A Biking/Bus Adventure

It seems like every couple of months, when the stress of my life in the "city" aka town of 10,000 people in Horqueta gets the best of me and and I trip to Asuncion, the capital isn´t possible, I want nothing more than to leave site to explore the country a bit and pretend I am just a travler instead of a volunteer, I like to go visit my surrounding Peace Corps neighbors. I live in a city and since most of my neighbors live in rural sites and need to come do their shopping and internet usage I see them often. They stay at my house, they know my family, they see my work and the people I work with and have a pretty good idea of what my life is like. On the other hand, I never get to see what their life is like and their work since they are always visiting me. I´ve made it a personal goal to try and visit all my neighbors sites and see the major projects they work on. I don´t usually have time to visit much during the school year but since it´s summer and I am in vacation mode, i have been accepting a lot of invitations.

Last week, i received two invitations from Nayelli (a health volunteer) and Sarah (a beekeeper) Nayelli wanted me to come help her build a fagon (a large brick oven) and Sarah wanted me to do a self esteem lesson with her kids at her summer camp. I accepted both invitations. Thursday morning i woke up at 5:30 packed up my small backback, left enough food and water for my dog, Lucy for a couple of days, then headed out of Horqueta on my bike. I had ridden to Nayelli´s site before but got lost. I was confident i wouldn´t get lost this time but realized my bike tire was really low. Nothing was open for awhile but i finally came to a Gomeria "bike shop" and stopped to fill up my tire. A teenage girl was sweeping the dirt outside (yes you heard me, sweeping dirt is a morning activity here) and she yelled for her mother to come help me. A woman came out and i said i wanted to fill my tire, so she went inside a brought out a huge machine. It took 20 min or so for the machine to start working properly and eventually my tire was filled (free of charge) and I continued on my way. About 15 miles later, I arrived at Nayelli´s house and drank terere (ice cold tea) with her family. I unloaded my stuff, took a quick trip to the latrine and met up with her down the road at the house she was working at that day.

They had already started working on the fagone and had the ground layer done when i arrived. Health volunteers spend their time teaching prevention from parasites, dental health, how to build sanitary latrines and fagones. Many people in the campo cook on open fire in a room on the floor. It´s unhealthy because the smoke fills the room and they have to bend over and lift heavy pots onto the fire. Fagons are brick ovens that use a chimney and have a stovetop and oven. Nayelli was successful in getting materials for 14 fagons in her community from the mayor in Horqueta. The community had to plant 20 trees to offset the wood they would be burning for the stove.

I dived right into the work following the instructions of Nayelli. The men that were there were not used to seeing women do this kind of work. Most were very nice but a couple were jerks, acting like women couldn´t do this kind of thing and were standing over us breathing down our necks, for periods of time. WE worked from 8am to 5pm, with lots of terere breaks and a lunch break. WE finished the entire thing and even got to test the chimney. Laying bricks is a lot harder than i thought, making it even is tricky but i got better throughout the day. After we finished we went to a swimming hole with the family and I attempted to swing off a rope swing but couldn´t hold onto the rope as well as the kids and ended up falling straight into the water each time instead of soaring like they did!

We went back to her house, ate some dinner and crashed. The next morning i woke up at 5:15am and took a 5:30 but from her site to Concepcion, a bigger city than Horqueta. I spent a few hours in Concepcion, then went to look for a bus that would take me to L. Petit, sarah´s site. She told me there was only one bus that went to her site at 11:30 but that there may be one earlier that would drop me close by. I walked up to a colorful, old, run down looking school bus that was just about to leave at 10:30 and asked the driver if he was going to L. Petit. He said no and then i asked if he was going anywhere near L. Petit. He said no again and i was ready to give up when i saw my neighbor from Horqueta. He asked where i was trying to go and then he and the driver exchanged a few words in Guarani and told me to get on. I asked if he was going to take me to L. Petit and he once again said no. I was so confused but before I could make my decision, a man took my bike and passed it up to a little boy who was on the roof of the bus and then the bus started to move, so i hopped on. I sat down on hot fake leather seats next to a bunch of cargo and some interested faces, then fell asleep. I was aware that I had no idea where this bus was going or when it would get there but i was okay with that fact and was very exhausted.

When I woke up, i realized the bus was stopped in front of a church that said Filadelfia. "FILADELFIA!" I thought, "That´s like 4 hours north of concepcion!" I then realized we were not in Filadelfia, it was just a sign and the driver was motioning me to get off the bus because this was my stop. I looked around and saw that we were stopped at a T crossing. I asked what direction L. Petit was in but couldn´t understand his answer, then he tried to charge me 20 mil when i know it should be 10 or less. When i handed him 15 mil, my final offer, he sped off and i realized i was in the middle of nowhere! I figured L. Petit wasn´t in the direction we had come from or where the bus turned so i took the other road. On my way i saw a truck and double checked. The driver said i was only about 2 miles away and that another North American girl lived there so not to worry.

I arrived at Sarah´s house and saw her cutting grass in her front yard with a machete. "Mowing the lawn i see?" I breathed a sigh of relief that although I hadn´t actually gotten lost, getting to her hosue was an adventure. WE prepared for her camp but an hour before it was supposed to start it started pouring so we had to cancel it. I enjoyed a fun night eating her great cooking, and relaxing in her little hut.

The next morning we both biked 20 miles on muddy dirt road back to Concepcion. It took us 4 hours but we stopped a lot along the way to take pictures, talk to people along the way, drink water, and rest. It was really hot but luckily there was still cloud cover and we made it safely. It was great to see the countryside and feel physically challenged. So much of the challenges we feel as volunteers are mental so it was great to get some good excerise into my day and feel physically tired instead of just mentally tired. Paraguayans got such a kick out seeing us pass through their communities. I am sure we were a sight to see with out bags strapped onto our bikes, our sunglass and baseball caps, and nalgene bottles. I´ve realized how much of a sporting culture Americans are and how much we were enjoying riding our bikes was a surprise to the locals. Every time they asked where we were headed they seemed shocked. They were fascinated that we were carrying our water with us in these fancy bottles. "Water on the go, that´s the difference between our cultures" I thought. Paraguayans hydrate themselves by sitting in a circle and passing sips of 2 ounces of water through terere drinking. It´s a social thing. Americans take their water with them so they can get where they are going faster. The Nalgene bottle is a lot more effective than the guampa (the cup they drink terere from ) in hydration. But the terere is a lot more fun and community oriented and that´s why I enjoy both.
If only Paraguayans could learn to hurry up and drink some water so they could get on with their day and Americans could sit down and relax a little more and get over the germ sharing factor of sharing a drink! Maybe we´d all have a little more fun that way.

When we arrived in Concepcion we hydrated a lot, with juice and water, then had a beer by the river to celebrate our conquest. We did some shopping then both got on buses back to our sites. I sat down with my family and drank a lot of terere when i got home and showed them pictures from my biking/bus adventure. Then I passed out and slept in the next morning.

I think my body is still recouperating but I am very energized and excited about my next two weeks. February marks one year in country for me and I am taking my first out of country vacation to Buenos Aires and Uruguay. I am looking forward to laying on the beach and seeing the "Paris of South America". I will get to surf and eat in nice restuarants and get out of Paraguay for awhile. It will be great. Sarah the beekeeper and two other volunteers will be traveling with me. I hope to regain my sanity and be re-motivated for my 2nd year of service when I get back. The school year starts at the end of Februrary and I will be planning my projects for another year of work. As of now though, my brain is already on vacation!

Jajotopata! (see you soon)!