Che Acocinakuaa

Back from the fabulous land of the free, and back in work mode! I've been working almost every day at the Puesto de Salud, and catching up with the people I missed during my 3-week hiatus. Also getting ready for the big patronal festival here in Caazapa next week. 

But when I'm not working, chances are I'm cooking! The biggest compliment I think I have recieved so far is “Nde recocinakuaa!” which means “You know how to cook!” One of my favorite activities to do in my site is cook with people. I have learned how to make lots of interesting Paraguayan dishes from señoras in my community like vori vori (stewed chicken with corn based dumplings), sopa paraguaya (cheezy cornbread), chipa, chipa guasu (another type of cornbread made with whole kernel corn), tortillas (dont think mexican torillas, more like fry bread). In return I try to teach them new dishes that they can make using ingredients that are locally available. Most of the time I try to create dishes that are healthier and less meat focused than what they usually eat here, incorporating more legumes and vegetables. Ive been trying out my many of my dishes on the nurses at the Puesto de Salud since they are generally pretty adventurous eaters, but I have also cooked meals for my neighbors, my host family and others. My hope is tho start up a cooking club and bring my most popular recipies to a wider audience.

Fun things I have cooked up to surprise, amuse and satisfy my neighbors and friends include:

Chili- Generally people here only know two ways to eat beans, either stewed with beef, or “bean salad” which is served cold with tiny cut up veggies with either a mayo or lemon based dressing. I have made a simple chili with tomatoes, peppers onions and garlic seasoned with oregano and cumin for many of my neighbors and friends. Strangely when I prepare it for people here they are always surprised that I put tomato paste in it...apparently quite a novel concept. To make it a little more “paraguayan” I usually add a little queso paraguayo (fresh cheese) at the end..people love it!

Lentils- I have busted out my favorite curried lentil recipe for my contact once. She loved it. I am a little leery to try it out on too many other paraguayans since many have never even seen a lentil or tasted curry.

Soy meat- This versitile product is found all over Paraguay and is known in the US as “textured vegetable protien-TVP” which sounds far less appetizing. I love throwing it into food and then asking PYans if they think it tastes like meat (and they usually say it does). Cooking with soy meat is incredibly affordabe compared to beef and much healthier. Empanadas de soja are a big hit as well as added to tomato sauce for pasta. Even when I can't convince someone to make something all soy, I compromise and show them how to stretch their budget and make it half-and-half for anything they would usually use ground beef for.

Frittatas- Especially for someone who raises hens, frittatas are a hit. Take any vegetable, sautee it, throw eggs and cheese in and bake it. What could be simpler? I made my uncle Johns swiss chard and potato frittata for the nurses at the Puesto a few months ago and you'd think I made it yesterday for how much they still talk about how yummy it was.

Bread- Fresh bread is almost impossible to come by here in PY especially in the campo. Most bread products are dry (like little cracker balls) but people really enjoy fresh bread if you show them how to make it. I especially like making whole wheat bread using alfrecho (the wheat berry part usually discarded when making white flour- used as a base for pig food here in PY). I usually wait until AFTER they've tasted it and declared it tasty before telling them its got pig food in it.

CAKE- Who doesn't like cake? I know its not the healthiest thing in the world but its a great way to throw in some more veggies and fruits (banana bread, carrot cake etc). I am actually going to try to make squash cake for the first time today from fresh squash. We will see how it turns out.

And there are so many other things, like pizza, fresh juice, tarta (all kinds of savory pies, mostly veggie and cheese filled) pesto (basil in general really. It grows like wildfire here and people have no idea how tasty it is!).... I could go on and on. Basically I took my love of good healthy food to PY and am making it part of my job. PC is pretty cool right? Oh yeah and my other favorite compliment about my cooking? “You can get married now you know how to cook ofr your future husband!” Not exactly what I had in mind but I'll take 'em where I can get 'em!

Fun times at Colegio Jose L. Cardenas

Beautiful spring weather we have been having here in Paraguay. Perfect for this country's second favorite sport, volleyball!! I can't tell you how excited I was to find out that they play volleyball or (volei as they say here) in Paraguay! And it just so happens that my host family has the best volleyball court in our community so I always have an excuse to hang out with my host sisters and play. Its a little frustrating sometimes because when the guys play volei, they get serious and almost always have a bet going. When they play like that, they usually won't let me or my host sisters play even though we are all pretty decent (I've gotten a lot better since I got here). The machismo culture here definitely takes some getting used to...I try really hard not to let it bother me because if I make a stink, they REALLY won't want to let me play. 

But anyways that's definitely not the most exciting thing I did this week. Two really great things went down this Thursday which turned my week from kind of boring to stellar. 

The first thing is that I finally got the mayor to bring us cement to finish our modern bathrooms in the high school. This is something I have been helping them out with for a month or so, but its been in the works for much longer than that. The bathrooms were about half done when the school opened in 2010. Over the course of the year this year, they have raised enough money to finish the actual structure (its semi-separate from the school building), put on a roof, install the plumbing and buy doors. The only thing they were missing was to revoque the outside (stucco over bricks) to make it nice and pretty and finish the cement floors to make it nice and clean (instead of dirt floors which breed germs). And thats where I came in.

When me and my neighboring volunteers went to visit the mayor for the first time, he had said that he was interested in funding small projects in our communities if they were properly written up and well designed. I mentioned it to him then, and had been working with the director of the high school to write a pedido (formal request). She and I had very different schedules but one day I was talking about it when I was there to teach my english class, and she was like “why don't we just do it right now?” and of course I was thrilled. She and the secretary wrote out a note, I typed it up, we signed it and I brought it to “Estimado Abogoado Señor Intendente” (but everyone calls him Pipo) the next week. The system of asking government support here (even for something as simple and essential as bathrooms) is tedious and favors those with boundless patience and good nagging skills. Just bringing it to him involved going to Caazapa and waiting in his office for two hours. Then I got to listen to him talk for about half an hour about how he doesn't have much money right now, but he finally agreed to bring us about half of what we originally wanted. I wasn't really too upset that we didn't get everything, after all, we were asking for something for nothing from a man with a tight budget. 

 

After I got the ok, here's where my newfound patience really came in handy. It was one of those things where he would tell me to call on one day, then he wouldn't answer, or he would be out of his office, or it would rain, or what have you. After two weeks and about 20 phone calls/txt messages exchanged, he showed up personally with the cement right after my second success of the week, my first sex ed charla!

My nurses at my health post wanted to start off by doing a basic sexual health charla with an emphasis on family planning options that are offered at the health post. I was happy to help, especially since I had experience from my friend's HIV/AIDS camp a few months ago. It was a little bit short notice, so I wasn't able to prepare a theme to talk about, but really it was fine with me since I was interested in watching them and learning how they approached these topics the first time around before I tackle it myself (I'm planning a taller similar to the one I helped with in a few months). BUT they said they would be thrilled if I could do the condom demonstration! 

 

The charla went really well, they did all of the basics which gives me somewhere to start from when I do my taller. There are definitely areas that I would spend more time on, such as more in depth information about STIs and HIV/AIDS but it was really good for them to explain all of the family planning options available. I was really impressed with how well the nurses related to the kids. Sure there were a few awkward moments, but that's the nature of the beast. I also liked how they really emphasized that their privacy would be protected if they came to the health center for free condoms or birth control. I feel like a lot of youth don't come because they are embarrassed, and after this talk, maybe they will feel more comfortable using the resources they have available. 

SOOO after all of that, I got to stand up with Ana and do the condom demo! Ana helped me a lot, but I did a lot of the explaining myself, using a very cooperative rake handle. Hugo, the other nurse is a great (and prolific) photographer, so I'll let his step-by-step pictures take you through the awkwardest five minutes of my service so far. 

Step one: open the package

This picture is my favorite...Hugo perfectly captured my concentration face

 

AHATA KOKUEPE

    I feel like I am finally starting to understand a good bit of Guarani. I have been forcing myself to use it more and ask people more how to say things instead of just switching to spanish when I get stuck. So now I know such useful phrases as “Añoty mandyju kokuepe” which means “I plant cotton in the field” which is exactly what I've been doing in my spare time lately.

     When I'm not in the health post entering seemingly endless census data, or at the school giving charlas about sanitation (did my first one on Friday for World Handwashing Day! It went really well, even though I was super nervous), I've been helping my host family plant cotton. I went with them the first time to their field which is about 3k from their house. The road to get there is INSANE because it is basically a rain channel through rocks. The first part is a minor hike through the woods, then you have to cross a palm trunk over a creek, then the second half is all uphill and is the really rocky part. Whats even crazier is that my host dad does it on a horse (all except the ravine crossing part...he just goes through the water). His horse is ivale (real smart) as one would say in Guarani.

      There were seven of us, me, my host parents, two host sisters and the boyfriend and brother of one of my host sisters. And two horses. They used the horse to make little furrows in the ground and all the rest of us got cut off two liter bottles with blue seeds in them to plant into the furrows (the seeds were blue to resist pesticides I think but it left your hands really blue if you didnt wear gloves). Upeicha, tres o cuatro cada uno, my host dad told me while holding his hands about a foot apart. My host dad speaks mostly guarani but upeicha is a word he knows I get because we use it alot when he is gesticulating to me frantically to try to get some point across that I am not understanding. It means “like this.”

      So we were off, each one of us in our separate furrow. I watched as Julio my host dad studied my technique and then demonstrated (no upeicha, UPEICHA! He emphasized, pointing at his feet as he pushed the dirt over his seeds). Once you get into a rythm the time flies by, furrow after furrow, and before I knew it it was 10:30 and we were done...four hours, seven people, not too bad.

     The second time I went out my camera batteries were NOT dead, so I got to take some pictures. It was different since we were going in the afternoon, and this time to my host sister's boyfriend's field. He and his brother borrowed an oxcart from my neighbor and we went in that instead of walking like the last time. Having never ridden in an oxcart before I was pretty excited about it. As you can see from the pictures its a nice view. 

The road wasn't as crazy as the other path we went on but there was one part where our driver said that my host sister and I had to get on the other side of the cart. We did, and I saw why in a few minutes...the left side of the road was at least a foot taller than the right. We were being used as a coutnerbalance so the cart didnt fall over. Slightly scary. 

 

      But other than that it went smoothly. I do have to say though, that horses look quite a bit easier to manage than oxen. I can still hear the boys yelling manso! Oro! In my head after hearing it ALL day as they tried to get these thousand pound beasts to do work. I can't say I really blame them though. Hours and hours in the hot sun had me pretty tired too. Slept really good that night :)

Check out the Picasa link on the right for more photos! Love you all!

Feeling like a rock star

I am exhausted, but in a good way. I was invited last week to go to Caaguazu to help another girl in my group start her fogon project. Like me, her previous volunteer had been working on getting a project through and left her follow up to build the fogones. Her committee received their grant money a few weeks ago and they were really anxious to get started. She asked me at training if I wanted to help her and I was really excited to help. I get to build fogones AND go travel to a different part of PY I havent seen before, definitely a win-win.

But as the day got closer for me to leave I admit I was getting less excited. I had had a really good week and I was worried that it just wasn't a good time to leave. I had just helped my health center put in two requests, one for computers and another for an eye doctor to visit. The last time I went to the health center they actually gave me legitimate WORK to do (I helped them write up their monthly reports for the Ministerio de Salud... basically I just counted and reported procedures that they conducted this month). Its hard to leave when things are going well and you feel like you are on a roll.

But I did leave, and I'm really glad I did. After some slight confusion, I got to my friend's site on Tuesday around noon. Although its technically spring here, the temperature had to be at least 90 degrees, so the 4k walk to her site from the paved road was no fun. But we did finally get to the house and start our fogon. Building it went really smoothly and we finished the base of it really quickly. Part of the reason it went so quickly was that we had really great mezcla (the mud used as mortar for the bricks). For mezcla, the redder the dirt the better, and the dirt they had was super dark red. Also I got to try out a new technique...adding miel negra (molasses!) to the mix. Might sound a little crazy, but molasses is dirt cheap here in a lot of places because of all the sugar cane processing, and it makes the mezcla much more sticky and also spreadable. I had no idea such an unlikely addition would work so well! Incidently, it also makes the mezcla smell lovely (a little like brown sugar), definitely adding to the appeal.

We decided to get though as much as we could and then come back the next day and finish. That night, we spent at her old host family's house. They were SO nice and clearly really enjoy meeting new volunteers. It was like going back to when I was new in site again, everyone wants to talk to you, ask questions, tell stories, what have you. They also liked to inflate my ego by calling me a fogon expert and telling me how good my guarani is. And I dont care who you are, everyone likes a little ego boost every once and a while.

The next morning we finished up early and went to meet some of her contacts. Her Peruvian/Paraguayan neighbors invited us over for lunch and I got to talk about my favorite subject, food, with the senora. Their family (along with many others in her community) grow strawberries so I got to try strawberry jam, strawberry juice, even strawberry liquor.

And as I set off with my strawberry jam in hand, I was very happy I'd gone after all. When you have a hard time seeing your own progress (like in guarani), its really nice to see that someone is paying attention and appreciating it. It was also really satisfying to be able to teach someone else how to do fogones. There are so many things I wish I had done on my project and its nice to be able to help someone make a project even better. In the end, surely a win-win after all.

Gettin excited, doin work

Today I went to the Puesto de Salud to talk to the head nurse and my main contact, Petronila. My intention wasto talk to her about PC related stuff like my upcoming training but like many things here, it didnt go as planned. Today was a consult day, like any other Monday Wednesday or Friday, she had lots of patients. Or non-patients, aka friends who just came in to gossip. But between the patients and gossip, Hugo, my other contact and assistant nurse at the Puesto came in along with Nestor the guy who runs the pharmacy and gave me some pretty awesome news...the doctor that we have been waiting to come to work in our Puesto for months is due to arrive in the next two weeks! This is a huge deal for my community and for the surrounding communitites that my Puesto serves. It is part of a new program run by the Ministerio de Salud that is bringing not only a doctor but another nurse and also more money to my tiny health center which is all sorely needed. The program is also supposed to mandate more community-based health projects like doing charlas in schools which is exactly what I'm supposed to be doing so I am stoked that they will be given more incentive to work with me on projects.

So with this new program coming I am thinking that the majority of my time is going to be spent helping them out at the Puesto, which I am really excited about. The previous volunteer had really utilized the Puesto to hold tallers (two or three day long courses) about reproductive health and other topics and the nurses in it had been partners in promoting good health practices in the community. Up to this point I had been looking for a way to “get in” at the Puesto and hopefully this is it.

I really want to help them get more organized and maybe even get them a computer. They serve my community but also five communities surrounding it as of now, and when the doctor comes, the nurses say they might start serving more. Since they serve so many people, there is incredible amounts of paperwork and from what I can tell their filing system is pretty archaic. Petronila is also very interested in adding another room to the Puesto. Its a really great idea, but is surely going to be a bit of a headache. I don't even know where to begin to help her with funding!

The slightly frustrating part for me is that even though I know they need a good dose of organization and theoretically I could go in one day and say “I'm going to reorganize everything and make it more efficient and easier for you to work” and I could do it all myself and make it perfect. BUT they would probably a) never understand it and b) revert to the old way as soon as possible since they were no part of it. Learning how to encourage people to do things that are good for them but still allowing them to own it and do it all (mostly) themselves is definitely the biggest challenge I face as a volunteer. 

Diggin Deep: Trash Pit

I am going to be so sore in the morning. I dug a 1m deep 1m diameter HOLE IN THE GROUND today. Why? Ever think, I mean REALLY think, about where your trash goes? Well here in PY we dont have the luxury of being disconnected from our basura by curb-side pickup. Every piece of trash I make sticks around unless I do something about it. What usually happens to it here in PY? Option one is "tirar no mas" meaning it just gets thrown out back. Obviously if 6 million people are just going to throw stuff anywhere, you run out of space pretty quickly. Second favorite way of getting rid of stuff? Burn it. Specifically, put it in your front yard, pour kerosene on it and let it go. Although some people can tell you that burning is bad, many people are completely ignorant of the health and environmental consequences of burning things like plastic, chemical containers, and aerosol cans. Because of these problmes, environmental education is a BIG part of what we are up to here in PY.

And for anyone to take me seriously down the line when I start trying to tackle these issues in my community, I need to be a model of responsible trash disposal. So that hole I was talking about will be my trash pit. I also am making a compost pile. The crazy part is that I've been told that a 1m diameter 2m deep hole will last me my whole service (a little less than two years now). SOOO does that mean that in the last 23 years I have generated something like 11 square meters of garbage? Hard to wrap your mind around!

Today I also planted my garden! Many people in my community have beautiful gardens but they all pretty much grow the same veggies--tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, onions and scallions. I decided to try and grow some "weird" veggies like eggplant, swiss chard, and spinach to get some PYans to try new stuff when they are ready. I've never really had my own vegetable garden before so I'm pretty excited.

Here are some pictures of my PY garden process. Here everybody gardens in raised beds called tablones (helps a lot to keep things together when it rains), so that's why it looks like I've buried three bodies in my garden. The fence in the pictures is my favorite part...my neighbor made it for me and its the only way I can keep her chickens from eating everything!

The sticks are marking off all the different stuff I planted...spinach, eggplant, basil, cilantro, parsley, squash and swiss chard. And that grassy thing in the corner is Cedron Kapi'i, delicious terere yuyo

Look how big Chipa is getting! Shes going to have to learn to chase the chickens away from my garden!

The Paraguayan attitude, embodied in my internet stick

So the internet here is touch and go. As volunteers, we can sign up for a USB modem from the cell phone company, which I have. In my house, the signal seems to have a mind of its own. One minute, I've got full signal and can Skype, the next minute I have nothing. In order to get reliable good signal, I have to go out back to the banana forest.

But if its raining, like today, I'm stuck taking my chances inside. Mostly I've got nothing, but if I sit on my bed with my computer JUST right, I get awesome signal that tends to stay for about 10 minutes at a time.

Surprisingly, this totally random internet doesn't really bother me. I think I have started to get the hang of this tranquilo attitude here in Paraguay. If I have enough internet to put up an occasional blog entry and check email, I'm stoked. Getting to watch the Daily Show is purely a bonus.

In the US I feel like we are completely the opposite. I can remember being on the phone with my internet company whining that the speed was slow and I wasn't getting what I paid for. Not here, you just go with the flow. If you had a meeting planned and it rains, vamos a dejar por otra dia no mas (we'll do it another day). Why would you want to go out in the rain when you can just wait for a dry day and do it then? It makes sense really. Call me a convert. Next time you set up a date with me in the US, I might be late.