Life in the campo continues. The past few weeks have been full of merrymaking, what with Christmas and then New Years and all the young folk visiting from Buenas Aires, where many folks my age go to find a paying job.
New Years was similar to Christmas in that we made more clerico and chipa guasu and sat around drinking until the grilled meat was ready around 11pm. Everyone stays en casa for midnight and then they go the party. There was a party going on at the soccer field in the next community over, which would have taken me about 2 hours to walk. Luckily, I was able to flag down a truck, and the driver happened to be the brother of someone I know. I spent all night dancing to the same Paraguayan songs I hear 5x a day on the radio, with some much-appreciated techno mixed in, and then watched the sun come up from behind the mountains on the first day of this 2009. I got a ride back to my family´s house, where I passed out for a few hours before going to the swimming hole. Later that day, I packed up my bags and moved to my third family.
Life has been a series of ups and downs, but the past few days in site, I´ve definately felt an up and up. I may still be living out of a bag, men still grab tools out of my hands, and I´m still eating animal parts I´d rather not, but I´m happy. I´ve started to form relationships with a few people in my site, and I just love the people. I love that I can´t walk down the street without stopping to chat with everyone and being invited to numerous meals and terere sessions.
The other day, a few neighbors came by, and we drank terere in the spot where my house will someday, hopefully, be. They seem to think that it will take a week to throw up my house. I´m a little skeptical, as I have the shining examples of Paraguayan work ethic right in front of me, but I´m just going to let go and let...God?
Speaking of God, my new host brother (who, on a side note, is extremely attractive) is studying to be a minister, so we´ve had some good religion conversations. I´m not sure if I´m getting my points across, but at least we´ve gained some common ground. My new host dad is quite a firecracker. He´s turning 98 this March, but he´s still going strong. On my first morning at my new home, we were sipping hot (scald your tongue hot) mate together, and he was telling me about how old he was. I told him Al Pelo! , which is Guarani for Right on! and gave him the thumbs up. He looks at me and says, ¨nope, not anymore,¨ and I realize he´s telling me that he can´t get it up anymore. ¨Though maybe once a week,¨he says. The next day, he asked me if I knew how to ¨peal the mandioca,¨ another sexual reference. He´s pretty awesome.
On Monday, I made my first trip into Asuncion, where I slept in an air conditioned room, swam in a pool and...took a bath! I also had some business in the city, researching in the library and buying a bee veil. I met some other PC volunteers who also happened to be in town, so I had a great little vacation. On a sad note, my friend, Christina, who is the only other female in my group, is going back to the States this week. She´s going back to get married, and I´m happy for her, but bummed to be losing the limited female companionship I have here.
Now I´m off to cheers her with some cold beers.
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