26 September, 2007

Leaving today

Hello everyone,
Just wanted to let you know that today is the day. I will be flying from Miami to Buenos Aires, Argentina at 8:30pm tonight, arriving at Asuncion, Paraguay at approximately 5:00pm tomorrow (September 27th). I'm scared, excited, overwhelmed and about 20 other feelings right now, but the group I'm with is AMAZING and I think we're all going to be able to really pull each other through! I miss everyone back at home so much already, but I can't wait for this excellent adventure to begin (although, it kind of already has). Thank you for all of your support, and next time I'll be writing, it will be from Paraguay!

Adios! E

17 September, 2007

Mental Preparation

It’s 12:30am. I’m sitting in a dark room lit only by the familiar glow of the computer. My travel itinerary lies partially distinguishable in front of me. It has finally hit me that I am leaving in less than a week. (This would be the time to put… “for the journey of a lifetime,” but I just can’t bring myself to write that.) Right now more than anything, I need to say just how dreadfully scared I am of this “life experience” that is going to take me miles and miles away from my friends, family -old and new- and the familiar. So this will be my first Peace Corps post, for all of you interested in following my travels into the heart of South America.

I know these are just pre-departure jitters, and that when all is said and done, I’ll get on that plane. But it helps putting my reservations into words, because then they are just words and not debilitating feelings that seem to cut me off at the knees. I can’t help but think of everything I will miss, how this Erin will become somewhat of an apparition in people’s minds, even the minds of my loved ones. And of course I know I will be making new and exciting memories, growing and changing as a person. But realizing that becomes difficult for someone who is about to leave the life they know and love, a life they’ve become comfortable in, for an existence they hardly can imagine.

And now there’s something I need to say before I end this and head back to bed. I want all of the people who have supported me this far to know how much I truly appreciate your encouragement. There is no way I could have gotten this far with out you! And just knowing that you’ll be there for me emotionally once I’m in-country makes transitioning that much easier!

I vow to write as often as possible.
I promise to stay brief (I know you are all busy people)
And I will try my absolute to make all of you proud. I know I’m not just representing myself out there, I’m standing in for you too, and I pledge to do my best!

Cheers to all of you! Here I come, Paraguay!

About Paraguay

(Interesting fact: Paraguay is one of the only states to have a double-sided flag, the emblem differing from the front to back!)

Facts about Republic of Paraguay
Paraguay is South America's 'empty quarter,' a country little known even to its neighbors. For much of its history it has distanced itself from the Latin American mainstream, and for a substantial period of this century was South America's most notorious and durable police state. PJ O'Rourke summed it up bluntly when he wrote 'Paraguay is nowhere and famous for nothing,' and then, on a short visit to cover elections, promptly fell in love with the place. You might do the same since Paraguay has taken steps to overcome its political, economic and geographic isolation and now welcomes visitors. The country has a relaxed riverside capital, impressive Jesuit missions, several national parks and the vast, arid Chaco - one of South America's great wilderness areas.

Geography/Demographics
Location: Central South America, northeast of Argentina
Area - comparative: slightly smaller than California
Land boundaries: 3,995 km border countries: Argentina 1,880 km, Bolivia 750 km, Brazil 1,365 Climate: subtropical to temperate; substantial rainfall in the eastern portions, becoming semiarid in the far west
Terrain: grassy plains and wooded hills east of Rio Paraguay; Gran Chaco region west of Rio Paraguay mostly low, marshy plain near the river, and dry forest and thorny scrub elsewhere
Population: 6,669,086 (July 2007 est.)
Economy
Landlocked Paraguay has a market economy marked by a large informal sector. This sector features both reexport of imported consumer goods to neighboring countries, as well as the activities of thousands of microenterprises and urban street vendors. Because of the importance of the informal sector, accurate economic measures are difficult to obtain. A large percentage of the population derives its living from agricultural activity, often on a subsistence basis. On a per capita basis, real income has stagnated at 1980 levels. Most observers attribute Paraguay's poor economic performance to political uncertainty, corruption, lack of progress on structural reform, substantial internal and external debt, and deficient infrastructure. Aided by a firmer exchange rate and perhaps a greater confidence in the economic policy of the DUARTE FRUTOS administration, the economy rebounded between 2003 and 2006, posting modest growth each year.
History
The original inhabitants of eastern Paraguay were the semi-nomadic Guaraní. Several hunter-gatherer groups, known as Guaycurú, populated the Chaco. In 1524, Alejo García became the first European to cross Paraguay, with the aid of Guaraní guides. Three years later, Sebastián Cabot sailed up the Río Paraguay but founded no settlements. This was left to Pedro de Mendoza, whose expedition settled at Asunción after fleeing Buenos Aires. The colony flourished, becoming the nucleus of Spanish settlement in southeastern South America and sparking an era of intriguing socialization. The native Indian population gradually absorbed the Spaniards, who in turn adopted Guaraní food, language and customs. Over time, a Spanish-Guaraní society emerged, with Spaniards dominating politically, and the mestizo offspring adopting Spanish cultural values.
Colonization also meant that Jesuit missionaries were sent to civilize the Indians. This they did with alacrity and skill. The Indians were induced to leave their lands and settle in reducciones, theocratic communes, where they helped build churches, grew deft at masonry, sculpture and painting, and sometimes gained a classical education along the way. After the expulsion of the missionaries in 1767, the settlements quietly withered as the Indians skedaddled or were employed by different masters.
Paraguay declared independence in 1811 - which Spain did not oppose - and within a few years it was under the thumb of the xenophobic José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, also known as 'El Supremo.' He sealed the country's borders, promoted a policy of self-sufficiency (even forcing the Spanish upper class to intermarry with the mestizo) and expropriated the properties of landowners, merchants and the Church. He died in 1840 and his remains were later disinterred and flung into a river. Francia's successor, Carlos Antonio López, ended Paraguay's isolation and began modernization. Unfortunately, he also spawned a megalomaniacal son who set about destroying the country by starting the catastrophic War of the Triple Alliance (1864-70) against Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. When the smoke had settled, Paraguay had lost over 150,000 sq km (58,500 sq mi) of territory and almost a quarter of its population, including López junior.
After the war, Paraguay's agricultural sector was resuscitated by a new wave of European and Argentine immigrants, but political instability continued. At the turn of the century, cross-border tensions arose after Bolivia occupied disputed parts of the Chaco. The prospect of vast deposits of oil in the region (which proved non-existent) catapulted the two countries into war in 1932. The Bolivian army was pushed out of most of the Chaco and a subsequent treaty awarded Paraguay three-quarters of the territory.
Paraguayan politics became even more turbulent following the Chaco War, until a brief civil war brought the Colorado Party to power in 1949. A military coup in 1954 saw General Alfredo Stroessner installed as president. A vainglorious man with a firebrand temper, Stroessner employed torture, murder, political purges and bogus elections to remain in power for the next 35 years. The inimical dictator was overthrown in 1989 and was replaced by another brasshat, General Andrés Rodríguez. Despite considerable scepticism about his intentions - Rodríguez was Stroessner's former right-hand man - the country's perennial state of emergency was cancelled, censorship was eliminated, opposition parties were legalized and political prisoners released.
Paraguay enjoyed increasing political stability until the 1993 election of Juan Carlos Wasmosy, a free-market zealot and former member of Stroessner's faction, whose presidency inspired a disturbing number of nationwide strikes. Wasmosy himself came under scrutiny for shady business dealings associated with Paraguay's massive hydroelectric projects.
In May 1998, the Colorado Party reconfirmed its staying power with the election of President Raul Cubas, an electrical engineer who assumed the party's candidacy after former army General Lino Oviedo, their original nominee, was imprisoned mid-campaign on charges of rebelling against Wasmosy in 1996. Just when things again began to look rosy, Cubas too came under fire, accused of abusing his powers by freeing Oviedo from prison despite Supreme Court orders to keep him there. When Vice President Luis Argaña was gunned down by assassins in March 1999, popular sentiment linked Cubas and Oviedo to the murder and Cubas was forced to resign from office. Luis Gonzalez Macchi, who had been president of the Senate, was sworn in, while Cubas and Oviedo sought asylum in neighboring countries.
Culture
Paraguayan music is something of a curiosity - despite the fact that the majority of the population still speaks the native tongue, the music is European in origin, with little or no traces of Black, Brazilian or Argentinian influences. The guitar and harp are popular instruments and songs are usually slow and lachrymose. Dances, such as the polka and bottle dance (so-called because performers swing around with a jar on their head) are, however, much livelier. Agustín Barrios (1885-1944), one of Latin America's most revered composers for the guitar, often performed his music in full Guaraní costume, promoting himself as the Paganini of the guitar from the Paraguayan jungles.
Roman Catholicism is officially the country's religion, but the influence of the church is less pronounced than in many other Latin American countries. Other religious groups include fundamentalist Mennonites and the controversial New Tribes Mission, an evangelical group which operated with the collusion of Stroessner's dictatorship.
Meat dishes as well as tropical and subtropical foodstuffs play an important role in the Paraguayan diet. Grains, particularly maize, and manioc (cassava) are incorporated into almost all meals. Try tucking into locro, a maize stew, mazamorra, corn mush, mbaipy so-ó, a hot maize pudding with meat chunks, and sooyo sopy, a thick soup made of ground meat and served with rice or noodles. Desserts include mbaipy he-é, a delicious mix of corn, milk and molasses. Tea or mate is consumed in vast quantities while mosto (sugar-cane juice) and caña (cane alcohol) are also frequently imbibed.
Environment
Paraguay is a landlocked country surrounded by Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia. The country is divided into two unequal portions by the Río Paraguay, the third largest river in the western hemisphere. To the west of the river is the Chaco, a largely infertile and sparsely populated tract of land that makes up nearly 60% of the country's area. To the east, where almost all the population is concentrated, is a well-watered, elevated plateau of grasslands, with patches of subtropical forest stretching all the way to the Río Paraná on the Brazilian and Argentinian borders.
Wildlife is diverse and includes a number of birds such as the parrot and parakeet, wood stork, hyacinth macaw and the once-thought-to-be-extinct Chacoan peccary, plus large reptiles such as caiman, anaconda and the boa constrictor. However, due to the dense human population of rural eastern Paraguay, mammals such as the giant anteater, maned wolf, Brazilian tapir and jaguar are fast disappearing.
The climate in eastern Paraguay is humid, with rainfall evenly distributed throughout the year. Temperatures are almost universally hot in summer (January to March), averaging 35°C (95°F), but can drop as low as 5°C (41°F) in winter (July to September). Frosts at this time are not uncommon, but there is little or no snowfall. Temperatures are higher in the Chaco and the rainfall is more erratic.