week six (already?!)

Sunday March 12, 2006

It’s Always Something
Today was supposed to be a big family bonding day for me (“supposed to” according to my self-imposed schedule), but it didn’t end up that way at all. I had a bit of a headache all day (maybe that means it’ll rain tomorrow!), and spent the afternoon with the other trainees preparing materials for this week, and tonight I was hanging out with the little girls but there are zillions of bugs so I decided to come back to the insecticide-ed safety of my room. They call ‘em “mosquitos,” but they’re not mosquitos, these bugs, they’re littler and more aggressive – in less than an hour of being there (and keep in mind that that’s inside the house, tho the door was open) I can count nine itchy bites.

I know a big part of the experience here is supposed to be bonding and integrating with the host family, and I haven’t done as good a job with that as I’d like to. It’s just that there always seems to be something getting in the way of that happening. Tonight it was the bugs, sometimes I’m tired, sometimes I get the feeling they don’t really like talking to me, I can’t understand the dad or the brother when they speak, I have to study my languages and prepare stuff for the workshops, they’re always busy running the store, the mother might not speak much Spanish, they’re just shy. I can’t decide if these are lame excuses or just reasons why I haven’t been able to bond with my family as much as other trainees.

Tuesday March 14, 2006

My Poor Computer
Every time I turn it on, my poor laptop searches for a wireless network to connect to. I’ve tried to figure out how to make it stop searching, but I’m wary of changing too much on it b/c some day, a long time from now, I’ll be back in the land of wireless networks and my computer can fulfill its search once again. For now, it’s kind of amusing. I tell my computer, “You can go ahead and search, but you’re never gonna find it!!”

Am I Sick Again?
I’ve been unusually tired and my head feels groggy and strange. I think it might be another ear infection like the one I got back in Guatemala in November, where I’m not out and out sick but just can tell my body’s not acting normally. I called the doctor yesterday and she said to take ibuprofen to control the fever and come in to see her if it was really bad. It’s not really bad, and I have lots of work to do, so I decided to wait til tomorrow when we have scheduled time to meet with her for vaccinations. Hopefully then we’ll get this all straightened out.

Long Field Practice
It’s time for another field trip!! We’ve divided into three groups and we’re going to spend next week (Mon-Fri) visiting current volunteers and working in their sites. My group – Carole, Emily, Kyra and I – are visiting a super-guapa volunteer named Leilani (guapa usually means good-looking in Spanish, but in Paraguay it means hard-working). We’ll be staying in a city called General Aguilo in the department of San Pedro and visiting a compania (rural area) called Redondo (which actually means round!). Leilani has planned us a super busy week, giving talks about dental hygiene and parasites in several schools, teaching games at the teachers college, and playing games at an elementary school. In addition, we’ll be waking up early one day to milk cows and pick mandioca!! While I’m a bit disappointed I won’t get to stay in the campo (rural area) to see what it’s like, I think our group has a great variety of things we’ll be doing and we’ll learn a lot and have fun too.

What I Want From My Site
Stuff I’ve mentioned that I want in my interview with my Program Manager and will have a chance to expand on in writing after I get back from long field:
· A campo area, not a city, that feels different and a bit more challenging
· Opportunities for secondary projects, like health or gender, to gain more experience in these areas and explore possible career options
· To be near enough to a city that I can go there once a week and use the internet
· The ability to live on my own (after the requisite 2 months with another host family in site)
· Probably to be a first-time volunteer. This would mean that a lot of my work would be building relationships instead of planning huge projects. It also means that the community won’t constantly be comparing me to someone else, which is a plus.
· The opportunity to use my early-stages Guarani and Spanish
· Stuff I’m not worrying about: 93% of Paraguay has electricity so that’s not an issue; and I think I could live without running water so I didn’t mention that; and almost all volunteers have cell phone service and if I didn’t I think I could live without it; and I’d actually rather not have another volunteer at my site so I can integrate more in the culture; but everyone has other volunteers nearby at varying distances.
· I can’t decide how I feel about working with the teacher colleges: on one hand, it’s a great experience with a receptive audience and a potentially large impact, on the other hand, it’s being in a classroom and not really out in the field gaining the non-education experience that I’m hoping for. Many education sites have a teaching college nearby, so I think I’ll just not mention it and see where I end up.

Busy, Busy
Have I mentioned all the stuff I have to do right now? I’m giving a model lesson in a 2nd grade classroom on Thursday, on Friday we have our final workshop (I’m presenting on Bingo and its many uses for teaching mathematics), and on Monday we leave for long field. We need to create all the materials for these activities: in the past three days I’ve created 14 cardboard dice and 12 bingo boards. In addition, today we got an assignment to redo our resumes in Spanish. Plus I’m learning Guarani and still working on Spanish. Dios mio! Or, in Guarani, Dios che!

Thursday March 16

Yep, I'm Sick
The doctor says it's a sinus infection, which explains why I'm feeling lousy. I have medication in hand and plan to be feeling better later this afternoon!!