Friday, May 25, 2012

Have you met Copper?


           After getting back from the wedding and spending a week at training (I don’t have the energy to write about training, it was nice to visit my first host family and see all my friends!), I made the decision to get a puppy! I knew that I wanted to get a puppy at some point during my service but I felt that I should wait until after I went home since I would be out of site for almost 2 ½ weeks.  When I was at training I found out that my neighbors (well they live about 40km away, close in Paraguay) found 4 little girl puppies that they were trying to find homes for.  I decided which of the remaining 3 that I wanted based on personality descriptions and a blurry picture. 
            On May 4th I went to town to pick up my puppy.  She is adorable!  I eventually decided to name her Copper, after the fox and the hound.  She probably weighs around 8 lbs and is not going to be a big dog.  It has been really nice having a puppy, even though I have to wake up around 4 times a night to take her out.  She currently either sleeps in either a fruit crate or at the foot of my bed.  I am aware that some people might think this is gross because she could have fleas but she gets a flea bath twice a week.  Which reminds me, Mom if you are reading this would you mind sending me some front line? 
            Copper and I recently took our first trip back into town so she could get her first vaccines.  She managed to walk almost all the way to the route (a 50 minute walk) on her leash, which was very impressive.  She handled her shot like a little champion and everyone said how pretty she is! Although creepy men in town used petting her as an excuse to try and pet me, that did not fly with me. When I was ready to head back to site with the puppy it was around noon.  I had taken the Cardoza Hnos. (bus line) back to site the first time I returned with Copper and didn’t run into any problems. This time the driver’s assistant told me that if I wanted to bring the puppy on the bus she would have to ride below with all of the luggage - keep in mind she is an 8 lb puppy.  I said some very angry choice words in English to this man (which he didn’t understand which is lucky because the next time I rode the bus I got charged half price) and sat back down on the bench to wait for the next bus.  Thankfully the next bus driver wasn’t a jerk and Copper and I were able to ride back to site.  I also found out that for her next vaccine I could go into town with her “puppy book” and buy the shot from the vet so that she no longer has to come into town with me.  This will make my life much easier.  Copper won’t be traveling back into town until she goes to get fixed in September. 
            Copper also hates the town drunk! I am sure I have talked about Celso before but since my computer crashed I can’t check my old blogs to see (prepare yourself for some repetition).  Celso is around 36 years old and spends about 4 days a week obliterated.  After 4 years of college and working at a restaurant where I have seen grown men so drunk they try to pee on video games; I have never seen anyone get as drunk as the local drunks in Paraguay.  Since booze is so cheap here Celso spends 2 of his free days sleeping and recovering and the remaining day of the week working.  A liter of 80 proof sugar cane alcohol is about $1.75.   When Celso first met Copper he kept saying how pretty she was like her owner (he loves to tell everyone how pretty I am, and how I am “the queen of Paraguay”), Copper immediately started barking.  The hair on her spine even rose, which I have never seen before.  Copper also likes to spend her free time hanging out on my porch guarding it from people.  Although it can be annoying at times (she loves to bark) I have decided that in the long run it will be a good thing having a dog that will bark her head off if someone random comes to my house at night. 
            As of right now I am extremely pleased with my decision to get a dog. A lot of times Paraguayans kill female puppies or abandon them (which is what happened to Copper) so I think it will be a good example for the people in town to see that you can have a female dog without constantly having puppies.  I have also had a lot of people ask me if they can have her when I leave.  I have been responding that I am not sure if I will leave her or take her with me yet but it is nice to know that if for some reason she can’t come with me, people will be willing to take care of her.

Mom here is my address again for that frontline:
Maggie Flinn, PCV 258 
Cuerpo de Paz 
del Chaco Boreal 162 c / Mcal. 
López 
1580 Asunción, Paraguay 
América del Sur

Some people have been asking about packages getting to me.  I have been getting things eventually and I haven´t had any issues with things getting stolen from packages.  It takes between 3 weeks and 2 months for me to get packages.  I brought back a French press from the states so I would love some coffee, peanut butter is always good, cds, books, anything to help with the coming winter.  The sun sets around 5pm and I generally don´t leave my house after dark because the only people hanging out are people I shouldn´t be hanging out with. Bring on the movie marathons and charge up the kindle!

Sydney got hitched!


After seven months in Paraguay, I was lucky enough to get to go home for a week! My sister Sydney got married on April 21st and I arrived home on April 15th.  Unfortunately, I had mandatory training for the Peace Corps that started on April 23rd.   The flight home was pretty long.  I arrived to the airport in Asuncion at 8 o’clock in the morning on Saturday and finally made it to Georgia by 10 am on Sunday. I went from Asuncion to Cuidad del Este to Sao Paulo to Miami and finally ended in Atlanta.  My Dad met me at the airport and back to the farm we went!  The week before the wedding went really well.  It was a little stressful since the wedding was at our house and everyone had to help out (I drug my feet a little bit here).  For some reason a part of me wasn’t too excited about spending my vacation from being an Agricultural extensionist in Paraguay by gardening in Georgia.
While I was home I also managed to go to Columbia, South Carolina to visit some of my friends from College.  I was extremely thankful that they took the time from Graduate School and real jobs to hang out with me for the night. My roommate from college, Devika, also managed to come to be my date for the wedding even though she had finals the following week. She was also nice enough to help my Mom out during the wedding, as did my friends Emily and Meredith. 
The wedding was absolutely beautiful.  My whole family obviously put a lot of work into it and it was a very special day.  All of the groomsmen wore bowties and converse and naturally my Dad wore jeans and a cummerbund.  I am extremely grateful that I was able to attend the wedding and that Syd and Jason were nice enough to hold off getting married until I had been in site for the appropriate amount of time (PCV’s aren’t allowed to leave site until they have been there for 3 months, which for me was March 13).  Seeing everyone was also a lot harder than I expected.  I think the reason for this is that when I am not seeing everyone it is easy to not realize how much I really miss them. 
After spending a week eating fantastic food and seeing family it was back to Paraguay for me.  I was sad to leave but ready to get back to Paraguay.  I am finally getting to a point in my service where I feel like there are projects that I can start. It was also really nice talking to everyone at the wedding and seeing that people actually read my blog.  To everyone that I talked to about the Peace Corps: thanks for caring enough to talk with me about it! I also managed to bring back a French press so I am back to drinking good coffee! If anyone wants to send me something to help get me through the winter (House without insulation) strong coffee is the way to go!  

Monday, May 7, 2012

Semana Santa


Hello everyone! You may notice that it has been awhile since I last blogged and for that I apologize.  I wish that I could say that I have been super busy in site and overwhelmed with projects but that would be a lie.  What really happened is Semana Santa (Holy Week) or Easter, then I went home for a week, then I went to a week of training and now, I am back!

Semana Santa is a big deal in Paraguay.  If I remember correctly (I am typing without internet so I cannot double check this stat, please don’t quote me on this or anything really), Paraguay is about 90% Catholic.  When I arrived in site everyone asked if I would be here for Christmas, New Years, and Semana Santa.  I think everyone in my G (group of volunteers that I swore in with) was a little curious about what all the hype was about.  The first few days of Semana Santa are like any normal week, and then Wednesday comes.  Wednesday of Semana Santa should just be called National Chipa Making Day in Paraguay.  This was my first experience making chipa from start to finish and I was lucky enough to get to do it 3 times in one week (it’s not really something you need to experience more than once).  This is the list of ingredients that can be found in chipa (Ña Julia’s recipe): 5 kilos pig fat (yum), 7 kilos Paraguayan cheese (make by taking fresh cow milk and soaking a cow stomach in it, the cow stomach causes the milk to curdle and they collect it and let it harden making a soft cheese), about 5 kilos corn meal (fresh, I know this because I helped grind it), about mandioca flour (has to be bought but can be made in a long process), and a little bit of anis. The flour numbers may be off a little because they had huge bags of each and poured it in until they felt the recipe was right.  We then mixed this huge mixture in a big metal pan (that we also use for bathing).  From what I gathered you have to mix it and roll it out with your hands for a while because you need to heat up the pig fat?  Some of these things may be a little wrong because I am having everything explained to me in Spanish and Guarani.  While we were doing all of this the men were heating up the ‘tatacua’ or huge brick oven outside.  We filled it with wood and let it all burn, then took a piece of bamboo with leaves attached to it and swept out the oven.  Then we put the pans of chipa (we took about 3 hours forming little shapes with the dough) into the oven and my host sister Lourdes took care of cooking them.  Then ta-da, Chipa!
The whole process took around 5 ½ hours and was exhausting.  Fresh chipa is actually pretty delicious if you try to forget about how the recipe is almost ¼ pig fat.  The problem is that EVERYONE in town makes over 200 pieces.  Then they try to share them.  Naturally everyone wanted to make sure the PCV tried their chipa so I was gifted over 20 pieces of chipa.  I think I ate only 3 or 4. 

I spent most of Friday and Saturday at the Church since some missionaries from a church in Asuncion had come in and most of the town was there.  What I enjoyed most about this is that since the people running the show were from Asuncion they spoke less Guarani (it is really a language used in homes in the campo, or countryside).  I was able to understand more and help them out.  By the time Sunday came around I was on a chipa high and just wanted to sit in my house and not be given food.  Semana Santa was an interesting experience.  I enjoyed comparing the differences since in the States (or at least in my family) we put more importance on Good Friday and Easter Sunday and here it is all about the chipa.

*I made sure to take a lot of picture of the whole process because I felt it would be easier to explain.  Then when I was in the ATL airport getting ready to head back to Paraguay my computer died and I lost all of my information on my computer. Although I had everything backed up on an external hard drive my pictures are impossible to locate! Sorry for the lack of photos, maybe I’ll find them later?