Paraguay vs. Colombia Game

October 15th, 2009

I decided the day of at about 1:00 PM (bus set to leave at 2:00 PM) to go to the Paraguay vs. Colombia game in Asunción. A lack of plata (money) and a looming presentation were complicating my decision to go, but in the end the thought of seeing Paraguay play in a World Cup qualifier in Asunción with a bunch of friends won out over work and money. What put me over the top was talking to Chris who said I should come and that I could crash at his place, which is really close to Asunción.

Yet another great decision. I had a great time.

I came home from the cooperative, hurriedly packed my bag and headed off to meet up with Analia to catch the bus to Asunción.

When we arrived, we had to drop Analia’s bag by Rosa’s house. On the way there, it started pouring rain. It took us walking under my raincoat for about 5 minutes before I realized I had my umbrella in the side pocket of my backpack. We dropped the bag off at Rosa’s, and then the three of us headed to the Palace, where I was going to leave my bag during the game.



Shortly after dropping my bag off and me changing into my Paraguayan jersey, we headed to a sports bar not 2 blocks from the Palace. When I walked up, the bar was filled with Volunteers in Paraguayan jerseys and everyone had big towers of beer at their tables. We hung out there for just a bit and then headed out for the game.

I bought 60-mil ticket off a guy on the street for 50 mil, and with that the fun began. As we were approaching the stadium, I had to take off my belt and conceal it underneath the band of my boxers since belts are not allowed in the stadium. What does that tell you?

I was worried they were going to find it and confiscate my only belt but we walked through without even being checked. No pat downs, no metal detector, nothing. We just cruised right through.

Upon entering the stadium, I was amazed by the atmosphere....a bouncing sea of red and white, flags flying, plastic bats being shaken in the air, huge Coca-Cola banners covering entire sections, and chants being belted in one, unified Paraguayan voice to the tune of loud drums. I can’t imagine what World Cup is going to be like!



Paraguay and Colombia went head to head for the last qualifying match for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.



Even though the Colombians handed it to us, we still had a great time jumping around and chanting, “Albi albi albi roja albi roja.” Not only did we lose but Argentina won, which meant they had qualified for an appearance in the World Cup. As the rivalry is so heated, everyone wanted to see the big, bad Argentina sit this one out. Either way, it was great to see a game in person. It will be a while before another game is played in that stadium so I’m glad I seized the opportunity. At the end of the day Paraguay is headed to South Africa and so am I!!!



After the game, we went back to Chopería to hang out. There was a live band, which provided for a really cool atmosphere. A Volunteer who has been here for 2 years, Analia, Rosa, Claire, and I all went down the street for some Lomito Arabe (beef gyro). It was great late-night food.

Later when we returned to the bar, I had some interesting conversations with a few Volunteers. One volunteer did her undergrad at Cornell and her MPA at Columbia. She then worked in a variety of organizations in microfinance and nonprofit before coming to the Peace Corps. She was really knowledgeable and interesting to talk to. She imparted some wisdom that will cause me to make some tough decisions. The good news is she says Peace Corps is great on a resume and will open a lot of doors, especially in the non-profit world. She said she used to love to hire Peace Corps Volunteers. She said if I were interested in pursing a MPA (Masters of Public Administration), Peace Corps would be enough from a work experience perspective to get me in. As I am looking to do a MBA with possibly a dual MPA degree, I’ll ultimately have to get a few more years of experience before matriculating. Nevertheless she dropped some good ideas on me and gave me a few fresh perspectives that I needed to hear but which has me in deep introspection about how to spend my time while here and what to do when I leave Peace Corps.

Around 2:00 AM, Chris, his Paraguayan friend, and myself headed out to find a bus back to his place. We walked to several corners where we waited briefly for a bus before heading to the next place there was “sure to be a bus.” After several attempts like this, we passed a bar and the bar-owner told us that a bus would pass by there at 3:00 AM. Since we had a while to wait, we went inside and played a few games of pool. Remember Hora Paraguaya? 3:00 AM...No Bus. 3:15 AM...No Bus. 3:30 AM...No Bus. 3:45 AM...No Bus. Around 4:00 AM I was ready to go and had in good faith that the bus was not coming, so I hailed a taxi and spent 60 mil getting us to Chris’ place. The whole reason I stayed with him was to avoid spending 66 mil on a hotel room for the night...HAHA.

It turned out well because the next day I had a great time hanging out with Chris.

He took me by his counterpart, which is a big community center where they train and develop youth and give technical skills courses to the community. Chris told me all about a leadership camp he is developing and how he got it funded. I’m going to go to the leadership camp, not only because it will be fun and I’ll likely facilitate a few sessions, but also because it will be a great learning opportunity in case I decide to do a leadership camp in San Juan.

We went for lunch at a humongous grocery store, and had interesting conversation about Che Guevara’s life and his part in the communist revolution in Cuba. Chris had read up a lot on Che, so he was well versed and he has a knack for story telling. It’s pretty incredible how the whole thing went down. If you’re interested in that kind of stuff, I would recommend checking out some books about Che and Fidel Castro. It’s actually a really interesting story.

After lunch we played a few games of pool at an indoor/outdoor style bar near Chris’ places and then went back to his place. We had a lot of great conversation about Peace Corps, development projects, our personal lives, etc...

Soon after, I bussed it back to the Peace Corps office where I dropped off my payment for the Thanksgiving bash, and then went to the terminal where I caught the long bus back home.

All in all, it was a great trip. I made a few new friends, saw Paraguay play, had a lot of fun, and had some really interesting and educational conversations.

Let’s Get together and feel alright at Reggae Fest!

September 26th, 2009

The Wailers, Bob Marley’s band, came to Paraguay and put on a great show!

When I got a text saying there was going to be a Reggae Fest in Asunción and was asked if I wanted to come, I was like, “Yeah, why not? That sounds awesome!”

Add that to my list of great decisions. I’m sure this outdoor concert will go down as one of the coolest experiences I have as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. First came the bus 3-hour bus ride on Friday afternoon to Asunción, which was really fun because....well I could be doing worse things than traveling through the Paraguayan countryside with two cool friends, while listening to my IPod. I just remember being so content in that moment. I remember thinking, “I have no worries, I’m a Peace Corps Volunteer, and I’m in the middle of Paraguay on a bus listening to Motion City Soundtrack headed for a weekend of fun and a Reggae concert.”



When we arrived in Asunción, we went to at this place called Quattro D. We treated ourselves to amazing chicken lasagna and some ice cream, and then Claire headed for the Peace Corps office, and Yaz tagged along with me to the mall. I wanted to buy bedding and possibly curtains, but ended up not buying them because they were really expensive and I couldn’t figure out how to pay in cash because the ATM has a small limit and was going to charge me 25,000 Gs for every transaction. If I paid in cash I was going to receive a 10% discount for being foreign. I was also trying to figure out how to meet the requirements in order to sign up for the store card, which would give me an additional 20% off. It added up to an $88 savings, which is a crap load for me at this point.

Regardless, we had a lot of fun just browsing around the mall gazing at the things we couldn’t afford.



That night I went out for dinner and drinks with several Volunteers who were in town for the concert. We went to the Brit Pub. For the first part of the night I was having a good time, but then I become tired, and that was all she wrote.

The night of the concert started outside the Alps Attic, a popular hotel for Peace Corps Volunteers in Asunción.



A fun and interesting American girl who decided to move here to write a guidebook to Paraguay picked us all up in her van. We packed in tight and headed out for the concert. Picture a minivan with about 13 people packed in. People are on each other’s laps and Will and I are crammed in the hatch. But we didn’t care. Igual no más.

I couldn’t help but think of foreshadowing as the song by The Black Eyed Peas that goes, “I’ve got a feelin’ that tonight’s gonna be a good night, that tonight’s gonna be a good night that tonight’s gonna be a good good night. I got a feelin’,” played over the radio in a van full of really cool, interesting Peace Corps Volunteers headed to a Reggae concert in Paraguay!

Many of the people in the car hate that song for it’s idiotic lyrics, but I secretly liked it, and thought it was a great kickoff for the night and foreshadowing of what was to come.

Shortly after arriving, we all scarfed down some hamburgers at a little stand outside the concert, and then jumped into the sea of people heading towards the entrance.



“Leche, Leche, Leche,” which means “milk, milk, milk,” screamed the hustlers selling beer outside the concert. Gypsies were sitting on the ground selling their hand crafted necklaces, wallets, bracelets, and other accessories. Nappy braids, Bob Marley tee shirts, psychedelic colors, and hippie chicks were everywhere. We don’t see a lot of diversity here, so it was a familiar and welcomed site.

Immediately upon entering the concert, I knew this was going to be a chill night. We stood in a circle towards the back of the crowd and talked, danced, and drank. Then we moved in closer.



As the night progressed sometimes we danced and other times we just sat in a big circle and had really interesting conversation. There was an atmosphere of friendliness and brotherhood in the air already, and the Wailers hadn’t even taken the stage yet.



People were freely sharing and interacting across their respective clicks.

Once the Wailers hit the stage, the night turned from chill to magical.

There is no way I can capture the feeling of goofily dancing around with friends to the sound of,

Singin': "don't worry 'bout a thing,
'Cause every little thing gonna be all right."
Singin': "don't worry (don't worry) 'bout a thing,
'Cause every little thing gonna be all right!"

Or to

We're jammin':
I wanna jam it wid you.
We're jammin', jammin',
And I hope you like jammin', too.



Cell phones were hoisted and waving in the air (reminiscent of Woodstock) and a Jamaican and Paraguayan flag swaying, crossing in the wind, forming a symbol of international peace as the Wailers sang:

Emancipate yourself from the mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
cuz none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill our profits?
While we stand aside and look? Ooh!
Some say it’s just a part of it:
We’ve got to fulfill de Book.

Won’t you help to sing?
These songs of freedom? -
Cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs.

WATCH THIS VIDEO



I thought the following were especially relevant lyrics for Paraguay:

Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights
Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights
Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights
Get up, stand up, don't give up the fight “



And of course, the highlight of the night:

“One love, one heart,
Let’s get together and feel alright.
Hear the children cryin’, (one love)
Hear the children cryin’ (one heart)
Sayin,’ “give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel alright,”
Sayin,’ “let’s get together and feel alright.”

And that’s exactly what we did. We all got together and we felt all right.



Highlights from the following day include an amazing breakfast at the hotel and relaxing by the pool. Again...Livin' the Dream!

Swearing In Weekend

August 17th, 2009

So everyone left the Peace Corps office at different times and in different groups. I left with my homies Mike (also known as Miguel) and Carlos, who I consider my best friends within the group, and Jenna. We took a bus and after Carlos told a complete stranger on the bus exactly where we were staying and who we were, we were pointed in the right direction and arrived at the hotel. The hotel was neither overly fancy nor really crappy.

This is the view from my balcony. As Mike said, "that's the essence of a South American city." (or something like that)



I’ll give you a fairly detailed look at the weekend in order to show you how Peace Corps volunteers get down. This was a special weekend I think because there was a swearing in, a swearing out, and an Ahendu concert. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera out the first night so I don’t have any pics from that to share, but I did manage to snap a few the next day.

Friday Night: Dinner at a Mexican restaurant, Art Bar, Discoteca (Club)

We (Carlos, Mike, Mary, Liz, Carrie, and I) started off the night by going way across town to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. We had heard from a fellow volunteer of Mexican nationality that it was really good. We have all been craving Mexican for some time so we decided to check it out. I was really impressed. Living in the periphery of small cities and visiting a lot of campo places in Paraguay really lowers your expectations, so I was thinking of a crappy, little Mexican joint with ok food.

This place was on par with nice restaurants in the states...think a nicer version of On the Border. The waiters were decked out and actually provided some dang good service. The food had the appearance of being delicious and the menu was certainly fancy and full of good options. When it came out, it was good, but I wasn’t exactly floored with it. Nevertheless we ate a good meal, and had a good time joking around at dinner.

Next we went to a bar nicknamed “Art Bar” by volunteers. The place really, really impressed me. It’s like volunteers have gone to and fro in the city, and found all the hidden gems because all weekend we went to really cool, unique places.

You walk upstairs and suddenly you’re in an art exhibit. It looks like a large, rustic city apartment and art is half-hazardly placed in rooms throughout the place, which adds to its modern, artsy vibe. I took a little while to explore some of the rooms, and did some deep introspection on some of the pieces and think I came up with some good insights into the artists’ intentions. For example, one piece was three photos of a working class man and his wife. At first glance it looks like 3 photos, which are exactly the same, but when you really study it, you start to notice slight variances, which distinguish the three different men from each other, and even slight differences in the scene itself. I think the artists was making a statement about the importance of truly paying attention to people as individuals instead of making assumptions about them based on shallow first impressions or groups they may be part of.

In the next room over from the last exhibit room is a bar, which leads to a sitting area. I talked to some people, ordered a drink and then headed up to the roof, where I heard people were beginning to gather. I always love rooftops in cities so my curiosity wouldn’t let me stay below any longer.

It was gorgeous up there and very breezy, which made for a really chill environment to hang out in. I stayed there talking to different people for a while. I had a really interesting conversation with Angelic about life choices, career paths, and how realistic it is to have a really high level career and still maintain a good relationship with your family (spouse and kids), and how to achieve work-life balance.

I had another conversation with Dina about meat in Paraguay and how if one knew how to prepare and cook the meat right, you could still make some delicious steaks here. It’s just the fact that they don’t marinate it, poorly choose cuts of meats, and overcook it.
I also met the former APCD for the RED sector who was with his gorgeous, young girlfriend. He’s Paraguayan, and now is a high up at Itaipú, which is the world’s largest hydroelectric plant. I’ll take this opportunity to talk a bit about Itaipú.

It was a joint effort between Paraguay and Brazil, but Brazil seems to be reaping most of the rewards. The revenues from Itaipú are a huge deal here in Paraguay. Issues surrounding it are among the most important political issues in the Presidential race, and the money it generates is a huge factor in the economic development of Paraguay. There are scholarships, financing for infrastructure projects, and money flows from Itaipú to poor communities around Paraguay through a chain on governments (National, Regional, State, City, and Towns). In the eyes of a development worker this would be the ideal situation since the money is coming from a nationally owned resource and is sustainable for the foreseeable future. However, Paraguay was ranked the 2nd most corrupt country in the world not too long ago, so that throws a curb ball at the system. I mentioned that the money flows through a chain of governments, so what do think happens in reality in the 2nd most corrupt country in the world? That’s right, most of the money ends up filling the pockets of corrupt politicians. In addition to that, Brazil somehow benefits from cheap energy, sells the energy to Paraguay at high prices, and gets a larger portion of the profits. Paraguay wants to renegotiate, and was successful in getting some concessions, but there is a contract in place until 2023. At that point, if Paraguay is smart, they will get a favorable renegotiation. It is a similar situation as the Panama Canal, but more complicated.

So back to the story...I met this guy, and he started showing me pictures of him and the President hanging out. I thought that was pretty cool. After kicking it with him a bit, I noticed that most of my friends were gone. I called Carlos, who told me the name of the place they were at. I passed the Itaipú guy on the way out, and asked him if he knew where it was. He was like, “Yeah, I know where it’s at. Come on I’ll give you a ride.” So I hopped in the car with him, and was dropped off at the front door.

The club was pretty nice, and filled almost exclusively with Peace Corps Volunteers. We ended up leaving around 4:30 in the morning. I had a great time dancing and getting to know some of the other volunteers. There’s no better way to form new relationships than to party with people.
So around 4:30 we begin making our way home. We get close to the hotel, and Carlos wants some Asado...typical Carlos. He loves asado, especially late night. So we walked over, ordered some asado, and chowed down before calling it a night.

Saturday: Dinner and Ahendu Concert

Saturday I ended up sleeping late, and hanging out in the hotel for a bit. I took a nap and a shower, and everyone was gone. So I went downstairs to see if anyone was down there. I saw Elmer and Sasha, who were going to eat in Mercado 4, which is pretty far away. They invited me, so I headed out with them. I didn’t get two blocks away before calling Mary, who told me of their plans to eat at Lido Bar for lunch, which is closer and I’ve heard really good, so I went with that. I met up with Mary, Liz, and Carrie, and we just walked around for a while, and then went looking for lunch options because Lido Bar was going to be a long wait.



We ended up asking the concierge in Hotel Guarani, the nicest and most expensive (at $100 per night) hotel in Asunción. They pointed us towards a mall that had a little place to eat in it, but it was all like empanadas and other normal, bland Paraguayan food, which we were not into at the moment, so we continued our quest for lunch.

On the way I saw some really cool city art.





We ended up going way across town to another mall, which had a big food court. Liz had a gyro, Mary and Carrie were craving vegetarian food, and I went with Burger King. Haha. Can you believe it? I never eat Burger King! I just didn’t want to wait on a pizza, and there weren’t many other options I was really interested in.



After lunch we strolled back to the hotel. On the way we stopped in stores looking for presents for the kids in some of the girls families. We found this one awesome store that had foosball tables, water guns, puzzles, etc... It was like a really really small Toys R Us. I felt like a Toys R Us kid again. I had flash backs to water gun fights and foosball at Cross Training, and suggested the water guns for the 2 little brothers since they are really fun and Paraguay is really hot in the summer. She almost bought them but decided not to for fear they would break them on the first day, not too mention how expensive they were. We ended up finding this other little boutique that had these cute little ugly stuffed monster looking things, which Carrie absolutely fell in love with. It was perfect...unique, cute, and was similar to something she loved as a child. Carrie bought that and Mary bought two girly duck pencils for her two little bros.

On the way back, we just walked around making comments on things we saw in windows, and Liz fell in love with this chicken decoration thing. It was hilarious.



When we got back we chilled in Mary’s room for a while before getting ready for night #2.

That night we had dinner at another really good restaurant. I went splitzies with Liz, which turned out to be a great option. It made for a good chicken-pasta combo, which I thought was much better than the previous night’s dinner.



After dinner we went to the Ahendu concert. The idea of Ahendu is to share culture through music, but really it was just a bunch of volunteers at the bar listening to various volunteers who could play the guitar and/or sing. The location was really cool. It was one of those inside/outside kind of bars, which always makes for a nice atmosphere when the weather is nice. I swear Peace Corps volunteers seriously have found every cool place in Asunción.



We didn’t stay long. For some reason we just weren’t feeling it. I did meet a JAICA, Japan’s richer version of the Peace Corps, who was really cool to talk to. He lives in the Chaco, and said in the summer it easily gets to 50 degrees Celcius, which is 122 degrees Fahrenheit!!! Though I won’t live in the Chaco, and won’t experience such extreme heat, I probably still am in for a very hot summer.

After the concert, we strolled home, and on the way saw a pizza joint. Carlos, Carrie, Mary and I were feeling some late night pizza, and Liz and Mike were feeling an early night. So they went back to the hotel to hit the sack, and we ordered a quite delicious pizza and some drinks. We chilled there for a while, and then headed back to the hotel, where we all passed out for the night.



Sunday: Back to Paso de Oro

The next morning we all woke up early because everyone in our little group except Carlos was headed back to Paso de Oro. I was headed back for good until I left for my site on Tuesday, and the others were only having lunch with their families and then headed back to Asunción. I’ve really grown close to my family and wanted to get some more time in with them for I left.

Luckily we ended up meeting a volunteer who had just sworn out and was ending her 2 year adventure. She was headed where we were because she was going back to her training host family for a final visit. She was able to get us back to San Lorenzo, where we went to the grocery store to get a few things for the lunches my fellow volunteers were having with their families. Mary ordered some meat from the meat department, and ended up getting like 30 lbs of meat for around $15, and that was really expensive to us, so you can imagine what our pay is like. It was comical the amount of meat she bought for her small family lunch. Mike and I ended up buying some of the meat off her so she wouldn’t look foolish in front of her family. I figured we could use it at my going away party on Monday night.

We headed back to the community and the goodbyes began. I said goodbye to Mary, to Liz, and to Mike.

I went to my house, received a warm welcome from Fabiola, and hung out with the fam for a bit before going to the cancha one more time. We went out to the cancha, and I made it a point to hang out with all the members of my family while there. It was pretty tranquilo all in all. That night, as usual, my Mom and Sister cooked empanadas and the men sat outside in groups drinking cervesa and caña. I hung out with them for a while, played with the kids some, and then called it a night.

Overall Swearing In weekend was really fun, and a good preview of what is to come in the future with respect to volunteers meeting up in Asunción.

Swearing In + Peace Corps Office Pics

August 17th, 2009

It’s Official; I’m finally a volunteer!

Wow it’s been a long journey to officially become a volunteer. I’ve been an aspirant, an applicant, a nominee, an invitee, a trainee, and now finally, a volunteer.

It all started back in October of 2007 when I was in my 1st semester of senior year. I began preparing my application, so that I could leave shortly after graduation, but couldn’t submit it due to unforeseen circumstances that took until March of 2008 to resolve. By that time I was so busy in classes, preparing my senior thesis, and making final preparations to graduate that I didn’t have time to complete my application. Immediately after graduating in May of 2008, a group of my friends and I headed off for a celebratory Eurotrip. I got back in June, and finally officially submitted my application on June 22, 2008.

I was nominated for service on July 8th, 2008, didn’t receive all my clearances until January 15th, 2009, and finally received my invitation to serve on January 17th, 2009, which I accepted on January 28th, 2009. I did more waiting and more paperwork between then and my staging date of May 26th, 2009.

On May 27th, 2009, I flew out of Miami and arrived in Paraguay around 10:00 AM the next day, May 28th, 2009.

At that point I began 3 months of language, cultural, health, safety, and technical training.
On August 14th, 2009 at around 10:45 AM, I said the same words the President of the United States says at Inauguration and swore in as a Peace Corps Volunteer!

The longest beginning of my life...

Swearing In Ceremony and Festivities:

We arrived at the embassy, and basically just stood around talking and taking photos. Sometimes you take photos and try to make the environment seem a lot better than it really is...but I want to give you the real deal perspective for once.











The ceremony began shortly after the Ambassador arrived. Our APCD (Assistant Peace Corps Director), Elisa Echague kicked it off with a short speech. She was followed by Country Director, Donald Clark, the Ambassador (I could look it up on Google and pretend I know her name but the reality is I don’t), and Ronnell Perry.









The moment they asked us to nominate people to make the speech, I immediately nominated Ronnell because I knew he was the man for the job. He delivered in a major way. His speech put the Director’s and the Ambassador’s respective speeches to shame. He used the physical and nonphysical things trainees pack in anticipation of their Peace Corps adventure to provide comic relief and draw insights about what has and will serve us well as volunteers. In the end, it’s the things we intrinsically bring with us that are most valuable in our service.

After his speech, the Ambassador administered the oath, and with that we were official!



Then we went to a beautiful gazebo structure out back for a celebratory reception. I had heard about how delicious the cake is, and how I should eat as many pieces as humanly possible, because it would be a very long time before I had anything that good again. It did turn out to be really good and I had several pieces.





We stood around talking. The things that stand out in my mind are the following:

• Mike placing two small, round empanadas up against his nipples not three feet from the Ambassador and in view of our bosses, the Country Director and the APCD. Haha. It was hilarious. I told him the Ambassador saw him do it, and he had no way of knowing because I was facing her and he wasn’t. He turned blood red, and couldn’t stop nervously laughing. It was hilarious.

• Mary having a long conversation with the Ambassador, and then telling me that she hates bureaucratic officials, and told me how the Ambassador was an idiot and didn’t even know that the department she would be living in existed in Paraguay or where it was. The ambassador just threw around buzzwords of the moment. Mary has a Masters in International Development, Public Policy, International Relations, or something like that from Columbia, and some really good experience. She’s really smart, super sarcastic, and critical. It was really funny. It is bad that the US AMBASSADOR doesn’t even have a basic understanding of the departments and fairly big cities in Paraguay...
  
  

• Mike, in dressed in his traditional A poi shirt, which reveals his very hair chest, getting interviewed by a Paraguayan news channel. He immediately agreed to it because the reporter was hot.
  
  
  

• Me talking to the Ambassador about her rise to the Ambassador position, the role of public-private partnerships in development and telling her to invite me to her next pool party, and her subsequently offering me an open invitation to come hang out whenever I would like. She even said she might come to San Juan for the famous Dia de San Juan.

• Me talking to Country Director Donald Clark about my senior thesis, which concerned creating a consulting service for Peace Corps volunteers in the field, and him telling me to write a proposal for it, because they were looking for new ways to partner with institutions in the States

We snapped a few group pics and that was that...short and sweet.



Oh, interesting side note! Our swearing in was on President Lugo’s agenda, and he was really excited to come. We made preparations by learning the Paraguayan National Anthem and Ronnell translated his speech to Spanish, which must have been difficult because they were some lofty ideas, abstract thoughts, and English slang weaved throughout it. In the end, someone erased it off his agenda in favor of something else, and when he found this out, after it was too late to change, we are told he was upset (whether or not that is true or just political BS we’ll never know).

Peace Corps Office

Next on the agenda was a trip to the Peace Corps office to handle some administrative tasks such as getting our debit cards, money, cell phones, submitting forms to solicit bicycles, getting mail and packages, visiting the doctor to get medicines to take to site with us, signing a few forms, etc...

I'm going to give you a tour of part of the Peace Corps office complex for your enjoyment and for future Peace Corps trainees curiosity (I know how it is to scour through Peace Corps blogs looking for insight into what my future life would be like...look out for a future blog post on training and recommendations to future trainees).

The whole complex is surrounded by a big brick wall. 1st you have to go through a little security building at the entrance from the street, but once you're on the other side of that this is what you see...the main office.



This is the view from the inside of that building.



I love seeing the Peace Corps logo and President Obama's picture front and center in the office. I know a lot of people reading this blog may be of different political persuasion but personally I'm very proud to call Barack Obama my President, and am proud to be serving under his term. I think he is sincerely passionate about changing the direction America is headed in and the way politics work in Washington. He has good ideas for how to invest in America's future, and is a dynamic and intelligent leader and speaker who represents America well in international affairs. It puts a smile on my face, renews my motivation to be effective in making a positive impact during my service, and overwhelms me with a sense of pride and patriotism every time I walk into the office and see his photo next to the Peace Corps logo. That's all I'll say about that so lets continue with the tour.



Next up is the office of the assistant to the APCD of the RED sector.



This is the office of the Peace Corps coordinator. If you are a particularly motivated volunteer interested in extending your service as a coordinator in Paraguay, this could be your future office. Fancy right?



Once you get on the other side of that building, this is what you see. Directly ahead and to the left a little is the entrance to the library.



The official Peace Corps collection of books are located on the second floor of the building (It's not impressive). What you see is a Volunteer initiated and maintained book sharing project. You are free to take from, return to, and add to the library as you wish. There are some interesting books there, and it's my goal to read some along with my professional reading and GMAT study. I've already read Ismael and have started Collapse by Jared Diamond (an analysis for the reasons of collapses of societies throughout history) and Open Veins of Latin America (the book Castro gave to Obama).



These are the computers available for volunteers to use free of charge and anytime during office hours. There aren't usually a lot of volunteers at the office at any given time, so the lack of a large number of computers isn't a big problem.



This is the view as you leave the library and look back towards the main office. Those chairs and tables serve as a hang out spot for volunteers, and just on the other side there is a big grill that we can use as well. There is also an entertainment room in the building to the right, which has really comfy couches and a television (no dvd yet, only vhs but maybe sometime soon). There are also bathrooms, and a couch, which can be used as a very short term place to sleep and relax in between trips in and out of Asunción.



I threw this pic in to show the Peace Corps cars used by staff. For Paraguay, these SUVs are super lindo, and a treat to ride in because of the AC, comfortable seats, and smooth ride. Don't expect to ride in them much though because most of the time we pack in one of two crappy vans for our transportation to and from places as groups.



My next post will describe the weekend after Swearing In.

Zoo and Cancha

July 27th, 2009

Yesterday almost my entire family went to the Zoo in Asunción. My brother, Hector, drove everyone in his truck. He used a tarp to make a tent-like structure in the back of the truck, which everyone sat under. I had to sit in the front with my brother and his wife since it is prohibited for me to ride on main roads in the backs of trucks.



On the way to the zoo, we passed some interesting sites. One of those sites was the former house of Alfredo Stroessner, who was dictator in Paraguay from 1954 until 1989.




The other site was the location where 400 people were burned alive inside a supermarket because the owners ordered the doors locked so that the customers would not leave without paying. There was a massive public outcry, but in the end no one was held responsible for any substantial amount of time. I’ll talk about it later, but that’s a good example of how justice is hard to come by in Paraguay.



When we arrived at the zoo, everyone crowded around a pile of meat and bread and made cold meat sandwiches for brunch. I think this was to avoid paying the high zoo prices, and fill the kids up so they wouldn’t beg for snacks in the zoo.

We walked around the zoo for a while looking at different animals. Though I like going to the zoo, and think it is very educational, there is a part of me that finds it sad that animals are caged up for our amusement. They lead miserable lives. Tigers weren’t made to be caged up...they were made to roam free, to hunt, to conquer and to mate. I imagine those animals sense something is wrong about their environment Imagine having instincts and not being able to act on them! How frustrating and depressing it must be to lead the life of a zoo animal.




Some of the animals we saw were tigers, various tropical birds such as toucans and parakeets, a hippopotamus, a puma, monkeys, a baby anaconda, an elephant, ostrich, guinea pigs, turkeys, turtles, and bunnies.

The chimpanzees intrigued me the most. I spent a bit of time just observing. I was standing on one side of the cage, facing one of the chimps that was sitting on top of a tire. When I walked over to the other side of the cage, he jumped down, rolled his tire over to the other side of the cage, positioned it perfectly, then climbed on top and continued his observation of me. Sometimes you wonder if maybe they think we’re the strange attraction, instead of the other way around. I talked with my niece about how intelligent and human-like chimps are. They experience emotion, wage wars, make tools, methodically teach their young how to use tools to access food, communicate, have opposable thumbs, and sometimes walk upright. It’s not a big stretch to see how Homo Sapiens evolved from a common descendent as the chimpanzee.



After the zoo, we went to the cancha to watch Paso de Oro play. The previous week the goalkeeper was ejected from the game, and thus suspended for two games. Paulo, my nephew, stepped in to fill the position, so we arrived especially early so that he could dress and then prepare with the team. Poor Paulo...the opposing team scored goal after goal against him. He hadn’t practice in a while and was noticeably nervous. The cancha is always fun regardless, and if the adult team wins, we celebrate in the back of the truck on the way home, and at my house once we get there. When the weather is good, my Mom racks up because people buy a lot of alcohol, other drinks, hamburgers, and empanadas.

Check out these pictures from the Cancha and make sure to watch the video at the bottom.



This is how to celebrate a win at the cancha:

WATCH THIS VIDEO