Month 7: Reconnecting and Making Chipa

 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 the only correct team to root for, sorry about it). While they did lose the game, I was finally able to buy a jersey, to the surprise and enthusiasm of not only all my language professors during training, but also most people in my community.

Reconnect

After our snack at Terry's house, we were bussed to our hotel in Itagua, and reconnect was officially underway. Reconnect was a week of training held the second week of April. It's named as such because it was the first time that all of the volunteers in our cohort were together again since we left for site back in December. So, after four long months apart, our C8 family was finally reconnected. 

This reunion was exciting for a few reasons. First and foremost, I got to see all my friends again! While Paraguay has a pretty good bus system for getting around the country, it's still hard to see people when I'd have to take three buses over 14 hours to visit the volunteer who lives furthest away (shoutout Julia). It was also a little overwhelming. I've gotten used to and am comfortable living alone, interacting with the Paraguayans in my community, and taking a siesta most afternoons. This tranquil life is a far cry from sitting in 9 hours of training sessions and speaking in English to over 40 other Americans for a week straight. I was exhausted by the end. But it was so excellent and informative to learn more about gardening and how to do waste audits in our community. It also sparked many new ideas for projects in my school and community.

The other exciting part of this visit to the training center is that I visited my host family from training!!! Y'all remember Mama Clara and my adorable host niece Martina? After training, I spent a dinner with them - I missed her cooking, and she made my favorite - Paraguayan tortillas!!

Semana Santa

After that action-packed few days, we thankfully had a very calm week. The week of Easter - Holy Week, as it's known in English, is called "Semana Santa" down here. This means there's no school for the kids, and there is a lot of time spent with family and around friends. One of the main traditional activities during this time is to make Chipa! Chipa is a bread with cheese that is fun to make by hand. Pictured below is us mixing the dough, forming the bread by hand, and then my aunts putting it in the big outdoor oven - or tatekua.

Internally, we had a competition to see which volunteer could eat the most pieces of chipa throughout the week. Unfortunately, I lost, but I put up a valiant fight with 15 whole pieces.

We also had many cookouts, including some delicious chicken my uncle cooked on the grill (pictured below). It was a lovely re-transition week to return to the community, and I spent a lot of time talking and laughing with my host mom, her friends, and the family. Easter to me down here seemed a lot like Christmas; there was a lot of buildup to the day, but not much happened on Easter itself—just a delicious, peaceful family lunch, like every Sunday.

Back to Work!

After the holiday week ended, and I was just about stuffed to the brim with delicious food and chipa, I returned to school! We had a lovely charla for Earth Day about recycling and caring for our planet. I played a game with the kids involving making a timeline of how long it takes certain types of trash to decompose. Since there's an unfortunate habit of kids throwing garbage on the ground in our school, it was eye-opening for them to hear that the candy wrapper they tossed over their shoulder would stay on the ground for 50 years. I also urged them to be creative and think about recycling things like egg cartons or water bottles. My favorite answer was when one little girl said she wanted to paint and use the egg carton for her rock collection. Overall, the kids are so engaged and excited, and our planned projects for the future already have so much excitement surrounding them.

One of the last days of April was a very special holiday - Día del Maestro, or Day of the Teacher. My school put on a beautiful show of Paraguayan dances and performances, and every grade sang a song, read a poem, or danced - even the little preschoolers running around with paper hearts for their teachers. I felt the love when dozens of my students ran up to sit next to me and practice their English, give hugs, or tell me about their dances or costumes for their performances.

I was then promptly invited to one of my students' birthday parties, where I spent hours chatting with my kids' moms and giggling with my middle school students. They're all so sweet and curious about me, my family, the United States, and everything American. They especially love English songs - Queen, ABBA, and Rick Astley are especially popular amongst the older generations, the younger kids have a strange obsession with "Die With a Smile" by Bruno Mars. Because of this, I'm starting a project in my English classes that involves translating English songs into Spanish. The kids are very excited, although I have had to tell them we can't translate "Paint the Town Red" by Dojo Cat - if you know, you know.

Overall, I'm still loving my site, the life I live, and the work I do. Stay tuned for next month!