I made it! One year delayed and ten years in the making, I returned to Paraguay where I served as a Peace Corps volunteer from 2012-2014. With the exception of the extreme heat and the worst gastrointestinal, er, situation that I have ever had (TMI? there is no TMI with Peace Corps volunteers, sorry!), it was absolutely magical! And to top it off, my dear friend, Wendy, also a PCRV Paraguay, returned to visit her community as well, and we got to hang out!
First stop: Nueva Italia
During training in 2012, I lived with a family in Nueva Italia for three months. The entire family went above and beyond to make me feel special and part of the family; I really bonded with them. I got a ride from Wendy’s host family to their house and we had a lovely lunch together. When I lived there, I think there were about ten of us to one bathroom; well, that ratio is even greater now! Pro tip: always bring your own TP to the bathroom! 😉 My host family continued to make fun of me for my enthusiasm for “ensalada” and totally had salad for me at lunch! I was always so excited to be served any vegetable; they will never forget. LOL!
One of my host sisters from Nueva Italia, Griselda, lives only two blocks from the hotel Wendy and I were staying at in the center of Asuncion. What a joy it was to meet her six year-old daughter, Juli, who greeted me with hand-drawn pictures of me (who knew I was blonde?!). LOL. We did fun city things together, like explore the Costa Nera at night and ate dinner at a new restaurant with the best view of the Palacio de los Lopéz.
Apyragua: My Home from 2012-2014
And then I went to the bus station and got on the SAME bus with one of the SAME bus drivers that I had for years! I told both the driver and his helper that I needed to get off at the “cruce” because it is easy for them to drive past it and I told them I couldn’t remember exactly where it was. The rain poured down and the bus leaked on my head as we made the four hour drive to the intersection where the paved road meets the red dirt road. I couldn’t get ahold of Andrea that morning; it had rained hard and I had a hunch that her cell service had gone out; she hadn’t read my messages that said when I was going to arrive. But she is smart and guessed when I would arrive, and luckily Marco was waiting for me at the base of the hill. I asked him how long he had been waiting; he said not long, half an hour. I think he had been there for a bit longer than that… We made the 6 km journey up the hill and to their house where Andrea met me with a handmade welcome sign.
This video summarizes my experience with authentic live music from Apyragua here. Please watch! Pictures are worth a thousand words and the video captivates the hospitality, the beauty of my site, the character of the people I call my friends, the day in the lives of Paraguayans, and the magical experience I had with them while I was there. It’s magical 🙂
Life as a volunteer is one experience; returning as a visitor is the next level! It is one of the most meaningful things I have done in my life… maybe ever. Aside from my dear friends Andrea and Marco, and a few of my host families, no one knew I was coming. I loved being a surprise!
Being in the campo (countryside) is sensory overload in a really good way. You hear the sounds of the Guaraní language, the birds chirping, the chickens at all hours of the day, the farm animals wandering, barking dogs also at all hours of the day, motos driving up and down the road. There is the smell of smoke from the wood-fired ovens, the scented laundry detergent, the sweetish-plastic burning trash piles, and the fresh air… when the trash isn’t burning. Everything around you is full of color, the red dirt roads contrasting with the lush green vegetation against the baby blue sky…
And then there is the feeling of sweat dripping down your entire body from the heat. Thank goodness for the delicious ice-cold yerba (terrere) that quenches all thirst in the heat; there is nothing that tastes like it here in the states.
One of the biggest surprises for me was that I remembered how to speak Guaraní after ten years. Every consecutive day that I spent in my community, more and more Guaraní flowed out of my mouth. I couldn’t believe it! I kept telling my friends that I had no idea where these words were coming from, and that they had been stored away in my brain for ten years.
And, just like I had done as a volunteer, I still took notes when I learned new words (this time on my smartphone and not in a little paper notebook), and they still tried to teach me more Guaraní when I didn’t understand what they were saying. The desire in me to learn and connect never stops. I will admit that by day four, my brain was SO tired from speaking in Guaraní and Spanish, that English words started slipping out of my mouth at random. I had forgotten how exhausting it was to be constantly listening, speaking, and looking for non-verbal cues in a foreign language.
Andrea, Marco, Denis, and the OlmedoHape
I had met Andrea and Marco through our fogón project (brick wood-fired ovens). We built the first fogón in their kitchen as a training workshop to teach others, and then we became bffs every since. As a volunteer, I ended up spending a lot of time with them and their relatives in their neighborhood. The Olmedos are very talented musicians; we would stay up late into the night listening to them play beautiful traditional Paraguayan music. I often ate Sunday lunch at Andrea and Marco’s house. We would sit with Denís, Andrea and Marco’s son, who was barely three at the time, and laugh, bake bread, and knit!
I knew Andrea didn’t have a spare bedroom for me, but I asked if I could stay with them anyway. I wanted to spend as much time as possible with them, and all the homes are spread out around Apyragua that it was just easier that way. So I stayed for three nights and we all slept in one 12’x12′ room together; that’s how we do things in Paraguay. I didn’t think twice about it nor did I feel weird or uncomfortable sleeping in one small room with Andrea and Marco (thank you Denís for his bed as he slept at his abuela’s next door).
What I love about Andrea is that she is always looking for opportunities to work, earn money for herself, and continue to learn new things as well. We connected over knitting when I was a volunteer; we would go out into the forest and collect bamboo branches and whittle them into knitting needles and knit. During this visit, I brought her all kinds of needles and colorful yarn. Of course she has already made a beautiful scarf out of some of the yarn I brought her!
Andrea also wanted to learn how to make beaded earrings. I brought beads, thread, earring hardware, and dental floss. Why dental floss? Welllll, I couldn’t find the right thread at the store, but I had floss! It worked great. We sat alllllll day under a mango tree in the shade. It was 100 degrees out anyway; we tried not to sweat! She made beautiful earrings! I love sharing these kinds of skills/crafts with her. Andrea is determined to sell her products for a little income. This is what fills my soul; to help give someone the opportunity to add to their life.
I brought a few things from the grocery store to Andrea’s; I wasn’t going to show up empty handed. I brought coffee (let’s be honest, it was instant Nescafe, because that’s what we drink in Paraguay), yerba for terrere, and a box of red wine. Boxed wine is often mixed with soda and a chunk of ice mixed in a plastic pitcher to create a delectable cocktail; or is the soda used to cut the bad taste of the boxed wine? LOL! Unsure… But we sat outside under the stars at night and drank our wine/soda and Marco asked me, “Tiffany, do you see stars where you live?” And we jumped into a deep conversation about longitude and latitude, and I explained that yes, we see stars, but from a different angle because I live in a different hemisphere. And how do you even say hemisphere in Spanish (I doubt it exists in Guaraní!)? I don’t know, I just threw an “o” at the end of it and hoped for the best.
These are the moments I want to cherish forever. These are the conversations that are meaningful to me. This is how I want to spend my Friday evenings.
I kept saying over and over again that it felt like I had left yesterday; as if no time had passed at all and I still lived there. It was the weirdest feeling. All of the adults had not aged one bit; and all of the kids had all grown up! I felt like the same person, just ten years older and a few more grey hairs than before.
PHOTOS FROM WHEN I WAS A VOLUNTEER 2012-2014
PHOTOS 10 YEARS LATER…
Fruit Tree Grafting: It worked!
I had several projects while being a volunteer: brick wood-fired ovens, intercropping green manures (abonos verdes) with the local farmers, and fruit tree grafting. Ten years later, I couldn’t believe that all of these projects were sustainable. The women still cook with their fogóns, the farmers still plant green manures, and the fruit trees… blew me away!
Several years ago I made a video about our grafting project, which is a really cool process; check out the video here. And then check out the photos below of these trees! When my two-year service was done, I had to go and I didn’t know what would happen afterwards. And OMG. They are HUGE and bearing so much fruit. Oranges, mandarins! And the peach tree is so tall! We did it!
Impromptu Visit to the Peace Corps Office!
After our visit to our communities, Wendy and I stopped by the Peace Corps office in Asunción. We didn’t know if we would have time, but Wendy had a little snafu with her Yellow Fever document and well, that’s a story in itself. So we made time! Ha!
I am SO glad we went to the office. I was able to connect with our Environmental Conservation Program Directors/Staff Eli and Alistair (pictured here), as well as our doctors Luz and Luis, and Zulma in the medical office, and Gustavo, our saint of security! It was serendipitous to be able to share photos and stories about visiting my site! Such great conversations; yet another very meaningful visit.
Getting Philosophical
Congrats for making it to the “deep thoughts by Tiffany” part of my post. LOL. I left Paraguay feeling so grateful for this community and our connections. I have also been very emotional with many tears after leaving. I cry for the people that may pass away before I see them again, I cry for being far away from a community that I called home, I cry for the social economic divide that separates me from them, I cry for the ease that I have in my life while others have to work so much harder and suffer, I cry for the desire and guilt to do more, I cry for the longing for that simple life I once had with my garden, chickens, and no cell service, I cry for my dear friends down there that I have to wait to visit again, I cry for my privilege, I cry for the cost of living in America, and I cry for our society that focuses on consumerism, capitalism, waste, and owning stuff. That’s a lot of thoughts and emotions; I have needed to take a lot of time and space upon my return to be with my thoughts and understand my tears.
I hope reading this helps you think about what matters in life. I hope you think about what you take for granted. I hope you think about the potential we all have to be more than just a breathing mammal on this earth. I encourage you to connect and find your people. I challenge to you find a way that you can make a difference in another’s life. I urge you to consume less, find happiness in simplicity, to think outside this cookie-cutter-American life. I know I will.
Royhayhu Paraguay. Les quiero mucho. I love you all so much.
Tiffany 