You can call me Farmer Tom

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  Caaguazu, Paraguay
Friday, July 4, 2008

Its been such a long, long time. I've had a hell of a time getting a card reader for my camera to upload pictures and I didn't want to updated without the pictures so that should explain some of the wait.

It is officially winter here now but you wouldn't know it from the temperature today, probably going to peak at about 80. It is, as you all know, the fourth of july and today we have a peacecorp get-together at the embassy were we get to rub elbows with the most important americans in all of paraguay ha ha. I am actually looking forward to the gigantic chocolate cakes that they have at these things, and if you had tasted paraguayan cakes you would know why. They taste just like sugar douced cardboard, I should know cause I have eaten sugar douced carboard, only once about a month ago when the armadillo trap broke and we could catch nothing for dinner. There will also be a bluegrass band playing with banjo, guitar, fiddle, and harmonica

Burnt Foot

. And for those of you that may not know I have feverishly taken up the mandolin. The old man gave it to me for christmas before I left. They lack the mandolin in the group so it looks like I will get to join if I keep practicing and learn my chords.
Other than that it should be a pretty relaxed weekend in Asuncion.

Now about my site. I have been wandering from house to house over the past months, getting to know the people and waking up early to blasting paraguayan music at 6 am that is just as repetitive as our pop music stations except that as much as I can tell the play list hasn't changed over the past 5 months I've been here, and I can't say anything because they can't get enough of it. And they are generous with their music, they play it loud enough so there 5 nearest neighbors can hear it too. But most of their nearest neighbors, which are not very near are already listening to the same station and are returning the favor. needless to say that one cannot sleep past 6am.

But finally I have settle down and found a place, actually the family is building a place for me to stay with salvage lumber from an old school building that just got torn down. It won't be huge, but a bit big for one person paragauyans

House to Be

. We started construction on wednesday and it will be done within 2 weeks. These houses are pretty bare bones, just board walls that one can see through the cracks, not that it bothers me because all standards of privacy have been significantly lowered here. Hopefully they will do it right, though I have some questions about the integrity of paraguayan building as they do almost everything by "feel" rather than using measuring tapes and squares. I also thought about that bible passage that says how foolish a person is who builds his house on sand, cause my house is built on sand. it will surely last two years though. Cross your fingers.

A good part about finally deciding where I was going to live is that I have just been able to start my garden and it is massive, 30ft by 30ft and 100% organic. I have planted tons of seeds already- achicoria, beets, broccoli, carrots, cilantro, spinach, cabbage, rosemary, oregano, 3 varieties of tomatoes, 5 varieties of peppers incuding illegally imported jalepeno and poblano peppers, cayanne, black hungarian, and green peppers, egg plant, lettuce, 2 types of green beans. About everything I can think of has or will be planted. I have loaded I don't know how much cow poo, chicken poo, and clay into wellbarrow and into the garden to improve the soil and still I don't know if it was enough. so you will see pictures of a beautiful garden in two months, or not, we will see

Kamba climbing the pole

.

And now the cultural experience called the feast of San Juan, or saint John. My host mother at the time, introducing me to the subject, told me that Saint John is one of the most powerful and miraculous saints. I agreed with that part. She went on to say that on the 23rd and only the 23rd of June, after the sun has set, one can walk on coals if they are free of sin and say the correct prayers as they walk across. A chosen man must walk first followed by a chosen woman. The coals must be specially prepared by one person and it must be of the wood called kurupa' y. So I took many of these words with a grain of salt.... and then the festivities began. special foods were prepared, meat breads and mandio empanadas. I helped a little but mainly slept because I was kind of sick this day. I woke up at 830 and the party was in full swing, stereo system, lights, looked like a maddona stock type operation for those gonzaga folk who know of this. Then the crazyness started, the Kamba people as they are called put on an act, men dressed as women and women as men, in outrageous clothing. The drama had everything, dancing, guns, a wedding, passion, betrayal, love, heartbreak, anger, joy, everything a proper drama should. Too bad I did not understand a word of it as it was slurred quickly in Guarani, and the actors tried to disguise there voices so nobody would know who they were. The show ended and they then burned a life sized Judas effigy. Then they ran to a pole about 5 people high and climbed it shoulder by shoulder. At the top of the pole was a wreath with candies and treats tied to it that the kamba people threw down to the crowed. and lastley the firewalking began. First the man, then the woman, and then nobody for a while. then slowly people began to go. I then thought to myself, "hey, there must be nothing to this" though the coals were glowing bright red

Kamba Preparing to walk the coal bed

. So what do I do, I throw off the shoes and walk not once, but twice, without any sort of prayer. And the result was sorely burnt feet, foolish tom. but it is a story and that is how the night ended.

What am I doing now. lots of work in the garden, flouride treatments at school and drinking a lot of mate, and still I am pretty busy. I'm starting a garden with the students that meets saturdays and I have been doing a peace corp required census of all the community members.

Congratuluations to the Gonzaga folk out there that just graduated. I missed out on seeing you guys graduate and wish I could have been there because you guys were kind of my class as well. Best of luck finding real jobs out there, fishing and camping all summer don't count (Ryan and John). Should have some good info up again within the month.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

More Kamba Drama	My brothers of my house	my forest	my mountain near my house
Our patio	The brothers on the mountain	The Burning Judas	The Family Garden
The Garden to Be	The Kamba Drama	The kitchen	The La Pacha Tree
Traditional Dance from welcome ceremony long ago

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