8/14

Today we had our swearing in ceremony at the U.S. Embassy. The Ambassador was there as well as the country director of the Peace Corps. Best of all, the temperature was in the 80s. It was a lovely event. President Lugo was unable to make it because this is also the feast of Ascunsion (the city) and he had too many official events to attend.

Of course, just to embarrass myself, I had a stupid coughing fit in the midst of the ambassador’s speech. I’m just recovering from a small cold and made sure that I had kleenex and cough drops. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough cough drops and just couldn’t stop coughing. How embarrassing! One of the reporters went to get me a glass of water and the country director brought me another one. I needed them both!

However, coughing aside, we all swore in and are now official Peace Corps Volunteers. We’re spending the weekend in Ascunsion and will be off to our sites on Monday. The amount of baggage I’ve gathered in three short months is amazing. Besides the stuff we brought with us, the Peace Corps has given us tons of books, a mosquito net, a medical kit, and a machete. The machetes are not sharpened but sure enough one of the guys cut himself on it. We have pictures!

When I originally packed, I used the vacuum bag method where you buy the bags, put your stuff in and use a vacuum to suck out all the air.
It was wonderful because you can take 12 inches of clothes, blankets, and pillows and collapse it all to 2-3 inches. Unfortunately, a vacuum cleaner is an unknown commodity in Paraguay. I put my pillow in one of the bags and sat on it to try to get out all the air. It kind of worked but not really. So now, I had to try to stuff what was compressed to one suitcase back into that suitcase. I can tell you now that it didn’t work! I ended up having to purchase a Paraguayan bag (a huge Paraguayian bag) so I could pack the rest of the items.

I did give my host family the book of Bonita. I also presented it at the talent show on the last day and won third prize. Anyone who is interested can e-mail me and I’ll send you a copy of it as a pdf. It is in Spanish but I will also have an English version once I get to my site. Let me know whether you want it in Spanish or English (or both).

Eladia loved the book. I also gave her a DVD of the pictures I had taken of her family. She liked that too but not as much as the Bonita book.

I need to go get something to drink before I have another coughing fit.

Michel