Excelsior Asuncion

... boots, and look more like some sort of military force. They don't seem to be the kind of people you'd want to go to for help, whether you're a visitor or citizen, especially considering this is the second-most corrupt country in all of Latin America.
- Everyone here drinks something called terere (cold version) or mate (hot version) all the time. They carry a locally-designed water bottle with a ring on the side to hold their terere/mate cup ...

... started to really chuck it down so we broke for Jack to eat our packed lunches. We then went to see the falls where we met our mentalist guide Fabio (a different one) and the proceeded to try and lose him for the rest of the day. Some succeeded where others failed despite the same ones giving out earlier about leaving the remainder of us to absorb him. Anyway I did enjoy myself having purchased a large white cheese factory visitor/ku klux klan plastic hooded coat ...

... but class was canceled for a local holiday, so I couldn't. We are also replacing the roof of the school. The money was donated by a NO called Plan, which is one of these organizations that you see on TV: "for just such and such dollars per day you can give this child..." etc, but the community has to put in the labor to do it. So we had a meeting last week for the men to sign up for days to work. I volunteered for one, and then got ...

... aux feux rouges l'arrêt est en option, on zigue-zague entre les voitures, et finalement nous y arrivons pile à temps! Et là, pas de train. Manque de bol, le train était parti une heure avant. Imprévisible Paraguay. :)

Un autre grand moment a été la promenade dans les marchés. Tout un quartier de la ville est un grand souk à ciel ouvert, on y trouve de tout à condition de savoir comment le trouver. :) C'est très drôle de se promener au milieu de tout ça, de négocier à gauche et ...

... during lunch and had some piping hot cow intestine (mondongo). It's not the first time I have had tripe since I have been here, but this is the first time boiled and it is nowhere near as good as fried (which says a lot). Here, they take the cow intestine and roll it out into strips or sheets and then cut it into squares for use as food. And honestly, it is not good. Tonight, I'm going to a barbecue fundraiser for a girl who lives down the road ...

Arrived in Paraguay to the capital which is more like a ghost town. The country is still recovering from the years of dictatorship and wars from its south American neighbours... consequently the population is very small and economy quite poor. People however are really friendly and we´ve had a good time here...they just love the ...

Since my cousin Jeff (yes I'm calling you out :) )said "can't wait for your next blog" I will take that as a hint that I haven't written in a while and that I should. So here it is. I only have 7 weeks left in my community. Its really sad, so I try not to think about it. I'm really glad that I'm staying in PY. I think I would extremely sad if I was leaving PY in 2 ...

... country in South America besides Bolivia. But Bolivia of course has some spectacular Andean culture. Does Paraguay have something comparable? They DO have the co-official state language of Guarani', the only Amerindian language to have crossed over to its conquerors and survived to the present day. I better check it out. Best to play wild cards early in case they take wings. A new law is being proposed in Argentina also which would require ...

We've got four months to go and I think we are going to finish strong. The computer lab is running strong we just finished up the first round of community classes and they turned out well. I at least figured out who will actually keep their word (results: 83.333% certainty you can not trust a teacher). I started with nine potential instructors: 6 teachers and 3 community members. They received free computer classes from ...

... weeks of vaycay.) I'll let ya'll know what happens, but I won't know if I got the job until the beginning of September. Lastly, I had culture shock entering the states and then again a little when I got back to PY. I can't describe fully the stark contrast between our cultures, countries, and people. It hit me pretty hard when I watched 6 year olds doing flips in the middle of the street trying ...