New Address

Sorry it took so long everyone, but my new address is now posted to the right hand side of your screen. The other one is still valid if you have that written down somewhere but it's really inconvenient because that is the Peace Corps office's address and I live approximately 7-8 hours by bus away from there. So if you want to send me some love, please use the new one! :)


love y'all
xox






Ambyr Travis, PCV
telefono: 0981218818

Julia c. de Estigarribia
122 c/ Iturbe
Carmen del Paraná, Itapuá
Paraguay, South America

on a serious note...

So most of my posts have been really just informative and pretty happy go lucky. This one is not one of those posts. So if you want to live in La La Land and keep believing that everything is peachy keen at all times then I suggest you stop reading.

Peace Corps is hard. Obviously. And everyone knows that. If it wasn't then everyone would probably do it. Its not only physically hard because of all the changes in diet and climate and living conditions (for some) but its mentally stressful. I've talked about my language challenges many a time and I still have those same challenges... thinking in another language is mentally exhausting and I cannot wait for the day when the words are just there and I don't have to strain my brain and search far and wide through my mental dictionary for seemingly easy words.

It's also difficult for some people because of things like bugs. This is not a small thing here in the country of Paraguay. Some of these bugs are disgusting. I was talking with my friend Bon Bon and she was telling me this awful story about a billion beetles that were in her room. She fought to kill them all and literally described the scene as "pure beetle carnage" yes, carnage. Such a good description. Another example is that I saw a straight up tarantula in the street on my walk to the Centro today. I walked passed it and then after about 4 more steps I thought "holy shit that was a wild tarantula"..so naturally I went back and took a picture of it.

This is what I'm living with people!
 

Okay, so after that little detour...let's get back to mental hardship. Another obvious one is missing my friends and family back home. Duh. I miss them all the time and skyping and such helps but its clearly not the same... SO COME VISIT ME!

Something that I didn't expect is missing my PC friends. I never really thought about the fact that I would learn how to adapt to this country with my group of people, my support system. And then 10 weeks later I'd be ripped from them and sent to live alone and I'd have to adapt all over again... without them. We get free calling to them which is convenient (and also not convenient because our free calls are limited to 10 minutes so we all have little timers set to 9:55 and our phones automatically end the call so we don't get charged. So we have like six 10 minute calls. its funny) but it's not the same as having them live down the road, or next door in Jen's case. I never really counted on making such strong relationships with these people (I hoped I would but it was never in the forefront of my mind) and it's strange being without them. A few people have said this in our G, and I'm going to copy it. At staging one of the girls shook everyone's hand and said "hi nice to meet you, you are my everything". It was funny at the time but we never really understood until the last day of training that she was unintentionally SUPER wise. In this country, a lot of these people are my everything. They're my support system, my family... I don't know what I'd do without them most of the time. They understand the exact things I'm going through, that unfortunately the people at home just can't understand. So being away from them is a constant challenge.

Another thing is productiveness. Oh goodness is this going to be a struggle for me. I've been here for over a week and I constantly feel like a bum. What the heck am I doing here and what am I getting done? answer: nada. I understand that I'm supposed to be learning language and getting to know my community for these first 3 months but the American in me is telling me that I need to be doing something productive with my time. It's a serious challenge. There have been multiple days where I have to tell myself that it has been only one week and I have time to get things done.
On this point I have more to say. One week. I was chatting with my friend one morning as I strolled around my community and I said "Chelsea, sometimes I think 'okay calm down it's only been one week, I have time to be productive'... but then I think 'oh my god, it's onlyyyy been one week!'" At times it feels like its going relatively quickly, and then there are times when I feel like I will never finish my service because just 7 days actually took 100 years. Rationally, I know that once I have a schedule and I'm in the groove of things, things will go more quickly. But I don't always want to think rationally. Sometimes I just want to sleep the day away so that it's one less day I have to worry about. Wow, that sounded a little worse than I meant it to. Oh well. I'm not gonna lie, in my darker moments I've questioned if I should be here. Then I realize that yes, I should be. But during those times of doubt it's really tough because there are a lot of things that call me home. Matt, my family, my friends, English, I could plan my wedding, I wouldn't be eating weird things... the list could continue. Luckily my internal devil's advocate rebuttals with "Ambyr, there are so many wonderful things here though!". First and foremost, when would I ever have such a wonderful opportunity? When I go home I'll be an old married woman haha! I'll be fluent (or close? ...hopefully) in Spanish, I'll have learned a new culture and made life long relationships, the amount of personal growth will be amazing, I'll have actual real world experience in community health... the list could continue.

After all of that, I am happy here ultimately. It just takes a bit of internal battle to realize it sometimes. So now you have a better idea of what my life is actually like. There are so many awesome things happening at any given moment, but there are times that aren't as great too.

Now, I'm going to eat some chocolate cake that my brother just made for a snack (see what I mean about the awesome things at any given moment?!)
Chau Chua
xox

unintentional food post

Exciting news! I found actual Oreos and Pringles in my supermarket today. This is an important detail because let me just tell you how disappointing it is when you find a cookie that looks like an Oreo but isn't. Its devastatinggggg. The cookie part is always dry and not really that chocolate-y and the cream part just isn't satisfying. So finding name brand Oreos. Oh my god. I pretty much don't even worry about my mental health at this point, as long as I have Oreos. Kidding. (but seriously though) It's just so exciting to find these American brands because they make me feel like I'm at home. It seems like such a miniscule thing but when every part of your life has changed so drastically the little things, like cookies and chips that are the brands you love from home, really make a difference.

Speaking on that note, there are times when I feel completely normal and comfortable but then seconds later I feel like my world has been flipped on its axis. Por ejemplo: I was with my family on Easter and they were speaking a little bit of English to me and it was just awesome because they were trying so hard and I felt smart for about 5 seconds because I understood sentence structure again and I could form intelligible thoughts. Then 10 minutes later we sat down to lunch and I was served a heaping bowl of cow stomach soup. Yup. Well actually it may have been cow intestines, I'm not sure which...but does it really matter? I think not. After taking a bite I realized it wasn't my favorite thing in the world, shocking I know. And it was such a shame because the soup looked beautiful with all these vegetables and spices and then just organs floating around. Darn, such a missed opportunity. I switched and had chicken instead. Safer choice. Luckily, my family is really understanding about the differences in cuisine between our cultures, and they never force me to eat things I honestly don't like. And I have to mention that this was really the first and only thing I truly haven't liked. Qué suerte!

Update: YUM. I'm eating my treats as I type this and they are just delicious. They taste like America.

Feliz Pascuas!

Or in other words.. Happy Easter!
Basically this post is just to show some pictures of me and my new familia. Enjoy!

Just a candid shot of me drinking some vino. Cute.



Ambyr loves Mateo. Aw. (making chipa, by the way)

Working hard.

Yum.

Dinner selfie! haha

Me, my new host parents, my sister (Leti), my prima (Gabi) and my brother (Mauri)
Look at those silly faces!



Leti (sis), Gabi (prima), Mario (dad), Lucas (primo), Mauri (bro) and I.

 

Climbed up a tall thing on the beach. Typical.

hola amigos

So it was brought to my attention that I don't post that often (thanks Candace). So here I am.

I've been in my site for a week now and I love it a lot. My family is still fabulous and guapa. I've been trying to do the whole integration thing, poco a poco.
I've gone to the Centro de salud (do you guys know what that is by now? Its the health center...essentially a hospital) and met a whole bunch of really awesome contacts, namely, Yessica. She's the very new nutritionist, who started last Thursday and is approximately my age. Very promising. I went to one of her charlas about the importance maternal nutrition during pregnancy, and it was very nice to hear someone speaking in scientific terms but she also knew that she had to explain it in easier terms for people that didn't have as much knowledge on the subject.
I also went to the high school and was introduced to all of the classrooms. Luckily, I didn't have to say anything because that would've been horrifying since my Spanish is still less than sub-par. I basically just stood there and waved. Ha.
I've gone to Encarnacion, the major city that's really close by, many times. We have other family members that live there so we visit them often. It's always funny to see their first reaction to meeting me. Some are like "who the heck is this rubia?!" and others are just like "okay, cool". Now, everyone knows me...I think. The beautiful thing about this culture is that they are always willing to accept others, from what I've experienced. They whole heartedly accept me into their family as one of their own. Por ejemplo: I have 2 little primos (Joaquin-2.5 years old and Maxi-3 years old) and they were like "so, who is this lady?" and they were told "this is your new Tia (aunt) Ambyr" and from then on I was Tia Ambyr. Simple as that. Speaking of the small children. I love them. Maxi promptly became obsessed with me and it was adorable. He may or may not have just loved me for my golden locks, but hey, I'll take it. Sometimes I think that's all people really love about me... my rubia-ness. But I don't hold it against them because they don't really know anything about me since my communication isn't the best yet. At least they love me at all, right?
In other news, I was super sick yesterday. Like, I threw up 8 times in a matter of 7 hours..that kind of sick. Sorry if that's too much info..but I don't reallllly care because these are the kinds of things PCVs talk about on a regular basis. Approximately 7 of my friends here knew about my vomiting. My host mom was wonderful and took care of me. She wanted to take me to the doctor, bless her heart, but the PC docs told her to go buy some meds and keep me hydrated. Which she did. I slept a lot and drank a lot of Gatorade (yay) and today I feel better. Woo!
Because of the illness I haven't had to eat a shit ton of chipa, which is the typical protocol for Semana Santa. Usually, they will make the chipa (which is a what I made with Jen's mom..I explained it in a previous post) on Tuesday or Wednesday and then just eat it for the rest of the week, especially on Friday since they are supposed to fast and not eat meat. I guess I lucked out because from what I heard it gets pretty horrible. It's delicious in the beginning but after eating the same batch for days on end, you can imagine how tough it would be.

Well.. that's all I have for now. I'll try to update more often.
Chau chau

A Farewell to Training

I become an official Peace Corps Volunteer tomorrow morning and it's pretty crazy. I can't believe how fast the time has flown, but I also feel like I've lived here forever. It's weird.

Update on my site:

I loved it so far. First of all it’s gorgeous. The beach is just awesome. It has a 10k path along the water for walking or biking so I definitely plan on utilizing that. I was actually able to go on an hour bike ride with my new host sister, Leti, and it was awesome to have some real physical activity. Speaking of which, my new host family is fabulous. They are so welcoming and I feel really comfortable in their home. They speaking pretty much only Spanish, which is lucky for me. They are also part Ukrainian so that’s super interesting.

The health post in my community is a Centro de Salud and it is really guapa (aka hardworking), and I hope that I will have the opportunity to work there as my main place. My host mom is the directora so she took me around and held a meeting with most of the staff to introduce me and it was really nice because she explained to them exactly what I was there for. She explained that I was there to work with them and not for them, and also that they should be patient with me because I’m still learning language and culture. I’ll also get the chance when I return to meet the directora of the school and the health teacher.

I got to visit Encarnacion, the large city nearby. It seems to have basically everything I would ever need which is really convenient. I also got to meet my VAC, a group of volunteers that all live in the same departamento as me, Itapúa. They seem like really cool people so I’m excited to get to know them.

In other sad news one of my closest friends here, Candace, decided to return home to the U.S. I won’t go into the details but she has good reasons and we’re all very proud of her for being able to make a decision and stick by it and we’re also very supportive because we know how hard this decision was for her to make. She enjoyed Paraguay but this just isn’t the time for her, which is understandable. This is a crazy, stressful commitment that you want to be 100% sure about before spending 2 years of your life here. I already miss her immensely and I can only hope that she’ll visit (as she says she will haha). We’re losing a sassy, fantastic person in our G, but I am absolutely sure that she will be a very successful woman. The positive thing I realized from all of this is that it’s amazing how much we’ve come to care for our other G-mates because the fact that I’ve only known her for approximately 10 weeks but still feel this way about her leaving really goes to show that these people will be lifelong friends.

Either way, I'm so excited to see all of the wonderful things that my G-mates will be doing in their sites. There is such a variety that it will be really interesting to see what people decide to pursue!

I’ll keep you all updated on how my move to site goes.
Hasta luego,

Ambyr