Saturday, April 26, 2008

Possums, Pigs, and Plants



It has been a lively few weeks here. One of my recent challenges has been dealing with a new inhabitant of my houe: a possum. It has been living in my roof and made his presence intolerable when he began peeing in my house from the rafters. Tha precipitated me getting the neighbors involved. The first night I brought my neighbors over they poked at my roof with a stick and chased the possum out into a tree where it hung out until they started chopping at it with a machete so it ran off into the grass and we couldn´t find it to kill. The next night four Paraguayans came over and climbed onto my roof to scare it out with machetes and slingshots and scared it out of the roof again. I haven´t seen it again yet so I´m happy with that!

I also just bought a pig. Yes, a pig. It is living at my neighbors house and we will be fattening it up to butcher for my family´s visit in June when we will barbecue it.

My garden is looking pretty good right now. I have little lettuce, basil and strawberry plants already and my raddishes, carots, onions, peppers, dill, and sunflowers have sprouted. I´m going to plant tomatoes, cabbage, and swiss chard this afternoon. Plus I´m busy collecting tree seeds to start a nursery in part a corner.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Visitors!

I am busy planning for a whole crew of Schott-Sheldons to come down to Paraguay and visit. In order to tempt others of you considering a trip to the alternate ¨Down Under¨ I will tell you a bit about what we´re planning to do. After aclamitizing in Asuncion we´ll head to actually spend time in my site! Everyone in my site is really excited and we´re already planning the barbecue and making of ¨chipa¨mandioca and cornmeal bread made in a wood heated oven. Then we´re off to see some of the most impressive waterfalls in the world- Iguasu. To finish the trip up we´re headed in a row boat across a marsh teeming with birdlife to a beautiful island that is home to parrots and howler monkeys! More details and pictures after the fact!

Keep your eyes out for info on the Paraguayan presidential going down Sunday. It should be a BIG deal!

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

An Update in Bullet points




  • you can actually hear tarantulas run they´re so massive

  • my neighbors use corn kernels to score the Euchre-like card game Truco

  • I found an asymmetrical horse shoe on the street last time I was in Asuncion, I swear it looks almost hand forged

  • Not being sure if I even know english with reading coöperate in the New Yorker; when did we start using any kind of accents or umlauts

  • I saw a nursing cat drink its own milk

  • there is a snack food here called Yes Yes that is ecofoam packing peanuts covered in ¨flavors¨ such as egg and sandwich

  • after I bought my broom in pueblo I biked home with it sticking out the back of my bike, very witch-like

  • one of my friends lives in a site called Tebicuarymi which translates to Little Anus Liquid

  • my straight edge is my machete