Hello to all and hope all is well wherever you all may be in the world,
I will start this post out by expressing once again my astonishment and, in a way, my comlpaint of how hot it is here. I have been in Paraguay for just a little over a month and a half. It is the dead of winter here, and I certainly didn't expect this heat even though I knew it is generally always warm here all year round. It reached almost 90 degrees everyday this past week. Having said that, the weather here, at least in the winter can be quite bipolar. I'll explain.
2 weeks ago today I left to go on my second long site visit. I stayed in a town in the eastern part of the country about an hour or so from the Brazilian border. The purpose of this second long visit is to have the opportunity to stay with another host family for a few days and to experience the life of a volunteer. Our volunteer was very cool, and it seemed that he was integrating into his community well. I stayed on the outskirts of town in this neat wooden home. The thing about the home was that it was very drafty because the wooden planks that made up the walls of the house weren't always flush next to eachother so as to prevent wind or hot/cold air coming in. This past week was particularly cold, and I think it was probably 40 degrees in the entire house at night so once I got into my sleeping bag at night there was no way I was getting up for anything during the night. Anytime I stuck my head out of my military style sleeping bag that I brought with me to Paraguay, it would feel as if I was sticking my head into a freezer. Despite 3 freezing nights, the trip went really well!
The first day we met the host families with which we would be staying for the duration of the visit. The woman with whom I stayed, Arsenia, is an older mother whose several daughters had already left the house either to look for work in Ciudad del Este or marry and work in their homes. I got along really well with her. She told me a lot about her family and her life. During my stay there we did several activities having to do with self-esteem, working in groups, and communication with several groups of students from the community school. The students responded well to the activities and were enthusiastic to have us there although there were some students that were quite shy perhaps due to the fact that there were so many foreigners around. We also got the chance to visit the municipality, which is basically the town hall where the mayor and all public officials in the community work, and the cooperative, which is a type of credit union for which members pool together financial resources for their mutual benefit. Cooperatives are everywhere here in Paraguay. Banks and other financial institutions are few and far between unless your in the capital. All and all, I had a great time on the long field visit.
The week that followed was a busy one since, in addition to having class and training from 7 in the morning until 5 at night as usual, a city nearby called Yaguaron was holding its patron saint festival, during which many musical acts come to play on a stage next to the town's municipality. It was always a lot of fun. Orchestras, polka and guarania groups, and traditional dancers came to show off their skills. As you all may not know, polka and guarania are considered the two traditional types of music and dance in Paraguay. Guarania is slower and one doesn't typically dance to it. The polka, on the other hand, is always danced to, and the steps are quite easy that I have already gotten the hang of it through some practice with my host mom since she loves to dance! The festival lasted 6 days from two Saturdays ago until this past Friday.
This past weekend was very eventful as well since the 4 quarterfinals for the Copa America were played, and it was my host mother's birthday on Sunday, and, for that, her eldest son, Federico, cam to visit from Ciudad del Este. On Saturday we watched two games of which one Argentina lost to Uruguay and Peru beat Costa Rica. On Sunday, before the games, many relatives came to out house to celebrate my host mom's birthday. She has a huge family. I have a feeling that most Paraguayan families have big families and maintain well the relationships with their relatives. This makes for big celebrations since so many people get together for family events. After eating a ton, I watched the Paraguay versus Brazil game with all the relatives and, also, my four friends and fellow trainees came over to watch the game as well so there were more than 20 people in front of this small television with so much excitement and nervousness during the entire game since it was hard fought by both teams. The game went to penalty kicks as the game ended in a 0-0 tie after two overtimes.
Not to take anything away from my host mom's birthday, but this day will be remembered as the day when Paraguay beat Brazil in penalties 3-0. Brazil shot miserably, and Paraguay won! Well fought by Paraguay, although I believe that they only lasted because their goalkeeper, Villar, played amazingly, stopping shots that one would think would be definite goals...And so Paraguay goes on to play Wednesday against the winner of the later game, Venezuala. All of Paraguay will be watching. Well those that have access to a television that is! I suppose it was important to make that distinction... As I'm now tired of writing, I will leave you all with the news that I will find out my site on Wednesday. I'm excited, nervous...all of those types of emotions...But I'm calm and ready. We will be then traveling to visit our respective sites from this Coming Saturday until the following Wednesday. I'll update you all as soon as I can once I find out!
Peace and Que Paraguay gane la Copa America!
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