a new adventure

Things are pretty good here in Paraguay. The people are friendly, for the most part there is electricy and running water, they sell cold beer, the water is pretty drinkable, their shoes are all clean; i always know mine arn´t when all i notice is people who look at me are looking down at my feet, not sure how their shoes are so clean being as the roads are all red dirt and right now red mud. Also its nice when first meeting someone they tell you exactly how they feel about you, so there is no beating around the bush. I have a few examples... Ahh que linda, thats one i don´t mind hearing. Ahhh ella is muy alta, they will say that to a person sitting next to them, then continue to ask me if i do karate because all tall people should know karate. Also one i´ve gotten is how fat i am. then they giggle. Another is they will tell their friend how much more ipora i am than the person introducing me. very blunt. the african american volunteers get - hey you´re black. duh! nice stating the obvious. love it! All in good faith though.

when visiting the peace corp volunteer over the weekend i was in the campo, or the country. there definatly wern´t many people living out there. she had a split house one area was the kictchen then to get to the bedroom-bath you had to walk outside to the other building. it was pretty sweet all in all except the no running water. we had to get water from the vecions house. i still boiled it, but she drank it with no issues. The bucket baths reminded me of kenya!! So she was really excited to have a visitor so we ate and cooked like kings. twice baked patatos, french toast, home made tomato bisque soup with grilled cheese, egg fritata with a curry potato crust, pasta, and a sweet honey bread. we worked in her hureta. we re built all the raised beds and pulled all the weeds, then planted the vegies and herbs. of course all of the chickens tried to get in the fence and scratch all the new dirt.

we went to a community charla that was held for health education. how to brush teeth, wash hands, etc. after the meeting was over there was a meeting for her comite de madres. the womenes group she helped form. there are many problems but i dont really want to get into them. basicall when she leaves in 6 months they won´t function any more.

we also went on a hike down to the little river, got muddy and relaxed in the shade. the temperature was perfect!!! we drank some extreme mate dule also. they were boiled coffee to add to the yerba but probably added 2 1/2 cups of sugar and more to the yerba. i had a sugar high for awhile. all in all it was cool to see how a volunteer lives and to also see the things that wont work. i am excited to ¨nest¨ and make a home my own, have control in cooking and my schedule again.

when i returned from my trip my family was really excited to hear all about it, being that my host grandma is from the town really close to where i went. we talked, i washed my clothes in the sweet washing machine my mom has, then it was lunch. and guess who ramon and tita invited over for lunch ?? david, my buddy. he acted surprised to see me then all he wanted to talk about was WalMart because he went to on in Argentina.

today was good we learned the effects of drinking alcohol and how to tell if you´re addicted. felt like i was in high school again. well i am off to grab a beer with the gang.

ciao