This past week in Paraguay has been Semana Santa or Holy Week. Here is a brief description of what I did...
Wednesday:
We made Chipa! Three of us and one of our professors went to my house to make Chipa. My host dad told me today that Paraguay is known for Chipa. The main ingredients for Chipa are flour, eggs, and oil. We made this most of the morning and then the three Americanas tried to cook part of lunch.
Ummmm...I was really craving rice and veggies. So everything was going great, we were steaming the veggies and the rice was cooked. When my host mom goes into the kitchen and realized we burned her pot! It was smoking and smelled horrible. We had forgotten to add more water to the boiling water under our veggies....the water we had had evaporated. Oops!
Thursday:
This is the day of the last supper. Families cook huge lunches together. It was my Paraguayan teacher´s birthday, so a couple of us took the bus to her house for lunch. She lives in a neighboring town about 25 minutes by bus. She had a large feast for us. We ate meat from the barbeque, she made noodles (especially for us), a potato salad, and she chopped up tons of veggies for salad (they never eat veggies raw... always chopped up really small and cooked). It was fun to talk with her and see her house.
It turns out she taught with a program similar to Peace Corps, but it was with Koreans. So there were 3 Koreans there. It was very interesting to be at my teacher´s house in Paraguay while there were 4 languages present (English, Spanish, Guarani, and Korean).
After arriving home, my family and I went to church. It started around 6:30 and lasted until 8:15 or so. However we didn´t get home until 10pm. They have a very large church and during this week they pack many people in. A lot of people have to stand through the whole service. The major religion here is Catholicism, so although I don´t always understand the words, I´ve been to enough Catholic masses that I have an idea of what is going on.
Friday:
Early this morning I woke up and went to Pascua Joven with my sisters and another trainee. Pascua Joven is like a bible camp for youth...to describe it briefly. It was really neat, we saw a reinactment of Jesus´ journey with the cross. It was great to see that it was all done by youth.
Typically Paraguayans don´t eat this day...they only eat Chipa. Luckily for me, I have a young sibling, so I got to have lunch! At 3pm, my family again went to church. At the end of this mass, the whole congregation walked around the plaza singing. It was really interesting, I wish I had brought my camera. The mass ende4 around 5:30.
Saturday:
It rained off and on most of the day. Today continued Pascua Joven. Pascua nino took place durning the morning..This is for smaller kids. I decided to stay at home and read.
Mass on Saturday started at 9pm and lasted utnil 12am. It began as a candlelit service. Around 10pm, my younger brother who is only 6, but a chubby kid, fell asleep. He layed on his mom and myself until 12. It was hard to sit still in a pew with a 6yr. old on my lap. At the end of the service, everyone went outside again. One group of 6 was carrying a statue of the virgin Mary and another group of 6 was holding a statue of Jesus. They stood about a half a block apart and all the people who were in the church gathered around them. Then the Virgin Mary statue (the people carrying her) started running toward Jesus. This signified that they are now together. Once she reached him, everyone cheered and started saying Feliz Pascua!
It was really interesting and I´m glad I got to experience it. Now it Sunday and not much takes place today.
Tomorrow I will find out my site for the next two years and then Tuesday morning I will leave to visit the site for a week. During this time I need to find a place to stay, become familiar with the town, and draw up a plan with what I am going to do my first few months in site. I´ll let you all know where I am going as soon as I can...
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