Chickens

Ryguasu, Gallinas, or Chickens are everywhere in Paraguay. Luckily, with the recent time change (spring forward here) the roosters don´t crow as terribly early as they did before the time change, but I´m starting to tune them out anyway.

Things I have seen chickens fed in Paraguay:
any leftover food (inc eggs and chicken bones)
styrafoam
partially burned diapers

Favorite preparation of the egg: breaded, deep-fried hard-boiled egg

The number of eggs produced by my host family´s chickens is a real source of pride and I help count them every day to practice my Guarani.

That´s what´s on my mind right now! That and the fact that I just made the month mark since I left home!!

Back From the Campo

Some observations about Paraguay

• flourescent lights are mounted vertically on tree trunks all over
• the best way to get toads out of your house is to sweep them out
• some days when you come home from three hours of Guarani class there might be a quartered cow hanging from the patio rafters
• later that night your host father will likely be eating the charred head of said cow with the farm hands
• it is a good idea to pick the bones out of the sawgrass lawn before playing barefoot soccer on it
• any animal can be accetably carried in a bag on any bus. My experiences so far have included puppies, baby parrots, and chickens
• the word ¨puppy¨when pronounced by Paraguayans usually sounds like ¨poopy¨

So far Paraguay has been REALLY amazing and I feel like I am adjusting pretty well considering my limited language skills and the amount of cultural adjustment necessary. I am still getting along really well with my host family, which makes things much easier.

From Saturday to today I was visiting a real live Peace Corps volunteer, Treana. She is serving up in San Pedro as an agroforestry volunteer and it was a really good time in training to get a first glimpse of the ¨campo¨or countryside. Her site is a 6 hr bus ride (without wet dirt roads or bus breakdowns, both of which I experienced today) away from Asuncion followed by about an hour bike or horse drawn cart ride. The countryside got some much needed rain while I was there which delayed my departure and made me a good luck symbol to the community I was visiting. That´s the main news for now!

Paraguaype (living without prepositions)

If I had the words to describe what it is like to be in the heart of South America right now this is where I would put them ... but I don´t. I am having an absolutely amazing time here in Paraguay and cannot imagine how things could be going more smoothly. My host family is AMAZING and my sisters Cecilia, 13 and Diana, 11 are the best language turors I could hope for. My Spanish is pretty bad but it doesn´t seem to put people off too much, especially when I open with a Guarani greeting.

My house and room are insanely nice. I have my own bathroom with a heated shower and there is electricity. The cooking is still mostly done over an open fire but the family has a gas stove. My host father is a farmer who also owns a recreation center with a tennis court, soccer fields, and two drained pools. My mom and older sister run a dispenseria out of the first floor of the house that sells fruit, dry food, clothes, stationery, etc.

Training is really interactive and intensive. Every morning we have Guarani language training from 7:45 to about 11:30 and afternoons are a mix of mostly technical information with safety, health, and culture.

I have to catch a bus back to Posta Gaona, the suburb that I live in, but I should be online about weekly during training when I come into Guarambare (where I am now). Wednesday and Friday afternoons around 4 to 6 central seem like they will be the most likely times to catch me (though with daylight savings that all changes).

Thanks to everyone who made me the confident, collected person that I am today because I know that I couldn´t be devoting myself to my studies as much as I am if I didn´t have a solid support base.