Privacy.... wait, what is that?

Oh, the Paraguayan life.

I'm living in site now and things are entirely different from training. I'm the only North American in my town, the only English-speaker, the only person who mourns the absence of my washer and dryer and surely the only person who wonders what Jon Stewart is doing right now. As a foreigner and a first time volunteer, I'm under intense scrutiny all the time, particularly during meal time. People comment on how I hold my fork, where I place and how I use my napkin, how much salt and sugar I put on my food and how I never seem to eat enough food, even that one time I ate until I vomited. Seriously. To eat a lot is to be hard-working. That's why, now, I never eat when I'm hungry or alone. I just wait until it's time to visit someone's house and when they inevitably offer me food I can actually say yes and eat it ravenously, which is not only a compliment to the chef but makes me appear very diligent.

I'm currently sharing a house with a mother and her 8 year-old son and will stay here for the first few weeks of service, after which I'll move in with another family. The idea is to bounce around to different houses in the community in order to get a feel for the people, the process of life and make some new friends. I share a bedroom with the mother and the boy has his own room. However, the boy prefers to sleep with his mom and since discipline is non-existent in comparison to my old childhood, the son gets his way. So I share a bedroom with two people. There is one other room in the house which serves as a catch-all piensa: Kitchen, dining room, living room, laundry room and den. Therefore, I. Am. Never. Alone. I sleep with other people, I eat with other people, I relax with other people- I even pee in very close proximity to other people but the shower experience is all mine. Sometimes, I consider walking into the woods and just walking until I can't see anyone anymore because I'm so sick of my eyes constantly landing on Paraguayans. I love the Paraguayans- they're generous, comical people and they're willingly sharing their lives and their love with me. So, rock on Paraguayans. But hey- a girl needs her time alone.

More to come. Peace to the world.

My Family Loves Me

THANK YOU FOR THE LETTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

And by family, I mean family and friends because I have received crazy amounts of mail since I got here from both - Becca, Shara, I love you desperately. I cannot explain how much better my days gets when I see a fat stack of letters sitting in my box. Ah!

Keep them coming and I promise to blog more. Only one more week and, believe it or not, I will have real internet access. LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Ciao, Training!

Well, one more week of training and then they boot me out into the real world. The real world, by the way, is pathetically close to a major city and the people there are generally educated and healthy. I'm spoiled.

Now that I have my site assignment and have visited my future site, things became much more concrete- I will no longer be plagued by the ambiguity of "It depends," as an answer to every question. My site has requested that focus on the problem of teen pregnancy specifically as well as working with adolescents in the school regarding things like dental health, hygiene and sex education. I'll also be working with pregnant women and special needs medical groups including diabetes, hypertension and terminal illness. I couldn't be happier with my site assignment and I am pumped to get back there OFFICIALLY next week. Two years.... here we go!

Now that I have a decent grip on the Paraguayan culture I thought I'd share some insights. I'm not an expert yet but I think I have enough experience with culture shock at this point that I can safely determine a few things. The following are randomly arranged strange Paraguayan.... things.

-Churizo-flavored cheese puffs
-Excessive polyester/cotton blends
-To be considered hard-working, just eat a lot
-Babies drink coke here. Straight from their baby bottle.
-Birthday parties are held for people who are no longer alive. This means that almost every day of the year is a party for someone... a birthday party for a living person, a birthday party for a dead person, a deathday party for a dead person....
-To be thin is to be unhappy.