Semana Santa

Today marks my second month here; two down and twenty five months left. I find out next Wednesday where I´ll be placed for the next two years. So as you can imagine, I´m excited, but am getting a little anxious about the whole thing. So far, so good. I had a minor breakdown the other day, but luckily pulled it together and am back to living it up in Paraguay. As one of my friends pointed out, it´s okay to have a bad day (even in Parguay). Today starts Semana Santa, which is Paraguay´s tradional celebration of Easter. As of today, all the families will start eating large quantities of Chipa. Chipa is a type of special bread made with eggs, milk, cheese, and to top it off pig fat. And it´s suprising when volunteers gain weight? Good thing Steffanie´s host dad made us a dumb bell out of bamboo and rice bags. If I could fight the freshman fifteen, I can fight the Peace Corps pounds off as well. Although to my advantage all the scales are in kilos, so I really never know how much I really am. The upcoming week is also a time for mourning in Paraguay. On top of eating vast amounts of carbs, you are then required to spend time sitting around because all the bussinesses, schools, and government buildings are closed. However my group of volunteers decided to put an American spin on things and have a ¨Chipa Crawl¨on Friday and go around to all the houses trying different family versions. Well wish me luck on my carb loading expedition.

Some things I´ll Just Never get Used to...

Regardless of the amount of time I´ve now spent here, some things continue to amaze me, including,
*To get a dog to go away you make kissing noises at it. You can imagine how confusing that could be for an American dog. You can also imagine how sad I was when I first made kissing noises at a dog and he ran in the other direction.
*The buses in general are still a mystery to me. For instance, this morning the bus stopped for the stop in front of me and for some friends down the road from me, but didn´t even hesitate to pick me up. You just stand along side the road wherever you may find yourself and wave them down. Sometimes they stop and sometimes they don´t. Personal space on the bus is none existance, and if it weren´t for my ample stash of sand sanitizer I`d probably never ride them.
*The heat...I just had to throw that in for good measure.
*All the stores reuse their glass bottles, so anytime you purchase a drink you must then later return that bottle to the store it came from.
*People greet eachother on the street with "adios". And here I am confused why everyone is saying good bye to me when I never even said hello.

A typical day or an atypical day in Paraguay?

After leaving Naranjasys and experiencing different towns within Paraguay I have been given a more well-rounded perspective of this county. I am currently staying with another volunteer in a rural town outside of Colmena. However, I am now challenged with the question of what should I expect to encounter on my daily life here. How can you differentiate between a typical day and an atypical day in Paraguay? For instance, today I woke up to the noise of a saw from the construction workshop behind the house, spoke on a local radio station, built a fence out of bamboo (to protect the vegetable garden from the sheep), and then walked 3 miles in the heat of the day back to the house. Should I expect this random chain of events to occur again in my future here in South America? I have also met a slew of other volunteers on this trip with interesting stories. They left me wondering the likelihood of these random events occurring in my life, as it did them. Will I be struck by lightning; Will Peace Corps then provide me with Ibuprofen when I tell them of this crazy phenomenon, Will I buy a horse and learn to care for it from a how-to book; Will I then decided to enter that horse in local races and bet money on it; Will I be able to classify twelve different types of mandioca; Will I eat with the Japanese but drink Terere with the Paraguayans; Will I be evacuated from my site because of forecasted flooding? The questions are endless. As of today, I have one month down and twenty-six left. I have sufficient time to define the meaning of "typical," by the Paraguayan standards.

I Learn GUARANI

Due to the fact that I am "spanglish" speaking gringo, I often find myself in comical situations. On one particular afternoon I was sitting around with my host family and visiting relatives.(Everyone in our town is somehow related to one another.) In an attempt to speak Spanish I frequently substitute English words for Spanish words beyond my capaciity. Somehow the subject of tattoos and peircings came up. I asked Walter (who is Oli, my host sister´s, boyfriend)if he had a tattoo. Here is a recollection of the following conversation;

Sam: Tienes (do you have) a tattoo?
Walter: No, but Oli does!
( Meanwhile everyone is dying laughing)
Naturally Stephanie (another volunteer) and I believe that this reaction is the result of an embarrasing and funny tattoo that Oli has.
Stephanie: Oh come on, just let us see it.
(There is more laughing, which confuses both Stephanie and I.)
Oli: Tattoo just so happens to translate into a Quarani word.
Waltur: Yeah it means vagina!

A Little Time, A Lot To take in

I made it! Well, so far.. . I wish I had some witty and clever things to say, but its hot out and I`m multitasking, which is inhibiting my creativity. I don´t think it´s quite sunk in that I´m here. I was assigned my host family a couple days ago, and got really lucky. Meanwhile other volunteers are eating rice and maybe some bread, I`m chowing down on meat dishes, fresh fruits and salads. The host dad said that Americans are seen eating salads on T.V. and therefore I have been served salads despite the fact that Paraguayans don´t eat them. I don´t want to glorify the situation becuase the house I live in is very modest, but I do have some perks. I have a pool; in the sense that I have a body of water in a cement slab out in the yard. But the water is clean, so I´ve been using it. The sheep also seem to like drinking out of it. I also have a ceiling fan, which is key to my happiness. It´s been HOT to say the least. During the day the water in the pool is too warm to use, but in the late afternoon it is cool enough to play in. There are always people playing in the yard. I´m under the impression that they´re all cousins or aunts or something along those lines. The girls play in the pool, meanwhile all the boys play soccer. Everyone else chills and drinks Terere. It`s kinda the thing to do.

I Haven't Left Yet

I'm Packing my bags and trying to figure out how blogging works.