I made it

I am safe and sound in Paraguay, in case anyone was wondering. I have officially entered a whole new world and am excitied about it. As soon as we got into Py (Paraguay, from now on), we were whisked off to our host families´ houses which are in villages outside of Guarambare, which is outside of Asuncion, the capital. I am living with a family in the village Senda. They´re really nice, of course, but speak mostly Guarani instead of Spanish. That´s not so nice. I have a 17 yr old host sister, Marianna, and she does a lot of translating for me between Guarani and Spanish. Keep in mind, though, that my Spanish is pretty weak so the translating only goes so far. I have high hopes for language skills with enough time....at least that´s what I keep telling myself. There´s no running water at my house so that means bucket baths. Haven´t quite figured out the best method with the bucket but I´m sure it´s an acquired skill. We do have electricity, which I don´t use much except for light, but my family watches a lot of novelas at night and listens to a lot of music during the day. Today I watched a Beyonce video with my host brother, and for those of you who know how much I love Beyone, this really made my day. We have a well outside the house, fully equipped with a bucket tied to a rope and that´s how we get the water. Very surreal for someone who´s always had water from a faucet. My family also has 4 cows, a pig and lots of chickens so that means I get fresh milk every morning (in cocido, the morning tea drink) and fresh eggs in some of the meals. There´s no stove in the house so my host mom cooks everything on a wood fire in the ¨kitchen¨, which is just an open room on the side of the house.

Things are cool. This is going to be quite an experience, to say the least. Apparently Py doesn´t have many water-borne diseases, so they (PC staff) are recommending that we start drinking unboiled water immediately so that we can get used to everything. I´m anticipating that means I´ll be sick very soon, but not that sick. All the other volunteers (actually trainees for the next 11 weeks) are fun and excited and nice to have around to speak English with and talk about our crazy experiences. The last couple of days have just been an introduction to the rest of our training period and the real training starts on Monday. I´m sure I´ll have more to talk about then. I´m attaching the few pictures I´ve taken so far so you can get a sense of the scenery and my home. Lots of love-

The side of my host families´house. My room is to the left when you walk up onto the main patio

My room..nothing special, but enough room for my yoga mat thank goodness

Some scenery on the walk from Senda to Guarambare

More scenery on the walk. Apparently the thing on the right is a shrine to some kids who did not fare so well after jumping into the ¨river¨