Y

The guaraní word for water is y. The y´in guaraní is a close central, unrounded vowel and I still can´t pronounce it correctly (though I try really hard to do so, much to the amusement of anyone around me at the time).

It´s supposedly almost Spring here but the leaves are falling (without the prelude of beautiful colors) and there weather seems to bode of cold to come (though I know that´s probably just wishful thinking). In any event, we are experiencing a drought across Paraguay right now. It has been over two months since the last substantial rain. This affects people in different ways. For example, in the communities neighboring mine (all of which have running water) people haven´t curbed their water usage too much yet. however, in good old Serafini, wells are going dry. This means that there are currently 5 households sharing the well in my yard. Lucky for me, the good, deep well is in my yard and I don´t have to carry water for home use any farther than normal. Unluckily for my garden, the added pressures on my well mean that taking water from it to water my garden could mean no drinking water for the houses surrounding mine. Accordingly, I have been watching my garden dry up as I visit it every other day to pick veggies or water with what little brown water I generate from bathing or washing clothes.

Plans of action? I have been talking to my neighbors about digging their wells deeper (obviously not a popular alternative) and will be looking into water cachement systems for trapping rain water in times of abundance to be used for things like watering gardens! Oh yeah, and I´ve been doing a lot of rain dances (though those have a double purpose of passing the long, lonely campo nights!)

Back from Brazil

I´m back in Paraguay after a two week trip to Brazil at the end of August. I met my friend Anna and we headed up to the Pantanal (the world´s largest wetland located in Brazil, Paraguay, and Bolivia) for some awesome wildlife watching, pirhana fishing, and horseback riding. We met up with three other Paraguay-PCVs there. Some of the coolest things we saw were

• giant river otters



• jaibru storks



• capybaras (the world´s largest rodent)



• howler monkeys



• black and spekled caimans



• hyacinth macaws



• 5 other kinds of parrot and parkeet



• spoonbilled roseates



• toucans



• coatimundis



• armadillos



• bush deer



• white collared pecarys



• and TONS more birds

After our Pantanal adventure I bussed it down to Curitiba with Anna. We enjoyed the greenspace and city planning that the city is famous for before heading out to the coast by train the following morning. Thick fog only increased the feeling of unrevealed mystery still contained in the beautiful forests we passed through. We got to the coast and hung out in a beautiful town until we could get a boat to Ilha do Mel (Honey Island). On the island we explored the beautiful beaches as virtually the only tourists and enjoyed walks to a beautiful lighthouse, restored fort, and surfing beaches. We spent two nights on the island and then made our way back to Curitiba, from where I went back to Paraguay, and Anna took a bus to Sao Paolo to catch her flight.