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!
**Sidenote: I participated in a Q&A session with the new trainees on their first day of training. I remember filling out the form to say I would be willing to participate in this session. You were given a space to write any comments or reasons why you feel that you are qualified. Here is exactly what I wrote down on the application:
“When I first arrived in Paraguay, I had lots of questions and no answers. Now that I’ve been here for a year, I still have lots of questions, but now I have some answers.”
^^these are my exact feelings, you never really are done being surprised by things that happen down here, no matter how much time has passed. Regardless with how poor my answer was on this application, I was chosen to help with the newest group of volunteers on their first week of training. I hope I didn’t scare them too much, but I think everyone had a good time!
March 13th-16th: I had a mentee (one of the new volunteers from G51) come stay with me at my site to see what the life of an actual Peace Corps Volunteer in Paraguay looks like. This was also the first visitor I’ve really had at my site, and it was really cool for me to be able to show someone around and show them what’s up. I kept her busy, with a nutrition class, a workshop in the town on preventing child abuse in public institutions, a zumba class, and my host mom helped her kill her first chicken!
March 18th-26th: THE MOMENT I HAD BEEN WAITING FOR! My sister and her boyfriend arrived in Paraguay! They both quit their jobs back in January and are traveling the world together. **See their blog here** We’ve been talking about them making it down to Paraguay and after some unfortunate issues with getting a Paraguayan visa, they finally made it!!! They were here for my birthday, and spent an entire week with me in my site. My sister taught two different yoga classes, and accompanied me to all of my classes I taught that week. We had lunch with my host family almost every day, and they really got a “taste” for what my life is like in Paraguay.
April 11th-18th: Another thing that I had been talking about for literally all year, MY DAD ARRIVED IN PARAGUAY! He had been planning on coming for Semana Santa (holy week leading up to Easter!). My dad made it out to my site and right away he got his hands dirty and was making chipa with my family. We stayed at my house for “the last supper” on Thursday where we ate the pig my family had been raising for nearly 11 months, killed, and cooked in a clay-fire-oven. My entire extended family was in town too, so we spent the day drinking beer and playing volleyball (undefeated, obvi) with them. We then took a trip to Iguazu Falls, and made it back in time to have an Easter egg hunt on Easter Sunday. My dad got to visit the sites of three different volunteers, and he met all the volunteers living around my area at our VAC meeting. It was so great to be able to show my dad my life here, and for him to get to meet everyone who has become such a bit part of it.
WELL!
Today is April 22nd. And I have no future visits planned. I am surprisingly looking forward to settling back into my quiet life here, getting to work, and powering through this school year. My dog and I will surely miss the visitors, and we are very grateful to have had them.
ANYWAY.
For those of you who actually know me, I’m sure you’ve enjoyed getting to see pictures of some familiar faces and hearing that I’ve been surrounded by family and cool friends these past few months. For those of you who are just here to read my embarrassing stories and laugh at me, sorry this post was pretty tame. Hopefully the next post is better for you.