Adventures With Kendra

Over a year in Paraguay I finally had my first visitor from the US.  I know it may seem like I have just been vacationing for the past month, but we did do some work while she was here.

After something like a grueling 27 hours of travel, where almost everything that could go wrong went wrong, Kendra finally made it to Paraguay.  We spent the first couple of days in Asunción and we also went and visited my first host family before heading to my little town of Gral. Morinigo.  

Something that Kendra brought to my attention was the name of my town.  I realized for those of you who don't speak Spanish you may not know that Gral. is the abbreviation for general.  So just to clear things up the full name of my town in General Morinigo. Sorry for any confusion I may have caused.

We spent a few days in my town checking out the sites, meeting my friends and eating typical Paraguayan food.  

I am cutting frozen cheese with a saw to make chipa guasu.

Before Kendra arrived I had made plans to make a tire chair with another friend, but because of bad weather I never got the chance, so while Kendra was here we went and made a tire chair.  My friend was really excited about it and said that she was going to get some paint the next day and paint it.  From many experiences I know that this isn't always the case so I was extremely excited to see the next day, when I passed her house, she had not only painted the chair we made together, but made and painted a second chair.  Unfortunately when I went back to visit after Kendra left the chairs had already fallen apart.  We modified them a little from the first one I made and it turns out they weren't as sturdy.  

Unfortunately we had a rainy day and weren't able to do much. We really wantded to climb the mountain near my house and the forecast wasn't look good; 90% chance of rain for the next three days. We woke up Friday morning and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.  We decided to ignore the forecast and chance it climbing the mountain.  Fortunately we did because it was a beautiful day an not a drop of rain fell.  I have been up the mounting a couple times before but this time was extra adventurous.  Every 50 feet of so there was a huge spider web with a huge, mean looking spider in it blocking the trail.  It slowed us down a bit to have to duck and weave to avoid getting tangled in the webs but we made it to the top.  Kendra wanted to eat sugar cane.  We cut some from a field at the base of the mountain but it wasn't very good.  I found out later it was a different variety, not the sweet kind they use to make sugar.  They just grow it to feed cows.

The following day we had lunch at my friend Raquel's house and then hopped on a bus to Villarrica to check out Carnaval.  The night consisted of listening to samba music, watching very scantily clad women and men dancing and getting sprayed with foam.  I had imagined that things would be really crazy with tons of people in the crowd, but it wasn't so bad. I learned later that we weren't in the "hot zone" where things do get a little crazy.  We still got a good show with out all the craziness.

From Villarrica we headed to a nice little town called La Colmena.  It is a Japanese colony and we stayed an a cute hotel run by a Japanese family who cooked delicious Japanese food.   In the morning we headed out to Salto Cristal, a waterfall near La Colmena.  To get there we took an hour truck drive through huge sugar cane fields.  We could drive almost all the way to the falls, we only walked a few hundred feet and then scramble a few hundred feet down over boulders.  They put in a rope to hang on to.  We were the only two there which was really nice.  It looked like it was threatening to rain, but we waited a bit and the clouds blew over and it warmed up enough to swim. 

On our way back home from La Colmena we went back through Villarrica. We had some time before our bus left so we went to see some carpinchos.  My friend said you can pat them, but when Kendra tried it ran away.  

When we returned to my house the next day we stocked up on food and supplies for Kendra because I had to go to Paraguay Verde camp and she was going to stay in my house by herself.  Kendra doesn't speak much Spanish, let alone Guaraní, so my neighbors had fun trying to communicate with her while I was gone.  With the help of a dictionary and a few texts they managed to inviter her over to help make empanadas and bean salad.

This time Paraguay Verde camp was in a town called Ayolas in southern Paraguay.  Because of the bus schedules I, along with another volunteer and two youth, left at 1:30 am.  We got into asuncion around 5:30am and were planning on taking a bus to Ayolas at 6:30, but being typical Paraguay it turned out that bus doesn't run anymore so we had to wait until 9:00am.

Near Ayolas is a dam called Yacyreta.  It is located on the Paraná River, which divides Paraguay and Argentina.  We stayed in the housing they built to for the workers while there were building the dam.  They aren't used any more except for a few offices so they have an old abandoned feeling.  Unfortunately they were doing repairs on the dam so we didn't get the full tour, but we did get to walk around the dunes which formed naturally after they built the levy.  

The huge pots they used to cook for probably thousands of workers.

While we were planning the camp my bosses saw my tire chair and loved it.  They asked my to teach a session on making one during the camp. Because of the bus delay I missed the session,  but fortunately there was time in the evening to teach it.   I also taught a few people during free time the following day.  I invited two girls from my town to go to the camp, but they couldn't got.  Because of this, and the fact that Kendra was visiting, I only stayed one night at the camp instead of two.  

Kendra took the bus by herself from Gral. Morinigo to Asuncion and I met up with her in the terminal in Asuncion.  It was nice to have one last full day in Asunción before she flew back home.

Tierra del Fuego

The temperatures kept rising here in Paraguay so I decided to escape the heat and head to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.  I went to visit a couple of friends, Javier and Ciro, who I met while I was on exchange on Buenos Aires in 2009. I flew into Ushuaia, which is the southern most city in the world and then headed to Rio Grande, where Javier lives.  The temperature never got over 50 degrees and there is a constant wind of a least 30 miles an hour and its not uncommon to reach 50 miles an hour.

Most of the time I spent in Rio Grand at Javier's house.  We went to a beach just outside of Rio Grande called Cabo Domingo, checked out an old pier, went bowling with some of his friends, brushed up on my truco (a poker like game played with Spanish cards) skills and went out for pizza and ice cream for another friend's birthday.  I also made chicken fajitas with home made tortillas and lasagna.

Cabo Domingo. It was very windy.

Abandoned pier.

A night on the town in Rio Grande.

Chicken fajitas and lasagna.

Mate on the beach in Rio Grande.

Javier is a contractor and has a project in Ushuaia so we headed back there for a couple of days. While he was working I hung out with my friend Ciro.  Ciro has his pilot's license and is a member of a flying club so he showed us all the planes. Unfortunately he isn't licensed to take passengers yet, but we did get to sit in the plane he flies and look at all the knobs and gages.  

Ushuaia

Flying club of Ushuaia.

The little plane Ciro flies.

In the afternoon we headed out to a park just outside of Ushuaia called Playa Largo (long beach) and strolled along the trail for a bit and then scrambled down the rocks to look at tide pools.  

Playa Largo Park.

Javier and I camped in Tierra del Fuego National Park.  Being that far south the sun doesn't set until about 11:00pm which is nice for getting the tent set up, having dinner and taking an evening stroll around the lake, but it also means the sun comes up around 4:00 am which isn't so nice when you are in a tent.  

Lago Roca inside Tierre del Fuego National Nark

At 10:45pm and the sun just disappearing behind the mountains.

The second day in Ushuaia Ciro and I hiked to glacier, or what's left of it, called Martial Glacier.  There is a ski resort there in the winter, but in the summer they have a few hiking trails.  To get to the glacier you can take to chair lift up about 1/3 of the way and then you have to hike the rest.  All tourist activities in Tierra del Fuego are twice as expensive for foreigners so we decided to hike the whole thing.  It took us about 3 hours round trip.

Base of the ski hill, just starting our hike.

The chair lift we didn't ride.

We finally made it to the top!

The last day I was in Rio Grande, before flying back to Paraguay, we had an asado because, after all, it wouldn't be Argentina with out one.

Lake Fagnano, located along the boarded between Argentina and Chile, and the Pipo River.

The trip was a much needed break from the heat and Paraguay in general.  It was nice to live in relative luxury for a while.  I don't know exactly what the best part was, but the front loading washing machine is defiantly in the running.  Now that I'm back in Paraguay I'm readjusting to the heat and the frogs in the bathroom while trying to figure out what to do this coming school year.

The Holidays

I don't know if I will ever be able to get used to the idea that it is 95 degrees on Christmas.  All the years spent sledding, skiing and playing in snow banks over break are hard to erase.  But on the other hand I could really get used to eating watermelon for Christmas.  

I spent Christmas with my friend Raquel's family.  Instead of decorating Christmas trees here they make "Pecebres" (nativity scenes) and decorate them with palm tree flowers, chipa, watermelon, pineapples or  other in season fruits, and lights.  On the 23rd I went to help Raquel make the pecebre.  First we had to go cut some pieces do sod for the base and then we trimmed them into a more or les rectangular shape and put all the figurines in place.  On Christmas Eve I headed over to her house  in the early evening to help prepare dinner.  We ate around 10:30 and then waited around until midnight, listening to fire crackers and the neighbors blaring music, so we could say Merry Christmas. At midnight everyone sets off tons of fire works, mostly pretty small ones, but a few people set off what look like professional ones in the states.  No regulations on fireworks here.

New years was fairly similar to Christmas.  I spent it at my neighbors.  Every year there is a huge town party and my neighbor, Mirian, and I had been talking about going for a while, but by about 11:00pm we were both pretty tired and didn't feel like going to the party.  We stayed up until midnight to wish everyone happy new year and I was in bed by 12:30am.  

Last week I organized another day camp for the kids in my community.  I had about 12-15 kids each day which was such more manageable number than the 25-30 I had at the last camp.  We made shakers from toilet paper tubes, wallets from milk cartons, collages using sticks, leaves, flowers and mud, and pencil holders from tin cans.  There is no trash removal service here let alone a recycling so I save pretty much all my garbage in hopes I can use if for something.  I was so happy to  get rid of a lot of the garbage that had been piling up.  

In the beginning of December we had our Mid-service training.  We just had a few meetings and a medical and dental checkup.  It happened to work out that my host brother from training was having his graduation ceremony the day our training ended so I decided to go because I was in the area.  It was much different than a graduation in the states.  I think a good way to describe it is a very fancy picnic.  We arrived around 8:30pm and we brought our dinner with us.  Each family has a table reserved.  The principal of the school spoke along with a couple of students and then they presented the diplomas.  Then there is a presentation of the graduates.  All the girls are in formal dresses, usually escorted by their fathers and the boys in suites with their mothers as escorts.  Then they dance.  Once everyone has a chance to dance with the graduates and take pictures, the party begins.  The disco lights come on, the cumbia music gets cranked up far to loud and the place becomes a club.  We left around around 3:30am, which apparently was early.  I think that was mostly because my 7 year old host sister and I were falling asleep.  

Graduation ceremony 

As it turns out December was the month of parties and celebrations, apart from Christmas.  The 8th is the Day of the Virgin on Caacupe.  There was an appearance of the virgin near the river just out side my community so they built a shrine there.  They decorate it and everyone goes there to pray.  After Christmas on the 28th a friend celebrated her 15th birthday.  It went very late. I left just before 2:00am and they still hadn't cut the birthday cake.  

Samantha and me

Some of you may remember from a while back I was working on making a chair out of old tires.  We got something that is suitable, but still needs a lot of adjustments, all of which require power tools.  I don't own the necessary tools and after many failed attempts to barrow some I decided I was going to try to make a chair that didn't require power tools.  After a few minutes on YouTube I found just the thing.  The chair, with out the arm rests only took about 20 minutes to construct and after I figured out how to attach the arms, the chair in the video didn't have arms, they took about half an hour to put on.  I attached them by poking holes in the tires and threading wire through them.  Believe it or not the only tools I used were a pocket knife and some pliers.   

Now for just a few house keeping items.  I finally finished the flower bed in front of my house and planted a few flowers.  I also hung some plants outside to green the place up a little. 

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.