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

So, I’m not sure where to begin since I don’t know where I left off. Last week I went to a PC conference in Asunción with a contact of mine from the environmental school in Limpio about how to begin and develop new projects. It was pretty repetitive for PC Volunteers but was really impressive to see how motivated most of the contacts became by the end of the 2.5 days.

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…

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 US. I was asked about ideas for how to reuse them, so I want to do a program with the teachers on how to use them for school materials. If anyone has any ideas, I’d love to hear them. Thus far I have: puppets, wagons (with bottle top wheels), puzzles, fraction teachers, dominoes, board games, gift boxes, building blocks, planters, Bingo cards, dice, name sticks (where you write each kid’s name on a piece then pull them out of a hat to ensure the teachers calls on everyone), bookshelves (may be difficult), instruments if filled with beans, geometric shapes, and purses. I realize that that is already a lot but they have an absurd amount of these milk cartons.

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.