A taste of Paraguay

Paraguay a small glimpse




So here are pictures as promised, and a quick explanation of each.


In our yard there are two giant mango trees, that provide a lot of shad from the hot Paraguayan sun.


This is the house I'm living in, the door that you see is the door to my room, which is modest but conformable, with a bed, end table, and armoire type thing.


This is on the walk to my house from the main road (the ruta)

This long straight road with no shade is the walk I do about four times a day to the Peace Corps school (CECP'i) and at the end there is a left turn and 3-4 more minutes to the school. All in all about a 10-15 minute walk from my house to school.


This may be silly but I'm not use to seeing roosters around much less living with them.
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This is the kitchen my family has, its outside and not actually attached to the house.


We've had a lot of information thrown at us recently, I'm doing ok absorbing it. A lot of language, since thats your main survival skill. My family has been teaching me Guarani, or maybe more like they are talking and a word will stand out to me so I have them repeat it bunch until I think i have a grasp on it.

Mba' eichapa - is the typical greeting its like Hola comma esters (hey how are you)

Usually it take me asking my family again the net day, for me to actually remember it, but it totally depends on the word, some of them just stick with me, and some I forget five seconds after they tell me, but thats true in spanish too, unless I'm writing it down or see it written, I seem to remember better that way.
Saturday 20/2/10- The Peace Corps hosted a small "summer camp" for the local kids. It was two hours in the morning and it was really about teaching them about their dental health. We had a health volunteer come to our Village, to conduct the camp. It was really great to see the techniques used to make it fun fr the kids, but also so that they retain somas of the knowledge. And the Peace Corps provides all sorts of aids like scripts and cutouts and ideas to make it fun. This sort of class (charla) is the kind you usually do in schools along with a project like getting fluoride into the schools.

Its really beautiful here, which makes it fun and the atmosphere is very relaxing, no one rushes anywhere, which is nice. I do miss the hustle and bustle though, I guess when thats what you grow up with, thats just what you expect, but a change of pace is always good. There is a lot of bamboo here, and its tall, like 2 stories tall, and when the wind blows hard it has an eerie creak that I'm really stating to like, and it sways really far over, but I guess since its so strong, no one worries about that.

Thats all for now, Wednesday we go into Asuncion with a partner and have to find someplace on our own and learn how the busses work, and eventually end up at the Peace Corps headquarters. I think that when we get there we find out were we're going this weekend, we get to visit a Volunteer over the weekend and see what this is really all about which I'm very excited for.

Wish me luck in Asuncion.