Che Roga Pyahu (My New House)

I am officially moved into my very own house down here in PY! My community has been very understanding about my desire to live alone and last Saturday I had eight Paraguayans cutting the grass in my yard with machetes! I am living in plain sight of three other houses and LOVE all of my neighbors. I have use of one room for my bedroom, a hallway, and more ¨rustic¨ back room. I have electricity and the house is brick with a tin roof insulated with straw. I share a well with one other family but have my own latrine. People have been great about helping me to get everything that I need for my house and helping me set up; I´m borrowing a bed and mattress, chairs, and a little table and have been given sheets, silverware, a cooking pot, and dish towels. I plan to buy and electric burner here in Asuncion this weekend for cooking and have started the search for a used refridgerator but know that I may not find one in my price range for quite some time (if ever). I feel very safe in my house and have had tons of people visit me there- I finally am starting to feel like a ¨real¨ Peace Corps Volunteer.

Work has actually been keeping me really busy lately! I will be buying seeds later today here in Asuncion for pretty much my whole community and spend a good part of next week distributing them and teaching about planting in seed boxes to transplant later. School will start up here soon and I hope to do some work in the local schools.

I got two months worth of mail when my boss visited last week and want to thank everyone back home for keeping me in touch. As I settle in I promise to work more letter writing into my new schedule!

I had a woman in my community who was super worried because since I spend a lot of time outside my freckles are becoming more obvious. She was convinced it was a disease that was spreading and asked if I had seen a doctor about it. I am the closest I will ever be to tan with all of my freckles congealing! But don´t worry, I am being sun-responsible, I promise since Peace Corps pays for my sunscreen! Thank you to all of you diligent tax paying citizens at home!

Speaking of taxes, I won´t have to pay a cent of income taxes as a Peace Corps volunteer since I´m making less than Paraguay´s minimum wage. Really the minimum wage only applies to Asuncion, but it´s good to know that they really do keep us to a standard of living commensurate with the communities we´re living in. The ranch hand on the cattle ranch across the street makes more than I do monthly!

I´ve taken the first steps to live alone and have been given permission to use one room of a currently vacant house. My decision to move was precipitated by several people telling me they are afraid to visit me in the house I´m currently in because the Senora is too direct and abrasive. It is really important to me that people feel they can talk to me and luckily there is a place available for me. The house is really close to two of my favorite families in my community and they are really excited to have me move by them. I´m working on finding the necessities for living alone, a bed, something to cook on, and stuff to cook with, in addition to a fan. I think that I will be able to borrow almost everything I need from a woman who just remairied and moved in with her new husband, leaving her old house completely furnished! I might be able to get a fridge and gas stove from her!!!!! It will take a lot of work to clean up the house but we have a work party planned for next weekend. I probably won´t move in for another month or two but it´s nice for me to know that I will have my own place.

My boss from Asuncion will be coming out to my site on Wednesday and I´m busy planning a big meeting for him to explain more about what Peace Corps is and what an agroforestry can be. I will also get a big backlog of mail from the office in Asuncion (almost two months worth!) and my bike! There´s some debate as to if I will get my cell phone, or not, but if I do I will disperse the number and if not I´ll pick it up in Asuncion on Feb 15 when I have a trip in planned.