I’ve just moved (again!!). I am now living with my third host family—well more like a host-grandmother—in my site. Next stop, my own house! One of the most challenging but also interesting parts of being a PCV is that I have to live with a host family both during training and during the first three months in site. Though in some countries, like Peru, volunteers must live with a host family for their entire stay in country, after those first three months I have the option of renting my own house. Starting with a host family gives me some amount of “protectsia” in site, helps me integrate (whether I like it or not), and also helps me connect to the resources in my community.
The first host family that I lived with, I chose because during my first time visiting site (all volunteers visit their sites for 5 days, then return to stay after a couple more weeks of training) Na V was the only person who seemed to understand that if she spoke a little bit more slowly (versus loudly) I would be able to understand what she was saying in guarani. I love her house because she has these two gigantic mango trees. They are perfect for hanging a hammock right down the middle (I may have spent the majority of the month in that hammock) and have the magical mango-tree air-conditioning. It is definitely about 20 degrees cooler under those mango trees at all times and there is always a breeze. Her house is also on the top and edge of a hill, so there is always an amazing view of rolling hills, palm trees, and distant houses. Na V also really loves animals. She always has a million chickens around, cows, pigs, and even a sheep. Everyone would always threaten to slaughter the sheep for her daughter’s quinceneara (15’th birthday), but Na V would hear none of it. She taught me most of what I know about medicinal herbs and also introduced me to about thirty families in my site on foot in the hottest part of the summer.
The second family I lived with really wanted me to be with them for all two years! Three out of five of the children still live at home and they are just the best kids. They are so full of life and I enjoyed just sitting and watching them at play. Backyard soccer could be pretty intense. My host mom Na R has so much love for all of them (and some left over for me too) and is always super-enthusiastic about trying out different agricultural techniques. She is the oldest of ten children, many of whom still live in my site, and is super boisterous. Her father and mother are pretty much the patriarch and matriarch of half of my site (probably because they have so many kids). My contact is married to one son, two sons renovated my future house, and I am renting my future house from a son-in-law. Also the father is a really impressive farmer and hopefully I will be collaborating with him in the future. Living with Na R, I got to know the whole family better. Also Na R has really delicious grapes. Everyone else’s grapes ran out in January, and we were still harvesting well into February.
Finally, my current host-grandmother Na S lives on the complete other side of town. Living in her house, I am realizing that even though I have lived in my site for two months (and it’s not that large), I still have so much more to explore. Just being physically present in another part of town has helped me meet so many new and kind people. Many of them just show up to visit Na S and I get to sit in on the conversation. Yesterday, one of the neighbors visited. This morning I returned the visit and went with the neighbor’s daughter to visit yet another new family. As we walked down a hill (where I had never been before), suddenly the path opened up to an area of flat fields, with barely any houses or trees and lots of cows. I thought I knew my site’s scenery by now—hilly with lots of different types of trees—this was the complete opposite. And I got to meet a family who grows rice! I don’t know anything about growing rice and I think they may be the only ones left in my site who grow it.
Much love from the other side of town (or as my 2nd host mom would describe amooooite = waaaaay over there).--Emily
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