Hey all- i don´t have too much time to write because my campo bus will be coming soon to take me from my nice little town that i´m in now (san ignacio) to my life back in the campo (san pablo). Campo live is so different from live back in the states. i was talking to brigette yesterday and after i told her how i had just watched my host sister rip the head off of a chicken, handpick all of the feathers out while it was bleeding from its pores, then proceed to cut it in peices while blood was splattering all over the kitchen table, she used the word barbarian to describe my people. i thought that was hilarious, because maybe that is what i also thought in the beginning, but now these people are my family and i consider it quite normal to be woken up to a scene like this. i´d personally rather eat the chicken you can conveniently buy at the store, but paraguayans largely prefer pollo casero (home-made chicken). hey, it keeps life interesting :)
so things have been wonderfully busy which i love. i´ve done my health census with 25 families and the requirement is 50. Im going to try and do it will all 100 families in my site, because hey, why not.. i have the time. Ive been finding out that they think the flu is by far their worst health problem, that no one seeks medical attention when necessary, and that there is no one that teaches about health in the community. Ive also been way overwhelmed with the number of people who say they REALLY want fogones (brick ovens)... we´ll see how hard theyre willing to work to make this a reality. As of now, it looks like my biggest project will be a brick oven project. i will be very busy, but i´m excited if everything will go according to plan.
i will also be attempting to start a youth group over our winter break which is July 12th to the 15th. i want to do things like cooking, english classes, arts and craftsy things, sports events, movies, anything that theyre interested in. with the things we make, i hope to sell them so that we can go on a big trip at the end! im starting lessons in the primary school about dental health after the break, and about nutrition in the high school. we´ll be selling friendship bracelets during friendhsip week which starts july 26th and buying paint to paint a world map on the wall of the high schooL! i´m not promising any of these things will definitely happen because paraguayn culture seems to be iffy on making any type of committment, but it´s what i have planned and i can only hope for the best!!!!
unfortunately, i gotta run to get my bus, but before i go.. i really wanted to thank everytone who has sent me a package or a letter. im not kidding when i say these things are keeping my spirits up and giving so many things to work with! your inspiring words and words of encouragement keep me mentally into my work and your packages with arts and crafts thigns and personal items are giving me so much motivation to work and plan all my projects. i love you all so much and am so grateful to have my friends and family at home. the biggest thing i have learned since being here, is that i have a great life back in the states that i will never ever take for granted ever again! love, peace
dani
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
June 15, 2010
Time for a nice and long update! So we’re already halfway done June, which means I’ve been in site for 6 weeks now. Things are going really well so far. I am now living with my second family, a family of just 3 sisters. Their parents have passed away about three year ago. My oldest sister, Librada, is 29 and is a teacher in the highschool and preschool. My other sisters, Auxi and Mari Ines, are 17 and 14. I’m excited because Mari Ines turns 15 in August and will have her quinceanera (15th birthday party). It will be my first one and I’m interested to see what it’s like. Apparently it’s a really big deal. I’ve seen pictures and it looks like a wedding! My sisters are really awesome and help me out all the time. I love just hanging out with them because it reminds me of being with my sisters at home when we used to goof around night. They teach me little words in guarani and my oldest sister sits down with me about 2 nights a week for an hour to teach me and answer any questions I have about the language. Still, my Guarani is not very good, but after talking to other volunteers, they told me it could take up to a year to start speaking it. Trust me, it is a very hard language with some crazy sounds that I’m not capable of making. However, I am understanding more and more of it and I feel much more comfortable when I’m surrounded by a whole bunch of guarani-speaking paraguayas. Anyway, my supervisor came to visit me on the 10th. He brought my bike, my packages that my family had sent me (THANKS!!!!!!!), and some of my extra luggage that I couldn’t bring with me the first time. My bike is awesome and I love riding it everywhere!! We filled out some paperwork about how I’m adjusting to the community and completed my work plan for the next three months. Some of those things include doing a world map painting in the high school, starting a recycling system in the schools, continuing my detergent, soap, and shampoo projects (yes, we make these things and sell them around the community to raise money for class trips… we’re going on one on Thursday to visit Jesuit Ruin, super psyched!), start doing health lessons in the elementary school and high school in dental health, parasites, and nutrition, start a women’s commission with people interested in starting a Fogon (brick oven) project. I have to do a census with 50 families, and I started that yesterday! I did 7 houses and so far, every single one of them wants to work for a fogon. Looks like I’m coming back to the states with huge muscles because it’s gonna be a lot of hard labor! In order to make a fogon, I need to dig for red dirt (a pretty deep hole to get to the dirt), mix the red dirt with water and a little cement, buy a whole slew of bricks and lay them while including the oven and chimney. We need to have an organized commission to make this possible because we need to write a proposal to the government in order for them to give us the money to buy all the materials. They need to approve our project, and it takes a long time for the money to actually arrive. I’ll be lucky if I start actually building the fogons in the next year. Anyway, my supervisor and I went to the high school and filled the director in on our plan, then ate lunch at my old host family’s house (where they told him I was their “preferred daughter” hahaaa, and then visited the house that I thought I was going to live in for the next 2 years. However, he didn’t like that there weren’t any close neighbors nearby, so I have to look for another housing situation. I took a look at the nurse’s house because she’s moving and I liked the location much better, however, there’s no shower and it just has a latrine, which is fine, but I’d prefer to have a shower installed. We’ll see what happens. The house is just one room, with an attached outdoor kitchen area, with the latrine in the back yard. I wouldn’t have a sink, just a spigot out front. I liked the other house way better, but this still isn’t a bad option. I think I’ll be looking at 2 more houses this week, so I’ll keep you posted! Then, we had my meeting with my community members at the school. I went house to house handing out invitation and about 30 people showed up which I was more than satisfied with. They seemed really excited and all had nice things to say about me. One woman offered to do my census with me to help me translate Spanish to guarani, so that will be really helpful! I made apple cake and banana bread so I think my people left pretty happy All in all, it was a really productive and helpful day! Next week, I’m making more shampoo with a class, and we’ll start making our homemade bar soap with cow fat! I’m excited and interested to see how it all works out. Well, I’m about to go meet up with the senora to do more censuses with my neighbors. I know this update was a long one, but a lot has been going on! I still have my super bored moments, but I have a lot of work to look forward to and start working on. It’s in those bored moments when I start getting a little homesick, so my goal is to stay busy… and I do have plenty of things to get started.
Happy birthday gabe! Hope your bbq was fab. Also, happy father’s day pops! Love you!! Anddd happy anniversarys to all my fave people. Hope you spent your days well and enjoyed every second. Love you all
Time for a nice and long update! So we’re already halfway done June, which means I’ve been in site for 6 weeks now. Things are going really well so far. I am now living with my second family, a family of just 3 sisters. Their parents have passed away about three year ago. My oldest sister, Librada, is 29 and is a teacher in the highschool and preschool. My other sisters, Auxi and Mari Ines, are 17 and 14. I’m excited because Mari Ines turns 15 in August and will have her quinceanera (15th birthday party). It will be my first one and I’m interested to see what it’s like. Apparently it’s a really big deal. I’ve seen pictures and it looks like a wedding! My sisters are really awesome and help me out all the time. I love just hanging out with them because it reminds me of being with my sisters at home when we used to goof around night. They teach me little words in guarani and my oldest sister sits down with me about 2 nights a week for an hour to teach me and answer any questions I have about the language. Still, my Guarani is not very good, but after talking to other volunteers, they told me it could take up to a year to start speaking it. Trust me, it is a very hard language with some crazy sounds that I’m not capable of making. However, I am understanding more and more of it and I feel much more comfortable when I’m surrounded by a whole bunch of guarani-speaking paraguayas. Anyway, my supervisor came to visit me on the 10th. He brought my bike, my packages that my family had sent me (THANKS!!!!!!!), and some of my extra luggage that I couldn’t bring with me the first time. My bike is awesome and I love riding it everywhere!! We filled out some paperwork about how I’m adjusting to the community and completed my work plan for the next three months. Some of those things include doing a world map painting in the high school, starting a recycling system in the schools, continuing my detergent, soap, and shampoo projects (yes, we make these things and sell them around the community to raise money for class trips… we’re going on one on Thursday to visit Jesuit Ruin, super psyched!), start doing health lessons in the elementary school and high school in dental health, parasites, and nutrition, start a women’s commission with people interested in starting a Fogon (brick oven) project. I have to do a census with 50 families, and I started that yesterday! I did 7 houses and so far, every single one of them wants to work for a fogon. Looks like I’m coming back to the states with huge muscles because it’s gonna be a lot of hard labor! In order to make a fogon, I need to dig for red dirt (a pretty deep hole to get to the dirt), mix the red dirt with water and a little cement, buy a whole slew of bricks and lay them while including the oven and chimney. We need to have an organized commission to make this possible because we need to write a proposal to the government in order for them to give us the money to buy all the materials. They need to approve our project, and it takes a long time for the money to actually arrive. I’ll be lucky if I start actually building the fogons in the next year. Anyway, my supervisor and I went to the high school and filled the director in on our plan, then ate lunch at my old host family’s house (where they told him I was their “preferred daughter” hahaaa, and then visited the house that I thought I was going to live in for the next 2 years. However, he didn’t like that there weren’t any close neighbors nearby, so I have to look for another housing situation. I took a look at the nurse’s house because she’s moving and I liked the location much better, however, there’s no shower and it just has a latrine, which is fine, but I’d prefer to have a shower installed. We’ll see what happens. The house is just one room, with an attached outdoor kitchen area, with the latrine in the back yard. I wouldn’t have a sink, just a spigot out front. I liked the other house way better, but this still isn’t a bad option. I think I’ll be looking at 2 more houses this week, so I’ll keep you posted! Then, we had my meeting with my community members at the school. I went house to house handing out invitation and about 30 people showed up which I was more than satisfied with. They seemed really excited and all had nice things to say about me. One woman offered to do my census with me to help me translate Spanish to guarani, so that will be really helpful! I made apple cake and banana bread so I think my people left pretty happy All in all, it was a really productive and helpful day! Next week, I’m making more shampoo with a class, and we’ll start making our homemade bar soap with cow fat! I’m excited and interested to see how it all works out. Well, I’m about to go meet up with the senora to do more censuses with my neighbors. I know this update was a long one, but a lot has been going on! I still have my super bored moments, but I have a lot of work to look forward to and start working on. It’s in those bored moments when I start getting a little homesick, so my goal is to stay busy… and I do have plenty of things to get started.
Happy birthday gabe! Hope your bbq was fab. Also, happy father’s day pops! Love you!! Anddd happy anniversarys to all my fave people. Hope you spent your days well and enjoyed every second. Love you all
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Terere
terere and mate
I gotta tell you all about terere and mate since i spend the majority of my day drinking it! Terere and mate is yerba which you drink out of a cup (called a guampa) with a straw with a mini strainer attached to the bottom (called a bombilla). Terere is served cold and mate is served with boiled water. It is a paraguayan staple and something that each and every Paraguayan drinks multiple times a day… whether it be on a bus, while driving, sitting around the house with family, or just something you do when you’re bored. You can add an assortment of herbs to your terere or mate like mint, eucalyptus, and many more and all of these are home grown and can be found in your very own backyard! There’s always one person who serves the yerba and each person in the terere or mate circle takes turns drinking from the same straw. For all you germaphobes out there, it would probably be your worst nightmare, but hey… this culture is all about sharing. So someone pours water from a thermos or pitcher and passes the cup. It’s not as easy as it sounds because there is a strict terere and mate etiquette. You must never touch the straw while drinking, you should never say “gracias” unless you don’t want anymore, you must never eat while drinking the tea, you can’t shower right after drinking mate or you’ll become really sick due to the extreme temperature change, and never eat watermelon before, during, or after terere consumption. Terere-ing has become one of my favorite hobbies because it enables me to meet the Paraguayans, chat with neighbors, and become really hydrated in the process! You can sit for hours drinking terere and that is completely and totally acceptable here. It’s a great social experience and something that opens up a lot opportunity for conversation. I highly recommend you Americans start buying some terere gear and start the trend over there, because it’s an awesome tradition and it’s actually quite tasty!
I gotta tell you all about terere and mate since i spend the majority of my day drinking it! Terere and mate is yerba which you drink out of a cup (called a guampa) with a straw with a mini strainer attached to the bottom (called a bombilla). Terere is served cold and mate is served with boiled water. It is a paraguayan staple and something that each and every Paraguayan drinks multiple times a day… whether it be on a bus, while driving, sitting around the house with family, or just something you do when you’re bored. You can add an assortment of herbs to your terere or mate like mint, eucalyptus, and many more and all of these are home grown and can be found in your very own backyard! There’s always one person who serves the yerba and each person in the terere or mate circle takes turns drinking from the same straw. For all you germaphobes out there, it would probably be your worst nightmare, but hey… this culture is all about sharing. So someone pours water from a thermos or pitcher and passes the cup. It’s not as easy as it sounds because there is a strict terere and mate etiquette. You must never touch the straw while drinking, you should never say “gracias” unless you don’t want anymore, you must never eat while drinking the tea, you can’t shower right after drinking mate or you’ll become really sick due to the extreme temperature change, and never eat watermelon before, during, or after terere consumption. Terere-ing has become one of my favorite hobbies because it enables me to meet the Paraguayans, chat with neighbors, and become really hydrated in the process! You can sit for hours drinking terere and that is completely and totally acceptable here. It’s a great social experience and something that opens up a lot opportunity for conversation. I highly recommend you Americans start buying some terere gear and start the trend over there, because it’s an awesome tradition and it’s actually quite tasty!
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