Long field
The past week, we’ve been away from our training community for Long Field Practice. I went to visit Volunteer J in her community of Valenzuela, some two hours from this site. She’s doing some great work with a very motivated, very well-organized women’s group. The socias of AMUR have classes on gardening, leatherwork, embroidery, English, computer skills, rug making, and all kinds of domestic improvement projects. They’re also installing a new Internet cafe and contemplating a bakery.
Valenzuela is a good ways out in the countryside, but it’s uncommonly developed. The main roads in town are cobblestone and graced by the odd Mercedes. They’ve got electricity and running water. The farms are different from my training community. Here, we average around 1-2 hand-worked hectares per family. Valenzuela has more industrialized agriculture - lots of sugar cane, pineapple, and beef cattle. Valenzuela also has a larger population of foreign expats, mostly German and Swiss.
The end of Long Field marks a major milestone in our training schedule. We’ve finished Week Seven out of eleven in total. At the end of next week, the eighth, we get our site assignments. Can’t hardly wait to find out where I’m going.
The Guaraní word of the day is ñande. Or ore. These are both different ways of saying we. Unlike English and Spanish, Guaraní differentiates between the “we” that includes the listener and the “we” that does not. For example, if I were to say that we went to Valenzuela (”Valenzuelape ore rohokuri“) I would use the exclusive ore form because you, the listener, were not around for that trip. But if I wanted to say that we read my website (”Ñande jaleejepi che sitio“) I would use the inclusive ñande form.