Ikatupa?...Ikatu.

I am now a quarter-century old, and things are looking up. On Saturday, after language class, my friends and I played a game of ultimate frisbee in the field by my house. We were then challenged by a group of Paraguayan youth, who proceeded to lay down the law in a soccer game. That night, we played cards, drank some caña, and had a jam session under the stars. The next morning, I led a yoga class, made some soy coffee, and then ate chorizo and mandi`o (yucca) with my family. After siesta, the big fútbol torneo started. I think Sundays are my favorite days because the whole community gets together for this event, and everyone´s happy, except the poor, squealing pig. I happened to get in the path of the pig´s exit when the winning team herded it home, and that could have been an ugly situation.

Sometimes I catch myself being extremely comfortable and complacent with the culture. Chickens are pecking around my feet, I don´t think twice about wiping my mouth on the tablecloth (that´s what it´s for), or sharing a toilet with hundreds of cockroaches. Other times, I get so frustrated by the foreigness of everything, how everyone in the community needs to know exactly what I´m doing, with whom, and for how long. What is simple smalltalk for them can be extremely prying and plain annoying for me. I get tired of having pasta with bread and some potato on the side. My days are long and exhausting, and sometimes I don´t want to roll out of bed and speak Guarani. Sometimes, I´ll say things in English to my family, just so I can get them out of my system, even if they won´t understand.

But I am progressing with the language, appreciating the cultural differences (and similarities), and I´m really inspired by what I´m learning about farming. We´ve been having some crazy heat lightning storms. It´s the most spectacular sky show I´ve ever seen. I had no qualms about walking around in it until I was told that it´s common (more common than I thought) for people to get electrocuted. Just the other week, I guess a cow was hit in a nearby field. It´s now my favorite time of day, the sun is about to set, it´s cooled off, but the mosquitos haven´t come out yet. Perfecto.

Let Freedom Ring...to a Polka Beat

On Saturday, it was my mom´s birthday (my real mom), and coincidentally (I think not), it was also a day of celebration for the Liberales. The two political parties here are the Colorados (red) and the Liberales (blue). The Colorados have been in power for a long while, and a new, blue president was recently elected. I woke up early to the Liberales theme song blaring from the stereo. Paraguayans love their music loud, and they pimp their rides out with huge sound systems that take up most of the space in the back of a truck. I heard this song repeatedly throughout the day, as the majority of my comminity is liberal. My family owns a CD that contains all of the songs you might need for any occassion. There are anthems, theme songs, a happy birthday, and even a wedding tune.

For breakfast I had my usual cafe con leche, but this time with crushed peanuts. Peanuts are a staple crop here, and they are so good roasted and put through a molino (grinder). I think I´m going to have to invest in a molino of my own. You can grind anything by hand. The other day I toasted some soybeans and dry corn, but it through the molino and fed it to our baby chicks.

After breakfast, I made soymilk and then sopa paraguaya in the clay oven. I also finally got to make zucannoes, which I shared with the community member who contributed to the dish. One guy gave me the zucchinies, I got soy meat from another woman, and one family gave me eggs. I could get used to this it-takes-a-community-to-make-a-meal mentality.

I have a lot more to say, but I have to run back to class now. Peace.

If It Doesn´t Work, Just Poke it With a Stick

I have just returned from a PC volunteer visit, where I spent four days with a current volunteer to get an idea of what life will be like. Carin is just about to finish up her service, so she has a lot of good advice and reassured me that, yes, training is exhausting. I went to my first campo fiesta on Saturday. Anyone can host a party in their yard, sell beer and chipa, play music, and charge on entry fee. The Señoras sit in chairs around the dance floor (i.e. the dirt yard) for hours, watching their daughters dance. Girls have to have had their quinceaño (like our Sweet 16 parties) before they are allowed to go to fiestas, and some of the young ones can really shake it! Everyone dances with a partner in lines. All of the music can pretty much fit into a few categories: kichaka (a simple 1-2 beat), kumbia (steppin´it up a notch), Reggaeton (my personal favorite), and Brazillian country.

There were a strain of redheads in Carin´s communidad, which I was curious about. Where did that recessive trait come from? Anyhow, it was a pretty tranquilo few days. We visited a few families, I checkout out her demonstration garden plot, and spent a lot of time sitting on the porch drinking terere in the heat. On Monday, we went into the nearest pueblo to do a radio show. I introduced myself in Guarani and gave a little shoutout to my new friends in the campo. I´ve actually been pleased by how much I can actually understand of the language.

Lastnight, played some Paraguayan cards (they only have 40 in a deck here), drank some wine and soda (yes, in the same glass), and then the power went out. This is pretty common, especially when there´s wind or heat lightning (of which there was both). A neighbor came by with a long stick, gave the electric line a little poke, and, voilá, there was light. It´s the little things.

I took the 5:30am bus from Carin´s town back to my own area. If it had been raining, I would have had to figure out something else, as buses can´t run in the mud. Only 10% of Paraguay´s roads are paved. Getting up that early does not even phase me anymore. It´s actually the nicest part of the day, with the sun rising, the roosters crowing, before it gets too hot. I´m going to run a few errands in town before heading back to my family. I´m looking forward to reuniting with everyone.

Last week, we had a party for my papa´s birthday. They cooked asada and chorizo (lots of meat) on a fire in the front yard. I played guitar for a while, and some of my American friends came over and sang with me. Then we turned on some polka music, and I danced with my papa. I´ll upload some pictures later. I also made another batch of zucchini bread. My ma wanted to learn how to make it, and I even found baking powder, though I think it was faulty. My zucchini hook-up brought over a few more gigantic zucchinis for me, so I´m going to make a zucanoe. My sister also turned 11 while I was gone, so I told her we´d have a mini celebration tonight. And then I have to prepare for a presentation on raising chickens. The fun never stops. Jajotopata!

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.

And the winner gets...a pig!

Mbaé cheipa! How´s that for a new language? I´m on a quick lunch break from training. Today we´re talking about community development in the big town, where there is some internet access. So much has happened in just one week. I´ll try to start from the beginning. We (my 31 American compatriats and I) took a red eye to Sao Paulo, Brazil, and then onto Asuncion. When the plane was parked at the gate, a bunch of armed guards waited outside while a red carpet was rolled onto the jetway. As it turns out, the red carpet was not for us-- we had been sharing the plane with the president of Paraguay. The rest of that day was a blur of collecting bags, driving to the Peace Corps training center, meeting trainers, and then preparing to meet the families we are to live with for the next three months. Going on little sleep and knowing only their names and how to say "hello" in Guarani, we went to our respective villages to meet our new Paraguayan families. Adela is my new mama, Dionisio is my papa, and I have two sisters--Fabiola and Lilliana--who are 10 and 16. The parents don´t speak a whole lot of Spanish, though they can understand me, so my hermanas were giving me the ins and out of the village, who I´m related to (the entire town), and the names of trees and vegetables in both Spanish and Guarani. My dad grows tomatoes, melons, sugarcane (to feed the cows), yucca, and a few other veggies. I have my own room that opens up to the patio, where the wooden table is shifted to follow the shade or wherever someone feels like sitting. Next to my room is where the rest of the family sleeps in two beds. The bathroom is a glorified hole in the backyard with the biggest cockroaches I have ever seen. Every night I tell myself that they are afraid of me, not the other way around. We do have running water, and it also happens to be very cold, so my showers are quick and refreshing. While I shower, I can talk to the cows. There are two full-grown and a calf. One of the cows is pregnant and due next week, so I hope I´m around to see the birth. My dad taught me how to milk the other morning, and one of these days my mama said she´d show me how she makes cheese. My house is within walking distance to a few other volunteers, and the 9 of us who are crop extensionists have our intensive language training together at a mini site in our village. I am learing Guarani with four others, so there is a lot of personalized attention. I seen third world countries before; I´m not shocked by the driving or the poverty or the dirt, but it´s hitting me differently now that this is my home, and not somwhere I´m passing through until I can finally get a hot shower. This is it. This is my new life. I´ve been spending a lot of time with my family, eating lots of greasy, breaded things, playing guitar for them (which they love), having dance parties with my sisters, and trying to communicate in both Spanish and Guarani. They are amazed by my iPod and think it´s hillarious that I can stand on my head. I´ve actually been surprised by how content I´ve been with having almost virtually no alone time. I´ve been waking up around 6am, which is late by Paraguayan standards--most of my family is up at 4. Paraguayans are fanatics about fútbol, and I can see the field from my house. On Friday, there was a tournament, and everyone in the village turned out to play or spectate. It was quite a scene, and when the winning team was determined, the pig that had been grazing contentedly on the sidelines, was dragged, squealing onto the field. This was the prize for the winning team to share...and eat. There is so much more to say, but I have to get back to my training center now. My head hurts sometimes with all this stretching and thinking, but I´m happy. Jajotopata!