Today as I was walking all over town, I felt a dull pain in the bottom of my foot. It felt like a splinter and a thought came into my head that I may finally have what everyone has been talking about. Something no one likes getting but that sometimes is unavoidable no matter how much you wear your shoes and scrub your feet. Something that finds you, especially when it´s been really dry and there´s no rain to wash them away. Something that is a little painful but it´s not the pain that bothers you, it´s the fact that it invades you and makes a nest out of your foot......a parasite called Pique. (prounounced Peekay)
Pique is a tiny black insect that crawls into your foot, whereever it wants. It plants inself below your skin, makes an egg sack and then lays it´s eggs in your foot. When the eggs form a white circle around the black spot and this is how you know you have it. When the eggs hatch, they crawl out of your foot and find new hosts to lay more eggs. This is why it´s always a good idea to never go barefoot. I don´t think I have gone barefoot but it is still possible to get them wearing sandals.
When I got home, i took off my shoes and inspected my foot. I was disturbed to see the black dot with the white egg sack but kind of excited at the same time. All the fear and suspense of getting this dreaded parasite and here I finally had it and it wasn´t that bad after all. I went into my host family´s house and showed it to my host mom. She started laughing and said "yep, it´s pique, i´ll take it out for you". I debated whether or not i should let her take it out or wait until i went into Asuncion next week and have the Peace Corp doctor take it out. I decided with 5 kids she must be pro at taking these things out so i let her.
She told me not to worry because i had it in the best possible spot, the middle of my sole. Between the toenails would be a lot more painful. I steralized a needle and within a few min she had the the little sucker out. I put some neosporin on it and am parasite free once again. There was something very satisfying about taking it out, and I almost kinda liked it. I am not going to go out of my way to get more but i have heard about volunteers having competitions to see who can get the most! Animals carry these little parasites and the fact that we raise pigs tells me it´s very likely i will be getting many more during the next 2 years.
My host sister actually has pique right now as well but doesn´t want to take it out yet. She wants the eggs to grow a bit bigger so she can see it puss out when she takes it out! Pique can be very entertaining when there is nothing to do for fun around here.....haha. If there are any volunteers reading this right now in Paraguay.......Pique competition anyone????
Monday, July 23, 2007
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Life is Fragile
Yesterday I got up at 5:00 in the morning to walk about 5k to another volunteer´s site to help out with her winter camp. I did an activity/lesson on self esteem and had two groups rotate through my activity. It went really well. I cut out a big piece of paper and made a sad face out of it. All over it, i wrote insults such as "you´re ugly, you smell, you´re stupid, etc" Of course all in Spanish. I had the kids read them out loud and then asked them "is Fulano, happy or sad right now?.....why is he sad?....are these things nice things to say or mean things.....?" Then, i tore off the pieces of paper that had the mean things written on them and handed them to a few kids, I even went on to say how now Fulano was an incomplete person, etc....I had the kids write on the other side nice things to say to Fulano and then we pasted him back together and when he was taped back together he was smiling because his self esteem was higher. I then passed out blank pieces of paper and had the kids draw themselves and write words or draw symbols of things they liked about themselves around their body. At the end of the activity we got in a circle, held hands and i had them say something nice to the person on their left.
As most teachers probably know....things never quite go excatly as you planned.
First of all, Paraguayan school systems teach kids to copy and not to think creatively or independently (this goes hand in hand with the many years of dicatorship which one day I´ll write a blog on). So the kids loved the fact they got to color but they pretty much copied my example. I drew a tree on mine to symbolize my love of nature and all the kids had trees on theirs! I drew a big heart on my body and they all drew big hearts on their bodies! I was still happy they all shared their drawings with each other and understood the message of Fulano...that you shouldn´t say mean things to people and if you do, apologize and say something nice!
It was even more amusing to watch them compliment each other. This is a very indirect culture and Paraguayans are not used to saying things to each other bluntly. My example to another volunteer was "i think you sing and play guitar really well". Yet, all the kids gave the same 3 compliments. "you´re nice, you´re a good person, or i like your shoes". It was still really great to see them saying these things to each other and overall the camp went really well.
After the camp we had lunch with Ellyn´s host family and then we went to the house where the puppies were. I picked out my puppy amongst 5 very tiny cute little creatures. When i say tiny, i mean smaller than you would ever take a puppy home in the U.S. The mother is not feeding them anymore and they are all full of fleas so I know the puppy was better off going home with me but i still felt it was way too small to be separated from its family! We had just come from a house where there was another litter of pups and two had been thrown down a dry well (the mother would not have been able to nurse them all anyways but yes it´s still horrible) so i didn´t hesitate to take her home. She is dark brown with white feet and a black face. I can hold her in one hand! I carried her in my jacket all the way home and she slept the entire way. I noticed the fleas crawling in and out of her furr and bought some flea shampoo. When I got home, a volunteer that was staying with me last night helped me bathe her. We spent two hours getting the fleas off of her and I still don´t think i have gotten all of them off. I have never seen so many fleas on one thing and she is so small. The poor thing looked so miserable she actually fell asleep when we were picking them out of her furr. After she was clean I fed her some milk and she fell asleep in my arms. I was starting to feel pretty good about saving this little girl and giving her a better life. I shouldn´t have congratulate myself so soon!
I handed her to my friend and then went to my bathroom. A few min later i heard a thud and a very frightened voice that said "oh no....oh no....i think something is really wrong" I came out of the bathroom and saw my puppy lifeless with her tongue sticking out, not breathing, with no hearbeat! I stared at her for a moment, feeling for a pulse and said "she´s dead!" I couldn´t believe it! Turns out my friend had placed her on the bed, turned her back for a moment and she fell off and died. I immediately put my mouth over her snout and started giving her CPR. I administered breaths while my friend pumped her heart. After what seems like forever...she finally took a breath and continued to struggle for life for several minutes. We were successful in reviving her and she still seems to be doing fine. It was a terrifying, yet beautiful experience to witness. I am being extra over protective mom with her now. I can´t wait until she gets fatter and bigger so i don´t have to worry about her so much. My friend feels terrible, yet we were able to actually laugh about it later. I will forever be able to give her shit for it when I want. I said if people ever say you look like someone killed your puppy i can say "well, someone did".
I named the puppy Pilsen. That is actually one of the two main and only brands of beer here in Paraguay. I thought long and hard about cute names in Spanish and Guarani and English and decided Pilsen was a perfect combination and universal language of all 3. I think it´s actually a German beer. I know I am an Urban Youth volunteer and should not be having children repeat a name of a beer when they call my dogs name but Paraguayans appreciate the humor in it and crack up every time i tell them the name. In this culture humor works extremely well with the integration and I am reminded that here no one will get offended about it. The same day I brought my puppy home my family found another puppy in the street and brought it home. They are thinking of keeping it and naming it Brahma the other main beer in Paraguay.
In one day I experienced enough accomplishment, joy, stress and sorrow to last me for awhile. I have my winter camp this afternoon and hope nothing comes close to death afterwards.
As most teachers probably know....things never quite go excatly as you planned.
First of all, Paraguayan school systems teach kids to copy and not to think creatively or independently (this goes hand in hand with the many years of dicatorship which one day I´ll write a blog on). So the kids loved the fact they got to color but they pretty much copied my example. I drew a tree on mine to symbolize my love of nature and all the kids had trees on theirs! I drew a big heart on my body and they all drew big hearts on their bodies! I was still happy they all shared their drawings with each other and understood the message of Fulano...that you shouldn´t say mean things to people and if you do, apologize and say something nice!
It was even more amusing to watch them compliment each other. This is a very indirect culture and Paraguayans are not used to saying things to each other bluntly. My example to another volunteer was "i think you sing and play guitar really well". Yet, all the kids gave the same 3 compliments. "you´re nice, you´re a good person, or i like your shoes". It was still really great to see them saying these things to each other and overall the camp went really well.
After the camp we had lunch with Ellyn´s host family and then we went to the house where the puppies were. I picked out my puppy amongst 5 very tiny cute little creatures. When i say tiny, i mean smaller than you would ever take a puppy home in the U.S. The mother is not feeding them anymore and they are all full of fleas so I know the puppy was better off going home with me but i still felt it was way too small to be separated from its family! We had just come from a house where there was another litter of pups and two had been thrown down a dry well (the mother would not have been able to nurse them all anyways but yes it´s still horrible) so i didn´t hesitate to take her home. She is dark brown with white feet and a black face. I can hold her in one hand! I carried her in my jacket all the way home and she slept the entire way. I noticed the fleas crawling in and out of her furr and bought some flea shampoo. When I got home, a volunteer that was staying with me last night helped me bathe her. We spent two hours getting the fleas off of her and I still don´t think i have gotten all of them off. I have never seen so many fleas on one thing and she is so small. The poor thing looked so miserable she actually fell asleep when we were picking them out of her furr. After she was clean I fed her some milk and she fell asleep in my arms. I was starting to feel pretty good about saving this little girl and giving her a better life. I shouldn´t have congratulate myself so soon!
I handed her to my friend and then went to my bathroom. A few min later i heard a thud and a very frightened voice that said "oh no....oh no....i think something is really wrong" I came out of the bathroom and saw my puppy lifeless with her tongue sticking out, not breathing, with no hearbeat! I stared at her for a moment, feeling for a pulse and said "she´s dead!" I couldn´t believe it! Turns out my friend had placed her on the bed, turned her back for a moment and she fell off and died. I immediately put my mouth over her snout and started giving her CPR. I administered breaths while my friend pumped her heart. After what seems like forever...she finally took a breath and continued to struggle for life for several minutes. We were successful in reviving her and she still seems to be doing fine. It was a terrifying, yet beautiful experience to witness. I am being extra over protective mom with her now. I can´t wait until she gets fatter and bigger so i don´t have to worry about her so much. My friend feels terrible, yet we were able to actually laugh about it later. I will forever be able to give her shit for it when I want. I said if people ever say you look like someone killed your puppy i can say "well, someone did".
I named the puppy Pilsen. That is actually one of the two main and only brands of beer here in Paraguay. I thought long and hard about cute names in Spanish and Guarani and English and decided Pilsen was a perfect combination and universal language of all 3. I think it´s actually a German beer. I know I am an Urban Youth volunteer and should not be having children repeat a name of a beer when they call my dogs name but Paraguayans appreciate the humor in it and crack up every time i tell them the name. In this culture humor works extremely well with the integration and I am reminded that here no one will get offended about it. The same day I brought my puppy home my family found another puppy in the street and brought it home. They are thinking of keeping it and naming it Brahma the other main beer in Paraguay.
In one day I experienced enough accomplishment, joy, stress and sorrow to last me for awhile. I have my winter camp this afternoon and hope nothing comes close to death afterwards.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
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.
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.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
I´m sure all of you are enjoying the wonderful summer months. We are in the middle of winter here. The weather is pretty crazy. A few weeks ago I was freezing and couldn´t find any way to warm up. My little brick house with my tin roof just isn´t the best insulator for the winter time. Come to think of it, it´s going to heat up like an oven in the summer too!
When it was freezing I didn´t have hot water at first, so I would do as The Paraguayans do and heat up some water on the stove (well, they would heat up on the fire)and then take a bucket bath. There is an art to taking a bucket bath. I have learned that You start with your face, then go head to toe. You can wet your body with just a small handful of water. Then you get your bar of soap and scrub your body (just the important areas is good enough) and then scoop water with your hands and using a sweeping motion and wet and sweep all the soap off you quite easily. With the remaining water in the bucket you can then step in with your dirty feet since you won´t be using it anymore and use a scrub brush to scrub your feet and sandals. Your hair will take an extra bucket, if it´s time to do that. This can all be done with a liter of water! I did this for a couple of weeks at the start of winter and then decided it was rediculous to have a modern bathroom with running water and be taking bucket baths! It cost me about $40 to have hot water installed. 25 feet of cable was run through the family´s house to my house and i had to buy a new shower head. The way hot water works here is you turn on the water and then flip a switch which turns on the electricity through the shower head. The water heats up as it passes through the shower head. So, you are essentially running water through a toaster! The water pressure needs to be low for it to really heat up, but it does work and i am not taking bucket baths anymore unless I am visiting rural volunteers.
The weather is still cold some days but other days it is hot. It hasn´t rained in a long time and farmers are complaining and agricultural and beekeeping volunteers are complaining. I am glad that urban youth doesn´t revolve much around the weather. I met a beekeeping volunteer that lives about 2-3 hours from me. She invited me to come see her site and do a wild hive capture with her. I told her I thought i was allergic to bees, so i may just watch from a distance or help her with her massive garden instead. She came to my site and helped me make a bed for my garden. It´s always really fun to see the sites of other volunteers. We all live with different family situations, different housing situations and different jobs but we all are living in this same, strange little country and are therefore aware of all of our similarities.
I went to a nice 4th of July picnic at the U.S Embassy this weekend. They made us hot dogs, veggies burgers and margaritas. There was even a cotton candy machine and the U.S Marines served beer. It was a really fun day and the weather was beautiful.
The schools are now on winter vacation for 2 weeks and i am continuing with the work the previous volunteer started. Every vacation she did a camp on the soccer field in front of the house. I looked at past schedules she left and with the help of the youth group i work with and Chris (the other volunteer in Horqueta) have planned another camp. San Roque Rocks (san roque is the name of my neighborhood). It will be Tuesday and Thursday from 3-5pm. We´ll have games, activities, educational lessons, reading/singing groups. The kids will be divided into groups by colors and it will be like a 45 min rotation from activity to activity. I am having other volunteers from the area come in and help and the youth group. Sounds easy right? I hope so...
This week I wanted to have a parent´s meeting about it so the parents could be aware of it, learn what we will be doing and hopefully offer to help! I have learned by now that Paraguayans do not need to be informed more than a day before a meeting or they will forget or won´t show up. I went around the day OF the meeting and went door to door, or shall I say fence to fence. Since there are no doorbells and fences surrounding the house, you clap your hands when you are "knocking at the door". I had no idea which houses to go to so I grabbed by 12 year old neighbor and asked her if she wanted to help me with something. She was excited to help and it´s always better to have a Paraguayan with you who speaks the language and reads the culture better. It was a good way for me to meet new people and see the houses I haven´t seen before. It was like doing a million home visits in one day. I now realize that my family is a much more well off family than the neighbors and I thought they had it bad before! I saw one room wood shacks with tarps over the roof to keep out the rain where families of 7 were living. When i came home that day it sunk in how much these kids need this camp. 2 hours later we had 80 kids signed up for the camp and I am getting a little stressed! That is just in my neighborhood, in the 2 streets near my house! I know it will all work out. Chris had the youth group write a letter to ask the mayor to sponsor the costs of providing snacks and the material to make pasta necklaces, etc. They have always covered the costs in the past so it looks like it will happen again. If not, it will probably only cost Chris and I $20 or less. I´ve been told "any camp is better than no camp" and "you could go out on the soccer field and lay down and kids would come and be happy" so I know it will all work out.
I will be getting a puppy next weekend. She will be a little brown, short haired thing with white feet, black snout and a white spot on her nose. I haven´t decided if I will name her in English, Spanish or Guarani. Another volunteer has a dog from the same parents and she is a really cool medium sized dog so when they had puppies again she asked me if i wanted one. It will be good company and Paraguayans often kill the female puppies in the litter so I hope I am saving a life!
That is all the news for now. I will let you know how the camp goes and what I end up naming my dog!.
When it was freezing I didn´t have hot water at first, so I would do as The Paraguayans do and heat up some water on the stove (well, they would heat up on the fire)and then take a bucket bath. There is an art to taking a bucket bath. I have learned that You start with your face, then go head to toe. You can wet your body with just a small handful of water. Then you get your bar of soap and scrub your body (just the important areas is good enough) and then scoop water with your hands and using a sweeping motion and wet and sweep all the soap off you quite easily. With the remaining water in the bucket you can then step in with your dirty feet since you won´t be using it anymore and use a scrub brush to scrub your feet and sandals. Your hair will take an extra bucket, if it´s time to do that. This can all be done with a liter of water! I did this for a couple of weeks at the start of winter and then decided it was rediculous to have a modern bathroom with running water and be taking bucket baths! It cost me about $40 to have hot water installed. 25 feet of cable was run through the family´s house to my house and i had to buy a new shower head. The way hot water works here is you turn on the water and then flip a switch which turns on the electricity through the shower head. The water heats up as it passes through the shower head. So, you are essentially running water through a toaster! The water pressure needs to be low for it to really heat up, but it does work and i am not taking bucket baths anymore unless I am visiting rural volunteers.
The weather is still cold some days but other days it is hot. It hasn´t rained in a long time and farmers are complaining and agricultural and beekeeping volunteers are complaining. I am glad that urban youth doesn´t revolve much around the weather. I met a beekeeping volunteer that lives about 2-3 hours from me. She invited me to come see her site and do a wild hive capture with her. I told her I thought i was allergic to bees, so i may just watch from a distance or help her with her massive garden instead. She came to my site and helped me make a bed for my garden. It´s always really fun to see the sites of other volunteers. We all live with different family situations, different housing situations and different jobs but we all are living in this same, strange little country and are therefore aware of all of our similarities.
I went to a nice 4th of July picnic at the U.S Embassy this weekend. They made us hot dogs, veggies burgers and margaritas. There was even a cotton candy machine and the U.S Marines served beer. It was a really fun day and the weather was beautiful.
The schools are now on winter vacation for 2 weeks and i am continuing with the work the previous volunteer started. Every vacation she did a camp on the soccer field in front of the house. I looked at past schedules she left and with the help of the youth group i work with and Chris (the other volunteer in Horqueta) have planned another camp. San Roque Rocks (san roque is the name of my neighborhood). It will be Tuesday and Thursday from 3-5pm. We´ll have games, activities, educational lessons, reading/singing groups. The kids will be divided into groups by colors and it will be like a 45 min rotation from activity to activity. I am having other volunteers from the area come in and help and the youth group. Sounds easy right? I hope so...
This week I wanted to have a parent´s meeting about it so the parents could be aware of it, learn what we will be doing and hopefully offer to help! I have learned by now that Paraguayans do not need to be informed more than a day before a meeting or they will forget or won´t show up. I went around the day OF the meeting and went door to door, or shall I say fence to fence. Since there are no doorbells and fences surrounding the house, you clap your hands when you are "knocking at the door". I had no idea which houses to go to so I grabbed by 12 year old neighbor and asked her if she wanted to help me with something. She was excited to help and it´s always better to have a Paraguayan with you who speaks the language and reads the culture better. It was a good way for me to meet new people and see the houses I haven´t seen before. It was like doing a million home visits in one day. I now realize that my family is a much more well off family than the neighbors and I thought they had it bad before! I saw one room wood shacks with tarps over the roof to keep out the rain where families of 7 were living. When i came home that day it sunk in how much these kids need this camp. 2 hours later we had 80 kids signed up for the camp and I am getting a little stressed! That is just in my neighborhood, in the 2 streets near my house! I know it will all work out. Chris had the youth group write a letter to ask the mayor to sponsor the costs of providing snacks and the material to make pasta necklaces, etc. They have always covered the costs in the past so it looks like it will happen again. If not, it will probably only cost Chris and I $20 or less. I´ve been told "any camp is better than no camp" and "you could go out on the soccer field and lay down and kids would come and be happy" so I know it will all work out.
I will be getting a puppy next weekend. She will be a little brown, short haired thing with white feet, black snout and a white spot on her nose. I haven´t decided if I will name her in English, Spanish or Guarani. Another volunteer has a dog from the same parents and she is a really cool medium sized dog so when they had puppies again she asked me if i wanted one. It will be good company and Paraguayans often kill the female puppies in the litter so I hope I am saving a life!
That is all the news for now. I will let you know how the camp goes and what I end up naming my dog!.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
A Weekend in Rural Life
One of the theories behind Peace Corps placing volunteers in a "nucleus" is that volunteers from various projects live close enough to each other to collaborate and work together when they choose to. I can have someone help me give a lesson on how to avoid getting some nasty parasites or build a sanitary latrine that won´t breed flies or smell bad all the time and I can help someone do activities to improve leadership skills and self esteem! I already convined Luke and Nayelli, two health volunteers in my area to help me give a dental lesson next week to 35 kids! Nayelli in turn decided to ask a favor of Luke and I-to come out to her site for a weekend and help her re-do her roof! Surely putting on a new roof was thrown into my Urban Youth training someone inbetween learning songs and games to do with children!
Luke and I took a bus out to Nayelli´s site on Friday afternoon, which is about abou hour from Horqueta. We rode on pavement for about half the time, then turned off onto a random dirt road and rode a very bumpy, dusty ride until we got to her site, in the middle of nowhere! Health volunteers live in VERY rural sites, often with no running water. This was my first time experiencing rural life.
Nayelli greeted us and gave us a tour of her house, literally a little wood hut with a straw roof. It is really cute and it´s on the property of a family, kind of like my set up. I kept telling her "open up or i´ll huff and I´ll puff and I´ll blow your house down" since it was built with minimal materials.
Sat morning we woke up early and began work. The first thing we did was move all of her stuff out onto the lawn (and by lawn i mean dirt) Her family just stared as we kept pulling out more and more stuff. It´s amazing how even an American living in the Peace Corps for one year will have aquired more stuff than a Paraguayan will in a lifetime! She told her family she needed help and that whoever showed up to help would get free beer and caña (strong booze). Eight Paraguayan men showed up at 8am to help! That was more than she needed since Luke and I were there too but a promise is a promise and they showed up. About 6 of us were on the roof tearing down the old straw. Tearing off a roof made of straw is about as easy as it sounds-what´s harder is knowing where you can and can´t put your foot without falling through! I had a lot of fun tearing off bundles of straw and throwing it on the ground below, making grunting noises and laughing a lot while I watched the faces of the Paraguayans below. They must have really got a kick out of watching the North Americans do this kind of work, especially women enjoying getting dirty and doing this kind of labor.
After the roof was off we got to stand knee deep in mud and dip the tips of the new straw into the mud, then pass them to a guy who then handed them up to the men on the roof to lay down. It was an incredibly simple process that cost about $50 dollars to do. They say the new roof will last about 5-6 years, i´d say that´s worth it. Nayelli liked the way the house looked with two feet of extra straw hanging off the ends because it gave it a tropical look. I agreed it looked cute so she didn´t want the men to cute off the ends like they nomrally do. They kind of shrugged and laughed but didn´t flat out tell her it was a stupid idea. That night we heard a noise and looked out the window to see one of the oxen eating the straw and therefore pulling off pieces of her roof! Now we know why paraguayans don´t leave it that way!
After the roof was finished a bunch of the men started drinking caña and I had the opportunity to practice my Guarani after a few beers becaue many of the eople in the rural parts of Paraguay don´t speak any Spanish. I was conversing with someone for about 15 min using the little Guarani i know and a lot of hand gestures. Nayelli walked by and I enthusiastically said "i´ve been talking to him for 15 min in Guarani!" She then said something to him along the lines of "oh, you guys are conversing in Guarani?" and he then replied "yeah...but i don´t understand anything she´s saying!" When Nayelli started laughing and told me what he said i responded "well tell him i don´t understand him either" and then we all started laughing and continued our "conversation". Paraguayans have great a great sense of humor.
Luke left that afternoon to head back to his site and i tought it would be a good idea to head back to Horqueta too. I brought my bike with me so was going to ride the 2 1/2 hour ride to work off some calories. When i started riding my brakes suddenly broke and so did my back axle! I had to walk the bike back to Nayelli´s house (luckily i hadn´t gone far) and said well i guess i´ll stay another night. On Sunday some little kids tried to fix the bike and it looked dependable to I made another attempt and it broke again. since there are no buses on sunday i was stuck yet another night. Finally Monday morning I woke up at 5am to catch the only bus that leaves her town. Since there is only one road we could see the bus come from her window and so we just waited.....and waited....and waited.... The bus never came and it was 7am now. I wasn´t feeling well so went back to sleep and told her to wake me up when it came. She assured me this never happens and sent her host brother to the bus driver´s house to see what happened. Her brother came back and reported the driver was hungover from drinking too much the night before while he watched the soccer game. we couldn´t do anything but laugh and i was starting to wonder if I´d ever get back to Horqueta. Finally close to 9am the bus came and Nayelli had to chase it down in her long underwear and socks because i was getting my stuff together in a hurry.
I made it back to Horqueta finally and was glad to be back in the "city". I am now thankful that i have running water in my house, a toilet and hot water. I used a latrine for 4 days and bucket bathed outside and i have great admiration for the volunteers that live much worse than I do!
Luke and I took a bus out to Nayelli´s site on Friday afternoon, which is about abou hour from Horqueta. We rode on pavement for about half the time, then turned off onto a random dirt road and rode a very bumpy, dusty ride until we got to her site, in the middle of nowhere! Health volunteers live in VERY rural sites, often with no running water. This was my first time experiencing rural life.
Nayelli greeted us and gave us a tour of her house, literally a little wood hut with a straw roof. It is really cute and it´s on the property of a family, kind of like my set up. I kept telling her "open up or i´ll huff and I´ll puff and I´ll blow your house down" since it was built with minimal materials.
Sat morning we woke up early and began work. The first thing we did was move all of her stuff out onto the lawn (and by lawn i mean dirt) Her family just stared as we kept pulling out more and more stuff. It´s amazing how even an American living in the Peace Corps for one year will have aquired more stuff than a Paraguayan will in a lifetime! She told her family she needed help and that whoever showed up to help would get free beer and caña (strong booze). Eight Paraguayan men showed up at 8am to help! That was more than she needed since Luke and I were there too but a promise is a promise and they showed up. About 6 of us were on the roof tearing down the old straw. Tearing off a roof made of straw is about as easy as it sounds-what´s harder is knowing where you can and can´t put your foot without falling through! I had a lot of fun tearing off bundles of straw and throwing it on the ground below, making grunting noises and laughing a lot while I watched the faces of the Paraguayans below. They must have really got a kick out of watching the North Americans do this kind of work, especially women enjoying getting dirty and doing this kind of labor.
After the roof was off we got to stand knee deep in mud and dip the tips of the new straw into the mud, then pass them to a guy who then handed them up to the men on the roof to lay down. It was an incredibly simple process that cost about $50 dollars to do. They say the new roof will last about 5-6 years, i´d say that´s worth it. Nayelli liked the way the house looked with two feet of extra straw hanging off the ends because it gave it a tropical look. I agreed it looked cute so she didn´t want the men to cute off the ends like they nomrally do. They kind of shrugged and laughed but didn´t flat out tell her it was a stupid idea. That night we heard a noise and looked out the window to see one of the oxen eating the straw and therefore pulling off pieces of her roof! Now we know why paraguayans don´t leave it that way!
After the roof was finished a bunch of the men started drinking caña and I had the opportunity to practice my Guarani after a few beers becaue many of the eople in the rural parts of Paraguay don´t speak any Spanish. I was conversing with someone for about 15 min using the little Guarani i know and a lot of hand gestures. Nayelli walked by and I enthusiastically said "i´ve been talking to him for 15 min in Guarani!" She then said something to him along the lines of "oh, you guys are conversing in Guarani?" and he then replied "yeah...but i don´t understand anything she´s saying!" When Nayelli started laughing and told me what he said i responded "well tell him i don´t understand him either" and then we all started laughing and continued our "conversation". Paraguayans have great a great sense of humor.
Luke left that afternoon to head back to his site and i tought it would be a good idea to head back to Horqueta too. I brought my bike with me so was going to ride the 2 1/2 hour ride to work off some calories. When i started riding my brakes suddenly broke and so did my back axle! I had to walk the bike back to Nayelli´s house (luckily i hadn´t gone far) and said well i guess i´ll stay another night. On Sunday some little kids tried to fix the bike and it looked dependable to I made another attempt and it broke again. since there are no buses on sunday i was stuck yet another night. Finally Monday morning I woke up at 5am to catch the only bus that leaves her town. Since there is only one road we could see the bus come from her window and so we just waited.....and waited....and waited.... The bus never came and it was 7am now. I wasn´t feeling well so went back to sleep and told her to wake me up when it came. She assured me this never happens and sent her host brother to the bus driver´s house to see what happened. Her brother came back and reported the driver was hungover from drinking too much the night before while he watched the soccer game. we couldn´t do anything but laugh and i was starting to wonder if I´d ever get back to Horqueta. Finally close to 9am the bus came and Nayelli had to chase it down in her long underwear and socks because i was getting my stuff together in a hurry.
I made it back to Horqueta finally and was glad to be back in the "city". I am now thankful that i have running water in my house, a toilet and hot water. I used a latrine for 4 days and bucket bathed outside and i have great admiration for the volunteers that live much worse than I do!
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