A Day in the Life

Trip Start Jan 24, 2005
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Trip End Apr 2007


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Flag of Paraguay  ,
Sunday, May 15, 2005

So, we're volunteers now for really really real. We live in a house with a family and it is a one minute walk to Grandma's house next door, and a ten minute walk through a field of mandioca and corn and pineapple to our host mom's sister's house, the back yard neighbor. If we want to go to town, it's a two hour walk, or we can catch the 2:30 bus in, and only have to walk back home. If we want to go to a town with internet access, we have to ride on a bus for two hours and pray we get a seat. If we want to go to a town with chocolate, we have to come into the capital, an additional three hours on a slightly less rickety bus after the above mentioned bus ride. Of course, all of these times are assuming that it is not raining or dark and the bus doesn't break down. Go out to the garage right now and kiss your car.

We wake up at about six or seven in the morning. Revise that: We wake up at four when the rooster crows and get up at six or seven. Revise that: There are at least twenty roosters crowing and they sound like they're inside our bedroom. We have coffee or cocido, a kind of burnt tea (mine with sugar and milk, Simon's just with sugar) for breakfast with rolls with guayava jam (the only jam in Paraguay) or honey, or margarine, or homemade peanut butter. Then we work on something, or read, or play Mario golf on Gameboy. Somethings I've been working on: Super cool bamboo shelves I designed and built myself despite the fact that everyone told me you can't make bamboo into shelves and seemed to think I was incapable of building anything (did I mention they turned out really well and only lean slightly :) ). a. Mimi with her sister
a. Mimi with her sister
 Interviewing teachers at my home school. I've been asking them about how they teach and what they like about their jobs and what they want to improve in the students and the school and their students. Tuesday, (the day after tomorrow) we're meeting with the teachers and I'm going to present the interviews to them and ask them how they want to use me and their own resources to get to the ideal school they described to me. We'll see how it goes. I like the teachers and I think they'll respond, but even if they don't, I have some good ideas we can work on (reading in Guarani because that's what the kids speak, getting the parent's commission to build tables and chairs for kindergarten so they don't have to use desks twice their size, math manipulatives . ). I also made peanut butter; it took two days between the shelling and the roasting and the peeling and the grinding, but it was delicieux. I've also been studying Guarani, though not enough to make me feel pleased about my progress.

Somethings Simon has been working on: Studying Guarani. Grandma told me last week "Simon is learning a lot of Guarani. He speaks really well. Why don't you speak Guarani? You should learn more like him." Harrumph. See above. Also, he's been interviewing the head of every household (usually the woman as her husband is in the field most of the day) to get to know the community and understand the health needs to give him ideas for projects. He always goes accompanied by a community member, and I sometimes go with him and ask the questions or write down the answers. b. German, Diny, and Lucilda
b. German, Diny, and Lucilda
 It also gives us an opportunity to introduce ourselves and try to make our purpose in their midst understood. He's also been drying hot peppers to make into chili powder as no food is ever spicy by anybody's reckoning, much less Simon's. The chili powder turned out very yummy, and we've both been using it to flavor our varied diet of meat with noodles and tomato, onion, and greenpepper sauce, meat with rice and onion, tomato, and greenpepper sauce, and meat with mandioca and soupy greenpepper, tomato and onion sauce. Our host dad evn put some pepper on his food the other day and said it was tasty (but very spicy).

We spend a lot of time hanging out with kids, playing Dora the Explorerer Uno (thank you, Isaac) and Eheka Pira (Search for Fish, the closest I could come up with for Go Fish) with the afore mentioned Uno cards. I have learned all my colors in Guarani this way, and I think hanging out with kids is one of the best ways to learn language because they can't switch to Spanish to accommodate me, they're used to obeying commands ( like, I know you just repeated that, but can you please say it again?), and they don't get frustrated when we fail to communicate.

Also on Tuesday, the health commission is going to meet and this should seal the deal on our moving into the health post. We'll need to clean the well, build a room to bathe in, and a latrine, and put in electricity. Also build or buy furniture. And dig a garden (yea!). So we're looking forward to busy days ahead.

We love and miss you all and thank you for writing!
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