January 17, 2008

back again. Iv´e got a sunburn and a headache right now so im not feeling so great (I am however feeling hot, very hot). Last night i put aloe lotion on my back and then tried to sleep - i couldnt do it. I woke up in the middle of the night literally sleeping in a pool of sweat. I got up to go to the bathroom, and when i came back the side that I´d been sleeping on felt like someone had dumped a half liter of water on the mattress. Im not joking, its that hot even with my big fan going full blast. I bought a sweet new pillow today so maybe now i can get some restful sleep instead of tossing and turning on a lumpy foam bag. I´ve written out a few entries in my analog journal about my feeling like somewhat of a cultural castaway (beware, #1 is about poop and mildly graphic) in that the cultural nuances of this place are finnaly starting to sink in. So here they are:

1. We are connected to our feces

No one really drops rose-scented packages off in the porcelin throne, but here in paraguay there´s really no denying it: we shit shit. Every trip to the pooper is a surprise of consistency, textture and color. This is owing to the fact that flushing the papél sanitario is a no-no for fear of filling up the septic hole-in-the-ground faster than neccesary. Thus, each wipe lands you face to face with the remains of yesterdays dinner or lunch which may or may not be a pleasant sight depending on your predisposition to poop and the quality of said meal. I have certainly viewed enough earthen hues to satisfy the pallate of any begining landscape painter.

Given another site w/ less developed waste desposal systems, i would likely be doing my buisness in a letrine. Letrine is a pretty broad term here in paraguay. It could be a hole in the ground with a few boards over it to a detached room resembling a modern lavatory except for the flushing bit. Typical wiping material may include TP, leaves, or the ever popular corn-cob. Remember, front to back.

2. People make funny noises

Each domesticated animal in paraguay has a different sound associated with it depending if youd like to summon to shoo the beastie:

- dogs: make a sound like you´re kissing something the size of a pea, real high pitched, if you want them to leave you along or get out of your presence. This sound is usually followed by a rock if they dont listen, so most smart dogs will scatter. No one really calls dogs to come.

- cats: Cats dont really listen that well to commands, so most people here just throw something at them to get them to move along. Most cats are called by saying "michi!" in a really high pitched voice.

- cows: put your lips together and buzz them. Now make it a really high pitched buzz. Now make it really short and repeat. This is how to tell cows that they should move or you´re going to hit them with a stick or sandal.

- Pigs: "ushie, ushie!" to shoo usually followed by a sandal.

- Chickens: "ish ish ish!" while swinging a towel at them to get them to disperse. "cheep cheep cheep" to summon.

- Ducks: "pato pato pato" really fast. Ducks dont seem to be too smart here and usually just stand there wagging their rears staring at you. Then they waddle off.

- Children: "Ush!", if they´re doing something bad. Usually only for small children.

3. The freedom to eat freely

It´s not like I wasn´t forced to consume my share of fishsticks and unidentifiable casseroles as a child. I remember hiding peas in my mouth/napkin/pockets while waiting for the opportune moment to sneak the offending legumes off to the bathroom for a quick disposal.

Here in paraguay, it´s as if ive been transported back to those childhood days of figuring out ways to dispose of unpallatatable dishes. How about a delicious plate of battered and fried pig lard, just a big plate of it sitting there slowly pulsating. Do I usually try to eat it? Yeah, but that doesnt mean that I like it.

If you thinhk about american eating habits, self-serve is a very american way to enjoy a meal. Its as if you´re saying, as someone serving to the eater, " I know you can gauge your stomach better than me, so please take whatever serving size of rice with sour cheese that you´d like." But what really gets me here is that little of the food ive eaten here has been consumed of my own free will. I mean, ok, i put the fork with the food on it in my mouth. But its the social pressure that makes eating feel compulsory. I didn´t really want to injest a medio kilo of red bean salad with mayonase sauce, or soup with cow stomach as its defining flavor. So why´d i do it? Because here in paraguay, everything is doled out before it hits the table. Large servings. Don´t like the taste? Too bad; eat up. Thus i typically swallow my pride and dig in.

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I don´t mean to sound overly negative, its just that im starting to really understand the culture a bit better so its interesting to think about it a bit. I also woke up at 4:00am to catch a bus this mornning so im feeling cranky. I´m heading off to asuncion next weekend, so ill make a more proper entry then. Suffice to say that everything is moving along in terms of getting stuff for my new house, and that ill be moving in in about a month from now. Still need to pick up a new matress, a fridge (expensive) and a new fan. And then, after the neccesities, ill need to get a blender and maybe a hammock. I do have to take siestas right? Might as well be in a hammock. Oh, I also saw a brand of paper products in the supermarket today called "snob". It was hilarious so I bought a pack of napkins. Over and out.

January 4, 2008

okay, so ive updated my mailing address to include my mail box number, so now everything is set for me to receive any and all letters/packages. I looked into sending presents back home yesterday for birthdays and christmas, and fed-ex is 50 US dollars to send any kind of box. Super pricey but it gets to the US in 3 days. The regular mail is significantly cheaper, but less reliable and takes about 20 days to a month. Not sure what im going to do yet, but next time im in asuncion ill be mailing out a slew of post cards and packages for people. Stay tuned.

In terms of money for calls, yeah i could use some. There was supposed to be a rebate check that i was going to receive in the mail from CITI for a little over $200 - dad, if you could just follow the email instructions I sent ya and give the check to mom to deposit in my account I could use that money to pay for some calls. $200 also translates to about the price of a refrigerator here, so I may need to use this money for that item, as they are quite expensive. But yes, we shal see.

The person who deals with the mail just walked by and said that I got an envelope. This is good, i hope its the mushroom book! (nope - new yorkers dated the 20th of december...still good though!)

Mom - I believe i heard your voice mail but it was incredibly garbled and i had no idea who it was. ha! Ill be doing some of the work myself, and then hiring my contact who does electrical wiring and plumbing to help me instal everything else. Ill be laying some concrete and for a new path to the bathroom. Ill also hire someone to plaster half the house so as to keep all the bugs and other nasties from burrowing through the walls. The trail is well used, its just that no one would probably have done anything about it untill it became impassible. I just got tired of getting snaged and knocked over as i tried to avoid being skewered by spines and thorns on my bike. I only learned how to crochett a candella, which is just a line of woves thread. Ill probably learn how to make more later as time goes on. How was new years in new york??

Azy! - Happy Birthday!!! You're now...23, ya? Have fun in your new connnndo. You're, like, a real adult now or like, something. hee! Call meeeeee XD.

I consumed pig head, chicken heart, and horse salami over the holidays. Just thought i'd throw that out there.

Well, im not sure when ill be able to update next as the computers near my site arnt really functioning, but hopefully ill be able to work something out somehow in some way. Happy hollidays to everyone, and PLEASE enjoy the cold weather! Ha!

January 3, 2008

Okay. Im in asuncion finnally after riding on the collectivo for about 4.5 hours. My first update after a while so ive got a lot to enter in. The internet place near my site is non functional so for now im going to be relegated to usin the computers in the larger cities. But okay, so:

Got to my site with my huge frikin backpack and walked to my contacts house through the mud for a few k, fell in the mud, and enjoyed my first taste of gettin around. It wasnt too bad, but it certainly wasn't fun with 40 lbs of gear. Im stayin in the same place that i was at for long field so i know the family and everythin is pretty chill. Ive been living in a town thats on the outskirts of the other communities that i need to be workin in so its a bit hard to travel around to the other places. For example it took me about an hour to ride my bike to one of the neighboring towns after getting lost once and riding unneccisarily up a very large hill. But im mean, im not really complaining because when other time am i going to get to be able to ride my bike around in the country all day, talk to people all day and call it work?

I've been hanging out mostly with my site contact for the first two week and his family while also visiting with another teacher in a neighboring town. Its been good, and im getting used to the fact that I have to "make friends" with people before they even want to talk about working on anything. Its really not like the states when people can have professional relationships. I mean, for example, it took me 4 visits to the same teacher talking about whatever, making fruit salad drink for christmas and learning how to crochett before she would even have a converation with me about projects she was interested in for the school. Phew.

I think my second bout of giardia has finnaly dissapated thank god, but i still dont know what the source is, so ill probably end up getting it again...yay. Having giardia makes riding a bike on bumpy trails to places that are far and away slightly unpleasant. Speaking of trails, i cleaned up the trail that i ride my bike on daily so I can actually ride on it instead of getting stuck in thorny vines and falling over into ditches. I also got eaten by mosquitos. Eaten.

I'm making plans to move into my own home in about a month and a half, so im pretty excited. Its a nice place with two rooms and a detached bathroom, but im still going to have to make a number of improvements to get the place in order such as replacing all the lights, new plaster, fans, new sink, refrigerator, stove, matress, etc... this is going to be quite a bit of cash, but its offset by the fact that im not going to have to pay any rent while im here. Or utilities. Which means my most of my paycheck (after im destitute for about 3 months) will be going toward delicious food, yay!

Christmas was very unchristmas like here. I didnt like it very much, despite my best efforts to enjoy myself. Hearing white christmas and rudolfo la rena to an 80's synth beat coupled with pouring rain and nasty humidity made me want to stick my head in the freezer (which i actually did). They don't really do presents here, but they do have lots of family visit during the week of christmas and new years. Joy for me, of course, because i get to deal with more people (drunk) asking me questions to things I wont be able to answer. Whatev.

I went to this horse dancing thing the other week which was kinda fun. My contact brought a bunch of beer, and we watched people do turns in this big field which slightly resembled a stadium. There were about 8 thousand people there, kinda a big deal. But the whole thing didnt resemble dancing very much. But there was beer so it was okay. Then there was dancing to the polka in front of this big stage. This was also "fun" and quite easy, considering that the dance pretty much consists of bouncing your weight twice onto one foot and then twice onto the other. Boing boing. At least i can say that i did it.

New years was basically a continuation of christmas with more family arriving and more bbq and beer drinking. At least there were bottle rockets and firecrackers. I was supposed to go to another sortija (horse dance) but i decided to pass, given that the other one was supposidly the best. This whole season has left me feeling kinda worn out and disconnected. Im irritated that the phone thing hasnt been working out, ive been wantin to talk with people and hope to have it work better in the future. Ive been feeling a bit worn down by all these people incesently questioning me, so im actually pretty glad i had an excuse to get into the city.

School starts around my site at the end of february so im attempting to have something in the works so i can try to be helpful with the teachers that im getting to know right now, but i guess ill see how that works out. Im okay with just meeting people and having rudimentary conversation, but id like to be active doing something else as well. Ive still not received anything in the mail in terms of packages, so hopefully they'll come sometime in the near future. Im going to go shopping today for crafty items in the market, so hopefully ill find some good stuff to send home.

Alright! So for now, that's all ive got. But ill try to think up some more stuff to add for tomorrow. Ciao!