Shards of Glass and Shakira

OK, just to clarify, I do not have dengue. I had some sort of terrible sickness that resembled dengue, but it passed and I survived (clearly). A ton of people have had the same symptoms in my neighborhood the past few weeks, though for some it has turned out to be dengue. I’m hoping that all of these cases of actual dengue (not its terribly uncomfortable and painful doppelganger) will make the municipality of Limpio come out to Villa Madrid to fumigate. Fumigation would help, but actually getting rid of dengue would involve people cleaning up their yards, keeping their homes immaculate, and maybe taking down those oh-so-lovely shards of glass that often line stone walls to keep people from climbing them. I’m not going to hold my breath.

Today I held a meeting to talk about the library and community problems. The head of the bus line 48, which goes in and out of my neighborhood about every 10 minutes, was there too. We had asked Linea 48 to donate some money for our library project, and in return he asked us to hold a community meeting to talk about various assaults that have happened on their buses within my neighborhood. The meeting went well, though started 45 minutes late, as per usual. I’m hoping that a kind of neighborhood watch group will be formed as a result, but I’m leaving in just 6 weeks (!) so I will not take on this project. We shall see. There is always a lot of crime in my neighborhood. As the PCV who lived here before me said, “Villa Madrid is a relatively safe place with some petty theft and the occasional homicide.” I’ve not heard of any homicides since I’ve been here, but I’ve always loved the optimism of that phrase.

Anyway, things are winding down, though I have maybe about 4 free days until the end of March. That being said, this week I will spend 3 days in Asuncion to have my Close of Service medical and dental exams and to go see Shakira. No, I’m not that big of a Shakira fan, but how can you say no to seeing her in concert while in Latin America?? Answer: You cannot. (Or at least I cannot.)