Being Sick in Paraguay

I am starting to realize the truth to the statement I heard during training "as a foreigner living in a different culture, you will never know what is going on and you will always be the last person to find things out" Just when I think i am starting to understand this culture and feel comfortable with things (after all I have been here 5 months now) something happens that makes me feel humble again and makes me realize I have no clue what's going on.

Saturday I noticed I was starting to feel pretty run down and was probably getting sick. I took it easy and hung out at home most of the day. I made a comment to my host family that I thought i was getting sick. Sunday morning when I woke up, I accepted the fact I had a nasty head cold and was beat. I slept until 11am then woke up, drank some tea and went over to the family's house to eat lunch. Paraguayans normally do not talk during meals. It's a pretty silent deal. You sit down, you eat your food, then you drink your drink (because they don't do both at the same time like we do) and then you leave the table. I normally am chatty cathy during meals and they are used to it but Sunday, i sat in silence as well. I said a couple raspy, snotty words and I think my host mom said something along the lines of "oh, you are stuffed up" and I said "yes, i'm sick". Then I went back to my bungalow and slept the rest of the day and night. I woke up around 8pm and realized no one had checked on me, or offered me any of the medicinal herbs I hear so much about! I started feeling very homesick and unloved. But when i thought about it, i came to the realization that maybe Paraguayans just don't make a big fuss out of colds like Americans do. I mean, if neighbor kids are walking around malnurished, animals are skin and bone, and grandma has a sore on her leg that looks like something she should be in the hospital for and no one is complaining, it is kind of silly for me to expect any sort of response over my sniffles. Nevertheless, I still would have appreciated an offering of yerba mate or something. Maybe they thought I wanted my space, I still will never really know what kind of relationship patterns were set up with the previous volunteer either.

Monday morning I woke up feeling half human again, and realized I had last min preparations to do for the winter camp that started Tuesday. There was some miscommunication between Chris and I about who was taking care of what so I thought i had everything covered. On Tuesday when Chris came up to my house a couple hours before camp was supposed to start we realized neither of us had bought the pasta, food coloring or rubbing alcohol needed to make the pasta necklaces. After a few mins of "you said you were going to buy them...." we got a little panicked. It was siesta time and all the stores were closed and kids were about to show up in an hour or so. Then we got a phone call from another volunteer, Lisa who had just bused in to Horqueta to help us. We asked her to pick up the neccessary items from the plaza from the one store that doesn't close during siesta and she saved the day. When she got to my house, we quickly dyed the pasta and felt like everything would work out. Then it started to rain...

We weren't sure if we should cancel the camp for the day and postpone it until Wednesday. I didn't want to because i had to leave Tuesday night for Asuncion for a conference and was already going to miss Thursday's camp day. I didn't want to miss both days of camp for the week. My host mom said the kids would still come in the rain and we should just use her house to host it. 40 of the 80 kids on the list did show up and we had 3 activities rotating through the patio area and house. We made recycled paper, pasta necklaces and had a singing group. We also threw in a little lesson about recycling and trash management. At the end we gave the kids warm mild and breadsticks for a snack. The "camp" was only 2 hours long but I was sick, it was freezing and I was worn out by the end. All the preparations and clean up was a lot of work but it was worth it. I felt really good afterwards and it went really well. The Spanish volunteer that lives in Horqueta showed up to help too and she had some visitors with her, so they were lifesavers. I will miss Thursday's activities but will be back in Horqueta for next week's camp. I am also going to help with another volunteer's winter camp in a different site on one of my off days.

I am in Asuncion now for a conference for the rest of the week and am enjoying the conveinences of the modern world again. I was just here recently for 4th of July but I can't complain about having heating in the hotel and having the opportunity to go to a movie theater or to a coffee shop if i please! I'm feeling a little better with my sickness and hopefully these few days in Asuncion with other Americans will give me just what I need to get over my spell of homesickness and get over my cold.