Fishing with the Locals

After finishing my first full week of training I must say that Peace Corps has a lot of rules.  When we aren’t learning about rules we are in 4-hour language classes for Guarani (we can take Spanish classes after we reach intermediate levels of Guarani).  After 20 plus hours of a new language and spending everyday speaking Spanish to a family I just met I will say this week has me exhausted.  I love Paraguay and I am having an amazing time so far but the language is frustrating.  You try and communicate something with your family three times in Spanish and then you try that last time in English on the hopes that they somehow learned another language over night (unfortunately for me they have not). 

Luckily there are about 16 other American volunteers in the exact same situation.  We have been exploring the local land going on hikes and runs.   The locals seem to think it is bizarre that we want to go running.  Since my meals have pretty much been fried bread I think I might need to continue running. Seriously the food is delicious but this is pretty much what I eat: Breakfast is bread and a drink that is 2/3 milk (straight from the cow and heated up) 1/3 instant coffee. Lunch is generally 5 empanadas and 4 pieces of bread (I usually give away about half of it) and for dinner we have bread, meat, and rice.  The reason the food is so good (although bland) is most likely because it is the freshest food ever.  We also always have a constant supply of mandioka (probably spelled wrong).  This is actually a plant root that is kind of like potato and they love it.  I am surprised they haven’t tried to fry it, they fry everything even hard-boiled eggs.

So today (Sunday) I went on a hike with Emily, Brian, and Elijah (who they call Elias since they cannot say his name down here).  We ended up going with about 7 kids who wanted to go fishing.  Although we planned on going on a longer hike the lake was only about 20 minutes away.  We climbed a brick fence and walked along the edge until we came to a lake next to some stables.  Apparently we were at the former Vice President of Paraguay’s house.  Brian and one of the boys went to go see if we could fish and they said it was fine so off we went.  The poles consisted of a piece of bamboo, two yards of string, and a hook.  We used worms for bait.  After about 3 hours the kids had about 20 fish, probably 10 were actually keepers.  These kids insisted on keeping everything so they ended up bringing 2-inch fish home to their parents.  Emily caught a baby fish and Elijah caught a decent size fish.   The problem with the bamboo stick method is that when you get little nibbles on the worm you can’t set the hook because the fish are too small so you sort of just wait.  Then if you get a real bite you jerk the rod back, essentially flinging the fish behind you.  Elijah was casually holding the rod in his hand when he got a big bite that pulled the rod into the water.  Elijah, not wanting to lose a local kids rod, jumped in the lake after the rod.  The rest of us looked over to see Elijah victoriously climbing out of the lake, fish still on the rod.  It was a very fun day.

I am also attaching pictures; since I am writing this blog in my room without Internet I don’t really know what ones I will attach.  I just wanted to save money by not having to type blog posts at the Internet cafes.