hello. so the three months that i've been in site have been quite the emotional rollercoaster. its crazy how in one day you can go from being the happy most excited preson, to very sad and wanting to go home. i feel as though i am dealing with it pretty well being as i am still here, very excited to work, and making great friends. i actually feel loved in my community.
so i moved out to calle 11 where a lot of the socios live to get to know the people out there better for a week. the family i lived with was amazing!! i mean one night we drank beer and watched pulp fiction, not even at my request. great people, really wanted to stay out there longer but, its pretty far from the ruta and its getting really really hot. therefore if i still wanted to work for the cooperative and keep the relationships i have on the ruta i'd have to ride my bike in. well i did that one day and i literally thought i was going to die! while living with that family i got a text from my current grandma who lives next door to the family i was living (am living with) with on the ruta. the text "hi liz its dolly, grandma wanted me to send you a text message to say she loves you and misses you and we are wondering when you are going to come back and visit." this was the second day i was gone out in calle 11. it felt so good to know that i am making some kind of impact to have it noticed i was gone for a few days. plus grandma rocks.
so things up in concepcion are kind of weird right now. there was a kiddnapping awhile ago, and its gotten pretty serious. there is a "terrorist" group called the EPP and they are apparently the ones who kidnapped the really rich estancia owner. well he was from the concepcion area, and so is the EPP. there have been a lot of police up here, and they are looking all around in the forest for these people. apperntly its made international news. there is a lot they arn't telling us, the people, i am pretty sure. anyways, all of us up here in concepcion were on a stand fast, which means we were allowed to leave our communities for 4 days, becuase they didn't want us traveling around where there were a lot of police in the area, so stay clear of all confrontation. that was fine, that passed and all is good. i am safe. well i think.
now that sandia season is done, and pina season doesn't start for a month its perfect time to start buliding my house!!! we had a few meetings together, cleared the space in the forest where they are going to build it, bought a few bricks, bought gas for the chain saw to cut the wood and had a meeting with the constructor. monday, bought gas. oh yeah this is after 3 months of living with families and feeling that it is time to have some space, to think, cook, and breath. tuesday, start cutting wood. i get a phone call. "stop all further construcion on your house and dont buy any more materials" i asked if i should be scared. no. apparently the situation up here is getting pretty serious, even though i feel 100% safe in my community. we have a meeting next wednesday for all the volunteers in the area. and then i'll know what is going on. if i can build the house or if i have to leave.
i really dont want to leave. i love my community, i have made some great relationships, i finally understand what is going on in the cooperative, and it would be very very difficult to start the process all over again. the one thing that keeps running through my head is the cooperative and how "development" work acutally works. so in a perfect situation, i would stay 2 years, get the people used to peace corps think of some projects, hopefully get them started. have to set up so there is an end goal to work towards. have a follow up who can start the next step, so on and so forth. well if the situation up here isn't great, and the chances of me getting a follow up arn't known, well that that sucks for the cooperative and for me, becuase i know that once i am done, thats it thats all. kinda poopy. anyways so we'll see next week.
cross your fingers and hope that....i don't know...hope for the best!!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Longest trip ever....well it felt like it
Hey ya'll. Sorry I have been so bad about writing. I feel like my daily life has become so regular that things arn't so "interesting" any more. Even though I do question daily if the things I am doing would have been considered "normal" about 5 months ago, they are completly normal now.
So Danielle, Johnathan and I decided to take the boat from Concepcion down to Asuncion on the Rio Paraguay. The boat, so I hear typically takes around 18-24 hours. Both Daniell and Johnathan have tried to take the boat in the past, but things never really worked out. For Johnathan the boat left at 3:30 am when usually it is supposed to leave around 5 am. So we all decided to go. Danielle and I left our site, she is the volunteer really really close to me, on Saturday at 5 pm. We got into Concepcion at around 6:30 pm, went to Johnathans house then grocery shopping, we needed supplies for the trip. We had sent his host parents on a mission down to the port to ask around what time the boat would be coming in. His host parents talked to some people and said that the boat wouldn't be getting in until around 11 am so we didn't need to get down to the dock really really. Which sounded weird because the boat usually leaves around 5 am. So we stayed up pretty late and didn't prep completly because we were planning on doing it in the am. Well at 5:30 Johnathan's parents get a call that the boat will be at the dock in one hour. So we rush, get stuff ready, his family goes ahead of us on their moto. While walking we get a call that the boat is there and we need to hurry they are holding the boat. So we run. It is hot. We get there...no boat. It was a different boat that his parents thought was the boat that goes to Asuncion. So we sit and waited until 11 am for the boat to get into the dock. In the meantime danielle and I took a little row boat over to the island of Chaco i ( the i sounds like e, and in guarani i means little) The boat arrived, we got on , and waited another hour for them to fix the rudder, it apparently wasn't working too great. At about 12:30 on sunday we were on our way. At 2:00 pm the boat broke down, Danielle and I swam while waiting, then we drank some Cana, the local whisky. We sat there for about an hour and a half then it was fixed and we were on our way again. Then at about 1:00 am the boat broke down again. And we sat in the same place from 1:00 am until 7:00 am. Luckely there were hamacks to sleep in, and it wasnt too hot during the night. At 7:30 am they told us the boat was broken, they wern't sure if the back up boat would be coming before or after lunch, and that if we stayed on the boat we would be getting in really late at night, monday. We were close enough to a port town that the Paraguayan navy came and picked us up on a little motor boat and dropped us off on shore in a place I think called Rosario. At 9:30 am a bus going to Asuncion showed up. We had no idea where we were or how long the bus ride would take. Well 3 hours later we got to a paved road, the bus was full and it was about 100 degrees. Then once on the paved road it was about 3 more hours to Asuncion.
All in all it was an interesting trip. The workers on the boat were great, and loved that Danielle spoke practically perfect Guarani, and we had a good time with the hamacks and cana. Maybe I'll take the boat another time, but not anytime soon, being to took pracitally two days to get here, and it usually takes 8 hrs.
Now I am in Asuncion, for about 2 days then back up to 25 de Abril. Where the Cooperative has exported more than 50,000 kilos of Sandia. Oh and about the last blog, the sandia are definatly lifted more than the number of times I wrote. All of the sandia that don't get exported are lifted at least 3 or 4 more times before sold. Good thing its delicious, I don't mind lifting it, as long as I get to eat it 8 or more times a day!!!!!!
Oh its getting really HOT!
So Danielle, Johnathan and I decided to take the boat from Concepcion down to Asuncion on the Rio Paraguay. The boat, so I hear typically takes around 18-24 hours. Both Daniell and Johnathan have tried to take the boat in the past, but things never really worked out. For Johnathan the boat left at 3:30 am when usually it is supposed to leave around 5 am. So we all decided to go. Danielle and I left our site, she is the volunteer really really close to me, on Saturday at 5 pm. We got into Concepcion at around 6:30 pm, went to Johnathans house then grocery shopping, we needed supplies for the trip. We had sent his host parents on a mission down to the port to ask around what time the boat would be coming in. His host parents talked to some people and said that the boat wouldn't be getting in until around 11 am so we didn't need to get down to the dock really really. Which sounded weird because the boat usually leaves around 5 am. So we stayed up pretty late and didn't prep completly because we were planning on doing it in the am. Well at 5:30 Johnathan's parents get a call that the boat will be at the dock in one hour. So we rush, get stuff ready, his family goes ahead of us on their moto. While walking we get a call that the boat is there and we need to hurry they are holding the boat. So we run. It is hot. We get there...no boat. It was a different boat that his parents thought was the boat that goes to Asuncion. So we sit and waited until 11 am for the boat to get into the dock. In the meantime danielle and I took a little row boat over to the island of Chaco i ( the i sounds like e, and in guarani i means little) The boat arrived, we got on , and waited another hour for them to fix the rudder, it apparently wasn't working too great. At about 12:30 on sunday we were on our way. At 2:00 pm the boat broke down, Danielle and I swam while waiting, then we drank some Cana, the local whisky. We sat there for about an hour and a half then it was fixed and we were on our way again. Then at about 1:00 am the boat broke down again. And we sat in the same place from 1:00 am until 7:00 am. Luckely there were hamacks to sleep in, and it wasnt too hot during the night. At 7:30 am they told us the boat was broken, they wern't sure if the back up boat would be coming before or after lunch, and that if we stayed on the boat we would be getting in really late at night, monday. We were close enough to a port town that the Paraguayan navy came and picked us up on a little motor boat and dropped us off on shore in a place I think called Rosario. At 9:30 am a bus going to Asuncion showed up. We had no idea where we were or how long the bus ride would take. Well 3 hours later we got to a paved road, the bus was full and it was about 100 degrees. Then once on the paved road it was about 3 more hours to Asuncion.
All in all it was an interesting trip. The workers on the boat were great, and loved that Danielle spoke practically perfect Guarani, and we had a good time with the hamacks and cana. Maybe I'll take the boat another time, but not anytime soon, being to took pracitally two days to get here, and it usually takes 8 hrs.
Now I am in Asuncion, for about 2 days then back up to 25 de Abril. Where the Cooperative has exported more than 50,000 kilos of Sandia. Oh and about the last blog, the sandia are definatly lifted more than the number of times I wrote. All of the sandia that don't get exported are lifted at least 3 or 4 more times before sold. Good thing its delicious, I don't mind lifting it, as long as I get to eat it 8 or more times a day!!!!!!
Oh its getting really HOT!
Im on a boat
Lucy, Mary , and I at the Paraguay vs. Colombia game
David and I
Jack-o-lantern out of sandi
they all thought i was nuts, taking out the fruit and cutting a face
on the boat at sunset
drinking cana with the crazy boat man and Danielle
Johnanthan and the trix
Danielle and I in our amacas
Danielle, the volunteer who lives very close to me, i'll miss her!
Saturday, October 24, 2009
SANDIA is coming out of my ears
so these pics are backwards, look at the one on the bottom first. oh and maybe read the blog that is below the pics first.
the piles after the sticker has been put on ready for the truck
cutting off the stem and washing the watermelon
passing the sandia
the cart full of sandia, i think there were 10 carts full
picking the watermelon off the vineHow Many Times is a Watermelon Lifted??
1. The watermelon is picked off the vine after 3 months of love and care then carried to a pile.
2. The watermelon is picked up out of the pile and put into a cart that is pulled by two ox.
3. The watermelon is lifted out of the cart and put into the arms of a person who then puts the watermelon in its place, for now.
4. The watermelon is picked up and put on a table to be washed.
5. The watermelon is washed picked up and handed to a person to get weighed.
6. The watermelon is put on the machine to weigh, picked up again and handed to a person to get a sticker put on with the weight and producer code.
7. The watermelon now is handed to the¨runner¨ to put in the correct weight group.
8. The watermelon sits for a bit, then is lifted to put into the truck. At this point its usually an assembly line, so therefore there are more watermelon passed quickly in the hands of many.
9. The watermelon is placed in the truck and taken to Argentina, the case of my cooperative.
10... Not really sure how many more times its lifted before its on your table, but probably at least 10 more times.
So from now on when you go to the grocery store because you have the craving for a juicy, red, delicious watermelon, think to yourself how many times your 8 kg watermelon was lifted and how much love and care was put into it. (oh and my arms and back are really sore!!)
Also...I knew that producers always got screwed on the money side of things, and that prices get jacked up in every step of the process but it is outragous at how little these amazing people are getting for every watermelon. 5 mil guarani. that is $1. In asuncion, the capital, you buy a watermelon for 20 mil guarani.
Not sure how to make it better, of if there even is a way to make it better but allf i have to say is that i really have A LOT of respect for these farmers, and have A LOT more apperciation for my food. especially watermelon.
2. The watermelon is picked up out of the pile and put into a cart that is pulled by two ox.
3. The watermelon is lifted out of the cart and put into the arms of a person who then puts the watermelon in its place, for now.
4. The watermelon is picked up and put on a table to be washed.
5. The watermelon is washed picked up and handed to a person to get weighed.
6. The watermelon is put on the machine to weigh, picked up again and handed to a person to get a sticker put on with the weight and producer code.
7. The watermelon now is handed to the¨runner¨ to put in the correct weight group.
8. The watermelon sits for a bit, then is lifted to put into the truck. At this point its usually an assembly line, so therefore there are more watermelon passed quickly in the hands of many.
9. The watermelon is placed in the truck and taken to Argentina, the case of my cooperative.
10... Not really sure how many more times its lifted before its on your table, but probably at least 10 more times.
So from now on when you go to the grocery store because you have the craving for a juicy, red, delicious watermelon, think to yourself how many times your 8 kg watermelon was lifted and how much love and care was put into it. (oh and my arms and back are really sore!!)
Also...I knew that producers always got screwed on the money side of things, and that prices get jacked up in every step of the process but it is outragous at how little these amazing people are getting for every watermelon. 5 mil guarani. that is $1. In asuncion, the capital, you buy a watermelon for 20 mil guarani.
Not sure how to make it better, of if there even is a way to make it better but allf i have to say is that i really have A LOT of respect for these farmers, and have A LOT more apperciation for my food. especially watermelon.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
I love watermelon
Watermelon- Sandia
My new host dad- Juan and his pineapple
David trying to swim, he really doesn't know how
David infront of the Rio Paraguay
Mexican Dinner- Pineapple margarita
Palacio de los Lopez
My new piggletts
Delicious Watermelon
Bath Time- Marcianna and her son
Danielle and I- The beekeeping volunteer who lives close by
Serafin and Sandra singing
My two hillarious sisters Nifa and Karen and thier baby goat
Monday, September 28, 2009
amimal noises
So there are always lots of animals running around and the families are always yelling at them to get out of the house, or the kitchen. A quick solve would be to put the chickens in a coupe and the pigs in their pen, but instead I have the pleasure of enjoying these sounds....
woosh or shhhh for chickens
nipu or neeka or the kissing sound for dogs
kuush or the sound uhh for pigs
mind you these sounds are typically produced by the women very fuerte.
ohh..and if you are trying to get the chicken out of the kitchen and make the sound for the dog..they won´t understand and will stay in the kicthen.
We had our VAC meeting, where i was able to meet all of the volunteers around me. It was fun, we stayed out at a ranch of one of the volunteer´s familiy.
Pretty sure Paraguay is the ONLY place in the world where its about 100 degrees one day and the next its about 40. this has been happening for about a month, its nuts, and i think i am going to get sick.
Not too much is new, I am going to experiement with detergent this week. My new host mom is part of a different women´s group, they are really amazing, so I am going to try and work with them also.
Oh..for my address in the blog posted about 2 back just use 25 de abril. its not necessary to use all three. i´ve already received a letter, so it works. hope all is well in the states.
love you all
woosh or shhhh for chickens
nipu or neeka or the kissing sound for dogs
kuush or the sound uhh for pigs
mind you these sounds are typically produced by the women very fuerte.
ohh..and if you are trying to get the chicken out of the kitchen and make the sound for the dog..they won´t understand and will stay in the kicthen.
We had our VAC meeting, where i was able to meet all of the volunteers around me. It was fun, we stayed out at a ranch of one of the volunteer´s familiy.
Pretty sure Paraguay is the ONLY place in the world where its about 100 degrees one day and the next its about 40. this has been happening for about a month, its nuts, and i think i am going to get sick.
Not too much is new, I am going to experiement with detergent this week. My new host mom is part of a different women´s group, they are really amazing, so I am going to try and work with them also.
Oh..for my address in the blog posted about 2 back just use 25 de abril. its not necessary to use all three. i´ve already received a letter, so it works. hope all is well in the states.
love you all
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