One Month?!

As of Wednesday I have been in Paraguay for exactly a month. Loco. The days have been long but the weeks have definitely flown by. 26 months left? Weird. Anyway, I thankfully have completed another full week of training bliss. Let me fill you in on the highlights

Saturday

Saturday was the big classic soccer game between Cerro and Olympia (which apparently happens like once a month-what good capitalists these Paraguayans are) and I, naturally, was rooting for Cerro. It was an action packed game, everyone was shouting and cheering and arguing every call and every time someone scored fireworks went off all over the neighborhood (fireworks that I later found out were actually guns people were shooting into the ground in their backyards, yikes?) so you could most definitely tell where your neighborhood allegiances lay. I watched the first half of the game with Ellie and her sisters and her sister’s friends at this reallllllly nice house a couple blocks away and then the second half with Ian and his host brother Alberto, my favorite neighbor of all time. So, I got the full range of futbol fanaticism here in Paraguay for sure.

Sunday

Sunday was for sleeping, a failed attempt at a run because Deide and Ariel decided they HAD to come with me even though they could only run three blocks at a time, and some more sleeping/reading/in my bed activities. Nothing loco.

Monday

Today we really got into the nitty gritty of Guarani in language class. No bueno. The basic grammar is pretty simple but the other stuff is a little more involved and I’m way out of my academic mode so studying is going to be rough. In the afternoon I went on my second school visit with Profesora Carmen, fourth grade teacher at Defensores del Chaco, Basic School #261. After being warned by our trainers of the huge differences between Paraguayan and American schools I was preparing for chaos but was pleasantly surprised to find that Carmen had a pretty strong hold on her classroom management skills for the most part. She was very nice and interested in talking with me about things and even chatted with me about her upcoming diet plans. The kids slowly warmed up to me and by the end of the day were swarmed around my desk asking my name and where I was from and if there are schools “alla” (there) which is how most Paraguayans refer to the US, in this very never never land kind of way which cracks me up sometimes. One of the boys didn’t believe I spoke English and another one of them was very curious as to whether I had children “alla” or not. Thanks fourth grader. I need to start up a “Kids Say the Darndest Things-Paraguayan Edition” I think. Also, I think I’m getting tan because one kid asked if I had Brazilian cousins and here they think all Brazilians are black. Or maybe he was calling me ugly because they don’t think Brazilians are pretty here. Oh well. Interestingly, in my class of 24 there were only seven girls, including a set of twins. They all sat in a row all the way over to the side and didn’t do much in the way of participation so I think I see where I am going to begin when we can start doing some activities with the kids. Friday we are going back to do a diagnostic reading test on our classes.

I’ve started up my yoga-ing finally. And by that I mean I put my yoga mat down in my room and stretch and listen to calming music but oh well, it’s the best I can do until the humidity drops below 85%. Anyone know of any sweet pod casts or something like that I can download for yoga? I’ve also been reading like a mad woman so you literary amigos of mine start sending me some suggestions!

We found out where we’re going in a couple weeks for our “Long Field Practice” this week-very exciting. I’m going with my language class to a community called Villa Oliva and I don’t know too much about it except it said on our schedule that we have a chance to go fishing. So, I’m pumped.

Friday

Friday was our third practice day in the classroom and we got to start getting our hands dirty a little bit. I did the clothing relay with the kids which was hilarious and then did the diagnostic reading test which was depressing to say the least but at least now I know where to start for my model lesson. There was such a huge range that I think I’m going to stick to something outside the literacy realm. My teacher showed me pictures of her new nephew told me about her family. Her husband studied English in Georgia, and worked for Peace Corps here for a short time so that’s cool and gives me a little more confidence that she actually understands what I am there to do because Ellie’s teacher still thinks she is there to play games I’m pretty sure so that’s encouraging. NOT. I have to do a model lesson next week. Yikes. However, I did get some more practice in front of the class because my teacher made me stand up and explain how all black people don’t come from Brazil and that there are black people in America and a lot of other places too. So I felt pretty good about that and I was feeling all teachable momenty and then my teacher told the kids that all black people used to be slaves. Clearly, this is going to be a process. The kids are adorable though and they are much less shy this time too but they totally chisme about me in Guarani when they don’t want me to understand. Not cool.

Saturday

Saturday we all dragged our sorry asses to the big centro for a Paraguayan history lesson by this Paraguayan lawyer/professor who spoke better English than I do. It was really interesting and got pretty political at a certain point which is always fun too. We talked a lot about human rights things and the psychology of Paraguayans in regards to progress and free thought which is actually really fascinating to think about and really has so much to do with us being successful in our jobs. It also made me really love my freedom of speech/thought/assembly. For all its faults, America got that one right for sure. Although Paraguayans have all those things now, under the various dictators they had, especially Stroessner, they didn’t and it’s very apparent to see that psychologically and sociologically they have not recovered from that type of oppression yet.

After some intenseness we all naturally needed ice cream so we all bummed around Guarambare and caught up with the Health kids. I got some really awesome fabric for sooooo cheap and my host mom is going to take me to a lady who makes clothes tomorrow to get measured so that’s exciting.

After some good old fashioned skype-ing in the cyber I hustled home and rounded up my brother and a couple other kids to come play rugby. We went to the other side of town with Carly and her nephew and there was a gaggle of little kids waiting to play so we did a couple water balloon games and I made up a very basic version of rugby which translated to mas o menos kill the man with the ball. They were surprisingly good and you could for sure see the kids who were athletic taking off with it. I couldn’t get any of them to admit it was more fun than soccer though, just wait until they find out they can throw people in the air-adios futbol.

Today I plan to sit in my bed and try to stop wishing I could go get a bacon egg and cheese because well, they don’t exist here which I find totally bizarre but asi es la vida. I finally received and got to send some letters this week so all y’all start looking out sometime around St Patrick’s Day for them hopefully. Also, I finally figured out where the post office is in town so I won’t have to wait for the post ladies to come to me to mail things now although it is ridiculously expensive to send letters so emails and blogs are going to have to suffice for the most part.

Lovin and missin you all!

Jaim.