The Parguayan winter is officially here and what better way to wlecome it than with 90 degree temperatures. To be fair there was a good stretch of days where it dipped into the 40´s at night that may not sound to cold by northern US standards but believe me it was cold and every night I was wrapped up in my 15 degree sleeping bad after drinking boiling hot maté. I must say that I do prefer the cold to the heat although my dog León would not agree. During these cold days he would beg to come inside at night and when I did he would fall asleep under my bed but to my surprise somehow ended up under my sleeping bag on the bad in the morning. Poor thing...To say the least he isn´t allowed to sleep inside anymore. These Paraguayan dogs are dirty and while I give my León baths every few weeks he still has the nasty habit of eating old diapers and goat poop...therefore not allowed in my bed. My goat is still very pregnant and is doing well. This past we we had our In Service Training where I even had the opportunity to practice milking goats but this unfortnately meant waking up at 3am to do it. It was quite the experience and a lot of fun, there were 15 or so goats to be milked at each gave 2 liters. These mother goats were so eager to be milked that they got in line and ran straight to their milking platform and put there heads in the securing contraption that holds them in place. The best part of this experience was feeding the baby goats aka kids afterwards. These little creatures are the size of small dogs and super cute. I now feel that I am prepared to milk and manage my goat when she has her kid.
This past month I have also started a youth group in my school which hopefully will become a tool to start bigger projects in the community. The kids are great and full of good ideas, but as the professors warned me it seems that they do need a bit of guidance. This past week they had planned out a raffle as a fundraiser, they had all the details nailed down but it never took place. I unfortunately was away for the whole of it and figured I would leave them to it to see what they would do but I now have this to build off from as a learning experience. Additionally, our group of volunteers that are located in my general area of the country coordinated to have an Environment Day event in Santaní. We had about 12 volunteers that brought a ton of information to cover everything environment; garbage, recycled art, deforestation, gardens, climate change, and inforamation about bee keeping and venemous snakes. The snake talk was a hit and as I have done the charla before I presented the information to the public of Santaní everyone thought that the snake (jarara) in the formaldehyde jar was still alive and so I was inclined to scare a few of them by throwing a rubber snake at their feet...hilarity ensued. But really it was a great informational day and I got to teach a few people that there are only 3 varieties of venemous snake in Paraguay and that just becuase you see a snake does not mean that you need to kill it.
One other big event this past month was the fiesta de San Juan. This party is held at every school in the month of June and is an extremely intriguing bit of cultural heritage. So what happens is that the whole community comes to the school at night and there they listen to a bit of music and eat some traditional food. Then these things called kamba show up, and these are kids that are dressed up in rags with cloth covering their faces and some dressed as scantily clad women. These characters then begin to dance and occasionally drag some poor bystander (aka me) in to dance with them and then but them a drink. Then they start to jump through a hoop that is lit on fire. Then they climp this 20 foot pole that has a ring of chipa on top, and finally a couple of them put this cardboard ´bull´ on their backs with a real cow school in the front and then light the horns on fire and charge at all the other kamba. A real interesting cultural event that is hard to explain. And all the while the high school girls dressed in their shortest skirts are coming around arresting people and they have to pay their own bail. I personally can´t even begin to explain this crazy fiesta and am not sure that I want to dig too deep.
That is all for now, I will try to add some more about my life soon but the good news is that I will be coming home in about 6 weeks for a vacation!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
200 Years!
The month of April marks the beginning of fall for Paraguay. So while it is getting warmer in the States and all of your snow is eventually disappearing here in Paraguay the people are starting to drink hot scalding maté and wearing jackets as the nights dip into the unbelievable cold 14 degree celsius range also known as the 50´s. While it sounds ridiculous that 50 degrees is cold I have found that my Upstate New York blood also finds it to be quite cold. The reason for this is that there is no insulation in any buildings so there is no escape from the slightly cool temperatures. I have gone on my share of subzero snowy hikes where my clothes get frozen and I am walking in thigh deep snow but that was an active actvity and there was always the promise of a warm house/car and hot chocolate when all was said and done. Here in Paraguay when I start to feel chilly all I can do is put on some layers, drink some scalding maté through a metal straw and get under my 15 degree down sleeping bag. Unfortunately, it will only get colder and I will have to do as the Paraguayans and sit around a fogon drinking maté and go to bed at 7pm as it now gets dark at the absurdly early hour of 5:30. But in reality the change in climate has been very nice and it is extremely enjoyable to walk across town without dripping sweat and soaking through my clothes. Plus now it is planting season!
This past month my garden has been taking off; my lettuce, cabbage, abonos verdes, and tomato are all growing strong in addition to the 5 varieties of trees that I am headstarting. My goat, Ears, has gotten super pregnant and I expect her to give birth within the month which means I get to learn how to milk a goat as well as make goat cheese! I recently adopted an adult dog named León from another volunteer that just left Paraguay and he has been great! The Paraguayans love him becuase he knows commands in Guaraní whenever I tell him to sit, eguapy, he will and then also give me his po or paw. He is a very sweet dog and loves to ´play´ with the goat which usually involves him getting headbutted. The only thing left to teach him is to chase the cows out of my yard. As far as work goes I have been kept fairly busy with planning out some future project in the community which I will write about once the process moves further along. I also have started up a computation course for a local school about 8km from my house that has 8 computers but no one to teach how to use them. So coincidentally I met up with the Directora of the school while visiting a local NGO and here I am teaching 9 classes of basic computation for 130 or so students. While I enjoy teaching these kids it really adds up to a really long day followed by a strenuous bike ride back home racing to get home before it gets dark. Plus it is not a truly sustainable practice because when I leave there will be no one to teach the course. My plan is to train a couple of teachers to continue the course to carry on once I am done. But I don´t feel too bad about the course because teaching kids to use computers in itself does make a big difference here. These kids will have a big step up from their peers that don´t have access to computers when it comes to finding jobs in the future. Plus they are getting this training for free!
The past month has also been a fairly interesting time in my communty as we had semana santa, a rodeo, the bicentennial celebration fast approaching and a death. Semana Santa was a pretty lazy time for me that mostly consisted of hanging out, eating chipa, drinking beers, and feasting on a pig roast. Not a bad way to celebrate holy week by any means. However, I did commit one big sin and ate food on the one day where it was not allowed...I am definitely going to hell. I also had a very enjoyable Saturday at a family reunion where I played Official Photographer and captured all the special family moments of a good friend Karai Victor as well as enjoyed the local bands that played some good Paraguayan Polka. The following week was my training groups Reconnect where we all went back to Guarambare on Easter Sunday and received more training in language and a few other topics of our choice with one being how to do citrus grafting (a very cool and valuable skill to have). Once the week was over I had the opportunity to go to an Olympia v. Cerro Porteño game in Asuncion (the equivalent of a Yankees-Red Sox game) so I of course had to go. Another volunteer, a random Frenchman and myself managed to scalp some tickets for a semi-reasonable price and we got essentially bleacher tickets for the Olympia section. On the way in the Police tried to take our belts away as these games have a history of violence but once they realized we were Americans they let us go through and pulled us aside to give us a very concerned warning to be careful and that we probably did not want to be sitting where we were (my guess is that they let us have our belts for self defense...haha). How bad could it possibly be? It wasn´t bad at all...while we were standing the entire game jumping up and down singing the Olympia battle songs it was a very enjoyable time. Unfortunately, Olympia lost 2-0 and as a result the fans became dejected, but we decided to leave a little bit early to avoid the mob of people leaving as well as any possible confrontations between the two groups of fans that the ploice and riot squads were all to prepared to face. After the game it was time to go back to site and the next thing I know a member of my community died, a very kind older women Ña Aquilina. It was a shock to the entire community of 8.000 Bertoni and everything shut down including the school. Currently, we are in the midst of the 9 days of prayers and the final day also falls on the Bicentennial celebration this Sunday. But things are looking up, I have been very busy. I am planning a trip home in August. I am going to another rodeo this Friday to watch some bull riders. But unfortunately my laptop has broken down which will make communication difficult. But asi es la vida.
This past month my garden has been taking off; my lettuce, cabbage, abonos verdes, and tomato are all growing strong in addition to the 5 varieties of trees that I am headstarting. My goat, Ears, has gotten super pregnant and I expect her to give birth within the month which means I get to learn how to milk a goat as well as make goat cheese! I recently adopted an adult dog named León from another volunteer that just left Paraguay and he has been great! The Paraguayans love him becuase he knows commands in Guaraní whenever I tell him to sit, eguapy, he will and then also give me his po or paw. He is a very sweet dog and loves to ´play´ with the goat which usually involves him getting headbutted. The only thing left to teach him is to chase the cows out of my yard. As far as work goes I have been kept fairly busy with planning out some future project in the community which I will write about once the process moves further along. I also have started up a computation course for a local school about 8km from my house that has 8 computers but no one to teach how to use them. So coincidentally I met up with the Directora of the school while visiting a local NGO and here I am teaching 9 classes of basic computation for 130 or so students. While I enjoy teaching these kids it really adds up to a really long day followed by a strenuous bike ride back home racing to get home before it gets dark. Plus it is not a truly sustainable practice because when I leave there will be no one to teach the course. My plan is to train a couple of teachers to continue the course to carry on once I am done. But I don´t feel too bad about the course because teaching kids to use computers in itself does make a big difference here. These kids will have a big step up from their peers that don´t have access to computers when it comes to finding jobs in the future. Plus they are getting this training for free!
The past month has also been a fairly interesting time in my communty as we had semana santa, a rodeo, the bicentennial celebration fast approaching and a death. Semana Santa was a pretty lazy time for me that mostly consisted of hanging out, eating chipa, drinking beers, and feasting on a pig roast. Not a bad way to celebrate holy week by any means. However, I did commit one big sin and ate food on the one day where it was not allowed...I am definitely going to hell. I also had a very enjoyable Saturday at a family reunion where I played Official Photographer and captured all the special family moments of a good friend Karai Victor as well as enjoyed the local bands that played some good Paraguayan Polka. The following week was my training groups Reconnect where we all went back to Guarambare on Easter Sunday and received more training in language and a few other topics of our choice with one being how to do citrus grafting (a very cool and valuable skill to have). Once the week was over I had the opportunity to go to an Olympia v. Cerro Porteño game in Asuncion (the equivalent of a Yankees-Red Sox game) so I of course had to go. Another volunteer, a random Frenchman and myself managed to scalp some tickets for a semi-reasonable price and we got essentially bleacher tickets for the Olympia section. On the way in the Police tried to take our belts away as these games have a history of violence but once they realized we were Americans they let us go through and pulled us aside to give us a very concerned warning to be careful and that we probably did not want to be sitting where we were (my guess is that they let us have our belts for self defense...haha). How bad could it possibly be? It wasn´t bad at all...while we were standing the entire game jumping up and down singing the Olympia battle songs it was a very enjoyable time. Unfortunately, Olympia lost 2-0 and as a result the fans became dejected, but we decided to leave a little bit early to avoid the mob of people leaving as well as any possible confrontations between the two groups of fans that the ploice and riot squads were all to prepared to face. After the game it was time to go back to site and the next thing I know a member of my community died, a very kind older women Ña Aquilina. It was a shock to the entire community of 8.000 Bertoni and everything shut down including the school. Currently, we are in the midst of the 9 days of prayers and the final day also falls on the Bicentennial celebration this Sunday. But things are looking up, I have been very busy. I am planning a trip home in August. I am going to another rodeo this Friday to watch some bull riders. But unfortunately my laptop has broken down which will make communication difficult. But asi es la vida.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Busy as A Bee
The month of March has flown by here in Paraguay. It finally feels that the weather is getting cooler and it has been raining quite a bit. At night I have been using my sleeping bag (Amazing how cold the low 70's feel all of a sudden)and jeans are becoming much more comfortable to wear during the day. The biggest down side to this type of weather is that when it rains everything shuts down; no school and no bus. When it rains I couldn't leave my site unless I decide to go by bicycle through wet sand and mud (Not a fun time at all). Additionally, this month of March has been filled with work and learning new things!
It all started off with a weekend of fun and and seeing my training family from Guarambare as many of us Peace Corps Volunteers flocked to Asuncion to see Shakira in concert with Ziggy Marley. These weekends in Asuncion tend to be very fun as we take a little vacation from speaking Guarani and Spanish and have a few more drinks than we would if we were in our sites. The concert itself was a blast, although Shakira doesn't actually sing in her performances she still knows how to dance. And then the day after I brought 3 other Volunteers back to my site to work Bees. And so began my new expertise with all things Bee. With this group I did a trasiego (moving a bee hive that is wild or splitting a hive from an existing box into a new bee box) with one of my neighbors in site. This whole experience went very well and took hours. Since then I have done 3 more trasiegos, one time the bees managed to get into my shirt and veil and stung my face resulting in some beautiful swelling. The most unfortunate part about bees getting into your shirt/veil is that you can't take off the suit. You can either try killing them, leave them be, or let them sting you after which they will die. Once the bees sting you the stinger and venom organ stay in your skin and continue to pump venom. Usually, you would just pull these out and no big deal but since I was in the middle of the trasiego they stayed put and emptied all of their venom into my face...good times. My most recent trasiego was yesterday and including taking a wild hive that was 10 feet up in a tree and putting it into one of the bee boxes that I have built. In order to get access we had to cut the tree down and then one by one we cut off the combs and attach them to the bars that sit on top of the bee box. Then in theory the bees will take up residence in that box since that is where all their food and babies are. So far my success rate has been 2 for 3 with the one failure being a severely depleted hive infested with ants, termites, spiders, and moths. So my bee work has been very rewarding to say the least, complete with stings and all, luckily I usually get some fresh honey out of it.
This month I have also begun an English Class at the High School. Every Friday I have an hour long session with the 10th graders to teach them basic phrases in English.To be honest I wasn't entirely excited to start doing this as I was unsure about working with this older group of kids and managing a classroom of 20+ students by myself. But after my first class I am pumped to keep doing it. The kids are really into it and seem to appreciate my teaching style. Typically, a class here is having the students copy notes off a board into their notebooks or listening to lecture nothing more. What I have done, based on my training and my personal preference, is start a class that demands 100% participation and learning what the students want to learn. While this may not be the most efficient way to learn, the reality is that the little that we do cover the kids are going to remember based out of repetition and personal attention. I have been very happy with how the kids support each other, there is a lot of laughing but they are all laughing with each other and when a student struggles their neighbors/friends never hesitate to help them. This class has been one of my favorite parts of my service so far. World Water Day was also this month (March 22nd) and I help activities in the school all day. I taught all the kids from 5th grade up through 12th (about 150 kids) about the world water supply and the water cycle. Then we had an activity that demonstrated what we do as humans that damage our water supply and stresses the importance of water conservation.
The other big project that I had participated in for the month was building fogons (essentially wood burning ovens) in a neighboring community. A fellow volunteer received money from the local government and a development organization to build 14 or so fogons in her community and she has a limited time to complete it so she called upon her neighboring volunteers to help her out so of course as her closest neighbor I was inclined to go. I rode my bike there and back for three days and we built something like 5 or 6 fogons in these days with help from Paraguayans and other volunteers. Prior to having a fogon families cook over a fire on the ground in an enclosed place. This presents health problem to the cooks; bad backs from being hunched over a fire as well as lung damage due to smoke inhalation. The fogons remedy this by placing the cooking platform/ fire above the ground at a comfortable height as well as having a chimney that draws out the smoke instead of filling the room with the smoke.
One other big event that happened this month was the death of my host father's mother (my host grandmother). This happened about 2 weeks ago and has shown me an interesting aspect of Paraguayan culture: How they deal with death. The death rituals here are very different than those of the US. Once a person dies and they have their prayers and interment they continue to have 9 days of prayer. So for each day after the death they go to the house of the loved one and say prayers with all the family there. Then on the day before the noveno (9th day of prayer) they make chipa all day (a food made of mandioca flour, cheese, and lard). We made over 500 pieces of chipa for this occasion. Then on the ninth day the family goes to the cemetery for prayers and the grave which in Paraguay is in above the ground concrete boxes eventually decorated with tile and a small shrine. On this occasion the mourning was very powerful with several people wailing and screaming. Once this is done the kids all line up and kid a piece of chipa. Then we go to the house of the loved one once again and then most people from the community come (must have been close to 100 people there) and all have their last prayers. After which the kids line up again and get more chipa. Then it is done. The family will continue to have a prayer session at the 6 month, 1 year, 1.5 years, and 2 year anniversaries. Depending on the family they may even do more. This is obviously a bit different from how we do things in the States and I have been inclined to think about which way is a better way to mourn the loss of a loved one. The reality of it is that one isn't better than the other they are just different ways to get to the same end.
It all started off with a weekend of fun and and seeing my training family from Guarambare as many of us Peace Corps Volunteers flocked to Asuncion to see Shakira in concert with Ziggy Marley. These weekends in Asuncion tend to be very fun as we take a little vacation from speaking Guarani and Spanish and have a few more drinks than we would if we were in our sites. The concert itself was a blast, although Shakira doesn't actually sing in her performances she still knows how to dance. And then the day after I brought 3 other Volunteers back to my site to work Bees. And so began my new expertise with all things Bee. With this group I did a trasiego (moving a bee hive that is wild or splitting a hive from an existing box into a new bee box) with one of my neighbors in site. This whole experience went very well and took hours. Since then I have done 3 more trasiegos, one time the bees managed to get into my shirt and veil and stung my face resulting in some beautiful swelling. The most unfortunate part about bees getting into your shirt/veil is that you can't take off the suit. You can either try killing them, leave them be, or let them sting you after which they will die. Once the bees sting you the stinger and venom organ stay in your skin and continue to pump venom. Usually, you would just pull these out and no big deal but since I was in the middle of the trasiego they stayed put and emptied all of their venom into my face...good times. My most recent trasiego was yesterday and including taking a wild hive that was 10 feet up in a tree and putting it into one of the bee boxes that I have built. In order to get access we had to cut the tree down and then one by one we cut off the combs and attach them to the bars that sit on top of the bee box. Then in theory the bees will take up residence in that box since that is where all their food and babies are. So far my success rate has been 2 for 3 with the one failure being a severely depleted hive infested with ants, termites, spiders, and moths. So my bee work has been very rewarding to say the least, complete with stings and all, luckily I usually get some fresh honey out of it.
This month I have also begun an English Class at the High School. Every Friday I have an hour long session with the 10th graders to teach them basic phrases in English.To be honest I wasn't entirely excited to start doing this as I was unsure about working with this older group of kids and managing a classroom of 20+ students by myself. But after my first class I am pumped to keep doing it. The kids are really into it and seem to appreciate my teaching style. Typically, a class here is having the students copy notes off a board into their notebooks or listening to lecture nothing more. What I have done, based on my training and my personal preference, is start a class that demands 100% participation and learning what the students want to learn. While this may not be the most efficient way to learn, the reality is that the little that we do cover the kids are going to remember based out of repetition and personal attention. I have been very happy with how the kids support each other, there is a lot of laughing but they are all laughing with each other and when a student struggles their neighbors/friends never hesitate to help them. This class has been one of my favorite parts of my service so far. World Water Day was also this month (March 22nd) and I help activities in the school all day. I taught all the kids from 5th grade up through 12th (about 150 kids) about the world water supply and the water cycle. Then we had an activity that demonstrated what we do as humans that damage our water supply and stresses the importance of water conservation.
The other big project that I had participated in for the month was building fogons (essentially wood burning ovens) in a neighboring community. A fellow volunteer received money from the local government and a development organization to build 14 or so fogons in her community and she has a limited time to complete it so she called upon her neighboring volunteers to help her out so of course as her closest neighbor I was inclined to go. I rode my bike there and back for three days and we built something like 5 or 6 fogons in these days with help from Paraguayans and other volunteers. Prior to having a fogon families cook over a fire on the ground in an enclosed place. This presents health problem to the cooks; bad backs from being hunched over a fire as well as lung damage due to smoke inhalation. The fogons remedy this by placing the cooking platform/ fire above the ground at a comfortable height as well as having a chimney that draws out the smoke instead of filling the room with the smoke.
One other big event that happened this month was the death of my host father's mother (my host grandmother). This happened about 2 weeks ago and has shown me an interesting aspect of Paraguayan culture: How they deal with death. The death rituals here are very different than those of the US. Once a person dies and they have their prayers and interment they continue to have 9 days of prayer. So for each day after the death they go to the house of the loved one and say prayers with all the family there. Then on the day before the noveno (9th day of prayer) they make chipa all day (a food made of mandioca flour, cheese, and lard). We made over 500 pieces of chipa for this occasion. Then on the ninth day the family goes to the cemetery for prayers and the grave which in Paraguay is in above the ground concrete boxes eventually decorated with tile and a small shrine. On this occasion the mourning was very powerful with several people wailing and screaming. Once this is done the kids all line up and kid a piece of chipa. Then we go to the house of the loved one once again and then most people from the community come (must have been close to 100 people there) and all have their last prayers. After which the kids line up again and get more chipa. Then it is done. The family will continue to have a prayer session at the 6 month, 1 year, 1.5 years, and 2 year anniversaries. Depending on the family they may even do more. This is obviously a bit different from how we do things in the States and I have been inclined to think about which way is a better way to mourn the loss of a loved one. The reality of it is that one isn't better than the other they are just different ways to get to the same end.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
My Daily Life
The count is now at 5 months in Paraguay, just about the longest that I have ever been away from home, and things are going great. I am now just about settled down in site and living on my own in option number 2 from the previous post. Today I was sitting around and thinking how different my life is here than it was in the States. I think the best way to do that is go through a typical day for me here in Paraguay.
I wake up around 6:30am with the sun coming through the cracks in the windows and the roosters already crowing in full force. Occasionally, a neighbor will be blasting Paraguayan electronic polka at this hour (I am pretty sure they play this music on repeat in hell just to give a little insight on how much I enjoy waking up to this).If I am good and in my routine I will now go for an 8km run around the block that goes through 4 different communities and a nice little section of forest where I will usually see some interesting birds. Next it is time for breakfast, I personally drink tea or coffee with the coffee being a Nescafe instant coffee which gets the job done. If I were with Paraguayans I would either drink hot mate or cocido, another mate based drink. This is typically served with bread crackers but I prefer to either eat fruit or have some eggs to get my day started. Next, it is time to sweep my house out from all the dirt that I tracked in the day before and to get rid of all the random dead bugs that end up on the floor during the night. Depending on the day I may also rake the yard to keep it clean from the leaves and whatnot that come of the mango trees and the garbage that blows in from the street. At this hour before it gets too hot I will also start work whether it be work in the field, build a bee box, go to the school or just visit a neighbor.At around 9am Paraguayans have another meal that in some places they call Terere Rupa or Terere Bed (the meal you have before drinking terere). This usually consists of mandioca and tortillas, but not the mexican kind, these tortillas are deep fried bits of flour and water which can be delicious but extremely fattening. Once this meal is over it is back to work until 10am or so when it is time to drink terere where everyone that is with you and drink out of the same cup-"guampa" and drink through a bombilla-"special straw with filter on end" and the drink is just ice cold water poured over yerba mate and usually some sort of medicinal herbs mixed into the water. This is one of my favorite activities and generally a culturally significant activity as you are expected to drink it whenever you go. In fact the tradition is that either the host or the youngest in the group serves everyone else. Recently I have visited some of my neighbors and I am now expected to serve since I am the youngest which means I am no longer considered the guest but a friend. After terere it is time for more work until 11 when it is time for lunch and siesta. Lunch during the summer was almost always some sort of hot soup and mandioca (blows my mind that on the hottest days of the year you eat soup at the hottest part of the day). Then Paraguayans typically pass out for a few hours and I would join them if I had been working hard that morning. But if not I will get to other stuff such as washing my laundry, all by hand, which can take a few hours. Around 3pm work can start again and will go until 6 or so. Then it is time to go back home and relax. But since I live on my own I will go home start getting dinner ready and take a nice cold shower and do one more cleanup of the house. A Paraguayan dinner tends to be fairly light usually being some sort of leftover variation of lunch but sometimes could just be peanuts or popcorn. Then bedtime is at 9pm and all the lights are out and I will go outside to brush my teeth and pee and I look up the sky and if it is clear the stars are fantastic with the milky way stretching from horizon to horizon.
More or less that is a typical day for me in Paraguay. Since I have moved out of a Paraguayan home I have taken up a few more American habits such as staying up a little later and sleeping in a little later. I have also cut out the midmorning meal and tend to eat lighter for all my meals with my food being less carb heavy and more veggie heavy. All of my food comes from Santani the nearest big town that is a 2 hour bus ride away at 5am or from the random veggie trucks that drive through town once a week. But living on my own has also meant a lot more time being spent in the house to keep it maintained and clean as well as preparing my own meals.
Since my last post I have had a summer camp, had my site presentation, done bee work, worked in a Tobacco drying facility, and moved out right before school started this past week. The summer camp went very well and there are pictures posted in Flickr we covered themes of garbage management, general personal hygiene, and dental health. But overall we just had fun and entertained the kids for a few hours where they would normally be at home doing very little. My Site Presentation also went well and my supervisors came up took me out to lunch and then had our meeting with the town which was a success and got people excited about some of the tools that I can bring to the community such as worm composting, homemade pesticides, better agricultural practices and soil conservation. I also got my bicycle which has been very useful in making visits to places that are a little further away. Another day I spent working with the employees of one of the many tobacco drying facilities in my community to see what that was all about. And it turns out it is very tedious and dirty work. I started off working in the seed beds with the men and pruning the baby tobacco plants and then went to do tobacco classification with the women. Essentially sorting out the dried tobacco leaves by quality and then bundling them up. The dust from this whole process managed to bother me even from working for a few hours and these women and children do it day in and out. My plan is to work with them some more and help them to create their own source of lumber for the drying process and maybe even get them some respiratory protection for their work.
Finally, a week ago was the big move into the house more or less across the street form my host families house. I brought all the stuff I could carry over first and then we loaded up a horse cart with all the bigger stuff that was in the school such as my red stove and a book shelf. It seemed like a ton of stuff and I am sure everyone in town is wondering where it all came from since I arrived in town with only two bags in hand. Really, a lot of it is what the previous volunteer left for me. But now I am all moved in, I had a modern bathroom put in already that took 3 days to do. So I also have a working toilet and sink in the bathroom instead of using the squat latrine that is in questionable shape. I had the bathroom done mainly because I am not paying rent for my time here and I felt I should make some improvement to the house in exchange so really its a win win situation. I have also been working in my garden and have even started planting now I can only hope that they will germinate and grow!
I wake up around 6:30am with the sun coming through the cracks in the windows and the roosters already crowing in full force. Occasionally, a neighbor will be blasting Paraguayan electronic polka at this hour (I am pretty sure they play this music on repeat in hell just to give a little insight on how much I enjoy waking up to this).If I am good and in my routine I will now go for an 8km run around the block that goes through 4 different communities and a nice little section of forest where I will usually see some interesting birds. Next it is time for breakfast, I personally drink tea or coffee with the coffee being a Nescafe instant coffee which gets the job done. If I were with Paraguayans I would either drink hot mate or cocido, another mate based drink. This is typically served with bread crackers but I prefer to either eat fruit or have some eggs to get my day started. Next, it is time to sweep my house out from all the dirt that I tracked in the day before and to get rid of all the random dead bugs that end up on the floor during the night. Depending on the day I may also rake the yard to keep it clean from the leaves and whatnot that come of the mango trees and the garbage that blows in from the street. At this hour before it gets too hot I will also start work whether it be work in the field, build a bee box, go to the school or just visit a neighbor.At around 9am Paraguayans have another meal that in some places they call Terere Rupa or Terere Bed (the meal you have before drinking terere). This usually consists of mandioca and tortillas, but not the mexican kind, these tortillas are deep fried bits of flour and water which can be delicious but extremely fattening. Once this meal is over it is back to work until 10am or so when it is time to drink terere where everyone that is with you and drink out of the same cup-"guampa" and drink through a bombilla-"special straw with filter on end" and the drink is just ice cold water poured over yerba mate and usually some sort of medicinal herbs mixed into the water. This is one of my favorite activities and generally a culturally significant activity as you are expected to drink it whenever you go. In fact the tradition is that either the host or the youngest in the group serves everyone else. Recently I have visited some of my neighbors and I am now expected to serve since I am the youngest which means I am no longer considered the guest but a friend. After terere it is time for more work until 11 when it is time for lunch and siesta. Lunch during the summer was almost always some sort of hot soup and mandioca (blows my mind that on the hottest days of the year you eat soup at the hottest part of the day). Then Paraguayans typically pass out for a few hours and I would join them if I had been working hard that morning. But if not I will get to other stuff such as washing my laundry, all by hand, which can take a few hours. Around 3pm work can start again and will go until 6 or so. Then it is time to go back home and relax. But since I live on my own I will go home start getting dinner ready and take a nice cold shower and do one more cleanup of the house. A Paraguayan dinner tends to be fairly light usually being some sort of leftover variation of lunch but sometimes could just be peanuts or popcorn. Then bedtime is at 9pm and all the lights are out and I will go outside to brush my teeth and pee and I look up the sky and if it is clear the stars are fantastic with the milky way stretching from horizon to horizon.
More or less that is a typical day for me in Paraguay. Since I have moved out of a Paraguayan home I have taken up a few more American habits such as staying up a little later and sleeping in a little later. I have also cut out the midmorning meal and tend to eat lighter for all my meals with my food being less carb heavy and more veggie heavy. All of my food comes from Santani the nearest big town that is a 2 hour bus ride away at 5am or from the random veggie trucks that drive through town once a week. But living on my own has also meant a lot more time being spent in the house to keep it maintained and clean as well as preparing my own meals.
Since my last post I have had a summer camp, had my site presentation, done bee work, worked in a Tobacco drying facility, and moved out right before school started this past week. The summer camp went very well and there are pictures posted in Flickr we covered themes of garbage management, general personal hygiene, and dental health. But overall we just had fun and entertained the kids for a few hours where they would normally be at home doing very little. My Site Presentation also went well and my supervisors came up took me out to lunch and then had our meeting with the town which was a success and got people excited about some of the tools that I can bring to the community such as worm composting, homemade pesticides, better agricultural practices and soil conservation. I also got my bicycle which has been very useful in making visits to places that are a little further away. Another day I spent working with the employees of one of the many tobacco drying facilities in my community to see what that was all about. And it turns out it is very tedious and dirty work. I started off working in the seed beds with the men and pruning the baby tobacco plants and then went to do tobacco classification with the women. Essentially sorting out the dried tobacco leaves by quality and then bundling them up. The dust from this whole process managed to bother me even from working for a few hours and these women and children do it day in and out. My plan is to work with them some more and help them to create their own source of lumber for the drying process and maybe even get them some respiratory protection for their work.
Finally, a week ago was the big move into the house more or less across the street form my host families house. I brought all the stuff I could carry over first and then we loaded up a horse cart with all the bigger stuff that was in the school such as my red stove and a book shelf. It seemed like a ton of stuff and I am sure everyone in town is wondering where it all came from since I arrived in town with only two bags in hand. Really, a lot of it is what the previous volunteer left for me. But now I am all moved in, I had a modern bathroom put in already that took 3 days to do. So I also have a working toilet and sink in the bathroom instead of using the squat latrine that is in questionable shape. I had the bathroom done mainly because I am not paying rent for my time here and I felt I should make some improvement to the house in exchange so really its a win win situation. I have also been working in my garden and have even started planting now I can only hope that they will germinate and grow!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Work, Food, and Home
I have now been in Paraguay over four months and things are really starting to pick up. About a week ago I travelled to another Volunteers site to help with a summer camp that was 3 days long. The theme of the camp was health, so we taught the kids all about exercise, dental hygiene, healthy foods, and how to avoid getting parasites. Each day we had around 30 or so kids whom we entertained for 3 hours in the morning before it got too hot at mid-day. In addition to entertaining the children we fed them every day and gave them plenty to drink because it was easily in the 90’s by 11am. To say the least we all had a blast, the kids were great and we had a fun time teaching them and they even taught us a few new games as well. In addition we made up a 3 part skit to demonstrate hygiene called Amor Ky’a (Dirty Love). This skit was modeled after the generic Latin American Telenovela and involved a handsome man (me) and two lovely ladies. This handsome man was switching his love interest between two women as a result of their physical condition at one point one woman had horrible diarrhea due to bad hygiene and at another point the other woman had disgusting teeth. But of course karma would come back and get this handsome man as the skit ended with the women losing interest in him as he had let himself go and was fat, had horrible teeth, as well as chivivi (diarrhea). The kids loved it! Over the next few days I would walk around the community and I would hear, ‘Gregorio! Amor Ky’a!’ The last day of the camp we had a review of everything that we had learned as well as a giant water fight; definitely a great way to cool off on another really hot day.
The week before my summer camp I was struck down by Paraguayan beliefs and luckily I came out alive. The first thing that happened was a bit of flu that had me laid out for about 5 days with fever and dizziness which of course was attributed to me having grown a mustache and when I cut it off the illness was gone. Next was a slight concussion that occurred after I fell playing a bit of soccer on wet grass, I woke up the next day just feeling completely sleepy and all day long, there was nothing I could do to wake up and the family noticed and their explanation was that I had slept the night before with the fan on all night and therefore I was lazy…actually it was a concussion. In reality it isn’t that different from what we do in the states, we also try to find reasons for why we are sick. Whether we attribute getting a cold to a stressful situation or a bad stomach to a specific meal we do attribute blame but we tend to blame things that actually affect our physical/emotional state not electric fans or mustaches. But there are a lot of food rules that do exist that any outsider coming to Paraguay would find surprising and likely break. Here is the list that I have compiled in my first 4 months I am sure there are many more to come:
1. Eating Peanuts after Beer will cause diarrhea.
2. Drinking water after eating anything pig will cause diarrhea.
3. Drinking milk while eating onions will cause diarrhea.
4. Eating ice cream after drinking milk with cause diarrhea.
5. Eating watermelon/ melon before drinking terere will cause death by explosion.
What makes me most curious about these things is their origin. Who decided one day that these things were prohibited, it had to have been one bad experience that was blamed on doing that action. Luckily as an outsider I have found that I can get away with eating some peanuts with my beer by say I am accustomed to it and everything is fine. In fact it has turned out that if you run into any sort of culture clash you can just say acostumbrado and it will fly but they will also watch you and if you go to the bathroom anytime soon afterwards it will be assumed that you have diarrhea.
My next few weeks are also looking to be very busy, tomorrow I am having my first community meeting which I have spent the past few days advertising by handing out fliers house by house as well as getting an announcement made on the local radio. My hope is that a decent amount of people show up and we can have a productive conversation about what we can work on in the community and hopefully form a Neighbors group that will make achieving any larger scale goals much more feasible. In addition I plan on planting the idea of a women’s group where I can also help to promote healthy practices and help the people find another source of income for economic improvement. Then next week is my own summer camp that I am holding with some environmental and health themes. Then I have my site presentation where my boss will come to my site and introduce me formally and help to explain what the Peace Corps is as well as bring my bicycle and other luggage that has been sitting in Asuncion. Then after that I will hopefully be living in my future house all on my own. Currently, I have three options. One is living in the school where the previous volunteer lived, it is a big space and just about everything I will need is there but it will mean kids constantly coming in and out of my living space, and a bathroom that isn’t currently functioning. The second option is across the street from where I am living now, it is one of the nicest houses in town and empty, it has a modern bathroom and everything I would need as well but I feel living there would also make me look like a rich American. The third option is in a different part of town where the previous volunteer did not spend much time; it is probably the least ‘nice’ of the houses and will require some fixing up. To be honest I am leaning towards my third option and as long as I can get permission to live there I would be more than happy to put in whatever work needs to be done to make it livable. But this is all up in the air still, the school is the sure thing, but I still have to wait a bit before I can move out but I am starting to get antsy to live on my own.
The week before my summer camp I was struck down by Paraguayan beliefs and luckily I came out alive. The first thing that happened was a bit of flu that had me laid out for about 5 days with fever and dizziness which of course was attributed to me having grown a mustache and when I cut it off the illness was gone. Next was a slight concussion that occurred after I fell playing a bit of soccer on wet grass, I woke up the next day just feeling completely sleepy and all day long, there was nothing I could do to wake up and the family noticed and their explanation was that I had slept the night before with the fan on all night and therefore I was lazy…actually it was a concussion. In reality it isn’t that different from what we do in the states, we also try to find reasons for why we are sick. Whether we attribute getting a cold to a stressful situation or a bad stomach to a specific meal we do attribute blame but we tend to blame things that actually affect our physical/emotional state not electric fans or mustaches. But there are a lot of food rules that do exist that any outsider coming to Paraguay would find surprising and likely break. Here is the list that I have compiled in my first 4 months I am sure there are many more to come:
1. Eating Peanuts after Beer will cause diarrhea.
2. Drinking water after eating anything pig will cause diarrhea.
3. Drinking milk while eating onions will cause diarrhea.
4. Eating ice cream after drinking milk with cause diarrhea.
5. Eating watermelon/ melon before drinking terere will cause death by explosion.
What makes me most curious about these things is their origin. Who decided one day that these things were prohibited, it had to have been one bad experience that was blamed on doing that action. Luckily as an outsider I have found that I can get away with eating some peanuts with my beer by say I am accustomed to it and everything is fine. In fact it has turned out that if you run into any sort of culture clash you can just say acostumbrado and it will fly but they will also watch you and if you go to the bathroom anytime soon afterwards it will be assumed that you have diarrhea.
My next few weeks are also looking to be very busy, tomorrow I am having my first community meeting which I have spent the past few days advertising by handing out fliers house by house as well as getting an announcement made on the local radio. My hope is that a decent amount of people show up and we can have a productive conversation about what we can work on in the community and hopefully form a Neighbors group that will make achieving any larger scale goals much more feasible. In addition I plan on planting the idea of a women’s group where I can also help to promote healthy practices and help the people find another source of income for economic improvement. Then next week is my own summer camp that I am holding with some environmental and health themes. Then I have my site presentation where my boss will come to my site and introduce me formally and help to explain what the Peace Corps is as well as bring my bicycle and other luggage that has been sitting in Asuncion. Then after that I will hopefully be living in my future house all on my own. Currently, I have three options. One is living in the school where the previous volunteer lived, it is a big space and just about everything I will need is there but it will mean kids constantly coming in and out of my living space, and a bathroom that isn’t currently functioning. The second option is across the street from where I am living now, it is one of the nicest houses in town and empty, it has a modern bathroom and everything I would need as well but I feel living there would also make me look like a rich American. The third option is in a different part of town where the previous volunteer did not spend much time; it is probably the least ‘nice’ of the houses and will require some fixing up. To be honest I am leaning towards my third option and as long as I can get permission to live there I would be more than happy to put in whatever work needs to be done to make it livable. But this is all up in the air still, the school is the sure thing, but I still have to wait a bit before I can move out but I am starting to get antsy to live on my own.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Paraguayan Culture
I have been in site for just about one month now and while I have not done a ton of ‘work’ work I have done a lot of things. For the first three months of being in site a volunteer is not expected to have a ton of projects but more to get accustomed to the community, get to know the people living there, learn Guarani, and just get a general feel for the needs of the community. For me getting adjusted to the community has been more or less difficult. And by community I mean the Paraguayan lifestyle and customs. I truly feel that the family I live with is an exception to the rule where Paraguayans are easygoing and laidback. This family gets up at 5am everyday and starts working and don’t come back from their fields until 6 at night. It is a crazy amount of work that I just cannot keep up with and even during their breaks they are doing something whether it be building an enclosure for their turkeys or butchering a pig. The non- stop action that can be to say the least overwhelming. Now throw on top of this the constant Paraguayan beliefs that are thrown in your face that causes a constant fear of getting diarrhea, becoming morally ill, or having your arms explode simply by washing your hands, consuming the wrong combinations of food, or bathing at the wrong times. While as an outsider these beliefs seem absurd I still must abide by them as long as I am in the company of Paraguayans so as not to suffer an ‘I told you so incident.’ One of my other favorite beliefs that I have fully embraced are the mythological creatures of Paraguay. Some of these characters include Pombrero or Karai Pyhareve who tends to be mischievous and causes bad things to happen and is easily provoked by whistling at night. A funny ongoing joke here is that I believe in these creatures and yell at my family, who tend not to believe these creatures, when they do something to provoke them. Another good one is Ao Ao (clothes clothes) who is essentially a bigfoot and the only way to avoid him is climb a certain tree. The joke with the family I have is that he is really Ao Ao sin Ao (clothes clothes without clothes). And of course there is Jasy Jatere aka Me who is the blond, light skinned man who kidnaps children and is able to disappear using his golden staff. In this country having red hair may as well be as if I had blond hair. But this is one creature that my family does believe as many Jasy Jatere’s will show up in the month of September (We will have to see what this means exactly). I do not intend to make fun of these beliefs only to draw attention to them as a truly rich part of the culture here that makes Paraguayans Paraguayan. While I may not personally believe the same things, I do know it is important to respect them. And the reality of it is that these examples are only the tip of the iceberg and it is all part of getting to know a new culture.
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