Romba’apo/Rohuga

Romba’apo- we work. Rohuga- we play. In Peace Corps, they’re the same.

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Nueva Alborada, Itapua, Paraguay

“We live a pretty cool life,” Vania said to me as we were sitting in the bed of a lime green pickup, speeding down a campo road with tall elephant grass on one side, a soy field on the other. As houses and cows and motos flew by, the sun was setting just over the top of the San Rafael range and we had prime seats to watch, leaning up against the cab, legs stretched out, an ice cold Polar passing between the two of us. “Yeah, we do,” I replied, “and I’m reminded of it everyday.”

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You don’t have to go it alone in Peace Corps. You may live in a community by yourself, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t supported by the entire network of volunteers stretched out amongst the country in an array of sectors. We’re at the disposal of other volunteers, as long as they bribe us with food and good company and hot showers. This weekend, my friend and fellow Itapua volunteer, Kirby, held a community beautification project and those of us living in Itapua were invited to come help. Kirby lives in a beautiful campo pueblo called Nueva Alborada and is a Community Health volunteer. This beautification project was a joint idea between her, a friend of hers who works for the municipality, and a high school student named Carlos. The amount of voices and diversity of people involved already made Kirby’s project a success in the eyes of another volunteer.

On Saturday, seven of us volunteers gathered with roughly 25 community members, mainly youth, to undergo an extremely unique an really cool project. An old tractor, the very first tractor used in Nueva Alborada, in fact, was going to be cleaned off of dirt and vines that it had accumulated while sitting neglected beside the police station and then brought to a very visible median. One group was going to start cleaning and painting the tractor while another refurbished and painted over an old street sign in order to make a commemorative sign for the tractor. Meanwhile, I was leading a small group of youth and a mason worker to create an ecobench (made of Eco-bricks, which are two liter bottles jam packed with plastic trash) and another volunteer was working with kids to create a trash can out of recycled plastic bottles. With a little bit of history, a smidgeon of art, a dab of trash upcycling, and a bunch of fun, the project was a huge success. We didn’t finish most of the work, but I stood on the median in the road and watched the kids smiling and laughing and joking around while connecting bottles for the trash can and painting this beautiful historical tractor and laying ecobricks while the mason dabbed cement between them. I realized how cool it was that they got to be a part of something so visible and so beneficial for this community. They got to do something different a break monotony. They were learning and making a difference. Most of the volunteers were just supervising, as the community members had completely taken control of the project. That’s satisfaction. That’s what we want to see. That’s what makes a successful project.

Kirby’s community beautification project was a great success. She had so many community members and youth interested in continuing the work and finishing the project the following weekend. I was proud to be able to be a part of it, to share knowledge and experience and come together with fellow volunteers to support our friend and have fun doing it.

We completed the weekend with a recreational trip on Sunday to Indio Dormido, a set of three cerros that look like a sleeping man’s profile. We climbed the Pansa (Belly), weaving over and through a tight gorge, up steep slopes, and over the top, catching stunning views of the Cabeza (head) and Pies (feet), as well as the Río Parana and Argentina across the way. It was an additional reward for the already-rewarding work we had done, to trek around a sleeping Indio‘s belly and spend time together before heading back to our singular and individual work. Peace Corps Paraguay may consist of 200 volunteers, all with their own communities, experiences, sector, and projects, but together we’re all one network of information, one development organization, one web of ideas,  one group of friends, one family, one body of peace.

Prepping the sign. The Nueva Alborada Municipality is getting some beautification

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Eco-benching!

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Poor tractor has come a long way since 1930. Time for a fresh start.

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Kirby is so proud of Matt’s efforts on the recycled trash can!

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Ecobricks in their new home

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We rock!

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Nothing like watching the world speed by from the bed of a truck

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Classic. Cave selfie.

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I made us take a pansa photo on the Pansa

Tobacco Leaves and Sugar Analogies: Service Picking Up Pace

“I do not regret the things I’ve done, but those I did not do when I had the chance” -Unknown

Itapúa, Paraguay

Good grief it’s been awhile since I’ve been able to post on here. My service is picking up and getting busier, which means I no longer get to spend every day lounging in my hammock, pretending to study Guaraní, when in actuality I was going through two novels a week. Just because I’m starting to get more involved doesn’t mean it’s been fun and I have a lot to report, so although I don’t like doing recap blogs, I can’t stick to a single topic and I’ll have to give a lengthy summary of important events in the last few weeks.

First, my Yerba Mate project is picking up steam. Every family I visit tells me that they want to be involved and receive plants. Thousands of plants, actually. Luckily, one of my contacts, Karai Vazquez, has a mature yerba plantation and has taken me under his wing to demonstrate how to harvest and prepare yerba seeds for replanting. As well, the reforestation organization, A Todo Pulmón (For Every Lung), who donates the yerba plants to volunteers, sent representatives to Chara’s site to look at the previous volunteer’s yerba project and I was invited to come along and learn what I could. We saw many plantations, with both good results and bad, but it was definitely a learning experience.

Now let’s move away from technical bullshit and into the hilarity that my life seems to find around every corner.

On that nice visit with relatively important representatives from A Todo Pulmón, Chara took us to the house of an elderly gentleman named Karai Hildo, who happened to be shredding tobacco leaves, which he would later dry for chewing tobacco. To demonstrate the final product, Hildo took a rope of black tobacco out of his pocket and offered a bite to the group. Before I go any further, let me explain that this is pure tobacco. Straight up. Elliot, the PC representative at ATP took a chunk because he used to chew it in his site when he was a volunteer. Most of us said no thank you, but Chara, with a swagger to prove that we were in her site and that she was going to show us what she was made of, took a chunk and stuck it in her lip like a seasoned dipper. She spit once, twice, and then gave me a strange look. She said “Okay that’s enough,” spit it out, and asked for water. Everyone laughed and carried on with the conversation, but I kept watching Chara as her eyes started getting wider, she swayed a little bit, and had to fan herself. Next thing I know, she’s telling me she wants to throw up and she feels high. We continued on with the tour, but Karai Hildo’s wife had to sit with her and give her water while she came off her high. Unfortunately, Paraguayans and Chance are tale-telling people, so naturally her whole community knows. And makes fun of her.

After the visits, Chara and I set out for Encarnación for our first VAC meeting and for Carnaval celebrations. A VAC is simply a group of volunteers all in the same region, so we regularly meet with all of the volunteers in Itapúa to come up with potential group projects or answer and discuss provided questions from the administration. Not exciting, but we do have a good group of volunteers in our region and we’re known for our work hard, play hard philosophy. After the meeting, there was a bit of frisbee on the beach and then we headed back to Emily’s apartment (The Community Economic Development volunteer in Encarn). So many volunteers were in the city for Carnaval and all of them were having some pre-parade non-alcoholic beverages at the apartment. Now, let’s refresh my memory that it’s been a while since I was in college. I forgot this and had one too many non-alcoholic beverages and had a slight sugar-high before dinner. More non-alcoholic beverages at dinner and again at the parades in our VIP box and the next thing you know I’m all hopped up on sugar from those non-alcoholic beverages and I’m taking selfies with random women, thinking they were Carnaval dancers. Sugar does weird things to the mind. But overall it was a good night, the parades were flashy, spray foam was everywhere, and nobody can say that volunteers can’t have fun.
The next day, my head hurt from all that sugar, so Chara, Hannah, and I decided to stay at our friend Ruchi’s house in Trinidad for another day to decompress and have a nice Asado with a couple other friends. Nothing takes care of sugar headaches like a bunch of grilled sausage and steak.

Since returning home from Carnaval, my home life took a turn when my mom brought a cardboard box with both kittens in it, telling me that their mom abandoned them and now they’re mine. So as of yesterday, I’m the proud papa of Mac and Mani, who keep me on my toes and pee on my suitcases. But I don’t care because they’re so damn cute.

A language note: the word for cute in Guaraní, Yuty, also means salty.

So that’s up to now and February and March look even busier moving forward. I’ll have lots to report, and I’ll try to stay up to date!

 

 

Drying tobacco at Karai Hildo’s

A Carnaval float

These women ARE Carnaval dancers (Well minus Chara and Hannah)

These women are NOT Carnaval dancers

Snuggling with my little nuggets, Mac is the black and white one, Mani is orange