San Juan Nepomuceno for real

Alright folks, it's official, I'm a real Peace Corps volunteer - I had to take an oath and everything. In all honesty, it feels like I've been one since I stepped off the plane three months ago but I guess now begins the real thing and my two year commitment to being a U.S. government employee. Last Friday we left our training communities and our host families, which included crying from host mom and sisters, even though they know I'm only going to live four hours away and I plan to visit often. The thing is, the idea of someone leaving their family to go anywhere in Paraguay is a totally foreign concept. I am constantly being asked why I left my family in the US, why I would come to Paraguay, what my family thinks about me leaving, etc. They are fascinated by the fact that most of us leave our parents' house at age 18 to live alone, go to school, make our way in the world- whatever you want to call it and this is because everybody here stays with their parents, at least until they get married, and sometimes even after that- a notable cultural difference and one that I appreciate. I'm going to assume my parents also feel that me leaving the house and making my way in the world was a good idea? Don't get me wrong, I love them, but I think we all know we're better off living in separate houses.

Anyway, last Friday was our swearing in ceremony at the American Embassy in Asuncion. The country director of the Peace Corps was there, along with the US Ambassador to Paraguay whom I spoke with for a brief time after we ended up in the same place at the same time being interviewed by the press. The story goes like this: I happened to be hanging around with some other volunteers eating cake after the ceremony when the country director came over to the group and asked who spoke "pretty good" spanish. I didn't really pay much attention to the request until somebody mentioned my name, which is when I realized that I was then walking with the director toward the Paraguayan television camera crew who was waiting to interview newly sworn in Peace Corps volunteers. I could understand why they would want to interview the ambassador, but us....we barely know how to take the bus here, let alone speak spanish in public and on t.v.- it was all a bit much. I took comfort in my assumption that the interview wouldn't actually make the news as they often don't in the states and that nobody would see it, but much to my surprise, later that night we were watching tv in our hotel room, and there I was talking about being a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay. Two days later, on Sunday afternoon, when I arrived at my host family's house for a final goodbye lunch they informed me that they had also seen my interview on tv...so, so much for assuming that nobody would see it.

Aside from the unexpected spanish television interview, I spent most of the weekend and the greater part of last week holed up in a hotel room with my friend Mary playing around on my laptop- we had free wi-fi and I just have to say that it was incredible. As much as I like going to the cyber cafes here to try and use Skype with headphones that are falling apart, Paraguayans yelling at the computers in Guarani and random people standing behind me staring into the camera while I try and talk, it was a nice change to be able to use my own computer in a private space. Privacy is definitely not valued here as much as it is back at home, which I have a feeling is something I will never get used to. Mary and I did leave the hotel a few times and when we did we were pleasantly surprised by what we found in the capital city. We ended up in a great coffee shop with mochas and cappuccinos and books and everything, and we went to see a documentary film from Peru that was part of a whole film festival. I realize this doesn't sound that out of the ordinary for those of you reading this, but if you were living in the places we were for the last three months you wouldn't expect either of these things to be anywhere in Paraguay. Being that I'm used to living in San Francisco and Mary is used to living in New York, coffee shops and film festivals felt as close to home as possible for us and we were very happy campers for a good five days. And then...our little city life bubbles were burst and it was back to awkward interactions with Paraguayans, a whole new host family experience, and feeling really out of place…but this time it’s without any other English speaking folks around to whine about it with.

Just to give you some perspective about how different life can be here- as I'm writing this, I'm sitting in my little room that has cement floors, lots of crickets, no heat, a luke-warm shower in a bathroom that's not technically connected to the house, a sink not anywhere near the bathroom and reggaeton music blasting in the neighbors backyard at 11pm and I'm in a small town five hours from the capital city all by myself.....BUT, I have an awesome host family that takes really good care of me and you learn quickly here that it's the people that count, not what they have. As you may remember my brief introduction of Soledad in the last posting, I´m back at her house with her two little girls and her mom and all is well in my little town of San Juan Nepomuceno. I've been here for just five days and let me tell you: when it's only been five days in a place you know you're going to live for two years, two years feels like a long time. As we all know, two years in "development time" is nothing so I'm on the lookout for work- there seems to be plenty of it, it's just a matter of deciding exactly what I want to work on and more importantly, what's feasible and sustainable.

For now, I'm just trying to wrap my head around the fact that I'm actually doing this- for weeks now I've been having these moments- temporary lapses in reality, really- where I'll be sitting in language class or hanging out with my host family and I think to myself, " you know what I should do is join the Peace Corps," and then I quickly realize that I'm way ahead of my own life planning process and that I already have and now that I'm here I just have to make the most of it. More updates soon- I don´t want to get too excited, but I may eventually have wireless in my site which would make this whole blog posting thing a lot easier on me!