Paraguay...The Journey Begins

I started my journey after Staging in Miami with a lot of questions and confusion to what I had actually signed up for. After a full day of introduction to Peace Corps Paraguay, the 42 people in my group were left to explore Miami for lunch until we were going to the Miami Airport later that afternoon for our departure. Being in Miami, of course we had delicious Cuban food…Then the journey began as all of us filed through the airport and got special treatment to cut certain lines because we are government employees. As we waited in Miami, we all dispersed to talk to our loved ones, the last time for awhile. Eight hours later, we landed in Sao Paulo, Brazil and another two hours later, we were in Asuncion, capital of Paraguay. All of us were groggy from our all night lack of sleep on the plane flight, but we were greeted with enthusiasm by Peace Corps Paraguay staff. We then headed to Guarambare, the site we would be living in for the next three months with our trainers. We were greeted in our training center, most humorously named, “Center for Human Potential.” Well, I am definitely coming back with a t-shirt saying that…haha. After about 3 hours of welcoming, each of us were sent to our respective communities to meet our host families. We were all nervous and hearing our names called to meet our families was tremendously awkward. I was greeted by my mother, Idalina, who is a housewife and about 54 years old, and the grandchild, Bianca, who is 10. I soon learned that she looks a lot younger because she was born after 5 months. My father, Christino, also met us to drive our luggage to the house. He used to work at the sugar factory in town, but is now retired.

Other important part of arriving at the CHP training center in Guarambare. Apparently I am very famous…The staff as we arrived were all asking who Jessica Wackenhut was because well, the security apparently for the Peace Corps in Paraguay and most U.S. embassies around the world is Wackenhut Security. I was immediately asked if I was related. So I am pretty famous upon my arrival here…

Integration into the Community
The main consistency of integrating into the community is through joining a terrere circle. Terrere is basically what Starbucks is to some people in the U.S….You don’t leave home without it, and there are groups of people gathered chatting over terrere. This drink is made of Yerba Mate, but is cold due to the heat here. It is often paired with jujos (herbs) to refresh or basically a different type of herb to cure any type of problem you may have. Overall, this is what has satisfied me on the days of heat as the summer is only beginning right now…

Food
So, if you have seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding, well the part where he tries to explain what a vegetarian is…well, that’s how I feel everytime I say I am a vegetarian. People say oh, no meat, so you want pork? Hmm. Interesting. Well after 7 years of being vegetarian and the amount that meat consumes the culture here, I decided I would be too stressed out not trying to eat it.
Meal one of my house, beef. I think my host family noticed the sweat building on my forehead as I stared at the meat and poked it with my fork. Or maybe it was the fact that o they were talking to me, and they heard me choked up with tears in my eyes as I tried to chew the flesh in my mouth and swallow it. I tried to explain that I don’t eat meat because in the U.S., the meat isn’t fresh. Well, the next day to prove how fresh the meat is, my house mom was excited to proudly take out like half a cow out of the fridge with blood on it, to show me how fresh it was…uhm.
Step 2, I tried tell them that I don’t eat meat because it makes me feel sick. Hmm, that seemed like a great idea at the time until I told them. They just told me, oh, the jujos in terrere make it so you don’t get sick.
Mission failed.
Step 3. I just told them I am not used to eating meat because I don’t like it and avoided the meat on my plate. I think they now understand as I saw how rica the comida is when there is no meat in it and it has lots of vegetables.
I think I also get a little sad everytime I eat meat because it probably is one of the animals that was once our pet in the backyard…It doesn’t get more local than that…
Beyond this major difference to my diet, the food is rather different here. A major part of the diet is around manioca and fried things. Manioca is a tuber vegetable similar to potatoes, and is in every meal like how the tortilla is to a Mexican meal. They also eat tortillas, which is usually deep fried vegetables, sometimes with meat, or Empanadas, also filled with meat…and eggs. Other than that, mango, papaya, guava, watermelon, and avocado season is coming up so I think I can live off of that alone. Yesssss.

Exercise
Well I think I will leave this part blank….

Ok, exercising is not a part of the culture, you really need to seek a gym out, but most are in Asuncion. I went running and got an abundance of stare downs like what is she running from? I think I just will try to ignore the massive stare downs as the pueblo has accepted that Americans are weird because they go running…

However, I will say that Volleyball and Soccer are big parts of the culture as well which I am sure to try to be involved in.