12-15-09
Like a Virgin
I’ve been sitting at the airport customs office for the past four hours. I wish I was exaggerating this number but am simply not. My lovely parents mailed me a Christmas package via DHL and I was sent here to retrieve it. I paid 115,000 Guaranís ($22) at the DHL office. Now I’m waiting while a woman runs around to gain the right signatures necessary to let me have the package. I’ve seen my box twice—one time to verify that it was the correct box, the second time to open it and pull out a book to claim it was only books inside. This is not true but the woman told me we had to lie to minimize the tax. (I think that it is so we avoid having to bribe both her and her boss…) I’m actually lucky to get it today. A friend had to come back to the airport 4 times (!) to get a box a few months ago. Yikes. I’ll end up paying this woman another 150,000Gs ($30). To put this in perspective, I pay $40 a month in rent. Good God, this process is exhausting, but I’m sure it’ll be a fabulous package! Please note: If you want to send a Peace Corps Paraguay Volunteer a package, claim it is less than $100 to avoid this absurdity.
A week ago I did the holy walk to Caacupe to honor the Virgin of Caacupe. Another PCV, David, called the day before to ask if I was going and see if he could join my community. I had plans to walk with the younger of my two youth groups. David came over as I tried to get a solid timeline as to when we were leaving from my youth gropu. After many calls (including mostly llamada perdidas or missed calls where they call and hang up so I’ll call back and it’s free for them) I still had no solid answer. David and I decided not to wait around any longer. We got on the bus from my neighborhood at 9pm. It was full of teenagers who were prepared to celebrate this holiest of Paraguayan holidays. We were standing with our bags chock full of water bottles and other survival necessities (extra socks, bandaids, towel to sit on, etc.). Then, on this holy bus ride, the kids began to yell and catcall anyone we passed. They heckled each other and even set off fireworks—all while packed on the bus! I was feeling closer to God and the Virgin already.
After the hour and a half bus ride on our feet, we reached Ypacaraii and bid farewell to our new teenage amigos for a quick stop to assure we started the trek off right—with a bathroom break and a beer. We began to walk with the throng. While estimates vary widely, I was told about 50,000 people make the hike each year. The problem with starting so late, I guess, is that the night crowd is rowdy and doesn’t seem as concerned with the Virgin as it does with flirting, heckling, catcalling, and generally being teenagers away from their parents for an entire night. We walked for 5 hours all told—stopping only for a brownie sundae at the best American-type food place in the country and for me to push a big mill thing in order to squeeze the juice from sugar cane. Basically there are two men who push two logs clockwise. The entire machine is made of wood only. I asked if I could try. There are some sweet photos that I’ll link whenever David puts them up. The juice is not very good but the uphill hike seemed much easier after pushing against the mill for a few minutes. We walked most of the way with two Paraguayan guys we met. People were selling chipa (dry cornbread-like traditional food), hotdogs, meat on a stick (always), Virgin memorabilia (including a plastic hat with the Virgin AND a 2010 calendar on it, obviously). Everyone opens their houses up to sell bathroom privileges, food, and ground space to sleep. There were thousands of people sleeping on the sides of the road and all through the main plaza. It was incredible to see. Very luckily, we were able to stay at a PCV friend’s friend’s house so I got about two hours of sleep in a bed and a few more on the bare floor. The next morning while most people went to one of the hourly masses, we bought egg sandwiches and I watched as two other PCVs sang Madonna’s Like a Virgin on the karaoke machine. Nothing says Catholicism like Madonna, right?
I also started a mini-camp at the comedor last week. For much of summer break, on Mondays and Wednesdays I’m teaching English and playing games with the kids. I played a fabulous English-teaching version of Monkey-Fire with the kids which was a definite hit. Then I went to help teach games and icebreakers to the newest group of volunteers on their last day of training. I taught the usual crowd pleasers—Gaga, Monkey Fire, Fire People, Everybody Wins Musical Chairs… OK, I didn’t finish this blog, but did finally get that phenomenal package…
Monday, December 21, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Cat Burglar
11-11-09
So, I spent some of my Saturday dry heaving, which is actually not how most people would have dealt with what happened. To start from the beginning, I go into my second bedroom, which is much more of a storage room that happens to house my refrigerator than anything else. I go in to grab something from the fridge and see this huge white cat sitting on my backpack, which is on the desk. I scream, because I don’t have any cats and because I hate cats with a bloody passion. I actually convinced myself for most of my life that I was allergic to cats, though in more recent years I’ve realized that is simply not true. I’ve seen this cat before, sitting in my yard and looking up at me through its nasty beady eyes. So regardless, I scream and the cat jumps out of the window without any problem, right through the space where a pane of glass should be. (This is not my only broken window.) I continue doing this and that around my house and go back in there and the same thing happens, and again, I scream. And so as I’m duct taping the cardboard to the window pane, I’m thinking, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice…” and just how entertaining George W. was as a president.
So, my window all repaired, I go into my room and watch an episode of Dexter, which was just loaned to me by another PCV. When the episode was over I decided to go back and continue cleaning my house, but when I go into the main room, which connects both bedrooms, the bathroom and kitchen, I hear this terrible whining or crying sound. It isn’t like a child crying, but certainly some sort of animal. I have no clue what it could be so I arm myself with my Nalgene bottle in one hand and my cell phone in the other, and walk into the second bedroom/storage room/fridge room. The window is still securely duct-taped but the noise is unmistakably coming from inside the room. Suddenly I see something out of the corner of my eye—right behind my refrigerator. I jump (and, to be honest, probably scream again) and see these two disgusting little white creatures looking up at me. They look like rodents, but they’re cats. They’re small. They’re eyes are just barely open and one of them looks like it has severe pink eye. It is at this point when my stomach lurches and I’m nearly sick. I unplug the fridge, thinking of how dead cats may actually be worse than live ones in my house. I call my closest PC friend, who laughs and tells me she doesn’t know what to tell me (she is 7 hours away). I call my old 16 year old host brother who tells me that they just got a dog and I can probably deal with this on my own. So I go next door and explain my predicament to my neighbors. I don’t know these neighbors well. They’re very nice in each interaction I have with them but we usually only exchange the pleasantries. The other time I asked their help was for a leaky faucet, which they told me wasn’t a big enough problem to worry about. I think they think I’m an idiot.
Anyway, I explain my hatred for cats, that I don’t want to touch them—yes, I say, even though they’re kittens—and that they’re behind my fridge. The women exchange a look and one of them gets up, grabs a fruit crate and finds newspaper to line it. As I move my fridge, we see that there are three kittens, not two. She picks each up, saying that it looks like they were born here and that they’ve probably been here for 22 days. My stomach lurches again, but I hide it well. She carries the crate into the back yard, saying the mother will be back for them. I thank her repeatedly as she gives me a smile and leaves. I start to worry that they’ll freeze outside. It is our summer, but Saturday was cold and rainy, and there was probably a reason they were huddled up next to the coils of my fridge so I take an old t-shirt out and put it in the box. Fifteen minutes later, my neighbor is back, saying that there are other neighbors who want the cats as pets. One of the cats has decided to explore a little and has wedged itself between a wall and a chain link fence. She can’t get it out. As she takes the other two, I see that the chain link looks like it may be gagging and/or trapping the cat, so I pull it away slightly (with plenty of room between my hand and the cat). It hisses. I jump and scream, and swear (in English). My neighbor is behind me and smiles politely. She takes the box and the 2 disgusting little conjunctivitis-eyed cat rats. A few minutes later she comes back for the third.
I call my closest PC friend again. She recently got internet and I have her look up some info on Wikipedia about cats. The idea that those nasty little gremlins were in my house for three weeks without my knowledge is more than I can handle. Plus, I have some questions. Why didn’t I hear them before? Where is the cat shit and piss? The mother definitely sheds (my backpack was proof) but that was the first day I saw cat hair. How old are cats when they begin to see? Here is what I’ve learned: cats cannot urinate nor defecate without their mother’s help (?) for the first 2 weeks of life. They usually begin to see after about 7 to 10 days. There was a wild storm on Friday night so it is possible they were born elsewhere and brought to my humble abode after birth. (My mother tells me this is possible, and I whole-heartedly would like to believe this hypothesis.) Or, if not, I may have been out of town when they were born (why do I keep wanting to say hatched like they came from eggs??) since I was out of town for a couple of nights the weekend before for Halloween.
Saturday night I had some trouble falling asleep, just thinking of those disgusting creatures sharing my roof for any amount of time. A week or two before I began thinking about the possibility of actually getting a cat for myself. It sounds absurd, I know, but I thought maybe I could have an outdoor cat that could come in to kill any mice or bugs I may have. The previous volunteer once found two mice cuddling in her bed when she was about to climb in in the middle of the winter. I hope to avoid this at all costs. But it seems that a cat probably isn’t the answer I’m looking for. Now I just keep thinking of how unfortunate it is that a dog didn’t climb in my window and leave cute little puppies behind my fridge. I would have kept one and completely avoided all of Saturday’s queasiness.
So, I spent some of my Saturday dry heaving, which is actually not how most people would have dealt with what happened. To start from the beginning, I go into my second bedroom, which is much more of a storage room that happens to house my refrigerator than anything else. I go in to grab something from the fridge and see this huge white cat sitting on my backpack, which is on the desk. I scream, because I don’t have any cats and because I hate cats with a bloody passion. I actually convinced myself for most of my life that I was allergic to cats, though in more recent years I’ve realized that is simply not true. I’ve seen this cat before, sitting in my yard and looking up at me through its nasty beady eyes. So regardless, I scream and the cat jumps out of the window without any problem, right through the space where a pane of glass should be. (This is not my only broken window.) I continue doing this and that around my house and go back in there and the same thing happens, and again, I scream. And so as I’m duct taping the cardboard to the window pane, I’m thinking, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice…” and just how entertaining George W. was as a president.
So, my window all repaired, I go into my room and watch an episode of Dexter, which was just loaned to me by another PCV. When the episode was over I decided to go back and continue cleaning my house, but when I go into the main room, which connects both bedrooms, the bathroom and kitchen, I hear this terrible whining or crying sound. It isn’t like a child crying, but certainly some sort of animal. I have no clue what it could be so I arm myself with my Nalgene bottle in one hand and my cell phone in the other, and walk into the second bedroom/storage room/fridge room. The window is still securely duct-taped but the noise is unmistakably coming from inside the room. Suddenly I see something out of the corner of my eye—right behind my refrigerator. I jump (and, to be honest, probably scream again) and see these two disgusting little white creatures looking up at me. They look like rodents, but they’re cats. They’re small. They’re eyes are just barely open and one of them looks like it has severe pink eye. It is at this point when my stomach lurches and I’m nearly sick. I unplug the fridge, thinking of how dead cats may actually be worse than live ones in my house. I call my closest PC friend, who laughs and tells me she doesn’t know what to tell me (she is 7 hours away). I call my old 16 year old host brother who tells me that they just got a dog and I can probably deal with this on my own. So I go next door and explain my predicament to my neighbors. I don’t know these neighbors well. They’re very nice in each interaction I have with them but we usually only exchange the pleasantries. The other time I asked their help was for a leaky faucet, which they told me wasn’t a big enough problem to worry about. I think they think I’m an idiot.
Anyway, I explain my hatred for cats, that I don’t want to touch them—yes, I say, even though they’re kittens—and that they’re behind my fridge. The women exchange a look and one of them gets up, grabs a fruit crate and finds newspaper to line it. As I move my fridge, we see that there are three kittens, not two. She picks each up, saying that it looks like they were born here and that they’ve probably been here for 22 days. My stomach lurches again, but I hide it well. She carries the crate into the back yard, saying the mother will be back for them. I thank her repeatedly as she gives me a smile and leaves. I start to worry that they’ll freeze outside. It is our summer, but Saturday was cold and rainy, and there was probably a reason they were huddled up next to the coils of my fridge so I take an old t-shirt out and put it in the box. Fifteen minutes later, my neighbor is back, saying that there are other neighbors who want the cats as pets. One of the cats has decided to explore a little and has wedged itself between a wall and a chain link fence. She can’t get it out. As she takes the other two, I see that the chain link looks like it may be gagging and/or trapping the cat, so I pull it away slightly (with plenty of room between my hand and the cat). It hisses. I jump and scream, and swear (in English). My neighbor is behind me and smiles politely. She takes the box and the 2 disgusting little conjunctivitis-eyed cat rats. A few minutes later she comes back for the third.
I call my closest PC friend again. She recently got internet and I have her look up some info on Wikipedia about cats. The idea that those nasty little gremlins were in my house for three weeks without my knowledge is more than I can handle. Plus, I have some questions. Why didn’t I hear them before? Where is the cat shit and piss? The mother definitely sheds (my backpack was proof) but that was the first day I saw cat hair. How old are cats when they begin to see? Here is what I’ve learned: cats cannot urinate nor defecate without their mother’s help (?) for the first 2 weeks of life. They usually begin to see after about 7 to 10 days. There was a wild storm on Friday night so it is possible they were born elsewhere and brought to my humble abode after birth. (My mother tells me this is possible, and I whole-heartedly would like to believe this hypothesis.) Or, if not, I may have been out of town when they were born (why do I keep wanting to say hatched like they came from eggs??) since I was out of town for a couple of nights the weekend before for Halloween.
Saturday night I had some trouble falling asleep, just thinking of those disgusting creatures sharing my roof for any amount of time. A week or two before I began thinking about the possibility of actually getting a cat for myself. It sounds absurd, I know, but I thought maybe I could have an outdoor cat that could come in to kill any mice or bugs I may have. The previous volunteer once found two mice cuddling in her bed when she was about to climb in in the middle of the winter. I hope to avoid this at all costs. But it seems that a cat probably isn’t the answer I’m looking for. Now I just keep thinking of how unfortunate it is that a dog didn’t climb in my window and leave cute little puppies behind my fridge. I would have kept one and completely avoided all of Saturday’s queasiness.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Third Phase
11-06-09
OK, so to quickly recap, I live in the first phase of three phases in Villa Madrid, Limpio, Paraguay. The phases (now home to 750 houses) were built a year apart each and I believe started as a squatting community—I know some people had the shacks before they had the houses but I’m not sure of how completely the neighborhood was filled. The first phase, where I live, is the closest to the main road that leads to Limpio and then Asunción. It was built first about 16 years ago with the second phase following a year later and the third a year after that. Although they were really all built around the same time, there is a huge division between the phases. This continues for several reasons. The biggest of which, I believe, is that water is paid for by each phase separately. Each phase has its own tank and the water situation is sometimes completely different for each phase. When I arrived in site six months ago, for example, the third phase had water about 20 hours a day. Now I believe it has it about 3 hours a day like the first phase. I don’t know why else the phases are separated so strongly. Perhaps because if people in the first phase need something they tend to get it in the first phase or go along the main road. Since the second and third phases need to pass through the first in order to leave Villa Madrid I think everyone simply has become familiar with it over time. The church, elementary school, high school, and community center are also all in the first phase. In short, the first phase really has no need to go to the third phase.
A few years ago there was a huge gang problem apparently in Villa Madrid. Apparently many of the problems (and the occasional homicide) happened in the third phase. This too makes sense geographically—it is more secluded with fewer people passing through and generally fewer street lights and more trees. Regardless, the gang problem has since been resolved. I was told that the gangs essentially killed each other off, but who knows? Now it goes like this: I tell a Paraguayan not living in Limpio that I live in Limpio and they mention how dangerous (and dirty) it is. I tell a Paraguayan from Limpio that I live in Villa Madrid and they tell me how dangerous it is. Then, within Villa Madrid I’ll talk about how I’m working a lot in the third phase (that is where the comedor is) and they tell me that that is where it is the most dangerous and where all the drugs are.
I’m explaining all this because I am so frequently so pleased with my interactions in the third phase. Tonight was no exception. There was a meeting at the comedor. Everyone voted for new leaders to run the comedor itself, then, strangely I was asked to say a few things to the group. The vote went exactly as I wanted, which I was obviously pleased about. I think the new group will get along very well and has a great balance of people involved. My new youth group presented itself to the group and talked about a few upcoming projects. Tomorrow they’re doing a drug abuse chat with games and a visitor with a college degree and Sunday we’re having a picnic/dance party all day to raise some money for the comedor. The main kid who was going to start working at the super markets 36 hours a week has decided to cut down to about 20 and will remain the president. (I’m psyched about this because this kid is my hero and such a natural leader!) Then as a group we (Jovenes Unidos or United Youth as they just named themselves) cleaned the huge empty space that hosts the comedor Monday through Friday. Imagine 10 fourteen and fifteen year old kids and a few of their younger siblings (like my favorite 8 year old) and me slipping around on the floor while mopping. I seriously felt ten years younger. These kids are sweet and normal and just seem so into having good clean fun. Then after a quick chat on who is in charge of what this weekend (I’m in charge of playing games with younger kids) they asked me to go with them house to house asking their parents if they could walk with me to my house while they put up fliers about the chat and picnic (spelled “pigni” on their flier). I complied, thinking of all the times I begged my parents to extend my curfew those extra 15 minutes when I was their age. And because they ask me funny questions sometimes—the best (by far) tonight was whether there are 24 hour days in the United States.
OK, so to quickly recap, I live in the first phase of three phases in Villa Madrid, Limpio, Paraguay. The phases (now home to 750 houses) were built a year apart each and I believe started as a squatting community—I know some people had the shacks before they had the houses but I’m not sure of how completely the neighborhood was filled. The first phase, where I live, is the closest to the main road that leads to Limpio and then Asunción. It was built first about 16 years ago with the second phase following a year later and the third a year after that. Although they were really all built around the same time, there is a huge division between the phases. This continues for several reasons. The biggest of which, I believe, is that water is paid for by each phase separately. Each phase has its own tank and the water situation is sometimes completely different for each phase. When I arrived in site six months ago, for example, the third phase had water about 20 hours a day. Now I believe it has it about 3 hours a day like the first phase. I don’t know why else the phases are separated so strongly. Perhaps because if people in the first phase need something they tend to get it in the first phase or go along the main road. Since the second and third phases need to pass through the first in order to leave Villa Madrid I think everyone simply has become familiar with it over time. The church, elementary school, high school, and community center are also all in the first phase. In short, the first phase really has no need to go to the third phase.
A few years ago there was a huge gang problem apparently in Villa Madrid. Apparently many of the problems (and the occasional homicide) happened in the third phase. This too makes sense geographically—it is more secluded with fewer people passing through and generally fewer street lights and more trees. Regardless, the gang problem has since been resolved. I was told that the gangs essentially killed each other off, but who knows? Now it goes like this: I tell a Paraguayan not living in Limpio that I live in Limpio and they mention how dangerous (and dirty) it is. I tell a Paraguayan from Limpio that I live in Villa Madrid and they tell me how dangerous it is. Then, within Villa Madrid I’ll talk about how I’m working a lot in the third phase (that is where the comedor is) and they tell me that that is where it is the most dangerous and where all the drugs are.
I’m explaining all this because I am so frequently so pleased with my interactions in the third phase. Tonight was no exception. There was a meeting at the comedor. Everyone voted for new leaders to run the comedor itself, then, strangely I was asked to say a few things to the group. The vote went exactly as I wanted, which I was obviously pleased about. I think the new group will get along very well and has a great balance of people involved. My new youth group presented itself to the group and talked about a few upcoming projects. Tomorrow they’re doing a drug abuse chat with games and a visitor with a college degree and Sunday we’re having a picnic/dance party all day to raise some money for the comedor. The main kid who was going to start working at the super markets 36 hours a week has decided to cut down to about 20 and will remain the president. (I’m psyched about this because this kid is my hero and such a natural leader!) Then as a group we (Jovenes Unidos or United Youth as they just named themselves) cleaned the huge empty space that hosts the comedor Monday through Friday. Imagine 10 fourteen and fifteen year old kids and a few of their younger siblings (like my favorite 8 year old) and me slipping around on the floor while mopping. I seriously felt ten years younger. These kids are sweet and normal and just seem so into having good clean fun. Then after a quick chat on who is in charge of what this weekend (I’m in charge of playing games with younger kids) they asked me to go with them house to house asking their parents if they could walk with me to my house while they put up fliers about the chat and picnic (spelled “pigni” on their flier). I complied, thinking of all the times I begged my parents to extend my curfew those extra 15 minutes when I was their age. And because they ask me funny questions sometimes—the best (by far) tonight was whether there are 24 hour days in the United States.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Sweating Through My Life
11-06-09
Today has been quite pleasant. I was going to wake up and do laundry but it was cloudy so I just bummed around the house until going to the comedor. Since the people in charge have changed it has been much more pleasant there for me, though I think some of it is because in a meeting last week I went on a rant about how ridiculous all the gossip and caddiness is so now the mothers gossip mostly in Guaraní. In other words, nothing has changed but now I just don’t know all that is being said. After several delays, I finally started the dental activities with the kids there, though I’ve actually decided to hold off on doing them until school ends in about two weeks since then I can actually have the whole group do the projects instead of having kids come in and out, depending on when they have school (morning or afternoon). I think it’ll be much more effective that way.
I went to another volunteer’s site earlier this week to help with sex ed/healthy relationship chats among middle school and high school kids. There were six volunteers there to do the activities, many of which went really well. We did one activity that I had totally forgotten about—we learned about it during training. You draw a scale, and then talk to the class about the reasons to have sex in high school and the reasons to wait. After you have gathered all the reasons, you go back through and erase those which the class decides are bad reasons on either side. We also did one part focusing on healthy relationships. We read scenarios and had the class decide if it was a healthy or unhealthy relationship. I’m amazed at how acceptable—and even desirable!—jealous boyfriends are. (We split the groups into girls and guys, so I don’t know how the guys reacted.) Culturally—and realize that I am by no means saying this is always true, but I will say that it is extremely common—guys are able to (and often expected to) have more than one girlfriend. I don’t know if this is somehow connected to the War of the Triple Alliance when something like 2 out of every 3 Paraguayan men died. Maybe this is just a part of that history that carries on. Who knows? Regardless, it is very acceptable. Paraguayan men often cheat and often have several girlfriends, sometimes completely openly. The women, on the other hand, are frequently kept on a fairly short leash. We read one scenario that was something along the lines of, “Every time I go out with my friends, I have to call my boyfriend first—it is almost like I have to ask permission.” Healthy or not? The class was pretty split. It amazes me. Jealousy is frequently seen as part of a loving relationship, like jealousy proves that the person loves you. Again, I want to stress that this is NOT always true, but I’ve been absolutely amazed at how common it is. We also got a few questions about why men are all such womanizers and so machismo. I’ve gotten a few of these in my own sex ed chats as well. On other quick sex-ed news, I accidentally left 6 poster-sized anatomically correct drawings on a bus a few days ago. I should call the bus company but can’t imagine how awkward that conversation would be. I’ll call after siesta today.
It is getting super grossly hot here. Two nights ago I decided to cook a few big dishes that I can eat throughout the week. As I was cutting the vegetables it was so hot that I was dripping with sweat. Mind you, I was only cutting vegetables. This is not a very strenuous activity, and I was dripping onto the floor. Ew. It is only going to get worse too. Yesterday I took a bus into Asunción and passed two signs telling the temperature. Like the rest of the world, Paraguay uses Celsius, so one said 39° and the other said 41°. Because I’m horrible at converting in my head, I was thinking that meant 95° Fahrenheit more or less. But I used my phone converter, and that means it was between 102° and 106° Fahrenheit! And that was at about 3:30, after it had cooled slightly. Needless to say, I headed to the Embassy pool to swim a bit and felt a thousand times better afterwards. I’m planning on taking advantage of my proximity to the pool this summer. It easily gets up to 45° Celsius here—that means 113°F! And sometimes a bit hotter! So, if you’re planning a trip to this lovely little country, maybe you should wait until May or so.
OK, sorry about that weather rant. I can’t help myself. Life is going well for me. Students are in exams right now, so life is a bit slower, but I’m enjoying myself. A Peace Corps friend came over last week and made some shelves for me. I would like to say that I helped, but I did very little other than serve terere. The shelves are beautiful and I’m psyched not to be living out of my suitcases any more. My house is far from being finished but it is coming right along. The next step is to put up a pole to hang some clothes and then make a bookshelf. Afterwards I’ll eventually fix up the other room and make it so that people can actually sleep there if they visit. I’m thinking that is a project for January though. We shall see. Hope things are going wonderfully state side for everyone. I have no idea what is going on in the world, so any news updates or personal updates would be greatly appreciated. (Also, my address is somewhere in this blog, so feel free to send me a little love via snail mail!!)
Today has been quite pleasant. I was going to wake up and do laundry but it was cloudy so I just bummed around the house until going to the comedor. Since the people in charge have changed it has been much more pleasant there for me, though I think some of it is because in a meeting last week I went on a rant about how ridiculous all the gossip and caddiness is so now the mothers gossip mostly in Guaraní. In other words, nothing has changed but now I just don’t know all that is being said. After several delays, I finally started the dental activities with the kids there, though I’ve actually decided to hold off on doing them until school ends in about two weeks since then I can actually have the whole group do the projects instead of having kids come in and out, depending on when they have school (morning or afternoon). I think it’ll be much more effective that way.
I went to another volunteer’s site earlier this week to help with sex ed/healthy relationship chats among middle school and high school kids. There were six volunteers there to do the activities, many of which went really well. We did one activity that I had totally forgotten about—we learned about it during training. You draw a scale, and then talk to the class about the reasons to have sex in high school and the reasons to wait. After you have gathered all the reasons, you go back through and erase those which the class decides are bad reasons on either side. We also did one part focusing on healthy relationships. We read scenarios and had the class decide if it was a healthy or unhealthy relationship. I’m amazed at how acceptable—and even desirable!—jealous boyfriends are. (We split the groups into girls and guys, so I don’t know how the guys reacted.) Culturally—and realize that I am by no means saying this is always true, but I will say that it is extremely common—guys are able to (and often expected to) have more than one girlfriend. I don’t know if this is somehow connected to the War of the Triple Alliance when something like 2 out of every 3 Paraguayan men died. Maybe this is just a part of that history that carries on. Who knows? Regardless, it is very acceptable. Paraguayan men often cheat and often have several girlfriends, sometimes completely openly. The women, on the other hand, are frequently kept on a fairly short leash. We read one scenario that was something along the lines of, “Every time I go out with my friends, I have to call my boyfriend first—it is almost like I have to ask permission.” Healthy or not? The class was pretty split. It amazes me. Jealousy is frequently seen as part of a loving relationship, like jealousy proves that the person loves you. Again, I want to stress that this is NOT always true, but I’ve been absolutely amazed at how common it is. We also got a few questions about why men are all such womanizers and so machismo. I’ve gotten a few of these in my own sex ed chats as well. On other quick sex-ed news, I accidentally left 6 poster-sized anatomically correct drawings on a bus a few days ago. I should call the bus company but can’t imagine how awkward that conversation would be. I’ll call after siesta today.
It is getting super grossly hot here. Two nights ago I decided to cook a few big dishes that I can eat throughout the week. As I was cutting the vegetables it was so hot that I was dripping with sweat. Mind you, I was only cutting vegetables. This is not a very strenuous activity, and I was dripping onto the floor. Ew. It is only going to get worse too. Yesterday I took a bus into Asunción and passed two signs telling the temperature. Like the rest of the world, Paraguay uses Celsius, so one said 39° and the other said 41°. Because I’m horrible at converting in my head, I was thinking that meant 95° Fahrenheit more or less. But I used my phone converter, and that means it was between 102° and 106° Fahrenheit! And that was at about 3:30, after it had cooled slightly. Needless to say, I headed to the Embassy pool to swim a bit and felt a thousand times better afterwards. I’m planning on taking advantage of my proximity to the pool this summer. It easily gets up to 45° Celsius here—that means 113°F! And sometimes a bit hotter! So, if you’re planning a trip to this lovely little country, maybe you should wait until May or so.
OK, sorry about that weather rant. I can’t help myself. Life is going well for me. Students are in exams right now, so life is a bit slower, but I’m enjoying myself. A Peace Corps friend came over last week and made some shelves for me. I would like to say that I helped, but I did very little other than serve terere. The shelves are beautiful and I’m psyched not to be living out of my suitcases any more. My house is far from being finished but it is coming right along. The next step is to put up a pole to hang some clothes and then make a bookshelf. Afterwards I’ll eventually fix up the other room and make it so that people can actually sleep there if they visit. I’m thinking that is a project for January though. We shall see. Hope things are going wonderfully state side for everyone. I have no idea what is going on in the world, so any news updates or personal updates would be greatly appreciated. (Also, my address is somewhere in this blog, so feel free to send me a little love via snail mail!!)
Animal Under My Skin and other normalcies.
10-27-09
So, today the thing that I’ve been dreading the past 8 months actually happened. I got pique. That’s right; the little animal that climbs into your foot and lays eggs under your skin—that was my foot, my skin. More specifically, the little bugger was under my left big toe, almost under the nail and another on my pinky toe of the same foot at the base of the nail. I was told that it probably happened a week ago, so I blame my little visit to Guarambaré. Anyway, I’m definitely exaggerating all of this. It wasn’t bad at all. The idea of this happening grossed me out much more than actually having it did. I went into the salon in Limpio and got a nice little pedicure. The only thing that differed from your normal, run of the mill pedicure was the fact that the woman pulled out a needle (that was (surprisingly) threaded and seemed straight out of a sewing kit) in order to dig out the pique from my foot. I am pleased to report that the extraction didn’t hurt one bit! And so, now I am pique free and purple toe nailed.
In other news, I had a really productive and pleasant day on Friday when I went to Asuncion to run some errands. By the end of the morning I had 144 free condoms for sex ed (thanks to an NGO who does AIDS work and awareness), a handful of maps of Paraguay and the world along with some teaching tools (also free, thanks to a Paraguayan newspaper), 72 toothbrushes and 24 tubes of toothpaste (unfortunately not free but cheap!), fishnet stockings (Halloween is coming up), and a wonderful lunch date with a Peace Corps compañera who had just returned from a visit to the states. It was fabulous. The dental charlas will begin tomorrow with the comedor kids. I have a big set of teeth that I’ve borrowed from the Peace Corps office to demonstrate how to brush correctly. They’ve been a big hit among guests just sitting on the table in my main room. I have a meeting this evening with the parents’ group where hopefully we’ll talk about the dental chats and gardening.
The weekend was slow. Highlights include: getting my bike fixed, realizing that I really need to learn Guarani if I have any interest in figuring what is going on at the meetings with the squatting community bordering my neighborhood, meeting with my younger youth group 3 times, and finding a new neighborhood in Limpio that is totally full of lawn sculptures. It was odd. In the squatting community meeting (I dislike this term in English but can’t figure out what else to call it), there was some sort of an argument and trying my damnedest I could not figure out what it was about because it was all in Guarani. It was quite frustrating. There is already trouble in paradise with my new youth group—the president who is exceptionally enthusiastic and a natural leader just found a job working at a grocery store so he is stepping down as president. This is happening after a week of the group being formed. It’s unfortunate. On another strange note, today I saw an ostrich in a fairly small yard of a really fancy house. Don’t they need space to run? And aren’t ostriches notoriously ill-tempered??
So, today the thing that I’ve been dreading the past 8 months actually happened. I got pique. That’s right; the little animal that climbs into your foot and lays eggs under your skin—that was my foot, my skin. More specifically, the little bugger was under my left big toe, almost under the nail and another on my pinky toe of the same foot at the base of the nail. I was told that it probably happened a week ago, so I blame my little visit to Guarambaré. Anyway, I’m definitely exaggerating all of this. It wasn’t bad at all. The idea of this happening grossed me out much more than actually having it did. I went into the salon in Limpio and got a nice little pedicure. The only thing that differed from your normal, run of the mill pedicure was the fact that the woman pulled out a needle (that was (surprisingly) threaded and seemed straight out of a sewing kit) in order to dig out the pique from my foot. I am pleased to report that the extraction didn’t hurt one bit! And so, now I am pique free and purple toe nailed.
In other news, I had a really productive and pleasant day on Friday when I went to Asuncion to run some errands. By the end of the morning I had 144 free condoms for sex ed (thanks to an NGO who does AIDS work and awareness), a handful of maps of Paraguay and the world along with some teaching tools (also free, thanks to a Paraguayan newspaper), 72 toothbrushes and 24 tubes of toothpaste (unfortunately not free but cheap!), fishnet stockings (Halloween is coming up), and a wonderful lunch date with a Peace Corps compañera who had just returned from a visit to the states. It was fabulous. The dental charlas will begin tomorrow with the comedor kids. I have a big set of teeth that I’ve borrowed from the Peace Corps office to demonstrate how to brush correctly. They’ve been a big hit among guests just sitting on the table in my main room. I have a meeting this evening with the parents’ group where hopefully we’ll talk about the dental chats and gardening.
The weekend was slow. Highlights include: getting my bike fixed, realizing that I really need to learn Guarani if I have any interest in figuring what is going on at the meetings with the squatting community bordering my neighborhood, meeting with my younger youth group 3 times, and finding a new neighborhood in Limpio that is totally full of lawn sculptures. It was odd. In the squatting community meeting (I dislike this term in English but can’t figure out what else to call it), there was some sort of an argument and trying my damnedest I could not figure out what it was about because it was all in Guarani. It was quite frustrating. There is already trouble in paradise with my new youth group—the president who is exceptionally enthusiastic and a natural leader just found a job working at a grocery store so he is stepping down as president. This is happening after a week of the group being formed. It’s unfortunate. On another strange note, today I saw an ostrich in a fairly small yard of a really fancy house. Don’t they need space to run? And aren’t ostriches notoriously ill-tempered??
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Let's Talk About Sex, Baby!
10-20-09
I’m on a bus to go to Asuncion for Agro-Shopping and a meeting in the Peace Corps Office. Agro-Shopping, held in the parking garage of a chuchi mall, is where local farmers and vendors have sold fresh produce, dairy, meat and the like every Tuesday for the past 11 years. I love it. I try to go every week but sometimes can’t quite get my schedule to work around it. Tonight I’m going to stay with my training host family in Guarambare so I can help with a sexual harassment session with the new PC trainees. Although I frequently feel like I just got here—even though it has been 8 months—another group swore in a month ago and these trainees have been here for a few weeks. PC is very much like a high school in that trainees seem so long (even if they’re older than me) and people who have been here for a while are basically seniors.
Things are still great in site. Movie night was a hit—lots of kids came and lots of popcorn was eaten. Have a new youth group that began Sunday. Most are 14 or 15 and they want to start a small business making and selling bread and baked goods in order to make money to work on projects with the comedor kids. It is fabulous. The kids are really interested, motivated, and hard working. I’m curious to watch it progress, since I never know what it’ll look like a month from now. I keep having random visitors at my house, which is great but potentially annoying. If I don’t want visitors I just don’t open my front door or front curtains. It has been working thus far.
Sex ed is still chugging along. With one class yesterday we did some labeling of anatomically correct drawings. I’ve been amazed at the mislabeling. A group of 11th graders taped the Clitoris label next to the arrow pointing at the anus! I couldn’t believe it. Some of the anonymous questions I’ve gotten (from 2 different 11th grade classes): Is it necessary to lose your virginity before you turn 18? What is an orgasm? Where is the G-spot? Are there times when the girl asks to have sex? (Meaning when she initiates, I assume.) Does penis size matter? How do I know if a partner has an STD? Is it bad to have sex with your cousin? How many liters of blood does a girl lose when she has sex for the first time? How do you use a condom? What is masturbation? Also, there have been a number of questions about the best age to start having sex. Anyway, to say the least this has been interesting and I’ve been wondering if a group of 11th graders in the US would have the same questions and misconceptions.
I’m on a bus to go to Asuncion for Agro-Shopping and a meeting in the Peace Corps Office. Agro-Shopping, held in the parking garage of a chuchi mall, is where local farmers and vendors have sold fresh produce, dairy, meat and the like every Tuesday for the past 11 years. I love it. I try to go every week but sometimes can’t quite get my schedule to work around it. Tonight I’m going to stay with my training host family in Guarambare so I can help with a sexual harassment session with the new PC trainees. Although I frequently feel like I just got here—even though it has been 8 months—another group swore in a month ago and these trainees have been here for a few weeks. PC is very much like a high school in that trainees seem so long (even if they’re older than me) and people who have been here for a while are basically seniors.
Things are still great in site. Movie night was a hit—lots of kids came and lots of popcorn was eaten. Have a new youth group that began Sunday. Most are 14 or 15 and they want to start a small business making and selling bread and baked goods in order to make money to work on projects with the comedor kids. It is fabulous. The kids are really interested, motivated, and hard working. I’m curious to watch it progress, since I never know what it’ll look like a month from now. I keep having random visitors at my house, which is great but potentially annoying. If I don’t want visitors I just don’t open my front door or front curtains. It has been working thus far.
Sex ed is still chugging along. With one class yesterday we did some labeling of anatomically correct drawings. I’ve been amazed at the mislabeling. A group of 11th graders taped the Clitoris label next to the arrow pointing at the anus! I couldn’t believe it. Some of the anonymous questions I’ve gotten (from 2 different 11th grade classes): Is it necessary to lose your virginity before you turn 18? What is an orgasm? Where is the G-spot? Are there times when the girl asks to have sex? (Meaning when she initiates, I assume.) Does penis size matter? How do I know if a partner has an STD? Is it bad to have sex with your cousin? How many liters of blood does a girl lose when she has sex for the first time? How do you use a condom? What is masturbation? Also, there have been a number of questions about the best age to start having sex. Anyway, to say the least this has been interesting and I’ve been wondering if a group of 11th graders in the US would have the same questions and misconceptions.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
My Super Sweet Weekend Plans
10-17-09
Things are going well. Tonight my youth group is showing a double feature at the community center to raise some money for our community census project. I really have no idea how it´ll go. First we´re showing a kids movie (The Incredibles) and afterwards there´ll be another movie for adults but we couldn´t pick a movie last night during our 1.5 hour long meeting. It is pretty impressive how slowly things move in our youth group meetings. There is usually a great deal of texting throughout. (Last night I was actually actively texting, then felt kind of bad about it... But is this just cultural assimilation? Can I at least tell myself that?) Anyway, we´ll be making the popcorn at my house, so I´m interested to see how that goes. My youth group is between 15 and 22, consists of about 6 guys and 3 girls, though sometimes we have almost double that and the girls who show up change slightly depending on who the guys are dating from week to week. It is an interesting bunch and takes FOREVER to decide on the littlest things, but I like them. Tonight marks the third night in a row I´ll be hanging out with them. The past two nights have gone to making the smallest decisions about tonight´s movie. They can be little shits, but they are teenagers, so....
This week has been good. I´m still absolutely loving sex ed. I´ve expanded it to a few other classes, and those are going well. We have a question box for each class so that the kids can ask questions anonymously without being embarassed. The three questions I got this week were: 1) Does it hurt for the girl the first time she has sex?; 2) Does it hurt for the guy his first time?; and 3) Is there love between homosexual couples? The class was so amazingly attentive when I answered these questions. The classes are really living up to my expectations thus far. We´ve begun with myth vs. fact, during which I´ve been pretty amazed at some common misconceptions, and anatomy in which I was surprised by some of the mislabeling during the introductory games. I also went to the Paraguay-Colombia game this week. Paraguay lost 2-0, and it was rainy and kind of gross out, but I enjoyed it. A bunch of volunteers came into the capital for the game, so it was great to see everyone, obviously.
The house is still going well though I´m continuing to live out of my luggage. I just kept trying to buy wood to do construction and they kept being closed. It is a slow process but I´ve been busy enough and I don´t mind too much living out of my bags. Tomorrow should be a crazy day. I´m debating going to church or not (I honestly just go from time to time for my reputation), then I´m going to a meeting in the squatting community, then some middle schoolers are coming over for a meeting about how we can plan activities and games with the comedor, then I have a girls´ group meeting. The crazy thing is that tomorrow is scheduled to be so busy, but if it rains I´m sure the only thing that´ll happen is church. We shall see.
My favorite children are doing better. Their brother got back from the hospital and seems much better so their mom is back now and actually just started working doing daycare in our neighborhood, which is excellent. The kids did end up coming over last week for lunch and coloring/play time, and a few days ago I noticed that my name, spelled incorrectly (Nasi), is now written in red marker on my freshly painted wall. I think it´ll be a while until I have children of my own but in the meantime, I don´t mind these Paraguayan children...
Things are going well. Tonight my youth group is showing a double feature at the community center to raise some money for our community census project. I really have no idea how it´ll go. First we´re showing a kids movie (The Incredibles) and afterwards there´ll be another movie for adults but we couldn´t pick a movie last night during our 1.5 hour long meeting. It is pretty impressive how slowly things move in our youth group meetings. There is usually a great deal of texting throughout. (Last night I was actually actively texting, then felt kind of bad about it... But is this just cultural assimilation? Can I at least tell myself that?) Anyway, we´ll be making the popcorn at my house, so I´m interested to see how that goes. My youth group is between 15 and 22, consists of about 6 guys and 3 girls, though sometimes we have almost double that and the girls who show up change slightly depending on who the guys are dating from week to week. It is an interesting bunch and takes FOREVER to decide on the littlest things, but I like them. Tonight marks the third night in a row I´ll be hanging out with them. The past two nights have gone to making the smallest decisions about tonight´s movie. They can be little shits, but they are teenagers, so....
This week has been good. I´m still absolutely loving sex ed. I´ve expanded it to a few other classes, and those are going well. We have a question box for each class so that the kids can ask questions anonymously without being embarassed. The three questions I got this week were: 1) Does it hurt for the girl the first time she has sex?; 2) Does it hurt for the guy his first time?; and 3) Is there love between homosexual couples? The class was so amazingly attentive when I answered these questions. The classes are really living up to my expectations thus far. We´ve begun with myth vs. fact, during which I´ve been pretty amazed at some common misconceptions, and anatomy in which I was surprised by some of the mislabeling during the introductory games. I also went to the Paraguay-Colombia game this week. Paraguay lost 2-0, and it was rainy and kind of gross out, but I enjoyed it. A bunch of volunteers came into the capital for the game, so it was great to see everyone, obviously.
The house is still going well though I´m continuing to live out of my luggage. I just kept trying to buy wood to do construction and they kept being closed. It is a slow process but I´ve been busy enough and I don´t mind too much living out of my bags. Tomorrow should be a crazy day. I´m debating going to church or not (I honestly just go from time to time for my reputation), then I´m going to a meeting in the squatting community, then some middle schoolers are coming over for a meeting about how we can plan activities and games with the comedor, then I have a girls´ group meeting. The crazy thing is that tomorrow is scheduled to be so busy, but if it rains I´m sure the only thing that´ll happen is church. We shall see.
My favorite children are doing better. Their brother got back from the hospital and seems much better so their mom is back now and actually just started working doing daycare in our neighborhood, which is excellent. The kids did end up coming over last week for lunch and coloring/play time, and a few days ago I noticed that my name, spelled incorrectly (Nasi), is now written in red marker on my freshly painted wall. I think it´ll be a while until I have children of my own but in the meantime, I don´t mind these Paraguayan children...
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Life as a Real Live Adult!
10-7-09
I’m finally living no my own after 8 months of living with very different host families. After a long search in which I was offered one place with AC for way over half my monthly salary and several places in which I would be in charge of a child or two while parents worked elsewhere during the week I found my current house. It is actually where the last volunteer lived for her last 5 months in site. Since she was only living here for a short time she didn’t put much effort into fixing it up. After her, a family of 5 lived here for a bit. The house is about 5 blocks from my old house. It is closer to the highway (about 150 yards away) so I strangely have traffic noises to get used to at night. It is a little house with a big open living room, teeny kitchen not quite big enough for both my stove and fridge, standard bathroom where I’ll be bucket bathing still, and two bedrooms. The paint was a child-ate-peas-puke-green and peeling grossly along with the crumbling walls. The floors are made of big bricks. I have a fair sized backyard with various fruit trees/plants: lemon, grapefruit, banana, orange. I’m thrilled about that. So I’ve spent the week painting the walls with a lime-and-water mixture that I’m sure is great for me and the environment and cleaning a bunch. There is a bed that came with the house but it was grey Thursday so I couldn’t put it out in the sun or beat it so I ended up putting my yoga mat and air mattress on the big table and sleeping there. Other than that first night though, I’ve been in my new-to-me bed. The house is coming along, but I still have no clue where to put clothes and need to figure out a way to make it so the lime doesn’t come off on whatever touches it.
I’ve been thinking the past few days of how happy I am to be in my own house. Throughout September I felt like I was looking for any excuse to get out of site for a night or an afternoon but now I am so content to stay here and do random home improvement tasks. I’ve started sewing my own curtains by hand. I’m planning on making myself a bookshelf and some storage shelves for clothes and (separately) kitchenware. I don’t think I realized that I was in a bit of a funk during September. Obviously my sister’s visit and the fabulous Buenos Aires vacation were excellent but afterwards I was dragging a bit. Anyway, I just feel like I’m finally getting settled and can actually be an adult rather than a teenager (which is how I frequently felt in the house with two teenagers and my host parents).
My work life is going pretty well right now, with a few kinks. I started sex ed with a group of high schoolers yesterday and it went extremely smoothly. There are two girls from the class who have elected to help me out with sex ed for the month. They’ll get certificates at the end, though when I told them that, they said that I should only give them the certificates if they’ve earned them. I love these two girls! They’ve agreed to help me out with sex ed not only with their own class but with other classes, shifts (I don’t know what else to call them—they’re morning, but they’ll help with afternoon and night), and even another high school in the area. I’m really thrilled about this. The class we worked with yesterday was 60 students so if we actually work with all the classes we want to, we would end up training/educating more than 300 students. I was thinking the other day that if I really only teach teenagers about sex ed, parts of the body, HIV/AIDS, STDs, birth control, and how to put a condom on I can feel good about my work.
In the elementary schools, the cardboard project is still going strong, but I’m going into the office today to see if the health office has a set of big teeth available for tooth brushing charlas. I’ve just started star charts with my three favorite children because their dental hygiene is so amazingly poor. They all have visible cavities and some rotten out teeth. With a star chart you can have them mark when they brush their teeth (the goal is obviously twice a day) and then after ten days as long as they’ve been brushing they get a prize. We used these a lot at Rosemont, where I worked with the teenage girls with behavioral and substance abuse problems, and they were frequently very effective. You can change the target behavior to really anything. Those three favorite kids came over yesterday to color and hang out. Their baby brother has been sick in the hospital for the past few weeks and their single mother is with him. The three kids (ages 6, 8, and 9) have been left with their older brother who is 16. A couple of days ago I realized that they are absolutely not eating anything other than what they get at the comedor for breakfast and lunch on weekdays. Weekends they simply aren’t eating. This is obviously a heartbreaking realization for many reasons, and made me think of all of the other things that are happening within the community that I’m totally missing. They’re coming over Sunday to cook lunch and I’m planning on sending some basic foods for dinners.
On the theme of the comedor, I’m increasingly frustrated. The women are so caddy and gossipy and indirect. It kills me. There is the usual drama but now the temporary president is saying that I should pay to eat there whenever I go. I didn’t even hear this from the women. I was told this yesterday by a nine year old girl. This is nonsense since I’m doing projects with the kids and am always suggesting activities I can do with the women. The problem is that I’m refusing to do all of the work for these possible projects. For example, I said that I would go get the free seeds that a place in Asuncion offers but that someone needed to write a letter to ask for them. This letter can be hand written. It only needs to be about 3 sentences long. I gave the women a manual on how to write letters asking for goods, but somehow it still hasn’t been done. And I will also be in charge of planting the garden and probably working it throughout its life so I thought it appropriate that the women write this letter. My written Spanish is really lacking as well. Anyway, I’m really frustrated and, frankly, at my wits end with the women. I just love the comedor kids so I refuse to abandon the project. My plan is to be super guapa (hard working) to remind them of all the shit I do there. I also only eat there once or twice a week, mostly because they serve so much organ meat which still grosses me out.
OK, sorry about that rampage, but the indirectness here is even worse than it was in Portland, Oregon. I don’t think of myself as a super direct person but I have no tolerance for passive aggressiveness. Otherwise life is good. Friday is bird day so I think I’m going to make some bird masks with the comedor kids and the Abrazo kids (kids who would otherwise be working on the street). Monday was Road Day, which I really did not understand, nor did I celebrate, unless using the roads like normal is considered celebrating…
I’m finally living no my own after 8 months of living with very different host families. After a long search in which I was offered one place with AC for way over half my monthly salary and several places in which I would be in charge of a child or two while parents worked elsewhere during the week I found my current house. It is actually where the last volunteer lived for her last 5 months in site. Since she was only living here for a short time she didn’t put much effort into fixing it up. After her, a family of 5 lived here for a bit. The house is about 5 blocks from my old house. It is closer to the highway (about 150 yards away) so I strangely have traffic noises to get used to at night. It is a little house with a big open living room, teeny kitchen not quite big enough for both my stove and fridge, standard bathroom where I’ll be bucket bathing still, and two bedrooms. The paint was a child-ate-peas-puke-green and peeling grossly along with the crumbling walls. The floors are made of big bricks. I have a fair sized backyard with various fruit trees/plants: lemon, grapefruit, banana, orange. I’m thrilled about that. So I’ve spent the week painting the walls with a lime-and-water mixture that I’m sure is great for me and the environment and cleaning a bunch. There is a bed that came with the house but it was grey Thursday so I couldn’t put it out in the sun or beat it so I ended up putting my yoga mat and air mattress on the big table and sleeping there. Other than that first night though, I’ve been in my new-to-me bed. The house is coming along, but I still have no clue where to put clothes and need to figure out a way to make it so the lime doesn’t come off on whatever touches it.
I’ve been thinking the past few days of how happy I am to be in my own house. Throughout September I felt like I was looking for any excuse to get out of site for a night or an afternoon but now I am so content to stay here and do random home improvement tasks. I’ve started sewing my own curtains by hand. I’m planning on making myself a bookshelf and some storage shelves for clothes and (separately) kitchenware. I don’t think I realized that I was in a bit of a funk during September. Obviously my sister’s visit and the fabulous Buenos Aires vacation were excellent but afterwards I was dragging a bit. Anyway, I just feel like I’m finally getting settled and can actually be an adult rather than a teenager (which is how I frequently felt in the house with two teenagers and my host parents).
My work life is going pretty well right now, with a few kinks. I started sex ed with a group of high schoolers yesterday and it went extremely smoothly. There are two girls from the class who have elected to help me out with sex ed for the month. They’ll get certificates at the end, though when I told them that, they said that I should only give them the certificates if they’ve earned them. I love these two girls! They’ve agreed to help me out with sex ed not only with their own class but with other classes, shifts (I don’t know what else to call them—they’re morning, but they’ll help with afternoon and night), and even another high school in the area. I’m really thrilled about this. The class we worked with yesterday was 60 students so if we actually work with all the classes we want to, we would end up training/educating more than 300 students. I was thinking the other day that if I really only teach teenagers about sex ed, parts of the body, HIV/AIDS, STDs, birth control, and how to put a condom on I can feel good about my work.
In the elementary schools, the cardboard project is still going strong, but I’m going into the office today to see if the health office has a set of big teeth available for tooth brushing charlas. I’ve just started star charts with my three favorite children because their dental hygiene is so amazingly poor. They all have visible cavities and some rotten out teeth. With a star chart you can have them mark when they brush their teeth (the goal is obviously twice a day) and then after ten days as long as they’ve been brushing they get a prize. We used these a lot at Rosemont, where I worked with the teenage girls with behavioral and substance abuse problems, and they were frequently very effective. You can change the target behavior to really anything. Those three favorite kids came over yesterday to color and hang out. Their baby brother has been sick in the hospital for the past few weeks and their single mother is with him. The three kids (ages 6, 8, and 9) have been left with their older brother who is 16. A couple of days ago I realized that they are absolutely not eating anything other than what they get at the comedor for breakfast and lunch on weekdays. Weekends they simply aren’t eating. This is obviously a heartbreaking realization for many reasons, and made me think of all of the other things that are happening within the community that I’m totally missing. They’re coming over Sunday to cook lunch and I’m planning on sending some basic foods for dinners.
On the theme of the comedor, I’m increasingly frustrated. The women are so caddy and gossipy and indirect. It kills me. There is the usual drama but now the temporary president is saying that I should pay to eat there whenever I go. I didn’t even hear this from the women. I was told this yesterday by a nine year old girl. This is nonsense since I’m doing projects with the kids and am always suggesting activities I can do with the women. The problem is that I’m refusing to do all of the work for these possible projects. For example, I said that I would go get the free seeds that a place in Asuncion offers but that someone needed to write a letter to ask for them. This letter can be hand written. It only needs to be about 3 sentences long. I gave the women a manual on how to write letters asking for goods, but somehow it still hasn’t been done. And I will also be in charge of planting the garden and probably working it throughout its life so I thought it appropriate that the women write this letter. My written Spanish is really lacking as well. Anyway, I’m really frustrated and, frankly, at my wits end with the women. I just love the comedor kids so I refuse to abandon the project. My plan is to be super guapa (hard working) to remind them of all the shit I do there. I also only eat there once or twice a week, mostly because they serve so much organ meat which still grosses me out.
OK, sorry about that rampage, but the indirectness here is even worse than it was in Portland, Oregon. I don’t think of myself as a super direct person but I have no tolerance for passive aggressiveness. Otherwise life is good. Friday is bird day so I think I’m going to make some bird masks with the comedor kids and the Abrazo kids (kids who would otherwise be working on the street). Monday was Road Day, which I really did not understand, nor did I celebrate, unless using the roads like normal is considered celebrating…
Buenos Aires, “La Tigra”, and Mannequins, Oh my!
9-16-09
So I spent all of last week in Buenos Aires with my sister, her best friend Liza, and two of my closest Peace Corps friends celebrating my quarter century birthday. It was superb! BA is maybe now my favorite international city, and I spent a great deal of the week fantasizing about what type of work I could do there for a year after my Peace Corps service is done. We basically ate a lot of delicious food (particularly meat) and drank a bunch of wonderful wine. The wine variety was a nice change from the boxed wine and Coke/pineapple soda that is such a Paraguayan staple. One place that really knocked our socks off was in La Boca, in southern BA, where all the houses were painted bright colors. Right by the soccer stadium is a place called Don Carlos, where Don Carlos doesn’t give you options about what you’re having. I believe the only requests were that vegetarian options be provided for my sister and that he brings out chorizo. It was amazing. Francis Ford Coppola randomly recommends it in a New York Times article, claiming it is his favorite restaurant in BA. (Don Carlos brought out the article and the guest book at the very beginning of the meal.) We all walked out wishing we were in elastic-banded pants as I wondered if Don Carlos had a nice son I could marry. Another highlight was Recoleta Cemetery, where a number of rich and famous Argentines are buried, including Eva “Evita” Peron, who is apparently buried 27 feet underground to prevent her body from being stolen again (yes, again). There is also a woman who was buried alive, apparently in a coma. She woke and began screaming but cemetery workers did not get to her in time. Because of this, another man designed a coffin for her that opened from the inside, but when he tested it for the 25th time or so he could not get out and was then himself buried alive. How crazy is that??
My favorite day perhaps was spent going on a train about an hour north of the city to a town called El Tigre. My sister continued to call it La Tigra, which sounds wonderfully cougar like. Porteños (people from BA) ran to El Tigre to escape the yellow fever via the newly constructed railroad in the 1870s. It is an understandable refuge, with 5 rivers converging to create a maze of canals and water ways, framed by beautiful low hanging trees and marshes. We took a two hour tour of some of the islands by boat, but it quickly became evident that most of the people on our boat were locals using it as public transportation. Grocery bags were heaved off at numerous docks, empty water jugs and gas tanks thrown on the top to be filled and returned later. The water ways have everything you would need to live in El Tigre delta, including a school, a health center, and municipality. I expected to see a pretentious BA vacation spot but there was a real mix. I wouldn’t mind going back and perhaps writing a book there…it’s that kind of place.
Anyway, BA was phenomenal to say the very least. The week before Mimi, my sister, came to Paraguay for about 5 days. After some visa issues (read: you need a visa to get into Paraguay), Mimi got in late on Tuesday. I wanted to show her a “typical” day in my life on Wednesday so we went on a walk through my community, went to the comedor (where the kids were absolutely psyched to meet her), then heard some drama/gossip from some of the comedor ladies who just split from the group (that wasn’t planned), then to the internet café to see about free copies for the community census I’m doing with the youth group. We had then planned on going to Abrazo, an organization for kids who would otherwise be working in the streets, to play games and do activities but ran into some kids who said that the organization had a last minute meeting, so it got cancelled. (It is actually appropriate that while trying to show a “typical” day something got cancelled very last minute.) The evening consisted of a youth group meeting during which a 20 year old kid told my 27 year old sister, “If only you weren’t so old and married…” After I translated this, Mimi laughed, pointing out that it was interesting that he didn’t mention the language barrier or the fact that she lives in New York. We then went into Limpio itself and had pizza by candlelight. There was a storm that had apparently knocked out all power in Limpio. The next day found us heading to Villarrica to see (and feed) the carpinchos (capybaras) that I think I’ll have to take every US visitor to go see. (I’m obsessed but so is my entire family.) We had some nice meals with other PCVs, and then headed into the capital for the evening before leaving for BA.
And so, here I am, back in site, diving back into my work. It is getting super hot here. In a charla yesterday the middle school aged kids were worse than ever. I have to really focus on finding my own place to live, hopefully so I can move in on October 1, but we’ll see how that goes. I thought it’d be tough to get back to work but I feel like the projects are still coming at me as fast as ever. I also have tentative plans to start doing sex-ed charlas in October in one local high school. The professor said he had no problem with me teaching kids how to put condoms on mandioca, so I’m psyched for that!
So I spent all of last week in Buenos Aires with my sister, her best friend Liza, and two of my closest Peace Corps friends celebrating my quarter century birthday. It was superb! BA is maybe now my favorite international city, and I spent a great deal of the week fantasizing about what type of work I could do there for a year after my Peace Corps service is done. We basically ate a lot of delicious food (particularly meat) and drank a bunch of wonderful wine. The wine variety was a nice change from the boxed wine and Coke/pineapple soda that is such a Paraguayan staple. One place that really knocked our socks off was in La Boca, in southern BA, where all the houses were painted bright colors. Right by the soccer stadium is a place called Don Carlos, where Don Carlos doesn’t give you options about what you’re having. I believe the only requests were that vegetarian options be provided for my sister and that he brings out chorizo. It was amazing. Francis Ford Coppola randomly recommends it in a New York Times article, claiming it is his favorite restaurant in BA. (Don Carlos brought out the article and the guest book at the very beginning of the meal.) We all walked out wishing we were in elastic-banded pants as I wondered if Don Carlos had a nice son I could marry. Another highlight was Recoleta Cemetery, where a number of rich and famous Argentines are buried, including Eva “Evita” Peron, who is apparently buried 27 feet underground to prevent her body from being stolen again (yes, again). There is also a woman who was buried alive, apparently in a coma. She woke and began screaming but cemetery workers did not get to her in time. Because of this, another man designed a coffin for her that opened from the inside, but when he tested it for the 25th time or so he could not get out and was then himself buried alive. How crazy is that??
My favorite day perhaps was spent going on a train about an hour north of the city to a town called El Tigre. My sister continued to call it La Tigra, which sounds wonderfully cougar like. Porteños (people from BA) ran to El Tigre to escape the yellow fever via the newly constructed railroad in the 1870s. It is an understandable refuge, with 5 rivers converging to create a maze of canals and water ways, framed by beautiful low hanging trees and marshes. We took a two hour tour of some of the islands by boat, but it quickly became evident that most of the people on our boat were locals using it as public transportation. Grocery bags were heaved off at numerous docks, empty water jugs and gas tanks thrown on the top to be filled and returned later. The water ways have everything you would need to live in El Tigre delta, including a school, a health center, and municipality. I expected to see a pretentious BA vacation spot but there was a real mix. I wouldn’t mind going back and perhaps writing a book there…it’s that kind of place.
Anyway, BA was phenomenal to say the very least. The week before Mimi, my sister, came to Paraguay for about 5 days. After some visa issues (read: you need a visa to get into Paraguay), Mimi got in late on Tuesday. I wanted to show her a “typical” day in my life on Wednesday so we went on a walk through my community, went to the comedor (where the kids were absolutely psyched to meet her), then heard some drama/gossip from some of the comedor ladies who just split from the group (that wasn’t planned), then to the internet café to see about free copies for the community census I’m doing with the youth group. We had then planned on going to Abrazo, an organization for kids who would otherwise be working in the streets, to play games and do activities but ran into some kids who said that the organization had a last minute meeting, so it got cancelled. (It is actually appropriate that while trying to show a “typical” day something got cancelled very last minute.) The evening consisted of a youth group meeting during which a 20 year old kid told my 27 year old sister, “If only you weren’t so old and married…” After I translated this, Mimi laughed, pointing out that it was interesting that he didn’t mention the language barrier or the fact that she lives in New York. We then went into Limpio itself and had pizza by candlelight. There was a storm that had apparently knocked out all power in Limpio. The next day found us heading to Villarrica to see (and feed) the carpinchos (capybaras) that I think I’ll have to take every US visitor to go see. (I’m obsessed but so is my entire family.) We had some nice meals with other PCVs, and then headed into the capital for the evening before leaving for BA.
And so, here I am, back in site, diving back into my work. It is getting super hot here. In a charla yesterday the middle school aged kids were worse than ever. I have to really focus on finding my own place to live, hopefully so I can move in on October 1, but we’ll see how that goes. I thought it’d be tough to get back to work but I feel like the projects are still coming at me as fast as ever. I also have tentative plans to start doing sex-ed charlas in October in one local high school. The professor said he had no problem with me teaching kids how to put condoms on mandioca, so I’m psyched for that!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
H 2 (the izz) O!
8-27-09
So, last night I went to a water meeting. Even though we have water only three times a day, we don’t have a water commission but there is one guy who was at one time or another voted president of the water issue. He is the one who gathers all of the money from everyone and pays for everyone all at once. We have a big tank for about 250 or 300 houses. He is also in charge of turning it on—roughly at 6am, siesta time, and evening. Those are the times to fill your barrels with water so you can use water throughout the day. The past few days, however, it has not been turned on at all because about 70 families did not pay. The plan had been that families that don’t pay would have their individual water cut off—makes sense—but I was told that this is impossible and so every now and then they turn off the water for everyone for some time (last year it was for more than a month at one point!), they fundraise to get enough money to pay the bill, it goes back on, people don´t pay and the cycle continues. I am a pretty optimistic person but this has been this way for the past 17 years!!! The only thing that was decided at the meeting last night was that they would hook up water for the school for obvious hygene/health purposes. So I guess I´ll just see everybody at the school to fill up buckets instead of at the water tank? Good talk, guys.
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus OR Hemorrhoids Charades?
8-25-09
I went back to my site and had a meeting with my youth group. We’re working on a census for our barrio. There are 750 houses. Some of them really wanted to census every single house. That seemed impossible to me but it took me longer than expected to convince them. There are also some questions in there that seem problematic; i.e. “Does anyone in your family have a drug problem? How many people?” or “Do you have electricity legally (or do you steal it from us—your neighbors)?” We’ll see how it all turns out. Also, I was told tahat during the national census no one is allowed to leave their house. Does that not scream dictatorship? Anyway, we’ll see how all this turns out…
Saturday night I went to a Christmas in August PC party. Have you ever dressed up for a non-costume party and then been really confused (or just disappointed?) that no one else is dressed up? No? Oh, well, than…me neither. All I’ll say is that two friends and I had EXCELLENT Christmas outfits. We also did a gift exchange of gifts bought on busses for less than 10,000 Guaranís (US$2). I brought temporary tattoos that I brought back from the states which were actually a big hit—even with the Paraguayans. I freaked out the Paraguayans very briefly by claiming that the tattoos would come off in two or three months. Ha.
When I came back to my house Sunday evening I saw my host sister’s boyfriend’s parents and sister sitting in their car waiting outside the house. This surprises me every time. They do live in Asunción, which is an hour away by bus but I personally struggle to imagine Fred Franke, Anne Franke, and one of my siblings sitting patiently in the car while I go visit my high school boyfriend for several hours. Although, maybe that was why I was sent to boarding school??
The past few days have been good. My milk box recycling charla is being put off for now until the principal talks to the Board of Education to figure out a time to have all teachers attend. (Because of the short four hour school days, teachers usually have to work at several schools that are frequently far from each other and have to travel so cannot stay after school for meetings.) My charla with the women’s comedor group keeps getting pushed back as well, which is annoying. We’re doing teamwork/goal setting—both of which they DESPERATELY need.
Last night my host father and I talked about his health issues, AKA why he is the only Paraguayan I know who eats wheat bread and says you should only eat meat one time a week. It turns out to be hemorrhoids. That is a cognate in Spanish. I hope no one ever has to experience the description of hemorrhoids that I received. I will just say that there were a lot of details, pointing, and gestures that made me want to gag and/or giggle.
Also, today I was at the comedor talking to the women about when we will reschedule our charla (for the fifth time!!) and a woman told me, “Oh you’re so funny! People here don’t realize that rubias (blondes) are funny; we think they only know how to be conquistadors!” So, at least I’m breaking that cultural barrier. I may never end up doing this damned charla but at least some people now know that blondes do actually have some fun, contrary to popular belief…
Monday, August 17, 2009
Swine Flu Or Playing Sick?
08-10-09
So I’ve been horrible about blogging. July passed strangely. During the final week of extended vacation I was essentially bed ridden with a cold. I’m really not good at being sick—especially since I feel like with colds you should still be able to function. Adding to my guilt, because of the vacation there were only a handful of things on my to-do list so cancelling those to stay in bed and read just made me feel like a slacker volunteer. During this week I also had another absurd communication mix-up with my host family. I was asked by both my host mother and my host brother if I had “gripe porcina” but I heard “gripe por cine”, which means cold (as in sickness) for the movies. I didn’t quite understand but for whatever reason decided that they were asking me if I was faking my sickness. So here I am, feeling horrible, kind of wallowing in self-pity, and am being accused by my host family of just pretending to be sick. Days pass, I’m still feeling sick, I’m hating that I have to speak Spanish when I’m functioning on such a low level, and I scoff when my host family tries to be helpful and tell me that I shouldn’t drink hot tea and then immediately drink cold water. I find myself really annoyed at my brother and mother for accusing me of faking this sickness and I tell Barbara, another PCV amiga of mine, about the accusations. She then tells me that they were really asking if I had “gripe porcina”, which means swine flu. I didn’t believe her and actually asked a table full of teenage boys at the café where I was sitting. She was right, obviously, and when I explained all of this to my host family we all had a good laugh.
The next week was Reconnect back in Guarambaré (the training community) with the 30 people I trained with. We did language stuff and did a bit of technical training. It was weird being back in such a structured environment after the past 3 months (!) of being a Peace Corps Volunteer on my own. It made me realize that I really need to focus on Guarani, which I’ve essentially been ignoring for the past 6 months. I also realized that I really need to figure out a way to work with smaller groups in schools. I had really wanted some advice on classroom management, since I somehow have zero control of Paraguayan children, but realized that it is just going to take some time until I work well with a group of 60 kids in another language. We shall see.
I’ve started working with the elementary school in my neighborhood. I had been really hesitant to work with them because the last volunteer had had some issues with some of the teachers but they seem open thus far. It helps also that I know a bunch of the kids from the comedor so I came in with a solid fan base already in place… There is a program that gives poorer Paraguayan schools milk for each kid every day. This school is one of those schools, so they have like a billion milk cartons. They’re bigger than milk cartons you find at schools in the
Ok, I think that is about all that is new in my life. I’m working in a bunch of different places, there is a TON of drama with the women’s group that I’m trying to avoid as much as possible. I’m trying to figure out how to start a sustainable tooth brushing program. I’m looking for a new place to live. I love my current host family but wouldn’t mind some more personal space. I’ve been riding my bike a bunch lately and simply love it! It is finally getting warmer here, thank God…though I’m sure that I’ll be complaining about the scorching heat in no time.
Monday, July 20, 2009
County Fair and Naming Babies
Saturday
7-18-09
Last night I went to the Expo with my host siblings, their 13 year old cousin and other 16 year old amigo. The Expo happens for about two weeks per year in Roque Alonso, which is even more of a turnpike town located between Asuncion and Limpio. The Expo was basically a supped up county fair. It is held in a shopping area/fair ground. They have an absurd amount of tractor displays (especially considering most small farmers still use animals to pull their plows), lots of car displays (complete with scantily clad women), a double-decker tour bus that you could explore (that you can take for the 16 hour trip to Buenos Aires). Some guys doing basic bike tricks drew a considerable crowd, though the bands playing in the stables of cattle didn’t seem to be a particular favorite. You could see new types of roofs, the (surprising to me) amazement of a basic fountain, how Itaipu dam was spending money, get a vaccination at the Health tent, get something inscribed on a necklace (which my 17 year old host sister did twice for her boyfriend), get your name put on a bead of rice (something I remember my real sister doing over a decade ago), get a characature drawn of yourself… It was like a county fair meets the board walk.
The way we spent the vast majority of the four hours was waiting for, and then finally watching, motocrosss. There were two motorcyclers—one from Australia with a bright yellow-with-flame-details jumpsuit who is supposedly the 2nd best in the world and a skinny kid from the US who was dressed like he was going to the mall with his high school buddies. The announcer was down in the field with them and would ask questions in English then translate their answers to the crowd of 8,000. The problem was that the announcer just made up his own answers. At one point, one of the riders said he was looking forward to going home soon. The announcer translated it as “He said that Paraguay is the best country he has ever been to!” What? Also amusing to me is that vendors of soda and beer yell that they’re selling soda and milk. They do this on the buses as well. Leche, anyone?
ALSO! Somehow I neglected to write a few weeks ago that there is this one excellent group of kids from the comedor that I spend a lot of time with. They’re siblings, kind of crazy, but sweet and generally listen to me. I hang out at their house sometimes, talking with them, their teenage brother, and their mom holding her infant. I asked the baby’s name after hearing he was 45 days old. The mom said she hadn’t decided yet, which struck me as slightly sad and odd. Offhandedly I mentioned that I like the name Alejandro. A few days later I was at the house again and the mom told me she had named the baby. I froze. She formally introduced me to David Alejandro…I’m just glad I don’t have the kind of pull to choose the first name!
7-18-09
Last night I went to the Expo with my host siblings, their 13 year old cousin and other 16 year old amigo. The Expo happens for about two weeks per year in Roque Alonso, which is even more of a turnpike town located between Asuncion and Limpio. The Expo was basically a supped up county fair. It is held in a shopping area/fair ground. They have an absurd amount of tractor displays (especially considering most small farmers still use animals to pull their plows), lots of car displays (complete with scantily clad women), a double-decker tour bus that you could explore (that you can take for the 16 hour trip to Buenos Aires). Some guys doing basic bike tricks drew a considerable crowd, though the bands playing in the stables of cattle didn’t seem to be a particular favorite. You could see new types of roofs, the (surprising to me) amazement of a basic fountain, how Itaipu dam was spending money, get a vaccination at the Health tent, get something inscribed on a necklace (which my 17 year old host sister did twice for her boyfriend), get your name put on a bead of rice (something I remember my real sister doing over a decade ago), get a characature drawn of yourself… It was like a county fair meets the board walk.
The way we spent the vast majority of the four hours was waiting for, and then finally watching, motocrosss. There were two motorcyclers—one from Australia with a bright yellow-with-flame-details jumpsuit who is supposedly the 2nd best in the world and a skinny kid from the US who was dressed like he was going to the mall with his high school buddies. The announcer was down in the field with them and would ask questions in English then translate their answers to the crowd of 8,000. The problem was that the announcer just made up his own answers. At one point, one of the riders said he was looking forward to going home soon. The announcer translated it as “He said that Paraguay is the best country he has ever been to!” What? Also amusing to me is that vendors of soda and beer yell that they’re selling soda and milk. They do this on the buses as well. Leche, anyone?
ALSO! Somehow I neglected to write a few weeks ago that there is this one excellent group of kids from the comedor that I spend a lot of time with. They’re siblings, kind of crazy, but sweet and generally listen to me. I hang out at their house sometimes, talking with them, their teenage brother, and their mom holding her infant. I asked the baby’s name after hearing he was 45 days old. The mom said she hadn’t decided yet, which struck me as slightly sad and odd. Offhandedly I mentioned that I like the name Alejandro. A few days later I was at the house again and the mom told me she had named the baby. I froze. She formally introduced me to David Alejandro…I’m just glad I don’t have the kind of pull to choose the first name!
I´m Cold and Swine Flu is Ruining My Life
7-16-09
I miss clothes right out of the dryer. That’s where my mind is. I’m freezing. I’ve slept with spandex, sweatpants, knee high wool socks, and several sweater/fleece layers the past few nights and all I can think of is my lone request to Peace Corps for where I wanted to be placed—no where cold. I told them, “I don’t care where I go or what I do as long as it isn’t in cold weather.” As I write this I’m in two sweaters, a hat, a hood, a fleece, spandex, jeans, socks with my feet under a blanket. Ugh. I wish I had a dryer…I’m glad I’ve already bathed today because I’m not sure I’d be up for the aftershock of a bucket bath. Maybe I’ll boil some water to put in my Nalgene to sleep next to tonight—another PCV told me that trick.
Life is S-L-O-W right now. This marks the end of the second week of winter break here. The first week I was soaking up the sun and enjoying fantastic food, drink and company back in Maryland for my sister’s beautiful wedding. It was fabulous, but flew by as expected. To curb some of the boredom I figured was inevitable with a two week school break I decided to turn my energy towards camps. I did an “environmental” camp at the comedor Monday and Tuesday afternoons. Environmental is in quotes because though that was my goal I ended up doing the camp by myself and was overwhelmed at times by attempting to provide educational activities to 40 rambunxious six to thirteen year olds. We did make 5 batches of Play-Doh though… Today and yesterday I helped my married couple Peace Corps friends with a health camp at their site, which is a few hours away. It was nice to see another site and eat delicious vegetarian cuisine for a few days. (I was welcomed back to Paraguay by a liver feast! Damn you, organ meat!) I’ve been looking forward to developing more of a set routine in the schools starting this upcoming week and have already planned some charlas. Unfortunately though, all of Paraguay’s children will be enjoying at least one more week of winter break thanks to the swine flu. Some schools say they’ll take the next two weeks off. I’m not sure how many Paraguayans have died thus far—I believe it is 6, though Monday I was told four people were dying per week in Limpio, the next day I was told it was 5 per day. In a country this small, it is amazing how completely scrambled gossip can become. People all over are equipped with tapa-bocas (surgical masks I believe is the English?) though there was also a claim that Paraguay was completely out of them. We’ll see how I spend the next week. I think I’ll go into the municipality to do some work, though I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if they took the opportunity to close as well. They do close their offices for the day at 1:30pm somehow… Silly.
I miss clothes right out of the dryer. That’s where my mind is. I’m freezing. I’ve slept with spandex, sweatpants, knee high wool socks, and several sweater/fleece layers the past few nights and all I can think of is my lone request to Peace Corps for where I wanted to be placed—no where cold. I told them, “I don’t care where I go or what I do as long as it isn’t in cold weather.” As I write this I’m in two sweaters, a hat, a hood, a fleece, spandex, jeans, socks with my feet under a blanket. Ugh. I wish I had a dryer…I’m glad I’ve already bathed today because I’m not sure I’d be up for the aftershock of a bucket bath. Maybe I’ll boil some water to put in my Nalgene to sleep next to tonight—another PCV told me that trick.
Life is S-L-O-W right now. This marks the end of the second week of winter break here. The first week I was soaking up the sun and enjoying fantastic food, drink and company back in Maryland for my sister’s beautiful wedding. It was fabulous, but flew by as expected. To curb some of the boredom I figured was inevitable with a two week school break I decided to turn my energy towards camps. I did an “environmental” camp at the comedor Monday and Tuesday afternoons. Environmental is in quotes because though that was my goal I ended up doing the camp by myself and was overwhelmed at times by attempting to provide educational activities to 40 rambunxious six to thirteen year olds. We did make 5 batches of Play-Doh though… Today and yesterday I helped my married couple Peace Corps friends with a health camp at their site, which is a few hours away. It was nice to see another site and eat delicious vegetarian cuisine for a few days. (I was welcomed back to Paraguay by a liver feast! Damn you, organ meat!) I’ve been looking forward to developing more of a set routine in the schools starting this upcoming week and have already planned some charlas. Unfortunately though, all of Paraguay’s children will be enjoying at least one more week of winter break thanks to the swine flu. Some schools say they’ll take the next two weeks off. I’m not sure how many Paraguayans have died thus far—I believe it is 6, though Monday I was told four people were dying per week in Limpio, the next day I was told it was 5 per day. In a country this small, it is amazing how completely scrambled gossip can become. People all over are equipped with tapa-bocas (surgical masks I believe is the English?) though there was also a claim that Paraguay was completely out of them. We’ll see how I spend the next week. I think I’ll go into the municipality to do some work, though I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if they took the opportunity to close as well. They do close their offices for the day at 1:30pm somehow… Silly.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Bathing in the Dark
6-27-09
I woke up at 6am on Thursday to be at the comedor at 6:30 with 70 kids screaming in Spanish and Guarani. Luckily these kids are great, love me and listen to me--unlike most of the other Paraguayan kids I've encountered. I gave each family an invitation to come to my site presentation that evening at 5pm. I also gave invitations to the women who run the comedor--and all of them came! I went back home, took a quick nap, then went to take a bucket bath. Somehow the fuse in the bathroom blew so I found myself bucket bathing in the dark. Our bathroom has no windows, though there is a hole in the ceiling that allows you to hear all of the dogs barking, cats fighting, and people bumping music so clearly that if the room wasn't so small you'd think them at your elbow. I spent a few hours wandering around my neighborhood delivering invitations. My boss is a very spunky Paraguayan woman who has been working for PC for years. She and the old volunteer from my neighborhood who is now her assistant came at noon.
We sat through the inaurguration for the Orthodontist where a German's Lion's Club donated a dentist chair and some dental tools. No one seems to know how exactly this will pan out. It is unclear how many days a week or month the dentist will be in to see patients. The first priority patients are the kids from teh comedor and the preschool age and under kids from the community center. I'm planning on doing some dental/hygiene stuff with the comedor kids when I get back from the states. You can literally see the cavities in front teeth of a bunch of the kids. Supposedly there are places to buy toothbrushes and toothpaste for super cheap. I want to see if the comedor ladies have any interest in getting involved so it becomes sustainable. We'll see.
After eating lunch in the Super LT--Limpio's supermarket caefteria--we went to my house to drop off my new-to-me bike (!) and box of random manuals and books and do a quick safety check. My actual site presentation turned out much better than I had expected. About 30 people showed up, as did some of my favorite kids. One man who is supposedly Marisco Lopez's great nephew or something had a great deal to say. He wanted to know why we'll called Volunteers if we're paid, why the US government could help but PY's cannot, why the US was wasting time sending people and not money...then he quoted the Bible, "Give a man a fish..." Later, when the San Juan festival was mentioned he asserted that I must walk across hot coals barefoot and that no one in the history of San Juan had ever been burned this way...as long as they had faith. I do have faith, don't I?? That guy is rather eccentric but simultaneously one of my favorite people in my neighborhood. Other than him, my presentation went without a hitch. Oneo f my new favorite contacts came with several people from his group who I'm going to start working with. They're really motivated and I'm psyched to work with them. All in all I was pleased with the day. I've been having dreams about that bike for weeks now!!
I woke up at 6am on Thursday to be at the comedor at 6:30 with 70 kids screaming in Spanish and Guarani. Luckily these kids are great, love me and listen to me--unlike most of the other Paraguayan kids I've encountered. I gave each family an invitation to come to my site presentation that evening at 5pm. I also gave invitations to the women who run the comedor--and all of them came! I went back home, took a quick nap, then went to take a bucket bath. Somehow the fuse in the bathroom blew so I found myself bucket bathing in the dark. Our bathroom has no windows, though there is a hole in the ceiling that allows you to hear all of the dogs barking, cats fighting, and people bumping music so clearly that if the room wasn't so small you'd think them at your elbow. I spent a few hours wandering around my neighborhood delivering invitations. My boss is a very spunky Paraguayan woman who has been working for PC for years. She and the old volunteer from my neighborhood who is now her assistant came at noon.
We sat through the inaurguration for the Orthodontist where a German's Lion's Club donated a dentist chair and some dental tools. No one seems to know how exactly this will pan out. It is unclear how many days a week or month the dentist will be in to see patients. The first priority patients are the kids from teh comedor and the preschool age and under kids from the community center. I'm planning on doing some dental/hygiene stuff with the comedor kids when I get back from the states. You can literally see the cavities in front teeth of a bunch of the kids. Supposedly there are places to buy toothbrushes and toothpaste for super cheap. I want to see if the comedor ladies have any interest in getting involved so it becomes sustainable. We'll see.
After eating lunch in the Super LT--Limpio's supermarket caefteria--we went to my house to drop off my new-to-me bike (!) and box of random manuals and books and do a quick safety check. My actual site presentation turned out much better than I had expected. About 30 people showed up, as did some of my favorite kids. One man who is supposedly Marisco Lopez's great nephew or something had a great deal to say. He wanted to know why we'll called Volunteers if we're paid, why the US government could help but PY's cannot, why the US was wasting time sending people and not money...then he quoted the Bible, "Give a man a fish..." Later, when the San Juan festival was mentioned he asserted that I must walk across hot coals barefoot and that no one in the history of San Juan had ever been burned this way...as long as they had faith. I do have faith, don't I?? That guy is rather eccentric but simultaneously one of my favorite people in my neighborhood. Other than him, my presentation went without a hitch. Oneo f my new favorite contacts came with several people from his group who I'm going to start working with. They're really motivated and I'm psyched to work with them. All in all I was pleased with the day. I've been having dreams about that bike for weeks now!!
Monday, June 22, 2009
Saturday Reality, Dinosaurs, and Eating Rabbits
6-19-09
I’m so pleased with my life right now. I’ve actually been really shocked at how happy I’ve been the past four and a half months. There have certainly been days when I’ve done my fair share of swearing in English and have essentially cursed all of
I walked the 3 kilometers home in absolutely beautiful weather and am now lounging in my backyard drinking terere. I have no plans for tonight and will probably do very little. I may actually do a little baking if I can motivate myself to go back into town. Tomorrow morning I’m planning on transplanting the vegetables we planted six weeks ago in the community center and told my host brother and his friend I’d bake for them if they helped again. Then we have the inauguration for the comedor. Even though it has been open for two months, they just got a freezer, fridge, and stove donated and delivered by the Mormons yesterday. They’ve been keeping food at their houses and cooking over a simple charcoal grill. Both have caused obvious problems—it is really smoky to cook over the charcoal and the grill stands like 2 feet off the ground so its tough on the back and the women have been accusing each other of stealing food when its kept at individual houses. The inauguration will consist of some traditional Paraguayan dances (obviously) done by the kids and them holding some signs welcoming everyone to the comedor. I’m sure someone will give a long winded speech. Afterwards I’m double booked to play volleyball there and to have a meeting with the youth group, though I assume no one will show up for the youth group meeting since one girl is having a birthday party tomorrow night. The third phase is celebrating
*Here is a reality check of what actually happened on Saturday. (Written Sunday, 6/21/09). The transplanting got moved to Tuesday because my host brother was feeling lazy, which was fine by me. The inauguration went as I expected although I did not expect to spend twenty minutes afterwards speaking to two nice older American Mormon couples who were there to represent the donated goods. I would not have spoken to them for so long if the kids hadn’t been so incredibly amazed to hear conversations in English. The youth meeting was cancelled, as expected, but so was the volleyball game. The 3rd Phase’s celebration of
We had a bit of a communication mix-up while watching one scene. She asked me if I believed there were dinosaurs. I said, yes, I’ve seen the bones. Do you? She said no. We sat there in slightly awkward silence. I’m thinking, OK, she is really Catholic. Maybe her creation story doesn’t allow for dinosaurs…But I’m also thinking, that is absurd! I wish I didn’t know that about my host mom who I like and admire. Then I have her repeat the question. She asked if I believe there are dinosaurs…as in right now! We had a good laugh when she realized what I was thinking and I realized she thought I was some sort of a moron thinking that a T-Rex and King Kong are maybe duking it out right this moment on some island somewhere.
Other quick communication problem came with a girl named
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
I Didn´t Start the Fire
6-16-09
Last night I was working with the 10th grade night class of the high school in Limpio. I´m working with the kids when they have Orientation, which is essentially a free period that they have with the principal. Apparently she has no control over the kids. I found this out last night. I started off with an ice breaker on teamwork. Each group has to wrap a present (an empty matchbox) with some magazine pages and tape. Each person can only use one hand, so obviously team work is required.
My first problem was that the principal did not seem to care what was happening in the class, nor did she have ANY control over the kids. My second problem was that I somehow missed taking out one of the matches from one of the matchboxes. My third is that...umm...those kids are HELLIANS! So a fire was started. The kids started burning a handful of papers on the floor of the classroom. I couldn´t believe it. I obviously yelled at them but they did not seem to be in much of a hurry to put it out. After about 30 seconds of me telling the kid in Spanish to stomp it out (while swearing a great deal in English), he did so. I gave the class a lecture. The principal walked out. The kids were better for about 8 minutes. We changed activities, each kid was given a handful of dried beans. I then had several beans thrown at me.
By the end of the class I was convinced never to have children. I told the principal I didn´t think I was interested in working with that particular class again, mentioning the small fire as a reason. She seemed distant, unphased by it all and just shrugged. They were kind of off today, she finally admitted. As soon as I walked out onto the street I burst out laughing. How do I have such little control of classrooms in this country??
Last night I was working with the 10th grade night class of the high school in Limpio. I´m working with the kids when they have Orientation, which is essentially a free period that they have with the principal. Apparently she has no control over the kids. I found this out last night. I started off with an ice breaker on teamwork. Each group has to wrap a present (an empty matchbox) with some magazine pages and tape. Each person can only use one hand, so obviously team work is required.
My first problem was that the principal did not seem to care what was happening in the class, nor did she have ANY control over the kids. My second problem was that I somehow missed taking out one of the matches from one of the matchboxes. My third is that...umm...those kids are HELLIANS! So a fire was started. The kids started burning a handful of papers on the floor of the classroom. I couldn´t believe it. I obviously yelled at them but they did not seem to be in much of a hurry to put it out. After about 30 seconds of me telling the kid in Spanish to stomp it out (while swearing a great deal in English), he did so. I gave the class a lecture. The principal walked out. The kids were better for about 8 minutes. We changed activities, each kid was given a handful of dried beans. I then had several beans thrown at me.
By the end of the class I was convinced never to have children. I told the principal I didn´t think I was interested in working with that particular class again, mentioning the small fire as a reason. She seemed distant, unphased by it all and just shrugged. They were kind of off today, she finally admitted. As soon as I walked out onto the street I burst out laughing. How do I have such little control of classrooms in this country??
Talkin´ Bout My Reputation.
6-11-09
I think I ruined my reputation today. All during training we talked about the importance of maintaining a good reputation in site. Paraguay is a country that loves to gossip. It is small, eevryone is related, people travel to work, ther eis not much entertainment. They´re good at it. Some of the gossip is just absurd. Some gets turned around so that it is just silly. I told my host family during training that my parents in the US live in the country and that we used to have a horse. This turned into the fact that my parents are dairy farmers. What? Much more ridiculously is another volunteer´s story. Apparently his town was convinced that he killed someone in the US and was sent to Paraguay to do community service as punishment. Obviously the US government would send him elsewhere to work with kids and local governments...
Back to my own reputation, I just don´t think my barrio´s kids are going to be very happy to see me anymore. Sure, I´m working with the community kitchen thing, playing games, and attempting to teach them to whistle through their hands, but today I walked around helping give vaccinations. The kids were so happy to see us at first. Most seem really thrilled to have me up close and personal to stare at. Then comes some sort of drop in their mouth. I gave that. It isn´t the best tasting thing in the world, but most kids take it without much fuss. Then come the shots. By the end of our visit the kid is screaming, bawling, and glaring at us. I wish I had brought lollypops. I was thinking about how many people I know have fears of needles. Maybe this helps with some of that fear. Perhaps it only helps curb the fear of the doctor´s office. I was also thinking about my Aunt Sally--my mom´s aunt who was the nurse at our pediatrician´s office and has the shakiest hands I´ve ever seen. Watching that needle tremble violently into my skin was trully terrifying each time...but she never missed. I also saw a really gnarly parasite in a girl´s arm. ¨Does it hurt and itch? That is because it is trying to get out.¨ I have never seen anything like it.
Although my assignment is Urban Youth, I live in the campo. Today I realized that more than ever. I wasn´t in my barrio exactly but very close. Villa Madrid, where I live, is 3 blocks wide, starting at the main road and working its way down a big hill then up another for about 35 blocks. There are two bus lines that go into the Villa, and they travel on the cobblestone road. Everything else is dirt, with some gravel. Running along the north long side of the villa are asentamientos. I don´t know what that translates to but they are shacks made of wood, metal sheets, and occasionally cement blocks. The people in them are squatting. They´re mostly families from the Villa who have been promised housing bu without a timeline. There are lots of lone lightbulbs that you can see glowing at night. I have been told most take water from houses in Villa Madrid to bathe, do laundry, and clean dishes. Those asentamientos have been around for more than a year and reallyhave no idea when they´ll actually own the land. Today I walked through the asentamientos along the south side of Villa Madrid to do the vaccinations. I think I´m going again Wednesday morning.
I think I ruined my reputation today. All during training we talked about the importance of maintaining a good reputation in site. Paraguay is a country that loves to gossip. It is small, eevryone is related, people travel to work, ther eis not much entertainment. They´re good at it. Some of the gossip is just absurd. Some gets turned around so that it is just silly. I told my host family during training that my parents in the US live in the country and that we used to have a horse. This turned into the fact that my parents are dairy farmers. What? Much more ridiculously is another volunteer´s story. Apparently his town was convinced that he killed someone in the US and was sent to Paraguay to do community service as punishment. Obviously the US government would send him elsewhere to work with kids and local governments...
Back to my own reputation, I just don´t think my barrio´s kids are going to be very happy to see me anymore. Sure, I´m working with the community kitchen thing, playing games, and attempting to teach them to whistle through their hands, but today I walked around helping give vaccinations. The kids were so happy to see us at first. Most seem really thrilled to have me up close and personal to stare at. Then comes some sort of drop in their mouth. I gave that. It isn´t the best tasting thing in the world, but most kids take it without much fuss. Then come the shots. By the end of our visit the kid is screaming, bawling, and glaring at us. I wish I had brought lollypops. I was thinking about how many people I know have fears of needles. Maybe this helps with some of that fear. Perhaps it only helps curb the fear of the doctor´s office. I was also thinking about my Aunt Sally--my mom´s aunt who was the nurse at our pediatrician´s office and has the shakiest hands I´ve ever seen. Watching that needle tremble violently into my skin was trully terrifying each time...but she never missed. I also saw a really gnarly parasite in a girl´s arm. ¨Does it hurt and itch? That is because it is trying to get out.¨ I have never seen anything like it.
Although my assignment is Urban Youth, I live in the campo. Today I realized that more than ever. I wasn´t in my barrio exactly but very close. Villa Madrid, where I live, is 3 blocks wide, starting at the main road and working its way down a big hill then up another for about 35 blocks. There are two bus lines that go into the Villa, and they travel on the cobblestone road. Everything else is dirt, with some gravel. Running along the north long side of the villa are asentamientos. I don´t know what that translates to but they are shacks made of wood, metal sheets, and occasionally cement blocks. The people in them are squatting. They´re mostly families from the Villa who have been promised housing bu without a timeline. There are lots of lone lightbulbs that you can see glowing at night. I have been told most take water from houses in Villa Madrid to bathe, do laundry, and clean dishes. Those asentamientos have been around for more than a year and reallyhave no idea when they´ll actually own the land. Today I walked through the asentamientos along the south side of Villa Madrid to do the vaccinations. I think I´m going again Wednesday morning.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Kids: The New Bane of My Existence.
6-6-09
I was thinking this morning about the ironies and random pieces of my current daily life. I bucket bathe. I heat up water while I heat up whole milk on the stove for my cafe con leche. I eat my white bread with my coffee, then pour the hot water into a big basin, then add room temperature water from one of the buckets found in the bathroom. (The buckets are filled with the trash cans of water we fill when the water is on.) I then do a great deal of dancing and gasping as the hot water leaves me freezing and drying while I lather up. I get dressed. Then I blow dry my hair. What? In Peace Corps? There is straightener that I could use if I wanted. As a quick note, I will not be blow drying in the summer...it is just a nice way to be warm briefly. Also, I get pedicures. This strikes me as especially not Peace Corps but I`m so afraid of the pique that invade feet and lay eggs. I`m nervous that I won`t see them myself. (I haven`t--knock on wood--had any...yet.)
I also found myself thinking this morning about the volunteer I`m following up. When she got her bike from PC she put on her helmet (PC mandatory) and went for a ride. Kids promptly started throwing rocks--at her helmetted head! And hit it! I was thinking of this story because it makes me generally happy. And then, karma hit me like a rock. Oh, no--wait! That was actually a rock, thrown at me by either a Hellian in my 7th grade class or one of his little lackies. The real bitch of it was that I had paused on my run to talk to them because of that kid, then I went to continue on and got nailed by the rock. I didn`t even know how to respond. I may not like kids at all by the end of the two years--underwear on my head AND a rock pelted at me in the same week?? Only what? Like 100 weeks to go?
I was thinking this morning about the ironies and random pieces of my current daily life. I bucket bathe. I heat up water while I heat up whole milk on the stove for my cafe con leche. I eat my white bread with my coffee, then pour the hot water into a big basin, then add room temperature water from one of the buckets found in the bathroom. (The buckets are filled with the trash cans of water we fill when the water is on.) I then do a great deal of dancing and gasping as the hot water leaves me freezing and drying while I lather up. I get dressed. Then I blow dry my hair. What? In Peace Corps? There is straightener that I could use if I wanted. As a quick note, I will not be blow drying in the summer...it is just a nice way to be warm briefly. Also, I get pedicures. This strikes me as especially not Peace Corps but I`m so afraid of the pique that invade feet and lay eggs. I`m nervous that I won`t see them myself. (I haven`t--knock on wood--had any...yet.)
I also found myself thinking this morning about the volunteer I`m following up. When she got her bike from PC she put on her helmet (PC mandatory) and went for a ride. Kids promptly started throwing rocks--at her helmetted head! And hit it! I was thinking of this story because it makes me generally happy. And then, karma hit me like a rock. Oh, no--wait! That was actually a rock, thrown at me by either a Hellian in my 7th grade class or one of his little lackies. The real bitch of it was that I had paused on my run to talk to them because of that kid, then I went to continue on and got nailed by the rock. I didn`t even know how to respond. I may not like kids at all by the end of the two years--underwear on my head AND a rock pelted at me in the same week?? Only what? Like 100 weeks to go?
Animal Skins
6-5-09
The coordinator of PREA invited me to come back today because the American school from Asunción is coming. I was here to pick up a bunch of saplings with an eleventh grade class last week so they could plant them in their school yard. Animal skins--crocodiles, birds, some sort of jungle cats, sheep, maybe the shell of an armadillo--hung all around me in the open air dining room while I waited. PREA is a private organization that stands for Parque Recreativo Educativo Ambiental (Ambiental means Environmental...I hope you can figure out the rest). They have animals that you can rent for animal husbandry, but most of the farm environment is for show. They teach kids how to milk cows, teach them about the crocodiles they have in their swamp, have them feed a bunch of animals, show them how to compost, and all sorts of other stuff.
And my small world experiences keep happening. Out of the two teachers from the American School who came to PREA with the 45 students, one is from the Eastern Shore of Maryland and went to Gettysburg College for a year before transferring. The American School is a prestigious private school consisting of a lot of Embassy kids and rich Paraguayan kids. It was interesting going from PREA with them to my seventh grade class where they can`t afford books or any other suplies. I did a leadership charla with them where we talked about good vs bad qualities of a leader. The teacher stayed in the room, which I appreciated, but also answered a HANDFUL of questions aimed at the kids, which was obnoxious. The kids also elected a class government but didn`t talk about the responsibilities of each official and none could tell me why they wanted a government. It basically became a popularity/boy vs. girl contest. Odd but not surprising.
The coordinator of PREA invited me to come back today because the American school from Asunción is coming. I was here to pick up a bunch of saplings with an eleventh grade class last week so they could plant them in their school yard. Animal skins--crocodiles, birds, some sort of jungle cats, sheep, maybe the shell of an armadillo--hung all around me in the open air dining room while I waited. PREA is a private organization that stands for Parque Recreativo Educativo Ambiental (Ambiental means Environmental...I hope you can figure out the rest). They have animals that you can rent for animal husbandry, but most of the farm environment is for show. They teach kids how to milk cows, teach them about the crocodiles they have in their swamp, have them feed a bunch of animals, show them how to compost, and all sorts of other stuff.
And my small world experiences keep happening. Out of the two teachers from the American School who came to PREA with the 45 students, one is from the Eastern Shore of Maryland and went to Gettysburg College for a year before transferring. The American School is a prestigious private school consisting of a lot of Embassy kids and rich Paraguayan kids. It was interesting going from PREA with them to my seventh grade class where they can`t afford books or any other suplies. I did a leadership charla with them where we talked about good vs bad qualities of a leader. The teacher stayed in the room, which I appreciated, but also answered a HANDFUL of questions aimed at the kids, which was obnoxious. The kids also elected a class government but didn`t talk about the responsibilities of each official and none could tell me why they wanted a government. It basically became a popularity/boy vs. girl contest. Odd but not surprising.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Its a Small World and Underpants on my Head
6-3-09
Time is flying! This past weekend a bunch of other volunteers came into Asunción for meetings and rendezvous. It was great to see everyone--and to celebrate some birthdays! We went out to karaoke after a delicious dinner of Mexican food where I promptly ran into a Paraguayan who stopped me by saying my host brother-during-training´s name. Apparently he used to work with the host brother and recognized me from Guarambarè. I could have sworn I had never seen him before in my life. I sang. Then, yesterday I was sss-ed at from a parked car while waiting for a bus in Limpio. (I hate the sss-ing but it is an awfully effective way to get someone´s attention.) He did the ¨Ven aqui¨ motion--palm down, fingers move together from flat hand to closed hand and back. Then he told me he recognized me from Guarambaré, that I walked by his house at 7:30 every morning for 3 months. Weird--two Guarambarè spottings in 5 days. Good thing I blend in here, right? Then, a half hour away in a big super market I saw two kids from a school I`m working in. They were working bagging groceries. All these small world Paraguayan meetings of course come now that swine flu has hit the country. My host family says that lots of schools in Asunción are now requiring the nose-mouth covers by students and teachers.
This week has been interesting thus far. I had a good break through with the principal of the high school I`m working with in Limpio. I thought she wasn`t going to allow me to come back after I deliver the survey results but after some sweet talking, she is now giving me pretty much a free pass to do whatever I want. I found a school in Limpio also that does environmental education support for other schools. They have trees that are ready to be planted, a vegetable garden, and apparently a bunch of animals--some that you can rent (cows, pigs, goats) and some that you can`t (like alligators). I don`t know why you can`t rent alligators. That makes me slightly sad. I`m going back Friday. What else is going on in my life? Today I walked back with a bunch of kids from their school. I didn´t know any of them but they had plenty of questions for me. Unfortunately, one found a pair of underwear on the road. They started throwing it on each other. I apparently have no control over kids I don`t know because I couldn`t make them stop. Then suddenly, it was on my head. Yes, underwear was on my head. Some probably dirty, stranger´s underwear that had previously been laying in the dirt by the road was on my head. After my response they didn`t pick it up or throw it on anyone else. And they were suddenly much nicer and more respectful. I`m pleased with the final result but EWWWW.
Today, after that super fun experience I went to the community comedor, which I`ve mentioned before. This women`s group put together this place where kids 7-12 can eat breakfast and lunch for free. The same two or three women are always working. It is a new project and seems to have burn out written all over it, as far as I`m concerned. Those women work 25 hours a week. They`re having a lot of drama with the really well-intentioned but spread-too-thin president, lack of transparency with food stuff and money, and a general communication break down. As these women were telling me all about the drama I couldn´t help but think of the frequently exhausting union meetings from Rosemont. They have a meeting on Friday that I`m going to. I`m interested to see how this works out. In the meantime I`m going to try to stay as neutral as possible. And so tomorrow I`m doing an art project with the kids. I`m thinking no political statements with the art...probably less Banksy and more finger paint.
Time is flying! This past weekend a bunch of other volunteers came into Asunción for meetings and rendezvous. It was great to see everyone--and to celebrate some birthdays! We went out to karaoke after a delicious dinner of Mexican food where I promptly ran into a Paraguayan who stopped me by saying my host brother-during-training´s name. Apparently he used to work with the host brother and recognized me from Guarambarè. I could have sworn I had never seen him before in my life. I sang. Then, yesterday I was sss-ed at from a parked car while waiting for a bus in Limpio. (I hate the sss-ing but it is an awfully effective way to get someone´s attention.) He did the ¨Ven aqui¨ motion--palm down, fingers move together from flat hand to closed hand and back. Then he told me he recognized me from Guarambaré, that I walked by his house at 7:30 every morning for 3 months. Weird--two Guarambarè spottings in 5 days. Good thing I blend in here, right? Then, a half hour away in a big super market I saw two kids from a school I`m working in. They were working bagging groceries. All these small world Paraguayan meetings of course come now that swine flu has hit the country. My host family says that lots of schools in Asunción are now requiring the nose-mouth covers by students and teachers.
This week has been interesting thus far. I had a good break through with the principal of the high school I`m working with in Limpio. I thought she wasn`t going to allow me to come back after I deliver the survey results but after some sweet talking, she is now giving me pretty much a free pass to do whatever I want. I found a school in Limpio also that does environmental education support for other schools. They have trees that are ready to be planted, a vegetable garden, and apparently a bunch of animals--some that you can rent (cows, pigs, goats) and some that you can`t (like alligators). I don`t know why you can`t rent alligators. That makes me slightly sad. I`m going back Friday. What else is going on in my life? Today I walked back with a bunch of kids from their school. I didn´t know any of them but they had plenty of questions for me. Unfortunately, one found a pair of underwear on the road. They started throwing it on each other. I apparently have no control over kids I don`t know because I couldn`t make them stop. Then suddenly, it was on my head. Yes, underwear was on my head. Some probably dirty, stranger´s underwear that had previously been laying in the dirt by the road was on my head. After my response they didn`t pick it up or throw it on anyone else. And they were suddenly much nicer and more respectful. I`m pleased with the final result but EWWWW.
Today, after that super fun experience I went to the community comedor, which I`ve mentioned before. This women`s group put together this place where kids 7-12 can eat breakfast and lunch for free. The same two or three women are always working. It is a new project and seems to have burn out written all over it, as far as I`m concerned. Those women work 25 hours a week. They`re having a lot of drama with the really well-intentioned but spread-too-thin president, lack of transparency with food stuff and money, and a general communication break down. As these women were telling me all about the drama I couldn´t help but think of the frequently exhausting union meetings from Rosemont. They have a meeting on Friday that I`m going to. I`m interested to see how this works out. In the meantime I`m going to try to stay as neutral as possible. And so tomorrow I`m doing an art project with the kids. I`m thinking no political statements with the art...probably less Banksy and more finger paint.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Too Much Caffeine and Too Many Kids
5-26-09
Yesterday was a very long day. I woke up a little before 6 and was out of the house at 7am. I´m really not into being awake super early, though Paraguayans seem to love the wee morning hours for whatever reason. I am, no matter how early I wake up, always the last up in my house. My host family--parents and 2 teenagers--are all out of the house before 6am. My host dad sometimes leaves at 4:30 for work. This is baffling to me. I sometimes run into them en route to the bathroom in my middle of the night/their morning. (It is obnoxious, by the way, to have to wake up enough to heave a bucket of water into the toilet.) Anyway, yesterday I went into Limpio itself to do surveys at the big high school there. I don´t believe I´ve explained Limpio thus far. (Excuse me if I have.) It is, at a glance, a mix between a town on the Pennsylvania turnpike (think Breezewood, PA) and a small Jersey town outside of NYC. Again, not a place where many people stop to look around. That being said, I like Limpio a lot. If ou get off the main drag there are nice little places to eat empanadas. The center is the church but since it is surrounded by a fence, it is nearly always completely dead. The church doors are locked and there is only the occasional person napping or playing with children in the far corner of the yard. I´ve also found that it is an excellent place to read since the polka VS reggaetone fight to be heard can be avoided and I don´t have to spend any money to sit.) There is also a good sized market area where I often buy pears and successfully bartered for a comforter last week. (It got so cold one night last week and I only had a sheet, so I wore thick socks, spandex, sweat pants, a t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, fleece, and winter hat to sleep!!)
The high school I went to is a national school on the same street as the municipality, police station, and the church. They have morning, afternoon, and night classes. I did a survey with 183 high school juniors asking the basic information (sex, age, neighborhood), if they worked, how much they study, drug use, alcohol, sex, condoms and HIV/AIDS knowledge. I still have to finish tallying the results, then I´ll figure out where to go from there. Some of the kids were rude and rowdy. The smallest class was 39 and the largest was 57. In between giving the surveys I basically drank too much caffeine (I recently found a place that went ot to buy Nescafe after I ordered a coffee), looked over some of the surveys, and finished Crime and Punishment. I´ll definitely have a great deal of down time in the next two years and just started, nerdily enough, my own personal book review. It is excellent.
Anyway, I´m hoping the surveys are at least mostly true, though who really knows? I guess I´ll never know. The night class was the most tranquilo and the nicest overall so I´m going back to observe them tonight. Though, very unfortunately, I´m sure it will be boring. Most of the teachers either have the students copy from the board or from their dictations. There is no way I would have survived in a classroom like this. It is excruciating to watch and I really don´t know how the kids swallow any information. I´ll keep my fingers crossed to be pleasantly surprised...
Yesterday was a very long day. I woke up a little before 6 and was out of the house at 7am. I´m really not into being awake super early, though Paraguayans seem to love the wee morning hours for whatever reason. I am, no matter how early I wake up, always the last up in my house. My host family--parents and 2 teenagers--are all out of the house before 6am. My host dad sometimes leaves at 4:30 for work. This is baffling to me. I sometimes run into them en route to the bathroom in my middle of the night/their morning. (It is obnoxious, by the way, to have to wake up enough to heave a bucket of water into the toilet.) Anyway, yesterday I went into Limpio itself to do surveys at the big high school there. I don´t believe I´ve explained Limpio thus far. (Excuse me if I have.) It is, at a glance, a mix between a town on the Pennsylvania turnpike (think Breezewood, PA) and a small Jersey town outside of NYC. Again, not a place where many people stop to look around. That being said, I like Limpio a lot. If ou get off the main drag there are nice little places to eat empanadas. The center is the church but since it is surrounded by a fence, it is nearly always completely dead. The church doors are locked and there is only the occasional person napping or playing with children in the far corner of the yard. I´ve also found that it is an excellent place to read since the polka VS reggaetone fight to be heard can be avoided and I don´t have to spend any money to sit.) There is also a good sized market area where I often buy pears and successfully bartered for a comforter last week. (It got so cold one night last week and I only had a sheet, so I wore thick socks, spandex, sweat pants, a t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, fleece, and winter hat to sleep!!)
The high school I went to is a national school on the same street as the municipality, police station, and the church. They have morning, afternoon, and night classes. I did a survey with 183 high school juniors asking the basic information (sex, age, neighborhood), if they worked, how much they study, drug use, alcohol, sex, condoms and HIV/AIDS knowledge. I still have to finish tallying the results, then I´ll figure out where to go from there. Some of the kids were rude and rowdy. The smallest class was 39 and the largest was 57. In between giving the surveys I basically drank too much caffeine (I recently found a place that went ot to buy Nescafe after I ordered a coffee), looked over some of the surveys, and finished Crime and Punishment. I´ll definitely have a great deal of down time in the next two years and just started, nerdily enough, my own personal book review. It is excellent.
Anyway, I´m hoping the surveys are at least mostly true, though who really knows? I guess I´ll never know. The night class was the most tranquilo and the nicest overall so I´m going back to observe them tonight. Though, very unfortunately, I´m sure it will be boring. Most of the teachers either have the students copy from the board or from their dictations. There is no way I would have survived in a classroom like this. It is excruciating to watch and I really don´t know how the kids swallow any information. I´ll keep my fingers crossed to be pleasantly surprised...
The President Has...Hijos?
5-21-09
I believe I mentioned that the community center has continuing education classes for mechanics, hair dressers, and pastry chefs. The classes are free for students and open to anyone over the age of 14. They have 3 months of classes and then are set up with an internship around Limpio or Asuncion. This is all part of a project between the Ministerio of Justice and Trabajo and SINAFOCAL (National System for Labor Formation and Training). I know that translation is poor but you get the idea. SINAFOCAL have a bunch of programs including microfinancing for small business owners, helping youth find their first job, and helping rural businesses or individuals market their products. Last night I went with the students from our community center to the closing ceremony for thousands of students in Central. There were rumors that Lugo, Paraguay´s president, was going to attend. There were a bunch of camoflaged guards outside with automatic weapons, but my bag has certainly been more thoroughly searched at concerts. The whole set up was really impressive. There were lights, two huge projection screens that frequently showed crowd members for uncomfortably long periods of time, and booths set up along one side with photo slide shows of classes and internships. They also showed two long videos that included lots of techno music in the soundtracks. The head of SINAFOCAL spoke for a while, then President Lugo got up to speak!
He started off with the completely necessary jabs at himself for the most recent scandal. He used to be a Catholic bishop but stepped down to assume his role as Paraguay´s president in August. This marks the first time in 61 years that the Colorado party hasn´t held the presidency. Lugo ran on the fact that he was clean--and a Bishop!--open, and uncorrupt. He was seen as a man without special ties to one political party or other. (Sidenote: He was also very active in Liberation Theology, which was what I wrote my thesis on.) Regardless, the past two months have been full of gossip like you wouldn´t believe. It turns out that Lugo has a two year old son--yes, that means he fathered the child when he was still a man of the cloth. He came out and admitted it immediately upon being accused. This happened during Holy Week--not a great time to be seen offending the Church or one´s family. Since then, many women have come out of the woodwork to claim that Lugo is their baby´s daddy too. The count, depending on whom you ask, is up to as high as 16 kids. Absurd. For mother´s day, one of the major cell phone companies showed a commercial (at nauseum) of Lugo as a baby smiling up at women as his stroller was pushed down the street. The women would immediately become pregnant. Silly.
Regardless, in last night´s event, Lugo obviously poked fun at himself. He had to. In his campaign, his slogan was "Lugo has heart" but last night he asked, "Lugo has WHAT?" Some people yelled "Heart!" but he corrected them..."Hijos!" (Children) I was pleased to have had my first presidential spotting, though hopefully next time I can shake his hand...while avoiding eye contact.
I believe I mentioned that the community center has continuing education classes for mechanics, hair dressers, and pastry chefs. The classes are free for students and open to anyone over the age of 14. They have 3 months of classes and then are set up with an internship around Limpio or Asuncion. This is all part of a project between the Ministerio of Justice and Trabajo and SINAFOCAL (National System for Labor Formation and Training). I know that translation is poor but you get the idea. SINAFOCAL have a bunch of programs including microfinancing for small business owners, helping youth find their first job, and helping rural businesses or individuals market their products. Last night I went with the students from our community center to the closing ceremony for thousands of students in Central. There were rumors that Lugo, Paraguay´s president, was going to attend. There were a bunch of camoflaged guards outside with automatic weapons, but my bag has certainly been more thoroughly searched at concerts. The whole set up was really impressive. There were lights, two huge projection screens that frequently showed crowd members for uncomfortably long periods of time, and booths set up along one side with photo slide shows of classes and internships. They also showed two long videos that included lots of techno music in the soundtracks. The head of SINAFOCAL spoke for a while, then President Lugo got up to speak!
He started off with the completely necessary jabs at himself for the most recent scandal. He used to be a Catholic bishop but stepped down to assume his role as Paraguay´s president in August. This marks the first time in 61 years that the Colorado party hasn´t held the presidency. Lugo ran on the fact that he was clean--and a Bishop!--open, and uncorrupt. He was seen as a man without special ties to one political party or other. (Sidenote: He was also very active in Liberation Theology, which was what I wrote my thesis on.) Regardless, the past two months have been full of gossip like you wouldn´t believe. It turns out that Lugo has a two year old son--yes, that means he fathered the child when he was still a man of the cloth. He came out and admitted it immediately upon being accused. This happened during Holy Week--not a great time to be seen offending the Church or one´s family. Since then, many women have come out of the woodwork to claim that Lugo is their baby´s daddy too. The count, depending on whom you ask, is up to as high as 16 kids. Absurd. For mother´s day, one of the major cell phone companies showed a commercial (at nauseum) of Lugo as a baby smiling up at women as his stroller was pushed down the street. The women would immediately become pregnant. Silly.
Regardless, in last night´s event, Lugo obviously poked fun at himself. He had to. In his campaign, his slogan was "Lugo has heart" but last night he asked, "Lugo has WHAT?" Some people yelled "Heart!" but he corrected them..."Hijos!" (Children) I was pleased to have had my first presidential spotting, though hopefully next time I can shake his hand...while avoiding eye contact.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Not-So-Minimum Wage and Country Clubs
5-13-09
Part 1.
So not only are schools closed Thursday and Friday for the holidays but in Central (my department or state) almost all the teachers are striking, which means kids only had class on Monday. The teachers are striking for the usual things people strike for--wages and rights. In Paraguay there is a minimum wage, but since very few people except (beginning only very recently) government employees receive it, it seems like a bit of a misnomer. Assuming the numbers my host brother gave me are correct, minimum wage comes out to about $280 a month or $3360 a year. I´m not sure how much the teachers are making. There are three shifts of classes in a school day: morning (7am-11/noon), afternoon (1pm-5pm) and night (5pm-9pm). Most teachers I´ve met teach in at least two of those shifts, if not all three. That being said, the schedules do rotate so they wouldn´t be teaching every hour of the day. All kids here wear uniforms, though those uniforms are frequently open to individual interpretation at the poorer schools.
Moving on with this number game, I believe I make about minimum wage. It is enough for me to live comfortably and simply, though I´m obviously only supporting myself. I pay my host family rent which ends up being 200,000 Guaranís or $40 a month. They also feed me most of my meals. I buy some groceries and eat a great deal of lunches at the community center and the community kitchen. (These meals are usually rice or pasta based with some meat or corn ball (vorri vorri), and the infrequent vegetable.) Breakfast consists of cafe con leche and white dinner rolls. Dinner could be anything--left overs from lunch, yogurt and alfahors (sweet bread), salad. In between breakfast and lunch if I¨m at the community center I´m given bananas or empanadas before wonderful refreshing terere. I don´t know if I´ve mentioned this before. I am not sure how that would be possible. Terere is such a huge part of Paraguayan culture. Everyone has a thermos filled with cold water and herbs (lemon grass, limon, and mint are my favorites) if it is morning. Supposedly having yuyos (herbs) in your terere in the afternoon will make you sick. (Also, supposedly if you mix terere and watermelon it will explode in your stomach. Think Pop Rocks and Coke.) Then you pour the cold water into a cup called a guampa that is full of yerba (tea leaves). The guampa is frequently made from a bull´s horn. You drink out of a straw called a bombilla. There are lots of little rules and traditions that go along with terere. When it gets colder people start drinking yerba mate, which I have tried only a couple of times thus far. I just don´t think it is cold enough for it yet.
Part 2.
I´m on the bus heading back to my barrio. Today I went to meet a municipalities volunteer for lunch in her site. We then took a bus to San Bernadino to take a look around. San Ber, as it is known, is the most resorty town in Paraguay. It has an open season during December and January where the town comes alive with rich Asunciónites visiting their summer homes. The town is, not surprisingly, really beautiful and on a gorgeous (though apparently extremely polluted) lake. I was very impressed with the lake, although the only bodies of water I´ve seen in the past four months have been garbage strewn mini rivers so maybe I´m not a good judge. I talked our way into a country club for a look around. There were all sorts of sail boats, jet skis, paddle boats , and motor boats. They had a restaurant on a pier, the nicest grass I´ve seen, and a fishing area. I saw a little boy fishing and asked if he had any luck. Not so far, but he usually does, he said. What kind of fish does he catch? He looked at me like I had two heads, ¨Big ones.¨ I´m looking forward to going back during the season just for the experience. But for now I´m heading back to Limpio.
PS- Tonight at dinner I asked if the brown things in my rice dish were mushrooms. They weren´t. They were chunks of kidney. The love for organ meat is really taking some getting used to.
Part 1.
So not only are schools closed Thursday and Friday for the holidays but in Central (my department or state) almost all the teachers are striking, which means kids only had class on Monday. The teachers are striking for the usual things people strike for--wages and rights. In Paraguay there is a minimum wage, but since very few people except (beginning only very recently) government employees receive it, it seems like a bit of a misnomer. Assuming the numbers my host brother gave me are correct, minimum wage comes out to about $280 a month or $3360 a year. I´m not sure how much the teachers are making. There are three shifts of classes in a school day: morning (7am-11/noon), afternoon (1pm-5pm) and night (5pm-9pm). Most teachers I´ve met teach in at least two of those shifts, if not all three. That being said, the schedules do rotate so they wouldn´t be teaching every hour of the day. All kids here wear uniforms, though those uniforms are frequently open to individual interpretation at the poorer schools.
Moving on with this number game, I believe I make about minimum wage. It is enough for me to live comfortably and simply, though I´m obviously only supporting myself. I pay my host family rent which ends up being 200,000 Guaranís or $40 a month. They also feed me most of my meals. I buy some groceries and eat a great deal of lunches at the community center and the community kitchen. (These meals are usually rice or pasta based with some meat or corn ball (vorri vorri), and the infrequent vegetable.) Breakfast consists of cafe con leche and white dinner rolls. Dinner could be anything--left overs from lunch, yogurt and alfahors (sweet bread), salad. In between breakfast and lunch if I¨m at the community center I´m given bananas or empanadas before wonderful refreshing terere. I don´t know if I´ve mentioned this before. I am not sure how that would be possible. Terere is such a huge part of Paraguayan culture. Everyone has a thermos filled with cold water and herbs (lemon grass, limon, and mint are my favorites) if it is morning. Supposedly having yuyos (herbs) in your terere in the afternoon will make you sick. (Also, supposedly if you mix terere and watermelon it will explode in your stomach. Think Pop Rocks and Coke.) Then you pour the cold water into a cup called a guampa that is full of yerba (tea leaves). The guampa is frequently made from a bull´s horn. You drink out of a straw called a bombilla. There are lots of little rules and traditions that go along with terere. When it gets colder people start drinking yerba mate, which I have tried only a couple of times thus far. I just don´t think it is cold enough for it yet.
Part 2.
I´m on the bus heading back to my barrio. Today I went to meet a municipalities volunteer for lunch in her site. We then took a bus to San Bernadino to take a look around. San Ber, as it is known, is the most resorty town in Paraguay. It has an open season during December and January where the town comes alive with rich Asunciónites visiting their summer homes. The town is, not surprisingly, really beautiful and on a gorgeous (though apparently extremely polluted) lake. I was very impressed with the lake, although the only bodies of water I´ve seen in the past four months have been garbage strewn mini rivers so maybe I´m not a good judge. I talked our way into a country club for a look around. There were all sorts of sail boats, jet skis, paddle boats , and motor boats. They had a restaurant on a pier, the nicest grass I´ve seen, and a fishing area. I saw a little boy fishing and asked if he had any luck. Not so far, but he usually does, he said. What kind of fish does he catch? He looked at me like I had two heads, ¨Big ones.¨ I´m looking forward to going back during the season just for the experience. But for now I´m heading back to Limpio.
PS- Tonight at dinner I asked if the brown things in my rice dish were mushrooms. They weren´t. They were chunks of kidney. The love for organ meat is really taking some getting used to.
Substitute Teachers and Fist Fights in Church
5-11-09
Today I went back to that seventh grade class to observe. Unfortunately the teacher was not there. A woman told me that she was filling in for the day. The kids were louder than last week and even crazier. They were given nothing to do for the last 30 minutes of class so I ended up giving an impromptu English lesson to the handful of students who actually stayed in the classroom. Apparently the teacher is a lawyer and had to go to court today. He sent his wife to fill in. Hopefully it isn´t a long trial...
On Saturday I went to a meeting at the local church. Since my neighborhood doesn´t have a plaza in town, the church acts as a meeting place. Unfortunately though, the priest who has been here for the past five years just left, leaving no one to cover mass and the church activities. I went to a meeting with my host mother who teaches catechism classes. There were representatives from many of the church groups. One man, who is apparently the current leader, talked nearly the entire time--ironically he mostly talked about the importance of working as a team. I say ironically because he refused to let anyone else speak. There was a bunch of yelling (mostly in Guaraní) and a woman broke down in tears, pleading with the group to remember they´re in God´s house and can´t we all get along?? I must say, I found it rather entertaining. I just kept thinking of my real mother and the amount of swearing she would do when she came home from vestry meetings when I was young.
This Thursday and Friday the schools are closed yet again, this time for Mother´s Day and Independence Day. I´m starting to think that kids here are never in school. I may or may not be in a parade this Thursday with the community center.
Today I went back to that seventh grade class to observe. Unfortunately the teacher was not there. A woman told me that she was filling in for the day. The kids were louder than last week and even crazier. They were given nothing to do for the last 30 minutes of class so I ended up giving an impromptu English lesson to the handful of students who actually stayed in the classroom. Apparently the teacher is a lawyer and had to go to court today. He sent his wife to fill in. Hopefully it isn´t a long trial...
On Saturday I went to a meeting at the local church. Since my neighborhood doesn´t have a plaza in town, the church acts as a meeting place. Unfortunately though, the priest who has been here for the past five years just left, leaving no one to cover mass and the church activities. I went to a meeting with my host mother who teaches catechism classes. There were representatives from many of the church groups. One man, who is apparently the current leader, talked nearly the entire time--ironically he mostly talked about the importance of working as a team. I say ironically because he refused to let anyone else speak. There was a bunch of yelling (mostly in Guaraní) and a woman broke down in tears, pleading with the group to remember they´re in God´s house and can´t we all get along?? I must say, I found it rather entertaining. I just kept thinking of my real mother and the amount of swearing she would do when she came home from vestry meetings when I was young.
This Thursday and Friday the schools are closed yet again, this time for Mother´s Day and Independence Day. I´m starting to think that kids here are never in school. I may or may not be in a parade this Thursday with the community center.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Rainy Days and Medical Advice
5-7-09
I´m quite happy right now. It is pouring rain--which Paraguay has desperately been needing--and I´m full of yummy quasi-Mexican food. I say quasi-Mexican because it was really more like Tex Mex meets the Paraguayan kitchen. It was also the first time, strangely, that I have ever cooked meat by myself. I´m pleased with the outcome. My host brother and I joked that we were both very impressed with my cooking skills as long as we´re not all running to the bathroom in an hour vomitando. (I love cognates.)
This week has been interesting and has certainly picked up. I´ve been observing at schools, had a few meetings with school principals, met with the head of the community center about our goals and interests, and started working at the community kitchen. My schedule is still very open but I´ve been filling at least some of my time. There is a seventh grade teacher who has an incredibly rowdy bunch of kids to whom he teaches History/Geography, Ethics (I initially thought etica meant etiquette but was sadly mistaken), and community development. I´m definitely planning on working more with him and his class again. There was a near fight until he stepped in. I´m also really enjoying the community kitchen which provides breakfast and lunch to kids in the community who can´t afford it. They have enough money to provide daily breakfast and lunch to 50 kids but 75 have been showing up, so they´ve been figuring out ways to have it stretch. They do all this with the equivalent of $20 US dollars a day. I went to a meeting with the women´s group who run the comedor and community parents yesterday. For whatever reason the woman introducing me said that I was an educational psychiatrist. I clarified that I did graduate from college, studied religion and philosophy, then did some social work and counseling afterwards. The meeting ended. A middle aged woman and her mother approached me afterwards, asking for some advice about the middle aged woman´s daughter. Apparently she is 13, got her period for the first time then hasn´t had it again and two months have passed. There was a great deal of motioning and repeating in order to get this idea across to me. I´ve been asked some strange questions after saying I graduated from college as a religion major (i.e.: What religion is best?), but have never before been asked a medical question. Who knew studying religion made me qualified to answer medical questions??
I´m quite happy right now. It is pouring rain--which Paraguay has desperately been needing--and I´m full of yummy quasi-Mexican food. I say quasi-Mexican because it was really more like Tex Mex meets the Paraguayan kitchen. It was also the first time, strangely, that I have ever cooked meat by myself. I´m pleased with the outcome. My host brother and I joked that we were both very impressed with my cooking skills as long as we´re not all running to the bathroom in an hour vomitando. (I love cognates.)
This week has been interesting and has certainly picked up. I´ve been observing at schools, had a few meetings with school principals, met with the head of the community center about our goals and interests, and started working at the community kitchen. My schedule is still very open but I´ve been filling at least some of my time. There is a seventh grade teacher who has an incredibly rowdy bunch of kids to whom he teaches History/Geography, Ethics (I initially thought etica meant etiquette but was sadly mistaken), and community development. I´m definitely planning on working more with him and his class again. There was a near fight until he stepped in. I´m also really enjoying the community kitchen which provides breakfast and lunch to kids in the community who can´t afford it. They have enough money to provide daily breakfast and lunch to 50 kids but 75 have been showing up, so they´ve been figuring out ways to have it stretch. They do all this with the equivalent of $20 US dollars a day. I went to a meeting with the women´s group who run the comedor and community parents yesterday. For whatever reason the woman introducing me said that I was an educational psychiatrist. I clarified that I did graduate from college, studied religion and philosophy, then did some social work and counseling afterwards. The meeting ended. A middle aged woman and her mother approached me afterwards, asking for some advice about the middle aged woman´s daughter. Apparently she is 13, got her period for the first time then hasn´t had it again and two months have passed. There was a great deal of motioning and repeating in order to get this idea across to me. I´ve been asked some strange questions after saying I graduated from college as a religion major (i.e.: What religion is best?), but have never before been asked a medical question. Who knew studying religion made me qualified to answer medical questions??
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Its the Little Things in Life that Mean So Little
5-1-09
Thinking about the fact that it is the first day of May made me realize that I´ve been terrible about blogging. I´m sure that my blog´s avid followers have been crying themselves to sleep. The good news for that person or two is that I think I´ll get much better about blogging since I now have a very open schedule. The bad news may be that, thanks to that open schedule, I have very little to write about. We shall see.
So, going along with that theme, I´ve been allowing myself congratulations on a job well done when I´ve accomplished extremely minor things. I am pleased if I do two things in a day. Day 2 that meant going to a Teacher´s Day celebration at the community center. Some cute little preschoolers did a traditional Paraguayan dance, everyone sang, stood around, then ate cookies, dulce de leche cake and stuff that tastes like hot chocolate but is always served cold. I stood around somewhat (read: very) awkwardly, chatting with the five or so people I knew there and being gawked at by children ages 2 to 8. First of two productive things of my day done. The second? I went for a run with Santiago to the grocery store to buy cereal, instant coffee, and a notebook. We ran back. Second productive thing--check. Day 3: had a great lunch back at the community center to celebrate the head of said community center´s birthday. I had some delicious wine and coke while being ridiculed for not drinking more and not drinking whiskey. (I am slightly worried that thanks to Paraguay I¨ll never want normal room-temperature red wine ever again. What if I´m that weird aunt or the rest of my life?!?) I taught a bunch of funny drunk women the macarena. They were disappointed by my lack of knowledge in the country-western dance department. (Note: I´m really a truly horrible dancer. I know this about myself. I feel kind of bad giving the US such a bad rep on dance floors across Paraguay.) My second productive thing was a run by myself. Today I kind of helped clean the house. My work was minimal. I actually drank terere with the family when they took breaks from cleaning, then unpacked all of my stuff. My run was the only time I left the house.
I will go ahead and say that the past three days have been good productive days. I tried explaining this to my sister today on the phone. Being the great sister she is, she tried to relate by saying that after law school ended, she has been really surprised at all her down time--"Now I only work from 9 to 6!¨she told me. Ha.
Thinking about the fact that it is the first day of May made me realize that I´ve been terrible about blogging. I´m sure that my blog´s avid followers have been crying themselves to sleep. The good news for that person or two is that I think I´ll get much better about blogging since I now have a very open schedule. The bad news may be that, thanks to that open schedule, I have very little to write about. We shall see.
So, going along with that theme, I´ve been allowing myself congratulations on a job well done when I´ve accomplished extremely minor things. I am pleased if I do two things in a day. Day 2 that meant going to a Teacher´s Day celebration at the community center. Some cute little preschoolers did a traditional Paraguayan dance, everyone sang, stood around, then ate cookies, dulce de leche cake and stuff that tastes like hot chocolate but is always served cold. I stood around somewhat (read: very) awkwardly, chatting with the five or so people I knew there and being gawked at by children ages 2 to 8. First of two productive things of my day done. The second? I went for a run with Santiago to the grocery store to buy cereal, instant coffee, and a notebook. We ran back. Second productive thing--check. Day 3: had a great lunch back at the community center to celebrate the head of said community center´s birthday. I had some delicious wine and coke while being ridiculed for not drinking more and not drinking whiskey. (I am slightly worried that thanks to Paraguay I¨ll never want normal room-temperature red wine ever again. What if I´m that weird aunt or the rest of my life?!?) I taught a bunch of funny drunk women the macarena. They were disappointed by my lack of knowledge in the country-western dance department. (Note: I´m really a truly horrible dancer. I know this about myself. I feel kind of bad giving the US such a bad rep on dance floors across Paraguay.) My second productive thing was a run by myself. Today I kind of helped clean the house. My work was minimal. I actually drank terere with the family when they took breaks from cleaning, then unpacked all of my stuff. My run was the only time I left the house.
I will go ahead and say that the past three days have been good productive days. I tried explaining this to my sister today on the phone. Being the great sister she is, she tried to relate by saying that after law school ended, she has been really surprised at all her down time--"Now I only work from 9 to 6!¨she told me. Ha.
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