Paraguayan Thanksgiving, Take Two

This year's Thanksgiving had much different feel from the very extravagant feast at the US Embassy last year.  My friend Cara decided to host and be in charge of finding the turkey.  Thursday morning I, along with three other volunteers headed over to Cara's friend's house to kill, pluck and gut the turkey.  Turkey feathers are much harder to get out than chicken feather, but finally we got it clean enough to eat, with a lot of help form the women who sold it to us.  There was a lot of discussion about how to cook the bird.  If people have ovens at all they are usually little electric ones.  Or they have a traditional brick oven, tatakua, which you build a fire inside and when it burns down to coals you either sweep them out of just push them to the side.  The problem with this method was that we didn't think we could keep it hot enough long enough to cook the, what we guessed to be, 10-12 pound bird.  In the end we followed the advice of a few Paraguayans and boiled the bird until it was cooked, took it out, stuffed it and put it in the tatakua to crisp and brown it.  None of us really had high expectations for how the turkey would turn out, but to our surprise and delight it was delicious.  I was in charge of making rolls because there was a consensus they are an important part of the Thanksgiving meal.  Another volunteer, who inherited pumpkin pie spices from another volunteer, made a pumpkin pie.  We even managed to make a cranberry sauce from craisens and "dulce de guaiava" which is guavas boiled for a long time with sugar until it becomes a jam like substance.  We made mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, potato and beat salad and brownies as well.  

Turkey preparation

Food preparation

The feast

At some point on Friday, while we were all chewing the last bits of meat off turkey bones, the idea came up to climb the tallest mountain in Paraguay.  I said any one who wanted to climb it was welcome to come to my house.  Two volunteers, Corey and Porter, ended up coming.  The weather was was  iffy and I don't know how many times we went back and forth on the decision to go, but in the end we made it up the mountain.  We were just sitting down to our little picnic lunch when black clouds started to move in. We decided we should get down off the mountain before it started raining because the path is very steep and you can see the water runs right down the trail.  We made it to the base of the mountain before the rain hit and as we were walking out on the road it started to rain.  Fortunately a truck passed and they gave us a ride to the town where we had a ride waiting to take us back to my house.

Now that school has ended I was wondering what I was going to do to fill my days, but fortunately I was able to meet with Teko Porã.  Teko Porã is a governments program that gives money to women who don't have any other income.  In order to receive the money the women are supposed to have gardens and other things that help them become more self sufficient.  Also as part of the program they offer classes and talks.  The women who workes with the women in my area contacted me months ago to ask if I could teach some classes.  I was very excited about it because it was the first time someone had come to me for help, rather than me trying to initiate a project. Unfortunately nothing more came of it and I never taught any classes.  When Brook left, she gave me a bunch of trees seeds that she never used.  I decided to go to one of the Teko Porã meetings and ask the women if they would be interested in planting trees.  They all seemed fairly interested so we set a date to make starter "pots" from old news paper.  I wasn't sure how many, if any, women would show up, but in about an hour we made 50 or 60 pots between seven of us.  The following week the same women came over and we filled about 30 of them with dirt and manure and planted three different kinds of native trees. We ran out of manure so we made plans to fill the rest the fallowing week so we'll see if the weather holds out. I'm hoping this project will lead to other projects with this group of women. 

A Race and a Goodbye

Throughout my service I have done some running, but nothing too serious.  At the end of September, my host sister invited me to run a 10 kilometer race that her university was organizing.  I hadn't been running lately and I figured I had a month to do a little "training”.  Things didn't go quite as I planned.  There were a few days of rain which makes the roads too muddy to run on and then I took a trip to Asuncion for some meetings and a training so I ended up only running about four times the week before the race.  I didn't have any doubts about being able to finish, but I wasn't sure how well I would do.  According to the information I received, the race was supposed to be on Saturday the 26th of October.  So early Saturday morning I got on a bus and headed to Villarica, where the race was going to be.  I wasn't exactly sure where the park was so I asked the bus driver's assistant.  He said not to worry just sit back down and he’d let me know when to get off.  After leaving Villarica and passing though the next little town I was pretty sure we had missed it.  I got up and asked the guy again and said oh yeah…we missed it.  Fortunately, at that moment there was a bus coming down the highway heading back into Villarica and I was able to catch it.  When I got off at the park where I thought the race was supposed to be it seemed a little weird that there was no one there.  I called my host sister and she said the race had been rescheduled for the following day…I didn’t get the text she sent.  The part that made me even more frustrated was that I had talked to her the day before and she didn't mention anything. In the end it worked out because I was able to go the final day of praying for my friend's father-in-law.  

Here in Paraguay when someone dies they pray for them every day for nine days.  On the final day they have a big lunch and then pray.  The other eight days they just serve soda and candy and cookies after praying.  They pray for nine days when the person dies.  They pray again for nine days six months after the death and then again on the one year anniversary.  After that they pray every year on the anniversary of their death.

After being very frustrated about making an unnecessary trip to Villarica I felt better about everything when I ended up winning the women's category of the race.  I wasn't going to mention there were only about 18 participants in the entire race and three of those were women, but I guess I will.  It doesn't say any of that on my first place trophy. The overall winner won 1 million Guaraníes, which is about $250.  Now that I know the prize, I'll train harder for next year. 

While I am very excited to meet the new group of volunteers who are in training, it also means that I will have to say goodbye to the other volunteers who are finishing their service and heading back to the US.  The majority of them will be leaving in the beginning of December, but a few of them have chosen to end their service a month early, and unfortunately, my neighbor Brook is one of them.  On November 3rd she had a going away party and invited her whole town.  She asked me if I would help make cakes and then lead some kids' games at the party.  I headed out Saturday late morning after my book club.  I told Brook I would help her, rain or shine, with her party and as luck would have it, it was pouring rain.  I thought about waiting for the rain to let up, but it didn't look like it would happen any time soon.  I knew that either way it would be a wet and muddy ride so I put my things in a bunch of plastic bags and headed out.  I got some crazy looks, but it was actually better because the mud was so wet it wasn't sticky and made walking easier.  Also, the rain helped rinse me off as I went.

I would have been able to avoid the rain, but I had my book club in the morning. Not even thinking about Halloween, we decorated masks we made the week before from paper-mached balloons.  There were only three girls there and they only came because I passed their house on the way to the library and they happened to be playing outside.  I think there were two reasons for the low attendance.  One, because there were some dark clouds looming over head and also, the 2nd of November is the day of the dead and everyone went to the cemetery.  They go and clean up the graves, pray, and give out candy to all the kids.  After arriving at Brook’s the rain stopped (figures) and we spent the afternoon making lots of cakes which we frosted on Sunday morning.  In total, we had eight cakes we could serve.  A couple of the thin ones we layered together and one was eaten by the dog.  When things were were ready for the party, the neighbors invited us to go swimming in the lagoon, which is basically a large puddle filled by the recent rain.  At the party we played Simon says, had an egg toss competition, had a piñata, Brook raffled off some of her things, and then we had cake.  I was really sad to say bye to Brook, but as she pointed out, now I get the be the "wise" one who helps out the next volunteer.  It's all part of the cycle of Peace Corps.  I'm excited to find out who will be my new neighbor.  

Mask making at book club

Playing in the lagoon

Piñata and egg toss

There is about a month left of school before summer break and the students will soon be taking their finals.  So this past week I did my last recycled art sessions.  The 9th graders made recycled paper and the 7th graders made cups from wine bottles.  Also, one of the classes I was working with in the garden planted tree seeds.  We made biodegradable pots from old newspapers.  A personal project I just started is building a flower bed in front of my house.  My timing isn't great because it is getting hot and isn't much fun to be out digging, but fortunately, early in the morning it is cool enough to work semi-comfortably.  I am using old bottles, that I found in an empty lot near my house, as the border.

Making paper with 9th graders

Cutting glass bottles with 7th graders

My flower bed in progress

Ameriguyan Birthday

I turned 26 on October 6th and I wasn't sure if I wanted to have a big party or not.  My neighbor's birthday was on the 5th so we talked about celebrating together.  In the end I decided to have what I thought was going to be a small party at my house.  As I started inviting people I thought of more people who I thought would be upset if I didn't invite them.  About 25 people ended up coming.  A friend of mine made a cake and two other volunteers came over and helped cook.  I call it an "Ameriguyan" birthday because I made pizza, which they eat here, but I made Hawaiian pizza and pizza with sausage and green peppers which they don't do here, and fruit skewers. The Paraguayan part were the empanadas and sopa Paraguaya which is kind of like corn bread.  In total we made 8 pizza, 50 empanadas, and 25 fruit skewers.  My neighbors gave me a dish of sopa Paraguaya.  Everybody thought it was very strange that I put pineapple on the pizza, but they ate it and liked it.  

Preparing for the party.

Pizza and all the guests.

Cake and presents.  It isn't uncommon here to get underwear.

Now that I am almost half way through my service it means that there is a new group of environmental volunteers who are in training now in Guarambare, just like I was a year ago.  The trainers asked me to come and talk to the trainees about doing recycled art and show them a few things they can make.  It was a lot of fun to teach them and meet the new volunteers.  It was interesting as well to be "on the other side" in the sense that I have already gone through training and been a volunteer for almost a year.  While I was back for trainig I visited my old host family and my friend Lorena and her daughter Monce came over to see me as well.

My host mom, Carolina, and Lorena, Monce and me and my host sister Lujan with Monce.

Another part of training is visiting a volunteer in order see what their life is like. Last week I had two girls come stay with me for four days.  I showed them around Morinigo and they came with me to teach the 7th graders to make recycled paper.  I showed them how to make bread, banana bread, and cinnamon rolls as well.  The last full day they were here we took a little trip to Pindoyu, which is the little community where my friend Brook lives.  It is about 10 kilometers from Morinigo.  We took the bus the first 5 kilometers and then we had to walk to rest of the way.  Pindoyu is very different from Morinigo because it is a very small community and the girls wanted to see what it is like.  Brook and her visitor came with us back to my house to spend the night so they wouldn't have to walk out in the morning and also so her visitor could see Morinigo.  

Here in Paraguay all of the schools have Olimpiadas (Olympics). All the grades compete against each other in soccer, volleyball and a few other games.  They even have an opening ceremony with a torch.  Also each grade has a queen.  During the opening ceremony each queen presented themselves and then each grade did a little routine.  It didn't start until almost 9:00pm.  By 11:00pm they were only to fourth grade, it went up to 9th grade, and I was tired so I headed home.  

Opening ceremony

Presentation of the classes and their queens

As environmental volunteers we are encouraged to have gardens.  Mine was never very big or good, and then it frosted and killed my biggest tomato plants and my huge basil plant so I kind of gave up.  But recently my broccoli plant produced some nice heads and my little string bean plants have a few beans.  The tomato plants that survived even have a couple little green tomatoes.  The other day I planted 12 watermelon plants so I'm excited to see if those do well.  

I'm doing my last few classes in the school because in November they will have final exams so I won't teach.  I'm still having book club when I'm in town and there are rumors that I will be teaching English.  I'm not super excited about doing it, but I might do a short course over the summer. We'll see.

Teaching the parts of a plant

Book club

Recently there were a bunch of kinds who got confirmed in the Catholic Church.  I didn't go to the ceremony but one of my friends invited me over for a BBQ.

Pantanal

One year ago today I arrived in Paraguay.  Most of the time I I can't believe it has been a year already.  I have heard from fellow volunteers that the second year goes by even faster.   I am now a mentor to a girl who is back into the states getting ready to come to Paraguay.  It is crazy that I'm supposed to be giving her advice about serving in the Peace Corps when I feel like I'm still trying to figure things out myself.

After being here almost a year I decided it was time to take a vacation.  I, along with five other volunteers, went to a region in northern Paraguay called the Pantanal.  I will apologize right now for not having any pictures in this blog.  Unfortunately due to a SD card malfunction I don't have any pictures.  I am in the process of gathering some from other volunteers which I will post later.

After a long trip we finally arrived in a town called Bahia Negra.  Shortly after arriving we met Saul, one of the men who works at the research station Tres Gigantes, which is where we would be staying.   Because there were six of us, all of our stuff Saul and all of his stuff we didn't all fit into one boat.  My friend Cara and I waited with Saul for the second trip and I'm glad we did because we got the sunset ride with all the birds coming to the water.  The trip from Bahia Negra to Tres Gigantes took about an hour.

We brought all of our food with us for the eighth days.  There is a women at the research station who will cook for you, but it was really expensive.  We didn't bring any meat with us because we didn't have coolers and also none of us are as crazy about meat as Paraguyans are.  I am going on a week and a half without red meat, I have had chicken, which is the longest time I have gone without eating red meat in a year.  Paraguayans don't consider the food a meal unless it has meat.

Tres Gigantes is located in the Rio Negro National Park which is just under 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres).  The research they do involves camera traps and recording the number and species of animals they see and also capturing bats and study them.  The US Forest Service donated all of the equipment they use for capturing bats.  The research station itself consists of one main building.  Up stairs there are three bunk rooms each with a private bathroom.  Off the front there is a big screened in porch which was extremely nice because there are a lot of mosquitoes.  I had heard horror stories about the mosquitos, but we got lucky and they weren't too bad.  Only at sunset were they really bad.  Down stairs there is a large dining room and a little kitchen.  We shared the kitchen with the staff, but they have their own bunk house.  We stayed half the week in the the house and the other half we camped, but we could still use the kitchen and the bathroom in the house so we weren't really roughing it. All the electricity is solar and all the water is pumped directly from the river.  They use aluminum sulfate to clean the water but it is a pretty strong chemical so they just drink straight river water sometimes.  We had a filtration pump and I brought my UV light water purifier so we used those.

We didn't waste any time getting to explore the reserve.  The first night, after dinner, two of the workers took us on a night hike.  Unfortunately we didn't see any wildlife, but no worries because we still had a full week ahead of us.  We spent the week walking the trails looking for wild life, canoeing, relaxing, swimming in piranha and caiman infested waters.  Also we visited Bolivia.  The Rio Negro acts as the border between the two countries so we canoed over there and got out.  Now I can say I have been to Bolivia!  

There are two trails that go along the river in either direction and the day before we left the finished a third trail that went back into the forest.  This time of year the water level of the river is going down and because we are going into summer things are drying out which forces the animals closer to the river.  There were tons of birds.  We also saw quite a few monkeys, caiman, a river otter, foxes and an ocelot, which is a big cat, but not as big as a jaguar.  The ocelot sighting was the most exciting for two reasons, one because it is pretty rare and also because of what happened when we saw it.  Lydia, another volunteer, and I were walking down the trail early in the morning and I spotted the ocelot.  We stopped to watch it and it looked up and I'm pretty sure it saw us.  Then it came trotting towards us, looking right at us.  We were both frozen in shock.  It is about the size of an average dog but could probably do quite a bit of damage.  When it was about 100ft away it stopped and ran into the bushes.  Unfortunately we didn't see and jaguars or capybaras, but we saw a lot of footprints.  The last night we were there we had a bonfire and thanks to another volunteer we even had marshmallows to roast.  They weren't like marshmallows in the states, but they worked.  The staff enjoyed roasting them as well.  We also did some improv skits which were entertaining.  The fire didn't last very long because we were all getting eaten alive by mosquitoes.  

We were lucky we left the reserve when we did.  The first 8 hours of the bus ride from Bahia Negra are on dirt roads.  If it rains the bus doesn't run until the roads dry up and there were some dark, ominous clouds building on the horizon.  Just a few hours after we made it to paved roads it started raining.  Twenty one hours and two buses later I finally made it back to Moriningo.  All I wanted to do was take a shower and go to bed after the dusty trip but there was no water.  It didn't come back on for two days which isn't a shock to me anymore, just annoying.

Planting Season

Now that winter is over we are heading into spring and that means it is the planting season for cassava.  As I was walking up to my house one afternoon after teaching a class at the elementary school, my neighbor was in the little field next to my house with his two oxen tilling up the ground to plant. The following evening they planted the cassava by hand, or better described by foot.  They save the stocks of the plant when they harvest it and then cut them up into little pieces and that is what they use to plant.  To plant cassava you first make a little spot in the ground, if there isn't already an ident, throw a piece of the stock in, push some dirt on top of it and step on it to pack the dirt down.   Luckily I had that opportunity to learn how to plant it because the next day Brook invited me to go with her and her neighbors to plant their big field of cassava.  Apparently her neighbors like me a lot more now, not that they didn't like me before, but the last time I was there I said a few things in Guaraní and I complimented the women's cooking.  We arrived around 7am, the others had been there for a while, and we planted until around 1pm with a break for terere and then a break for lunch.  We ate out in the field.  

Tilling and planting

Terere break

I recently got back from another three day training in what is considered the Chaco.  It is the northern part of Paraguay.  I brouht a friend named Aurora who is part of the group of women who run the road side vegetable stand.  Also, she was the first person to invite me to dinner at her house when I first arrived in Gral. Morinigo.  The training was held at an agriculture high school where they also learn hotel management.  The students live at the school.  All the meat, dairy and vegetables are produced at the school.  We ate really well during the three days, but I found out later we got special treatment.  Other groups don't eat that well and the students at the school don't eat any of the food they produce.  They sell it all and buy food to eat themselves.  I thought that seemed very weird and so does the Peace Corps volunteer who is working at the school.  She is trying to change that.  During the three days we talked about compost and worm farming, green manures, nutrition, grafting, pruning and my group painted a map of the eco-regions in Paraguay.

Building a compost pile

Worm farm

Preparing healthy snacks

Aurora practicing grafting and us with our grafted tree

Eco-regions map

Free time activity

Aurora and me with a horse cart

There were also wild monkeys at the school

A while ago I was on a bus to San Juan Nepomuceno, which is the "big" town where I go to get things that aren't available where I live.  As we were driving a saw a huge cloud of black smoke.  It smelled horrible and as we passed I realized it was a huge pile of old tires burning.  I thought to myself, "there has to be a better use for old tires" and from that started my obsession to build a chair.  I found tons of pictures of chairs and benches made form old tires, but unfortunately I couldn't find any tires at the local repair shop because they had all recently been burnt.  Just as I was giving up on the idea the soccer players who play on the field near my house brought a bunch of old tires to use for exercises.  A few weeks later the team was eliminated from the tournament and stopped practicing.  I jumped on the opportunity to take the tires.  The clan of local kids showed up so I put them to work gathering up the tires, bringing them to my house and washing them.  Mostly we washed them because the kids wanted something to do.  A couple weeks later construction started again on the house and one evening Ariel, one of the guys working on the house who has an electric saw, said he would help me build a chair.  It isn't totally finished yet.  It still needs paint and something to cover the whole in the middle, but the hardest part, which was cutting the tires, is done.  Over the next few days a bunch of Ariel's friends stopped by and I think he was pretty excited about the chair because he showed it off  to everyone who came by. 

The kids washing the tires

Ariel cutting the tires and the almost completed chair

Yesterday was my neighbor's birthday so naturally they had a big BBQ.  Also, a couple of weeks ago a woman who lives near me turned 80 and I was invited to her birthday party.

My neighbor's birthday

80th birthday party

Happenings in Gral. Morinigo

  Well, the week and a half of winter in Paraguay has ended.  School has finally started back up and life goes on.

For about a week and a half I had the joy of waking up to the sound of chain saws and hammers every morning.  Behind my house, only about 50ft, was another house.  It was pretty old and partially falling down.  The owner of my house, with a little encouragement from my neighbor, decided to tear it down and salvage some of the wood that was still good and build a new house in the same spot.  Eventually, the idea is to rent it out.  At first I was a little nervous that I would have some really close neighbors, but I don't think I will have to worry about that for a while.  The house still needs a floor, doors and a bathroom but construction has been put on hold because the owner doesn't have money right now. Construction has been suspended for a month, but I wouldn't be surprised it turns into two or three.  

Taking off the roof of the old house.

Loading the roof onto the cart.

Demolition complete.

Constrction.

The new house.

Although the chain saw and hammers were pretty unpleasant for a while, a few good things did come out of it.  Now I have a nicer house to look out of my back door and I made some new friends and Guaraní tutors.  They are two eight year old girls and a three year old boy.  The two girls, Karin and Yanina, speak more spanish with me, but occasionally they slip back into Guaraní.  The little boy, Nico, only speaks Guaraní, although I think he understands some spanish.  It is great to talk to him because he will keep repeating things in Guaraní until I figure out what he is saying.  Most people, if I don't understand the first time they say it in Guaraní just say it in Spanish.  The three kids are all cousins and their uncle was one of the guys working on the new house.  They came over to watch him build and being curious kids they poked their heads into my house.  I offered them paper and markers to color.  After that they started coming over almost every day.  I borrowed some books from the library to read to them.  We also made newspaper paper boats.  Two other neighbor girls, Noelia and Ana, came over as well.  They had a blast playing with the boats in the little creek by my house.  It was really great to see them having so much fun with something so simple and free.

Karin, me and Yanina

Nico and me

The clan

Nico, Ana and Noelia playing with the boats in a mud puddle

Ana, Nico, Karin and Noelia with their boats in the creek

Before winter vacation ended I decided to go back to Tacuruty, the community where I lived during training, and visit my first host family.  They had been asking when I was coming so I though it would be a good time before school started up again.   I only spent two nights there but it was nice to see them again and relax a bit before I get busy with school.  I helped milk the cows, they now have four cows they milk, and for the first liter I was able to keep up with my host sister.  After that I slowed down because my hands got tired and also it is harder to milk when they udders are less full.  They also now have a goat and 10 days before I arrived it had two kids.  They are very cute.  They don't milk the mom goat yet, but when the kids get a little bit older they will.  They let me try to milk her just for fun.

Typical goat...eating my clothes

Trying to milk the goat

I was recently invited to the ordination ceremony of a new priest.  It was interesting to see.  About 10 priests from surrounding areas came as well as about 10 men who have been studying with he priest to be ordained. They have to study for 8 years.  After the ceremony there was a big lunch to which I was also invited.

All of the priests touched his head and gave him their blessing

The new priest receiving his new robes

The new priest

This week was my first time at the school in about a month.  I wasn't sure what the garden would look like, but I was very pleased to see that the plants are looking great and many of them are ready for harvest.  My host mom still wants to continue with recycled art in her class which is good because it is something I really enjoy.  My book club is still going well although it has morphed a little into a literacy club.  I have been doing some spelling relay races and working with the alphabet.