Cerro Kavaju (Horse Hill)

This excursion started with a text from a fellow volunteer asking me if I wanted to go rock climbing. Since I haven´t been into Asunción in a while I naturally thought I was hallucinating when I read her text and immediately fired back a bunch of questions in attempt to validate my sanity. Well, I read right and because of this text met several fellow volunteers in the Cordillera Gobernacion building last Friday. We set out for the hill with four young Paraguayan guides and six volunteers. We wanted to see what the trip was like before potentially bringing youth from nearby communities there as a form of nature appreciation and self-esteem building. We took a beautiful hike up through forest up the hill and wound around until we came to the 150 plus face we descended. Since there were quite a few of us we didn´t have time to all climb the face but everyone rappelled down it! The view was beautiful, the rock was great, and the Paraguayans accompanying us were super- overall an awesome experience! Now I just have to figure out how to get people from my community out there!

Independence Day

May 14 I went into San José for their Independence Day parade. After helping Masako put on her kimono, a really intersting and elaborate process, we made our way to the town plaza together. There we waited through about an hour of speeches the parade started. To start things off the national police band played a few songs and then came the schools. The parade included nearly every student from every school in the area, some guys who have pretty horses, and the local coop (with whom Masako walked). The whole thing lasted four and a half hours and the heat reminded me of Independence Day in the US. There has been a lot of discussion around my community about which high school´s uniforms were the prettiest and who marched best. There was an appropriately large number of fireworks (just little ones that bang and people use in their houses) set off that night, as well!

A Global Community

This being the 21st century, Serafini and my Peace Corps service do not exist in the cultural bubble that might have been the case 20 years ago. International influences abound, from Paraguayans going abroad (usually to Argentina, Spain or the US) in search of work to the veritable plethora of international development agencies trying to do work here in Paraguay. Pictured above is Masako, a volunteer with JICA Japan International Cooperation Agency or something like that. She lives here in San Jose (the town about 5 km from my site) and is teaching crochet and artisan classes with the local coop. We have become friends and she recently gave her first crochet class in my community. We had it right after my English class so she could learn English and all of my English students stayed for the crochet class. Another example of international influences is the American from Boston who passed through my community a few months before my arrival there talking about developing a sugar cane factory nearby. Of course images of Americans from movies and TV largely shape perceptions about the US and Americans, as well. There are large numbers of Japanese and German settlers here in Paraguay who have been living her for generations. The Mennonite colonies that dominate the Chaco (really dry, hot, inhospitable western region of Paraguay) lead many Paraguayans to initially think I´m German. It all leads for an interesting experience here.