Sworn-in!

I’m officially a volunteer!! Yay…and now my two years begin. Training ended with a very nice swearing-in ceremony in the municipality near our training-center. Two people from each host family were invited to attend (so we got to see all of our host-mamas dressed up in their finest).We had to take some oaths (to defend the US constitution, and an oath in Spanish, which unfortunately none of the volunteers quite understood), we ate a gigantic cake (apparently you only get this special cake for swearing-in and close-of-service).We also got another chance to shake hands with the American Ambassador (who gave a speech and made a joke in broken Spanish about how Obama’s swear-in oath was messed up). Then Peace Corps took us for our final ride (in our vans that we used during training) to Asuncion, where we got our bank cards and were suddenly volunteers.

Swear-ins (which take place a couple of times a year since there are four different sectors of volunteers beginning their service after a training cycle) are also the time for volunteers all over Paraguay to meet up in the Capitol. Friday afternoon, I attended two club meetings—one for the Seed-Bank club, a free resource for volunteers to introduce green manures/cover crops into their communities, and the other—a gender and diversity club, which organizes summer camps for Paraguayan youth so that they can learn about gender, religious and other type of diversity in Paraguay as well as receive leadership training. I also went to Ahendu (“I listen” in Guarani), a concert by volunteers/for volunteers. This year Koika, the Korean Peace Corps, were also invited to attend and perform—so I watched a bunch of Peace Corps volunteers rocking out to the Korean version of “I Feel Pretty” from West Side story.

On the way to my hotel, I saw my new favorite billboard, an advertisement for Jäger Condoms! This is their website (I wouldn’t open this at work): http://www.jagercondoms.com.ar/. Yeah, way better than jagermeister/McJagger/the Jaeger menswear store.

Also, realizing that I will soon be about 4 hours outside of the capitol in the Paraguayan countryside, I decided that this Saturday would be a good time to meet/find the Jewish community of Asuncion. In order to enter the Synagogue, I had to send them a letter from Peace Corps proving that I was a volunteer and they also scanned my passport at the gate. Despite this intensive security, the congregation that I met inside the Hebraica compound was really sweet. It seems like Friday night services are more egalitarian and Saturday morning services are leaning more towards Orthodox. Since I went to the Saturday morning services, it was very small, less than 20 people, and everyone was very welcoming. I was surprised to find out that this week was my bat-mitzvah portion (va’yeshlach), though unfortunately I wasn’t able to whip out any of my skillz because of the denomination of the services. After the prayers were over, there was a small kiddish, where we all sat around a large table and talked about the Torah portion.

It was very interested to suddenly change perspectives—most of the congregants (all Paraguayan) had no idea where Misiones (my site’s district/departmento) is located. They kept asking if it was in the Chaco (the desert/wasteland in the middle of the country). This was surprising since all the people in my rural training community (who generally don’t have access to maps and internet, and also are rarely able to travel the countryside) all know where it is. Also, since the Torah portion described the story of Jacob’s daughter Dinah attempting to date/marry non-Israelites, the conversation turned to intermarriage. It was pretty interesting to listen to this Paraguayan congregation of 20 (there are only about 1000 Jews in Paraguay) discussing intermarriage/ asking about non-matrilineal descent, and generally “what does it mean to be Jewish?” The Rabbi was in a bit of a bind, since it was technically an orthodox service, but he tried to present a spectrum of Jewish-law responses to the questions of matrilineal/patrilineal descent. Hopefully as I get to know the community more, I will have more of a chance to ask them what it is like to be Jewish and Paraguayan.

Not exactly sure when I will next have internet connection since I still have to find the cyber-café nearest to my site…but hopefully I will have up some more posts later this month!!