Guaraní

And now, an introduction to the beautiful language of Guaraní

Yes: Heê
No: Nahaniri

Who, what, where, when, why:

Mava, Mba'e, Moô, Araka'e, Mba'ere

numbers:
1 peteî
2 mokôi
3 mbohapy
4 irundy
5 po


the personal pronouns are
I - Che
you - nde
he\she\it - ha'e
we - ñande (inclusive) ore (exclusive)
you all - peê
them - ha'e kuera


The verbs come in three different types
areals, aireals, and chendalles

areals you add:
Singular Plural
1st person a ja\ña ( for oral\nasal words) ro (exclusive we)
2nd person re pe
3rd person o o

the aireals are the same, but its ai, rei, oi, etc.

the chendalles you just add the personal pronoun and then a word

che kane'o is I am tired, it is like estoy cansado in spanish
but for the third person it isn't just ha'e

you add an i: ikane'o
but for words that begin with vowels you add an ij- if its oral or iñ- if its nasal

and the most important phrase you need:
aipota peteî cerveza penguino rumbyicha
which means: I want a beer like a penguin's ass , which during the summer is apparently quite the necessity.

one of the great things about guaraní in paraguay is that a lot of the jokes and sayings like that are in guaraní

to make things be in the future you add -ta to the end if it is an affirmative statement and -mo'aî if it is a negative statement

for the past when you are asking, you add -ra'e, but when you are responding you add -kuri.

and then there are many, many ¨particles¨ that are little words that indicate things like time, location, desire, necessity, emphasis, and many other things.

-se indicates desire
-ne indicates necessity, and -chene indicates lack of necesity
-hiná indicates an action in progress

Voluntariokuera Cuerpo de Pazndive omba´apo campope opytyvô hagua paraguayokuera
Volunteers with the Peace Corps work in the country to help paraguayans


But all in all learning two languages simultaneously is easier than I thought it would be.

What I will be doing

So we´ve passed our halfway point, and our class now has a much better idea of what we will be doing. With the rural economic development (RED) program, we will have our primary goal of working with cooperatives. These cooperatives can make anything from yogurt to bananas, and clothing to savings and loans services. We help them in a variety of ways be it, helping them with their books, comply with coop regulations, liase between them and other coops or organizations, and helping them design and execute projects, whether it is helping a strawberry coop start a jam service or a coop that gives loans with starting a program for savings. We also have secondary projects that we are encouraged to take on. These include income generating projects like apiculture (beekeeping), pisciculture (fish ponds), adding new products, or microfinance. They can also be for the community, like working with youth or women´s groups, assisting small businesses with project design, feasability studies, marketing and other things. The nice thing about the RED program is that our training is very broad and we have the potential to take on many projects. Although they do keep us very busy with training as a result. Hopefully I will start making funny posts soon, and there are also pictures to come once I get a faster internet connection.

June 19th: Return from Volunteer visit

Paraguay has been very interesting and challenging while still being very entertaining and very tranquilopa. I have been living with a family for the last two weeks in a small compania called Las Piedras. My Papa and Mama are Don Miguel and Dona Catalina. She runs a carniceria and he is a vegatable farmer. They live with their 5 year old granddaughter Najali who is very cute and is at a similar point in Spanish as I am (because almost everyone starts out learning Guarani). The town is small but there is a lot going on and I am there with 6 other volunteers. There is a snack bar, copetin, where we get empanadas and beers. There is a soccer field where the semi-professional team plays on Sundays where the games are often followed by fireworks and fights between the opposing fans. I have also been invited to several lunchs, dinner, a wedding, and other festivals (last Tuesday we had off to celebrate the end of the Chaco War). During training (which we are in for the next 8 weeks) they keep us very busy with 4 hours of language class in the morning and 4 hours of technical training in the afternoon. We do though get time off and have been able to go to Asuncion and to other places. I have been to Ita, and am in Ita now actually, Itagua, Caaguazu, Guarambare, J.A. Saldivar, and Juan Manuel Frutos. And I just returned from my visit with a current Volunteer which lasted for 4 days. He worked in a town called Pastoreo which was large compared to the training site. We went to a festival for the town´s patron Saint and then the next night had a barbeque for some of the people he knew in town.


And I should have included this in my first post, but my views are mine alone and do not represent the views of the Peace Corps of the United States Government

May 28th

Paraguay is an interesting country. If anyone is curious enough, there is a book called 'At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig' by John Gimlette that really captures the essence of Paraguay, I think, as I won't have gone there until 4 days from now. Paraguay is a land of contrasts. It is bisected by the aptly named Rio Paraguay, and the two halves are basically as opposite as ecosystems and lifestyles can be while lying on the same tropic, the Tropic of Capricorn. The West, the Chaco, is dry, unimaginably flat, and represents 60% of Paraguay's land and only 3% of her people. The East is mountainous and lush. The 6.5 million people in Paraguay are almost entirely of mixed European and Native blood. Excluding the immigrants that is. Paraguay contains populations of Japanese, Russian Mennonites (who produce the entire country's supply of dairy), Arabs, and descendants of Australian Socialists, French colonists, Fleeing nazis, and prosyletizing Jesuits. One post cannot do justice to the demographics of this country. Anyways, I shouldn't go on too long as I have not even stepped foot on its soil yet.

I do have a vague idea of what it is I will be doing though. I will be working as a rural economic development promoter. From what I am told it is unrealistic to create concrete expectations because the variance between sites is so large. I could be working with cotton growers, cattle ranchers, or some other crops rearer. What I do know is that we work largely with Paraguayan farmer's cooperatives to assist them with managerial organization, marketing, adding value to their products and so on. On top of that we are encouraged to take on secondary projects that could involve health and sanitation extension, microfinance, alternative energy, english teaching, and other community based projects. I'm sure that I will have the chance to periodically update this blog and look forward to reading anyone's responses and emails.

Rural Economic Development in Paraguay