I never fully appreciated that statement until I came here and started finding third and fourth degree connections back in the states. Then yesterday I played the One Degree of Carly Waterstraut game with a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) from 1988 who happened to be walking past my house...
Picture it:
After church on Sunday morning. The town is fully awake by 9:30am and people are walking in and out to the pueblo to recharge for the week: Their saldo, food supplies, visits to the family, gas for the stoves and the rare purchaser of dog food. My host family's house sits right on the edge of town and anyone coming or leaving has to pass in front of it. We are the gatekeepers.
I had resigned myself to drinking terere for the morning and generally just being really tranquila- something I'm getting better and better at every day- when it happened. I was siting in the shade of a mango tree when a woman walked by with a strangely stylish teenage girl in tow. She asked if I was a Peace Corps volunteer. I replied in an off-hand manner, weary of those prowling Paraguayans who seek to exploit our facetiously-reported monetary supply. She introduced herself and her daughter (who, in typical teenage fashion, glared at her pink Converse ((too clean)) sneakers in lieu of initiating verbal contact) and told me her husband was a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguari 22 years ago and they have since been living in the United States.
My brethen! She commenced to speaking in perfect English, dotting our conversation with endearingly American terms such as 'freaking out' and 'whatever that thing is'. My heart was flying.
Her husband soon caught up to us, my host mom came out of the house, and in some strange act of serendipity, everyone reunited as though the meeting had been planned 22 years earlier when this guy left post-service. It turns out this RPCV's wife lived next door to my host mom as a child. Accordingly, I was invited to lunch/social hour at these people's family's house in the next town. Of course I accepted, grabbing my..... nope, didn't take anything.... and headed into the unknown. Me, one RPCV, one would-be-Paraguayan-turned-U.S.-citizen and one mysteriously sullen 14-year-old who somehow complained about the heat while in the midst of one of nature's most impressively temperate days.
I spent 7 hours at the woman's family's home who naturally welcomed this white stranger with open arms and even included me in the family photos. Ah, Paraguay! How do I love thee? Let me count the ways: Fruit, insta-family, spontaneity, Guarani grunts.... The list goes on and on!
After a walk home in the twilit tranquility that only the campo can provide, my host family greeted me as though I'd been gone a year, saying things like, "We thought you forgot about us!" and "You just left us here!!" I was kind of irritated at the time but writing it down I realize how awesome it is be welcomed into a new family one hour and the next to be lamented by the one you've just left, if only for a few hours.
Feel the love, anybody?
pueblo- the town; the city; an area bigger than the one you're currently in.
saldo- credit for internet and cell phones
terere- the national cold tea... drink... thing; cold water mixed with medicinal herbs is poured from a thermos, or termo, into a smaller cup, or guampa, which is packed with tea leaves (sort of?), and drank through a metal straw, or guampa.
tranquila- tranquil; relaxed; Paraguayan.
campo- countryside.
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