Let´s discuss, then discuss how we discussed, then evaluate the discussion of the discussion

Kind of a long title, but that has been the theme lately down here. Even though it´s easy to forget sometimes, the Peace Corps is a government organization and that means that the paperwork never ends. And I mean never. I think I´ve filled out at least 5 different evaluations in the last week, one of them taking over an hour. We have to evaluate our language trainers, our technical trainers, ourselves, how the training is going overall and on and on and on. They keep telling us that every minute counts during training, but I´m not so sure those minutes are counting for much.

I have yet another evaluation coming up next week, but this time someone else is evaluating my language skills. Yikes! I need to reach an intermediate-mid level in Spanish so I can move on to the Guarani classes. As much as I would like to continue in Spanish and become much better than a mere intermediate, knowing Guarani in Paraguay is essential if I ever want anyone to listen to what I have to say. I´m feeling confident that I´ll pass, but who knows, I may totally freeze up and forget how to say ¨My name is.....¨. That´s happened before. But I´ve been speaking in at least 3 tenses regularly and my vocabulary is improving and I tend to get the gist (most of the time) of what people are saying. I´d say I can communicate pretty well with 10 year olds, and that must be an intermediate-mid level, right?

I actually have plenty of time to write this blog post right now, which is in stark contrast to the weekly 20 minutes I have to dash into the internet cafe during lunch when we go into Guarambare for the day for classes. And why, you ask, do I suddenly have so much time and on a Friday, no less? Well, I´ve been feeling pretty bad lately, physically, alternating between absolutely nothing coming out of my body and weird, not good things coming out. I´ll spare you the details. But I kind of freaked out yesterday and finally called the PC doctor. The 200 or so of us PC trainees/volunteers in Paraguay have 2 full time medical doctors on hand 24 hours a day to deal with whatever problems we may be having, so they´re pretty attentive. Anyway, the doctor thought we needed to do some tests, so I was driven to Asuncion last night and Dr. Luis totally hooked me up with a swanky hotel (on the US Govn´t tab, of course). I got to sleep in a real bed with a real mattress (which I didn´t leave for about 12 hours), take a real shower with hot water, watch a flatscreen TV, eat an awesome breakfast and now get the use of free, non-rushed internet time. Ahhhh, the life. I´m feeling so much better already, in part, I think, because I haven´t had to eat a plate full of starch or fried food for the last 24 hours. Seriously, this has been a huge problem for me. It´s not the meat that´s so bad, it´s all the freakin´starch. My body can´t handle pasta twice a day, every day, with very, very few vegetables. I´m still waiting to hear from Dr. Luis about the results of my blood test, but he thinks it´s some kind of bacterial infection, like E. coli or something. Easily treated with a nice dose of Cipro, killing every living thing inside of my stomach. But at least I don´t feel like I´m going to die, which I´ve felt before in other countries. That should make all you worriers reading this right now (i.e. parents, grandparents) feel much better :)

Thanks for all the comments I´ve been getting on these blog posts! I´m sorry I haven´t responded to any of them, but my internet time has been so limited that it´s been impossible. But don´t let that stop you from leaving more because I love to hear from all of you!