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!!