Poco a Poco

-So because I felt like my last post really sucked I made a serious effort to brainstorm some interesting cultural things. Here is goes:

- My family is always asking me "Do you want to shower?". I find it incredibly strange considering I’m 23 years old and am pretty good at determining when I’m ready for a shower. I know you must be thinking, "You obviously smell terrible and nobody has the heart to tell you." Despite the fact that I think I smell like roses, I’m constantly burring my head in my armpit to check on the current situation. One conclusion as to why they’re so inquisitive about my shower habits is that because it’s usually so hot throughout the year they shower like crazy…It just so happens that it’s not that hot yet. Another conclusion is that they are very particular about the order things should go in. Maybe they think I should have to shower before eating dinner. For example, I have to brush my teeth before I drink mate with my dad every morning.
- Speaking of drinking mate…I’ll take you through my typical morning real quick. I wake up at about 6 (I usually go to bed at about 9 or 10) and read for a bit. So then I get up at 6: 30 and drink mate with my dad. He lies in bed and I pull up a chair. Meanwhile, we watch the equivalent of Paraguay’s "The Today Show". The best part of this time is that as opposed to only talking about headlines, they literally put a camera on the headlines of the newspaper and color the day’s news. I sit there with my pen and dictionary and jot down words I don’t know. The whole time I’m doing this I get the feeling that my dad is thinking "when is this weird ass American going to put down that damn dictionary and start making me some breakfast".
-They love to iron their clothes here. There are very few luxuries people have here but one of them is definitely an iron. They iron every single piece of clothing they have. From their t-shirts to their socks. It’s quite astounding.
- They are incredibly indirect. If anybody needs anything from you, you’re sure to hear about it from someone besides the person that needs that thing. Therefore, they never give answers of yes or no. If you ask them a yes or no question you’re sure to beat around the bush until you get the point. For example, if someone is trying to sell you something and you don’t want to buy it you say "another day" or "later".
- The gossip around town is unreal! If I so much as blow my nose all my neighbors are sure to know about it. What makes this really weird is that when I see my neighbor later that day he’ll ask me…"So I heard you blew your nose earlier?" And then for some reason they expect you to comment on things that you’ve done as if they just asked you what the meaning of life is.
- People here don’t do anything alone or go anywhere alone. If I want to go somewhere my little brothers will ask me "do you want me to come with you?" If I was to say no they would be really thrown for a loop. So taking a walk by yourself just for the hell of it is kind of out of the question. The idea of family is the central theme of everything they do.
- They don’t really have trash cans. The only trash can in my house is the one next to the toilet. Therefore, all of their trash just goes on the floor. For example, when we are done eating bread and there are a million crumbs on the table (because there are no plates) they just wipe them on the floor until the floor is swept. Sweeping in general is a huge thing. Because they don’t have paved roads, there is always red dirt all over your feet and shoes. And they don’t take their shoes off before entering a home…so it wouldn’t be uncommon at all to sweep the floors of your house 3 times a day. In conclusion, the floor is the trash can, with all sorts of trash. Then they burn their trash in a hole in the ground behind the house.
- There is absolutely no such thing as too personal of a question. For every single thing I own there has been the question of "how much does that cost?". I have been asked many times about my sex life, why I only have one sibling, if my eyes are natural etc…all in the initial meeting. While I had a beard, someone even asked me if I was trying to look like a terrorist.
- On the public busses there are vendors that hop in and out selling everything from food, gum and bread to socks and movies. Nothing would surprise me at this point.
- People share all the drinks. For example, if sharing some after dinner dessert, aka coca cola, you would pour one glass and pass it around. At more social functions they love to combine the Coke with wine. That one took a minute to get used to but I’ve started to come around. They drink their beer with the same sharing style and sometime combine it with Coke also. It makes it very tricky to know how much you’ve drank because everyone is essentially just taking sips out of the same glass all night.
- Girls become adults at the age of 15 here; so there is huge party. After that point they are eligible to date a man of any age. The courting process if full of home visits with the family until you can escape to a "love motel" where you have to get it on by the hour. Another option is to tell someone indirectly that you’ll be leaving your window open that night. Flirting can be done through excessively long staring matches, scratching the inside of someone’s hand during a handshake, or by telling someone "say hi to that person if you see them". It’s called sending saludos. Those are just the beginning…
2 more things. Last week I visited an organic/permaculture farm where a family of 10 is almost completely self sufficient on less than an acre of land. It was the most interesting day I’ve had yet. We had this Paraguayan hippie lead us through his farm explaining how everything on the farm works for some purpose. Every output from a plant or animal is an input for something else. For example, the poop from the cows and chickens go into the compost pile with other organic products like leaves on the ground and peels from the grapefruit tree. Then the compost pile becomes the fertilizer for the crops. The crops not only feed the family but also their animals. (very basic example) They are even energy independent. They use what is called a bio-digester to produce gas. A bio-digester is a tube like thing where you put water, animal waste, and plant waste into until the right chemical reaction takes place. Then they run a hose out of it to the kitchen where they use the gas from the bio-digester to heat the food. They also sell products like homemade jam and eggs for income generation.

The other day I got back from what is called "long field practice". I went with two others in my group to visit a volunteer, Greg, for a week. We had an absolute blast. Greg lives in a town right on a lake and you have to go across a 2.5 kilometer barge to get there. Upon arriving on the other side it absolutely gorgeous. There are huge banana fields as far as the eye can see and the lake often times serves as a backdrop. The volunteer has spent a large part of his last two years setting up a radio station and working with the cooperative that’s main purpose is banana production. Because his site is very rural he mainly speaks Guarani…fluent Guarani I should add. (he also speaks fluent Spanish now too) It was absolutely amazing seeing him mash it up in this crazy sounding dialect. Very inspirational but also a bit intimidating…as one person from our group is going to be his replacement. I’ve kind of got my fingers crossed that I get his site because I requested a very rural site and I know of a few of the other future sites that aren’t quite so out there. He also did great work while he was there, so by following him I’d already know the people in his town have had a positive experience working with PC volunteer. I’ve only one more week until I find out…ridiculously exciting. Highlights of the week include; going swimming/bathing in the lake, crapping in a hole for a week, having my buddy kill a chicken and then I plucked out all the feathers (we then ate it for lunch), and just walking through incredible banana fields.
The next time I write I’ll know my site! Jajotopata.

Check out Paulette's blog for more pictures and info peacecorpsparaguay.blogspot.com

Todo Bien

Alrighty, so here goes another attempt to bring a little insight into my life here in Paraguay. I have had an awesome last 2 weeks but before I get into it I want to follow up on the story about making mate dulce. As I had mentioned, in order to get the coco I was cracking the shell with the dull side of an axe. At that point I wasn’t really questioning where the mini coconuts were coming from. There are many gigantic coconut trees in the area so clearly my little brother had gone underneath one and collected all the coconuts….or so I thought. What really happens is that while the cows are grazing they eat the coconuts. The coconuts they eat actually have two different shells, one on top of the other. Therefore, what happens is the cows eat the coconut and as it digests them it breaks the first layer down so that when they take a crap they send out coconuts with only one layer left. So that means…my brother picked out the coconuts from the piles of cow crap that are out in the field. Pretty disgusting to think about but I still would jump at the chance to drink some, even as I write this.

Since drinking coconut milk that has passed through the digestive track of a cow, I have had a few more experiences that are worthy of sharing. The first one was when my group of 6 cooperative volunteers went to visit a small town called Valenzuela. It is there that a current volunteer, Jenn, is about to finish her service. We went there for to 2 days to check out her site and see first hand what she has been up to the last 2 years. To start, Jenn did her service where her main project being a women’s group, as opposed to a cooperative. The women’s group has a very similar idea to the co-op except with a goal more centered around empowering women.

So when I got to Valenzuela I was dropped off at my host new host family (Just for this one night). They were the sweetest family ever. They have 6 little kids and my main interaction with the 4 youngest ones consisted of them staring at me for long periods of time as if I was some sort of alien. The dad is a Priest and plays guitar. Both him and his wife are taking an intensive year of night school so they can get there high school diplomas. By the end of the year they’ll have done the equivalent of their last three years of high school. Part of their ciriculum is English. Naturally, I was able to help them with that and they, like many, think it’s a modern marvel I can help them with their English homework. Then, before we went to bed that night we passed the guitar back and forth, showing each other what music is like from our respective worlds.

In the time between getting dropped off and that rock out session, we all went to Jenn’s women’s center and the cooperative in her town. The women’s center is composed of a few different rooms. The first one is little store that sells various school supplies and things like cotton blankets and placemats. Behind that is a room of computers that Jenn put together. Through a matching grants program in Paraguay she got the computers and internet. Then in the back there is a huge wooden structure that makes the blankets and placemats that are sold in their little store. Unfortunately, I don’t know the right name for it but its basic purpose is to use huge spools of cotton and convert it into cloth. There are a few petals on the bottom and by stepping on them you send the string from one side to the other. Then pull the stings together and tie off the ends. Lastly, there is a kitchen where the women are holding classes. They bring in a chef from the capital in hopes that a few of them will go on to start their own bakery. As of now, all the baked goods are brought in from a neighboring town. Therefore, there seems to be a large demand for a local bakery. As you may imagine, this would set a great example for women to be more entrepreneurial in the future.

After we left the women’s center we went to the cooperative, at which she doesn’t work because it’s an incredibly successful co-op. It was there we met with the director and she explained to use the 40 year story of the co-op and its road to success. They have done such a good and have so many members that they’re even able to provide health insurance! The co-op makes its money 2 ways. In the same way Jenn’s women’s group makes things with the cotton machine, the co-op does the same except thing on a much larger scale. Not only do they make tons of blankets and placemats, but also rugs and hammocks. They also give out loans and collect on the interest. If you want a loan you have to start off with the equivalent of $125 and if you pay that back you can continue to build your way up and up with every repayment. They have something like 6,000 members! All those members pay an upfront amount to join and then a monthly payment as well. The benefits they receive by being a member are: they have access to those loans, they can buy the products it produces at a discount, and they get a share of the profits every year. In the case of this co-op, those profits are going toward helping to pay for different form of insurance, in addition to the health insurance. To say the least, I was fascinated hearing about the success of the co-op and how it has played such a big role in improving their local economy.

When we finished with the co-op director Jenn told us about some the side projects she’s done, which often end up being a larger part of a volunteer’s service than their main project. The two that stood out to me were a project involving digital cameras and the other a diary project. Beginning with the camera project, PC Paraguay got a grant for some digital cameras and if a volunteer requests them they go with the volunteer to their site for a few weeks. In those few weeks the volunteer teaches a group of youth how to use them and some basic ideas of what kinds of pictures to take. Of course, the kids absolutely love using the cameras. It’s a fantastic project to introduce the power of art and build self esteem. It commences with an exhibit of all the kids favorite pictures. And the best of best will actually be on display at the embassy for the 4^th of July party. (Strangely enough, it’s the second biggest US embassy in the world, second only to Iraq)

The other project she did was a having the kids write a diary. She said the kids really got into it because any sort creative writing is something completely new them. From what I’ve been told, the only writing they do is direct copying off the chalk board while in school. Then at the end of the diary project they presented them at the school…meaning they read their diaries aloud. Amazing. I can’t wait to do both of those projects! I especially can’t wait because I just read The Freedom Writers Diary. It was the perfect book to keep inspired.

Well that’s pretty much it as far as my visit to Jenn’s site goes. The other cool experience I had was my 3^rd “dia de practica” or day of practice in the community. These days of pracitca are days that we spend alone networking in the community as opposed to going to language class all morning. In day one I was assigened to a part of the community and I basically just walked around getting to know the people and their situations. The idea is that at the end of the day you pick the one place you visited where you want to spend the remaining 4 days of practice. The most fascinating place that I went was a huge awesome field of lettuce, onions, carrots, and other veges…which I think I’ve mentioned in a precious blog. Well anyway, last week I was able to work in the field with them all morning harvesting lettuce. The process went a little like this: There is a sort of head of lettuce coming up from the ground and because the ground is so fertile you stick your hand into the ground and rip it out by the roots, rip the roots off, and grab a few more. Once you’ve made a nice little pile of you move on. Then all the little piles get loaded into a huge wooden box which is carried to the sink to be washed. The washing process is done in two huge cement sinks coming off the ground. The first is to sort of get the majority of dirt off and the second to get it pretty close to all the way clean. Then all the lettuce is piled together and we had to tie them into bundles for shipping. While sitting in are these little kiddy chairs, kindergarten style, we took the leaves from the coconut trees and ripped them into sting. The leaves have veins that run vertically so you can easily split them into something viable for tying the lettuce together. This went on for a few hours and being that I was bare foot and on my hand and knees all day I was nice and dirty when it was all over. Throughout the day I had been inquiring about whole process of how they get their products to market and what kinds of problems they are encountering. It was a great learning experience, and hopefully I’ll know a lot more by the time I’m done with my 5^th day with them.

I’m going to try and wrap this up here. A something I have coming up: Next week I’m going on a 5 day visit with 2 others in my group to a volunteer who is in a really rural site…meaning no running water or toilets. Because we’ve met him a few times already and realized that he’s got a ton to teach us we’re pretty excited. His service has been spent working a banana plantation and the production cooperative it’s associated with. It’s in a community that almost completely surrounded by water so you have to take a boat to get there. When the bananas get picked up for shipping to Argentina a huge truck has to come across via a barge. I’ve heard it’s absolutely gorgeous. I can’t wait. And because he leaves in a few weeks we think that his site will be one of our sites in the future. I´ve kind of got my fingers crossed.

Then the week after I get back from there we get our site placements. We’re all nervously awaiting to hear what site we’ll be spending the next 2 years of our lives.

That’s it. Until next time.

p.s. I´m gathering a list of interesting culutural stuff. That´s still to come.