Paraguay

I finally finished training on Aug 10th!  The last couple weeks went by pretty fast, but my favorite part of training was attending the youth business plan competition.  The program was set up by previous and current Peace Corps Volunteers to teach people ages 15-25 how to write a business plan and then attend a compeition where they can win money to get their business started.  Also, professionals from different industries attended a lunch to meet the interested students.  I got to watch a few of the presentations and I was really impressed!

After our training graduation, our whole group came to Asuncion to celebrate for the weekend.  We found all kinds of food here… Peruvian, Korean, Mexican, Italian.  On Monday, everyone left for their future sites.  I moved in with my new host family (the same one I stayed with a couple weeks ago) on Monday night. 

I’ve been going in to the co-op everyday so far to start getting to know people and figuring out where I might be able to help.  My job for my first 4 months here is just to get to know people in my community and complete a community study.  I went to see the new Batman movie with my host sister here, and it was in English!  She also invited me to play tennis with her and her friends tomorrow :).  At the co-op, they have a flip flop decoration class that I attended last night.  There are about 9 women learning to sew beaded designs onto flip flops.  The want my help with making a business plan to figure out how to sell the flip flops, so I will be working on that soon I hope!

Tonight i am attending a fancy party at another co-op for its anniversary.  I have no idea what to expect!  My schedule here is very go-with-the-flow.  I have been going wherever my host mom goes, but I usually don’t know where we are going or how long we will be there.  She always just asks me if I’m ready, and I say sure!  It’s always a surprise, but it’s helping me learn my way around the city a little better.

Yours Truly, Julie G

Paraguay (as well as some other countries) has the greatest holiday- Friendship Day!  It was officially yesterday, but the celebrations started on Saturday and were still going on today (Tuesday).  Saturday night my host mom bought all that food for the friendship party that our co-op was hosting.  About 75 people showed up for the party including employees and directors from other cooperatives!  The party got started around 9:30pm and the first people left at 12:30am.  We started off with an icebreaker game, where we each had a sheet of paper that needed to be signed by others who met the qualities listed.  One of the statements said “find someone who was born in a different country.”  I was obviously the only one out of all of those people, so everyone rushed over to meet me!  I also had to make a speech about myself and what I will be doing.  It was so nice of everyone to include me in the activities 🙂  

Later on that evening, we listened to presentations about why friendship is important at work, and then ate all the food that my host mom made.  She made raviolis, canelonis, and gnoccis for everyone (she is Paraguayan, not Italian).  I’m lucky that my new host mom is such a good cook :).  After the food, there was a gift exchange, which was also a fun time.  One of the directors even brought an extra gift for me to participate in the game.

Yesterday, I went with my host mom to another co-op to celebrate friendship day again.  We had a nice asado (grilled meat) lunch with all of the employees at that co-op and listened to more speeches about how friendship should be a major focus of the workplace.  After an afternoon break, I went with my host mom to a relatives house for a birthday party, where there was another asado!  For birthday parties here, the families all get together and grill a lot of meat, and eat it with mandioca and salad.  I was very full and exhasted by the time we got home last night at midnight, but what a great holiday!!!

Yours Truly, Julie G