Jumping Through June

Time has certainly been flying by. June arrived out of nowhere and is already halfway done. From the 5^th to the 7^th I had my last AFS weekend camp which was hosted here in Ciudad del Este. At first I was a little bummed that we wouldn’t get to travel anywhere, but not having to do two 5-hour bus rides was quite nice. It was nice to see all the other exchange students, not only those who arrived with me in August, but also those from the 6-month program that arrived in February. The AFS volunteers couldn’t believe how much we all had been “Paraguay-zed” and it’s true that a lot of our mannerisms, habits, and attitudes have changed. Unlike our other camps, they fit in a little sightseeing this time. We visited the Itaipu hydro-electric dam and Saltos de Monday (fairly large waterfall, although it’s nothing in comparison to Iguazu). Seeing how I’ve spent nearly all year living next door to them, I had already been to both places, but it gave the other kids a chance to go to the “must-sees” of Paraguay. The whole reason behind the camp was to help prepare us to return to our native countries and begin the re-adaptation process. The result was that it ended up kind of being a downer of a weekend, but I think it was something a lot of people needed.

Last Friday was a national holiday on account of it being the anniversary of the peace in the Chaco. The sun was shining brightly that day which meant that our postponed parade would finally take place and I could show off my amazing baton-twirling skills. However, since my school is currently testing, they decided to not take part in the parade. I decided to go check out the parade anyways and enjoyed watching all the other schools. It seemed like I ran into everyone I know, which reminded me of back home in Sitka when Swan Lake freezes over or the 4^th of July parade when the entire town is in attendance.

Kate spent the night at my house that night and we had fun watching the relatively new Kiera Knightley movie “The Duchess” and sipping homemade tea. Saturday morning I headed into town to help my classmates set up for our big retro party fundraiser. Luckily there wasn’t that much set-up (no horrific prom planning flashbacks) because they had hired a decorator. I headed home late afternoon to take a nap and get all dressed up for the party. I wasn’t entirely sure what my job was going to be during the party and to my surprise I was designated “waitress”. Although I feel that my Spanish has gotten pretty good, I was a little nervous to take orders and not mess everything up. However, everyone was really understanding as soon as I mentioned I was an exchange student (which never takes much convincing due to the blonde hair, hazel eyes and unavoidable American accent). After taking quite a few orders I snuck in a little time on the dance floor with my host mom. She was pretty darn adorable shaking her booty to The Beatles. Around 2:30 AM we decided to call it quits and headed home. I truly had a great time hanging with my mom, which made me a little sad to think that I’m leaving shortly.

So as a disclaimer, the flight attendant like costume I'm wearing is not actually my baton outfit, it's Kate's (we decided I had to try it on)...but I thought I'd put it up as an example of how some of the other schools were dressed.

4 Day Weekend and a Helicopter Ride

It turned out that this weekend was 4 days long and jammed pack of things to do. Thursday, May 14th, was Paraguayan Independence Day and as part of the celebration, my school was going to take part in the parade. For several weeks I have been practicing everyday at school as a batoner (batonist?...I'm not sure). The past week we upped it to 2-a-day practices, marching through the streets around the school breaking in our high heeled leather boots. Oh no, they do not joke around with their batoning! Wednesday afternoon I arrived home, completely exhausted from practicing in the sun all afternoon and lied down to take a nap. I awoke at 7 AM the next morning to pouring down rain. While I was fully rested, the downpour meant that the parade would have to be postponed. Paraguayans don't do rain! So instead of spending the morning waiting around in lines for the parade to start, I snuggled up with a warm cup of coffee and the 7th and final Harry Potter book.
Friday was Paraguayan's Mother's Day and as such there was no school. I woke up relatively early and gave my host mom her present (a photo album filled with pictures of the two of us from throughout the year). I must say it is fairly difficult to buy a Mother's Day present when you have no Dad to take you shopping, although I managed (had classmates make the purchases for me). She seemed to like the gift as she took it with her out to the farm to show off to everyone. On the way we stopped and picked up a "Feliz Dia Mama" cake for my grandmother. As part of the celebration we had a big lunch (although I must admit I can't ever remember a time we ate "lightly" out on the farm). Mid-afternoon my mom, Aunt Mauchi, and I made a pit-stop at the house to pick up my passport and headed off to Argentina. However, as we got near downtown, we realized there was a huge line to get through the border and decided to turn around. I was a little bummed, but 2 hours waiting through traffic just to get there didn't sound like too much fun either.
Saturday was my grandfather's birthday and with yet another cake in hand, we headed to the farm. After a big barbecue and more cake consumption, my mom and I set off to check out the "Exposition" going on in Santa Rita, a town about an hour away from our house. The Expo was filled with every kind of booth you could imagine. There was tractor equipment and farm animals, not to mention car dealerships and radio stations. The kids section resembled fair grounds, complete with a ferris wheel and rodeo. We moseyed about until a concert began at 8ish and listened for an hour or so until we finally gave into the fact that we were freezing our butts off. As soon as we got home, both of us crawled up under the covers and called it a night.
Sundays we usually go out to the farm, but seeing how the two previous days had been spent there, we opted against it. Instead, midmorning we bundled up and headed to Brazil to check out the "Parque de las Aves" which is more or less a botanical gardens and bird sanctuary. We were able to get surprisingly close to some toucans which was fun. After walking through the park, we walked across the street where my mom signed me up for a helicopter tour of the Iguazu Falls. It was incredible!!! First of all, it was my first time in a helicopter and secondly, the Falls are breathtakingly beautiful. It truly was a once in a life time experience and I enjoyed every second of it, even the few seconds when my stomach was knotted up and jumping about. The experience left me with a high the rest of the afternoon (there may still be a trace of it now) as we lunched at an all you can eat seafood restaurant and returned home to admire all our pictures. I still can't believe that only a matter of hours ago I was soaring above some of the largest waterfalls in the world. I think I can fairly say that I took advantage of our 4 day break and truly enjoyed it.

Cara Comes to Visit

It's hard to believe that May has already arrived. While my subconscious is preparing for summer vacation, the reality is that the days are getting shorter and colder and schooldays continue. I realize it's a little strange to mention "cold" living in a tropical climate, but when neither my house nor school has any type of indoor heating, it can get a little nippy. I doubt that Paraguayan winter days will shrink up to the length of Alaskan ones, but by 6 o'clock it is already dark now.
Two weeks ago fellow USA AFSer Cara came to Ciudad del Este to visit Kate and I. We had a great time talking until the wee hours of the morning, discussing all of our Paraguayan observations. Unfortunately, in the midst of all of our cultural analysis, Cara came to a tough conclusion. After a rough first and unstable second family experience, she decided the best thing for her to do was to go back home to the States. It was admittedly quite hard to take in and even more difficult to explain to our Paraguayan friends and family. After a few calls to AFS to organize homebound flights, her return was pretty much set in stone. While Cara was following a gut feeling by going home, it was also hard to think that everything she had been planning on doing in her last 2 months wasn't possible anymore. Kate and I decided that we had to do what we could to help her make the best of her last week. So the following day, the three of us crazy American girls set off in the pouring rain to see the Iguazu Falls in Brazil. Having already been there and back again by bus, I was confident we could make our way through the Portuguese speaking world.
It was great fun playing the English-speaking, photo-taking, blatantly American tourists for an afternoon. Due to Cara's unabashedly outgoing nature we made quite a few international friends including: 2 couples from France, 3 people from Switzerland, a Bulgarian living in New York, 4 Canadian 21 year old boys backpacking there way through South America, and who could forget the salesman intent on offering the full-boat tour who explained how his name derived from a tribe of people who crossed over from Russia to Alaska who became the original Alaska Natives. You gotta love how hard people work to make connections with foreigners! On the way back to Kate's house we stopped by "El Centro" and Cara picked up some last minute gifts (aka bought out the entire store!).
Shortly afterwards, Kate and Cara set off to Asunción to make Cara's final return arrangements with AFS. Since then, Cara has returned to Pedro Juan Caballero (her host town) to pack up her things and is now waiting in Asunción until her flight leaves on Tuesday. It's sad to think that another one of our original USA group is gone. Since our orientation in Miami, I think we all have had a picture in our heads of going back together and getting the most out of the 10 hour international flight. I have been incredibly lucky to have ended up with a family situation that I love and been saved the grief of changing schools/friends/family. I'm thrilled to be able to say that I have lots of really good Paraguayan friends, but not all exchange students can say that. For those who have had to endure a lot of change, fellow exchange student friendships have really come in handy. For me, no matter how I look at it, there are a ton of people from my year that I'm going to miss, whether they be Paraguayan, American, or German.

Good News

I'm thrilled to be able to write that Kate´s brother Ben is doing better. He´s still in the ICU, but the antibiotics seem to be doing their job and Ben´s now breathing on his own. Thanks for all of your prayers and good thoughts! I´ll continue to update you as he continues his recovery.

Prayer Request

Today I found out that one of my best friends down here in Paraguay, Kate a fellow U.S. exchange student, got some tough news. Last weekend her 17 year old younger brother, Ben, back in the states got diagnosed with a rare bacterial infection that has caused damage to his liver and the muscle tissue in his chest. He is now taking antibiotics that seem to be fighting the bacteria, but is in the ICU with a breathing tube and has had to undergo surgeries to drain liquid from his lungs. The sickness has come out of nowhere and is truly a shock to everyone. I would ask that you would all have Ben in your prayers and I will continue to post updates on the situation. One of the worst fears of a foreign exchange student is that a family member back home gets sick. Thank you for all of your help!

Semana Santa - Holy Week

Last Sunday was a rather exciting one. My host mom got back from Taiwan! Being that she is the first in her family to have ever traveled by plane, it was quite an event. My grandparents live with two of their four daughters 16 kilometers from us on their farm. The security on their land isn’t that tight, so at least one of them always has to stay behind to take care of the farm when everyone else leaves. They decided my Aunt Vicki would keep guard while both grandparents and Tia Lida came to our house to surprise my mom. With 3 cars full of people (friends, family and coworkers) we headed across the border with Brazil to wait for my mom at the airport. My mom was thrilled to see her dad, who hardly ever leaves the farm. Back at the house a feast was awaiting us, which my mom took no time digging into. Turns out the Taiwanese are big fans of raw food. My mom, not so much…

We had a good time listening to my mom’s stories from abroad, but by 7 PM she was good and worn out and decided to call it a day. The next morning marked the beginning of my weeklong Spring Break (in Paraguay it is due to the Catholic observation of the Holy Week leading up to Easter). I ended up spending my first night out on the farm, which proved to be an experience. As the sun set we sat around beneath the trees drinking tereré while my aunts caught up on their favorite soaps (every Paraguayan has their preference). By 9 o’clock we were all in bed and with reason, because by 4 AM that rooster was crowing. I couldn’t believe it when I awoke to an honest to goodness rooster. Luckily I managed to drift back asleep until 6:30 when Aunt Vicki lovingly woke me up to help make the “chipa”. Chipa is very typical Paraguayan food generally eaten for breakfast that I happen to love! Ingredients include: corn flour, mandioca flour, Paraguayan cheese, eggs, butter, milk, salt, and anise (a spice). There are various “chiperias” were you can buy some pretty tasty chipa, but the Wednesday before Easter each home traditionally makes their own. I was up and ready and game for busting out some serious chipa! The process is relatively simple…put the ingredients in a large bowl and mix them until a dough is made. What made it a little more work for us was the quantity we were making (as Tia Vicki referred to it, “Tamaño Pais” or “Country Size”). We’re talking at least 4 wheels of cheese, 2 dozen eggs, and ­­­8 kilos of corn flour…enough to make 160 chipa, each a little larger than your typical biscuit. Needless to say, we’re still working on eating it all…but I don’t mind. It’s delicious!

Friday, instead of visiting the farm, my mom, Shirley (the maid that’s more like family), her son Gabi and I set off for a little road trip. Every year the town of San Ignacio is host to a large gathering of people for a candlelit walk and Easter reenactment. For years my mom has watched it on the news, always wanting to go. This year, with me here, she had an “excuse” to go so we packed up some chipa for the road and set out. We made a pit stop on the way to check out the last major ruins site I still hadn’t seen. Just like the other ruins, it was quite impressive. This particular site was significantly bigger than the others. An hour or so exploring the ruins and we were back on the road. After arriving in San Ignacio, we parked near a public park and got out to stretch our legs a bit and figure out where exactly our nighttime activity would take place. A few girls on bikes directed us towards the local church (there’s always one main one in every town, despite how many denominations there might be) and from there we followed the large masses congregating in a clearing a few blocks down. We were all pretty surprised how many people were there…and they just kept coming! Today’s newspaper listed 15,000 being in attendance. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a crowd that big before. It was evident the town had put a lot of work into the event. There were thousands of homemade candles (orange/lemon peels filled with cow fat and wicks) lighting the pathway. The main event, following the Virgin Mary brought in by procession, was full of dancers, lights and music. Being stuck in a mob of people, getting a good view of what was going on was a little tough. We did manage to prop Gabi up on our shoulders, alternating between us, so that he could catch a glimpse. By 8 o’clock we had started the drive back home and pulled in the gate at midnight. I had a good time seeing some good sights, but more than anything I loved watching Shirley the whole time. She really just had a ball. It was the first time she had ever had the chance to get out of the neighborhood and travel a little. She loved being able to show everything to her son. With her economic situation, it wouldn’t have been possible to do it on her own. The fact that I live in a family where my mom took it upon herself to invite Shirley and her son along, makes me truly grateful because there are a lot of people here that wouldn’t feel the least bit compelled to make an offer like that.

Yesterday was another day spent at the farm, eating Abuela’s delicious concoctions and hanging around in my hammock letting all the food digest while I finished off the 6^th Harry Potter; read completely in Spanish I might add…;) This morning I had my mom wake me up early to go to the morning Easter mass with her. The rest of the day I’ve been hanging around the house, eating Easter chocolate and chipa, and watching Fahrenheit 9/11 with my mom. The effect Michael Moore had on her worries me a little bit, but hopefully she won’t believe everything he says and think my country is completely hopeless.

Fresh Fruit

I simply can´t get over how wonderful it is to have fresh fruit available at such affordable prices. For an example, yesterday I stopped by the market on the way home from school and picked up the following for only 40,000 Guarani (8 US Dollars):
3 Apples
6 Plums
4 Pears
1 dozen Bananas
2 Cucumbers
7 Tomatoes
1 Head of Cauliflower
2 Red Peppers

On top of the great pricing, the fruit came ripe. It wasn´t like back home where you buy underripe fruit and then wait 2 weeks so that it becomes somewhat edible, it comes ready-to-eat right from the market. Sitka simply can´t compare....