And what I week it has been! I am in the town of San Juan sitting in an internet cafe, known in Paraguay as a Cyber. It is around 9 am right now, and the principle reason for my journey into the town today is to find myself a Jacket. Contrary to what I thought after the first 3 months of constant sweating in Paraguay, it actually does get somewhat cold here. Although it doesn´t freeze, the temperature during the night can get as low as 6 degrees celcius (too lazy right now to figure out the fahrenheit for yall), which is pretty damn cold when you have walls with holes in them. And with the cold just setting in the las few days, and me only having my Knox College Cross Country hoodie (Represent, woot woot!) to keep me warm, I´ve been freezing my cohones off here in Paraguay.
So, in order to get to the town of San Juan from my tiny country area known as Kilometer 16 (you know your town is small when it is named for how many kilometers it is from the nearest town), I had to take a 1 and a half hour ride on a bus over a bumby dirt road. There is only one bus per day, and it leaves at 6 am and comes back at 11 am. So I am a bit limited as to my options of when to go to the town until I have my bike here. But it´s all good, bc the bus is fun; and I always take a little bit of hot mate for the ride. Today I met an 84 year old lady who was taking the bus into town, and she gave me a little backround on my town, like the fact that in 1970 when she moved to the town, there was literally nothing there. Anyhow, she seemed really happy when I told her it was my own Grandpas 85th birthday tomorrow. I love talkative older ladies.
So I arrived in my site last Tuesday, and since then I will admit I think I´ve been experiencing a little bit of culture shock to say the least. Mostly I´ve just been going to the schools to observe classes and see in what I will be helping the teachers. Friday though, we had a rain day, so I stayed home and had my first chance to work on my family´s farm. Basically for a couple of hours I macheted some weeds. It was actually a pretty solid workout, and also hilarious bc my 5 and 6 year old brothers had little machetes and were out working right next to their dad doing the little they could. It kind of made me think of when I was little and would take a pretend lawnmower out when my dad mowed the lawn, except that these kids have real super sharp machetes. Gotta put em to work, I guess.
The house where I am living is a blast and I feel that I got pretty lucky with how nice everyone is. I have 10 siblings: Fernando, 5, Arnaldo, 6, Gricelda, 8, Delfi, 10, Antonio, 11, Milciades, 14, Norma, 16, Agustin, 18, David, 19, and another one who lives in Buenos Aires whose name I do not recall right now. And needless to say it is a madhouse. As of 6 am everyone is up and doing chores, milking cows, herding cows into the pasture, making food, etc. But in the afternoon and night there is very little to do; I showed them crazy eights last wednesday and since then we have played probably around 12 hours total of the game. If I sit by myself in my room they will come stop by and kind of look at me until I ask them if they want to play crazy eights and then they get all crazy excited, its supercute. Even my 5 year old brother knows how to play the game which is pretty cool considering his kindergarten teacher hasn´t even started teaching him numbers and letters yet. They also get a huge kick out of the way I shuffle and do the bridge. I have been trying to teach them but so far to no avail. The other night I also decided to teach them the numbers in english from 1 to 10, and afterwards my house became a madhouse of people yelling one tou free four fiv seex seven eixs nine ten, which I found absolutely hysterical. I feel like I might regret this decision sometime in the future when I get annoyed with this yelling, but right now they are all so supernice I want to try and teach them some english.
As for Guarani, I am learning all I can by osmosis and listening to people especially the kids, but its become apparent that I´m going to need to find a tutor, at least for the first few months here. It is getting a bit frusterating to hear people talking all the time and have little idea what they are saying, except for when they address me directly since they do that in Spanish. Alright well I have to get going to buy my jacket and catch the bus at 11 am. Happy belated mothers day to all the moms and moms to be out there!
Monday, May 10, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
I Have my Shoe...REMIX!!!
Hey everybody. Sorry again for the lack of updates the last couple of weeks, but its been an action packed period. Life is good right now. I've been in Asuncion for the weekend with the rest of the other 46 volunteers from my training group, as kind of a transitionary period from ending training and moving out of our host family's houses to heading to our respective sites where we will all be spending the following 2 years. There has been a lot going on lately so this is going to be just a stream of consciousness post, we shall see where that takes us.
The swearing in ceremony where we take our oath as official volunteers took place in the American Embassy here in Asuncion. Maybe an arbitrary distinction but nevertheless throughout training it is something the PC continuously reminds you of, and it is nice to finally be an official volunteer and get the monthly stipend. The American Embassy here is high class, they even managed to get the address 1776. The The U.S. ambassador to Paraguay attended the ceremony as well so that made us all feel important. She gave a little speech, which honestly was dwarfed but one of the most amazing speeches I have ever heard in person by our volunteer speaker. In addition, after the ceremony, there was some of the most delicious chocolate cake that I have ever eaten in my life, no exageration. Top 5 for sure.
After we became official volunteers we were finally given cell phones, which was awesome after not having them for 3 months. I mean, in our training community if we wanted to talk to each other's houses we had to do it old school (cerca 1990) style and simply walk to the person's house and ask their host parents if they are home. Some of you may know I am personally a fan of doing without excessive modern convenicences but I take back everything I have said about cell phones. They are awesome. And after a 3 month period of no cell phones us PCVs definitely abused them a little bit this weekend, but I'm okay with that.
As part of the finale as we ended training there was a talent show. And I am proud to say the Early Elementary Education group came out on top against some pretty stellar competition. In order to explain the greatness of our act I need to give some background. When PCVs go to the our sites, some of the major work that we do is helping educate kids on how NOT to get worms. Something like 90% of Paraguayan kids get worms or other parasites, which is obviously outrageously high, and much of it is due to lack of education on how worms are contracted. One of the big things we do to educate kids is sing this song in Guarani which is to the tune of London Bridge and translated comes out "I have my shoe, shoe, shoe/And I'm feeling good, I don't have worms/And I'm feeling good"...and it continues with other such phrases. So, for the talent show we decided to spice up the song a bit, and invented the "I have my shoe...REMIX!!!" (In Guarani it is "Areko che zapatu"). I will hopefully be able to post the video either on the blog or on facebook but it is quite a spectacle. It features myself and 2 other dudes from my EEE group throwin down some mad lyrical flow, and we had the luck to have a professional beatbox in our group who strikes up a kickin beat. We even used giant mandioca roots as microphones. The lyrics we came up with are a mix of English, Spanish and Guarani:
I see you playin' futbol after school
Maaan why you ain't wearin no zapatu? (zapatu=shoe in Guarani)
Yo listen up all you little mitai (matai=little kids)
You don't want to quedar with that chivivi (=get diarrehea)
We're education and we're here to say
You gotta wash your hands, every day
And while we're at it can't you see
We're doin' participatory activities
And promoting gender equality
'Cuz we don't like our ladies with sevo'i (sevo'i=worms in Gua)
You know what you necesacitas?
You need some Goshdarn Zapatillas (shoes)
That's right big booty I'm lookin at you
Why you ain't wearin no Zapatu?
Now when I say "Sevo", you say "I"
Sevo I Sevo I
And when I say Zapa, you say 'tu'
Zapa Tu Zapa Tu
Now Papa Miguel's gotta pass the mic (Papa Miguel is my rap name)
To my brotha Rikzilla come and say what you like
(My buddy throws down probably my favorite line of the song right here):
Listen to the Rikman (his rap name is Rikzilla)
I'll give you the scoop
Giardia's no joke son I'm talkin' frothy poop
You don't get it from kissin'
So Stop Drop and Listen
Heed my advice or from your butt you'll be pissin'
No drip from the anos
When you lava los manos
So cuidate every day
Keep your poop sano
Now when I say Frothy you say Poo
Frothy Poo Frothy Poo
And when I say Lava you say Po
Lava Po Lava Po (Wash your hands)
Thanks ya'll for listenin' to our charlita (talk)
You can pay us back with a cervecita (beer)
That's Triple E
with Anne Marie
Comin at ya from Naranjaisyyyyyyy
It might seem a little graphic at points, but it is indeed parasites result in awful consequences for kids such as bad diarrhea, you can't really sugarcoat parasites. And it is a problem in the classroom b/c kids who are consistently sick tend to have a lot of trouble paying attention in class, which is part of our mission in Early Elementary Ed in Paraguay..Anyhow, This song was a first place winner in the talent show so represent EEE (Early Elementary Ed). (Take that SWAG.)
Tomorrow I head to my site where I will be spending the next 2 years of life! It's excited although it will certainly be weird to be away from all the friends I've made during training and be out on my own so to speak. One of the weirdest things is transitioning from interacting with other PCVs in English to conducting your daily routine soley in Spanish and Guarani. Well that and getting used to my host dad cutting an enormous chunk of raw cow with a tablesaw on the same table that you will be eating lunch on in an hour or so. Oh and not to mention using bags of cotton as couches. And actually a million other things. But indeed I got a really good vibe from my host family when I visited, so I am more excited then nervous about finally heading there and starting my 2 year service. It's going to take a bit of getting used to though. I mean, my entire town is on one street a little less than a kilometer long. If you want to try and googlemaps it, google 'san juan nepomuceno paraguay' and scroll 16 km to the east. Yea you won't see much, but that is indeed my life for the next 2 years.
Well I'm off to spoil myself with some filophals in the city, hasta la proxima!
The swearing in ceremony where we take our oath as official volunteers took place in the American Embassy here in Asuncion. Maybe an arbitrary distinction but nevertheless throughout training it is something the PC continuously reminds you of, and it is nice to finally be an official volunteer and get the monthly stipend. The American Embassy here is high class, they even managed to get the address 1776. The The U.S. ambassador to Paraguay attended the ceremony as well so that made us all feel important. She gave a little speech, which honestly was dwarfed but one of the most amazing speeches I have ever heard in person by our volunteer speaker. In addition, after the ceremony, there was some of the most delicious chocolate cake that I have ever eaten in my life, no exageration. Top 5 for sure.
After we became official volunteers we were finally given cell phones, which was awesome after not having them for 3 months. I mean, in our training community if we wanted to talk to each other's houses we had to do it old school (cerca 1990) style and simply walk to the person's house and ask their host parents if they are home. Some of you may know I am personally a fan of doing without excessive modern convenicences but I take back everything I have said about cell phones. They are awesome. And after a 3 month period of no cell phones us PCVs definitely abused them a little bit this weekend, but I'm okay with that.
As part of the finale as we ended training there was a talent show. And I am proud to say the Early Elementary Education group came out on top against some pretty stellar competition. In order to explain the greatness of our act I need to give some background. When PCVs go to the our sites, some of the major work that we do is helping educate kids on how NOT to get worms. Something like 90% of Paraguayan kids get worms or other parasites, which is obviously outrageously high, and much of it is due to lack of education on how worms are contracted. One of the big things we do to educate kids is sing this song in Guarani which is to the tune of London Bridge and translated comes out "I have my shoe, shoe, shoe/And I'm feeling good, I don't have worms/And I'm feeling good"...and it continues with other such phrases. So, for the talent show we decided to spice up the song a bit, and invented the "I have my shoe...REMIX!!!" (In Guarani it is "Areko che zapatu"). I will hopefully be able to post the video either on the blog or on facebook but it is quite a spectacle. It features myself and 2 other dudes from my EEE group throwin down some mad lyrical flow, and we had the luck to have a professional beatbox in our group who strikes up a kickin beat. We even used giant mandioca roots as microphones. The lyrics we came up with are a mix of English, Spanish and Guarani:
I see you playin' futbol after school
Maaan why you ain't wearin no zapatu? (zapatu=shoe in Guarani)
Yo listen up all you little mitai (matai=little kids)
You don't want to quedar with that chivivi (=get diarrehea)
We're education and we're here to say
You gotta wash your hands, every day
And while we're at it can't you see
We're doin' participatory activities
And promoting gender equality
'Cuz we don't like our ladies with sevo'i (sevo'i=worms in Gua)
You know what you necesacitas?
You need some Goshdarn Zapatillas (shoes)
That's right big booty I'm lookin at you
Why you ain't wearin no Zapatu?
Now when I say "Sevo", you say "I"
Sevo I Sevo I
And when I say Zapa, you say 'tu'
Zapa Tu Zapa Tu
Now Papa Miguel's gotta pass the mic (Papa Miguel is my rap name)
To my brotha Rikzilla come and say what you like
(My buddy throws down probably my favorite line of the song right here):
Listen to the Rikman (his rap name is Rikzilla)
I'll give you the scoop
Giardia's no joke son I'm talkin' frothy poop
You don't get it from kissin'
So Stop Drop and Listen
Heed my advice or from your butt you'll be pissin'
No drip from the anos
When you lava los manos
So cuidate every day
Keep your poop sano
Now when I say Frothy you say Poo
Frothy Poo Frothy Poo
And when I say Lava you say Po
Lava Po Lava Po (Wash your hands)
Thanks ya'll for listenin' to our charlita (talk)
You can pay us back with a cervecita (beer)
That's Triple E
with Anne Marie
Comin at ya from Naranjaisyyyyyyy
It might seem a little graphic at points, but it is indeed parasites result in awful consequences for kids such as bad diarrhea, you can't really sugarcoat parasites. And it is a problem in the classroom b/c kids who are consistently sick tend to have a lot of trouble paying attention in class, which is part of our mission in Early Elementary Ed in Paraguay..Anyhow, This song was a first place winner in the talent show so represent EEE (Early Elementary Ed). (Take that SWAG.)
Tomorrow I head to my site where I will be spending the next 2 years of life! It's excited although it will certainly be weird to be away from all the friends I've made during training and be out on my own so to speak. One of the weirdest things is transitioning from interacting with other PCVs in English to conducting your daily routine soley in Spanish and Guarani. Well that and getting used to my host dad cutting an enormous chunk of raw cow with a tablesaw on the same table that you will be eating lunch on in an hour or so. Oh and not to mention using bags of cotton as couches. And actually a million other things. But indeed I got a really good vibe from my host family when I visited, so I am more excited then nervous about finally heading there and starting my 2 year service. It's going to take a bit of getting used to though. I mean, my entire town is on one street a little less than a kilometer long. If you want to try and googlemaps it, google 'san juan nepomuceno paraguay' and scroll 16 km to the east. Yea you won't see much, but that is indeed my life for the next 2 years.
Well I'm off to spoil myself with some filophals in the city, hasta la proxima!
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