Training is done at last

Aregúa

Well y’all, I made it through Peace Corps training unscathed. My Spanish is markedly better and I have some idea how municipal governments in Paraguay function. My Guaraní (the mother tongue of 90% of the population) still leaves much to be desired, as does, frankly, my grammar in Spanish. We had site assignments about three weeks ago, and I received a municipality called Borja, near Villia Rica (for those with an inordinate knowledge of Paraguayan geography). The town was really poor, made up of sugar cane farmers, and only had 325 residents where they spoke mostly Guaraní. I was a little daunted by the challenge but got excited to go. I was wondering why they were going to send an urban planner to a town with 325 people, but a German NGO had requested a Volunteer with planning experience. Unfortunately the mayor did not show up to our meeting, and my boss Ruben had tried calling him several times, and his family. His family did not know that I was coming, and if you don’t know a Yankee is coming to a town of 325 people where everyone is related, you have problems. It was less than ideal being the only trainee who did not have a Paraguayan counterpart. So they decided to move my site, and I really lucked out because they moved me to Aregúa, Paraguay.

Aregúa is plush, I really don’t feel like I am a real Peace Corps volunteer given my living situation. Aregúa is on lake Ypacaraí (which unfortunately is contaiminated), 45 minutes from the capital of Paraguay, Asuncion. It is a resort community and artist colony that is know for its strawberries and ceramics. It has beautiful colonial homes. I am living in an old colonial mansion across the street from the municipality, which is also an old mansion. We have a servant, we take high tea, have a computer, and coming soon, internet. We we came for a visit during training, we could not believe that we were still in Paraguay.

My life is pretty tranquillo right now. I wake up at 6:30, take a cold shower (my showerhead is broken) and have a cup of coffee, walk across the street and I am in the municipality by 7:30. There is not that much work for me right now so I am working on translating my Spanish workbook from training into English and creating a database of their public works from the past two years. It is going to take at least six months before I can develop projects of my own, but I am going to be teaching English pretty soon and on Sundays leading tours for visitors. I guess that is about all I can expect before my Spanish and Guaraní improve. I am also beginning to catalogue their historic buildings for preservation and restoration.

At 1:30 I go home for lunch, at which point I am starving as all I have had is a cup of coffee with a little milk. The food isn’t as good here as it was at my last house, and I also miss my training host family, they were awesome. Then I take a walk, read out in the garden, update my blog at the internet cafe…I have come to terms that I am a Paraguayan yuppie. I feel like I am not working hard enough but I will get there, every volunteer has told me that I need to take time to get to know my community first. I just need to keep studying Spanish and Guaraní!