Will Play for Chipa

Yesterday was chipa day at my house. Chipa is a traditional Paraguayan dish made of corn and yucca flours, questo, egg, milk, some other stuff, and baked on banana leaves in the clay oven my papa built in the backyard. My sister finally explained to me the importance of the day. Five years ago, her brother (the only son) died in a car accident at the age of 24, so every year, on the anniversary of his death, they get together to pray, make chipa, and celebrate his life. The extended family and other people in the community came over, as well as my PC friends. I was commissioned to lay guitar for the occassion, and even if I forget the words to a song, the majority of my audience does´t know the difference.
My guarani has been improving poco a poco. I´m pysched to be able to form simple sentences. I´ve had more technical training, as well, which is a lot of fun. We sit under the mango tree, passing terrere (cold mate), and playing games with soil. On Saturday, the nine of us Crop Extensionists were given the challenge of creating a garden on a plot of borrowed land in one hour. With the help of some local ninos who taught us how to plant yucca, we created a beautiful garden. We´ll also be raising chickens and making green manures during training. I´m in my element.
I´ve started to feel the constraints of being an American woman in this country. I wanted to take a walk lastnight before it got too dark, but my family discouraged me from going further than the soccer field about 100 meters from my house. I know it´s in my best interest to follow their advice, but it´s frustrating to have such little independence. There´s only one other woman in my group, and we will have to deal with our own challenges of being accepted as knowledgable and hard workers when we each go to our villages. For now, I´m glad that Christina is just down the road from me.
I made zucchini bread for the family during chipa day, and now papa wants me to make a cake for his birthday next week. The only problem is that I havn´t been able to find anything resembling baking soda or powder. Alright, I gotta go catch the bus back to my village. Oh, the adventures of public transporation in the developing world.
For the record, I have not noticed the toilets flushing in the opposite direction. My home toilet does not flush at all, and the others I´ve seen just to straight down...with force. And in a couple weeks, we´ll be switching to daylight savings time--springing ahead one hour. yes, it is spring. ciao.