Believe

2/23/10

I hope everyone is well out there. Life has been pretty wild as usual. There was Carnaval on Sat night where there was a parade in the heart of Villeta. Everyone came from all over to see it and it was pretty cool. People had foam spray cans to squirt each other with and it was a much needed descansa (rest) for us volunteers. I don’t have many hours to myself, pretty much only right before I am about to go to sleep. Today I made a presentation to my fellow volunteers and one of the program directors about Paraguay’s education system. I had to do some research, talk to community members and educators. I had a principal and fellow volunteer’s host mom (who is a teacher) come in to talk about their perspective. We also did 2 truths and a lie about random educational facts and realities in Paraguay. The volunteer after me made a sick presentation on self-esteem building with youth. There are many parallels between the struggles of the Paraguayan educational system and poor performing schools in the states, only imagine Paraguayan schools being a lot worse most of the time. The way of teaching here is pretty different. Students can be seen in class just copying what the teacher writes and not doing anything engaging or dynamic. Kids here only go to school for four hours a day as well and some of that time and wasted as well (although the ministry of education is trying to reform the system to 8hr days…).

This past Saturday I also went to a shelter for abandoned children and got to do a bunch of mini sports game with kids. We did dodgeball and some other juegos which were really fun. It was crazy hearing about how kids get found in the streets all alone. One kid got dropped off in a cardboard box as a baby. Something that was really wild to hear was how a bunch of families wanted to adopt this one girl but decided not to because she had a brother who was darker skinned. Race has been something that has come out frequently here. I feel like I am under the microscope at times because every move I make represents how people view a black male from the US. (Let’s not forget about my Dominican half as well!) For better or for worse my being here has had and will have an affect on what people think about darker skinned peoples and it is something I am constantly keeping in mind as I go about things. I have had some conversations with Paraguayans about how ridiculous it is to attribute characteristics to someone based on their race. One volunteer told me her grandmother said that she was so happy to have a nice pretty white girl staying with her and not a black one. These things are pretty disheartening to hear at times, but my optimism in people’s ability to change keeps me going. Everyday I am meeting people and having good conversations and EXPOSURE is the key for a lot of them. In the states, people keep a lot of their racial opinions within family or to themselves. It’s cool to be able to engage people on some level about their beliefs. I try to be careful about how I talk about myself here as well. I talk about Harvard and certain achievements but do not want to be tokenized. Race, class, gender, sexual orientation… name the topic it has us all tripping. I figure if so many of those before could put their anger to the backburner and keeping working towards progress, so can I.

On another note, it seems that a recurring theme in this blog will be how thankful I am for what I had/have. My host sister Alba is a superstar. She works 16 hour days when university is out and when it’s in session she gets up at 5, works till like 3, comes home, takes a shower, and then goes to university in the capital 45 min away and gets back home around 10 11ish. She is the first one in her family to go to college and she is so passionate about school. Everything here has made me think of how relative things can be. Relative happiness, contentment, economic stuggle, etc. It’s just crazy to think about how everyone has so many daunting problems and issues in their lives. It is truly a blessing to be equipped to deal with them and come out better. Tomorrow I get to make a presentation about my life to the volunteers for ten minutes. It will be hard for me to talk about myself for that long… Not! Haha. All my RYI peeps know we had plenty of that this summer. BTW it’s amazing how much working in Roxbury doing SUP was a great platform for doing this. What will be hard is trying to help people get a grasp of who I am and how I’ve come to believe what I do. It’s pretty wild trying to reflect on how to explain to people the essentials of my life so far. Getting to know fellow volunteers has been so amazing. From families to funny stories, and overall life experience, everyone is so unique. Hearing about the different adversity in everyone’s lives and what inspired them to do Peace Corps helps sustain us all from time to time. It is a wonderful feeling to wake up everyday and feel connected to this cause, as if I was meant to be here at this point in my life (hope that didn’t sound too fatalist!). Thursday I am headed to Asunción, (the capital) to do a mission with a friend from my group. We have to find several landmarks, which include a government department that works with youth, a FIFA soccer museum, and a supermarket. It should be fun trying to navigate the city and ask for directions (although google maps makes everything mad easy). Guaraní is kicking my butt as usual. My host sister helped me make flashcards. It’s crazy learning Guaraní through Spanish when the languages are nothing alike except for mixed words which are spoken when people combine Guaraní and Spanish in what is called jopara. This Saturday I leave to another city to stay with a volunteer in the field for four days. It should be exciting to see a volunteer’s day to day to process and see what real life will possibly look like for me. So far we have had current volunteers in the field come in to do activities with us and share their experiences. I’m a little nervous but I know that’s a good thing. I’m off to work on my life presentation w/some good ol Norah Jones. Shout out to my brother Paul who turned 11 today. He’s NFL bound!