New Sites and Sorting Hats

So my friends my fate has been sealed. I will be heading to the Caaguazu department of Paraguay for the next two years. I’m pretty close to the capital of Caaguazu, Colonel Oviedo and about 3ish hours from the capital of Paraguay, Asuncion.

It was a very anxiety ridden day. First off in the morning we had a “Cultural Viaje” (excursion) where we went to Asuncion and got to wander around for a while. Then we went back to the training center and had a session on Paraguayan Music and Dance, which was super cool, but, at this point I did not feel like waiting any longer.

After that we finally started. They had a hat with all our names on it and a huge map of Paraguay with all the possible sites marked off. 

I´m pretty much smack dab in the middle of those names

They then picked a name out of the hat, (Harry Potter - Sorting Hat style) that person received their folder full of their site information and then put their little picture on the map where their site was and then chose the next name out of the hat.

It was so stressful and nerve-racking. But, right now after reading all my site info I’m super excited about my site. There is a colegio (highschool) and a puesto de salud (health post) for me to work with, which were both things I asked for.  I also have a women’s commission of about 30 that want to work with me. There are about 130 families - 650 people that live in my site. I am 6k from Oviedo a much bigger city, but there are no buses so I was told to get my biking legs ready. 

I’m super eager for my site visit that starts Thursday when I’ll get to see my site for the first time. I’ll know more after my site visit too, but, if have any questions about my site feel free to ask!

Another super awesome thing is that one of my best friends here so far is only 2 hours away by bus! Some of my other friends are a little farther away, but, we’ll still each other a bunch. I’m going to miss seeing them every day, but, I’ll get to meet a bunch of new awesome people.

At Site Presentation

There are still 3 weeks left of training so I’m definitely going to make the most of it. Also in other news … it is officially Otoño (fall) here! The past few days have actually been a little chilly. It’s been fantastic, however, I don’t think it will last. It’s supposed to get warm again, but, winter is coming and for those who don’t know it does get cold here!