I’m realizing that there’s lots and lots of those things that I do every single day and have been doing since I moved down here to Paraguay. I decided to make a list of the TOP 10 THINGS I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD DO BUT I DID DO. So without further ado, here they are:
So there’s lots of things out there that you either a) thought of before but never really thought that that would be a thing that you would do in your life or b) never even crossed your mind as a possbility of something that you would even think of doing in your life.
I’m realizing that there’s lots and lots of those things that I do every single day and have been doing since I moved down here to Paraguay. I decided to make a list of the TOP 10 THINGS I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD DO BUT I DID DO. So without further ado, here they are:
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In honor of my third and final birthday down here in Paraguay, I've taken a moment to recap and reflect a bit....
I’ve officially been living in Paraguay for over two years, and I’ve been reflecting on the ways that I have become “Paraguayan.” I’m beginning to worry that when I get back to the land of the free and the home of the brave that I may be in for a bit of a shock. Regardless of the shock, there are a few habits that I’ve picked up as I’ve integrated into life here in Paraguay that I want to take back with me and keep with me as I re-integrate to life back home. Here are the Top 5 Habits:
Here’s a list of the top 5 things that I’ve learned to love (or maybe I’ve just learned to live with?!) over my 23 months (can you believe it’s been 23 months?!) living in Paraguay.
“He was learning lots of new things. Some of them were things that he had already experienced, and weren’t really new, but that he had never perceived before. And he hadn’t perceived them because he had become accustomed to them. He realized: If I can learn to understand this language without words, I can learn to understand the world.”
I decided to go with a cheesy quote from Paulo Coehlo from the Alchemist to go along with this blog post because sometimes its easier than making up my own words. I figured this goes with the title of my blog about learning new things (remember when I said I would post a new thing that learned every single? yeah, that didn’t turn out so well) and really hits the hammer on the nail with my reflections on my week working with Habitat for Humanity. ANYWAY, let my jump into my post about my week spent volunteering with Habitat for Humanity down here in Paraguay. "¡Tantoooo tiempooo! ¿Que paso de vos?"
Every Peace Corps Volunteer in Paraguay knows that this is the worst thing to hear when you walk into a room. It really just means "long time, no see" but coming from Paraguayans, it means "Where have you been, what happened to you? Did you fall into a hole and die? Why haven't you come around here recently? I thought you forgot about us. I thought you left and were never coming back." ANYWAY.... I feel like I deserve a "¿que paso de vos?" from you guys, since it's been awhile since I've given you any real-life updates as to what I'm actually up to over here. So without any further ado... here's what's happened to me and what's been keeping me busy these past couple months and here's the most entertaining life updates I can come up with... I imagine that your heaven is somewhere where there is always a perfect view of a beautiful sunset. The kind where the entire sky changes colors, and clouds look like cotton candy.
Exactly one year ago from this day I took the official government oath and became an official sworn in Peace Corps Volunteer. I thought it was really cool that I took the same oath that the president took, but now that Trump’s taken it too it doesn’t seem quite as cool anymore.
Anyway, I realized that I’ve never told the “real” story about how I got to my site after our swear-in ceremony. This is one of those stories that I couldn’t tell right away. It’s one of those things that happens to you and you are shaken to the core, too rattled to tell anyone about your experience. But you also think to yourself, hey maybe in a year a now, I’ll look back at this moment and it will make a great story! Well, that’s exactly how I feel about it now. I am going to tell the story of how I got to my community for the first time alone, and how this was hands down, easily, the most terrifying experience that I have ever had in my entire life. My last couple of blog posts have included my explanation of this weird “YES WOMAN phase” that I am currently in, and a bunch of gross stories documenting my one year mark in Paraguay.
However, I feel like I’ve left out a bunch of really awesome things (and by things I mean people) so I want to go back and recap some of this awesomeness for you all. As most of you know, usually, I spend most of my days out in the campo alone with my dog. Normally I’ll bike into my town to get groceries once a week and meet up with the volunteer who lives there. Besides that, and an occasional weekend trip, I’m not surrounded by people who speak English that frequently. Well, 2017 has been a nice change for me. I’ve been SUPER lucky to have been surrounded by amazing people and wonderful visitors these past couple of months and I want to share them all with you! |
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March 2018
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