Adventures in Voting - Paraguay Style.

This will mark the 2nd presidential election that I am eligible to vote in, and it will be the 2nd time I have had to vote via absentee ballot. The first time in 2008, I was away at college and could not make it home on election day, this time I am thousands of miles away.

A few of my other friends were talking about how easy it was for them to vote this year because they could vote via email. I thought, "Oh wouldn't that be great if Maryland let you vote that way." Well .. they don't! I could receive my ballot through email but then had to print it out (finding a printer was an adventure) to cast my vote then mail it.

Well the mail system itself in Paraguay could fill a whole blog post. The closest "post office" to me is 10k away on bike, and lets just say post office is a very liberal term. It is one room at the bus terminal in Coronel Oviedo, and the women that work there aren't very enthusiastic about helping me. So I waited until I was going into Asuncion for the weekend to mail it, where I proceeded to get lost trying to find the post office. I finally made it back to the Peace Corps office, unsuccessful in my mission, when someone at the office told me I could just put my ballot in the embassy "mail box" there at the PC office and the US Embassay would mail it for me.

Now I'm leaving it up to faith that it makes it there on time and that my vote will actually count ...


Have you all voted already (I know MD has early voting)? Has anyone had similar adventures trying to cast their vote in an election?

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!