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!