Living Conditions in Paraguay

General considerations

To learn more about living and working in Paraguay, applicants are encouraged to connect with a recruiter to discuss any specific considerations that could affect their service. In addition, please visit the U.S. Department of State's Paraguay travel information pages for the latest on travel advisories, local laws, and special circumstances.

Applicants who undergo an interview will have additional opportunities to raise questions or concerns. If, upon learning more information, an applicant would like to be considered for a different assignment from the one they have been assigned to serve in, the Peace Corps can often find an alternate option that may be a better fit.

Communications

Mail

Your mailing address in Paraguay will be: 

[Your Name], PCT (for Trainee) or PCV (for Volunteer)
Cuerpo de Paz
162 Chaco Boreal c/Mcal. López
Asunción 1580, Paraguay
South America

Letters usually take two to three weeks to reach Paraguay. Packages and other types of correspondence may take several weeks to several months.

Telephones

International phone service to and from Paraguay is fairly reliable and accessible to most Volunteers. Volunteers should plan to bring an unlocked smartphone that accepts a SIM card/eSIM. Peace Corps Paraguay also has a corporate calling plan for these phones. Make sure that it supports GSM 850/1900 (these are the same frequencies used in the U.S.). Make sure that your phone is not “locked” by your carrier.

Internet

Volunteers use a laptop/tablet regularly during pre-service training, as some sessions are online and most manuals and handouts are electronic. Additionally, once at site, all Volunteer reporting is done online. We will provide print versions of anything you request, but in general, we conduct business online at Peace Corps Paraguay and a laptop/tablet is essential. Some Volunteers get by with a smartphone, but if you are able to bring a laptop, it will be very helpful.

The internet service provided by Peace Corps Paraguay is through cell phones. Once at site, Volunteers have the option to purchase internet plans using their living allowance. In rural areas there is greater coverage of the 3G network, making internet browsing challenging, while the 4G/LTE network has better coverage in urban areas.

Housing and site location

Volunteers live in small towns or villages with fewer than 5,000 people, and some of these campo (countryside) sites have fewer than 200 inhabitants. Generally, streets in the campo towns are unpaved.

The voltage is 220 volts; any electrical appliance of 110 volts will require a transformer.

For both rural and urban Volunteers, housing in Paraguay is basic. After living with a host family during the 10 weeks of pre-service training, Volunteers are required to live with another Paraguayan family during their initial two months of service in site. At that point some Volunteers choose to live alone in one- or two-room wood or brick homes; others choose to live with a Paraguayan family for their entire two years of service. Peace Corps Paraguay strongly recommends that Volunteers, especially single women, consider this option. Living with a family not only helps with community integration, but also decreases personal security risks.

Living allowance and money management

Volunteers receive a monthly allowance in local currency that is sufficient to live at the level of the local people. The allowance covers food, household supplies, clothing, transportation to and from work, utilities, recreation and entertainment, and incidental expenses. Peace Corps Volunteers are expected to live at a level that is comparable with that of their host country counterparts. The Peace Corps discourages Volunteers from supplementing their living allowance with funds from home. However, Volunteers often bring additional money for vacation travel to other countries. For this, credit cards and traveler’s checks are preferable to cash. If you choose to bring extra money, bring the amount that will suit your own travel plans and needs. 

Food and diet

Paraguayans tend to eat simpler meals than people in the United States. Dietary habits and limited access to diverse agricultural products often limit meals to beans, rice, noodles, meat (when available), corn, onions, tomatoes, and manioc. Manioc, or mandioca (commonly known in other countries as yucca or cassava), is the staple food in rural Paraguay and is as ubiquitous as bread is in other countries. Paraguayan food is not spicy and is quite different from Mexican food (for instance, in Paraguay, a tortilla is a kind of fritter). Most Paraguayans are exceptionally generous and will insist on sharing their food, no matter how little they have.

Volunteers who choose to maintain a vegetarian diet are able to do so with varying degrees of difficulty, as it is a challenge not only to find the variety of foods necessary to remain healthy, but to help Paraguayans understand such a choice. A vegetarian diet is much easier to follow if one incorporates eggs and dairy products, and some Volunteers choose to add fish and chicken.

Transportation

Most Volunteers live in communities served by a simple dirt road, which may or may not be close to a paved road. Inexpensive bus service is available to almost all communities, although heavy rain can unexpectedly close dirt roads to bus traffic for an unpredictable length of time. While a community may not be a great distance from the capital, getting there may involve a trip of several hours because of the condition of unpaved roads. You will receive assistance in identifying alternative forms of transportation (e.g., a private vehicle, taxi, or truck) from your site in the event of an emergency.

Peace Corps prohibits Volunteers from driving or riding as a passenger on any two- or three-wheeled motorized vehicle (such as a motorcycle) for any reason. Moreover, Volunteers are not allowed to own or drive private vehicles in Paraguay. These prohibitions are in response to serious safety concerns, and violation of the policy will result in the administrative separation of the Volunteer from the Peace Corps.

Social activities

Family is at the center of Paraguayan culture, and closely after that comes community. Sharing time with host families and neighbors is very important.

Recreation in smaller towns often centers on the family, with an occasional dance, soccer game, or horse race to attend. In the evening, many families gather with friends for volleyball games. The losers pay for drinks, which could include soft drinks (gaseosas) or beer.

People frequently sit in clusters (often by gender or age group) to drink the ubiquitous yerba mate, a common caffeinated drink made from the leaves of a native tree, either cold (tereré) or hot (mate) in the morning or winter.

Drinking tereré in a communal fashion with a shared straw is an essential part of building relationships in Paraguay. Volunteers participate in this custom daily. Spending unstructured time with people is critical to relationship-building, even without tereré.

During the hot summer, an important social activity is likely to be bathing in the local stream (arroyo).

Volunteers often participate in organized groups, such as ecology clubs or youth groups, that meet occasionally for selected activities. In Asunción and larger towns, there is a wider variety of options for social activities, including movie theaters, nightclubs, restaurants, and sporting events.

Professionalism, appearance, dress, and behavior

Professionalism in the Peace Corps requires an awareness of the host community workplace culture, community values, and your self-presentation. To maintain a positive, culturally appropriate professional standing within a host community or workplace, Volunteers may need to adjust their style of dress, hair style, facial hair, make-up, piercings, manner of greeting others, etc., to demonstrate respect for local culture and customs. How you present yourself, in both informal and professional settings, is a reflection of you as an individual and of you as a representative of Peace Corps and the United States. In the U.S., dress (and other elements of personal appearance) may be seen as an expression of personal freedom and identity. In many host countries where Peace Corps Volunteers serve, the way you dress and present yourself may be interpreted as an expression of regard—or disregard—for those host community members around you.

Volunteers are encouraged to spend time in their communities, develop their language skills, and get to know the individual members of their community in order to better understand their traditions, culture, and local norms. As mutual trust is established over time, there may opportunities for Volunteers to adjust their personal appearance and dress outside of the more rigid local standards. Volunteers are encouraged to discuss these potential adjustments with staff and other cultural mentors.

Volunteers will participate in an orientation on culturally appropriate behavior and cultural sensitivity during training.

Few Paraguayan men have long hair, locs, or shaved-in patterns, and some may consider these hairstyles inappropriate for the workplace.

Visible body piercings (other than earrings for women) and tattoos for all genders are not generally accepted in professional settings. Wearing facial piercings may make it more difficult to integrate into your community. Tattoos are common in Paraguay outside of professional settings.

Cleanliness and neatness are very important for community integration for Volunteers representing the Peace Corps.

Shorts, flip-flops, and tank tops are not considered appropriate dress in an office environment.

In considering your attire, keep in mind that Paraguay has experienced extreme weather recently, including hail, intense rain, or conversely drought. Paraguay is very hot during summer months.

For more information on all these topics, invitees can access the “Bridge to Pre-service Training" document available to invitees on Learning Space.