Author Archives: yourstrulyjulieg

Hola!  All is well here in Paraguay!  I´ve been very busy in my training classes everyday, except Sunday´s, so haven´t had much time to stop by the internet cafe,  Here are a few quick updates…

The food: We eat a ton of yucca, which is called mandioca here.  Also, empanadas and milanesa (chicken fried steak) are very popular.  The food here contains a ton of sugar and salt.  People say that I drink my coffee with a lot of sugar in the US, but they have obviously not tasted Paraguayan coffee.  They seriously put about double the amount that I do!!  I did have a funny story that happened a couple nights ago.  I came home from training and was sitting at the table with my host grandma.  Usually my host mom makes me a Paraguayan drink when I get home, but my grandma made me a drink since the mom wasn´t home.  It was really really gross, but I pretended to like this new Paraguayan drink to please my grandma, who was earnestly watching me drink it.  About an hour later when my host mom arrived and poured herself some of the drink, it turned out that it was made with very expired milk… and guess who had just finished drinking a HUGE mug of it?  Luckily, I did not get sick, and can now laugh about this experience.

My shower:  The bathroom situation here has been quite an adjustment.  There is only 1 bathroom in the whole house, for all 7 of us that live there, plus the endless guests that are always over.  The showers here have no shower curtain, so I flood the bathroom every morning.  They have a mop in the shower so you can push all the water into the drain when you´re done showering.  Also, the hot water is hooked up through the electricity in most of Paraguay.  So you have to turn on the water, then the switch.  If you try to turn off the water before turning off the electricity, you will get shocked!!!!  I am terrified that this will happen to me everyday, and have been very careful.  At least I have hot water here 🙂

Tomorrow I will be going on a day-trip to Asuncion for a project assignment.  We were each assigned partners and 3 places in Asuncion to go, before meeting at the Peace Corps office tomorrow afternoon.  Ken and I will be visiting a development agency, a museum called Cabildo, and a Paraguayan restaurant called Lido Bar.  It should be an exciting day, since we finally get to be in the city! 

Next week, we will be visiting other Peace Corps volunteers at their sights.  I will find out where I will be visiting later this week, and have to get there on my own by Monday before dark.  I will get to spend 3 days experiencing hands on business development work, within a specific community.  I´m really looking forward to that as well!

My guarani language classes are going very well.  I can now introduce myself, what I do, where I´m from, describe where I live, ask basic questions, and describe other people´s backgrounds.  Here´s a little taste of introducing myself in guarani:

Che cherera Julie.  Che aspirante cuerpo de pazpegua.  Ambo apo negocios pe.  Avya Paraguaipe.

Well it is getting dark here, so I need to head home.  Hope to hear from you all soon!

Yours Truly, Julie G

I finally made it!  I arrived in Asuncion on Thursday and am now in my town where I will be training, Ypane (pronounced eh-pah-neh).  I´m living with a host family that has 5 little boys, ages 14-8 months old… and we all even share 1 bathroom!  I also have a brother here named Brian, just like at home!  I like the food here so far, tons of meat and lots of rice with milk (arroz con leche).  The weather has been rainy and a little cold.  Yesterday was my host dad´s birthday, so we had an asado (Paraguayan bbq).  My host mom is only 32 years old, so it´s a little strange that I´m her daughter!  I will start my Guarani classes tomorrow morning.  I may be a little slow in responding to messages because I don´t have internet at my house, and am in training all day, 6 days per week.  Just wanted to let you all know that I´m here and all is well!!!