Fogones fogones fogones

Here's the long awaited update! With pictures!

So as many of you all know, I have been left a fogon project by the previous volunteer in my site, Anne. Anne had the whole thing set up for me when I got here, all of the materials were bought and everything, the only thing I have to do is build fogones. So that is what I have been doing for the last month, building fogones!

You may ask, what on earth is a fogon? Here we go. Fogones are brick cookstoves that use firewood, but are much more efficient than cooking on an open flame. It also has a chimney to pull out the smoke and an oven.

PC Health Sector is pretty keen on building them because they fulfill many needs and are relatively cheap and easy to build. Fogones use less firewood than cooking on an open flame (yay less global warming) and are also healthier to cook on since there is far less smoke to inhale and cause respiratory infirmaties. Having an oven also allows people to bake things instead of fry them and the 4-hole cooktop allows for cooking a variety of things at once.

All and all, for about the equivalent of about 80-100 USD it improves the quality of life for a family a LOT, especially the ladies and kids.

And I have so far made 8 fogones, the pictures you see are of the last one I did today with Soledad, the volunteer from Tajy. She biked 15k to Caazapa and took a bus the rest of the 7k to my site. Shes awesome!

Making a fogon starts for me around 8am. I bring all my tools to the house where I am going to make it and survey the spot. Usually its inside a kitchen, but today you can see from the pictures we built it outside. Fogones are pretty big (6ft long by 2ft wide), so many people elect to build another room for it or enlarge their kitchen to fit it. This family is going to build the new room around their fogon to be the kitchen and the old kitchen is going to be made into a modern bathroom.

As a part of the “contrapartido” (part that each family has to contribute) to receive a fogon, the families have to supply me with somebody to make the mezcla (mortar) for the bricks. Its really easy, just red dirt and water, but if I had to do it alone, there's no way I could get done in one day. Today the husband and a neighbor boy were both on hand to make mezcla, which was awesome. While they are starting to make mezcla I usually lay out the bricks and do all of the measurements to make sure its really nice and square and in the spot that the senora wants it (after all she's going to be the one using it).

Laying out the first layer takes a little bit of time, but after that it goes pretty fast. Seven layers like so to make the base, which then gets filled up and capped off. Usually one would use dirt to fill the base but you can really use anything hard. In others I've put glass bottles (popular choice since there's no recycling here), old broken bricks or roof tiles, or rocks.

After its all filled up and capped off with a layer of bricks, its time to work on the arms for the cooktop and the box for the oven. After three layers on each, I put on the iron cooktop (its heavyyyyy, but these also last forever if taken care of) and add rebar to suspend the oven. In order to have a nice hot oven, it needs to have at least 7cm around each side for the air to circulate. Two more levels then put in the aluminum chimney. Since this one was outside, the chimney was really easy, but other times I haven't been so lucky. To make the hole for the chimney on Monday I had to use an old fashioned auger (looks like a corkscrew but HUGE) to make holes in a wooden board and then knock the pieces out with a machete since we didn't have a saw. I've also learned how to chisel out bricks with a piece of rebar and a hammer to make a hole in a brick wall without bringing the house down.

After that the only thing left is to top it off. This is the trickiest part (besides keeping the whole thing level and square which remains bastante dificil for me) because you have to use rebar and then lay the bricks on top and put mezcla in all of the spaces without it falling through. If its good mezcla, with lots of clay, no problem, but if its got a lot of sand, it will fall through and I've had to go find different dirt to use for this part. One layer more on top to cover it up and ya esta! Opama! (done, in spanish and guarani). By this time its around 2 or 3pm and my workday is over. Not too bad for an amateur albanil (mason)!

Terere...what you do when you're bored in py

What do you do when there is nothing TO do in Paraguay? Some cultures they smoke, some they drink coffee, but here its mate and terere.

Terere is basically the Paraguayan national pasttime. Its what you do when you've been working all morning and want a good excuse to sit in the shade and rest. Basically, its a type of tea made from yerba mate served cold. So you take your yerba mate and fill up your guampa, which is the special terere cup. This cup is usually made of wood or metal. The fancy ones have a leather covering with pretty designs on it.

The simplest form of terere is to just pour cold water into the guampa and suck it out with a special straw called a bombilla, asi no mas. But many people here add yuyos (pronounced jew-jos, medicial plants) to the water. I like to add the ones which are classed as “refrescantes” (refreshing, don't really have much of a medicinal value) because they're tasty. Cedron kapi'i is lemongrass and its my favorite to add. You can also add lime, lemon or mandarine leaves.

Whereas terere is an original Paraguay invention, mate (the hot version of terere) is indigenous to Argentina but is made the same way except you use hot water (boiling...great way to burn one's tongue) and usually the guampa is smaller. Terere is a mid-morning to afternoon thing while mate you only drink in the early morning or in the evening, unless its really cold in which case you do it all day. There are also different yuyos for mate, many of which are super bitter, but I really like mansanilla (camomile) mixed with mint. SOOO tasty. Its just starting to get cold enough to drink serious mate, so this weekend I bought myself a thermos and a wood mate guampa. The guampa is made of palo santo, which is a special wood that is its own yuyo. Smells lovely, kind of like cedar. Hand wrought polished guampa plus plastic thermos set me back a whole 10 USD. Now I can take mate with me wherever I go :)

First Week in Site!!

It is really interesting arriving at site during Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Paraguay. Paraguay is a predominantly Catholic country with some pretty cool cultural aspects thrown into their beliefs and traditions that makes it unique.

First theres the food aspect of Semana Santa. I don't know if it's like this everywhere, but there are certain things you can and can't eat and cook during SS here. Of course theres the usual no meat on Friday rule but here most people don't cook at ALL on Friday. For example all I've eaten today is fruit salad (I peeled approx 10 oranges, 1 pineapple,and 2 apples to help my contact make it...my hand hurt all day) and chipa. Chipa is a huge part of SS all on its own. Traditionally, people make chipa on Wednesday before Easter. I had the great honor of helping one of the families in my community make chipa so I got to see how its made. I am surprised I can still eat it after watching.

What I had chosen not to think about every other time I had eaten chipa on a bus or in the street (besides being a SS tradition, chipa is also one of the most popular street foods in Paraguay) is that its terrible for you. We used around 15 kilos of flour (mostly corn, but some mandioca flour too) and about 15 eggs, 2 liters of milk, at least 5 kilos of Paraguayan cheese and 3 kilos of LARD. When all of these ingredients are mixed by hand just so by whipping the egg whites seperate from the yolks, only adding the milk a little bit at a time, and kneading vigorously its ready to be put in the tatakuaa, the special chipa oven. It looks kind of like an igloo, and its basically just a half circle made of bricks with a base and two openings on each side to add wood and later chipa. First you add tons of wood and get it really hot. After an hour or so of preheating, you push out all of the ash and embers and put in the chipa. The end result is sort of cornbread textured but with a harder outer shell and a slightly gooey cheezy interior. If your mouth isnt watering yet, it should be, because its delicious. And even though I know its extremely unhealthy, I have allowed myself to eat a ton of it by telling myself I will exersize my chipa kilos off once I get my bike from Peace Corps.

But enough about my love affair with lard filled goodness. I also got to go to church for the first time here today. I had been to the oratorio (local church with a layperson reading the mass), but the church in Caazapa was a totally different story. The church was huge and beautiful with adobe walls, high ceilings and big arched windows. I'll take a picture of it next time I go into Caazapa for sure. And the service was pretty interesting as well. The first part was outside and they talked about the crucifixion and all that, then basically did a mock funeral, where they took the statue of Jesus down and walked it into the church for the second part. I didn't understand all of it, but it was neat since I've been to Catholic church a bunch of times in the US and they say all of the same prayers, but they still have their own local flair for it.  

Future Site!!

So I am so stoked about my future site!! There is so much to love about Cabayu Reta! I met up with my community contact and Anne, the volunteer I am going to be following up on Friday. Anne has done SOOOO much in the community. Not only did she help organize two really awesome women's commisions and complete a fogon project, she also worked a ton in the school and speaks killer guarani. And just recently she started another fogon project and a sink and concrete floor project that I will be continuing. One of the big advantages of being a follow up volunteer is that a lot of times they already have projects going on that you can get started on pretty quickly. What I was really dreading is that if I was a first time volunteer you spend at least three months explaining what the heck you are doing there and figuring out things that the community needs. On one hand its a little scary having to go straight into site with a really high set of expectations, but on the other its so nice to finally be able to DO SOMETHING instead of just training for it.
But even if I didn't have this fogon project to work on, I'm sure I would have plenty to do anyways. There is a nice, well-equipped health post in my community which also serves four outlying smaller communities. I'm pretty sure there is enough work to do there that I could just go in and help out nearly every day for the next two years and not get bored at all. There are only two people who work there (the head nurse is my community contact), and are both super hardworking.
Besides that, the scenery is gorgeous. I have an abandoned  rock quarry about 3k away from my house that is basically a huge swimming hole. I got to check it out with Anne and Miriam, the volunteer closest to me. I am so lucky to have her so close by, shes only about 3k from my site and will be an awesome resource for learning how to get started in my community. She already wants me to help her with some workshops she is doing at her school in a few months.
While I was there on my visit I got to meet a lot of people in the community. Peace Corps wants us to live with a family for the first three months in site in order to get to know people and work more on our language skills. I think I am going to spend my first month with the family of the president of the fogon commission, whos daughter also was Anne's best friend in site. After, I'm going to live with my contact for a month (who actually has a modern bathroom...que suerte!!) then either of the nurses at the health post. Afterward, I really hope to live in the house that Anne had been living in. Its a little complicated because her neighbor who owns the house really wants me to live there, but her family (who also part owns the house) wants to leave it open for when they visit once a year. My contact offered to talk to her and I hope she does. The house is in a perfect location, and all of Anne's stuff (and the stuff she borrowed from her neighbors) would be available for me to use. Keep your fingers crossed that my awesome contact will make it happen for me!

Just got back from Long Field Practice. For those of you unfamilliar with Peace Corps lingo, on long field we go in small groups to volunteers's sites for four days to do small projects and see what they're up to. During the four days, we live with a family at their site and do the whole “cultural integration” thing again.

For me, long field was an emotional roller coaster. Three other volunteers and I went to visit Aaron in Solano Escobar, Paraguai (department directly to the east, only about 2.5 hours from Guasu Cora) for our long field. Aaron is G29 which means hes about to finish up his service in April, and one of the people in our class is going to be his follow up. First of all his site is GORGEOUS (I'll try to upload a picture if I can), hes got mountains and a lake and its generally a really pretty community. Also Aaron has an AWESOME house. Its brick and is all nicely finished inside with concrete and tile. From what I've heard its the second-nicest PCV house in the health group (the nicest belongs to Jordan and other PCVs have nicknamed it Jordan's Palace...never seen it myself but I've heard stories). All and all he has a great setup.

The family I stayed with was much different than my family in Guasu Cora. By now my family and I here are so accustomed to one another that we get along great. I've almost forgotten how awkward it was in the beginning. Not so with the family in Solano Escobar. They were definitely nice people but we just didn't click as well. They didn't talk to me terribly much and tended to laugh at my attempts at Spanish and Guarani. Normally the “poke fun at you” Paraguayan sense of humor doesn't get me down at all and I usually am laughing just as hard, but when you are put in a totally strange place with not-so-friendly-seeming people it gets reallllyyyyyy discouraging. To top off those weird feelings, the food the first day was aweful. For lunch we had overcooked pasta with really fatty bony carne followed by plain fried tortillas for dinner with tons of mandioca (manioc is a traditional staple food in South America and Africa. Its a tuber with the nutritional value of cardboard and not much taste. Usually its served just plain boiled here and its on the table like bread...you eat it with everything).

So after the super awkward dinner and after dinner conversation, I had a little pity party in my room and wrote it all out in my journal and told myself that no matter how bad it was, I was learning from this experience, and in the end, its only four days and I can survive. I took some deep breaths and told myself that I was going to be more “tranquila” about the small stuff that was getting me down about this visit and just take it all as a learning experience.

And it totally worked. I rocked the positive vibes the rest of the time I was there and ended up having a pretty good time and getting a TON done. On Tuesday, we built almost an entire fogon in one day at a local school, and Wednesday we did charlas (short lessons) about dental health to elementary school kids. Personally I was terrified about doing the charla because I have no teaching experience and I am not the biggest fan of kids. But, when I actually went up there and did it, it felt great. Getting those kids to laugh at my Spanish jokes really made my day. Ive also got some good pictures of them brushing their teeth.

Volunteer Visit

Hola!!
Sorry I havent given you an update in a few weeks but its been SOOO busy! Training is getting pretty hectic and we are doing a lot more “hands on” type work so I'm really starting to feel like I'm learning a thing or two.

A little more than a week ago we went on our first volunteer visit. We were all assigned different health volunteers that had been in site at least a year. My volunteer, Nicole, is stationed in the department of Itapua in southeastern PY very close to the major city of Encarnacion. Paraguay is a pretty small country but even so, it can take a VERY long time go get around because of the transportation situation here. Encarnacion is basically the farthest away you can get from the capital and not be going out into the Chaco (the other half of PY past Rio Paraguay—less than 3% of the population lives there). To put it in perspective, it took me longer to get from my doorstep in Guasu Cora to Nicole's site than it would  take me to fly from Miami to Montevideo :O!! Here's how it went:

Woke up at 5 and started walking to the Ruta (paved road) at 5:30. The walk to the Ruta is about an hour and it seems like a heck of a lot longer when the sun's not up yet. However, Riso and I were definitely not alone on the Ruta...so many people in Guasu Cora work in Asuncion that they start that early every day in order to beat the traffic and get to work.
We got to the bus stop around 6:30 and waited about 15 to 20 mins for the Nueva Italia bus to pick us up (I still havent found out if there is anything actually “italian” about NI yet but I'm really curious). Luckily there were two other volunteers on the bus from the other health community so we had some buddies. Even more lucky, one of them was going the same way I was and we could ride all the way to the Asuncion terminal together. Having never been to the infamous “Terminal” before, I was more than happy to have a buddy, especially since we would have to switch buses.

We switched buses in Guarambare (place were our big training center is so we know it pretty well) and got on the bus to the terminal. Unfortuanately, our bus got caught right in the middle of rush hour and it took nearly twice as long to get to Asuncion as it normally would. Normally, I dont mind public transportation much at all but the buses here in the cities are killer. The windows are always open, its crazy hot and the pollution is nauseating. Plus the crowds. They pack the buses SOOO full here its insane. You always think they won't be able to fit more people on and then the bus driver's assistant guy is basically telling people to hang out the doors and hold on for dear life. If you are lucky enough to get a seat you also have the pleasure of a face full or someone's fat tummy when he makes a sharp turn.
Anyways so we made it to the terminal finally and went to search for the offices for the right bus. I found it pretty easily and I got SUPER lucky because the next bus was in 5 minutes!! I hopped on it and was on my way. The Encarnacena was super lindo (lindo=fancy) and had super comfy seats. Good thing too because I had to ride on it for almost 7 hours.

The ride was beautiful...occasional towns and lots of green. Farther south there were lots of ranches and you could actually see the mountains! When I first got here I couldnt believe that there were palm trees! I didnt think it would be so tropical so far inland, but we have coconut palms and mango trees and banana trees...the whole shebang. Plus we also have scrubby grasslands that you would think of in Argentina.

Finally made it to Encarnacion around 3:30pm and we shopped around at the supermarket (it was almost like a real grocery store!!) and then headed to her site, finally getting there around 6:30! Over 12 hours later!!

But it was totally worth the trip. It was REALLY nice to be able to hang out and cook and ask her like a zillion questions about what its like to be a real life volunteer. She filled in a lot of blanks for me and it was great to be able to go out into the community with her and see what shes up to. One day we were able to go meet a family that she did cooking classes with and another we got to meet her community contact, the director of the school. I did also get a realistic PY experience, though, since it rained one day and we didnt get to do anything. When it rains here entire towns shut down. Buses don't run or anything.

Por suerte, the next day was dry and we were able to go back to Encarnacion and check out the city. It is a lot smaller than Asuncion but it still has a lot of cool shops and a beautiful plaza. We went to a sushi restaurant for lunch and I was STOKED to go but I was pretty disappointed in the quality. I guess I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up, but I was really missing Sushi Blues and didn't get anything close. For what I paid, I would have rather gotten awesome PY food than mediocre sushi. Other than that, Encarnacion was really cool, and I'd definitley like to visit again when I have more time.

Since we came back from site visits last Thursday, its been nonstop training. Language is getting a lot more intense, and we already had our first test on PC rules. This week we also had our first “Dia de Practica” where we went out and met people in the community and started looking for mini-projects to do in our training community. I'm working with Riso and Esteban and we think we might be able to build a fogon  for one of our neighbors (classic project in PY—its basically a big brick oven that allows people to cook more efficiently and not over an open flame so its healthier).

We also did some practice censuses yesterday which I really enjoyed. For our site, we will be required to fill out a health census form for 50 families, and its a big part of our community study. I was pretty proud of myself because me and my partner got out of our comfort zones and went and met new families instead of asking our families or their relatives. I was kind of surprised that people were so willing to help us and SO friendly. I feel like for at least three hours this week, I have felt like a legitimate volunteer and it felt AWESOME.

Alright, time to hit the Spanish homework, but I'll update again soon!

PS any of you that want to send mail, its apparently not as slow as I thought. Some people have already gotten packages and cards since we have been here. If you want, you can try and send me some snail mail love to this address:

Ashley Lauren Reef, PCT
Cuerpo de Paz
Chaco Boreal 162
Asuncion, Paraguay

My weekend

Right now I am watching futbol on TV...muy abborido (boring). So perfect time to write another blog. This was a pretty awesome weeknend here in Guazu Cora. Satuday was my host mom's mother's birthday, so we had a little party for her. The party started at around 11 when Carly (the volunteer who is staying with my host mom's mom) came to get me to let me know that it was time to kill the turkey. Now this turkey had been a much talked about subject among our family for weeks. Aurelia (host mom's mom) said it was going to be her present to herself to eat one of her fat turkeys. So all afternoon, Carly and I watched turkey prep. (note: vegetarians stop reading here and restart at the beginning of next paragraph). When I came over, we had just missed its acutal demise, and it was hanging upside down from a tree already dead. Next, Aurelia dunked it in boiling water and started plucking it. It took the better part of an hour to defeather the thing. Then she cut it apart, utilizing two different knives and then, when that didnt work, a two foot long hacksaw. It was quite the spectacle to watch. It went into a pot with tomatoes, onions, carrots and LOTS of garlic to cook all afternoon. Its amazing how disconnected we are from our food in the US. Since I've been here, I have watched the demise of two animals and I'm sure it wont be the last. I think I would be more than happy to be a vegetarian.

The actual party didnt start until late in the night (almost 10), and it was totally a family affair. 10-15 of the family came for dinner which consisted of the turkey with the sauce and rice (ricissimo!!!! --delicious in spanish), and the ever-present asado (this time beef ribs). The food was great and we got to drink a little beer and hang out with everybody. The only thing that gets awkward about family gatherings is that they pretty much ONLY speak guarani. So the only way we knew any of whats going on is that my host mom or her sister Daisy would translate for us. Guarani is SOOOO hard to understand. Every once and a while, I would pick out a word or two but its pretty few and far between at the moment. The party didnt go too long, we were all in bed by 11:30, full of beer and cake and yummy yummy pavo (turkey).

Today I got to sleep in til almost 10 which was awesome. Right after I woke up, another volunteer, Eric, came by to tell me that he and his dad were going to work on his garden and asked if we wanted to help/watch. I gladly accepted, since gardening in PY is definitely a skill I will need later in my site. Carly and I headed over to Eric's and learned to make tablones (raised beds) and how to spred compost. Very exciting (totally not joking...I'm really excited about gardening and teaching paraguayos how to grow and cook different veggies).

In the afternoon, my host sister asked me if I wanted to go to “the beach.” I gladly accepted because “the beach” around here is the Rio Paraguay and I've seen pictures and its gorgeous. I rode with Eric and his fam and my mom and host sisters followed in their moto. When we got to the beach it was really crowded but BEAUTIFUL...really rocky and full of tide pools. We sat on the rocks and drank terere with the families. It was really relaxing and we got to stay and watch the sunset before the mosquitoes chased us home. I definitely hadnt expected to go to the beach in a landlocked country but Paraguay continues to pleasantly surprise me.

Thats all for now, coming up will be highlights from our trip to the BIG CITY (Asuncion) on Tuesday! I love you and miss you alllll!!