Interview with Sharyn Obsatz, May 27, 2023

Interview Summary

Sharyn Obsatz served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Urban Youth Development program in Paraguay from 1997-1999. Sharyn grew up in Minnesota. She remembers always being curious about the world. In both high school and college, Sharyn was an active volunteer, including visiting a high school pen pal in France, participating in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program, and youth tutoring. She also interned for a newspaper in Costa Rica and became fluent in Spanish. Her goal was to live in other countries to learn more about their culture, not just to be a tourist. After earning her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Grinnell College in Iowa, she spent five years reporting for the Santa Fe New Mexican. Next, building on her earlier experiences, especially her Spanish language fluency, international travel, and cross-cultural engagements, Sharyn decided to find a U.S. Peace Corps program in Central or South America where she could explore her interest in youth development. So, in 1997, Sharyn joined the Urban Youth Development program in Paraguay. TRAINING Peace Corps training began with a brief orientation in Miami, followed by a weekend at a retreat center in Paraguay. Trainees then went to the in-country training center in Areguá for three months of training and living with a Paraguayan family. Sharyn was already fluent in Spanish, so she studied Guarini, the Indigenous language of Paraguay. The trainers were all Paraguayans. Experienced Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) also shared experiences in helpful workshops on community mapping, how to work with young people, personal safety, and navigating cultural diversity. ASSIGNMENT Sharyn was assigned as the only PCV in a low-income neighborhood in the suburbs of San Lorenzo. The closest PCV in her Year 1 lived about 45 minutes away by bus. In Year 2, a second Urban Development program volunteer arrived and lived only a 10-minute bus ride away. Initially, Sharyn expected to work with members of her community’s Neighborhood Association to determine their needs. However, the Neighborhood Association dissolved from internal conflict soon after she arrived. So instead, Sharyn took the initiative to discover local needs by meeting people in her new community. Her first partner was a Catholic nun from a private school who wanted to start a weekly Saturday program for working children selling products on the streets and busses. Sharyn helped her local partner develop a comprehensive youth program involving tutoring, food, health services, and recreation. Sharyn also wrote a grant for a refrigerator to store the program’s weekend food and organized fundraisers for its playground repairs. Sharyn initiated small projects on her own. She taught English as a Second Language classes at her home so she could get to know more people. She created a Lending Library so youth could have books at home, and she initiated a World Map Mural project that the children painted. IMPORTANT LESSONS LEARNED Sharyn listed these important lessons she learned because of her Peace Corps experience in Paraguay. • The community expects you to invest time in building relationships. This involves having conversations, sharing Yerba Mate tea, and “hanging out.” In contrast to the U.S. cultural focus on accomplishments, Paraguayans focus on relationships. • Sharyn appreciated the willingness of Paraguayans in her community to check on her, and on each other, and to help if needed. This required everyone to know each other’s business, but Sharyn felt this tradeoff was worth it. • Sharyn saw firsthand the importance her field of journalism played during a crisis. Paraguay’s Vice-President Luis Maria Argaña was assassinated in 1999, during Sharyn’s last year of service. Sharyn recalled living with stress and uncertainty as she and other Peace Corps Volunteers(PCVs) sheltered in place until the situation was resolved. • Sharyn also learned that despite her best intentions, there would be frustrations in her work with youth because she could not change things like structural and economic issues that were beyond her control. • Sharyn appreciated the Peace Corps training workshops on how to navigate differing cultural attitudes in Paraguay. Strategies for the topics of religion (Sharyn is Jewish), women’s gender-restricted roles, safety, and gender identity (for an LGBTQ Volunteer she observed) were especially important. TRAVEL Sharyn enjoyed traveling during and after her Peace Corps service. She took bus trips to visit other PCVs, including a friend in a remote rural area. She also spent holidays at beautiful locations with beaches and waterfalls. On her way back to the U.S., Sharyn visited Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Uruguay. AFTER PEACE CORPS – LIVING IN A “GLOBAL VILLAGE” Sharyn returned to the Santa Fe New Mexican as a reporter for four more years, where she wrote about her Peace Corps experiences. She received an MA and now teaches Journalism and Media Studies at Santa Monica College near Los Angeles, California. Sharyn married in 2006, and she and her husband Michael honeymooned in Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina so he could meet her Paraguayan friends. They have a son, David, who is eleven. She stays connected with other RPCV friends online and through visits, and she belongs to a Friends of Paraguay group that supports projects in Paraguay. Sharyn says she now lives in a “global village” because she can be in touch on Facebook with the Paraguayan youth she worked with. They are all now adults with children, so they celebrate their children’s birthdays together online. She says keeping up these connections is only possible because she lived in their community as a Peace Corps Volunteer for two years. Even now when she’s in Los Angeles, in a Spanish-speaking neighborhood like Boyle Heights, she feels that same comfortable connection because of her Peace Corps experience in Paraguay 25 years ago. She concluded by saying she’s so glad she served in the Peace Corps because she has an understanding of the world that she wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Interview Keyword

Peace Corps (U.S.) Paraguay (Country of service) 1997-1999 (Date of service) Peace Corps Volunteer Job: Urban Youth Development Minnesota (birthplace) Grinnell College, Iowa (undergraduate degree in Journalism) Big Brothers/Big Sisters and tutoring (college volunteer) Costa Rica (college internship in journalism) Spanish (Language) Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper (post-college employer in Santa Fe, New Mexico USA) Miami, FL USA (Peace Corps orientation site) Areguá, Paraguay (Peace Corps training site) Asunción (capital of Paraguay) San Lorenzo (Volunteer’s assignment site) Spanish (Language) Guarini (Indigenous Language) Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) Peace Corps training workshops (community mapping, working with young people, personal safety, and navigating cultural diversity of Volunteers’ religion, women’s roles, and gender identity) Community Neighborhood Associations community partner (Catholic nun for Saturday youth program) Saturday youth program activities (tutoring, food, health services, and recreation) grant writing fundraisers English as a Second Language classes, Youth Lending Library, and World Map Mural (Volunteer’s youth development projects) Yerba Mate tea Luis Maria Argaña (Paraguay’s Vice-President, assassinated in 1999) Buenos Aires, Argentina, Uruguay (Volunteer’s travel sites) MA (Master’s degree for teaching Journalism and Media Studies) Santa Monica College (Los Angeles, California USA) husband Michael and son David (family) 2006 honeymoon with husband in Paraguay to meet Volunteer’s Paraguayan friends Friends of Paraguay (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer group that supports projects in Paraguay) Facebook (creates “global village” to connect with Paraguayan youth Volunteer worked with, who are now adults with children) comfortable connection in Boyle Heights (Spanish-speaking neighborhood of Los Angeles, California USA) because of Volunteer’s Peace Corps experience in Paraguay

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