About

I'm a native Chicagoan serving as a Peace Corps agricultural extentionist and Peace Corps Master's International (PCMI) volunteer in Paraguay. While working with farmers and their communities, I'm also working on my master's thesis as part of the requirements for the Master's of Environmental Studies (MES) program at the College of Charleston. Just to note, I'll briefly say that this chapter of my life started with Netflix and a quarter-life crisis. In a chaotic summary: life-long Chicagoan, dissatisfaction with teaching high school, Anthony Bourdain, long-term relationship, 180º South. I sold all of my furniture and unnecessary household items, applied to the Peace Corps, and moved to South Carolina.

My last name is Machuca and in Spanish "machucar" means "to crush" or "to smash."  The title of this blog and the titles of this entry are both different conjugations of the verb machucar. *Machuca en Paraguay* can be simply translated to "Machuca in Paraguay" or "[She] Smashes in Paraguay." What on earth is she smashing? Well you'll find that out as you read my posts.