Holy Week

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  Guarambare, Paraguay
Friday, April 4, 2008

We are now coming into citrus season. Grapefruits are ripening and I eat at least one a day. Mandarines are ready as well. I've been stealing them along with the grapefruits from a volunteers house across the street. The avocados have been really good as well, but now  there are only five left from our tree and they are sitting on the kitchen counter. Mangos and pineapples are out of season now and there is one tree left in my area that has them so I have been stopping by that house to ask for them all the time. I think they might be getting annoyed.
We ate a tons of food during holy week. It is a pretty big deal here. School gets out wednesday and everybody comes home and makes a bread called chipa. Its really dense and lord of the rings fans can liken it to Lumbas, the elf bread that frodo and sam eat. Sorry I had to get nerdy. Its made of ground corn and pig lard, and if you eat one or two pieces it expands in your stomach and you feel full

A nice creek

. Kids make crocodile shapes and such out of it and really get a kick. You have to kneed it a lot first and then you throw it in a brick oven after you scoop the ashes out. We made 15lbs of the stuff and there is still a pan full sitting in the refrigerator two weeks after holy week. They eat this chipa all holy week. Thursday is the last supper so we had a gigantic last supper as is the custom and I may have some pictures on this, we will see.  Tons of meat- pork, beef, and sausage. Friday is a somber day and you are not allowed to listen to music, say mean things to your brothers or sisters, or punish your kids if they are bad. You have to wait until saturday to punish them if they deserve it. In the old days you couldn't kick a soccer ball are walk "hard" on the ground, because it would be like you were walking on or kicking Jesus. Saturday is normal and then Sunday you feast again and have mass.

The host family is great. My host mom is leaving in a week to go to Spain for a year and work. It is the only way that they can afford the house they have built and their living. The kids are really nice I especially like my younger brother and sister because they are always happy to see me and the brother says that I am his best brother, better than his older brother who is still pretty nice but beats up on him.

Today I got my site assignment

Easter Feast

. I will be in the department will be called Caaguazu. I'm not entirely happy with the description because it sounds like I will be doing little construction of fogones, that I would have preferred. I will be doing more education related stuff - parasite prevention, dental health, HIV stuff, etc. It seems to be more rolling hills which will be nice. We will see. I'll leave for a visit to the site next thursday. In 3 weeks training will be completed and I will start my actual service in my own site. I didn't talk about it much, but these first three months we have just been training. We are not actually Peace Corps volunteers, rather they say we are aspiring to be PC volunteers. We will have an official swearing-in ceremony in Asuncion and we will be able to hang out there three days and hit the town. Today I met some new zealanders vacationing here. They said that they would recommend vacationing in paraguay to all their friends, so come on down.

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My Father and The Twins	My Grandfather petting the bottom of his cow	My mom and brother cooking	Our house
The Whole family together for Easter

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