Paraguay

So I know I’ve told many of you how excited I am to be teaching a women’s group how to create a business plan.  They took a class on how to make beaded designs on flip flops, and needed some basic skills to get their business up and running.  It all seemed so perfect, but I was in for some cultural suprises…

During my first class last week, everyone showed up late.  When I say late, I don’t mean American late… the class did not even start until an hour after it was scheduled!  I have learned here that American’s and Paraguayan’s have very different understandings of punctuality, basically it does not exist here.  I also learned that it is completely acceptable to answer your phone and have a 5 minute conversation during any meeting, class, or presentation.  I found this to be quite distracting that people were on the phone while I was trying to teach.  Overall though, the first class went well.  We had a lot of interesting group discussions, and I taught the group about the importance of market research and feasibility studies.

The class this week was a whole different story.  The women’s group told me last week that they would like to learn about pricing and budgeting.  I prepared for 3 hours for the class, making sure I memorized how to draw my charts and learned the Spanish vocab for profit margin and break-even point.  I even brought candy for anyone that arrived to class on time and didn’t use their cell phone.  Unfortunately, the cooperativa that planned my class decided that they would hold a meeting during the same time as my class, which meant that 2 people were unable to attend.  The rest of the class… they just didn’t show up.  What a disappointment!  I have talked with people at the cooperativa about the situation, and have learned that it is “just a cultural thing.”  However, I’m still having a lot of trouble understanding why people would ask me to teach a class, have me spend a lot of my time preparing, and then not show up!  I guess this is just one of the frustrations I will be dealing with here :(.  I am planning to call all of the people in my class next week to confirm if they will be coming.  We’ll see…

On a more positive note, I had a really fun day yesterday.  First I went with some people at my cooperativa to walk around to different businesses in the community to introduce their new microcredit product.  Then I met up with a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer to go on a mission to find the best Asian food in Mercado 4 (the huge market near where I live).  We did find a great restaurant, and then walked around the market for a couple hours.  And later, I went to TGI Friday’s (yes, they do have one in Asuncion) with about 15 others from Peace Corps to watch some American football!

I also have big plans for the weekend here.  I am going to a potluck Rosh Hashanah dinner tonight with about 20 people from Peace Corps.  I will be making apple risotto.  Tomorrow I’m going to visit my first host family in Ypane because the little baby will be turning 1.  On Sunday night I will be attending Rosh Hashanah services with a friend’s famiy and also having dinner with them.  Pretty exciting life!

Yours Truly, Julie G

Well the last few weeks I’ve been adjusting to my new life here in Asuncion.  I’ve been going in the cooperativa everyday in the mornings to chat with people in the office.  I’ve also started attending a training class at the cooperativa with a new employee that will be working in microfinance (giving loans of about $200 to small business owners).  I have been learning about how they determine whether a person is credit worthy, and what interest rates they will charge.  Very interesting!

Last weekend, I spent a lot of time with fellow Peace Corps Paraguay Volunteers.  A few of us got together on Saturday to see the Paraguayan movie 7 Cajas (7 boxes).  It was really good and mostly filmed about 15 minutes from where I live!  On Sunday, I got together with other Peace Corps Volunteers that live around Asuncion.  We met up in Aregua, about a 1.5 hour bus ride away.  Speaking of busses… what a bunch of confusion!  The busses here all have numbers and destinations, but some numbers go different places.  Also, there are no official bus stops, so you just put your arm out on any street when you want to get on and ring the bell when you want to jump off!  There are no bus maps, so you have to ask people which busses to take where.  Needless to say, I am having a lot of trouble with the bus system!  Anyways, Aregua was fun.  About 8 of us met up for lunch and then we went to a strawberry festival.  There were about 15 vendors selling different types of strawberry items.

Yesterday was officially my 3 month mark in Paraguay.  Everything was going fine.  I printed out some flyers to advertise my upcoming business plan class to the women in the flip flop decorating class.  Then I got to the cooperativa and fell down the stairs!  It wasn’t that bad… the last step was uneven and I happened to step on that part of it.  So I celebrated my 3 months with a Peace Corps Doctor getting my ankle x-rayed.  No broken bones, but my ankle is still very swollen and I can’t walk!  I am using crutches to get around, not fun.  The good news is I am not having any more ear or stomach issues right now!  I’m pretty disappointed because I had plans this weekend to visit my host family from Ypane, and go to a meeting for the Young Entrepreneurs of Paraguay program.

That’s all for now!

Yours Truly, Julie G