My Home and PUPPIES!

My Home

After weeks of yard cleaning, painting, sweeping, dusting, organizing and paying large amounts of money for furniture and repairs, I can finally sing, dance, cook, sleep and play in my own house!

SIN VERGUENZA!!
(without embarrassment)

During my first four months in my community I lived with five wonderfully different families. In some houses I shared a room with one, two or three different people, while in others I had the luxury of my own room. However, that did not mean I had privacy! Living with anyone under the age of 12 meant hours of questions about all the interesting things they could find in my bags, such as headlamps and books in English, and of course they touch everything without permission. I know this is not culture; this is just kids being curious. But now I no longer have to eat the endless amounts of meat focused meals piled on my plate, which caused me to gain about 10 pounds, I now have my food freedom and any other freedom I want inside my house! While I am excited for the experience of living on my own, I am also nervous. I have never actually lived alone, alone before. And for Paraguayans this is almost unheard of. However, because I lived with families for my first three months in Ayolas, I am not short on houses to visit to drink some terere or mate to pass the hours.

Here is a little tour of my house. I have been living here for the past three months so I have a comfortable home for the few pieces of furniture I have acquired. I am living next door to the last family I lived with in Ayolas. They own the house and are letting me stay here for the next two years until the Grandma who currently lives in Spain returns. I am paying my rent through fix ups and electric bills.

Kitchen

Thank you Mandi for the oven and Liam for the beautiful blue fridge. Before I moved in I had to pay to get the entire plumbing in the kitchen reinstalled, replace the tile floor and buy and new sink.

Living Room

This is the first time I have ever been able to paint whatever I want on my walls, so I decided to bring a little bit of nature inside with me.

Paraguayans love to look at my photos, so I decided to put my favorite ones on display both for them and for me to enjoy.

This is my kitchen table made out of an old door left in my house.



Bathroom

Every Paraguayan bathroom seems to have a bidet that doesn't work. Thankfully! So they are more commonly used for holding the toilet paper and your clothes while showering.

The showers are also very different. There are no shower curtains to divide the space. You just shower in the bathroom and squeegee the floor when you are done. I also had to pay to replace the plumbing and floor tiles in the bathroom as well.

Bedroom

My first big purchase for my house was a bed. Instead of sizes like twin, double or queen, they use the term plazas. I bought a 1 1/2 plaza bed, a few inches wider than a twin in the states. I took it one step up from my college days!

Yard


Most of my backyard is taken up by the clothes lines, but I have been able to create a small herb garden and a rotating compost pile for my food scraps.


My Puppies

Yes I said it, "PUPPIES!" And yes that does mean that I have two dogs currently living with me in Ayolas.

Introducing Che Rubia Pora (My Pretty Blonde Girl)


So after 23 years of waiting I finally have my puppy. When my first puppy was stolen in February from my host family's house, I didn't know when or where I would find a puppy. Well it just so happens that sometimes the clapping at your gate is in fact two 9 year old girls carrying a tiny puppy in a plastic grocery bag that they found abandoned in the school yard earlier that day. That is how I got my first dog.



She was absolutely covered in fleas when I got her that day and luckily I had a friend visiting that could help me bath her for the first time.


She soon started to grow, or at least her stomach did.


The only problem was that she was a tiny puppy of only a month and a half that needed more attention than I could give her as she grew. After a month she started biting/playing really aggressive because she didn't have anyone else to play with besides my feet and I had been training her wrong, who knew you aren't actually supposed to play 'tug' with puppies! So after reading a few websites I decided another dog might be the best option. And it just so happened that the very same day I confessed this idea to my friend Maggie who was visiting from the states, we found him.

Introducing Che Chico'i (My Little Boyfriend)

While visiting the local community garden that day we came across my second and my last (I promise mom) puppy. He was the runt of a litter that the employees were trying to give away before they grew up too old to learn how to live with people or died from lack of vaccinations. Of course he as well was covered in fleas, luckily Liam carried him home that day. Thanks Tio Liam!





Of course he got his flea bath as well.


This is their dog house where they sleep together every night. I am waiting until a nice spring day comes along to paint the house a bright yellow with some of the neighborhood kids.


So now I have my little family in Ayolas. That is not to say that I have the world's best dogs. Rubia is still completely jealous if I give any attention to Chico'i and Chico'i is still working on the potty training issues. But they got each other for warmth during the nights and playmates during the day. And I now have two extra very hungry mouths to feed!

World Cup

June and July were filled with the colors of red, white and blue, and the chants of 'Albirroja' across Paraguay as the national team competed in the World Cup in South Africa. And I chanted and cheer right alongside my Paraguayan friends throughout the experience. I had the opportunity to not only watch or listen to each of Paraguays games, I also had the opportunity to celebrate across the country.



In the weeks leading up to the World Cup, advertisements and songs for the games dominated the TV and radio in Paraguay. Some of the songs got so popular that I even learned all the lyrics. The popular Latin singer Shakira sang a song called 'Waka Waka' that got stuck in my head and the heads of thousands of Paraguayans for weeks. They all knew the song so well that I got my 5th grade garden class to sing the whole thing for me one day. Here's a little video for your enjoyment.



Game 1: Paraguay v. Italy
1:1
The first match was against Italy, the World Cup Champion Team of 2006. I was traveling back from visiting Uruguay for the week the afternoon of the game. Unfortunately, my flight was slightly delayed that day and I arrived in Asuncion at 12:30pm and the game started at 1:30pm. So most of the city was already shut down for the afternoon, that also meant the buses stopped running. So with about 20 other Paraguayans I listened to a small radio at a bus stop in front of the airport terminal for the nearly 3 hours. It was assumed that Paraguay would lose this first match to Italy, but we held in there to end with a tie at 1:1.

Game 2: Paraguay v. Slovakia
2:0
Luckily I was able to watch the second game Paraguay. My site mate Liam set up his projector at the local firehouse where he lives to enjoy the game on the big screen with the firemen. The only unfortunate side of this game was the 7am start time. I drank lots of mate to help me wakeup. Paraguay played a great game and ended up beating Slovakia 2:0. To celebrate the win, the firemen blared their sirens and took a victory lap around town as we sat on top of the trucks waving to all the people who had also stepped outside to celebrate.


The 'Big Screen'

National anthem

Let the celebration begin!

Riding around town on the back of a firetruck=great Peace Corps memory

Game 3: Paraguay v. New Zealand
0:0
I also watched this game at the local fire station on the 'big screen'. In order for Paraguay to qualify for the round of 16, they needed to at least tie with New Zealand. New Zealand tried their hardest to score, but it was to no avail. Paraguay pulled out a tie at 0:0, and headed on to the round of 16 as the top qualifying team from their group. Great job boys!

Game 4: Paraguay v. Japan
0:0 at the end of time
5:3 Penalty shoot-out
Round of 16. After 6 months of living in our communities, all the environmental volunteers from my group with one invited member from our communities gathered in small town two hours north of Asuncion at a agriculture high school to share experiences and knowledge between volunteers and community members. While our schedule was very full for the three day retreat, the organizers made sure there was time to enjoy the Paraguay v. Japan game. Volunteers and Paraguayans gathered together to watch our boys play a great game against Japan. After an hour and a half of regular play time and an another half an hour in extra, Paraguay and Japan took to the field for a shoot-out. You could feel that the entire country was on pins and needles, praying that their team makes it on to the quarterfinals. And after 5 beautiful penalty shoots, Paraguay wins! Here is a short celebration video I took as the 5th and final penalty shot was being made.


Game 5: Paraguay v. Spain
0:1
Quarterfinals. The day before the Saturday afternoon game, my friend Maggie from college arrives in Paraguay to visit me for three weeks. So to take advantage of the trip into Asuncion, I decide that we stay and watch the game in downtown Asuncion with a group of other volunteers. The city was beautifully decorated in red, white and blue that day, and I didn't see a single person in the city not wearing a Paraguayan jersey. While Paraguay tried their hardest to get past Spain's defense to score, the Spaniards were able to score in the last ten minutes of the game. The streets of Asuncion went silent... Paraguayans, male and female, were struck deeply by the loss. Tears were shed in the streets, plazas, and homes across Paraguay as the last few minutes of the game ticked away and then were gone. I felt Paraguayan in those moments. I cried. However, Paraguayans can find away to celebrate almost any experience. The entire country was proud to see how far their team had gone and after a half an hour or so of morning, chants were loudly sung in the streets while flags waved over head.






However, this was not the end of my World Cup experience in Paraguay. I enjoyed watching the Semifinal and Final matches in Ayolas. Spain ended up winning the 2010 World Cup, although I was rooting for the Netherlands (Go Robert!). And two weeks later, I had the opportunity to meet Paraguays most famous soccer player Roque Santa Cruz in the Asuncion airport while I was saying my goodbyes to Maggie. What a good day to have my camera!

Dia de la Tierra

Earth Day!

April 22nd

While not largely celebrated in Paraguay, Earth Day was my first attempt at organizing and presenting a large scale activity in Ayolas. While there were moments that felt completely out of hand, over a thousand students from my communities largest school were able to celebrate Earth Day and get to see their first tree/man. (I got you hooked, now you want to read the rest of the blog, don’t you!)

El Arbol Generoso
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

The week before Earth Day when I was in Asuncion for an in-service language training session, I happened upon the book The Giving Tree, but in Spanish. I instantly grabbed it off the shelf and ran towards the librarian to check it out. I have always loved the story and had looked for it in the office before, but that day was my lucky day. I have had the opportunity to perform the book before during my summers at Camp Lutherwood, so I was very excited to give it a try down here in Paraguay.

Every school session, morning and afternoon, begins with the students lining up around the school’s court yard by classrooms to sing the national anthem and hear the day’s announcements over a loud stereo system. So I decided to take the opportunity of having all 1700 students gathered in one spot to announce that today is Earth Day and to celebrate we have a short theatrical performance to present. Only with the help of my two site mates, Liam and David, was I able to narrate the story while my two best men put on an amazing silent performance of a tree and a man. Giggles filled the school yard as Liam walked out wearing his over 6 foot tall tree costume that I have made him out of some old boxes I had found in my new house. And David played the part of a young boy aging into an old wobbly walking man right before the kids eyes.


After the skit, we invited all the kids to spend there recess hours with us in and around the library celebrating Earth Day with some fund activities. And what were those activities you ask:

Gracias

Inside the library I made two large banners, one for the morning and one for the afternoon, that said Gracias for the students to color or write some of the things they were thankful for in the environment. Everything from trees, elephants, and family members were drawn all over the banners with crayons and colored pencils.



Quiz Show

Liam put together a great 20 question photo quiz show for the students to enjoy. All the questions were interesting facts we found about some of the local wildlife of Paraguay. Such as in Paraguay there exists 45 different species of murciélagos or mbopi or BATS!

Bottle Toss

David was the master behind the bottle toss game. We created labels for three different buckets that said trash can, water, and soil. The kids were then given two plastic coke bottles to try to throw into the correct location (the trash can). If the kid accidently threw the bottle into the water or soil bucket David would explain why its important to throw our trash in trash cans and not other places.



We spent three morning and three afternoon recess sessions of 30 minutes each, rotating the students through the activities. While I would like to say that everything was completely organized to handle over a thousands students, we were literally swarmed with students! Especially because we were giving out small candies to kids who answered quiz show questions correctly, tossed their bottle in the trash can bucket, or drew an item on the banner. We were overwhelmed and tired by the end of the day.


Oh, I forgot to mention that during the afternoon session we also were requested to watch over 10 kindergarten and 15 4th grade students for an hour and a half while their teachers held a “meeting”. Unfortunately a large group of teachers try to find the easiest way to do as little as possible. Such is the education system in Paraguay. Thank you teacher Liam for your impromptu geography class and leaf tracing session!




However, overall the day was exciting, busy, and memorable. I definitely plan on organizing more celebration days like this one for the students. But I will be sure to ask for even more volunteer support!