After 4 months of observing classes and drinking tereré (yerba mate) with Directoras (principals) of the schools, i finally was able to make a plan to give my charlas (lessons, activities) on lifeskills in one of the schools. The plan consisted of giving two charlas in the morning with two different classes and one in the afternoon. I would start with the topic of good comunication skills, then to self esteem, values, employment skills, etc all the way to sexuality and AIDS education. The Directora seemed very excited to work with me, the students seemed relieved they would be doing something in class other than listening to lecture and copying things from the board and the teachers were probably appreciative they could sit back, chill out and tereré for awhile while I did my thing (even though I would be thrilled if they helped and got involved with what I was doing) I laid out a 9 week plan to get through all the topics, decided on Tuesdays and Thursdays and picked the classes I would work with. I was thrilled to finally be starting work with teens. Since being in site, i have done a lot of work with little kids and while singing songs, having a reading club, making arts and crafts was a blast, I was now ready to take on the challenge of reaching those human beings that are in their most awkward phase of life!
I showed up at 8:20am on the dot to discover the Directora´s office was closed and I could not find anyone to talk to or show me to the classroom. I waited patiently, surrounded by little kids (because this school is an elementary school and high school) answering their questions about where i was from, what language they speak in my country, how old I was, did i have kids of my own, what was I doing here, etc. Finally a teacher approached me and in Spanish of course asked me "are you here to give a charla?" I said "yes, I am, do you knmow where the directora is?" She said what paraguayans always say " oh she´ll be here in a second" which means anywhere from 5 min to 2 hours. She then pointed to a huge auditorium size room and said "they are waiting for you in there". I thought "that´s weird, why would they be in there and not waiting for me in their classroom?" Then as i got closer I could hear the rumbling noise of what sounded like the moments just before a school assembly in the U.S before someone took a microfone and told everyone to shut up and be quiet. I also saw kids piling in the room and I could feel my heart stop and my face turn white. I planted my feet in the ground the way I did when I was a stubborn toddler refusing to take a step further. I looked at the teacher and said "who is they......the senior class right?" Yes" she said...."and the junior and sophmore class too" I told her my charla was not designed for this many people and she assured me there were not many. I don´t know why I half believed her but any hope i had of having the ideal group size of 15-20 diminshed the moment I stepped into the room and saw that 50 or so faces staring back at me. When I turned around, the teacher was gone and so I took a deep breath and tried to look as confident as possible as I walked to the front of the room.
As I stood at the front of the room, it dawned on me that to Paraguayans to give a charla, or lesson means someone is going to stand up and lecture for an hour. There is no concept of what I had planned to do with the students that day. My charla actually consisted of breaking into small groups first for an ice breaker activity. I had made a model structure using matchboxes, two pieces of tape and a paper clip. Each group then gets the same materials and one member from the group is allowed 30 seconds to look at the model. They then return to the group and are not allowed to touch the materials, they have to verbally explain to their members how to build it. I only had enough materials for 3 groups and I did divide them into 3 groups, 3 HUGE groups and somehow the activity worked fairly well, except for the discussion part afterward. Nobody wanted to speak up and talk about what was difficult about it, was it easier for the person giving instructions or for the people building, etc....I ended up answering my own questions and was stared at my a bunch of blank faces.
After that activity we moved on to the topic of what good comunication is in general and with who you comunicate on a daily basis, etc. The main activity required every student to write their own instructions on how to make a PB & J sandwhich (they don´t make those here so I did jelly and butter) After everyone writes their instructions, they are folded put into a hat and two volunteers have to make the sandwhich according to the instructions. So, if they say put the butter on the bread and forget the part about taking the knife......the volunteer has to use his finger. After they get the idea as a class you write instructions that are more specific together and talk about how while everyone knows how to make a sandwhich, if it was something like flying a plane or opertating a computer, you would need to be very detailed.
As the students were doing the matchbox activity, i realized they did not have their backpacks with them, so nobody had pencils or paper. I sent a student to get me some and he came back with one piece of paper and one pencil. I said "we need more" and he said "how much more, like 3?" and I said "no, for everybody" so he came back with like 5 and I had each of the huge groups write 2 instructions.
Two female students volunteered and made the sandwhich and I realized Paraguayans don´t make sandwhiches with butter and jelly any more than they do with peanut butter and jelly so i should have picked something more common in their culture.
Overall the charla went well, they were respectful and one kid even came up to me afterwards and said "we had a really good time" and that made it worth it to me. I did find the Directora afterwards and told her I only wanted ONE class at a time from now on and she made me a promise. I went back in the afternoon and did the same charla with another class and it went really well. The teacher even stayed in the room and watched, instead of considering it her one hour break to go chat it up with other teachers.
I went to the school today for my second day and was told that the classes I am working with took a field trip to the Expo (which is kind of like our state fairs) I smiled and said that was fine, i would come back in the afternoon. Why nobody told me on Tuesday that there would be a field trip on Thursday and I didnt need to come I will never understand. It is just typical of paraguayan culture and I´m getting really good at letting things slide of my back and go with the flow. I smiled because I knew I could now use that time to come write a blog about all of this and that tomorrow I am going to go to the Expo and see what a Paraguayan State Fair is like :)
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Monday, July 30, 2007
The Life of Pigs and Dogs
It was made clear to me yesterday just how desensitized I am becoming as a result of being in Paraguay 6 months. Yesterday I was having a lovely, lazy Sunday in my casita (my little house) all day. Another volunteer, Bee (sarah but i call her bee because she is a beekeeper and there are so many sarahs in the peace corps) was visiting me for the weekend and we were having a great time making breakfast, playing guitar, drinking terere and doing other things that entertain us in Paraguay such as admire my bannnana trees and compost pile when two things happened that made me think how much I had adapted to life here.
First, my family´s dog walked by my yard and was limping pretty badly. When Bee asked why it was limping I said "i don´t know, i think they said it broke it´s leg but I think it´s just sprained" I said it so matter of factly, and though we did sit for a few moments in silence letting out heavy sighs of sympathy and frustration we both just accepted the situation. This family was not going to do anything about the break/sprain and the dog would just have to limp for the rest of it´s life and heal on his own. There are veternarians in town but no average Paraguayan family can really afford to treat their sick animals. Most Paraguayans are struggling to feed their children and themselves. Dogs here are seen as things that provide protection from tresspassers, not as family members. They eat scraps from the table and whatever they can find, they aren´t fed dog food. This is why 97% of the dogs I see are so skinny you can see their ribs and hip bones poking out. My family´s dog is skinny but well fed. Most dogs, even if they are eating a lot have parasites that are causing them to be malnurished.With parasites you will never be well fed because your worms are eating all your food.
Dogs are everywhere, wandering the streets and though i want to save them all, i would go insane if I tried or if i constantly thought about how sad their lives are here. They are not petted, not loved and played with and therefore their personalities are so much different than dogs in the states. They have no personalities, they are shadows of what a dog should be. They cower in your presence because they´ve been kicked so much, they can be very aggresive for no reason, they are just more.....wild. Think dogs in the pound......times 3. Don´t get me wrong, some Paraguayans do treat their dogs really well and similar to we do in the states, and even if they treat them the way i was just describing there is a bond between the dog and the families, it´s the only connection they´ve ever known. If i blamed Paraguayans for the way they treat animals I would go insane from this as well and would be incredibly unhappy living with these people. That´s story 1.
Story 2 begins a few hours later when the pig screaming started. I am so used to pig screaming now, because well, my family and many families around my neighborhood raise pigs. Though my eyes got big and I stopped mid-sentence and had a very squeemish look on my face I calmly asked her, "do you think they are killing it or selling it?" (When a pig is killed, 3 men usually hold it down while one stabs it in the throat/chest area. The screams are horrible but eventually they end, because well..... the pig dies. When they sell a pig, the pig is held down by 3 men and it´s legs are tied together and it thrown into the back of an ox-drawn cart and hauled off to a family that will most likely kill it that day or soon after for someone´s b-day dinner or other special occasion. The screaming when they sell it is almost worst because it never stops until the cart is far enough away you can´t hear it anymore. ) So....Bee being the stronger one says "do you want me to go look and tell you?" I said I did so she went outside and for a moment had a puzzled look on her face and i kept asking her "what, what?" She finally said "they are castrating it". There were 3 men holding it down and she couldn´t figure out why the man with the knife was at the other end of the pig. I know now what is worst than selling, or killing.....chopping the poor pig´s balls off with a kitchen knife!
The entire day the poor pig looked miserable and the blood running down it´s legs broke my heart but at the same time I totally accepted the situation. In order for the pig to be able to roam free and come and go to the house as he pleases for the next year he needs to not be tempted to go off looking for ladies. He needs to know this is his home and feel loyal to it instead of his hormones. I debated slipping the pig some pain relivers but decided against it. I can´t always be the crazy white girl doing weird things. I am already made fun of for trying to save puppies and for crying when they die. (i had two month old puppies that both died last week)
Nope, no crazy, out of the norm behavior for me. I will never like it, I will never agree with it and it will always be sad to me but it´s dawned on me that it´s not affecting me as much as it did 6 months ago. I am hardening up a little bit, more than i thought my vegetarian, animal-loving soul ever could to situations like this. I really am worried about what I will be like in 2 years, I mean, what will I be used to 21 months down the road?? I see it in other volunteers when i hear stories about volunteers actually being the one to kill the pigs or twist the necks of the chickens just to experience the culture and integrate more! Americans in my opinion shouldn´t try that, since most stories end with "yeah....i kept twisting it´s neck but i was doing it so slow, it wouldn´t break and finally my host mom and to grab it out of my hand and finish!" Or worse stories like my friend Chris who tried to kill a pig for the going away party of another pig and he kept stabbing it but wasn´t reaching the heart (since there is no easy way to reach a pib heart) and so the poor thing kept gurgling and gurgling till it´s slow death came to an end. The stories are great to tell I suppose but for Pete´s sake people, we don´t know how to kill pigs, most of us grew up in cities and we buy our meat pre packaged in the grocery store! That will never be me since I won´t even eat the damn things!!
I´m going to try to get another puppy, hopefully one a little older and I´ll try motherhood again. I will treat my dog like gold and being an example that it can be another way and a dog can learn tricks and be trained and fat and happy is the only thing i can do to cause change in a very small, unoticable way. And of course my diet has always been my peace of mind about the way animals are treated both here and at home. I may be becoming more and more savage and immune but I still have a concious......
Time to end this blog now and get home for lunch....i think we´re having pig balls....
First, my family´s dog walked by my yard and was limping pretty badly. When Bee asked why it was limping I said "i don´t know, i think they said it broke it´s leg but I think it´s just sprained" I said it so matter of factly, and though we did sit for a few moments in silence letting out heavy sighs of sympathy and frustration we both just accepted the situation. This family was not going to do anything about the break/sprain and the dog would just have to limp for the rest of it´s life and heal on his own. There are veternarians in town but no average Paraguayan family can really afford to treat their sick animals. Most Paraguayans are struggling to feed their children and themselves. Dogs here are seen as things that provide protection from tresspassers, not as family members. They eat scraps from the table and whatever they can find, they aren´t fed dog food. This is why 97% of the dogs I see are so skinny you can see their ribs and hip bones poking out. My family´s dog is skinny but well fed. Most dogs, even if they are eating a lot have parasites that are causing them to be malnurished.With parasites you will never be well fed because your worms are eating all your food.
Dogs are everywhere, wandering the streets and though i want to save them all, i would go insane if I tried or if i constantly thought about how sad their lives are here. They are not petted, not loved and played with and therefore their personalities are so much different than dogs in the states. They have no personalities, they are shadows of what a dog should be. They cower in your presence because they´ve been kicked so much, they can be very aggresive for no reason, they are just more.....wild. Think dogs in the pound......times 3. Don´t get me wrong, some Paraguayans do treat their dogs really well and similar to we do in the states, and even if they treat them the way i was just describing there is a bond between the dog and the families, it´s the only connection they´ve ever known. If i blamed Paraguayans for the way they treat animals I would go insane from this as well and would be incredibly unhappy living with these people. That´s story 1.
Story 2 begins a few hours later when the pig screaming started. I am so used to pig screaming now, because well, my family and many families around my neighborhood raise pigs. Though my eyes got big and I stopped mid-sentence and had a very squeemish look on my face I calmly asked her, "do you think they are killing it or selling it?" (When a pig is killed, 3 men usually hold it down while one stabs it in the throat/chest area. The screams are horrible but eventually they end, because well..... the pig dies. When they sell a pig, the pig is held down by 3 men and it´s legs are tied together and it thrown into the back of an ox-drawn cart and hauled off to a family that will most likely kill it that day or soon after for someone´s b-day dinner or other special occasion. The screaming when they sell it is almost worst because it never stops until the cart is far enough away you can´t hear it anymore. ) So....Bee being the stronger one says "do you want me to go look and tell you?" I said I did so she went outside and for a moment had a puzzled look on her face and i kept asking her "what, what?" She finally said "they are castrating it". There were 3 men holding it down and she couldn´t figure out why the man with the knife was at the other end of the pig. I know now what is worst than selling, or killing.....chopping the poor pig´s balls off with a kitchen knife!
The entire day the poor pig looked miserable and the blood running down it´s legs broke my heart but at the same time I totally accepted the situation. In order for the pig to be able to roam free and come and go to the house as he pleases for the next year he needs to not be tempted to go off looking for ladies. He needs to know this is his home and feel loyal to it instead of his hormones. I debated slipping the pig some pain relivers but decided against it. I can´t always be the crazy white girl doing weird things. I am already made fun of for trying to save puppies and for crying when they die. (i had two month old puppies that both died last week)
Nope, no crazy, out of the norm behavior for me. I will never like it, I will never agree with it and it will always be sad to me but it´s dawned on me that it´s not affecting me as much as it did 6 months ago. I am hardening up a little bit, more than i thought my vegetarian, animal-loving soul ever could to situations like this. I really am worried about what I will be like in 2 years, I mean, what will I be used to 21 months down the road?? I see it in other volunteers when i hear stories about volunteers actually being the one to kill the pigs or twist the necks of the chickens just to experience the culture and integrate more! Americans in my opinion shouldn´t try that, since most stories end with "yeah....i kept twisting it´s neck but i was doing it so slow, it wouldn´t break and finally my host mom and to grab it out of my hand and finish!" Or worse stories like my friend Chris who tried to kill a pig for the going away party of another pig and he kept stabbing it but wasn´t reaching the heart (since there is no easy way to reach a pib heart) and so the poor thing kept gurgling and gurgling till it´s slow death came to an end. The stories are great to tell I suppose but for Pete´s sake people, we don´t know how to kill pigs, most of us grew up in cities and we buy our meat pre packaged in the grocery store! That will never be me since I won´t even eat the damn things!!
I´m going to try to get another puppy, hopefully one a little older and I´ll try motherhood again. I will treat my dog like gold and being an example that it can be another way and a dog can learn tricks and be trained and fat and happy is the only thing i can do to cause change in a very small, unoticable way. And of course my diet has always been my peace of mind about the way animals are treated both here and at home. I may be becoming more and more savage and immune but I still have a concious......
Time to end this blog now and get home for lunch....i think we´re having pig balls....
Monday, July 23, 2007
Land Of Parasites!
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????
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????
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.
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