Month 16: Every Mountain Has a Valley
HI!!!
Welcome back. Happy 2026. Let's recap!
While I try my best to focus on the positives of my Peace Corps experience, the reality is that this past month (really more like month and a half), has been one of my lowest points of service.
2025 ended with what was supposed to be a lovely girls trip to Buenos Aires and then to Punta del Este, Uruguay for New Year's Eve. Due to some rather scary events, we spent a good chunk of this trip in the hospital due to a medical emergency. It's no one's ideal vacation to be frantically speaking to doctors in your second language in a foreign country, but we made it through. What's most important is that everyone is safe, happy, and healthy now. But it's definitely not how I pictured starting my 2026.
On the bright side, I got to touch the ocean for the first time in over a year! The Rhody girl in me was very very happy, and just look at these views!
The day I got back to site after this trip, I faced another challenge. While I'm not going to get into the specifics of it, my landlady and I ended up having a rather heated disagreement. This ultimately resulted in me terminating my lease, and moving back in with my host family indefinitely. I wasn't upset with moving back in with them, but unfortunately it made a lot of the plans I had for the summer much less achievable, such as the summer camps I had wanted to do in my community. I definitely learned a lot about managing conflicts from this situation, but it was stressful and not ideal.
I love my host family. I'm very happy and comfortable with them - not to mention very well fed. I have spent these past few weeks settling back into my old routines from when I lived with them, as well as incorporating some new things, which we'll get into later.
A couple weeks after this development, I went on another short trip. I can't exactly call this trip a challenge, but it was definitely a very bittersweet moment.
My boyfriend, Owen, and I took a trip to Foz de Iguazu. For anyone unfamiliar, this is one of the world's largest waterfalls, and is often advertised as one of Paraguay's tourist attractions. The reality is that it's right outside Paraguay, on the border of Brazil and Argentina. We spent a fantastic few days walking around and experiencing in some breathtaking views.
But if it was such a great trip, why was it bittersweet?
Owen was a member of the C6 Agriculture cohort of Peace Corps Paraguay. As you might remember from my last post, this means that he ended his service back at the beginning of December. He had spent a few weeks traveling around South America with his friends - which looked so cool and gave me inspiration for new trips I didn't even know I wanted to take- and this trip to Iguazu was our last time to see each other before he went back to his home in the states. He's from Maine (New England > everywhere else), which only puts him about 4,827 miles away from me currently, but it was so special to get to see him one more time and share this experience with him.
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| These Coatis were everywhere in Foz. I very badly wanted to pet them. Owen wouldn't let me (he was right- they bite) |
So there you have it. Hospital trips, less-than-agreeable landlady, and boyfriend moving across the world. Definitely not an ideal summer break for me.
But enough about the negatives, let's focus on the good things!!
Moving back in with my host family provides me with the opportunity to essentially redo my first few months in country. While there wasn't much I wanted to change from my first go around, there were a couple switch ups I'm very glad I made.
The first being cooking/baking a little more for myself. It's hard to go from cooking every meal for yourself to living back in a situation where all your meals are prepared for you. To combat this, I've been taking the initiative to get back into the kitchen, especially if it's under the guise of introducing my host family to some of my favorite foods from back home. The biggest hits so far have been Annie's Mac and Cheese (thank you Aunty Melissa) and my grandma's famous chocolate chip cookie recipe (Thank you Amma!)
The second change was simply being more present with my family. It's not that I wasn't present the first time around, but I was also very focused on meeting more people in the community, building connections, and doing summer classes. With my roots a little more established, I felt like I had more time to simply exist as a member of the family.
This has presented itself as Sunday family asados where my host mom prepares a whole dish of my favorite chipa guasu for me to snack on, or where we slaughter a pig and make chicharron (fried pork fat, it's delicious). It also means birthdays, such as Abuelo's birthday dinner on the 27th. Finally, it means getting to spend time with my host mother and Maria Liz, whether this means inside the house (we love our girls nights) or outside (Maria Liz and I tried Pilates for the first time!)
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| cutting up pork fat |
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| Instructor told me to pose for a picture like this. Unclear what exactly I'm doing |
I think my favorite nights have to be the ones with me, my host mom, Maria Liz, my host sister Susana, and Maria Liz's daughter Mariel just sit on the patio and drink terere, talking and laughing for hours.
It's been a good reminder to cherish the friendships and relationships I have here, rather than always being focused on the work aspect of it all.
So there you have it. There are ups and downs in every part of life, and being here is no different.
School starts up again at the end of February, so we'll be back on our regularly scheduled program soon.
Chau for now!!
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