Haku

Haku is the Guarani phrase meaning it is hot outside. While used for saying it is hot, it is usually saved until you have one of those days when you think you can no longer stand to be alive but you have no way of cooling off. This has been my life the past week.

For the past 7 days, I have experienced humid 100 degree weather. Most of these days were spent trying to avoid direct sunlight by dashing from tree shade to tree shade as fast as possible when I had to walk anywhere, trying to not touch anyone or have anyone touch me since sweat forms in the matter of milaseconds here, and wiping massive amounts of sweat off my body. The worst has been using my latrine. I am the only person in my training group that does not have indoor plumbing, so using the latrine during is an experience all on its own. Swatting away the flies while trying to not fall in the latrine is a very hazardous experience. Usually I try to wait until I get to the training facility where there is indoor plumbing or I try to go during the coolest periods of the day. Usually at night I just squat somewhere outside and hope no Paraguayans see the Americana peeing. Once I was almost caught byt the grandma, but it was dark out and she couldn´t see me. Atleast I hope not.

One nice cultural custom that Paraguay has is how often they allow you to shower. Since they are just as hot as we are when it is 100 degrees out, they shower anywhere from 3 to 4 times a day. I usually don´t get that luxury since I have training all day, but when I get back from class at night showering is my first activity. However, since it has been so hot all the frogs find my outdoor shower to be a nice place to hang out. I usually have to kick out anywhere from one to three frogs everytime I use the shower. Sometimes they hop back in while I am still showering, and I let them since I know how hot it must be for them as well. Unfortunately the other day I wore a pair of jeans to training all day and at night when I showered, I realized that since it was so hot all day and I had been sweating profusely the dye from my jeans had turned my legs slightly blue in color...that took a while to scrub off.

Night time has been the worst with the heat. I only have a tiny window that I can keep open during the night (if you read my previous post, dont´worry no jakare can fit through the window) and my fan is only helpful at keeping the mosquitos away from me while I sleep. It really doesn´t help cool me off. And four times this week and power has gone out for about an hour around 11 pm. Waking everyone up and sending them all outside, since the fans no longer work and everyone is dying from the heat. My neighbor Brenda and I just joke that we need to start an NGO in the US that sends air conditioners to Paraguayans so they can actually work during the heat and not have to take a four hour siesta.

The only thing that has been saving me from the heat is eating large hunks of sandia or watermelon. Watermelon season is in full swing right now and it is the most amazing piece of food when it is so hot. Luckily my host family gives my neighbor Brenda and me two huge pieces for our walk to afternoon training to help us forget how hot it is. Also a local ice cream shop or heladoria has been an amazing treat for cooling off. For only 40 cents you can get two scoops in a delicious handmade cone, my favorite flavors are banana and dulce de leche. However, it finally rained last night and this morning, but there was so much rain that it flooded the streets up to my knees in some places. Our host families thought it was so weird that we had to still go to class today. I agreed with them, but I went anyways and ended up getting a good washing of my chacos in the experience.