice to have down time when she didn't have meetings where we could read or watch movies or whatever. I finished a book called The Night Circus and it was SO good, shout out to my good friend Haley for hooking me up with some awesome reading material while I'm down here!!!!

I almost forgot to add that my mentor gave me the sweetest welcome gift ever!!! I seriously almost got a little emotional, and she probably would have thought I was a crazy person.. well maybe I am a little bit. Ha! She gave me a really cool guampa and bombilla. These are items used to drink terere out of. The guampa is the cup and the bombilla is the straw which has a strainer at the bottom so that you don't drink the herbs. (pictures below) Now all I need is a sweet thermos.




my new guampa and bombilla

I just got home from the visit today and took a huge nap.
Have I ever mentioned how much I love siesta?! Because I absolutely adore it! The fact that it is socially acceptable to take a nap anywhere from 1-3 hours everyday is awesome. I may or may not need to bring this cultural tidbit back to the states with me!

Another shout out to my little brother, Carl, because yesterday was his 10th birthday! I hope he is as pumped as I was to finally reach double digits! Love you broha.

Tomorrow I'll be back to the grind of training.
Until then,
xox






A view of the beach club

another view





The beach!



 

I found this really interesting because it was spot near the beautiful beach where they have people deposit their old batteries so that they don't get thrown into the river!

My mentor, Liza, and I

Liza's house!!

the weekend of fiestas



There were three birthday parties this weekend and can I tell you that Paraguayans know how to party! On Friday it was my Tia's birthday, who lives next door, and she had a tranquilo birthday dinner. However, we didn't actually eat dinner until 11pm. woah. That's too late for me to even handle. It was really awesome though because I was able to help grind up the corn to make a very popular and culturally important dish called Sopa Paraguaya.

On Saturday there was another fiesta to celebrate the 85 (?) birthday of our abuela! My host dad is one of 7 children so all of them plus their large families came and some other relatives too. There were approximately 60 people there which is crazy because the space doesn't seem like it would be able to fit that many people. My family rented a hamburger truck and hired a woman to cook hamburgers all night. It was pretty legit, and it looked that something you would find on the streets of New York or something.  There was a lot of beer and it so strange to get used to sharing all of your drinks with everyone. (side note: I don't think I ever mentioned this yet, but the most popular drink here is terere which is passed to everyone in circle when your sitting on your patio or elsewhere, but every other drink is also passed around. So beer, wine, juice, soda... all shared. Totally strange, but very cultural. Not the most sanitary, but if you're sick you're supposed to refrain...) anyways, lots of beer. There was a lot of dancing and I learned a little bit of polka.. it's really popular here! At close to midnight we started singing happy birthday to abuela and it was just really sweet. There were lots of pictures taken and at one point it was abuela and 4 of us PCTs (there are 4 in my extended family, so we're "primos") and we sang Happy birthday to her in English and she just loved it because she had 3 different languages sang to her, Spanish, Guarani and English! It was a really a late night, I didn't end up going to bed until approximately 3am!!!

 

On Sunday I slept in a little (thank goodness) and then we went to the concha (futbol field) for a little fiesta to support the team, which was perfect because it was also Jennifer's birthday. We had a TON of food and drinks and there was a lot of dancing and a live singer. It was a super hot day (as are most) and we were there for 6.5 hours! I pretty much melted. After we left the field we returned to my house because it's the closest and about half of our group was there, after like 10 minutes the other half of our group just happened to be walking by so they sat down to chat and such. It was actually really nice to have the full group all together for a little while!

 

That's about all I can think of right now. But, on Wednesday we're required to make our way to Asuncion, the capitol, by bus. We have partners, but it should be really interesting...



a picture at the pond, that I forgot about

 

Serious arm workout

helping!

Now that's a lot of corn, and it's only half

Jen, Ruthcenia, and I



dancing

Ivan, my host brother

Mba'eichepa!

That crazy word means "how are you?" in Guarani. I've been doing my thing in Paraguay for a few days now and I enjoy it about 90% of the time, which is really a positive thing. I'm getting better at speaking and listening. I've actually caught myself thinking in Spanish, even when I'm sending messages to people in the U.S. How crazy! However, it is exhausting to constantly have my brain strained by trying to figure out either what to say or what people are trying to say to me.

I spend a lot of my time in training, which is usually either language, culture, tech skills, safety or just rules of the Peace Corps. It's nice because we actually get to see the other PCTs and the main center has AC (what a luxury in this 100+ degree heat!).

The food is still awesome, there isn't really anything that I don't like. My host mom is an excellent cook! My appetite has finally returned, sort of. We had tilapia at my host brother's house the other day and it was delicious, and actually one of my favorite things in the U.S. too! One strange thing about food, is that I actually eat a lot of fruit everyday. For those of you who know me well this will come as a shock to you because I'm not a big fruit-eater, to put it lightly. Part of the reason is because I don't want to seem rude for rejecting something that my host family makes, especially because it's probably delicious, but also because it's refreshing in this crazy heat!

I spend some time at the cancha (futbol field) so that's always fun to watch. My hermana (sister), prima (cousin) and Jennifer (another PCT) play Uno a lot. It's quite the hit here in Paraguay.

I was able to Skype my dad, annnnd matt tonight. Which was nice because it was my dad's birthday! WOO! It really is hard to believe that I've only been here for a week. It seems like forever.


That's about all I've got at the moment. It's hard to remember all of the crazy things that go on.
xox


P.S.    Here are some pictures for your enjoyment!

The pond from the previous swim real beautiful



My lovely home!

Our backyard

our pet bird. how cute



Me and my host mom!

Cynthia y yo. (my host sister)

I'm here!

I've been in Paraguay for 2 days now and it's been sort of surreal. We landed, loaded onto a bus (and were SUPER packed in) and taken to the training center. There, we had a lot of logistical work, but an awesome, traditional Paraguayan lunch. After we finished all of our work at the training center we were brought to a smaller community near the center to meet our host families. It was kind of emotional because they were just so nice and excited to see us. My family is wonderful.

It is difficult to communicate, which is to be expected, but I'm trying. My dictionary is mi mejor amigo! Sometimes I just look at them blankly because I have absolutely NO clue what they are trying to say, bless their hearts for putting up with me. Ha!

We eat all the time, it seems like. I'm ALWAYS stuffed. Yesterday, I had that fabulous lunch then sandwiches made by my host mom, then the Paraguayan version of pizza (very good). Every meal had large portions. Today for lunch we had typical Paraguayan food, then for lunch we had hamburgers. I'm not sure if it's because of me that they have these semi-American foods of if they have it often..

Today a few other PCTs (peace corps trainee) and I, plus some host sisters, went swimming in a local pond. It was beautiful and felt amazing to have cold water!

That's all I can think of right now. Until next time,
xox


P.S. I have wifi in my house, if you could guess. Very exciting news!