These Days

Blog entry 10/1/11

Hey anybody who is still following this. It has been forever since I have written mostly because not having internet access on a normal basis makes it hard to keep in the habit of posting things when you can. Anyway, I a lot has happened since I last wrote. Probably the biggest thing was my vacation to Bolivia and Peru. The trip was a blast with good friends of mine. We did a salt flat tour and drove across the largest salt flat in the world which was stunning. Endless whiteness. It had an eerie fantasy realism feeling to it. There is also a train line through it which reminded me of the train in I think Spirited away, you know the one that runs impossibly through the water with nothing around it. It felt like that in real life. Check out my facebook for some awesome pictures. Then we did a jungle tour that was equally awesome. From the highland dry cold we took a 45 minute plane into the jungle. It was a complete change. Then it was a bumpy 4 hour jeep ride to the river. It was hot and humid and reminded me of troops being transported to a post in the jungle. Yes I watch too many war movies. At the river you get on a motor powered large canoe and ride about an hour to the bungalows that we stayed in for our 3 or 4 days there. All along the way there was wild life on the sides of the river. Tons of Capibarra and a smaller version of alligators. They were everywhere and only perhaps 20 feet away on the shore. The Capibarra are those giant hampster things. I think they are the largest rodent on the planet. There were also lots of birds, small monkeys and fish. Highlights included our guide who was like Tarzan in real life, the river, the animals, fishing for piranha and eating what we caught. I also ate a cockroach pretty much for fun after a friend ate a moth and shamed me because I wouldnt eat it. During our trip we took buses and stayed at popular party hostals. It was a great experience seeing fellow travelers, people on vacation, finding themselves and just drifting and traveling. Something I also really liked was doing a real mountain biking tour which was challenging and really adrenaline rushing. It ended up only being me and my friend on the tour so we set the pace and chatted up the guide. After that there was Machu Pichu of course. The 3 day hike was incredible, visiting ancient sites and getting information the entire time from our guide who was like an older and less extreme but wiser version of the Tarzan jungle guide. I carried my stuff up the mountain with me. Our group consisted of 9 tourists. Our group of 5 and 4 Irish girls. The tour brought 15 porters because pack animals are not allowed on the trail to preserve the cobbled path which is mostly original from the Incan times. You might be wondering why so many porters were needed. The trip included complete tents, a dinning tent, a cooking tent, plastic stools to sit and food that could have been from a restaurant and was better than some Paraguayan restaurant food. We had 4 course meals. I thought it a bit excessive but hey that was the deal. Something particularly fun was the opportunity to carry a porter's pack for an hour and a half. I was given the chance on the easiest part of the trail and I have so say it is truly incredible what the porters do. They each carry 30 kilos or 66 pounds up the mountain each day faster than every tourist as they must get to the camp sites to set up and be ready when the tourists arrive. George and Phillip if you are reading this you know we like physical challenges and tend not to give up. This %$^! was hard. After an hour in I found my stride and felt better but I doubt I could do it for more than 3 hours and impossible on any of the major uphill parts. Machu Pichu itself was breathtaking. The Incans ground down stones to fit perfectly to the others without cement or mortar of any type on the most important buildings. The city was large and it was astonishing to think that people created such magnificent buildings and societies so long ago. Again, there are pictures on facebook. My return to Paraguay was a different adventure, taking 3 buses of length, 16 hours, 18 hours and 26 hours approximately. We had to get off and ride a ferry once, cross borders on foot, go through border immigration, visit Lake Titicaca, eat trout from the lake and more. Once back in site I have continued my work with my women's group which I hope to have at least 10 meet monthly. So far we have had 4 or 5 meetings making soap or detergent each time but the numbers of those in attendance has shifted from as many as 10 to as little as 3 which is dissapointing since the last meeting had only 3. My problem is communicating the time of the meetings which I do now by telling the professors in the school to tell their students about the meetings. Then those kids are supposed to relay the message back to parents but I dont know if that really happens and how often. Anyway the soap is homemade bar soap made from cow fat and other ingredients. Its actually not bad at all. The detergents and other more advanced products are bought in kit form in Asuncion and brought back to site so yes... less sustainable but it works for now and I only get the kits when im already in the capital for a reason. I am having my first Fogon meeting this coming Saturday which I am hoping will draw 30 families or more. According to my census data from 50 houses, the majority need these brick stoves. I printed fliers for the meeting and posted them at the 4 local dispensas, which are houses of families that have converted a part of their home to little stores. I also plan to tell the teachers so we will see what happens. Uh in other news I am still living with my host family. I have been slowly trying to prep the House I am to live by myself in but it has been a slow process. I was trying to do it all on my Peace Corps living allowance which has been extremely difficult. I had to invest heavily to build a bathroom in the home and the home came with absolutely nothing in it but the electric infrastructure. That meant buying a bed, dresser, sink, stove, tables, chairs and anything else I wanted or needed. I have currently procured a dresser, bed, sink, table, chairs and completed most of the bathroom. The septic system still needs to be closed but cannot because im waiting for a contact to bring the bricks in at a decent price. I have hopefully procured a gas 2 burner stove and the bed needs a little work but I must pick them up from a persons house which is difficult because people dont have trucks or charge you for using them. There is a major any problem in the house of these giant black ants which dont really tend to bother inhabitants because they live in the roof and dont often eat human food but who knows. All in all I am close to moving in and cant wait. I am planning on making a little garden for myself to grow something that I cant really get around my site. So far im definitely growing cucumber, cilantro and basil. I'll buy ginger from the closest large town. Thanks George for the computer and external although I am trying to ration shows because not having a computer is better for my work and physical condition. I dont feel like my Spanish is getting any better which id a bummer but it must so im just going to trust that lol. I still dont get internet in my site and at this point probably never will. Uh what else. I guess I can lay out my normal days these days. I wake up around 8 wheras all the Paraguayans wake up at around 5:30. I'l eat my breakfast of super weak and milky coffee or cocido and bread circle thingys which I have come to love. Think crunchy, hard bread sticks in circle form. Real actually soft bread is hard to get in my site because the bread they do have here is always pretty far into the staling process. Then I will go off to the school to chat with professors or check on the garden or check on anything that needs a check up. Ill hang out at the school, play with kids or visit families until around lunch time when ill return home and eat lunch which is usual some form of meat soup that's always too oily with giant beef bones. It is pretty delicious in my perspective. It almost always comes with mandioca which is yucca. Look it up. Its boiled and really plain but does wonders to fill an empty stomach. There are always things to do about my house, cleaning, re-figuring out when people are supposed to finish it or fumigate it. Then sometimes I teach ingles to random kids who are my friends or study some Guarani. Sometimes I visit Andy in my neighboring site or Andrea two sites away. Both are within a 30 minutes bike ride. Sometimes I go into town on a really early morning bus or if I can catch a ride later to do things like print fliers, use internet, buy house things, copy keys and such. Then when the afternoon school session ends around 5 we all head to the soccer field to play which I have restarted doing because its fun and I keep trying to memorize the kids names lol. I really want to take a picture of each one and write their names under but I dont want to be weird. At 6 ish when it gets dark I head back to the host family to eat dinner whch can range from a real meal to the bread circles and coffee. And sometimes I either miss dinner or there isnt any like today for example. Then I end up hungry but meh. Oh the one fluorescent light in the room im staying in got fixed too so now I have light. I had gotten used to not having light except via flashlight and computer for a month or so so that's good news. The dirt floor a d holes in the roof are still annoying. OH and hey I never thought the quality of your bed would really matter but the bed im staying on right now has a maybe 3 inch super old grimy foam mattress over wooden planks that arent even and it sucks sleeping. For real. After dinner at around 7 sometimes I play bingo for bits of money for up to an hour and then I retreat to my room and mess around on my computer, work out, figure out my month plans and such. Im currently trying to get to sleep at earlier times to get up at Paraguayan time. That means going to sleep at like 10 or 11. We will see.