Well looky who we have here. It’s me! Yes I know. It’s been a long time. But I got so frustrated! I had an amazing trip to the Pantanel, the worlds largest wetland that stretches into Paraguay. I had stories to tell and pictures to share, including canoeing with giant otters and the 18 hour bus ride on a dirt road in a storm where we almost got stranded for three days in the mud….

These are things I wanted to share! But the blog would not NOT let me upload pictures! Several times. So I gave up and put more energy in my other blog, http://www.pedalandplow.wordpress.com

But I’m back. And wanted to share some more thoughts. Some of these including but not limited to:
1. I got a job in Paraguay and am staying another year! Lots of reasons for this, some make more sense than others, we’ll see how the heavens and I play them out.
2. I finished my time with my community. Two years goes by sooooo fast and soooooo slow. My two best friends are a 61 year old beauty named Na Beti and an 19 year old amazing woman named Gladys. I feel so blessed to be able to say that. I also have a complete new family, complete with aunts and uncles, and cousins little and big. So blessed to have them open their lives for me and with me. As most volunteers feel, I’m not actually sure how much I accomplished from a work/ contribution perspective. It changes day to day that feeling. But the relationships I made are real and worth it all.
3. I’m in Argentina! My work year begins in January and Mom and Fred are here with me to help take this one out with a bang. They spent five days with me and my community , mom impressing everyone with her ability to chop wood and pluck chickens. And now here we are, exploring the seven colored mountains, a moon scape nearly twelve thousand feet high and filled with statuesque cactus, and sleepy little towns where the culture blends Argentina and Bolivia with their shared culture of the Andes. Not too bad. It’s so nice to share time with my mamita- and see that our Spanishes finishes what the other one lacks! Although remove thy doubt, yes, my mother still speaks better than I do.

Ok. A wee bit of a bog for you. I’m going to see if this page now lets me put on some pictures. I’ll post it regardless.

Deciding to stay was not an easy decision, I miss a lot, but I miss all of the yous more than anything. The shining saving grace is that I will have Better access and am going to try really hard to be better at communicating this year. You do the same?

Love love!

garlic du Fred!

Hey!  i was not satisfied with my last email.  So much more I wanted to say!  I still don’t have the formatting down, some how its not quite working like I’m used to it working.

But look!  It’s garlic!  It’s growing great.  Thanks Fred!  I think its a purple one you gave me, damn, knew I should have written down a name.

My garden is going great.  Garlic, potatoes, variety of greens and brassica and a tomato experiment.

It’s cold again, but this time I’m in my house, a cat on my lap, and hot water boiling to give me mate en seguida.

My cat will not save my tomatoes from the cold, but if the weather reports serve true, it is only dropping to 2degrees C, just barely keeping me above freezing.  so we shall see.  last year, the recommendations i got including covering with tarps (the plastic that touched the plants burned and killed them with cold), using old dresses and shirts (cloth doesn’t hurt, but protects, and then it will look like a party), or burning old tires throughout the garden. ew ew ew!  no! but thanks!  a man offered me a bunch of them as a solution.  the idea being the smoke will keep the frost from settling.

documentary workshop for Paraguayan youth

My learnings of what is a documentary and how to work with video is growing with leaps and bounds.  Me and two friends put on a documentary workshop for a Paraguayan entrepreneur youth group.  It was great!  At the end of the day, two three minute videos had been filmed, edited, and shared, and they were awesome.  These skills they will then teach to their friends and others in the group, and teaching this class also helped me understand the video process, planning, potential to a whole new level.

Effigie burning anyone?  I think I included this last year also, but its one hell

nothing like burning effigies

of an image.  For our Dia de San Juan, an effigie of Judas is made, old jeans and shirts filled with straw and fireworks.  As it goes up in flames the fire works go off everywhere.    Then, a tall, tall pole is put in the ground, maybe two stories tall, oiled up, with whiskey and beer hanging from the top.  Youth of the community dress as drunk old men, climb to the top and get the booze.  The connection?  Well, I’m not quite sure either, but its a hoot to watch!

This is my good friend Yesica, the youngest member of my new women’s

home made dish soap and a piggy bank!

group, Kuna pirapirerehe, or women with money (or women with fish skins- that literal!)  It’s my first success with getting a committee to meet up regularly, and I’m teaching theory with practical info, a family financing class with the intention of helping them identify goals and making them realistic through concrete and attainable plans.  Good stuff!  Yesica is saving for a pink pair of shoes.  Below, she is showing a piggy bank we made out of old soda bottles and home made dish soap.  Making the soap can potentially save them nearly 70mil a month, or 20$, which is a big chunk of change here.  Diverting that towards savings for a larger goal is the intention!

Marta is her mom, and is one of my dearest friends.  I heart her big.  She is my age and has had a fascinating life, having lived in the capital and seen more of the world.  She and I share our hearts with each other, and it was her idea to start the class, saying- if its just me and you, lets still do it!  and we did!

This is a picture of what she does everyday.  Goes out to the woods to gather fire wood, which continually is a more and more challenging task. Then chops it.  Behind her to the right you can see her well where she pulls up water to cook, bathe and wash with.  To the left of that you can see her wash station, a table with a view!  And all of the clothes she washed.  that is what she washes by hand, EVERYDAY!  Her goal is to build a chicken coop, so she can raise chickens to sell the eggs and the chickens, which she wants to invest to buy a pig pen, to raise and sell and build and build and build.  she is awesome!  very inspiring…

A picture of me and grafiti in Asuncion.  Booyah!

street art, asuncion

precious cargo

hey there!  long time.  so i’m going to see how much i can write before my fingers fall off.  they say the polar winds are coming next week, but my shivering body thinks they’ve already hit.  eeeke!!!

thiis is me and my beer box cargo on my bike, with my friends two year old son, Sebastian.  I heart him big.

Another dia de independencia!

I like this picture.  This is one of the schools i work at, and it is another independence day event.  They read poems loving up the country, and then we eat pig.  no bad to come of it all!

Volunteers jiggy down, at the embassy, for the 4th of july

The forth of july was awesome.  Good friends, good food, great weather!  Technically it is winter here, but the weather felt like a perfect summer day anyways.  Hotdogs and hamburgers were served at the embassy, the embassador made a little speech, ,then egg tosses, tug a wars, and face painting took up the rest of the day.  As well as some foot loose dancing, obvio….

These furry creatures needed a photo of their own.  My friends!  Kenny the kitty and Volmer the dog.  I named Kenny, not Volmer. ….  Kenny, on these cold winter nights, is found under my covers and nestled in my arms.  Unfortunately she only does little spoon…   Vomer wows everyone by not

My animal pals! Keeping close per usual

jumping up on them, which i taught him… no one teaches there dogs tricks, except, get me a chicken!  Which the dogs do best, the master pointing out a chicken, then the dog going after it, grabbing it, and bringing it back to the owner, alive and kicking.  good boy!   Volmer sits (eguapy), stays (epyta), lays down (eneno) and comes (eju).  What a good pup dog!  So, even though he is their dog, he is still my something special…..

And finally, I’m finally starting our world map!  I’m really excited, it’s coming along beautifully.  My nearest neighbor, Abbie, came by to help get the blue up.  Then Susan and Mark, my most favorite PC ma and pa ever, came over to help with the tedious graph drawing and the start with the satisfying country drawing!  Below is me and susan with the guide we used and the successful outline we got up.  Long way from finishing but its off to a great start!

It’s official.  I’m cold.  off to walk home.  be well!  lots of love!

i apologize for the crappy formatting and bad spelling, but i wanted to get something up!  xx

South America, done!

Hi there!  update, i have a computer!  non update update, still don’t have internet.  so while i am able to use my computer i’m still behind on being connected.  Thank you for your patience!  i will post something juicy in the near future.

in the mean time, miss my voice??  my haunting cackle?  Now you can hear it and check out my friends awesome new podcast!  Astrid and Clint Bush together are creating a pod cast talking to returned peace corps volunteers, and made a slight exception to interview me for a during peace corps experience- when they came to visit me!!!!!

http://corpsconversations.com/episodes/6

I haven’t downloaded it yet, but it was so much fun and chat with such a dear sweet friend, one of my very oldest, adventure companion across time and in many a place.  I hope you enjoy listening to it!

be warned, more is coming.  with love, ya’ll….

Hello there.  Evidently, I came to live in Peace Corps Paraguay, I am not able to leave my house when it rains due to Crap A$$ roads, but I still really like to have my computer.

A good friend was having problems sleeping alone, so I went to spend the night with her.  There was not a cloud in the sky when I left, but shortly after getting to her house, a HUGE storm rolled through.  At 4am, I woke up with a start, not from fear of the storm, but I HADN’T PREPPED MY HOUSE! 

What does this mean?

Depending on different storms, and at various stages of the working on my house, storms are something I have to interact with, not just let roll by.  Many times, while manipulating my house, I imagine it to be like living on a ship, rolling with the waves, damn near changing the sails….

Some storms, the rain comes in so strong,  a light sprinkle of rain falls over me while I’m in bed, being blown in from the crazy wind through the cracks in my window.  During storms like this, I can’t stay in bed.  I take my dirty clothes and line my floor below the window, wringing out the water from one side to the other until finishing, then going back to begin again.  Otherwise, my entire floor floods and gets everything under my bed and the bottom layer of books on a book shelf soaked. 

Prepping for a long trip out of my house/ for possible storm:

take everything off the floor and put it on my bed

line my window with dirty laundry

unplug everything- this means eat or give away all food in fridge

cover up my worms so they don’t drown/ get eaten.

Back to my lady friend, Na Bebi.

I hadn’t prepped my house.  I left my computer charger plugged in!  But I actually had unplugged my computer from that.  So, when the storm got crazy, the electricity went in and out a couple times, and it fried my charger.

WAAAAAAAHHH!

Which means I haven’t had a computer for one month.

Which I didn’t think was going to be a big deal!  I sometimes have great internet, but very often I do not have access.  In my mind, that was mostly what I used the computer for.

No!  Wrong!  I guess I turn on the computer every morning.  When I had internet, I’d download podcasts, so I usually make breakfast listening to downloaded podcasts.  I worked on projects and wrote out articles while being off line.  I had tv shows that I was watching!  Ha, i am more caught up on american pop culture/tv shows than I have been in the last 10 years.    And i miss the brain release in English.  

Ack!  And I haven’t been able to do research for the bike ride!  And i have felt really disconnected with people in the states.

I’ve felt even more disconnected because it has been a very rainy month.  Back to above mentioned comment, when it rains, I barely leave my house.  Shoes get covered in ten pounds of mud in two seconds, so if I walk around I go barefoot, but its been too cold to go barefoot.   This means I’ve been hanging in my house a lot more.  Which gets lonely!

muddy feet

So, I’ve been without internet and been without computer.  I am now in Asuncion using this.  But my mama loves me!  and found my charger!  and is sending it to me with a volunteer who is visiting the states right now.

my mama is the bestest! 

I’ve actually had a great month with my community, starting our biodigester documentary, successfully doing three interviews in Guarani!!!  Booyah!  I was the instructor of a biodigester Training of Trainers and that was so much fun.  I’m drinking more mate and painting more because the days are short and the nights are long, and I can’t leave my house after the sun sets.  So its good!  Just wanted to vent about fried chargers and tell you I have not forgotten how to use the internet.  and…

I love you all.  Enjoy the rain.

Astrid, Mira and I in my doorway

Hello!  Hey there how’s it going….  Hope all is well for you good folk.

First of all, i love this…..

Since last you heard from me, many a marvelous thing has happened.  Two of which include my turning another year-31 here I come!  And for the best gift eva’, I had a visit from the states from my high school friend Astrid, her hoosband Clint, and their 2.5 year old daughter Mira.  Awesome.

Their visit was interesting for all kinds of reasons.  One was that I was able to get a new/ different perspective from Astrid who is a Peace Corps Alum from Togo, west Africa.  We chatted about the differences of our service and also what I’m/we got out of this time- even on those days when you do nothing but eat and hang with your neighbor,  and how it is used/ how she has found it helpful in her life afterward, finding a job, and making it work.

Plug alert: Corps Conversations

It’s brand new and just has a few interviews up, but with two a month it will multiply quickly.  In a 4 months or so, you can even find the interview that we did together while she was here.  It will be a good resource for people that are interested about joining or are trying to figure out what happens afterwards, and all in between.

Besides PC job/life stuff, it was an incredible experience to see Paraguay through the eyes of a two year old.  On the five hour bus ride down, her little face was glued to the window saying with unabating (i feel like this should be a word) glee –  “Look-there’s cows here!”  Loved it all, ran around like a vagabond, ate everything, oooed and awed over every new butterfly, bug, animal, and plant.  awesome.

It was also interesting to get a glimpse of how americans exist in community and in families with their children and how paraguayans compare.  Here, you are raised with your family, which is extended and large.  There are dozens of people often waiting to pick up any child, and children get used to being passed around from one stranger/family member to the next for its entire life.  Like Clint said, in the states, “don’t talk to strangers!” gets pounded in from a very early age, and you can see the difference.  Mind you, it probably wasn’t an easy thing to be 2 in a new country surrounded by a new langua…  I also realized that I am also a product of that culture!  I don’t just bend down and pick up any ol kid, and the kids feel that sense of hesitation from me.  I can tell.  So interesting…

Trinidad Ruins at Night

While they were here we visited one of the Jesuit ruins of Paraguay, and this one lights up and night.  so pretty!

What the heck do we have here?

Also,  they were here they harvested peanuts, which I just recently harvested for the first time as well.  What a strange little plant!  And so delicious, especially raw boiled with salt like Astrid showed me.

PY foto!

And here we have it, a classic Paraguayan photo, trying to take in the whole picture and making it so you can see very little of the people.  But notice the balloons?  Yep, hanging boobies.  No, I did not buy them with that intention.  I bought “Conejitos” or little rabbits.  Quite hilarious.

The party culminated after a long day with no electricity, the senioras finishing cooking by candle light in the kitchen.  We ate under one battery light that Don Martin had and without music, which is essential to any party.  Everything was muddy from the previous night HUGE storm which woke up Clint and Astrid when they realized their feet were wet from the drippings of an old church roof.

But it was a great day!  We hung out with a great family, Clint killed two chickens and we all helped butcher a sheep that was a birthday gift from a friend.  And spent good time with my community, even if only half could make it for fault of the mud.

I had a great birthday and fantastic two weeks with Astrid and Clint and Mira, and other stories both big and small to share, but again, the mosquitos are winning.  love love love to you all!  and goodnight….

lollypops and looming mountains!

Hello There!

Sorry, its been a while, can’t quite remember the last time i posted.  I don’t so much post when I don’t have pictures, what can I say, I’m not one to just read the articles…

Life keeps chugging along.  New adventures and fresh days with little to do. simultaneously.  Asi es.  such it is… Some of my new work related awesome is that the mayor of my town wants to fund 10 more biodigesters!  Its a slooooow process, but it will happen.  I live in just one of the outlying towns and he wants to invite the other outlying towns to participate in my training, so that biodigesters can spread like, um,  denge in a swamp!  oh!  bad joke, denge is spreading all over the place at the moment, also called the bone crusher cause, you’ll be surprised, it makes you feel like your bones are crushing.  Passed by mosquitos, and most adoring of cities.  None here yet.

Second thing!  Working on a biodigester documentary.  Yes, I really want to make a tiara for myself, I want to be biodigester queen.  but what would it look like?  A plastic bag filled with manure ring, with blue flames shooting in every direction???  Its possible… project held in parking lot….  This documentary will be in Jopara, Spanish and Guarani, and will be Paraguayans explaining to Paraguayans what in the world is a biodigester.  And answer FAQ, like, is it dangerous, does it smell, does it actually work?

Finally!  A grand triumph.  I just scaled the largest, highest, most looming mountain in Paraguay!  Picture above, pick one of the “peaks”  not 100% sure which one it is.

you doubted me. Paraguay is Kansas

This is not what one imagines when they think of South America.  Flat.  Flatter than an F to M post op.  Flatter than a Pekines’ face.  Mom, anything else?  And while it used to be a glorious land of subtropical rain forest, now almost nothing is left.  On this same thought, for Easter this year I had mborevi/ forest pig/ tapir.  I think.  One of those might be right.  My other neighbors doubt it.  I might have eaten the last one.  But it was goooooood….

So paraguay is very, very flat.

switch backs are for sissies

In the land of flatness, when one of these little bumps arise, it arises seemingly from no where.  And it goes straight up!  I was surprised how challenging the hike was.  That could also be because my recent “hike” in any kind of “woods” was flat and about 20 m wide.  Could also be attributed to the fact that this country has never had to learn how to make hiking trails, so just put a goat trail going straight up.  They did put a chord to hold on to, allowing pulling and lowering yourself up and down an option. used and appreciated if not mocked.

say goodbye piggy

Ten points if you get the reference….

And all of this to celebrate the birfday of my most favorite Peace Corps chum, Brooklyn.  For her birthday we also killed a pig!  I say we, cause she wanted to do, and definitely attempted (photo far superior if it had sound), then I attempted, and finally, her neighbor and birthday girl number two finished the deed.  Poor thing.  She was delicious.   Ate everything, was going to make blood sausage but the dog got into it, but we did make rollado, which is taking the skin, laying it out flat, spreading out ground meet and chopped veggies, roll, tie, boil, eat, also amazing.

Our friend from the top of the mountain

Huge grasshopper we found.  What I think might be even more amazing are the spiders big enough to make webs and keep a guy like this.  Watch out!

two birthday girls and three friends

And a picture of us at her party.  We had a pinata, wine and coke, some dancing.  Good times, good folk, hike the next day, good stuff all around.

My communicating to each of you individually is wretched.  Does not mean I don’t think of you.  If you would like to send me an update, the odds of me responding with a personal note increase greatly!  Maybe not a huge seller, but I smear the truth like ground meat on pig skin, oh so deliciously….

Our Peace Corps Representatives!

I’m sorry, i will write more, but i’m getting attacked by ants and the sun has gone down.  time to go home.  but i wanted to put this up re request from my tia sylvia.  enjoy!  and the above two rockstars are two volunteer friends f mine!!!!

more later

Rainbow folk

The Parade

Princesitas

The Queen in Training

Me and David

Photography camp!

Harvesting Peanuts

Hey out there, happy February.

Looks like time is sneaking up and passing us by, as always.

Counting it out, it is now February, month 2, and I finish in December, month 12.  Does that mean I have 10 months left?  I keep doing the math, and yes, it’s true.  Although I am often confused for a math super star, I am in fact not, and continue to doubt the fact that I only have

10.

Months.

Left.

It begins to sink in when discussing the festivals here.  January holds our Catholic church’s saint’s day, which is one of the only days where the whole community stops and gathers together.  Barbecue and volleyball is even more reason to gather.  These are followed by the community holding up our saint, San Arnoldo, on their shoulders, and take him for a walk.  The walk turns out to be more of a stroll than a pilgrimage as he is taken in a circle around the grass/volleyball court in front of the church, but it still gets the job done.  He is taken out and shown the world, and the community commits to their support and love of him for another year.

San Arnnie, the man the mystery

I actually wasn’t at this year’s event, I had to leave the day before for training in Asuncion, but I was at last year’s.  When people ask if I’ll be at next year’s santa ara, or saint’s day, I have to say no.  I’ll have finished my time here and I’ll be gone.  My host mom and her brother’s birthday were both on January 30^th, and at their barbeques, I was reminded the same thing.  This is my last one.  It is such a strange thought.  Life will come and go, and for most of the people here their traditions will continue on in the years to come.  For a large portion of them, they will also continue forward with their children and their grandchildren joining in to the customs, moving these forward and altering them as all generations preserve some qualities while still adapting to the changing time.  These days, holidays aren’t a success without speakers that are larger than their teen owners and brighter lights than a cop’s car, both aspects probably not present 10 years ago when electricity was still limited, but the wooden saint hasn’t changed.

Another part of my experience that is passing me by is mango season.  Good bye mango season!  I knew you well!  I have had two glorious mango seasons and will be leaving right when next year’s will just be beginning.  Oh mangos, I do love you.  We have had such good smoothies in the morning together, and how many dinners have you been the one and only shining star of?  No one knows.  Another fun part of mangos is that I now know different kinds of mangos.

Mangos are trees that surround nearly every single house in my community.  Not only are they fantastic during fruiting season, but they also have a very thick crown and offer great shade, all from a short tree.  This means they are also relatively safe to plant close to the home because they probably won’t fall on the house when one of our crazy wind storms sneaks up on them.

cower little common mango, cower….

There is though a very important difference in the variety of mango that the families have, one of two.  There is either the common mango, a small, sweet, very yellow, prolific and fibery producer, or the Brazilian mango.  Oh, the Brazilian mango.  It is anywhere from three or four times larger than the common (also means it creates a semi-dangerous walk way), also very sweet, a yellow blended with red and PURPLE!, and with no fibers.  While the common mango is really enjoyed, it leaves you feeling like a shag carpet was placed over your pearly whites, fibers sticking out from in between every tooth.    The Brazilian is all meat, deliciously so.

This year I got my act together a wee little bit, and created a solar dryer.  Just in time for the last of the season, I am drying some of them so I can eat dried mangos during the cold winter months.

(Cold?  Really?  Was that a dream or did that really happen? These 48 C degree days- or around 113 F- are still, yet again, maintaining strong, their not-being-fun quality)

Hope you are well, love to you, the old people, and the little people.

My closest neighbor, I tell people I’m its patron saint

Uruguayan coast! and you wonder why it was a week of our trip…

So much to say!  So much unable to be explained!  I am coming off of one of the best vacations of my life.  Thank you Coley!  It was a great mix of feasting and fasting, dancing and relaxing, city and beach, art and stinky icky gross ew long bus rides.

Iguazu Falls… aaaaahhh….

Right before arriving at the Garganta del Diablo, or the Devil’s throat, there is a poem on a plaque.  Loosely translated and more loosely remembered, he says that this water falls is not to be explained in words, but is meant to be looked at like a mirror looking towards God.  Agreed.  But if I was to give it a go, I’d say it was the closest thing to looking at the stars I’ve ever experienced during the day time.

Also, while reveling in its glory, notice its rich chocolate color.  Yep, thank you rainforest clear cuts.  Your fertile silt run off is not only destroying my rainforest land, but also mucking up my water falls….

fishermen in Montevideo

Montevideo was a sweet town, about the size of Seattle, but a national capital and right on the Atlantic Coast.  Mellow but beautifully lined with trees every where.

I went out to look for grand memories

First S. American sky scaper cowers behind our beauty

So few pictures of both of us!  I promise you we kept her covered in sun tan lotion the whole time and she never lobstered up, for the most part.

me after one class

What can I say?  I’m kind of something special…

Garganta del diablo meets Coleyopterous

when I die, take me here! Just throw the ashes and run!

Buenos Aires surprised me over and over.  I was expecting a great city, but it has culture on culture on culture.  And Class!  I love me a good cemetery, but this one takes the cake.  Eva Peron is buried here, but because of crazy acts of necrophilia, to jump to the juicy gossip, she is hidden under her maiden name, which we never found.  Or really looked for, as the cemetery itself is gorgeous, with some of the best sculptures to be found.

what?? Lucha Libre in BA???

oh!  and the art!  how i missed art!!!  We found a great Lucha libre exhibit in a 3-D art gallery.

All in all, we ate great food, saw some beautiful things, made great new friends, and recharged our batteries.  There is nothing like a wonderful friend to create the perfect adventure with, and plan for the next ones….

: )