Anita Little Peace (Corps)

 HELLO HELLO!! In case you haven't figured out yet, I totally forgot to post my June blog post. That's why it's late and I'm doing a double feature this month.  July is a very special month to me. It's not only the month I was born, but it's always the best time of the year. As a New England baby born and raised, there's nothing I look forward to more than the 4th of July, beach days in Connecticut and Rhode Island, getting to see my cousins and my family, and overall just living my best life in my favorite place in the world - Groton Long Point, Connecticut. That's why in all honesty, this was a very hard few weeks. I found myself more homesick than ever,  missing places and people and my family more than I had even around Christmas time. Thankfully, I have a wonderfully supportive and loving community and family (in TWO countries nonetheless- how lucky am I?) and I spent the month feeling so loved and supported. Let's get into it. July 1st marked a...

Hello and welcome back to the newest installment of my Peace Corps life. June in Paraguay is known for one thing and one thing only - la fiesta de San Juan.  This holiday blends Catholic and pre-Columbian traditions, commemorating the birth of Saint John the Baptist on June 24. Although the tradition originally stems from Spanish evangelization, Paraguayans made it their own by incorporating Guaraní ingredients such as mandioca (yuca)  and corn, instead of the wheat originally used in Spanish dishes for the occasion. The central symbol of the festivity is fire, burning away sorrow and sadness, symbolizing purification and renewal. It's important to note that while the holiday itself is celebrated on June 24, only the larger cities celebrate it on this day. The smaller, more rural communities (such as my own), tend to celebrate in the weeks leading up to it in order to permit people who want to attend the larger celebrations to do so. Due to this, on June 7 I found myself ...

HELLOOOO and welcome back! May was a jam-packed month, and I did so many cool things. Let's jump right in. More Training! During the first week of May, my fellow volunteers and I were reunited again (we barely had time to miss each other from Reconnect) for another training. This time, it was an IST - in-service training - and what made this one special was our ability to bring a community counterpart. Any person in our community (although usually someone from the school or institution we're working with) is invited to participate in a series of lectures and workshops by the Peace Corps, with the hope of fostering ideas and helping make plans for future community projects. It also didn't hurt that the training was held in the beautiful town of Atyra - widely known as the "cleanest" city in Paraguay, and we stayed at the stunning Marianela, an old monastery. I was so lucky to be accompanied by my super guapa [hardworking] Directora and one of my Profes. We spent th...

 Hi everyone!! Welcome back. Apologies for the delay on this month's update. The longer I'm down here, the faster time seems to pass. The month of April had two major highlights: Reconnect and Semana Santa. We'll dive into both, and I'll give some general life updates from my time in the campo. We'll get into what Reconnect is and what went on during that week below, but we made a couple of pit stops on the way to that training. First was another trip to the waterfall in a neighboring site. We had another lovely barbecue, watched a beautiful sunset, and spent a night on a horse ranch! The second pit stop was in Asuncion. Our Country Director (the head of PC Paraguay - shoutout Terry) was kind enough to open his doors and invite all our cohort to his house for a little lunchtime snack. We all gathered in the city the night before. I went through another Paraguayan rite of passage - attending my first futbol match! In this household, we are Club Olimpia fans (it's...