While I Was Away in Paraguay

I Moved to Asuncion on December 2nd and spent about a week in the office shadowing the current Environmental Sector Volunteer Coordinator. She gave me a quick crash course about the job and some of my responsibilities so I would be ready to start work in January, when I returned from my month of home leave. Because I extended my service for 13 months, the Peace Corps bought me a ticket home gave me a month vacation. After being in Paraguay for 27 months it was very nice to be home, meet my niece for the first time in person, see the rest of my family and experience winter. I split my time between my parents’ house and my siblings’ houses, catching up, eating foods I can’t eat in Paraguay and skiing. Everyone always says it is a big shock coming back to the US after so much time away. The biggest shock for me was the temperature. I went from 37° Celsius to 37° Fahrenheit.

At the end of January I headed back to Paraguay to start my new adventure. I am renting an apartment, about 7 blocks from the Peace Corps office, with a fellow volunteer who is also serving a third year in Paraguay, but she is working with World Wildlife Fund, Paraguay. Our apartment is nicer than a few places I have lived in the US. The relative luxury of it is nice, but the things I like the most are just the simple things like when it rains the rain doesn’t come in through the wall, I don’t have to go outside to wash my dishes and there is water all day long.

My work in Asuncion as Volunteer Coordinator is very different than my work as a volunteer in the field. I have basic office duties like creating as distributing the sector newsletter, finding as distributing materials requested by other volunteers in the field, helping volunteers get their packages and other small tasks. These tasks are about 30% of my job and he other 70% of my work is traveling, usually for one of three reasons; site presentations, visiting volunteers, or new site development. When I arrived in January I hit the ground running traveling with my bosses doing site presentation for the newest group of environmental volunteers who arrived in December. Site presentations are when we go to a volunteer's community and officially introduce the volunteer to the community and explain what Peace Corps is and what the role of a volunteer is within that community. It was a lot of time spent in the car and a few long days, but it was great to see more of Paraguay and get to know the new volunteers, with whom I will be working over the next year. In addition to the site presentation I also attended the 5th annual Paraguay Verde camp. It is a three day youth camp, with an environmental focus, organized and run my Peace Corps volunteers and other local organizations.

Paraguay Verde-Jack Normant Camp

As soon as we finished all of the site presentation we jumped right into the next task of preparing for a week of training for the newest group of environmental volunteers. The training took place at a resort type facility. It used to be a farm, but they have built a bunch of little cabins people can rent. It was complete with 11 small pools and pic-nic shelters with BBQ pits and hammocks. Although it may sound like a week vacation, it was a lot of work. The training was focused on technical sessions such as agro-forestry, tree nurseries, trash management, community needs assessments and sessions to support the volunteers. In addition to facilitating a couple of sessions I also had to assist with sessions that were run by other volunteers from different training groups. In spite of it being an exhausting week, it was great to spend more time with the new groups and get to know them better.

My Cabin for the week

Recycled Paper

Planter made from wine bottles

Alistair, me and Eli-Environmental Sector Team

I’m sure that you all assumed I had given up on the blog, but I haven’t. I have just been readjusting to my new life in the capital city of Asuncion, which is very different from the little town of Gral. Morinigo.
The last few months I was in Morinigo, I mostly spent time with all of my friends and enjoying the simple life before my move. My parents came to visit in the end of September. We spent the first half of their visit in the northern part of Paraguay. We flew up to Bahia Negra and then took a boat up to the Pantanal. We stayed at the Biological Station Tres Gigantes (Three Giants).

Plane to Bahia Negra

Boat ride up the Rio Negro to Tres Gigantes Biological Station in the Pantanal

We were planning on taking the plane back, but it rained and the flight was canceled because the runway is dirt. Fortunately the bus coming up from Asuncion got caught in the rain and arrived a day later than expected so we were able to take it back down south. If we hadn't caught the bus might have been stuck up there for a week. The bus ride was very long and dusty, but we got to see a lot of the country on the way to Filadelfia, in the Paraguayan Chaco. We stayed at ranch just out side of Filadelfia, which doubles as a bed and breakfast. From there we hired a tour guide to take us to a reserve Campo Maria which is known for it's salt lagoons. The lagoons are on the property of the Campo Maria Ranch. The owners of the ranch are required to leave a portion of land surrounding the salt lagoons as a protected area.

The second half of their stay I showed them around Gral. Morinigo. We ate lunch with a lot of my friends and did a little site seeing in surrounding areas, including climbing the tallest mountain in Paraguay. We celebrated my birthday, a little early, which was fun because we my parents were able to meet many more of my friends and their families in site. Also, my friends were all very excited to see them.