Typical Night?

So I just had a really cool night and I thought I’d take you through it. It’s a two part story. The first part begins to take place on a freezing cold night in my back yard. It was there that I was smashing miniature coconuts with the flat side of an axe. My little 12 year old brother and I were tag teaming the process of making something called “mate dulce”. To help with the mental picture, while doing this there were 2 huge oxen about 15 feet away and tons of chickens running around us. My job was to crack the shell of these mini coconuts so he could gather up the coco part for later use. After collecting a few handfuls we took them inside and put them inside a wooden bowl. Then with a kind of wooden hammer we smashed up the coco into something a little thicker than coffee grinds. Meanwhile, my dad was boiling cow’s milk in the other room over a little fire he had just made. He then added some sugar to the milk and moved the fire to the bedroom, where we would drink the “mate dulce’’. Then we filled a wooden cup, called a guampa, with the coco grounds and poured the milk in. In order to drink it up we use this metal straw called a bombilla and take turns filling it up with hot milk, drinking it, and passing it. (this is completely different dink than regular mate, although the drinking process sounds almost identical) To say the least, I absolutely fell in love with this “mate dulce”!!! As we sat there drinking it for the next half an hour I couldn’t help but think about how perfect it was that every aspect of this delicious drink had come from within a few kilometers of my house…the milk, the sugar, the coco, the supplies for the fire. I realize I may be a huge dork for thinking this is an incredible cool experience, but whatever. Actually, I think the only thing that would have made it better would be if I had milked the cow myself, which I plan to soon. (By the way, this drink would absolutely kill at Starbucks if anybody wants to mention it to them.)

The next part of the night deals with the fact that I have recently been teaching my 2 little brothers to use my laptop. Considering that it’s the first computer they’ve seen, let alone been able to use, they absolutely love it….especially the 12 year old. He bugs me like crazy to use it and it is truly a test of my patience but of course I understand where he’s coming from. I mean if I was 12 had a chance to search through endless amounts of amateur porn I’d probably do the same. Only kidding, I would never be that negligent. I keep all the porn on my thumb drive. But seriously, I am teaching how to use MSFT word and how to properly write something, which I do very little of on this blog. Because the education system here is really behind, he’s still not familiar with things like capitalizing at the beginning of a sentence, where to put the period, the commas, etc. The reason for being so behind has a lot to do with the fact that they only go to school for a few hours a day and have no access to books. Therefore, we’ve had a few sessions now on how work the computer in general and I told him his assignment tonight was to write something all by himself. He ended up doing so and when he said he was done he came to get me and we looked over his mistakes. Therefore, we got to hammering away as to how he could improve his writing. Little by little, he would finish, call me back in and we’d go over the paper. As almost 2 hours had passed, the document was starting to read pretty well. While he was sitting there writing, I could hear my music selection of Damien Rice playing from the computer in the next room. Then it happened. All the sudden the he changed the song, which caught my ear, and it was Imagine by John Lennon. For the first 30 seconds I sat in shock trying to figure out why, of the thousands of songs on my computer, he chose Imagine. Could there be a decent explanation for choosing “the song” of songs? Eventually I decided it had to of been just plain coincidence. At the end of the song I went in to ask him why of all songs he chose that one and he reaffirmed that it was chosen randomly. Personally, I think that’s pretty amazing! And on that note, and a personal one, I think there is such an enormous amount of hope in the future of the computer and its ability to bridge the education gap throughout the world. And because internet and computer projects are something that PC volunteers are constantly working on, this was a really inspiring night for me and a great reminder of why I’m here in the first place.

As for what’s to come, this week I am starting to help out on a farm that grows tons of lettuce, onions, carrots and other “garden” style veges. I’m super excited about that and hopefully will have an update about that in my next post. It’s sort of a practice experience during training to prepare for being at my site. I also got a request to talk more about cultural differences, so that will be part of the next one too. Mas tarde.

Tranquilo

Ok, so after being here for what feels like the longest week of my entire life I’m finally able to sit down and write about what my life has been like since joining the peace corps in Paraguay. O boy, so many things to cover to and no idea where to begin.

Lets start with pre service training. My first two days were actually in Miami to prepare us for the crazy cultural differences of Paraguay. It was there that I met the other 17 people in G-27. They are fantastic and I can’t say enough about how great it has been getting to know them.

So when training ended we flew 8.5 hours into Buenos Aires and then into Asuncion, Paraguay. When we got there we were greeted by Peace Corps staff and all of our luggage...except someone’s was missing. Yes, my baggage was still in Miami when I was Paraguay but it turned out OK as it actually did come the next day.

We then went to the training center in a town called Guarumbare, which is like an hour outside of Ausuncion (the capital). It was there that they told the 6 rural economic development volunteers that we’d be housed in a more rural town another hour from the capital and have to take 2 buses and walk 3km (each way) the two times a week all 18 of meet. The other days of the week I have training in my town of Aveiro with just the 6 six rural folk. Averio is somewhat rural, as most people have some livestock/crops. The houses sit randomly along a few red dirt roads. There’s no retail of any sort, except little stores that sell some of the bare essentials. It is pretty rustic looking from the outside but in general most people are doing ok.

Training isn’t the most exciting thing. We have to be there at 7:45 in the morning and are done at 5. The first half of the day is language training. And in case you didn’t know, the first language here is Guarani, not Spanish. Although Spanish is important and most are bi-lingual, they prefer Guarani and are really stressing it in language class. Actually, the most commonly spoken language is Jopra, which is a mix between the two languages. Then in the afternoon, we have technical training or job training. What that means for me is learning about cooperatives. There are a few popular types of cooperatives that I may be working in; savings and loans, production, sale...or any combination of those 3. I’ll be more specific about that when I have more info. But if you didn’t know, the basic idea behind a cooperative is a group of people coming together to start a business that will directly benefit its consumers/users...hence, themselves. There is likely some sort of shared labor system and all dividends are equally distributed. A basic example may be a group of farmers coming together to start a market. This way, they don’t have to sell their crops to a middle man and are more in control of their fate. Maybe they all take turns working in it and everyone has to put in an equal amount of labor in its construction.

Enough with the boring job related stuff. What’s it like to live with a family, let alone a Paraguayan family???? Well when I was first dropped off in Aveiro, the 6 of use were lined up across from 6 families and our name was called out along with a family name. Everyone clapped and it was just as awkward as it sounds. Then I was introduced to my new house for the next 11 weeks. It turns out, I live in a really nice house. Things I have that I want necessarily expecting; sparatic electricity, running water, and a stove. I will admit its nice to not have a run to an outhouse every time I need to use the bathroom!!! Only one of the 6 of us have to do that. But the bathroom situation is definitely a developing one. Although I do have a toilet, you can’t throw the toilet paper in it. The TP goes in the trash can and mixes with last person to take a crap, which produce one beautiful aroma. The shower does have a hot water switch but literally one little stream of water comes out. If I want freezing cold water more will come out. I do have my own room but I feel terrible because the other 3 in my family are all sleeping in the same bed to accommodate me. There is a single light bulb hanging from each of the 4 rooms and it provides minimal light. Around my house I have all sorts of animals and plants. At any given time and I’m probably within 20 feet of several chickens, dogs, cows, and/or pigs. I also have several orange and lime trees and mandioca (like potato) plants in my yard. As far as eating goes, every morning I wake up and drink mate with my host dad. It’s kind of this cup you fill with plants and take turns drinking hot water from it with a straw. Then I have bread for breakfast. For lunch and dinner they eat a lot of meat and fry everything they can. This is definitely not the place for a neither balanced nor healthy diet. The people are super nice but also so incredibly curious about everything. While I was unpacking my family just stood there and watched. They go through my stuff when I’m not around. Not because they are rude but because this family oriented culture shares everything. And now that I’m in the family they want to see all their new stuff.

The first few days were absolutely freezing, below 40 at night. Therefore I was sleeping in practically all the clothes I brought. But to be honest, it wasn't that bad after getting used to it the first night. But the last two days were actually quite hot. We are supposed to be in winter but I could swear it got up to about 80 a few times in the last 2 days.

The people here have been so nice. They are characterized by the word "tranquilo" (calm, chill, don't worry) and it certainly shows. Us Americans have become somewhat famous around town. Everyone knows are names and we haven't even met them. It got old really fast.

I have to wrap this up here but 2 really cool things I’ve done are go to local soccer game and visit a housing cooperativa. I hope everyone is doing well. I’d love to hear from you via email, although I can only get to email for about an hour a week.

Hasta luego.

Todo Bien.

Ok, so here goes another blog post, which I’ll be uploading at the same time as the previous one. The reason for this is that I haven’t had any access to internet in the last week but I do have a computer. Therefore I can write beforehand.. In that time I have been super busy and really enjoying life in Paraguay. We have been learning a lot about agriculture, gardens (for food), compost piles, and the struggles of the Paraguayan economy. In each of the “job” training sessions a current cooperative volunteer has come and helped lead the session. They all seem like they have learned such an enormous amount of information. I’m so jealous! And so excited to get to that point. A few examples of projects the volunteers are working on; One in working in a banana cooperative helping to set it up and organize a buyer in Argentina, another started a women’s cooperative so they could come together and start selling their crafts, many are working on bringing internet to their town, many are working on projects to simply improve the overall efficiency of the co-ops (through Microsoft excel and other uses of the computer), many are talking a lot about crop diversification, planning, and “the way the market works.” Those 3 things may seem like very basic ideas but are brand new to Paraguayan farmers. Literally the simple idea of planning could be a new concept to them. We are receiving amazing training on how to teach these concepts and hopefully implement them upon starting service.

On the other training note, learning Guarani has started to seem a lot less intimidating. I am actually able to have the most basic of conversation and am picking up words here and there in my house. (my entire family speaks in Guarani unless they are talking to me) Meanwhile, my Spanish is also improving because that is my only means of communication outside of Guarani class. The only problem is that many people here speak really bad Spanish. O well.

I had an interesting night last night when I went over this girl’s house, Belen, to get Guarani help. (Also just to get to know my neighbors) She has told me a few times that I should come over and she’ll help me with Guarani and I can help her with her English studies. (She’s 17 mind you). Anyway, I went over and her dad was outside so I introduced myself to him and Belen came out. In the time that she was helping me with the assignment, a good 8 of her family/extended family members seemed to come out of nowhere and were just watching us. It was the most uncomfortable I have ever been in my life. I felt like I was an exhibit in a zoo. When the homework was over everyone started grilling me about why America and Europe are so much more developed and other ridiculous questions. My favorite was “Why don’t American’s speak Spanish, the rest of the Americas do. What’s their problem?” I did make it out alive but it was certainly a first glimpse of what it will be like to be “’the American” for the next 2 years. Many of my nights have been filled with similar, not as interesting, stories. It’s very normal here to start clapping outside of a neighbor’s door and have them invite you in without hesitation. The clapping is a replacement for knocking because many houses don’t have doors. And there doesn’t necessarily need to be any purpose for your visit. It could very well be just to stop by and drink mate. I especially like doing this with my extended family here. My host dad has 3 siblings that live within a stone’s throw and they love doing very exaggerated greetings with me in Guarani. No matter what I say they think it hilarious. They also like asking me words in English and as soon I say them they erupt in laughter. I always knew I was hilarious but this is the first time I’m getting people beside myself to laugh at the things I say. But seriously, Paraguayans have a terrific sense of humor. I can be really sarcastic and they pick it up immediately. Que bueno!

This weekend I’m leaving for 4 days to visit a volunteer a few hours away. I’m not really sure what kind of co-op he’s working in. All I know is that the town is really nice but his co-op serves a very struggling part of town. Anyway, I leave for that tomorrow and hopefully while there I’ll get to internet and post this. Adios.

Don´t Worry, Be Happy

This blog is in no way associated with the peace corps and are solely my views.




Ok, so I´m finally in Paraguay and able to catch a second at the local internet hang out. Unfortuantly, I don´t have a lot of time but I´ll write as much as I can.

I got here a few days ago and got assigned to live with a fantastic family in a town called Aveiro. It´s about an hour outside of the town I thought my trianing was going to be in, which is called Guarumbare (where I´m at now). Most of the volunteers in my group are living here but because I´m a ¨rural economic developmnet¨ volunteer they are preparing me and 5 others out of my 18 person group to live a little more rural.

It´s a lot like you´d picture with the red dirt roads, beautiful farm life, and less than ideal economic conditions. My family is really great. I live with a 41 year old dad and his 2 sons, ages 12 and 8. (the mom is working in spain) They are tiny and hysterical. The little one´s name is Maxi and the older one David.

O gosh, I´m getting frustrated because I only have a minute more here.

Training has been really intense over the last few days. I´m not getting any spnanish training, only Guarani, which is truly insane. But I´m speaking spanish my family so thats good. I´ve also started learning about cooperativas how they function and the kind of work I´ll be getting into when training is over.

Unfortunatly I have to go but email me your questions at matthew.lebon@gmail.com and I´ll compile them and try to answer them in my next blog. Take care everyone!

Pounding this out!