So after a very interesting and hilarious 24 hours of traveling from NY to Canada to Chile to Paraguay with my amiga, we landed safely in Asuncion where Hermana Julia and Hermana Maria Julie and Melissa (2010-2011 volunteer that is currently ending her year here in Paraguay) greeted us outside of Immigration in the airport. We hopped in the Sister pick-up truck and headed out to what is now-our new casita. To my surprise, during the lengthy airplane madness, I genuinely felt extremely calm and content. When I got on the plane to leave NY, the movie showing for the flight was called “The Good Shepherd,” which surely complimented that feeling of calmness. At that moment I sunk right into myself feeling at home in my own “selfness” (if that makes sense). However, as soon as I was driving to my new casita, my stomach sunk as two kids under the age of 10 years old knocked on the doors of the pick-up begging for money. There I am sitting in a car next to two Sisters of the Good Shepherd (whose 100% devoted life mission is to work with children affected by poverty, neglect and violence) had to lock the doors and put up their windows at the stop lights because children were begging for money.
Insert feelings/life/!@#$%^&* here because there are no words for that.
Anyways, after we toured our new casita, I decided my two favorite parts are:
- our bathroom which has a sink, shower, and toilet that are RIGHT next to each other. There are no dividers. So if someone is showering, you can’t use the toilet because the shower water will hit you. Ha!
- in our yard the following lively trees provide us with: avocado, mango, mandarin, orange, and star fruit (although the only one in season right now is starfruit)
We live about 30 feet from the Sisters, which has proven to be quite interesting! There is a second house connected to the Sisters house, which holds about 10 retired sisters who I absolutely adore! They are so precious!So enclosed in our gated area is 12 Sisters and Krystina and I (and Melissa until October)! Haha! It is bitter sweet. From an N. American view, they are quite demanding, invasive, and a bit over-protective. There is not much “me”/independent time/my space. They pretty much know our every move, which makes me feel quite suffocated. However, from a Paraguayan view, its community; it’s about looking out for each other; protection, “us” time; our space. It’s very interesting. My N. American ways tell me to be independent, encourage me to build my own belief system, pave my own path and do what I want. Paraguayan culture is about being raised by the community. Decisions about you, and everybody for that matter, are decided by the community. It’s less individualistic and more communal. Although I intellectually understand our cultural differences to some decent extent, the experience of being inside it has already completely intrigued me and continues to do so.
Since we’ve been here, we have already been through a mix of emotions that literally change from moment to moment. In these past 14 days, we have tasted helado (flavor=dulce de leche w. almonds) on a cucuchuro (cone). SO YUMMY! Dulce de leche is the flavor here. They have everything and anything in that flavor. We have met some of our neighbors/coworkers/friends- Claudia, Jenny, Anchi, Andrea, Fabe- who have been super nice. We have hung out and drank terere/mate (the thing to do with friends). Terere (cold) and Mate (hot) is a drink that is basically just water and tea leaves. There is one thermos of water and one wampa (cup) with a bombilla (metal strainer straw). After you drink the full cup, it gets refilled and then the next person drinks- all drinking from the same cup. Everything is shared. One community. Its pretty cool and I’m totally hooked on it. What are some other highlights?
The other day we were on a CROWDED bus and there was a woman sitting with her daughter (about 8 years old I think) on her lap. Another woman comes on the bus with her son who seemed to be about 3 years old. The women did NOT know eachother. The 8 year old got up off her mother’s lap. That 8 year olds mother picked up this other woman’s/”stranger’s” 3 year old and sat him on her lap and the 8 year old stood next to me in the aisle holding onto her mother’s seat. NO words were exchanged at all. It was “normal.” Not something you see everyday in the subways of NYC. I wish the whole scene could have been taped and projected because that’s what life is all about. Talk about a sense of community.
Lets get to some funny high lights:
-Our walking sandals. Period.
-We went to the US embassy to ask questions about Visa stuff. On our way home, we took the wrong bus. We were told to take line 12 but apparently there is a local 12 and route 12. We needed to be on the route one but we took the local and ended up in this random neighborhood. Fifteen minutes into the neighborhood, we are like “okay it doesn’t seem like we are on the route (main highway) anymore.” The bus continues to get emptier and emptier. We talk to the bus driver who then tells us we are on the wrong bus. He then stops the bus, gets off and goes into his house. We are chillen on this big empty bus by ourselves while the bus driver goes in his house to use the bathroom, perhaps get a snack or something. Ten minutes later he comes back out and drives back to where we originally started from. We were cracking up. Leave it up to us to be dying laughing as we randomly sit on this dirt road outside the bus driver’s house chillen while the bus driver leaves the bus running as he hangs out at his house for break time. Classic.
-Krystina and I are currently reading “The Help” and by reading I mean Krystina goes into theatrical mode and acts out the book/changes voices for characters etc. while I am entertained by it! Guess that’s the advantage of having a friend that used to be involved in plays and musicals! I’m also reading Joan Chittister’s book “Uncommon Gratitude” as well as “The Four Agreements” which I highly recommend!
-One day Krystina, Melissa and I were walking and a man came and kicked Melissa randomly. Ahahaha. Not funny but funny.
Let me continue my random comments because we know Im all about the randomness:
-There are so many stray animals here or “community pets.” There is this one black dog that continues to find Krystina and hump her. Yesterday we were at mass and the dog walked into the little church/through all the chairs of people/crowd and started humping Krystina mid-mass/song. Fabe had to pick up the dog and carry him outside. We totally stick out as North American babies in so many ways and then things like this keep happening that magnify us. Hahaha
We started language school which has been an adventure already. Although they speak Spanish here, their native tongue is Guarani, which is its own language- VERY different from Spanish, English, or any language for that matter! Anyways, in school we are TRYING to learn Guaraní and Spanish, but our teacher doesn’t speak English. She speaks Spanish and German. We are going twice a week for two hours but so far it’s kind of been a joke. We get a cookie and coffee break, which is my favorite part!
The buses here are always packed and there are no such things as bus stops. You just push a button which is located on the back of the bus and the bus will stop-wherever-whenever. But the bus doesn’t come to a full stop. So you kind of have to hop off and on. Twice Krystina was running to hop on/was one leg out/one leg in as I’m grabbing her arm pulling her in! hahaha
Hmm what else? We’ve been to a funeral already, which was so so interesting. One of the retired sisters (98 years old) passed away. We didn’t get to meet her but we attended the services with the community, which was different but moving in its own way.
We have had Paraguayan cooking lessons from Claudia and cleaning lessons (difference cleaning instruments) from Maria Deolinda. Krystina’s been doing the cooking. I’ve been doing the cleaning and I mean cleaning! Have to sweep at least 3 times a day and that’s just sweeping. We’ve never felt more domesticated before that we do now!
We have attended a Strawberry festival/Paraguayan Dance festival with friends and just last night we went to another festival in a neighboring town Ypacarai with the Sisters that was fun. Delicious food, good music (National Orchestra of Paraguay), warm atmosphere celebrating Paraguay’s independence /Ypacarai’s founding. We have been to San Bernadino to spend some time by this huge lake, which was very refreshing. We have visited this beautiful church called Basilica in Caacupe whereI also played soccer with these random two young boys outside the church, which was fun!
We have broken our toilet already because we forgot that you couldn’t flush TP. This upset the sisters but lets just say we have learned and only need to learn one time! Ha.
As far as work, we are still in the learning process of seeing how everything works (as best we can- this language barrier makes the learning process so much slower!) We work at Tekojoja Kuna Rembiapope (in Guaraní loosely translates to: Justice for Women Workshop). Our main product we sell is called “Nanduti.” With a domestic GSV year under my belt which included sharing living quarters with a fair trade org Handcrafting Justice, I have a basic understanding of how fair trade works. However, being here, thrown into -the behind the scenes job- has already opened my eyes to the complexity of it. There is so much work and meaning that is behind each and every single product- every single strand, every single artisana. Krystina and I are definitely going to have our hands FULL. Just this morning we were working on two orders (one for the US and one for Australia) that we need to get out ASAP. Again, I’m quickly understanding how complex the fair trade industry is; while we are most definitely going to be up to our heads with the business end, we are staying grounded through the artisanas. These women are extremely talented. Each piece of work- every design within each product has a piece of their story behind it and provides food for their children.
I’m getting tired, so I’m going to bring this blog thing to a close. Before I go, I want to mention that we have three (outside) pets. Nala, our adopted dog who follows us to work and sits outside our office while we work, Ojos (white cat with one blue eye one green eye) and Mbopi which is a black cat that the last volunteers brought up and who now never leaves us alone and always wants to hang with us. Nothing like some animal friends to make us feel right at home.
I promised a blog so I hope you enjoyed listening to some pieces and snid-bits of the very beginnings of this adventure.
Of course, I miss my family and friends already, which I suppose is normal. There’s not one day that has gone by in which I haven’t at some point thought of a family member or a friend. Obviously it’s been fun meeting and befriending a new community, but I guess your family and close friends just always hold an especially close place in your heart. Insert corny (BUT TRUE) here.
Miss you Love You. Hope you are taking each day as it comes and riding your own unique adventure as it presents itself to you. Life is crazy. Life is weird. As always. Sending out love and peace.
With hugs, broken toilets, empanadas, and lots of “POR FAVOR HABLA MAS DESPACIO,”
Jessica (pronounced Jess-EEEEE-Kuh)
