Yesterday was extremely hot hitting nearly 90 degrees Fahrenheit. We're in winter supposedly so I'm kind of worried about how hot it will be in the summer, which is quite a long season here. My host brother told me it's not uncommon to reach 45 degrees Celsius here in the summer which translates to about 113 degrees Fahrenheit. I've been sweating like a pig to say the least the past few weeks... Anyway, back to Father's Day.
We went to a relative's house a few kilometers down the road, and I ate a ridiculous amount of asado. Asado, for those who aren't familiar with the term, is pretty much a barbeque with a ton of meat consisting mostly of beef and pork. Here in Paraguay, they do not waste much in terms of food. They use every part of the animal, even blood, intestines, head, and any other part you can imagine, including ears and bones that serve as food and toys for dogs. I helped the men of the family prepare the meat a bit while the women made side dishes and the little kids played around the house. There were about 25 of us in total so I got to meet more of my extended Paraguayan family. I ate far too much meat. My host mom loves to serve me food. I'm convinced she would like me to become gigantic, that is, in a horizontal manner! The guarani phrase "Che ryguata" has proved to be very handy, though I still find it hard to eat a healthy amount of food here. After we got back, I fell into a food coma. Now on to other more important matters.
This past week was our first of 3 volunteer site visits. Some trainees stayed in pairs for the visit and a few went alone. I was one of the ones that went alone, though my commute wasn't bad as I only had to take one bus that only took 3 hours. I stayed in a tiny town in the south central part of the country. It had it's own municipality, school, a few tiny food markets, and, of course, several soccer fields. Everywhere I seem to find more soccer fields than anything else which I guess is great if you like soccer, as I do, but not so great if you want businesses and other activities that help the community. I actually got to play the second day. The other players were good, so it was a competitive game. I'm beginning to see that it quite common here to smoke cigarettes while playing here. I find this pretty hilarious and strange at the same time. I had to pay 2 thousand guaranis, which is the equivalent of 50 american cents to play. It seemed strange as it was only a pick-up game between friends. Little did I know, they bet on the games, and as my team won both games, each player on my team got 4 thousand guaranis so I made a 100% return. Haha. Peace Corps says we can't earn money during our service, but as I didn't know about the bet and as I would be using it to celebrate the win anyway, I don't think it was a big deal.
The town in which I stayed is quite small, though the area in which my volunteer often worked is a much smaller, rural village called Potrerito Yvaty. I will put some pictures up of my visit at the bottom of the post to give you all an idea. My volunteer worked with the municipality a bit earlier in his service, but is now working more in the school in this rural area. I was able to go to the school with him, talk to some of the students and professors, sit in on a class, and, also, help him give a class.
The volunteer was well known is his community. Everyone we passed would always greet us and often talk to us at length. It was pretty cool to see how he integrated into his community and how well he got to know everyone. He also spoke guarani well, proven by the fact that he would often converse with the locals in a language that I could barely understand, even though I could recognize that it was, in fact, guarani. One of the projects on which he will be working on shortly is a photography class for the students of this village. It will be an opportunity for the kids to learn basic function and use of the camera along with learning techniques and styles of photo taking. It sounded great so we talked about the program a bit and gave out permission slips to be signed and returned.
Apart from that, I was able to meet several people in the community, and everyone was very welcoming. Come to think of it, so far all Paraguayans I've met seem to be very friendly and generous even to the extent that people, in San Patricio and Postrerito, who especially don't have much would always offer me terere, food and their warm company. And by much, I am only comparing material possessions that a typical American family would have and that which a typical Paraguayan family has. This comparison, of course, is only based upon the little time I've spent here so far. Though, it reminds me how important relationships are and how unimportant material possessions are when it comes down to what truly makes a person happy. I like to think that I realized this before I came here, but I know that this experience of both being away from loved ones for so long and having to make another, new family here in Paraguay makes it much more real. My happiness and success here depends on the love from everyone at home and the relationships I build here.
Now I will put up some photos, which is probably what you've all been waiting for while working your way through my rambling. So here are some photos of my site visit. Enjoy! Perhaps, in my next blog I will explain and teach some of the Guarani language, gastronomy, and culture of which I've been learning so much these past few weeks. Until then, Peace everyone!
The main road in Potrerito with school on right
Some kids playing soccer!
Just before sunset
The Mighty Paraguayan Sun!
This is what we would call a "ñandu guasu" in guarani, otherwise known as the tarantula. They're quite popular in the Paraguayan countryside!
Dont worry, i'll still love you if you get fat...besides, maybe then id actually be able to beat you at something athletic for once haha
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