December 30, 2009

Irony

Its official, I am allergic to bees.

Ironic, after about 75 stings during my first three months that all lead to no reaction. But yesterday they pricked my arm with only a 10 cc mixture of venom and it swelled and my face got hot. I am now allergic.

This means that I will no longer be a beekeeping volunteer down here, and will likely join the agriculture group. Luckily I know them all pretty well and am pretty amped about promoting green manures, gardens, and crop partnerings, so its not too sad. I will also move sites, to one where there are fewer bees and closer to a hospital. No sure news on where-abouts yet, but I will likely hear everything on Monday when my boss returns from vacation.

Its going to be sad to leave my community. Peace Corps will take good care of me and provide a car to take me down and gather all my things. I currently am working on my vocabulary to explain that I will not be there for a while. Not sure I can tell my sweet host dad over the phone that I will actually never live there again.

But despite the bump in the road. I do realize the irony of my situation, and the comedic nature of it all. And in the mean time I have gotten to live in a hotel (its not as great as it seems), eat salad, meet a lot of people from other training groups, and most of all, have gotten ready mentally to begin what I hope will be an excellent service.

I'll let you all know what's happening when I know more.

December 26, 2009

An interesting Christmas

Rain.

At home rain means run to the car, throw on a jacket, or take off your shoes and enjoy. In Paraguay rain means do nothing, and the world may or may not run that day. During training while we remained on the American mindset, we had to walk to class in the turrential downpours, while our brothers and sisters slept in. When it rains in Paraguay, there is no school. Unfortunately when it rains in several parts of Paraguay, there are also no busses.

I did my best to get back to site for Christmas. I awoke at 5am, got to the terminal quickly, purchased a ticket and waited for the bus to come at 7:30. Only upon trying to enter, when the bus driver laughed at my ticket, did I find out that due to rain there would be no busses passing my site. I was stuck.

So, no Christmas in site. But a campo Christmas was a must. Conveniently, my friend Kendall was placed in a site only 4 hours from Asuncion and with constant bus service, so a few days later I headed out to see her.

I arrived not knowing what to expect, beneficial as the night to come never could have been imagined in my mind. After greetings, a terere session, and quick bucket bath, the three americans in town headed to church. Finding a seat under a fan we struggled through an odd service, and Kendall and I headed to the house of one of her favorite families in town. We arrived at 8:30 and sat in a circle, talking, drinking Niko soda.... until 11:30, when, due to impending doom as demonstrated by a technicolor lightning show approaching, they decided to serve up the sheep they had killed that afternoon and grilled, with sweet potatoes and chipa guasu (a fresh corn bread).

I new it was delicious, and it felt like a celebration, and then it felt rainy. Two minutes into the meal the clouds broke and we sprinted inside, balancing plates of sheep ribs in our hand, and finished eating inside. At midnight we stopped eating, and all walked around in a circle and kissed everyone´s cheek to wish each person Merry Christmas. A traditionally awkward Paraguayan dance circle soon started, and right as we were getting into it the electricity went out.

Sitting in the dark, surrounded by pouring rain and dim candles it was impossible to not appreciate the moment. While it was not a Christmas I could have ever planned for myself, it was definitely a Christmas to remember. A last minute change of plans seemed to work out OK, and at the very least, got me excited for my future return to my own slice of campo heaven.


Medical Note: First blood test negative! This means that I might still be able to work with bees. Now I wait in the city until Tuesday for the skin allergy test. Lets hope they find something definitive and perhaps I can be back in site, or in a new site, by this weekend!

December 21, 2009

Site in Limbo

Last friday (the 11th of December) we doned our best and headed over to the embassy to swear in as official volunteers. Following various speeches, including an excelent speech and interactive game by our own Carlos, and munching down on delicious fried chicken and the infamous swearing-in chocolate mocha cake, swearing in weekend began. We all stayed in a great hotel downtown, and days were full of eating all our favorite non-paraguayan foods we could find, and lounging at the hotel pool celebrating the accomplishment of 11 weeks of language and technical training.

But after a long weekend, sites were calling. While the city was pleasant, I must admit I was anxious to head back to begin at my site. Myself and my neighbors headed out from the hotel at 7 am and were on our bus at 8, we arrived in Caazapa at 2:30, where we proceeded to wait 4.5 hours (getting to site was not meant to be easy I guess) and I was finally dropped at my cruze at aroun 9pm. I was greated in the dark by my community contact, a random teenager on a horse, my host dad and his moto, and my host mom to walk beside me.

Getting back to site was great. I had a short first night of greetings, slept well, and awoke with neighbors already visiting to say hi. I dropped my extra stuff at my future house since I will be moving around every 15 days, and then headed off to beekeep with Karai Carlos down the road (he had shown up at my house at 8 am to make sure I could work with him that afternoon!). We worked bees for 4 hours in the blazing heat, but towards the end of our second traciego the bees started getting annoyed, and a very common event happened, I was stung.

What followed unfortunately was not normal. I became unusually hot, and worried, and I ignored it for thirty minutes and helped out, feeling very strange. When I finished and pulled off my gear, I found that my head and neck were itchy, my ears red and swollen, and I was very spacey. I somehow excused myself from a terere session and walked home. That's when I noticed I could not take deep breathes either, and as I rested, they became more shallow. I took meds, called the doc, and we monitered everything very well until the reaction ended.

Soooooo, the danger of the potential situation is evident. I was sent back to Asuncion (my sweet little family woke up at 3:30 am to hike me out to the ruta to catch the 4am bus, and have proceeded to call every day), where I have been since thursday (its now monday). They couldn't do anything until today, and then they drew blood. Results will not be back until Christmas Eve, so there will be no appointment until at least a week from today. Thus, they are letting me go back to site for Christmas.

I head back tomorrow morning, though uncertainty still looms. I love my site, I love the people, I want to stay. Unfortunately if I am severely allergic to something, I may have to be moved to a location closer to a hospital (when it rains at my site you cannot go anywhere for 2 days, and the nearest hospital is about 3 hours away on the sketchy dirt road anyways). I am trying to stay positive about either option. After all, I signed up for this knowing that I would have little control. I am only finding it hard as all my friend settle into their two year futures, and I continue to wander, not knowing for sure where my home will be for the next two years. For now I will just have faith, so far Paraguay has treated me well, there is no reason to think that this situation will turn out any other way.

December 10, 2009

Brief Comments

So time has shortened, and swearing in is only a day away. In the mean time, I did manage to hammer my finger yesterday, and it did not break! So now it is just huge. red, hurting, and covered in a very large bandage, which may or may not end up in my swearing in photos...

anyways, i have some brief instances on why sometimes paraguay is great. The first is that due to the massive number of toads (kururu in Guarani and very fun to say) and frogs here, all along the streets of Paraguay there is a massive game of Frogger going on. Needless to say, the real toads and frogs are not nearly as smooth as my own hand at the computer, and as I step on, over or by around 20 dried toads smooshed flat on the ruta every time I walk home, I must say, Paraguay's motor invasion is totally kicking the local frogs rear behinds.

Another thing that always puts a smile on my face are the random English t-shirts that make it down here. The best two are as follows: first, on a girl my age in hooded, tank-top form "sun you buns... IN HELL" with flames and flowers adorning. Second, on a middle-aged very american looking older women who clearly had no idea what she was wearing around at her young child's school bash "FRESHMAN: the hookups of tomorrow."

OK, now its back to training for the last day. Swearing in this weekend with photos of my site and other updates to come.