Becoming a “REAL” Volunteer

For two years I have claimed to be a Peace Corps Volunteer, and although its true, the reality of the situation is that I have it pretty easy here. Sure I wash my clothes by hand, walk or ride my bike everywhere and there is that whole live in a developing country where they don´t speak English element, but in Peace Corps terms I have a great life. I have internet in my house, even if it doesn´t always work, a fridge, which I use duct tape to keep closed, and of course running water and electricity. My town has two large supermarkets, lots of places to eat and even a few bars. So imagine my surprise when I had to “suffer” a bit.

The storms started a week ago Saturday and were heavy with rain and hail. It continued to rain off and on until Wednesday morning with a full 12 hours of downpour Tuesday. Its nice to get a good rain every once in awhile. You get to stay cozy in bed and skip anything planned for that day. Well this rain brought with it an extra surprise. It rained so much that the river where our water comes from overflowed its banks, flooding the pumping station and washing out the road to Villaricca.

Now although Villaricca is a nice town, my suffering did not result from the inability to access it for a few days. No, my suffering is a result of the flooded pumping station. It’s pretty ironic actually. It rained so much that we have been without running water since Wednesday, 6 days and counting. So now I have been forced to live like a “real” volunteer, pulling water from a well and bucket bathing.

Of course it hasn´t made my life too difficult seeing as the well is about 30 feet from my door, but it does make getting up for a run just a little bit harder knowing that I will not have a warm shower when I am done.

Where in the World is Melissa?

A vacation to Buenos Aires, Christmas and New Years in Paraguay, camps in Tati Jupi and Caacupe... its been months since she wrote a blog, where could Melissa have disappeared to? Perhaps she went native or maybe she was kidnapped by the EPP. Have no fear, it wasn't any of these. She merely hasn't had any motivation to write an interesting blog.

I am still here in good ole Paraguay working to develop the minds and skills of young people all over Coronel Oviedo. Its going so great here that I have decided to stay another year. I always thought that Peace Corps would be a two year commitment, however that was before I found out you can extend your service. Many of my friends have returned to the States over the past two years only to have difficulty finding work or funding for Grad School, so I have decided to stay here, where I have job security and a boyfriend. What more could a girl ask for? I am working to develop a project with the Municipality or Town Hall in which I will assist a new Youth and Sports Secretary to develop the position and projects that benefit youth in my city.

One more year, but have no fear, I will be home for a visit soon! The Peace Corps will be sending me on a month long vacation to visit my family probably in July so as not to miss the long awaited 50th Wedding Anniversary of Grandma and Grandpa Kohler!

I will update everyone when I have more info.

A Long Walk

Paraguay is a predominantly Catholic country and like many other Catholic counties it has a Virgin. The Virgin of Caacupe.is venerated every eighth of December with a pilgrimage by thousands of Paraguayans who walk up to hundreds of kilometers from all over the country to see her. The Virgin is actually a small blond dollish statue that was carved hundreds of years ago by a Guarani Indian who was miraculously saved by praying to the Virgin Mary while being attacked by a neighboring tribe. The man actually carved two statues, the smaller of which is in Caacupe and the larger one is in neighboring Tobati. The pilgrimage to see the Virgin typically begins the first week in December and lasts until a few days after the eighth. People walk as little as a few kilometers up to hundreds, some walk for days while others dedicate just a few hours. Either way when you get to the Church the scene is incredible.

Last year was very hot and I had no interest in walking to see a statue and a church that I had already seen before, but this year something came over me and I decided to do the pilgrimage. I debated whether to walk with other Peace Corps volunteers or to go with one of the many Paraguayans who would be making the trip. After some time I came to the decision to do it with volunteers, however I still think it’d be a more “real” experience with Paraguayans. My friends were going to meet up at the tollbooth in a town on the Ruta called Ypacarai, which is on the other side of Caacupe from my town and therefore caused some difficulty in actually arriving at the starting point. Because there aren’t freeways or even various routes around the city Angelic and I were forced to get off our coach bus about 10 kilometers before Caacupe and take a local bus into town, where we then had to get off and take another local bus to get to Ypacarai. While waiting for the bus into Caacupe we were talking with agents from the transportation department who were checking to make sure the busses going into town were registered. Of course they couldn’t help themselves from hitting on the gringas. Luckily when I told them I already have a Paraguayito they focused all attention on Angelic who towers about a foot over the average Paraguayan. The trip, which typically takes about two hours wound up being about double that, but we finally made it and actually got there before most of the others.

Once everyone had arrived we set out at a pretty average walking speed. Ypacarai is located about 20 kilometers to the West of Caacupe and we were informed that it would take about 5 hours to complete the pilgrimage from there. We stopped after about an hour and a half for a quick dinner at a small hamburger joint started by Americans, then continued on towards the Mecca. At dinner one of the volunteers in the group announced that we were still quite far from Caacupe and we would not arrive in time for the midnight mass and serenade by another virgin statue that had traveled from my town for the event. At this half of our group decided to kick it up a notch, determined to make it in time for the mass. We ended up completing the trek in 3 and a half hours and arriving over an hour before the mass was to begin.

The scene in the centro of Caacupe was that of a street fair, complete with venders selling everything from t-shirts and knick-knack souvenirs to food and drinks. There were people everywhere. We made our way to the plaza located behind the church, laid out a blanket and laid down to take a nap. Afterwards we wandered around looking for t-shirts and checked everything out.

At midnight we made our way to the plaza in front of the church where the mass was to be held outside and projected onto big screens around the plaza. There were so many people it was hard to move. We found a place just behind a group of teenage boys who had ridden their bikes from Campo 9, about 150 kilometers to the east. They had flipped their bikes over to form a wall around their circle and were all fast asleep throughout the entire mass, which is okay seeing as masses were being held every couple of hours. The mass began with the priest talking about living in peace and harmony and some teenagers acted out a fight between fans of the two biggest rival soccer teams, Cero Porteno and Club Olimpia. It was definitely the first time I saw soccer brought into church, but I guess it works to send a message to the people.

After mass we climbed over sleeping people, pushed our way through those were standing and found our way back to the spot behind the church where two of our friends were still napping. After a short rest we decided to try and make our way back home. We walked to where the busses were passing. On the way I ran into my host family who had decided last minute to bus in. We also met up with some other volunteers who were arriving from their walk in. When we were ready to leave we had incredible luck and a bus headed to Coronel Oviedo passed right in front of us, it even had lots of open seats. We quickly boarded the bus, plopped down into some seats and closed our eyes, still exhausted from the walk. Because the main route was closed off for walkers the bus had to make its way through some poorly cobble-stoned streets to a place where busses were allowed to pass. Some women who had boarded the bus before us started arguing with the attendant who was collecting money. They were charging more than the normal fare and these women weren’t putting up with it. They got off the bus and we gladly paid the extra dollar, happy that there was a bus with comfy seats available at 2 am. About fifteen minutes later the bus driver decided we didn’t have enough passengers and proceeded to turn around in the middle of the narrow crowded street. We made another pass through town and the bus quickly filled up. We ended up getting home at about 5:30 am. A fellow volunteer, Lynn, came to crash at my place and as the sun came up we both fell fast asleep.

Completing a pilgrimage was definitely not on my list of things to accomplish in life, but I am certainly glad I did it! The scene in Caacupe is something that I will never forget!

Women in Paraguay

Some people are sports fanatics they get excited and emotional just when talking about their favorite team. I have this same passion, but rather than directing it at sports, my passion lies in the area of Rights for Women and Children. This of course explains why I am the President of the Gender and Development Committee for Peace Corps Paraguay and why my novio has to hear long drawn out speeches every time the topic comes up, which is a lot in this macho country. Novio calls out Feminism every time I start in on one of my rants, but I don´t think we´ve even started into feminism yet, we´ve merely scratched the surface of human rights in general.

A couple of weeks ago was on one of my tirades starting with the treatment of women in Paraguay, then on to the Americas in general. Women here, like in many countries, are expected to cook, clean, do the laundry and take care of the children. They are in charge of household chores while the men are responsible for working, which is fine and dandy if the woman actively decides that this is the roll she wants and together the couple decides to break up the responsibilities in this way, but that’s not the way it works, not here. Women are just expected to do these chores, even if they are working a full time job, and even if the husband works part-time or not at all. So why does this happen? Why don´t they stand up for themselves? Because if they don´t know it’s a problem, then how can they? That’s where people like me come in, people who believe in equality. I come and I tell them that they are being oppressed, that they need to stand up for themselves. And now they know it’s a problem. So now there is a problem. I created a problem. Not because it didn´t exist before, but because it wasn´t recognized as a problem before.

Now the question is how to create change. What can these women do to improve their situations? They can speak with their husbands, but that probably won´t do much, it might even make the situation worse. What they can do is raise their children to share in responsibilities, both the boys and the girls. They can teach their boys that cat calls are disrespectful and their girls to stand up for themselves. The women of this generation may not be able to shed the macho ways, but there is hope for the future. The government has created the Secretaria de La Mujer to try and create more equality and equity between the genders. They create awareness and aid women in the creation of women´s groups. There are also several NGOs that do the same. This is a huge step for women and I hope that some day they reach beyond the capital and into the rest of the country.

Luckily Novio is okay with my “feminist” rants. Later that same evening we got into a discussion about democracy versus dictatorship, but that’s an entire other blog entry to come later.

A Volunteer Success Story I had to write about myself

Working as an Urban Youth Volunteer in Paraguay can include a wide range of activities and volunteer Melissa Salamon is completing her service in Coronel Oviedo using that mentality to positively affect local youth. From the very start of her service she formed a youth group at a community center comprised of kids ages eleven to fifteen. The kids were cautious at first; unsure of the new American with the funny accent, but after a year and a half working together they have formed a close-knit faction focused on improving their community center and the community that surrounds it.

 

Members of the youth group participate in activities relating to health, self-esteem and leadership skills as well as creating their own projects to improve the community center such as planting trees and obtaining trash cans from a local cooperative. Together members of the group have raised money to go on outings by hosting soccer tournaments and raffles. Their cohesion was exemplified after the recent passing of one member when together they presented the boy´s family a banner covered in messages they had written expressing their sorrow for the loss.

 

In addition to working with the youth group Ms. Salamon also teaches in local schools where many of the members attend classes. In the high school she presents activities related to self-esteem, communication, gender relations, and HIV/AIDS awareness. Teachers from the classes with which she works repeat the activities with youth in other local high schools, therefore reaching a larger audience. In the elementary school Melissa is teaching computer classes to children who had never seen or touched a computer before but are now able to manage several programs. Ms. Salamon also works with young mothers to promote healthier lifestyles through cooking classes focused on vegetarian and soy recipes, as well as an exercise group that meets three times per week. Although her activities are varied and wide-spread Melissa has positively impacted the lives of many youth in her area. Their appreciation is often demonstrated not only in words but through behavior changes which will hopefully stay with them forever.

Juggling

Living in a different culture, working with people who speak a different language and trying to maintain a somewhat normal life is a lot like juggling you start with one and then you can add another and then finally once you´ve got that down you add the third. Due to the instant immersion in Paraguay over a year and a half ago I was tossed the first ball right away and quickly adapted to living within the Paraguayan culture. One ball is easy so right away a second was added, the language. Now this took more practice, but I am constantly getting better and always learning more. I also added that third ball awhile back when I moved into my own casita and felt the relief of freedom. I no longer hide in my room watching movies trying to escape Spanish and Guarani speakers and the entire juggling art itself. Instead I made friends and have a boyfriend and often speak only in Spanish the majority of the time. I also get to do fun things like rock climbing and training for marathons. Now although I feel like I have gotten the hang of three balls and sometimes think they could label me an expert at juggling, there are times when I have a bad day and I can´t handle all three and I keep dropping one or another. Some days my Spanish goes down the drain or I feel like screaming at every Paraguayan who hoots and grunts at me and some days I just feel like crying. I am pretty sure this one happens when I drop the third ball. When I feel like it’s too much to have a life and work and speak a foreign language. But these things don’t go away. They just continue and although I just want to hide under the covers and spend the day crying, the students and their excitement when I walk into a classroom keep me going. The kids are the ones that force me to get my overemotional self out of the bed and into the classroom.

Just last week I had a real reason to cry. Not because I couldn´t go out and get a veggie burger or because I hate the men with their stupid cat calls. One of my students committed suicide. Wow, suicide. This was the third funeral I had to attend in Paraguay but it the only one that affected me in a huge way. Dani was a 14 year old boy who lived with his grandmother, a younger sister and countless other relatives. His mother left to work in Argentina about 6 years ago and hasn´t returned to visit her 5 kids in over 4 years. But Dani seemed to be getting along okay. He was not overly outgoing, but he participated regularly in youth group activities and often played soccer with the neighborhood boys. Just the day before his death we planted trees as a reforestation project and he helped. I have spent the last week wondering how such a young person could make this drastic decision. I know a lot of people think about it, they might even attempt it in a call for attention, but to actually go through with it is incredible. No one will ever know for sure why this young man took his own life, but I am sure that he had lots of friends and family that cared for him and he will be missed. This past Saturday with my youth group we conducted a memorial type service for Dani during which we wrote messages to both him and his family. We then took the messages over to his family. I know that they appreciated this act because when I ran by that afternoon it was displayed out in front of their house. Just knowing this makes me proud of my group and the effort they put into it, even though it may have been awkward.

After talking with the group about suicide I hope that if there are others who feel the same desperation they will come to me or tell someone. Sometimes we don´t see the warning signs, sometimes there aren´t any. Suicide is much more prevalent in Paraguay than I had presumed. It seems to happen more often among the rich than the poor and may be due to American and European influence in which one is pressured to succeed. I hope that this one was the only one I will experience in Paraguay and the rest of my life.

Spring is in the Air

The month of September has arrived and is passing quickly. It has brought with it wacky weather, lots of pollen and a rollercoaster of emotions. It has also brought with it the first day of spring and Día de la Juventud as well as the Olimpiada, a sports tournament for the different high schools around the city. Since my return to Paraguay I have been super busy (yay!) so here goes with some of those activities.

The first week of September was big here in Paraguay. The national soccer team qualified for the 2010 World Cup after winning two straight home games first against Bolivia and then a huge rivalry match against Argentina. The win was so great in fact that all public entities including schools and town halls were closed the following day to celebrate by order of the President.

 Also this month, well actually in August, another volunteer came to live in my town. Angalic is her name and she also happens to be from Ohio, even though she doesn´t like to admit it. It’s a little different to have another volunteer in town, especially after having the whole place to myself for so long. Luckily she´s super nice and seems as eager to work as I am!

This month on Rojapo Radio, yes I am a radio personality, we have been addressing sex, STDs and HIV/AIDS.  I find it amazing how openly I am able to talk about these topics when they are in a different language. I also hope to do some activities to talk about them in the high school and with my youth group in October. Sex and STDs tend to be a taboo topic that no one wants to address, especially parents, and when people do talk about them they end up doing boring presentations where the kids don´t pay any attention.

At the end of August I was also on local TV with Erin. We talked about what we do as Peace Corps volunteers, our goals and why we decided to join. We were super nervous. Talking on the radio has become pretty easy, but when you are on TV there are cameras in addition to the microphone. But it went well and I am still hearing from people how they saw me on TV.

So September is coming to an end with a bang. I will be in the capital this weekend for meetings Gender and Development, and NVAC, like student council. And I am deciding whether or not to stay for Reggae Fest!