Monday, August 28, 2006

One week in site

What´s the deal with my brain? Why I´m I so obviously insane? In the perfect situation, I let love down the drain. There´s the pitch slow and straight. All I have to do is swing and I´m a hero--gone down to zero...

jeje so i just decided to include the above by weezer because i love the song and the lyrics :) damn i miss listening to the latest english music....

ok so i ahve been in my site for roughly one week and things are going really slow :( i like the family that i am staying with and truthfully it doesnt bother me that i have spiders in my room or a field mouse (when i saw it--i remembered how i freaked out at cal when i discovered one in my bedroom. to me, it was disgusting and i also couldnt really sleep, so my roomie and i rearranged our beds so the mouse couldnt crawl on us when we were sleeping....jaja...when i told the manager about it, he asked if it wasnt just my imagination--the nerve of that punk!!!)

but anyways, back to paraguay--it somewhat bothers me that i always have to chase chickens and a dog with fleas out of my room and the house....

i think what really bothers me the most is that i get treated like a child--i cant even get a glass of water by myself...my host sister and mom are very over protective and watch over all my needs. not that it is necessarily a bad thing or anything...its just that there are some things that i prefer to do on my own. so currently i am counting down the days until i move to the next family (1 week and 1 day). i am really excited about living with the next family since they are very energetic and live downtown next to the school and church. also they have 2 increidibly cute sons--but my guess is that they are not pass 21 :( nuts!!! jaja

so the banana coop that i work with has one main problem---it has no money!!! its socios dont pay their dues. nobody knows why i am there---and i know its going to take a lot of explaining that i am not an employee of the coop, but im there to work alongside them so they can hopefully be more efficient and together solve some problems/obstacles they currently have.....

as for the rest of the town, it seems like nobody really cares that i am here. i get no questions whatsover :( recently i started visiting a couple of families--except my contact doesnt introduce me at all and immediately starts speaking in guarani with them....so whenever there is a pause in their guarani conversation, i jump in and ask questions....yup my contact definitely doesnt understand at all why i want to visit families and get to know them eventhough i have tried explaining quite a few times.....its frustrating because it is the complete opposite of what i was exposed to in las piedras--where everybody said hello and asked a ton of questions. for now i definitely consider las piedras my paraguayan home more than here...i miss it!!!

but ok enough complaining....i hope you guys find yourselves well and will soon enough write a bunch of personal emails....now that i have the downtime

un besote gigante!!!

Sunday, August 20, 2006

MY ADDRESS

So if you ever want to send me mail....heres my address....cheapest airmail from the post office is probably the best way to go....and also putting crosses and religious stickers on the envelope will hopefully ensure that it gets here and not lost....jaja....i know that i need to still send some post cards out....sorry for the delay, but i will most definitely get around to doing it soon :)

Claudia Calderon PCV
Cuerpo de Paz
162 Chaco Boreal c/Mcal. Lopez
Asuncion 1580, PARAGUAY
South America

Im a Peace Corps Volunteer Officially!!!!

Sooooooooooooooo i just swore in as a peace corps volunteer officially on friday and it was awesome. so now i am no longer a trainee, we finished with language and technical classes and will be travelling to our sites on tuesday.

so this past week we pretty much wrapped up with our classes. i am definitely going to miss language class eventhough i suck at it....jaja....i had an awesome class with diosnel (teacher), jen, and kyle...always talking about girls, guys, sex, and chisme....jaja!

we had a despedida at my house, so our families had an awesome lunch for us...it was tallarin...and our language teachers, mateo our trainer, michael the director of peace corps, and brandon and brad spoke to everybody...it was cool and then we gave our families a rose plant and and small flower...

so yeah it was definitely very hard to say goodbye to everybody....on thursday nite my family made me an awesome dinner--pollo, potata salad and other goodies....and my whole family was there...my 5 siblings, their spouses and their children.....afterwards i went over to andreas house for a bit, where a lot of the community was at dancing and having fun.....

so yeah come friday morning (swear in day) my mom was in tears and so was i when we said goodbye....i am definitely going to miss them tons!

so yeah the ceremony was short and sweet afterwards we went back to the office and then the hotel....we got started on some early drinking....a couple of people got drunk by dinner....jaja....but we headed over to a brit pub after having lomitos....and then we did some rock dancing....it was overall an awesome nite....and we ended up saying goodbye to our awesome trainer whom i am going to miss tons because he is increidibly cool....he actually made fun of me in a skit that the trainers did....he said that he made his trainees draw a pic of their feelings, so he took out a huge pic of me holding a knife chasing him into a grave....jaja it was the funniest thing ever....we trainees got our revenge when we performed our skit--which was hilarious because we made fun of sooo many things....jeje

so yeah rite now im sad that this wonderful part of training has come to an end and that i wont be able to see my buddies whom ive grown close to...on a regular basis....its going to be hard and i am scared for this new part up ahead....but i just hope i will love what im doing....

ok well im going to run off, but seriously i do hope that you find yourselves well and happy :)

tons of hugs and i do miss you people in the states tons !!!!!

Saturday, August 05, 2006

things i pondered last nite

i just thought of this last nite and wanted to share

THINGS I REALLY LIKE ABOUT PARAGUAY:

people embrace you openly and invite you into their homes before they even know your name

paraguayans are increidibly hospitable--i get to be spoiled by host families in terms of what i eat and practically do no housework (hmmm it reminds me of being at home in l.a....jaja)

people compliment me on my dancing eventhough everybody back home knows that i cant dance for shit....all you do is shake your hips and ass and you are considered good...jaja

generally i feel safe if i am in a rural community-- since everybody knows eacthother crime is minimal

people think that i am paraguayan because of my looks and are interested to know more about my background

THINGS THAT FRUSTRATE ME ABOUT PARAGUAY

machismo--being treated like a sexual object.... also, i would really like to see womens rights improve within the 2 yrs that i am here eventhough it might be minute/minimal---something is better than nothing....

i am having a really hard time learning guarani and truthfully since paraguayans speak it at home and it is their language of choice---in order to fully get to know a paraguayan, i have to learn it!!!

a lot of chisme--most of it gets invented and distorted along the way that once you hear it, you know that it is absolutely not true!!

i really wish there was more value in getting an education and therefore a better education system

access to credit really sucks and i know that this will be a big obstacle in my next 2 yrs since it is important for growth

you cant throw toilet paper down the toilet!!! arghhhh!!!! jajaja

damn roosters wake me up so early in the morning!!!!

THINGS THAT I MISS ABOUT THE U.S.

family and friends of course!!! seriously i do think about you guys often and seriously do pray that you find yourselves well, in good health, and happy :)

i do miss watching movies for fun and listening to english music :(

foods that i miss include:
flaming hot cheetos with kellogs frosted flakes--with no milk of course
red vines
pepperoni, mushroom, canadian bacon pizza...yummy!!!
chocolate--its not the same over here!!!


SOooooooooooooooo
truthfully i am still really intimidated by all the work i will be doing----but after getting to know my town a bit more and seeing its beauty in simple ways and appreciating its tranquilo environment, i hope that i can learn to be happy in this really tiny rural town of fulgencio yegros....

ok well i just wrote this stuff to share, but really do hope that you find yourselves well

a huge kiss and hug just for reading this

claudia a.k.a vanesa ;)

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Fiesta error and Finding out our sites :)

hello

so this has to be quick....but some things

2 saturdays ago i got increidibly drunk with my buddies kevin, kyle, and brad at brad´s house because it was his brothers bday party.... it was an increidbly awesome nite since i got to boogie with my buddies and see them (and myself) commit fiesta error....jajaja.... unfortunately for me every guy there wanted to dance with me, but luckily kyle and kevin were increidibly sweet and dance with me pretty much the whole nite eventhough they dont remember it...jaja... they were more wasted than me!!! jaja

but anyways so last week we found out where we would be living for the next 2 years, so of course we celebrated by drinking and eating lomito and chilling at mateos pad...that was nice....and on saturday once again we drank at mateos and went on over to check out a party but doug and kyle didnt want to go in since it was mostly populated by guys, so we didnt...which i later regreted since i wanted to dance....but anyways sunday we spent at orlandos place, we drank sangria which i love sooooo much, its the one alcohol that really affects me and tastes good....jaja....so yup we just sat and chatted and had a bit of pizza.....but oh my gosh that morning i spent 3 1/2 hours washing my clothes in the freezing cold...it was unbearable, but i did it because we were going to stay for a week at our new sites....damn i hate washing clothes!!! jaja

but anyways so rite now i find myself in my new site where i will live for the next 2 yrs and truthfully i am scared...it is a very small town....rural but luckily with a paved road....i know that i will be living very modestly for the rest of the time here in paraguay...and that part doesnt scare me so much....but just how in the world i am going to deal with everything....the coop needs sooo much work since it is barely starting....and i just hope that i will be able to accomplish things while im here....and unfortunately there arent a lot of things to do here in fulfencio yegros....so its most likely a lot of tv and reading in my spare time...ayaya since its not good to be out after dark....so yup im scared....scared....scared.....since i finaly have a glimpse of what my life will be like for the next 2 yrs....

ok so i guess i will just slowly have to cope with my new situation once i come back official to start work which will be august 22....so please cross your fingers for me so that things will slowly work out for me....thanks and ciao :)