Isla Pucu (Long Island)

4/6/2011

Our meeting site, CAFASA

My Site: Isla Pucu; My Department: Cordillera

All trainees look forward to and lose sleep over exactly 2 events: site assignments and swear-in. Most trainees began fretting about future site placements back during the Staging process in Miami, others more recently during training. Either way, I’m almost 90% sure every one of us has pondered the following feos (uglies) at some point... Ugly Question #1: Will I have hot water? (gasp) Uglier Question #2: Will I have electricity? (jaw drop) and the Ugliest Question of ALL: Will I have to live in the campo-campo?? (faint) On Tuesday April 29^th, 2011, we finally received the answers to these questions. Por suerte, hardly any of us aregoing to the campo (countryside) of Paraguay, everyone has electricity, and most of us have hot water. Specifically, the name of my future site is  Isla Pucu, which is Jopara (mix of Spanish and Guarani) for “Long Island”. On April Fool’s Day (although this was no joke), we were divided into 2 large groups and Peace Corps drove us to another city relatively close to our sites to meet our “ community contacts” aka a Paraguayan local designated to look out for us and of course sign Peace Corps paperwork as needed. My group and I were sent to a place called “CAFASA”, a giant very casual yet very business-like two story lugar (location)containing several conference rooms, a cafeteria, and a spacious yard. We all dumped our stuff in a secured room and were each given name tags. About 20 minutes or so later, our contacts filed out of one of the conference rooms also wearing name tags, but with our pictures adhered. I found my picture attached to a woman named “Bernarda”. She is both the Apoyo (support) teacher and the librarian at Isla Pucu’s local “escuelita”(little school). Next, carts of juice, fruit, and tortillas were rolled out for breakfast and everyone chatted while they ate. It wouldn’t be Peace Corps-appropriate without a series of informative yet boring presentations, hence this is what followed. Lunch came soon after though, along with more presentations. The afternoon ended on a high note with you guessed it….more food. ;) On our way out the door, bags of bread, cake, juice boxes, and more fruit were handed to us. The other trainees and I collected our back-breaking bookbags, wished each other “Suerte” (good luck), then parted ways with our new contacts. From Asuncion (capital of PY), my site is about 2.5 hours away; however, from CAFASA, it’s only about 1.5 hours. Side Note: PC volunteers are generally placed in either “follow-up” or new sites. Both can have their ups and downs. For example: follow-up sites-welcoming smiles and less staring (up), more pressure to prove yourself (down); new sites- more staring, less accustomed (down), nobody to be compared to (up). I was placed in a follow-up site where I will be the 3^rd volunteer. BTW:  It doesn’t matter how long ago a site had a PC volunteer, somebody always remembers something about them…..”Oh, he lived there”, “Yes, she had a dog”, “It’s true, he/she was very guapo/a (hardworking).” etc. Anyways, as added bonus to my sweet “Long Island” deal, I happened to be placed in the former site of the new Volunteer Coordinator, Lindsey. She of course is also a previous volunteer, but Peace Corps gave her the opportunity to stay and help out us Education folk for one more year. So not only did I have a personal escort during my site visit (she didn’t have to come but she did! ..super nice, right?), but now I have someone that can answer my questions directly and specifically (if necessary) who just so happens to work in the Peace Corps office :) Upon arrival in my new town, we stopped by Bernarda’s home to talk, drink terere’ (official drink of PY, like herbal iced tea) and eat roasted mani (peanuts) while waiting for Lida (Vice Principal of Escuelita) to come and meet us. Lida and her family consisting of 12 people were kind enough to take in a 13^th (me) for a couple of days despite their lack of space and my peculiar food choices as a vegetarian. They also offered to allow me to stay with them for my first month in site (PC rule: once again we’re supposed to live with a host family for our first 3 months). Since Lindsey chose to accompany me, we had lunch together everyday at her old and my future home. I was fortunate for this because those lunches were only time I was able to eat foods with some nutritional value (Lida and her family ended up serving me cocido (tea with milk) for breakfast and dinner three days, as well as, chipa (famous Paraguayan corn bagel) and mandio chyryry (mandioca is like a long potato and “chyryry” is Guarani for fried) my last two days but only because I requested them :/. Lindsey (God bless her) drug me around all over the town introducing me to everyone she knew and showing me important places. By the end of the trip I was exhausted, but very grateful. I learned my site contains 4 schools:  Escuelita, Escuela Grande (big school), “Santa Lucia” (new school), and a colegio (high school). There are also: 2 comedores (soup kitchens), a group of Boy Scouts, a Radio Station, and plenty of people who want to learn English. Lindsey worked on a one-on-one basis tutoring 3 high schools students: Paola (17), David (16), and Lourdes (16) who were also her closest friends. We didn’t have much free time, but the minute we did I seized the opportunity to find out where the best heladeria (ice cream shop) was located. FACT: Ice cream is my stress-reliever here in PY! All in all it was a very exciting, event-filled trip and I really enjoyed it. I am very much looking forward to working and residing in Long Island, hey who wouldn’t? :)

In front of the Isla Pucu Welcome sign