Marianna Castiaux In Paraguay

Peace Corps Memory Imagine walking into your host family's small dark, humid, dirt floor, home with two bags. All you can think of is how much stuff you have. How in these two bags you have so much stuff, worth more than anything in this home and all your host family's possessions put together. How come you have so much stuff? In the US two bags for two years isn't much, but here it seems ridiculous someone would even own this much. Why do i need so many clothes? I have an iPod! Wow I need to hide that!  You are shown to your room that you will be sharing with your host sister. she has a nice smile but is timid like yourself. Your language in either Spanish or Guarani is lacking, and so you sit. A few days later, you know its important to get out and see the community. They teach you this in training, so you decide to go for a walk. You come upon a home and you clap twice, the greeting that lets anyone know you are entering their property, and say Mbaechipa, the greeting yo...

I am very proud of my bunny project in my community. The following photos are a bit graphic but the bunnies are killed and kept in the most humane way possible :) we snapped its neck via broom stick pulling upwards. My bunny project was my greatest accomplishment in PY. I have found my service successful because i brought this project to my commmunity that never raised rabbits before . Yesterday we killed and ate our first delicious bunny. Agustina looked up at me after dinner and said Gracias para traer este proyecto. me gusta. I didnt realize how fast the bunny project would spread. they had never had bunnies before! Carbon has given birth to 13 rabbits in the last 4 months. they are all gone to new homes (one was eaten). Agustinas bunny was slower with four. I liked that i didnt not teach anything new but just brought a new animal to them. Agustina and i experimented together, we learned together, we fought over how to build a cage and we learned more about each other and...

My biggest accomplishment inParaguay is my rabbit project. Rabbit meat is yummy, has a lot of meat and is great for the environment.

This is my last month that I can accept packages.... My last day of service is december 9th and from then on i am going to travel and try to keep my blog updated. Right now i am applying to graduate school, and looking to the future....I did an amazing AIDS lecture with the high school which was a hilarious experience

Paraguayans have very attractive kids. The school has small class rooms, as most as twelve kids down to six. There is a morning session 7 to 11 or 1130 and an afternoon sesson 1230 to 430ish. I am very proud of my map! My host sister and students helped with it. Its on the school wall as you walk in. Me at school, with the schools kitchen hut in the back, behind the soccer field. We have a vegetable garden in which they use the lettuce in fried tortillas for the kids. Paraguay celebrated it 200 years of independence. Asuncion the capital had many various events as well as smaller towns. I went into Asuncion.

AAAK.. i think the best teachers dont take themselves seriously.... in peace corps you cant.... soccer just got better with masks!!

Ive been busy! honestly! With my girls group we have learned about lice, parasites, taking care of wells, nutrition and well, i guess the animals of paraguay via a really fun day of mask making. Im a purple eagle ( they made it for me). I love the girls group sometimes, although im dead by the end of the day.

Hi, its been a super long time since ive written and i cant say my last post was even edited or reread so instead of rushing my time to write i thought i would do a photo exhibit of what im doing in site. Starting with this photo of my well that my group of girls Super Chicas painted

When I first came to paraguay i knew i would deal with sexism. I knew i would have to climb higher than this and move on. When I first came to my site and heard from the other volunteer about domestic violence in my site, I knew that this too i would have to put behind me and move on. When later I met the timid females in my community i felt this was a result of the sexism, violence, lack of economic freedom. But... what i never guessed, what i never thought was how i would gain female empowerment from paraguay and the women i saw as timid and insecure would gradually bash my own sexist mind from the states, and teach me what it means to be a women in the campo and gradually i saw how the states sexism has caged my own ideas of myself. This alone is a reason for all women in the states to join peace corps. you will learn how caged your idenity is, gain a new one, and reflect on the past in the states. When i was in seventh grade, i loved shop class. I remember we were making cars out o...

One thing about being in Peace Corps is the ability to travel to nearbye countries and share your experience, info about Paraguay to others abroad. For example, I was asked by a Chiliean about Paraguays beaches.... I feel its important part of my peace corps experience to share my trip to Chile. Traveling is apart of our time here, and sharing our time in paraguay to everyone. Torres del Paine Park, in Southern Chile was the most beautiful place ive been to in my life without any doubt. It didnt feel like i was on earth. I traveled through neverland, wonderland, through flora ive never seen before, glaciers, ice burgs, avalanches, rock formations, glacial caverans. Some vistas I felt i could see the dinosaurs walking around. They seemed to fit with the barren glacial environment. Scrambling over painful granite rocks, stumbling down canyons of rock tore my knees and puncured my feet even through the thick hiking boots. We were sooooooooo lucky with the weather, everyone kept telling us...

HELP THE WOMEN OF MY COMMUNITY GAIN EMPOWERMENT! Development starts small, vegetable seeds allow for the women to sell veges in the market as well as incorporate vegetables in their diet. yes USA vege seeds work here MOST USEFUL SEEDS Onion Cabbage : Purple is best, green is good Tomato Celery Parsley Lettuce: All Squash Pumpkin Carrot Thanks :)

Books make up my life in the states and here in Peace Corps... TOP 5 1) Carl Sagan's "Varieties of the Scientific Experience, My personal view on the search for God" - note I loved this book so much that i am giving it to my parents to tenderly take it back to the states to sit on a shelf waiting for the next person I am going to lend it to. I now want my future house in the states to have NASA posters all over it. He was an amazing open person. This book was put together from his lectures at the Glifford Lectures, by a friend, many years after his death. 2) John Toole "Confederacy of Dunces". Either the best book ive read or the second best in peace corps. Funny and witty but nothing you would expect. Takes place in New Orleans, please book me a ticket when i get back to the states. The author sadly only wrote two books in his life before he commited sucide in his early 30s. His mom brought this book to a professor after his death. It won the pulizer prize. 3) ...

So today is my first year mark in paraguay! Its been a year today that i arrived clueless. and i am proud to say, finally after a year i have gain the insight to know how to get through to paraguayans, and how to be a good volunteer.first year the idea of running around to everyones houses in my community to say hi, or allowing my time to be "robbed" by my neighbors, sitting in on meetings, with the womens comite, trying to form and give classes for the girls, was a painful experience. it was hard tiring and boring. honestly. and now i feel like this is all easier because, well they are all my friends and its become less like work and more like YAY i get to see my friends. my time isnt being robbed or being forced to be social or babysit, instead its a time to hear the lattest gossip, share stories, and find ways to get through the cultural barrriers. My secret, the profound secret that i just just just figured out in how i can get through to my super chicas and the comite, m...

" I killed a woodpecker today with my sling shot¨ - Romancito, 4 "That little black bird, i want it for my remedy¨ Host Mom

These last few months Ive started making: dish / floor detergent with my comite and once with the community. My hope is to get them to start selling it when they go into town on saturdays with their veges. So far its still sitting on the table in the comiteś house, prepared, bottled, etc waiting for the motivation, that painful endless annoying pushing that is needed of volunteers when they have told me ¨we should sell this. this would work to sell¨. The logisitics of making it include: buying a kit in asuncion at the whole seller (a pain), bringing it back, finding a date that is good, making it with the comite, finding old soda bottles to put it in with lids! (good to have!), place and ya! Although this isnt a project i am necessarily proud of due to its sustainable reasons, its not something fun or dealing with agroforestry, the comite has somehow come across a huge amount of debt owned to the cooperative and another comite when their dulce (jelly,jams,etc) project failed, i feel t...

SO after re reading my last post I should say that my negative mindset was pushed back the other day when Agustina, my neighboor, showed me how her Lupino ( a nitrogen fixing plant) now has pretty white flowers and she is very excited about collecting the seeds and planting more for next year. She (and I) didnt know it had such pretty flowers and wants to plant it in front of her house as a decorative plant as well. Success, sorta :) Also I planted two rows of Lupino at my host families house, last month, and both lines came up remarkably straight! and sprouted beautifully. We have come to the idea of harvesting most of the plants seeds and giving it out to the community. So, in terms of helping their farm land be productive for the years to come, yayayayaay success.