Pre-Service Training

Training is definitely a draining experience. It literally lasts ALL DAY.

We live in a more urban setting as I'm an education volunteer, but Jeff is picked up early every morning and taken out to the campo (countryside) where the other health volunteers live with their host families to train every day.

6 days a week we wake up at 6:20ish (for everyone that knows us, it's incredibly difficult) and eat breakfast with our mom (usually cafe con leche y pan con dulce de leche, or sometimes cereal).

Jeff's teachers arrive at the house around 7:10ish to take him to his language training in the campo with the other health volunteers. I head out of my house around 7:30 to make it to my language classes that start at 7:45. At about 11:30, our language classes end and I head home for lunch and a siesta. Jeff has another host family in the campo that feeds him lunch. I eat lunch with my family, chat it up a bit (this is usually my most effective communication of the day as I've just walked out of my language class).

After my siesta, I start my technical training classes (related to sustainable development, Paraguayan education structure or PCV survival) at 1:30ish. Classes run until about 5:30. Afterwards, I like to sit in the Plaza in the center of town (across from the church) with other trainees or Jeff and just let my brain relax for a minute.

Our family typically eats dinner around 7:30ish and Jeff is always home to join us. Dinner is a lively time with my family as everyone is recapping their day, planning for the next day, and (the best part) telling dirty jokes. I don't think we have a typical family. A lot of the other trainees have a very different experience at the dinner table, but again, we're pretty lucky with our set up.

Around 9:30 we each take a shower and study/do our homework until about 11:30. Then we sleep for a bit, and get ready to wake up and do it all over again. The weeks are incredibly draining and on Sunday mornings we like to sleep in as late as possible (w/out seeming rude or anti-social).

So far things are going well. We knew it wouldn't be easy and we were both ready for the challenge. Nothing has been incredibly surprising just yet, but I'm sure we're in for a few eye-openers in the future.

Since Monday is el dia de los enamorados (Valentine's Day), there are two fiestas tonight at two different clubs in our town. Apparently one is more traditional and one is more "chuchi" than the other (chuchi = a bit uppity; well-off... used as both a compliment and an insult). I think we're going to check out both places with our sister and brother tonight. Should be interesting.

Definitely missing everyone from home, but couldn't be happier with our choice to embark on this adventure. Besos y abrazos a todos!!!!

(The high school near our house)

Our Paraguayan Family

Our host family... where to begin?

We live with a really great family here in Paraguay. We live with our mom (who everyone calls "La Princessa"), our dad (a dentist in the community) and our older sister Enma (also a dentist) and her boyfriend Osvaldo. We have tons of other family that live close by (a younger brother that has a wife and son, and another older brother with a wife and 3 kids). We have another older sister that we haven't met just yet. My parents have a total of 6 kids (4 girls and 2 boys) and the 2 remaining women live in the States with their families. The youngest son is 28 and he spent his 9th grade year in the States living with one of his older sisters. He speaks excellent English and we rely on him to translate any awkward situations.

Our host mom celebrated her 70th birthday yesterday with a grand asado (bbq), cerveza and dancing. Not entirely sure why she was wearing bunny ears, but either way she the queen of the day.

They are really dedicated to helping us master Spanish (we've both improved GREATLY in just one week of classes and living with our family). They are excited to start teaching us Guarani, but we still have a long way to go with our Espanol. Guarani is such an interesting language to hear. It's a strange mix of sounds. A lot of the trainees are having difficulty with the "y" pronunciation which is a weird gutteral throat noise.

Our family is incredibly warm and loving (tons of hugs and hand-holding) and they treat us as if we've always lived here. We're really lucky as they've had volunteers live with them for years now. Their oldest daughter used to teach Guarani at the Peace Corps Training Center here in town and the 3rd (??) oldest daughter married a trainee she met here in town (about 30 years ago). They have a lot of experience with the organization and are excited to help us get through this training period successfully.

We have two family dogs. One is a mascota (or a priviledged house dog) named Kiki and the other is an outside dog named Rocky. We have 6 rabbits, a rooster and tons of chickens. They are a great alarm system for waking up in the morning.

Needless to say, we lucked out. Yes, there are awkard moments where we have NO IDEA what they're saying or there's a complete cultural misunderstanding, but all-in-all it's been a great start to our homestay. Our mom even stocked up on soft TP for us as she knows the stress, new environment and new food can really wreck a trainee's stomach. (Thanks, mom!!!)

Our house

And You Thought Packing For Vacation Was Annoying...

Try packing for the next 2+ years.

It feels like Carly and I have been packing for the past month. Ever since we left Brooklyn at the start of the year, our lives have centered around suitcases and the best way to fill them. When we're not actually packing, we're talking about packing. I'm starting to dream about packing. (honestly, they are more like night terrors than dreams, but you get the point)

The Peace Corps mandates that we each carry no more the 80lbs of luggage with us when we fly to South America. That's a lot easier than it sounds when you consider a decent pair of work boots is about 10% of that. We briefly toyed with the idea bringing nothing but African dashikis to make the weight restriction, but apparently the native garb of Paraguay is oriented around something called "pants."

Thankfully, with less than 5 days until our departure, we are nearing the end of our compacting campaign. Our clothes have been weighed and sorted and it looks like were going to come in under 80lbs. All of our converters, immodium, books, immodium, flashlights, immodium, tools and immodium are finding a home somewhere in our bloated backpacks. Who knew Carly's tetris skills would ever come in so handy?

Sadly, I will remain a toothless redneck in Paraguay

Here's the story: About 7 months ago, a bridge (aka fake tooth glued in the front of my mouth when I was 13) cracked. My dentist said bridges were soooo 1990, so me and the Mrs. decided to be big spendors and pay for a fancy new dental implant.

I've been living with a titanium anchor screwed in my gums for the past six months patiently awaiting the day when my new chopper was attached. Luckily, my dentist was kind enough to fashion me with an middle school-style retainer complete with a gnarly fake tooth during all this. I was really going to miss taking that thing out at restaurants before eating or feverishly searching for its whereabouts on the sidewalks of NYC after a good sneeze.

Anyways, I went to my dentist last week to take an impression so that my new tooth would look and fit as perfect as I always imagined. Would I go with the standard white or pay tribute to my fallen homeys and go with gold? Vampires are all the rage right now, should I get a fang? The possibilities were endless. Or so I thought...

My dentist's exact words when she leaned over to take the impression: "Uh-oh."

As it turned out, my implant never fused to my jawbone. I was one of the lucky 10% of patients whose implant fails for no apparent reason. It was like winning the lottery...the shittiest lottery in the world.

I had surgery two days ago to remove the failed implant and to get a skin graph on my gums (about as fun as it sounds). Since the entire implant process takes 6-8 months, I won't be able to have another surgery before we leave for Paraguay in February. On the plus side, my dentist has agreed to make me "a handful of retainers" to take with me for the next 27 months.

With my dreams of greeting the people of Paraguay with a perfect smile crushed, I hope they'll still welcome this walking jack-o-lantern with open arms. I may not be pretty, but they'll always be welcome to sit on my front porch while I relax in my rocking chair and drink from a dirty jug with "XXX" on the front.

INVITATION!!!

Our invitation arrived yesterday!!! We're headed to PARAGUAY (staging Feb. 2, pre-service training Feb. 4)!

Freaking out just a little bit, but so incredibly excited!

Carly's assignment = Early Education Teaching Advisor
Jeff's assignment = Water and Sanitation Advisor

¡VIVA PARAGUAY!

WE ARE SO CLOSE!

Ok, I know it's been ages since we've posted. Work, volunteering, travel, daily life has really gotten in the way.

Just want to get out some major updates and then I can post my back-dated updates (complete w/ full timeline details and well, you know, emotions).

- We were medically cleared 9/16ish
(WHEW!) We only had one issue where Jeff had to have his blood re-tested based on some silly lab code. I guess we were part of that 15% that got it right the first time (yes, I'm bragging but these forms resulted in a lot of stress and countless doctors' visits--and multiple repeat visits).

-9/23 I was legally cleared (meaning they approved my school loan transfer/paperwork)
Jeff was already legally cleared

-9/23 Placement emailed us to ask for updated resumes and an Education Skillset Addendum

-9/28 We submitted the requested paperwork (finally got around to focusing on this after the crazy weekend of the Ragnar Relay in D.C.)
Unfortunately the Placement Office is off-site thru Friday... so I guess we'll have to wait until Monday for any more communication.

And that bring us up to tonight.

"Hello, my name is Carly and I want to be a Peace Corps Volunteer!"

I wanted to go ahead and start our blog (as well as get on the PC Journals site) because I truly believe in speaking things into existence. If you put your hopes out there in universe, you're bound to make things happen. When we first moved to NYC all I wanted to do was get a job in book publishing. I'd meet new people all the time and my line would be, "Hello, my name is Carly and I want to work in book publishing." (and this line was used on literally EVERYONE... including the mailman)

After living in NYC--and using my line--for about 6 months, our office hired a tarot card reader for fun. I introduced myself to the tarot card reader using my well-rehearsed line and low and behold, her BFF worked in book publishing! I finally had a contact! 5 months later I was working in book publishing.

So... after 10 months of reading other applicants' and volunteers' (PCVs') blogs, it's time for the Wilkins to contribute.

Again, we're nominated to serve in C/S America leaving early February 2011. Couples nominations occur on a quarterly basis--slightly different from single placements--but I'd love to hear from anyone else that was nominated for this region. Since I practically stalk the Peace Corps Wiki for new staging updates, I have a list of countries that have had February stagings in our region in previous years:

-Ecuador
-El Salvador
-Honduras
-Paraguay

Any of these would be incredible!