Skin Rash

I have suffered my first ailment a skin rash similar to those i have about twice a year that spread and destroy me for a day. The normal remedy, a quick benadryl pill has not eradicated the rash as per usual but has seemingly kept it at bay. Diagnisis and severity is still pending but todays powerpoint on scabies, bed bugs and more fatal ailments has me a bit preocupado.(worried). Anyway, i also suffered my first bout of homesickness ...ever. i was just tired of the bugs, rain, humidity, itchiness, lack of ability to go places and all the other wonderful entrapments of Peace Corps. I missed chatting to all my bros and pals and even Mama So´s yelling would have been music to my ears. Fortunately it has passed. I should relate to you the story of Survivorman John (not using his real name for anonimity). John is the Peace Corps volunteer that i was assigned to visit to experience PCV life. I met John after a Chuchi bus ride like a fancy coach bus aircon and all to his site. Total travel time to his closest city center... 4 hours. The aforementioned city was a bustling and relatively modern city. from there we took the most broked, janky ghetto bus for 40 minutes in to John´s site. The bus only runs 2 days a week normally he must walk 1.5 hrs to the main road. Upon approaching Johns living accomodations you are greeted by an awesome little wood shack. it yells bear grills. Inside enough room for a mid sized bed, a 2 burner stove thing, a frige he got 2 weeks ago various contruction tools a dresser and ..... not much else. Oh there is a window. Everything John does is Bear Grills Paraguay. built his house, building a latrine, latrine was first , frige later. shower?.....bucket outside with a few bricks i placed on the ground to stand on. oh BTW his latrine,.. half built so u squat with your head able to see all outside and no door so you can accidently show your junk to everyone who walks by. However, a surprisingly pleasant experience, fresh air, a bit of rain, a comfy squat.. Compost latrine for the win! Where as others ate feasts of american volunteer made foods on their visits we ate basics in his one aluminum pot where we took turns sitting on bricks and scraping the pot atthe end of meals more for cleaning purposes than hunger. I loved the trip. John was hard core and i wanted to be at that level. There is more story about a poop hole overflowing and such but that was just funny. anyway i need to get going adios amigos and johnny i dont got tape worm but maybe bed bugs. PEACE!

2 days past valentines day

i had icecream out of our towns heladaria for valentine´s day. it was out of someones house that was mas chuchi- the spanish word for fancy in a negative connotation. Anyway, hello all, george dont send me the comp they said it will never make it to me, im fine on ur broked one. Everyone loves the story i tell about it. im making tons of friends still and i still dont got parasites although some of our group members have taken hits. my awesomest friend got a skin rash, others got stomach issues but i ddint have anything bad untill this morinng when i had just a bit of the runs but nothing bad and no pain. the food is mostly starches and meat. Stuff wed like a lot george.like pork or chicken or beef on tons of bone in rice with meat cooking sauce or tomotoish flavor. i love it. the people here also eat bread with their meals but the bread is bought and is very dry so its more like big pieces of crackers or croutons with the food. life is pretty chill and not bad at all. Im really starting to settle in and should start helping my family with chores and stuff which i dont really do. Most nights i sit in the house with the boys in the family and watch soccer. Nothing else really interesting now. Oh i went to the capital city as part of an excursion and saw their botanical gardens and zoo which was pretty cool, pumas, jaguars, monkeys, turtles having sex, all the while mosquitos ate my face but it was worth it. Alright let me know anything else anyone is curious about.

Day 8

WASSUP! im having a blast out here going to super easy school, doing the spanish thing which is so far still super easy. i live on a quasi farm and my family and the food is still awesome. No new news except that our health group is getting hella tight and we have tons of inside jokes and stuff already. I will let you all know when i get a parasite lol. i get up sometime btwn 6:30 and 7 and run and workout, have spanish class a like 6 min walk at this mini class room saying hi to all the chickens, cows and people along the way. uh nothing much more interesting... the area i live in is like think of the tall grass you see in unkept parts of peoples yards and wild stuff in cali, add tropics, add some trash on the ground, red soil and decently built houses and farm animals everywhere. Also motorcycles. its pretty fun. Oh something that sucks is when i get back from the city center it takes like 30 min to walk back to my house and the mosquitos own my body.

In paraguay day 4 or 5 or something

hello everyone i have made is safely to paraguay. im going to type as much as possible. Internet is not available except in the large town that the PC has its training center in. It is like 20 min from where we live which are communities outside of town. The homes are basic but fine with running water and electricity, still my home looks like its in the forest with tall grass and farm animals everywhere. It is similart to my living standards in South Africa but not in a city. There ae about 48 of us, 13 guys and the rest girls. Most of the people seem decently ready for this but almost every girl brought over the weight limit. I am probably one of the few that brough quite under the limit as well as the other guys. I definitely could have brought more and wish i had brough movies and other thing like photos of our family. Most pressing is the heat, for those of you who know hong kong it is worse. During the middle of the day its difficult to find motivation to do anything. The spanish is going great and im in the middle of the pack in terms of comprehension and ability to speak. All the other kids here are pretty awesome with 4 or so asians, 1 other guy and 3 girls. The groups are split by sector either edu or health. There are also 3 married couples. The family i live with is awesome and i can communicate well even though they only speak spanish.  The local language Guarani is difficult but easier than Zulu so that is good. Another really cool thing is this custom called terere which involoves having this thermos with plant spiced water which u pour into a cup and share with others. Its kinda like sharing cold dim sum tea with other people all the time except there is like lemon, mint, and other herbs in it but it tastes quite like cold chinese tea. Oh, lots of mosquitos and ill prob get parasites and these other things that dig into your foot and lay eggs.... yummy. Uh so we are stationed near this bigger city for 3 months while we learn about our jobs and the language. Oh btw i got everyone here to call me RiSo which is awesome! SO thats all for now. let me know if there are any questions.