The Stinky Girl Travels

Going on route always feels like a strange mixture of uncertainty and familiarity. We never know what to expect from our visit to the communities, and yet even just after meeting someone once or twice, returning to their home and seeing them again is much like embracing an old friend. There's a strong sense of connection and comfort to our host families, a much appreciated element of stability that helps us get through all the changes and rapid growth. Okay, generalities aside. People want to hear about the moments. I want to write about the little things that really punctuate this whole experience. For starters, I made a peace-core volunteer friend in Ñumi! It happened in the funniest, most unexpected way. Craving some cookies, I stopped by a little tienda on the side of the road while waiting for the bus. Before I could order anything, the man at the counter told me, "Ah, tu amiga está acá! Espera un momento." The next thing I know, he brings out a girl with curly bla...

Here's a running list of the words and phrases I've encountered so far in Paraguay! The Guaraní is spelled phonetically, in terms of Spanish pronunciation. Che - yo Nde - tu/vos Ha'e - el/ella Saludos Mba'e chapa :  Como estás Mba'e chapa nde coe : Como estás? (Mañana) Mba'e tekoiko : Like qué tal, used between friends Mba'e la porte: Same, casual greeting Nya-mongarú: Not sure exactly, it's like awesome! Cool! And you do it with a special hand gesture where you make a scooping gesture with your fingers all pinched together like you're making a talking hand, and you brush your fingers against someone else's. He: delicious, also means yes. Sometimes Paraguayans will say a drawn out "he" in agreement instead of using "si". It can be confusing at first if you don't know "he" means yes, because it almost sounds like they are surprised. Eterei: very, muy Hetereí: very delicious! Muy rico! Iporã eterei: v...

Cerro Cora Got a lift in the back of a motocaro, a hybrid camioneta-motorcycle, and rode sitting on the ledge along with a lady from the community and her two elderly tias. As we bumped around together, we talked about mandi'o chiriri and how she just came back from villarica to take care of some papeles. They dropped me off where the road parts into two, and I walked the rest of the way into Cerro Cora. It was the first time I had seen my host family dressed in shorts. Everyone was outside, trying to cool off on this warm day. "Hola Pinche!" "Hola Laura, dice!" Pinche is the nickname of my host family's one year old baby. I think it's a variation on principe. "Mi tesoro! Tesoro del mundo entero!" Showering at their house was fantastic. I was super sweaty, hot, and since our water at staffhouse cut out again, I hadn't really showered in a few days. The boys had a funny idea for the campanentos to teach about caveties. They stuck pieces ...

When they said we would be busy this summer, they definitely weren't kidding! These past few weeks have been filled with planning for the arrival of our volunteers, surveying communities, doing a three-day long training with all 37 volunteers, then finally dropping them off at their respective communities. When we finally brought them to their host families, everything became real. Strangely, it felt a lot like how I would imagine dropping off your kids at their first day of school would feel. We were excited for them, eager for them to learn and grow and tell us all about their stories. We also felt a little nervous, hoping they would be okay even though we know they would be. The way we decide who goes to which community is a fun but crazy process where we not only consider which pairs of volunteers will be compatible as partners for the summer, but also consider which families can take boys and/or girls, and whether the community as a whole will take two boys, two girls, or ...

This summer I'm working for Amigos de las Américas as a Project Supervisor (P-Sup) in Paraguay! So far, this week we have been training at the staff house, cooking meals together, and getting to know the tranquil city of Villarica. What am I going to do as a project supervisor? To be brief, my job will be to take care of our high school summer participants, who will each live in a community with 1-2 other participants. They'll have to do their own CBI (Community Based Initiative), plan out activities with local youth related to our project themes (Community Health and Children's Rights), work with our partner agencies, and overall, integrate themselves as fully as possible into a warm and welcoming community, a new culture, and a very different way of living. Each week, I will be traveling on a route and visiting our participants in their communities. Monday through Thursday I'm going to stay the night in each community, and Friday through Sunday I'll be at the...

My first two weeks were spent traveling with family from Modesto, hitting up some of the tourist sites of Hong Kong and eating lots of wonton mein, the famous Cantonese noodle dish featuring a savory soup broth oftentimes containing some delicious MSG (it does Make Soup Great, after all), yellow wonton noodles that are chewy, eggy, and have that characteristic gum may, or "golden flavor" from the alkaline solution it is soaked in, and of course, the won tons themselves - glorious little packages of shrimp, pork, and seasonings. Being a vegetarian, I was happy with just the mein and soup with some vegetables. The next week, we headed to Huanan, China for my aunt and uncle's wedding reception. A few days before our flight, I came down with this terrible flu that had been floating around Hong Kong. Many people in the streets were wearing hospital masks, especially when riding public transportation, and at times it felt like we were in the set of a movie about a horrible p...