interviewparap2

=Interview= From September of 2000 to May of 2001, Mrs. Andrea Gutierrez stayed in Paraguay working for the Peace Corps as an enviormental education volunteer. Cassandra Cordova interviewed her on her life living in this South American country.

**Cassandra**: To start our interview, why don't you tell me why you decided to join the Peace Corps? A: It was at first, but after awhile I got used to it. Even though people were poor there, they were very nice and had beautiful music.
 * Andrea**: I wanted to see the world without being a tourist, and I also wanted to help save the environment.
 * C**: Did you choose to live in Paraguay?
 * A**: Not really. I had minored in Spanish and environmental studies. Based on that, that's were I went.
 * C**: What did you do in Paraguay?
 * A**: For the first three months I trained and learned about the environment and culture of Paraguay. I also learned more Spanish and learned the indigenous language, Guarani. For the last five months, I developed relationships with the people there. That was very important, because we needed them to be able to trust us. I also helped the teachers. I was an environmental teacher and taught the kids how to take care of the earth. I organized a summer day camp with some of the teenagers for the younger children, and organized tree plantings, trash pickups, and created a community garden. I also worked in the capital at the Peace Corps building, and designed the annual report.
 * C**: Where did you live in Paraguay?
 * A**: For the first three months, I lived in the Eastern region in a little village called Guazu Cora. After a finished my training, I crossed the Paraguay River in to the Western region, called the Chaco, and lived in a town called Filadelfia.
 * C**: Were there any cultural differences between the two?
 * A**: The Eastern region was more of a Latino based culture, and they had Catholic roots. People were into agriculture, probably because the soil there was better for farming. They also spoke more Guarani. The Chaco was more industrialized, mostly because the soil there was very hard and didn't let a lot of things grow. They were influenced by a lot of different cultures, like Brazil, Russia, Canada, Latino and the indigenous people. They mostly spoke Spanish.
 * C**: What kind of jobs did the Eastern Paraguayans have?
 * A**: They mostly farmed, but they also had little shops in their house were they sold things like candy, toilet paper and batteries. These shops were called almacen.
 * C**: What about the Chaco?
 * A**: They really had a community like ours, as it was more modernized. A lot of people worked for the government, the grocery store, or other business that were around.
 * C**: What did the people do there for fun?
 * A**: On both sides of the country, most people would sit around and drink tea called yerba mate. During the summer, which was when I was down there, we mostly drank it cold, and they called it terere. Most people drink the hot tea in the winter months or in the early morning. That tea is called mate. The youngest person there would pour more water in it when it became empty. They also went to celebrations like birthdays, baptisms or holidays.
 * C**: How did you perceive the culture and the people down there?
 * A**: In Paraguay, appearances are very important. Even if you're poor, it's important to be clean and well shaven. This was kind of a problem for some of my friends who were hippies. Because they didn't shave or use deodorant, they were looked down upon and often stared at. But that might have been because they were blond. Because I have a darker complexion, I blended in real well. The people are very friendly and extremely generous. They are also family oriented. However, they gossiped a lot and had many superstitions, but I think most Latino cultures are like that. Some of their superstitions were really weird though. They believed that if you showered after working or eating, you would explode. If you went out dancing, people would talk about you and you would get a bad reputation. But they really liked to help people and be nice to them. If they came across a new food or a food they didn't like, they would say, "I don't know how to eat that". If you were lost and you asked them directions, they wouldn't tell you that they didn't know either. They didn't want to upset you so they thought that telling you some bogus way would make your situation better. Most of the time you got more lost by asking directions.
 * C**: That's crazy!
 * A**: It was. It didn't help that the bus schedules and routes weren't set. You took a risk getting on the bus because you never knew were you might end up. They also packed the bus until people were literally hanging out of the door. People would bring their pigs and chickens on the bus too. When the bus stopped, vendors would quickly get on and try to sell different things like gum, chips, batteries and chipa.
 * C**: What's chipa?
 * A**: Chipa is bread that has corn and peas mixed in. They also made chipa guazu, which is basically the same thing only with bigger corn pieces. Most of the food there is NOT good. They ate a lot of beef and fried food, especially in the Chaco. Also, they liked to drink really hot soup on the hottest days. I'm sure there was some superstition for it, but I don't remember. Most of their vegetables were from a basic salad. We tried to get them to cultivate the land more in the Chaco. In the Eastern region, I ate fresh fruit from the tree every day. There are mango trees everywhere in the capital. When they get ripe, they fall off and then rot. The smell is horrific.
 * C**: I'm sure that there's plenty of bugs around because of that.
 * A**: There were bugs EVERYWHERE. I had to take showers with cockroaches. On my first day in the Chaco, I was at a welcoming bonfire and a beetle sprayed something near my eyes. It burned really badly. The ladies there told me that I was lucky that it didn't go in my eye. If it had, I probably would have some sort of eye damage, and the health care down there isn't too great so it might have gotten worse.
 * C**: What do you mean?
 * A**: Because it's a developing country, people are poor and the government doesn't have the money to help with sick people. Not a lot of the water is clean, so a lot of my friends at the Peace Corps got sick with giardia or other diseases. I was lucky and only got sick once.
 * C**: That must have been hard for you to move from here in America to a place not so privileged.
 * C**: What was the music like?
 * A**: They played a lot of folk music on the guitar or harp. It's kind of like the polka, but it was beautiful music. They also listen to a lot of Brazilian music called cachaca. I think that all of the songs sounded the same, but because Brazilian pop culture is so important, a lot of people listened to it. It's sort of like how in Mexico, all the Mexicans think that American pop culture is cool and they try to copy it. Only in Paraguay, they idolize Brazilian pop culture.
 * C**: I'm really glad that we had the chance to have this interview. It has given me a lot of insight on how life in Paraguay is.
 * A**: I'm glad I could help you.

Back to Paraguay home page