I wanna be a cowboy baby

I arrived to my site, San Juan Bautista, around 9:00 PM on August 18th, 2009.

As of today, October 18, 2009, I have been here for exactly 2 months now. Although I made a few general posts during that time, I have been really slack on describing what’s been going on in my life since Swearing-In.

I’ve had a lot of fun in the last two months and can honestly say that being a Volunteer is a lot better than being a Trainee, although I do miss my host family and friends from training from time to time.

In this series of posts, I’m going to hit the highlights of the last two months and describe what my typical day is like now that I’m in site.

August 20th, 2009-

VAC Meeting at Ranch

VAC, which stands for Volunteer Advisory Council, is the mechanism for formal communication between Volunteers and the Peace Corps Paraguay executive management. All volunteers belong to a VAC group, which is organized regionally, and then representatives from each regional VAC get together once a month in Asunción for an NVAC, National Volunteer Advisory Council, meeting.

My VAC group did it up big and welcomed the new G30 VAC members (Arthur, Dina, and myself) in style by having a get-together at a nice ranch in San Miguel called San Francisco. It was sort of cold and early morning when we arrived, so we just sat around a fire and chatted it up a bit. Claire, John and his friend visiting from Ecuador, a married couple whose names are Matt and Angie, Arthur and Dina, Michael, Jesus, and myself were in attendance.



John’s friend from Ecuador was really cool. He moved to Ecuador about a year ago to teach English. He didn’t go as part of a program and he didn’t speak a lick of Spanish. He just packed up, flew to Ecuador, and looked for a job. If that isn’t cool enough, consider the fact that he bused from Ecuador to Bueños Aires and then on to Paraguay to meet up with John, crossing the Atacama Desert and racking up a whole host of interesting, adventurous experiences and stories in the process.

After a bit of chatting, we went outside, mounted some horses, and went on a very tranquil ride around the ranch, which is a beautiful, vast track of land.

I forgot how much I love riding horses. On the way back, I rode faster than I ever have before, including racing horseback on a beach in Greece. There is something freeing and adventurous about being mounted atop a horse in full gallop. I think there’s a good chance I’ll own a horse one day.



After riding horses, we satisfied the appetite we had built up by eating a delicious meal, and shortly after headed back to our respective sites.