If you are interested...some fun things happening in my life!

Week of December 9-16, 2007 – rachel newby Horqueta, Paraguay

Livin on my own:
Last night was night number 1 in my new little house. I feel incredibly clever with my home made toilet paper dispenser, mosquito screens, hanging mail displays, walk chalkings and the general state of my house! It is still missing some watermelon painting – but thanks to the wickedly hot weather or monsoon rains we have been having I haven’t been able to find a time to get it finished! This is the main reasons you haven’t seen photos – which I assure you are on their way!
Life since I got back from Thanksgiving/Reconnect training has been pretty low-key and generally really really hot. Everyone says that this isn’t really summer yet. That it gets hotter – however I am not sure if I can handle the heat. I am however hoping that that doesn’t mean I have to get out of Paraguay. The 2 million guaranis air conditioners are looking mighty tempting – even though that would be my salary for 2 months! Im tempted to not eat/travel or do anything else that requires $$ so that I can sleep at night! I sort of forgot that sometimes it can be so hot you cant even sleep – you just lay there and sweat. Pleasant huh? Actually, its not terrible – at least I figured out mosquito nets!
In the last two weeks I have started to understand the extreme care and cost that houses require. Those of you who are home owners can roll your eyes at this young grasshopper who is just finding out for her self the realities of home ownership. And how much I wish I knew someone who wanted to gift me everything that comes from the hardware store! I have been to the hardware store 7+ times in the last week, they know me by name and one of the employees comes to visit me to drink terere now! I have also become excellent friends with the carpenter who is building….drumroll please………………Self Christmas present: A Ping pong table! It will arrive the week Bons and I get back from BA and Montevideo! My house will be (if it isn’t already) be a pimpin´ pad! It is going to be the place to be, have you considered coming to visit me? If not…you should!
So you can get a better idea for what my life looks like I will be posting a few pictures of ¨normal¨ stuff in my life – coming soon!

Elections

This past Sunday was the primary election for the Liberal Party (The Colorado Party elections are this coming Sunday). Candidacy works differently here than it does in the States. Instead of voting for each individual candidate (city council member, mayor, state representative) you vote for a lista (list + a number). Each list has their own ¨projectos¨ or campaign platform…which all look surprisingly (or not) similar and are ridiculously general. Maybe politics everywhere are igual? There is mad campaigning that goes on for about 2 months before the elections take place. There are banners and street signs and car stickers. Paraguayans (generally/the political ones) take a more person to person approach. They go out into the campana/campo/countryside and go house to house, spending 30-45 minutes at each house convincing them that their candidates are the ones they should be voting for. There is also a people movement campaign to get people to the polls (or poll – there is only one in the whole city district).
There were a few sketchy things that I (foreigner, with limited language capacity) could see – which I think means there were probably more things that slipped by me! There was some temporary holding of new id cards of people who would vote for the other lista. The buying of food/bbq-ing for people that are hungry to buy their vote.
This was only the primary for the local and state representatives. The presidential election will be held in April of 2008. I think being here to watch it happen will be really interesting!


Language mix-ups
Ok, so I have been Paraguay for 6.5 months. I studied Spanish in college. I lived in Spain. There are days I am a little cocky of my ablities. And then…I get put in my place! So about a month ago my host mom told me it was ¨papa´s¨ birthday. I assumed that this ment it was my host dads birthday, you know the papa at my house! This might have been a silly assumption – but I thought I was pretty reasonable! ¨Oh great,¨ I said, ¨What sort of present should I get him?¨ ¨Oh anything really, a thermos for terere, a belt or maybe some underwear.¨ Well let me tell you that buying someone underwear is something that I consider highly intimate – and requires a very strong relationship. So, underwear was out of the question. But I thought a thermos would be an appropriate gift for a dad figure in my life.

My favorite muni worker, Chuck Norris (that’s really his name) and I were drinking terere this morning. Charlie (as he is more commonly know) speaks some English, he really likes practicing and is an excellent help teaching me Guaraní. So we often speak in three languages together. Today he was telling me about something and said, ¨Yes, I am crazy.¨ And I said, ¨Yes, Charlie, I already know.¨ and he said, ¨No, I am not crazy, I am extravagant.¨ (But not really understanding the meaning of the word extravagant!)


Sapos : Frogs
Imagine a not so cool summer night, a slight breeze and florescent lights (the tube kind) in front of the houses on your street. Safety before style. Paraguay has no shortage of bugs, of all shapes, sizes and biting abilities. However, one doesn’t need to fret thanks to the bowling ball sized toad/frogs that live in Paraguay! I kid you not, my front patio is home to one of the largest toads I have ever seen in my life. He (or she) is a pretty chill little guy, if he (or she) wasn’t doing me a huge service by eating some of the infinite supply of bugs that swarm into and around my house when the fluorescents come on – I might be scared he could eat me!

Another ridiculous fact, I can make a toad fall asleep. The toads (bowling ball size, still!) can be sent to dream land by turning them on their backs and beating the ground with a steady rhythm for about 5 seconds. And their out! It is an amazing party trick, something that impresses Paraguayans and Americans alike. I bet you have never seen anyone make a frog fall asleep before. That my friends, is power!

Christmas in Paraguay:
Judging by the weather my body and mind are ready to celebrate the 4th of July – however its hard to celebrate a date like that in the middle of December. Its hot which does NOT mean Christmas for me. Christmas means cold weather, maybe snow, Christmas cookies, carols that don’t involve polka music, and presents! In Paraguay Christmas means: an all night dance party at the disco in town, it does mean Christmas lights which are called: Pica pica because all of them flash in Paraguay! It means hot weather and lots of terere. There are no candy canes or Christmas socks and people don’t give presents! It’s a little odd.
However! I am going to be making Christmas cookies with my old host family this Saturday! I am thrilled, hopefully I can track down a few sprinkles and cookie cutters…former volunteers left a few for me!

Globe Trotting:
Next weeks starts two weeks of globe trotting. My amazing life processing partner, travel buddy and accomplice in all things wild and exciting! Bonnie Ann Arendt is coming to Paraguay! We will be travelling to visit the famous Itaipu Waterfalls and Iguazu Falls on the boarder of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay! Then headed back to Asuncion to catch a flight to Buenos Aires for a long weekend and catch up on all things cosmopolitan (and hopefully find a cute suit to take to the beach!). We are meeting up with two of bons´ buddies from high school and my friend Luke who is a PCV who lives close to Horqueta. Then hoping on a boat to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay! And to Punta del Este (point of the east)
We will then return to Paraguay to spend a wonderful week in Horqueta, meeting my friends, families, co-workers, to drink Terere, to eat chipa, to learn how a tata-kua works (brick iguloo that is used to cook all things Paraguayan!) There is a boat that goes from Concepcion (the capital of the state I live in) to Asuncion (the country capital). We will hop on the boat to take Bons back to Asuncion!
The greatest part about the coming three weeks with bons will be the non-stop fun that occurs. We have an amazing ablity to have fun no matter what we are doing, who we are with or where in the world we are!
I cant wait!