I am often impressed how people in my community have so many side jobs. Women in my community make woven sunhats, bake things to sell, make clothes, and collect medical herbs—the list goes on. Men often have skills they’ll sell—like being an electrician. One woman I work with put herself through college selling medical herbs and she makes extra money now selling ice cream at the soccer games (every Sunday). People are very crafty and not shy about selling things door-to-door, on buses, or on the side of the street.

Making things to sell is something people in my community are raised doing. Children, as young as 8, will go around selling things.

Sometimes, whole families will work together, in their free time, on side jobs. Like leading up to Palm Sunday, my family made woven palms. Sometimes people will weave hats or work on other projects while visiting.

Paraguayans never stop noticing products and services that could be sold. But, making some side money is often the limit of the vision. Few Paraguayans I’ve met, even the hardest working, see their side jobs as something that could be grown into a larger business.

In my community people almost exclusively do activities that relate to making money. The three exceptions to this are playing and watching soccer, participating in religious activities, and keeping the house clean. It’s really hard to explain to Paraguayans in my community why you would do something just for the sake of doing it—like volunteering in the Peace Corps, for example.

In the States we joke men get big trucks to make up for things they lack. If I were to adapt the joke to fit Paraguay, I’d say men here get stereos.

Most people here don’t have cars. Dirt bikes and motorcycles are the more common family transportation. But, everyone has their stereo, and you’d be amazed how many families have giant stereos.

And they use their stereos. All day, starting between 6 and 8 in the morning and ending between 7 and 10 at night. There’s no way to avoid the joyous notes of cumbia and polka, sometimes competing between houses, everywhere you go.

We aren’t talking boom boxes. We are talking huge, 3 or 4, piece stereos with speakers for treble and for bass. They play radio and CDs or you can connect your pen drive or computer or phone.

We are talking club sound for a simple house party. Get ready to dance.

When I talk to other volunteers about their sites we often joke that we are related to almost everyone (through our host families) in our sites. In Paraguay, everyone in one family tends to live in the same town, on the same street. The street will have generations of one family, and the family members will likely live their entire lives there. One common exception comes because of marriage: If two people from different parts of Paraguay marry, most often the woman moves to the man’s neighborhood.

Another thing that makes families so massive to someone from the US is that the average woman has more children than in the US. Many nuclear families, especially families where the mother does not have a professional job, have more than 3 children and 5, 6, or more is not uncommon. It is also interesting to note that children frequently live with their parents until they marry. For example, I have 5 siblings in my current host family: 26, 24, 15, 12, and 8 years old and all of them live in the house with their mother and father.

What does living so close to your family mean?

It means, as a kid, you are guaranteed a huge band of cousins (friends) with whom you can play. It means when you host a party you have tons of hands to help cook. It means, to visit with family, you don’t need to leave your neighborhood.

As someone who grew up far away from branches of my family, I find it neat that Paraguayans have their aunts, uncles, and cousins so close. But, the closeness doesn’t prevent divisions and arguments. For example, in my site, my host family is related to most people on one side of the street through my mother and the other side of the street through my father. But, family members from the two sides of the street visit infrequently, even though they live only a ten-minute walk apart.

How does this relate to daily life as a volunteer?

For me a key aspect to doing my job is knowing who talks to who. Why? In a small town, gossip flies around and is a key pastime for many people. As a foreigner trying to maintain a positive image, it’s helpful to know how individual’s opinions of me might get around and affect my relationships with other members of the community. Knowing who gossips together is also helpful in terms of meeting people and understanding safety warnings. Like anywhere, people only hang out with the people they like, so they can only introduce you to that circle. Often, people don’t trust or don’t like the people who are not in their circle so they’ll advise you to avoid those people. As someone who is still trying to learn about the entire community, it is important to know when warnings to avoid someone are for a good reason or just because the person you’re talking to doesn’t like that person.